Pickles

There are certain ways you can tell Calvin is his mother's son...

 

I, too, love my pickles!

(The video cannot be seen on iPads or iPhones, sorry!)

Santa's Lap

Last year, Calvin was absolutely perfect sitting on Santa's lap.

This was last year.

 This year, not so much.

Sigh. 

Calvin actually talks about his traumatic experience. It goes, "Santa lap, Calvin sad."

Try again next year.

Lights!

Calvin has loved looking at all the Christmas lights that are all over this time of year. On the way to dinner the other night we stopped to let him run around in a park that had a lot of lights. 

You'll see why he went for this set of lights first. 

 It had a ball!

 Hmmm. What else to see?

 There was a fun gazebo to play on.

 And it had a Christmas tree to pose in front of.

 Calvin liked to inspect each light bulb.

 Luckily they were not hot.

It was a chilly, fun time!

That's Entertainment

Calvin can find entertainment anywhere he goes as long as he is allowed to move around. I took him to a craft show of sorts today that was at an old theater. After being a very cooperative boy for an hour, I had to let him burn some energy. The only open area was in an empty bar area. 

 I had no idea a foot rest could be a source of so much fun.

 You can sit on it.

 And climb on it.

 And lay on it.

 And climb behind it.

 And ride it.

Thank you, empty bar area, for being such a fun place!

Pop-Pop Popped By

Yesterday, we had a nice visit from Calvin's Pop-Pop. Just a quick stopover because he was in town for business. 

There were many things Calvin had to do with this surprise visitor. 

 He had to play with the toy Pop-Pop brought.

He had to show him one of his photo albums.

He had to show Pop-Pop how he swims on the floors and wanted Pop-Pop to swim, too. 

Pop-Pop was a good sport and swam on the floor.

Swimming wasn't hard. 

It was the getting up part.

He had to show that he can swim in the kitchen, too. 

 And, of course, he had to show Pop-Pop some blocks.

 Thanks for stopping by, Pop-Pop!

Horsing Around

 So Calvin loves his Grandma Sarah's wooden Swedish horse. On Saturday, he got the surprise of his little life after we visited the Swedish American Museum in Chicago.

 Around the corner from the museum was this big Swedish horse.

 He wanted to hug it

 and kiss it

 and kiss it.

 He was quite the happy little boy!

 And was even cuter when we added the Santa hat.

 Quite the fun surprise for all of us!

Discovering Discovery World

We recently visited a local "museum" of sorts. It's called Discovery World and was quite amazing.
There were tons of buttons and levers to play with. 

Tons of buttons and levers for EVERYONE to play with. 

Calvin had to check out the bed of nails.

There were so many things to climb on

and more buttons to press

and "antique" things to see. 

He got to learn about fish

and levers

and pulleys.

Can't wait to go back!