Bath time!

Bath time at the Rasmussen house.

Because who can resist baby giggles and helping toddlers?

Month the fourth!

Craig, my little man, is four months old! And not a petite four-month-old, either. He has officially doubled his birth weight, bringing him to 16 lbs 2 oz. Craig is still a sweet kid, usually only crying if we don't get the chance to help him in time. Sorry, second child. Sometimes you get the shaft. He usually sleeps pretty well, waking up once or twice a night to eat. Naps he's not so great at, but you can't win them all, right?

 He can put himself to sleep when he wants to, yet he will wake up if I put him down. Oh well.

Craig is starting to be awake for our zoo trips, and he finds the things he sees, you know, walls, ceilings, etc, completely fascinating.

Little Craig-o helping me fold laundry, and eating his hand. Because he adores his hand.

 My beautiful, sleepy boy.

I know I posted this already, but I just had to include it again. I love this little guy in his Christmas suit! So dapper!

 Craig and Calista, cuddling at Grandma and Grandpa's.

Ready to go on a walk!

Sometimes, having an older sister makes things very interesting... but he loves her!

Craig loves baths, which is a nice change of pace from Calista at the same age. Plus, his towel is a monster, so that's cool, too. Calista picked it out, calling it a "shark."

Happy little Santa's Helper.

This is why you should use the straps, folks. Otherwise the child will just try to slide right out!

Sitting in the bumbo while Calista plays around him. I think she is what he's looking at?

The moustache pacifier his uncle Kevin got for him. Too bad he doesn't actually like pacifiers - again so unlike his sister at this age (or even now, probably, if we'd let her).

I was trying to take some pictures of Craig, and Calista photo bombed them a little bit. But as you can see, he loved that she did!

 Sometimes, tummy time is hard.

 With his moose!

 Would you look at those cheeks? Wowza, they are large!

Calista giving Craig a hug. She most of the time doesn't squish him too much.

The little man can laugh now. It seems like he only laughs when someone is talking to him. Calista laughed for the first time at me dancing. Craig finds me bustin' a move amusing, but not hilarious. Talking to him and laughing at him? Now that is something worth laughing about.

Tummy time buddies!

Happy four months, Craig!

Roaaaarrrrrr!

Blogger doesn't want to upload a few videos. I'll keep working and update this when I can, but here are the stills for now (gotta get this up for Grandma to see!)

My awesome brother got us a family pass to Royal Tyrell Dinosaur Museum for Christmas. It's been on my list of things to do for a while, and we were so excited to actually head up, Calista especially. 

She was so excited, in fact, that she ran into the first little exhibit ahead of us... and then the dinosaurs roared. Calista had no idea where the roaring came from, and it scared her. She rushed back to us and begged to go home. Uh, no way, kid. 

So, she covered her eyes, and I carried her through to the next room. I told her that she should roar back at the dinosaurs, and then they would be afraid of her!

We saw some awesome stuff, like this (which Kyler cut the head off of).

This is Black Beauty, a gorgeous T-rex skeleton. Man, it was so cool. We saw lots of T-rex's, actually. 

 Kyler's turn to stand by one, because why not?
Calista got over her fears, because there were too many other cool things to see. She was kind of hard to get pictures of, actually, because she was always on the move!

She said this scale model was her size. The one in back? Daddy-sized.
Speaking of measuring up...

Calista is a bit smaller than a dinosaur.

 With a diemetrodon.

We stayed looking at the bubbles for a while, Calista naming the colors as they changed. She was mesmerized.
We discovered that reading all the dinosaur books really has taught Calista something.

Do you know what kind of dinosaur this is? No? Calista does.

Yep, that's an ichthyosaurus. Who knew Calista could say that? We didn't.

We had such a good time, I am so excited to go back and use our family pass again!

Family selfie with the mirror in from of the triceratops.

Seriously, folks, next time you visit us in Alberta, come look at dinosaurs with us.

And, don't forget to roar back at them!

A fallen angel and a promoted Jesus

For the second year in a row, we went down to Raymond for Christmas. We had a ton of fun hanging out with friends and family, and watching Go, Diego, Go! Because, you know, you get to have a little fun while on vacation.

 We got to bust out the new Christmas outfits for the chitlins while we were down there. Craig cooperated nicely for the photo shoot.

 Handsome little bugger!

Calista, however, was a little less helpful.

The closest thing we got to a family picture.

 Seriously, this is the best only picture we got of the two of them. Calista did not want to have her picture taken (No picture!), even when we bribed her with a cookie or watching videos. Oh well.

 Having a mild tantrum in Daddy's arms about the ordeal.

 You can kind of see how pretty her dress is, right?

And, of course, her little coat and hat.

Probably the highlight of the trip was Christmas Eve, with all of Kyler's family.

So many cousins for Calista to play with!
Even the older cousins played with her.

Adam's trying to teach her how to catch the tennis ball. I have some of the nicest nieces and nephews in existence, I'm convinced.

Christmas Eve also included the traditional nativity program.

Craig got promoted to play baby Jesus after his cousin Brock began to get a little fussy. Craig fulfilled his role admirably.

Calista played the part of an angel, along with Paige and Katelyn, which may have been not ideal... The angels stood on a bench so they could be above the scene (and actually seen!), and her cousins tried to help her get into position on the bench, resulting in her falling off, instead (not pictured). The oldest of her cousins, Carter, said, "Did it hurt... when you fell from heaven?" and the answer is, YES! After a bit of hugging and making sure she was okay, Calista rejoined to nativity.

Still with tears on her face.

The entire nativity, kind of. You can see a shepherd, Mary, Joseph, Jesus, 3 Wisemen, and me holding an angel. I'm not sure where the other ones are, but... a crowd like this gets a little chaotic, so this is the best I have.

 And, of course, Christmas included presents.

 Calista really got the hang of opening presents this year, but she did have to be convinced to stop playing with each present long enough to open a new one.

Every present she absolutely adored.

Basketball hoop (from her Mom and Dad).

Two points for me!

Craig cared a little less about the presents.

The bum wouldn't even open them himself!

That doesn't mean he didn't enjoy them, though!

Merry (belated) Christmas!

A budding artist?

Well, it's happened. We went into Calista's room after a not-so-sleepy nap and found this:

What wonderful art. 

She got put in timeout. I asked her why. "I draw." Where did you draw? "On wall." Sigh.

I love you, child. I love your strength and your smile, but...
Don't draw on the wall!

So, any advice on cleaning the wall?

Two months!

Little man is now more than two months (uh, 12 days ago...), and we are beginning to adjust well... I think. It helps that he is a very chill kid. If I am paying attention and able to respond to him in a timely manner (which sometimes doesn't happen. Having more children than adults when I'm alone with them, sometimes one gets the shaft), Craig can go nearly all day without actually crying. Fussing, yes. But in his first two months of life, there hasn't been a time when the cause of his crying was unclear (Calista smacked him or something...) and when we haven't been able to calm him within a few minutes. I can't believe it, but it's true. And you'll hear no complaints from us!

First bath. In baths since, Calista "helps" by washing his toes or whatever she can reach, and actually, she's not too bad.

Kitty cuddles. I'm not sure the cat has joined him in the bassinet since... he is starting to take up more space, wiggle, and probably fuss more than she likes.

Hazards of having an older sister: Calista put a bassinet sheet on Craig... to keep him warm?... and a glow-in-the-dark bracelet on his head. Naturally, I snapped a picture that will exist forever.

First day we went to church. It's hard to get him to keep his head up when he's asleep!

They are learning to get along better. Or, more specifically, Calista is learning her boundaries and what she can and can't do with Craig.

Thanksgiving Day (Canadian) hike!

One month old, and photo bombed by the sister.

One of my favorite pictures ever at the moment. This is going in both of their photo books this year.

Who doesn't love sleeping babies?

Although, Craig looks a little uncomfortable in this one.

My three favorite people in the world. Isn't Kyler being a good dad?

More sleeping baby!

We pulled out the high chair so when I'm in the kitchen, he can come too and see me. Craig has definitely enjoyed that, though on this particular day, he fell asleep while I was making dinner.

Two months old and grinning after church.

On the days that Kyler is home during Calista's nap time, he takes Craig so I can have a break. Of course, sometimes this means Kyler gets a nap, too, which he's not complaining about.

Bundled up at the zoo.
*Not pictured - two blankets, one used to snuggle him in, one used as a wind break.

Happy little chub!

We love this little man. Craig is sweet, happy, and growing so well (13 lbs 6 oz and 23 1/4 inches long as of today!). Next time you see him, you should give him a squeeze, because he is so squeezable!