Calvin is normal (?!?)

On Saturday after I got to hold him for a nice long visit, Kristen and I decided to break the rules a little and give Gramma R a little surprise...






It wasn't long, he still has a hard time with that much new information, but I'm pretty sure she enjoyed herself.

Then it was back to the house. Kristen's parents were in town for the family shower. Hmmm, maybe we should find a different title for the event instead of FAMILY SHOWER, that's a little more Appalachian than I am comfortable with.... Everyone said that Ang did a great job. Lots of family came, I hear the food was good and everyone had a lot of fun.

There is also a shower coming up at Kristen's school, and one down in Spanish Fork with friends from the ward that we will always miss. So many people have wanted to let us know how happy they are for us, we're pretty happy for us too, so we keep taking showers also!

Tage was in town, and since he didn't want to shower with a bunch of a girls he didn't know, I kidnapped him. We made sure to be as manly as possible, went bowling, looked at a motorcycles, got tattoos, scratched, made bodily noises.

Here is Tage growling while posing with his new tatt.



The guy who did mine didn't listen very carefully... I have to go back to see what they can do to fix it....



Sunday we had a big broadcast stake conference, the letter that was read in church last week or so made it sound pretty important to be there. I was trying to spread the rumor that the time had come and we were going to all be told it was time to move!

But it was just a nice good ol' conference. I took notes, which helped for the first hour, but all was lost the second hour, maybe we did get told to move and I missed it?! If it is really easy to find a parking spot tomorrow I am going to be nervous.

I liked the message of not accepting counterfeits in our life, only settling for the real thing....

Before conference Grampa and Gramma R hung out with us at the hospital.....

This might be too honest to blog about, but hey when have I ever bit my tongue?

I don't always hear exactly what has been said.

For example, Kristen was holding Greydon when they got there this morning. Her mom said to Kristen....

"Oh you get to hold him again." (because Kristen and I switch back and forth)

I heard "Oh, good, you are holding him again, thank heavens it's not that Calvin person.."

Her Mom said, as Kristen was still holding him, and he was happy..

"He likes being with his mom."

I heard, "Man, he sure likes being with his mom a lot more than that weird Calvin person who is always hanging around..."

I called my mom, feeling like Michigan was very far away today.

She told me what I was going through was pretty normal, that it is easy to read things wrong when times are emotional.... I was going to say she told me I was normal... but I think she was careful to not use that particular phrasing, no one in my family gets accused of normalcy very often.

I truly am very happy that Greydon has grandparents that are close enough to visit frequently and let him know how much they love him, I was afraid of talking about this because it is so easy for the typed word to be misinterpreted. It is great having them here and they are so excited and supportive.

But I would be lying if I said I wasn't pretty dang excited that Gramma B has her plane ticket and is coming out Oct. 6th! I am pretty much a big bag of mush (even though I always look like I am scowling) and I wish my bro and sisters, and especially my Mom and Dad got to see my little miracle by now.

Before Kristen's parents left we gave Grampa R a little surprise also...



You could tell we had gone a little too far too fast and Greydon didn't last very long, which we felt bad about. But when his heart rate went through the roof and alarms we don't hear very often started going off Kristen figured that was enough being passed around for the weekend. Maybe Greydon was just really excited because he knew what fun Grampa has planned for future outings.....




He is doing excellent. This evening it was time for Kristen to start trying to teach him new.... skills... and we'll leave that at that. Some skills are not things preemies just jump into instantly... but the report goes that he shows great promise... These ....skills... are some of the last things keeping him from coming home. No one can or will even attempt a guess at when he might be ready to come home....

So we're going to start a pool.... well, I won't be giving out much of a prize if you guess correctly, but I'll be sure to pat you on the back next time I see you...

Gramma R is confident that he will be coming home in three weeks, which will be Sept. 28th.... Kristen is torn if she agrees or wants to take Oct 6th.... ok she just committed to the 6th.

I'm breaking my mold and decided to be optimistic and I am putting my money on the very rapidly approaching September 21st, and will likely loose heinously.... So! leave a comment, make a guess... you know everything we do if you've been reading at all regularly. Babies get released every day of the week as far as we can tell, so you can guess any date.

Today he weighed 4lbs 9 oz.... one ounce away from exactly twice as much as when he was born... he has grown two inches and is now 17 inches long.

We can't believe how much he looks like a baby now compared to the little old man we first met... we are his minions and are under his complete control...