Day of Firsts

Well, Caleb survived his first Tropical Storm There wasn't much to TS Fay and I'm pretty certain Caleb was not even aware anything unusual was going on. We did get some pretty heavy rain last night. The strange thing about it was hearing the rain pelting his window over the baby monitor in addition to hearing the rain on our own window.

The storm did keep Mom and Caleb from school for another day, so they hung out around the house. Mom said that this picture is Caleb about to fall onto his toy. I guess you can't really tell that from the picture. What's really intersting about the picture is the expression on Caleb's face. I've never seen that expression before and I can't even begin to tell you why he has that look. All I know is it is some sort of a nonchalant smirk.

To pass the time, Mom tried to take Caleb for a walk a couple of times. The firs walk was in the stroller. Although the rain had cleared up, it was still breezy so they did not stay out very long. This was the first time Caleb has ridden the stroller in the seat rather than in the car seat. He's already been through several diaper sizes and is essentially on his second set of clothes working on the third, but I can't believe he's already moved from the car seat the stroller. He's getting big way too fast. Mom tried to take him out later on in the day minus the stroller and that walk was also cut short because they had to head back to the house for a diaper change.

Caleb wore another new outfit today. This one is football themed. Mom likes it because of the little visor. It is cute, but it doesn't match the outfit. It seems like it would be more appropriate if it was baseball instead of football. At our bible study last night, one of our friends said he looked like a dealer in Las Vegas. Personally, I think he looks like he belongs on a 1920's baseball card.

Momma's Little Helper

Caleb moves around in his crib a lot while he is asleep. I went in to his room last night to peek at him and he had sort of rolled over onto his left side and had pushed his feet up against the side of the crib. When Mom went in to get him this morning, he had apparently pushed off the side of the crib and had gone sideways at the head of the crib. I hope that he is just restless and that this does not mean he is going to be a sleep walker once he is in a big boy bed.

Caleb has started rolling over from time to time. He mostly does it in his sleep like he did last night. He also rolls over pretty easily from his tummy if he can get high enough on his arms. He did it yesterday on his jungle gym. I set him down and he pushed up and leaned to the side and gravity did the rest. The most challenging move for him is to go from his back to his tummy.

While I was getting ready for work this morning, Mom put Caleb on the bed on his back. I heard him crying a couple of minutes later. Caleb had rolled over on his tummy. The problem was he does not know what to do with his arm yet, so he rolls onto it and it was pinned beneath his body. He didn't like this state of affairs. Mom, following her supernatural maternal instincts, sprang into action to go find the camera and snap a picture before freeing Caleb from his self-inflicted prison.

Today was supposed to be the first day of school. However, schools were closed because of Tropical Storm Fay, so Mom and Caleb stayed home. Mom used the time to get some household chores done including some laundry. Caleb was on the bed while Mom folded laundry next to him. He wasn't able to be very productive, but as you can see, he wanted to help Mom fold the towels.

I wish I had a camera for this last story, or to be more accurate, a video, because it left us wide eyed. Tonight, we were sitting on the bed hanging out. I was standing Caleb in front of me, but he kept twisting his body to look at something over his shoulder. I turned him around and figured out what he was looking at. He leaned forward in my hands to reach for his pacfier which was now in front of him on the bed. He picked it up with his hand and brought it to his mouth with the nipple facing the right direction. He got the nipple into his mouth, but he didn't hold on to it long enough to get a good suck on it, so it fell right back out of his mouth. Mom and I just stared at him amazed at the level of recognition and coordination he displayed. We will now anxiously watch for more signs of high level cognition.

He's Not a Barbie

Sunday, August 17, 2008

It seems as if Mom has been putting on a lot of new clothes on Caleb the last few days and weeks. I pointed this out to Mom the other day and asked her why she was in such a new clothes frenzy. Mom said she's not in a frenzy so much as she just wants to make sure Caleb wears the clothes before he outgrows them. Caleb is always growing, but I'm still amused by the number of new outfits that have come out of Caleb's closet the last few days.

Today Caleb wore a new outfit to church. This Outfit really looks like a big boy outfit. It consists of a collared onsie, a sweater vest with animals on it and brown houndstooth print pants. Mom also had on his little, white dress shoes. He was looking pretty cute today. Mom took some pictures of Caleb on his changing table in his new outfit. I chose this one because of the way Caleb has his hands crossed. He crosses his hands like this quite often. Mom says I cross my hands like this too, but I'm not so sure.

After worship this monrning, we went out to lunch with a large group of our friends. Caleb is a big hit with our friends and they all enjoy watching him. Yesterday, he even got passed around some as different friends wanted to hold him. But usually, we just sit him up on the table so he play and so everyone can watch him.

After lunch, we came home to relax for a little before heading out to our life group. I guess we all relaxed really well because we ended up taking a family nap in the bed with Caleb in between us. Mom and Dad both woke up to get ready to go, but Caleb continued to nap on the bed. It is for Caleb's own good that he sleeps in his crib at night, but we miss having him with us in the bed. I know Mom especially misses him. So it was really nice to nap with him this afternoon.

Be Careful Little Hands

A few nights ago, Caleb woke us up crying. We're supposed to let him cry for a while before we go in and check on his so he will learn how to lure himself back to sleep. It's hard to listen to him cry, but it's better for him in the long run. That particular night, he did cry himself back to sleep. The next morning when Mom went in to the room to get him up, she found hip at the very edge of the crib with his arm sticking out of bars of the crib. So now we peek into his room immediately if he wakes up to make sure he hasn't gotten his arm out of the crib.

Last night, we discovered why he keeps getting his arm out of the crib. Caleb is working on grabbing, so he usually latches on to whatever he can get his hands on. Last night, we discovered that he is grabbing on the bumper pad. If you look closely at this picture, you'll notice some small fingers grasping the bottom of the pad. We figure he grabs hold of it and then scoots toward the side of the crib and his arm ends up outside the crib. We are going to lower the bumber pad so that hopefully he can't get his arm under it anymore.

This afternoon, Caleb spent some time playing on his stomach on his jungle gym. He seems to be tolearating tummy time for much longer periods. Mom speculates that it is because his back, neck and arms are getting stronger and he can hold himself up to look around. Notice how high he his is holding his head in this picture. Also, look at how his right hand is grabbing the collar of his shirt.

Tonight, we went to our congregation's annual ice cream fellowship. Every year, we have a fellowship where we enjoy homemade ice cream and desserts. There is always a contest for best ice cream and dessert and the winner gets a prize. This year the prize was a big mixing bowl full of baking supplies. The bowl was topped with a big purple bow. One of the little girls at church one first prize. She gave caleb the bow from her prize and he enjoyed playing with it. Of course, with Caleb these days, by playing with it, I mean he had a good time trying to stick it in his mouth.

Morning Person

One of the fun things about Caleb is that he generally wakes up in a good mood. Any kind of sleep charges his batteries and he wakes up very outgoing and talkative. As I said yesterday, sometimes Caleb spends the morning with me. Other mornings, mom puts him in the swing or his bouncy seat. This morning, Mom put Caleb in his swing and was just as happy as could be. He was screeching and I could hear him in the bedroom as if he was next to me.

Today was the last day of teacher work week. Starting next week, Mom and Caleb will be getting up really early so that Mom can be at school by 7:30. That means that Mom and Caleb will be up early and out of the house. Unless I get up much earlier than I am accustomed, I won't get to enjoy mornings with Caleb like I'm used to.

Caleb can sleep anywhere. It's not uncommon for him to fall asleep when we are in the car driving. Tonight, we met another couple for dinner. Caleb was asleep in the swing when I came home. I tried to pick him up, but he wanted nothing to do with it. I put him back in the swing and he went right back to sleep. When it was time to go to dinner, we moved him to his car seat and he went right back to sleep as we pulled out of the driveway. This is how we found him when we got to the restaurant. It looks extremely uncomfortable to me, but it's not uncommon for us to find Caleb sleeping with his head pitched forward like that.

Nice Hands

One of my favorite times of day is first thing in the morning. Mom gets up and feeds Caleb before she gets ready to go to work. Sometimes Caleb plays in the bouncy seat while Mom gets ready, but sometimes I wake up and play with him. Mom took this picture this morning of Caleb and I hanging out in the bed together. Once school starts next week, Mom and Caleb will bee getting up so early to head to school that I may not get to spend as much time with Caleb in the morning and that makes me kind of sad.

Caleb is growing more accustomed to spending time on his stomach. He spent a lot of time on his stomach today both in Mom's office and again at home tonight. The jungle gym
in particular is designed for stomach play and has some things to entertain Caleb while he plays on this stomach. Tonight he seemed to be looking at himself in the mirror on the jungle gym.

Caleb is also getting better at grabbing smaller objects. Lately, he has been fidgeting with his pacifier while he sucks on it. Sometimes, he pulls it out of his mouth and he has even pushed back in if he dropped it and his hand was nearby. Tonight, he pulled the pacifier out and held out to it, waving it around. At one point, he but it back up to his mouth, but he had it backwards, so it wouldn't go back in. It shouldn't be too long before he is capable of taking in and out of his mouth at will.

Still the Favorite

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Dad's been watching too much Olympics and is a little tired. I dozed off on the couch and woke up right around midnight. I moved to the desk chair to try and get today's post done. However, I dozed back off in the desk chair and Mom came in to get me about 1:45 A.M. Somehow, I fell slept in the desk chair for nearly two hours. I was too dazed to post at that time of the morning, so here it is.

Caleb has been doing well with Miss J. It's Mom who's not handling the separation very well. However, Caleb still spends some time in Mom's office in the afternoon before they come home. Today, he ended up in his usual spot from the Summer and I'm sure it felt just right to Mom.

Kicking Back

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Not much to say about Caleb today. He continues to go to work with Mom and spend the day with a babysitter. Mom doesn't think he is getting enough nap time, but he still sleeps alot. He likes to sleep in the car, especially when he's back there by himself with noone to talk to. Today, he fell asleep with his foot propped up on the back of the seat. He's pretty cute when he finds interesting sleep positions.

New Era

Today was a new era for Caleb as he is going to spending a big chunk of his days with Miss J, his new babysitter. Caleb decided to welcome Miss J with his big guns. He tried to intimidate her by crying this morning when he was hungry. But Miss J was not initimidated. Later in the day, he had a blowout requiring Miss J to not only change his diaper, but his whole outfit. That's why the socks don't match the onesie in this picture. But she persevered and was still smiling at the end of the day. I guess Caleb is going to have to go back to the drawing board to see what new kinds of torture he can devise.

We are going to be lucky to have Miss J. I think she is going to be good for Caleb and we are blessed that Caleb will be in the same building with Mom.

Future Olympian

Sunaday, August 10, 2008

By the time he went to bed last night, Caleb was running a fever from his shots. His fever broke however by morning and his temperature was back to normal. That was good for his sake and also for the fact that we had planned to go to a cookout on the beach today.

Our young professionals group had planned a day at the beach as soon as worship and class were over. We headed out after class to change and then went out to the beach. Unfortunately, there were storm clouds gathering and it rained right after we got there threatening the whole event. It quit raining and eventually the sun came out. Caleb's outfit got pretty wet, so we just let him hang out in his diaper until we went swimming. After lunch, we went down to the water and took Caleb in with us. The water was nice and cool and Caleb initially didn't like it. After he acclimated, he was having a good time and was even kicking his legs in the water. I predict that boy is going to be swimmer.

Tonight, as part of Caleb's betime routine, I gave him a bath for this first time. He didn't seem to mind too much. After I got him out of the tub, I realized I hadn't rinsed him very well. But he survived and I'm sure I'll be "allowed" to give him more baths in the future.