Computer Geek

Thursday, September 11, 2008

While Mom fixed dinner tonight, Caleb and I hung out at the computer desk. Caleb took a break from his online poker game long enough to make this funny face at Mom.

Now I Believe

Turning over is becoming the big thing with Caleb. When I came home from work this afternoon. Mom and Caleb were sitting on the quilt playing. Mom was holding Caleb's toy off to his left side
and Caleb was laying on his back. His head was turned to his left and he was looking at the toy. He rolled onto his left side and reached for the toy with his right which took him about 3/4 of the way over. He struggled for a second, so I stepped over him to set my things down. When I turned back around, he was on his stomach and I missed it.

Shortly after I got home from work, Mom left for class, so I got down on the quilt with Caleb to play with him. I played the same game and put his toy of to the side to encourage him to roll over. I finally saw a complete roll over. Prior to this, I did not ackowledge an actual rollover despite all the visual evidence to the contrary. I rolled Caleb on his back and he instantly was back over on his stomach, so he definitly has pretty much mastered the rolling over thing.

I noticed something that Mom also noticed and captured on camera. Once he gets on his stomach, if he is near the edge of the quilt, Caleb is far more interested in the quilt tag than the rattle. Note the location of the toy in the first picture and the object of Caleb's focus. When I was playing with Caleb, he was much more interested in chewing on the tag and soaking the quilt than we has in playing with his toy.

The rolling over does have a downside. Mom put Caleb to bed a little earlier and I have the monitor. When he cries, I go check on him to make sure is OK and that his arm is not caught in the crib rails or anything serious like that. Once I make sure he is not trapped, I leave him alone to give him the opportunity to cry himself back to sleep. Just a little while ago, he cried so I went to check on him.

You have to understand that Caleb is a very fidgety sleeper. It's not uncommon for his head to be at one end of the cradle when he goes to sleep and the other end when he wakes up. Often, we will put him in one corner and he will migrate toward the other side of the crib and the other end of the crib. That is important to know because when I went in to check on Caleb, he was laying perpendicular to the crib, across the mattress. This is not unusual. However, he had rolled over and appeared to be trapped. His arm was sort of caught under neath his body and his pajamas were stretched over the shoulder, so I cold tell he had struggled a little bit. I rolled him over and he cried about a minute before he was back to sleep.

Does This Have Milk?

Mom was really excited to show me this picture. She was walking around the school this afternoon carrying a cup of water in her hand and Caleb in her arm. She didn't realize that he was reaching for the cup and putting his mouth on the cup. It looks like he is trying to take a drink. Mom doesn't think he has really made that connection yet, but it still makes for a cute picture.

Rollover

I will tell you just a little bit about today's pictures, then let them tell the story. Mom took this first picture in order to capture a picture of Caleb wearing these shoes. The shoes are
part of a frog outfit and I guess they are supposed to look like frogs, but I think they are kind of creepy looking. However, as Mom was putting them on this morning, Caleb was
quite fascinated with them.

After taking the picture, Mom turned away for a second and turned back around to see Caleb on his stomach. Caleb ended up nearly off the edge of the quilt. Mom didn't let him roll of the quilt because he was lifting his head as he rolled and Mom did not want him to bang his head on the tile, so she kept him on the quilt. Mom said he kept rolling over all night long.

Here's a picture of Caleb on his stomach after he rolled over and he actually looks happy about it.

Roadtrip

I'm sorry for the layoff over the weekend. The whole family spent the weekend in Jacksonville, FL so we could see some friends we made during law school and so I could go to the Miami/Florida game in Gainesville and I have not had a chance to post before now. The outcome of the game could have been better, but we had a great weekend. Below is a recap:

Friday, September 5, 2008

Before I get to details about the trip, I have to include a picture from school. Mom went to the nursery to check on Caleb and he was sitting in one of the swings. She took this picture and wanted me to include because of how much he is sitting up in the sing on his own.

I left work early to come home and get Mom and Caleb so we could head to the airport to catch a plane to Jacksonville. We were on American Eagle and ended up on a small, regional prop plane. One of the flight attendants was quite enamored with Caleb and stopped by our row frequently to flirt with him. Lately, Caleb has been reaching for anything he can get his hands on. As the crew served drinks and brought the cart by our row, Caleb reached toward the cart trying to grab something. His new girlfriend gave him a cup to play with. Caleb was fascinated with the cup. However, he doesn't understand that he can't chew on something when he has a pacifier in his mouth, but his instincts still cause him to bring whatever is in his hand to his mouth. If he can't chew on it, he gets frustrated, so it did not take that long for him to lose interest in the cup. But we were grateful for the flight attendant to give it to him. But alas, it was a short lived romance as we had to say goodbye to Caleb's new flame when the flight was over.

Our host picked us up from the airport and took us to his house. His son Bryson was already in bed, so we visited for a few minutes before the adults headed to bed. Bryson is old enough to get baths in the regular bath tub so their infant tub was in the attick. Caleb had to settle for a bath in the sink which he has not had in quite a while. After a short visit, we all went to bed to get some rest before our long day Saturday.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

While in Jacksonville, Caleb slept in Bryson's pack 'n play. He didn't go to sleep right away when we put him down because we were still up visiting. Instead, he just rolled around and kicked his legs entertaining himself in the pack 'n play. Mom picked him back up and nursed him some more. After his snack, we all went to bed so we could turn the lights out. This time, Caleb went right to sleep and slept through the night. This was quite a development since Caleb would not sleep anywhere but next to Mom on our last trip.

Our hosts have an overly friendly dog named Tanner. Tanner was quite interested in Caleb and wanted to check him out. Our hosts would not let him near Caleb when he was in the pack 'n play asleep. I think this is about as close as Tanner was allowed to get to Caleb. Since Caleb was awake, I think they both enjoyed checking each other out.

I was disappointed that Mom did not remember to bring Caleb's UM onesie, but he did show his loyalties in honor of gameday with his bib.

Before going to Gainesville, we all spent the day in St. Augustine taking a tour around the city. Caleb was quite interested in the details of our tour. However, he quickly realized that the map made no sense to him, so instead he just tried to eat the map. After lunch, the guys headed to the game and the ladies and the babies relaxed in Jacksonville.






Sunday, September 7, 2008

We had a great time, but our trip was very short. After getting back to Jacksonville from the game very late, we had a very early flight back to Miami so we could be back in time for a Sunday School class I am teaching. Caleb started out the trip in his pajamas because Mom did not want to unnecessarily wake up Caleb. We got him up put him in his car seat, took him out of the car seat, went through security, boarded the plane and took off and he slept through it all. In fact, he slept through most of the flight.

He did wake up however and Mom changed his clothes so he would be ready to go to worship. As much as I appreciated Mom putting a UM bib on Caleb on Saturday, I was a little disappointed when I discovered the day after UM lost to Florida that Mom put Caleb in an outfit with a picture of an alligator on it and a label that simply said "Gator." After worship, we went home and all three of us took really long naps because our fast-paced weekend wore us all out.

Buddies

In a rare (only?) appearance on the blog of someone other than Caleb, here is a picture of Caleb and Marissa riding in their double stroller. Since they spend so much time together, I guess I can make an exception.

Riding in Style

I have previously mentioned that Nanny is keeping Caleb and another baby, Marissa, during the morning. If she wanted to take the kids outside the nursery, she had to push one in a stroller and carry the other. Marissa's mom went out and got a two seat stroller so that Nanny doesn't have to carry one of the babies. Caleb got his first ride in the two seater today.

Today was a big day for Mom as she resumed classes for her Master's degree program. For the next few weeks, she'll be in class on Wednesday nights. For her to take class, I've got to leave work a little early so I can get hom to take car of Caleb. After I got home, he slept for a little while in his swing.

After he woke up, I loaded up Caleb, the diaper bag and my things for church and headed out to grab some dinner. Caleb sat in his car seat while I ate dinner. I gave him a teething ring to play with, but he was half out of it and didn't show much interest in it. After I got my order, I dropped my bottle of water struggling with the car seat, the diaper bag and a tray of food. I also had a hard time getting into the church building with everything. I have a new appreciation for Mom for doing this every day.

Mom's class got out before bible class was over, so she headed over to the church building to get Caleb so I could attend a meeting after class. After visiting for a few minutes, Mom took Caleb home to get him to bed. When she got to the house, she found him playing with the strap that we use to tighten his shoulder belts. Frankly, I'm amazed it took him this long to discover that strap because it sits at his feet every time he's in the car seat.

Catching Up

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Yesterday, we got some rain out of the far western edges of Tropical Storm/Hurricane Hanna. This past Sunday, we had some really heavy rain and breezes out of the eastern side of Hurricane Gustav as it moved around the Keys into the Gulf of Mexico. As I write, two more storms are lining up behind Hanna potentially taking aim at South Florida. It could be a really busy September.

The whole time we've lived in Miami, I am struck by just how far a way the effects of a tropical storm system can be felt and now that we have Caleb, I am struck by how similar a baby is to a tropical system, at least with regard to how far out the effects of a particular action can be felt.

As you may recall, we went out with friends on Sunday night and were out past Caleb's bedtime. We figured it would be OK since we could sleep in on Labor Day. Caleb did remarkably well and did not fuss much and seemed to be in a pretty good mood. Even though we did sleep in a little yesterday, the late night apparently started to catch up with him tonight.

We were out with our usual Tuesday night group having coffee. He slept on the way to Starbucks and only woke up when we set his carrier down. As we visited,it was well before his bed time but Caleb started to get cranky and was obviously tired. Once we finally loaded up and came home, he went right back to sleep in his carrier. When we got him home, we debated whether to give him a bath or just let him sleep. In the end, we decided he would wake anyway as we changed his clothes and he would end up awake in the middle of the night hungry if he did not get his bedtime snack. So after bathing and eating, Mom laid him down and he was out almost immediately.

Chik-Fil-A Rocks!

I was washing dishes this morning and I got a little cut on my thumb when I was washing a vase that has a chip in it. Mom put a bandaid on my thumb and I put some pressure on it to try and make is stop bleeding. Putting pressure on it actually made the blood stain on the bandaid get bigger. I wasn't sure how deep the cut was nor how much it was actually bleeding so I drew a circle around the stain to see if it was growing. Throught this weekend, Caleb has laughed whenever I loosely cover his face with my hand. I had him this morning and I was playing the game with him. I covered his face with my hand. I pulled my hand away and saw a blue circle on his cheek which had apparently transferred from my thumb to his cheek.

Our main activity to the day was lunch at Chik-Fil-A at the mall. Chik-Fil-A had a promotion today for college football. Everyone who showed up in football themed apparel would receive free chicken strips. As a family, we all got on our Miami clothes and headed out for a cheap lunch. After lunch, Caleb and I were sitting together and Mom was able to take a picture of us showing off our loyalty.

Mom also needed to do some shoe shopping while at the mall. As we were leaving the mall, Mom decided she wanted to cary Caleb. When she picked him up, Mom discovered that Caleb had had an incident with an overflowing diaper. Earlier this week, I had used the additional onesie in the diaper bag, so we ddn't have a change of clothes for Caleb. Instead, the poor boy had to ride home in just his diaper. As you can see it bothered him tremendously.

We got Caleb cleaned up and headed out to a barbecue where we enjoyed some good food, some nice fellowship with folks from church and Mom and Caleb got to go for a swim.

We had a fun day today and hope everyone had a nice Labor Day. It seems appropriate that today is Labor Day since Caleb was born five months today.

Cosmopolitan

Tonight, our life group from church decided to go out for some fun and chance to hang out together. We started the night at a bowling alley on South Beach called Lucky Strike. After bowling a few games, we headed to a German Restaurant on Lincoln Road. While we were at dinner, Caleb played with his toy bar. His arms are getting a little longer and he is getting stronger. He reached up with both hands and solidly grabbed the toy bar and started pulling himself up as if the bar is chin up bar. Now we have to keep an eye out for Caleb pulling the bar down and smacking himself in the face.

We ended our night at an ice cream parlor called Frieze. Caleb ended up being the center of attention as we all stood in a circle around his stroller eating our ice cream before breaking for the night and heading our separate ways. Caleb seemed to enjoy the atmosphere.

Tonight was an interesting experiment for us. Although we are working hard to keep Caleb on a schedule, we have always acknowledged that our lives will not always be conducive to the schedule on a particular night. Since tomorrow is Labor Day and a day off for both of us, we decided to do an experiment and see how Caleb handles being out past his bedtime. We were pleased with how he responded. He was obviously tired by the end of the night and quickly fell asleep once we were in the car, but he did not get overly cranky and he did not have a meltdown or tantrum. So we learned that, at least for now, we have a little freedom to enjoy our time out with our friends.