Tag: baby

Seven, Eight, and Nine Months Old (Calvin’s Monthly Photos)

I’m still doing my monthly photographs with Calvin, but I’ll be sharing them here as quarterly updates now, instead of as each photo is taken.

Our little guy is nine months old now! He’s so close to crawling. Sometimes he surprises himself by getting into a sitting position after having been on his tummy, he can pull himself up to stand, and he likes to walk around with a little help. He has two teeth on the bottom and three (soon to be four, I think) teeth on the top. Still nursing four or five times a day, but he’s eating more food — some of it spoon-fed, some of it from his own chubby little hands.

Also, I win! He said his first word a couple of weeks ago: Mama.

Seven Months Old

Eight Months Old

Nine Months Old

(I’ll be taking a photo of Calvin sitting in the Eames rocker and wearing his pin each month until he’s two years old. I also took monthly photos of his sister, Eleanor, and his brother, August.)

Previous Photos
• One Month Old • Two Months Old • Three Months Old • Four Months Old • Five Months Old • Six Months Old • View All

July 2, 2015
The Nursery, as a Clean Slate

I had been considering a few colors, but I decided to go with white walls for Calvin’s nursery. It just felt right.

It’s creamier than the stark white that’s so prevalent today, but it works nicely with all of the wood. (The color is Crisp Linen White, by Glidden.) Without white trim to contribute to a light airy feeling, white paint that was too bright would have fought with the woodwork and made the room feel cold.

Before and after time!

This is the best angle to look at the room from, to understand the changes to the hallway and relocation of the doorway. The sink is gone, and you no longer have to walk through this portion of the house to get from the front to the back.

Our Victorian was originally a single-family home, but it had been converted to apartments long ago (sometime around the Great Depression, I believe. We have some old paperwork and census information that I ought to write about!). Getting rid of this kitchen and turning it back into a bedroom is in line with how the house was originally designed.

The radiator was not moved, but we did get rid of each of those three doorways you see here. We relocated one of them to a new wall that was built and reused the door and trim.

I’m not in love with the cabinetry, but it is staying and will function as a closet, dresser, and additional storage space.

Now that the new room has been painted, I can finally get started on the fun stuff!

January 26, 2015
What’s Black and White and Red All Over?

Yesterday I shared the early plans for Calvin’s nursery, but today I thought I’d share what could have been.

Months back, I was looking through my wallpaper samples while thinking about what I was going to do in the nursery. The Scalamandré zebras have been a favorite for a long time, and Eleanor had even requested ages ago that we use them somewhere in this house. So I thought, hey! Maybe for the nursery! But then, perhaps you remember what happened with a certain little boy and his wallpapered room? I was not eager for a repeat.

Soon after scrapping that idea, I’d spotted a really cute zebra rug. Maybe the room could be inspired by the wallpaper instead! I already had those pillows elsewhere in the house, so I gathered them together and brought them up to the nursery. I found a red that was similar to the background of the wallpaper, and I went out to pick up the rug.

It wasn’t coming together though. The room would have needed a lot of art on the walls to break up all of the red, since I wasn’t going to have the pattern of wallpaper anymore. I could have switched to a different wall color of course, but the bigger problem with the plan was that I wasn’t a big fan of the rug in the room. The wood floor isn’t in the greatest condition (some discoloration from water damage, wear and tear from when the room functioned as a kitchen), and the rug only called attention to it. Back to the store it went, and back to the beginning for the room. I had Calvin not long after, and now that we’re past the newborn phase, I’m finally feeling ready and able to take on the design of his room again.

I still think the zebras could have led to a great nursery, but it wasn’t right for our house.

January 22, 2015
Starting on Calvin’s Nursery

Calvin is three months old and still sleeping in our bedroom, but I want to finish his nursery so it will be ready for him when we transition him to sleeping on his own. Let me give a quick recap here of how we created his room, which started as a kitchen that was leftover from when our house had been split into three apartments.

There was no stove or fridge, but the sink was still there. The hallway on the second floor was divided by a built-in next to the bathroom, and you had to walk through the kitchen to get from the front half of the house to the back. We opened the hallway back up, closed off a few doorways, added a new wall, and relocated one of the existing doors to create a new entrance for the room.

This was all super-fun chaos to live through while very pregnant and with two little kids underfoot! But now the room is done, the wallpaper has been stripped, and the walls are primed, which brings us to where the room is today.

I have made a few choices for the nursery that I’m keeping in mind as I decide on a wall color. We’ve had a set of four prints by Ryan Kapp, 4 Seasons in Chicago, for years. They’re a funny size that don’t fit in standard frames, and I never had a specific spot for them so I hadn’t gotten them framed professionally. I want to hang them on the wall behind Calvin’s crib, so I finally brought the prints to a local frame shop and I’m looking forward to getting them back and putting them up in the nursery.

The crib will be the same black Jenny Lind that Eleanor and August slept in. I have a light blue rug already picked out for the room, and the bedding too (a polka dot crib sheet and a toddler duvet in this print).

The windows let in a ton of light, but with wood flooring, wood trim, and a wall of built-in wood cabinetry, choosing the wall color has been tricky. I like our blue/gray bedroom color, but I also used it in the hall and I don’t want to use it in yet another space. I’ve been really drawn to a mustard/ochre color, but it’s too similar to the wood with its yellow undertones. I’m also not looking for a typical baby pastel. I’m considering black (like the parlor downstairs), maybe a deep, mossy green (like this), or white. I just need to choose so that Calvin’s nursery can be painted!

January 21, 2015
‘S Wonderful, ‘S Marvelous

Three and a half months in, breastfeeding is finally getting easier. I had a hard time with the other two kids too, but it wasn’t this difficult for this long. I filled a prescription for APNO when Calvin seven weeks old and that helped somewhat. Ibuprofin helped too, and while I did take the maximum recommended dosage every day for longer than I’d wanted to, I haven’t needed any for a couple of weeks now. Plus I haven’t cried from the pain lately, so there’s that. Hooray?

I’ve been watching a lot of television while nursing; the distraction is good.

“I don’t think I realized how much I would just be sitting on the couch.”

“Pinned to it.”

“Yes.”

(from here)

The soundtrack to these sessions as of late has been Funny Girl, Funny Face, and RuPaul’s Drag Race. I now find myself wanting Barbara Streisand’s hair, wishing I had seen more of Paris, and feeling like my natural lashes are woefully inadequate. I’ve been watching a lot of Bob’s Burgers too, sometimes with Eleanor, which leads to her singing things like this.

Little babies! *kiss kiss*

January 14, 2015
Two Months Old (Calvin’s Monthly Photo)

There’s the smiley baby we know around here! Such a difference from last months picture. Also? Hobbes! Watterson never licensed the characters but we did find a stuffed tiger that bears a striking resemblance, so we had to pick it up for our little Calvin.

(I’ll be taking a photo of Calvin sitting in the Eames rocker and wearing his pin each month until he’s two years old. I also took monthly photos of his sister, Eleanor, and his brother, August.)

Previous Photos
• One Month Old • View All

December 2, 2014