The Little Swedish Boy

I'm not sure exactly who Baby Bjorn is, but the little baby carrier that was designed in his name is nothing short of genius. It never fails. Any time Calvin is fussy, we bundle him up and stick him in the Baby Bjorn and walk him around the neighborhood. He loves it. He loves looking at the Christmas lights and watching the cars pass and even listening to neighbor's barking dogs. This little gem has more than paid for itself. God bless Swedish ingenuity.

My sister-in-law Rebekah gave us this hand-me-down coat from her boys, and I can't even tell her how much use we get out of it. Calvin gets excited every time we put it on because he knows it means he's going outside. It's like our own little version of Pavlov's Dogs.

Safari Outfit from Auntie Riah

Auntie Riah and Uncle Curtis brought several adorable outfits for Calvin for Christmas. Thanks for helping keep the boy in style!

Christmas 2007

We had a wonderful Christmas, though not much sleep. I had Calvin on one side of me in the bed fussing most of the night, and Andy on the other side with his laptop tracking the progress of Santa and saying "Can we open presents now?" every time he caught me opening my eyes. He and I left the boy in bed and opened presents at 4:30am. So much for Christmas morning being less exciting for adults.

We had Andy's parents down for a couple of days, and enjoyed their company. Calvin especially appreciated all of the attention.

We have had an amazing year and feel very blessed by all that we've been given. Merry Christmas to all!

Winter Outfit from Auntie Ruthie

Auntie Ruthie gave Calvin some really cute little clothes and blankets for Christmas. Here he is in one of the fun outfits. My favorite are the little striped socks. Thank you!

Pro Photographers, Watch Out!

When my family was here they all had amazing cameras and took such artistic photos. David, Mariah, and MaryRuth all took such great pictures that made me feel inferior and uncivilized (all of the pics I've posted below from their time here were taken by my brother David). Andy had been researching a camera for several months that he has really wanted, but we couldn't justify buying. When I whined about our camera, he went online and the price had dropped significantly, so we bought it. We figured the boy is only going to be this size once. The clarity is amazing, and we love our new Nikon D40 (Look at how clear these are compared to the Santa pictures below taken with our old camera). I still need to work on the artistic part, but at least now we have the camera.

Bad Santa

Mariah and Curtis gave us this darling outfit for Calvin. At first we got some cute shots, but by the end of the photo shoot he was falling apart. Andy calls it going broken arrow.

(My sister-in-law Annette sent me an email about the "broken arrow" picture that was hilarious. She said: Me and Ariana LOVED the pictures. We gave them all captions. According to us, he seemed to have developed a Mad Mexican accent in every one though "I don't want no stinkin' canycane". )

Gift Exchange

Saturday night we did a gift exchange. We always draw names of one sibling to give to, but some give to everyone, everyone gives to mom and dad, and most give to the nieces and nephews. This year we did it here since we are never all together for Christmas. Jesse gave us Raving Rabbits 2 for the Wii (wahoo!) and for Calvin we got some adorable outfits and his first Tonka dump truck, which David III immediately broke in for him. Everyone had a great time and we really miss them already.

Calvin's Baby Blessing

Andy did such a wonderful job and we were so glad that his parents could make it. Calvin gets more adorable every day and looked especially cute in his white tux. He did of course wait until 10 minutes before his big moment to have an enormous blowout and turn his white pants bright yellow. I scrubbed everything down in the bathroom, wrapped him in a white blanket, and he was a quiet and alert the whole time he was on stage. I'm so proud of my two boys.

Sealing

We had a wonderful experience and I was so happy to have my entire family here. Baby Calvin stole the show and I feel blessed beyond belief to have such an amazing husband. I wouldn't trade them for anything.

Air and Space Museum

It has been so much fun to have all of my family in town for the week. Today we spent several hours at the Dulles Air and Space Museum. We thought it would be fun to do a guided tour, until the guy told us that it was a 2.5 hour tour, but by then it was too late and we had already committed. Over the course of the afternoon, we all gradually wandered off one by one because we felt bad for the tour-guide and didn't want to leave in one mass of people as he droned on and on. God bless Dad and Joey for sticking it out to the end, taking one for the team and indulging the rest of us and our short attention spans.

All Decked Out For Christmas

It's so fun to have our own house this year to decorate for the holidays. Andy and I had wanted to do a Christmas Vacation style light show on the outside, but the roofs are just too steep. It wouldn't be worth Andy falling off and killing himself. This is a small light display, but still we're happy with the results.

I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home

When Daddy's Far Away...

It's been sad lately with Andy traveling so much. I'm sad that he's not around, but he's even more depressed that he's missing the little things that the boy does. He talks to him on the phone at night, but so far he doesn't get much response. Tonight he was being so adorable and giving me some of his first big smiles. Andy felt left out, so I tried to take some pictures. They don't do him justice (un-photogenic like his mother) but I've posted a couple of my favorites. He is starting to interact a lot more and I enjoy all the time I am able to spend with him.

Thanksgiving

I hate this picture with a passion. It reminds me of just how much weight I have to lose. Thanksgiving, however, was wonderful. We had a great time with Andy's family and were glad Danny and Gary's families were able to meet the new one. Calvin LOVED Annette. He just stared at her intently every time she talked to him. He loved everyone else of course, but I think her voice was somehow captivating to him. We had a lot of fun eating, playing bocci ball and Dance Dance Revolution, and just talking. We were sad we couldn't stay longer.

Quilts From Grandma

My mom has been staying with us to help with Calvin, and she has been wonderful to have around. When she arrived last week, she surprised us with three beautiful quilts she had sewn for the baby. This is a picture of the one we use the most so far, but all of them are adorable.

First Trip to The Doctor

Calvin is down to 7lbs 4oz and they are worried about his jaundice, but otherwise he is a perfect baby. We go back in two weeks.

First Bath

He hated it. He screamed the entire time.

Calvin Andrew Nelson

November 5th, 8:20 am
7lbs 15oz, 21 inches

After being in the hospital twice for "false labor" my water finally broke at 11:30pm on Sunday night. We were checked into a room by 12:30, and I had my epidural by 3:30am after lots of paperwork and major contractions. I went to sleep at 4:00 and then woke up at 7:00 to start pushing. The baby was delivered at 8:20am on Monday after the nurse turned off the epidural to make me "want it more", whatever that means. I wish it had all been as simple as I make it sound, but all things considered we are doing great and feeling very blessed.

We came very close to naming him Calvin Fawkes after Guy Fawkes and the "Remember Remember the 5th of November..." incident, but considering our lack of ties to Catholicism or England we went back to plan A. Fawkes would have been fun in a nerdy sort of way, but I'm glad he's named after his daddy. He's adorable and we love him already.

Jumping on the Bandwagon

Andy and I have discussed blogging on numerous occasions, and while we enjoy reading the blogs of others, we feel that it is too time consuming and "exhibitionist" for our tastes. We did however have a blog for Andy while he was in Australia in order to keep his family and friends in the loop (http://www.andrewdavidnelson.blogspot.com/). As I re-read that blog recently, I realized how many things we'd recorded that I had forgotten about. It was very nostalgic and fun to read, so it was then that I decided I liked the idea of being forced in a way to keep up with journaling. I also feel like if I know I'm going to blog, I remember the smaller details or pick out highlights of the day-to-day and mundane to write them down. Since we now have a baby that is of interest where Andy and I are fairly boring, it will also give me a chance to keep up on the details of his life so I'll remember them down the road. Andy has insisted that I turn the comments off. He says I'm only allowed to do this if it's for us, and not to receive validation from everyone else for our pictures and thoughts. While I've always believed him to be a bit cynical, I will comply. So for better or worse, interesting or dull, here we go...