Saturday

Caleb's MawMaw got a piggy bank for Caleb and she has been dropping loose change in it whenever she has the chance. We have not had the chance to bring the bank home after visiting, so Granddaddy and Whatshername brought the bank to us this week. They also had little case with some more change in it for Caleb. Whatshername sat down to clean up the change for us before we put in the bank. Caleb sat with her while she cleaned and counted the money. I am sure that one of these days, Caleb will think of something really clever to buy with his gift from MawMaw, but until then, we have to keep the money away from him lest we end up viewing the coins on an x-ray machine.

On their recent visit, Poppy and TuTu brought Caleb a new drum (payback?). I put it away in the nursery expecting it would be a while before he can really play with it. Whatshername was hanging
out with Caleb in the nursery this afternoon and she pulled the drum out of the toy basket. The drum is really nice, however, Caleb seems far more interested in the drumsticks than in the drum. I have no problem with this toy right now as long as he doesn't shove one of the sticks down his throat. However, it will be really interest once Caleb learns how to use the sticks and play the drum.

I went to the Miami football game this afternoon and Caleb, Mom, Granddaddy and Whatshername spent the afternoon at home. They say they stayed home and had a quiet evening and afternoon at the house. However, the evidence indicates Caleb was worn out by the time I got home from the game. He fell asleep in Whashername's arms about an hour before his usual bedtime. He never takes a nap that late in the evening. Sometimes we put him to bed a little early, but he never conks out like that without going through his routine. Caleb is having a lot of fun with his grandparents, but all the playing sure takes the energy out of him.

Simple Things

Today, Nana took the day off and Granddaddy and Whatshername spent the day at school taking care of Caleb and Marissa. I think Caleb enjoyed having them there, but I have a feeling Granddaddy and Whatshername probably enjoyed it more. Long before Caleb came along, Granddaddy has always been a big fan of babies. It's not uncommon to go to worship with Granddaddy back home and see him holding somebody's baby. While, I'm sure Caleb got a lot of attention from Granddaddy today, I'm sure he was tickled to play with Marissa too.

One of the things I love about Caleb, and the thing that he reminds me to do, is to find joy in the smallest events in life. Caleb has a number of rattles and small stuffed animals and he gets so excited whenever he sees them. He already loves to play and it is such a joy to watch him play. You can look at him in this picture and just see how excited he is to have his alligator rattle and his little dog. Caleb has no clue that the economy is in the tank right now. He just goes about his business eating, sleeping and playing and finding joy in all those things. He reminds me that I need to put the cares of the world to the side and just enjoy all the blessings I have.

Tonight, Caleb, Mom, Granddaddy and Whatshername picked me up from work so we could go eat at a German restaurant we discovered on Miami Beach. Granddaddy's a big fan of
German sausages, so whenever we come across a restaurant, we take him to try it out. The restaurant is located on the Lincoln Road Mall which is a street that has been blocked off to be a pedestrian roadway. The street is filled with shops, restaurants and clubs and is a popular place to visit. All of the restaurants have large outdoor seating areas and we sat outside.

Since have started feeding Caleb solid foods and are using the high chair, we have started requesting high chairs at restaurants. The high chair at the German restaurant did not have seat belts, so Granddaddy was keeping an eye on Caleb to keep him from falling out of the chair. Of course, Granddaddy's arm provided Caleb with a distraction and he was glad to have something to chew.

After dinner, we wandered around the mall for a little while. We found a store called Genius Jones which is a really cool store for kids. They had lots of really interesting and creative wooden toys some of which were really interesting to Caleb. We will definitely have to go back and visit. At one end of the mall, we saw a fountain and Granddaddy put Caleb's feet in. Caleb usually likes water, but he didn't seem too thrilled with the fountain. If you look carefully at the background, you can see half of another child. I didn't notice him, but his mother told us that he saw us taking pictures and he wanted to be in the picture. I'm sure Caleb will be like that. He recognizes the camera and he is already learning to ham it up when he sees the camera. It's making it harder to get candid shots of Caleb.

We stopped for some ice cream, but Caleb was starting to get cranky, so we decided to call it a night and head home. We were all a little tired. But once we got in the car, Caleb livened up and entertained Mom and Whatshername in the backseat. We have noticed that Caleb gets upset if he is overstimulated. He does fine for a while, but sometimes, in a loud restaurant or similar place, he grows tired of all the noise and once we remove him from the situation, he becomes content again. Lincoln Road is a popular nightspot and some of the bars and clubs were starting to play loud music, the crowd was growing and Caleb decided he had had enough. I guess he really is just like us. Sometimes he is up for a party and sometimes he wants to be a homebody and have a quiet evening with just us.

New Day

Several "new"s in the news today, but first, I'll let you know that Granddaddy wasn't so rough on Caleb today and Caleb seemed to make it through the day without any further visible signs of wear and tear.

Caleb's solid food feeding plan calls for us to add additional foods to his diet every few days. For the last few days, he was just eating rice cereal. Today, we added oatmeal to Caleb's diet. This morning, I added the same amount of milk to the same amount of powder, yet the oatmeal was a lot runnier than the rice cereal. Unfortunately, Caleb woke up on the wrong side of the crib this morning and was inconsolable until Mom took him. I think he might have been tired and a little cranky due to his interrupted nap last night. Consequently, he didn't really eat an of the oatmeal. This evening, I got the right amount of milk in and the oatmeal wasn't anywhere near as runny as it was this morning. It must also be more dense than the rice cereal because there was less oatmeal in the bowl. There are a couplef upsides to this fact, or so I thought. I thought the thicker oatmeal would not be as messy as the rice cereal. Caleb is just as capable of spitting out some amount of the oatmeal as he is the rice cereal, so it wasn't really less messy. However, the feeding goes quicker since there is not as much to give him. Of course, Mom also pointed out that he can spit out every bit of the oatmeal if he wants. Right now, his nutritional needs are still being met by Mom. The main purpose of this exercise right now is for Caleb to learn how to eat. That's a good thing because he's going to need to know how to eat to fit into this family.

The other new in Caleb's world today was our new couch. Granddaddy and Whatshername brought us a new couch and love seat to fill out the furniture in our living room. Caleb, Mom, Granddaddy and Whatshername spent some time in the living room hanging out on the new couch while Dad watched the disappointing Dodgers loss to the Phillies in game 1 of the National League Championship Series. Of course, Caleb has one of his new pacifiers in his hand. He continues to
adapt to the new pacifiers, though it seems as if he is more accepting of them today. Of course, it is hard to tell when he plays with and chews the pacifier more than he actually sucks on it.

TGIF (Thank Goodness For Friends)

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

I continue to be impressed by the generosity of our friends and our church family. One of the teacher's at Mom's school has a grandson a little older than Caleb. She brought in a bouncy seat that her grandson had used for Caleb and Marissa to have at school. Caleb seemed to get a big kick out of the new chair.

Granddaddy and Whatshername showed up yesterday afternoon. I had finally gotten him to go to sleep so I could do some stuff around the house. Not long after, the grandparents showed up. It wasn't intentional, but the commotion interrupted his nap and he was not happy about it. He calmed down after a while and Granddaddy took him outside since it was about time to leave for bible class. I went outside a few minutes later and Granddaddy had managed to scratch Caleb's leg with his glasses and get a couple of bug bites. Hopefully the rest of the visit will go a little smoother.

Roly Poly

Caleb continues to be a roly poly and it is getting more and more difficult to keep Caleb confined to a small area. It is not uncommon to lay Caleb down and see him immediately roll over multiple times. In fact, just about every morning, we find Caleb sleeping on his stomach even though he goes down on his back. Mom snapped this picture at work this afternoon as Caleb rolls off of his quilt.

It has become quite apparent that Caleb does not discriminate when it comes to what he is willing to put in his mouth. During dinner, he was sitting between us in the bouncy seat as we ate dinner. I put
my foot in front of him and he immediately grabbed my foot and was trying to pull it into his mouth. I would pull my foot away and his fact would go blank, then I would put my foot back up and it would really excite him. Mom did not like this game very much because she thought it was gross even though I put on clean socks when I came home.

Mom bought Caleb some new pacifiers this week. I was surprised to find out that pacifiers are sized just like baby clothes are. The plastic nipple is bigger. You learn something new every day. Anyway, Mom gave Caleb a couple of the new pacifiers tonight to try them out. He didn't flat out reject them, but it will probably take some time before he is fully comfortable with them. What is obvious though is that Caleb liked playing with them.

Food is Fun!

Mom fed Caleb his dinner tonight. I am going to be feeding Caleb in the morning and will usually do so in the evening with Mom feeding Caleb in the middle of the day. I had to cut the grass after I came home work. It's hard to capture how messy Caleb is when he eats his rice cereal because the rice cereal is pale and does not stick out against his ski. I tried to blow up this pictures a little bit so you could see the rice cereal all over his chest. If you can see the rice cereal, you can see why we are feeding him in just a diaper right now. We should keep a hose nearby to spray him down at the end, but we don't have a spout in the house.

Mom took this picture while we were eating our dinner. She took the picture because she said I was teasing Caleb with a crescent roll. This picture is also a good example of what Caleb has looked like the last few meals we've had. He opens his mouth and strains toward whoever is eating as if he hopes something will just fall into his mouth. It's ironic that Mom acccused me of teasing Caleb with my bread because we had Drumsticks after dinner. Mom was holding Caleb and eating her cone at the same time. She was holdin her cone just out of his reach as he strained to get a swipe at it with his toungue. Mom was fully aware of Caleb's efforts and she seemed to egg him on by holding the cone in front of him. She justified it by saying that it made her laugh which, in turn, made Caleb laugh (at least partially true).

After dinner we all laid down on the bed together and spent some family time playing with Caleb. He was in a good mood after his dinner and was extremely playful. It was truly a pleasure spending time together as a family. I can't think of a place I would rather have been.

Solid!

Sunday, October 5, 2008

While Mom was getting ready for worship this morning, I was in the other room doing some last minute preparations for my Sunday School class. Mom had Caleb in the room with her on his quilt next to our dresser. He rolled over pretty quickly and was exploring an area he hasn't really been before. He noticed the handles on the dressers drawers and decided he need to investigate them further. He was able to grab one of the handles, but it frustrated him to no end that he could not get into his mouth. The complaint was so loud that I could hear him in the other end of the house and I had to go check it. When I got to the bedroom, I found Caleb on his stomach with his arm flailing around as he attemted to chew on the drawer handle.

After worship today, I was tasked with the responsibility of putting together Caleb's new high chair. We picked up the chair last week, but I had not had an opportunity to deal with it
until this weekend. Caleb sat in his bouncy seat supervising and Mom sat on the couch holding various bolts and screws while I put the thing together. All in all, we make a good team. After getting the chair put together, it was time for a test run. After obliging us with a photo, Caleb decided his focus was to taste the tray and let us know whether it met his approval. After a quick test drive, Mom and Caleb took a nap until it was time for the big adventure of the day.




















All along, our target was to start giving Caleb solid foods when he was six months old. Mom discussed solids with Dr. K. on Thursday and then we were ready to go, save for the highchair. Once the chair was ready, there was no holding Caleb back. Even though we were waiting six months, it had become obvious Caleb did not want to wait any longer. He has become very aware of when we are eating or drinking and he has show an extreme interesting in eating instruments such as utensils and cups. If we are eating or drinking, he leans toward us with his mouth open and has been reaching for our cups and forks for quite some time now.

Before heading to our life group, we gave Caleb his first taste of some rice cereal. There are a number of pictures from the big meal below. I fed him while Mom watched. I held the spoon toward him and he instinctively opened his mouth. I inserted the spoon, dumped some ceral on his tounge and pulled the spoon out. He just sat there kind of starting at me, not sure what to do next. I'm as clueless as he is at this point, never having fed a baby his first solid food before, so I reached over to his chin and pushed it closed and then tried to massage his jam in a chewing motion. He seemed to swallow what was in his mouth. (Aside: I learned this trick from a veternarian back when we first moved to Miami. The vet had given us some pills for the cat to calm her down during the move. He gave a us a syringe like devise to deposit the pill at the back of her mouth, then we were supposed to massage her throat to encourage her to swallow the pill. I figured if it works on a cat, it might work on a baby.)

I knew we were on the right track when I held out another spoonful and he did not refuse to open his mouth. From there, we proceeded to eat most of the rice cereal. Of course, I say "most" fully aware that probably half the stuff dribbled out of his mouth down his chin and onto Caleb's chest, tray, seat, the floor and any other object between Caleb's mouth and the floor.

Mom has read that we should let Caleb hold a spoon while he is eating so that he will learn how to use it more quickly. This is an interesing idea, in theory. Of course, anything in Caleb's hand goes in his mouth. So, of course this was true with the extra spoon. It was very difficult to get him to remove the extra spoon so that I could replace with a spoon full of food. Caleb also thought it would beneficial if he used his hands to help me guide the spoon into his mouth. Each time I raised the spoon, he wanted to reach for it and grab it. His hand ended up in the rice cereal more often than not. He would take the spoon from me. This was especially amusing because he was grasping the spoon so hard, I had to literally pry the spoon from his hand.

We had a good time feeding Caleb for the first time. We laughed alot and Caleb, sensing our enjoyment, was quite pleased with himself. Welcome to a fun life filled with good food Caleb.

On the other hand, there are some things we aren't ready to give Caleb yet. One of those is TV. This is hard on me during footbal season as I spend a tremendous amount of time on the weekend watching football. The Cowboys were on during feeding time and I know Caleb wouldn't want me to miss part of the game, so I brought the high chair into the living room so I could accomplish two things at once. I guess Caleb could tell I was looking at something over his shoulder, so he would lean as far to his left as he could and peer over his left should as much as posible to see what I was looking at. What can I say? Caleb is going to be a football fan too.

Below are some pictures from the big feeding. Enjoy!

More School Spirit

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Today was a soggy day. It was raining this morning when we all got up. We started our day at the church building for a meeting. The meeting pretty much lasted until it was time for a school picnic that was scheduled for today. I left the picnic for a haircut and by the time I returned to the picnic, someone had turned on the waterhose and their was a torrential downpour. All of the picnic goers (except for a few jouyous children, were crowded under the one pavillion on the school's campus. Caleb was tucked safely in his stroller doing his best to stay dry. I eventually left to go to the Miami/Florida State game and the rain must have followed me because it never really stopped raining during the game and the sun actually came out for a little while at the picnic.

We have pretty much stopped putting the carrier in the stroller and have been putting Caleb in the stroller seat. This is where he spent most of the picnic. Mom was able to catch this picture of Caleb pulling himself up into a sitting position so he could chew on the cupholder. It won't be long before he is able to sit up on his own.

The rain followed me up on the game and because the rain was so heavy, I got home pretty late in the evening. I met Mom and Caleb at a restaurant for dinner. One of our friends gave Caleb a tye dyed shirt and he wore it for the first time today. He is quite proud to show off his psychedellic style.

I'm throwing this picture in today because Caleb has such a great smile.