From Mother With Love

As Granddaddy would say, Caleb is 1/3 today. Caleb is four months old meaning he's already made it through a third of a year.

I didn't actually witness any of the action taking place in today's pictures. Today's pictures are all courtesy of Mom and are of things she wanted to share.

Mom took this picture of Caleb in the mirror. She had given him a new rattle today which he seemed to like quite a bit. Mom wanted to show that she was zooming around the house with Caleb on her hip clutching the new rattle.

Caleb also enjoyed playing with his new rattle while lying on his changing table.

Finally, Mom had Caleb in her lap and was playing with the rattle. But this particular picture is not actually of the rattle. Mom pulled out the camera and Caleb turned his head away from her. Mom spoke his name and he responded by turning to face her.

His grip continues to improve and he is beginning to associate sounds and the direction from which they originate. We are blessed to have such a wonderful baby.

Work Hard, Play Hard

When Caleb is at work with Mom, he has a lot to accomplish during the day. He has to play and exercise. He has to eat. And he has to nap. That's a lot to get done for such a small boy. So Caleb decided to multi-task today. He decided to fall asleep WHILE he was playing, thus accomplishing two things at once.

On the Move

It's strange to me that some days, I have a hard time figuring out what to say and which picture to use. Other days, there are a bunch of pictures and so much to tell. Today was one of those multi-picture days.

Caleb's been wiggly for a while now, but now he is actually starting to propel his body. He can really pump those legs pretty vigorously now. Watching him, you get the sense than at any moment he could get some traction and launch himself into crawling.

Mom took this first two pictures this morning with the phone on her camera. Mom originally laid him on the quilt so that his head should be at the bottom of the picture and his feet at the top. She stepped out of
her office into the main office to talk to a parent and she came back in and Caleb had done a complete 180. A few minutes later, he had managed to get himslef further off the quilt.

The key to Caleb's movement seems to be the fact that he has pretty strong legs. Dr. K. commented on his leg strength way back at the two month appointment and he has stood on his legs really well just about since he was born (with assistance of course). Tonight, as we were getting ready to head to the church building for our Wednesday night class, Mom tried to get Caleb strapped into the car seat, but he wouldn't cooperate and bend his legs. He just stood in the car seat for a few moments. Mom finally got him settled into the seat and we were off.

We had decided before all of our trips that we would start leaving Caleb in the Cradle Roll class once we got back to Miami. Tonight was our first opportunity to do so since we were in Orlando this past weekend. Mom quickly ran in, got him situtated, snaped a couple of pictures and joined me in class. We got the report that he generally did pretty well with a little fussing at the end.

So not only is Caleb moving on physically, he's moving on in "maturity." I can't believe he is already at the point where he is going to be able to be in bible class on his own. This feels like such a big step. It's going to be nice for Mom and me to enjoy class together again, but it feels so odd to leave our son in the care of another person. I know that one of our major (and maybe even sole) duties as parents is to prepare Caleb to survive on his own without us, I just didn't know we would have to start doing it so soon. (I'm also pretty sure I'll look back at this some day and think I'm being pretty silly to let this be such a big deal, but to me, right now, this is a VERY big deal.)

Little Dude

We got this onesie for Caleb a few weeks ago. I was going through a phase where I was referring to Caleb as "dude" and so I thought this shirt was humorous and appropriate. Mom wasn't so thrilled with my use of the word "dude". The ironic thing is that I have stopped using that word now that he is wearing the onesie. I didn't consiously stop calling him dude and I don't really remember when I stopped doing it. I must have been some where along the way during our trips over the past month.

The first picture was taken this morning just before Mom and Caleb headed out the door for the day. He had only been dressed for a few minutes, yet you can see that Caleb has already drooled all over the the shirt. One of the reasons Mom thinks Caleb is already teething is because he drools a lot.

He has been drooling so much that we've been putting bibs on him to keep the clothes dry. The funny thing is that right now, in addition to the drool, his other activity lately is to grab anything he can. He is also trying to figure out how to get things in his mouth. When He has his bib on, he grabs on to it and tries to eat. Between the stuffing of the bib in his mouth and the general arm waving, his bibs don't stay straight very long. Mom sent me this second picture because caleb had completely turned the bib backwards. It doesn't do much good that way.

Sleepyhead

We knew Caleb was worn out from all of the travelling we've done over the last couple of weeks, but we were kind of baffled because he was not necessarily sleeping for long stretched and he would wake up if we tried to place him in a crib/pack 'n play no matter how deep his sleep was.

Last night after we came home from dinner, we were moving around the house unpacking our bags. Mom took Caleb into his room and put him in the crib. She didn't do expecting him to sleep, but rather she wanted to put him in a safe place while we worked. Of course, not long after she laid him down, he started crying. But what really caught us by surprise was that he cried himself to sleep in five to ten minutes. He was actually sleeping in his crib! He woke up about 1:30 and he spent the rest of the night with Mom, but Mom got several hours of good sleep on her own and we consider that a victory.

He did spend the rest of the night with Mom. Mom took this picture of Caleb this morning on his changing table. She was trying to get ready to go to work and he kept falling asleep while she changed him. I guess he got plenty of rest last night because Mom said he was in a pretty good mood all day today. The few minutes I saw him this morning he was very happy.

Right now, he is sleeping with Mom. I will try to move him to the crib when I go to bed in a few minutes, though I don't expect to him to stay there long. We've been doing some reading on the subject and this weekend we're going to start a training regimen to get him on a schedule and reestablish the crib as his sleeping spot.

Sweet Home Miami

The last couple of nights, I returned to my hotel room and was not able to get posts up. Posts for Friday and Saturday are laid forth below.

We made it home safe and sound an all in one piece this evening. After the morning worship, we stopped in St. Cloud to have lunch with some friends who live there. We went to their house for a while and Mom nursed him just before we left and he fell asleep.


Caleb's return trip was not as easy as it was Friday. We had to pull the car over three times to attend to Caleb within the hour. He did finally get to sleep after a while.

Our trip took a little longer than normal. We arrived in Miami about the time our small group meets, but we all meet together at the church building on the fourth Sunday of the month, so we headed straight there. After that, we went to dinner with some friends and did not arrive home until pretty late in the evening.

We set about the task of unpacking our suitcases. I took some time to play with Caleb when Mom took this picture.

We had a great weekend and got some great spiritual fulfillment in Oralndo. Now that we are home, we can work on Caleb's sleep habits.

Workshop Warrior

Saturday, July 26, 2008

This morning, we slept in a little and missed the early morning session, but we hurried to make it to the first class. While we were getting ready in the room, Mom put Caleb down on his tummy on the Boppy pillow and she put a little horse rattle in front of him.

The horse rattle is another one of my favorit toys of Caleb's (I love his toys!). The horse has a ring that you pull that makes the horse vibrate as it draws back in. He has started paying attention to this horse just since we went to New Mexico and watching it makes him laugh. This morning, he was getting a kick out of just looking at it.

This morning, I used the Bjorn carrier the first time. When we were registering for baby gifts, Mom just wanted to register for the Boppy sling and I insisted that I would use the Bjorn carrier and that we should keep it on the registry. Since Caleb has started riding in it, Mom has used it exclusively.

I decided to give it a try. I was able to get Caleb to go to sleep on my chest. He stayed that way for the better part of the morning. The carrier is very convenient.

Mom dressed Caleb in his yellow Lipscomb onesie to wear around the conference today. At lunch in the hotel restaurant, we sat a couple of tables over from Rhonda Lowry, wife of Lipscomb President Randy Lowry who joined her before she finished her meal. I was holding Caleb up on the table and as the Lowrys got up to leave, they noticed his onesie and came over to say hello. I asked Dr. Lowry if he had a scholarship available, but he was noncommital.

Tonight during the dinner break, Caleb's Uncle Bob took us to Boma which is a restaurant in the Animal Kingdom Lodge at Walt Disney World. Boma is an all-you-can-eat buffet of African foods. We all ate a lot of food and were quite stuffed by the end of dinner. We then wandered around the Animal Kingdom Lodge. There are several exotic animals living on the grounds and went to several observation points to see the animals and then returned to the workshop.

After the final session tonight, Mom and Caleb headed back to our room. We had a requested a crib, but it was not brought to our room last night. Mom complained today and we
had a crib tonight. Mom tried to put Caleb in the crib. Of course, Caleb did not last long before Mom brought him to bed. We had a king size bed, so we were able to all stay in the bed together. Mom was able to catch a picture of Caleb playing with the bars of the crib before she picked him up.

We subjected Caleb to quite an extensive schedule today. Tomorrow, we are going home for real and to stay.

Tricked Ya

Friday, July 25, 2008

After getting home yesterday from our trip to New Mexico, the summer tour was over. But today, we climbed in the car and headed to Orlando for the Spiritual Growth Workshop, a bi-annual lectureship hosted by several churches in Florida.

This was the longest drive with Caleb in the car. Mom and Caleb came and picked me up mid-afternoon and we headed north. Caleb did well in the car. He slept about half way there. He woke up and started crying and we were about 10 miles from a rest area, so we had to let him suffer for a few minutes before we could get off the road and attend to him.

Once he had a clean diaper and something to eat, we got back on the road. He went back to sleep pretty quickly and made it most of the way to the hotel. We pulled up to the hotel just after the worship time started and we went straight into worship. Mom had only sat down for a couple of minutes before Caleb started getting fussy. Mom took Caleb to the back of the room and ended up sitting in the baby refuge camp with a bunch of other mother's congregating at the back so their children would not disturb other attendees.

I know we've really thrown Caleb off with our trips the last couple of weeks. So we figured a couple more nights on the road can't hurt him.

Home at Last

After a very short night, we were back at the New Orleans airport very early for a 6:00 A.M. flight to Miami. From landing to take off, we weren't even in the city for 12 hours. Caleb may have started to catch up on his sleep finally. He slept the entire flight and even stayed asleep as we moved through the airport to pick up our luggage.

After getting our bags, we wet outside to wait for our ride. We stood on a sidewalk between the bus/taxi lanes and the car lanes. Caleb continued to sleep through it except for the occasional bus that pulled up directly behind him. The roadway was covered and after a few minutes standing outside, the noise, heat and exhaust fumes were starting to get to me. I made a comment and Mom took Caleb back into the terminal to wait for our ride.

Once our ride arrived, we loaded up the car, got Caleb's seat strapped in tight and we took off. Since it was mid-morning, I went straight to work before our ride took Mom and Caleb home. Loading into the car stirred Caleb enough that he woke up. I was sitting in the back seat with his carrier and he and I had a good time making faces at each other. However, when we got to my office, he was starting to act up and I was able to get out of he car, so I don't really know how the rest of the ride went.

Tonight we were out and Caleb started to get restless. Mom strapped him in to the carrier and they took a walk around. I had ordered water with my dinner and when the bottle was empty, Mom carried it to the trash for me. She came back to me a few minutes later because Caleb was holding on to the water bottle and examining it pretty closey without assistance. He wasn't able to hold on to it for very long. He's doing a good job closing his hand around objects small enough to fit in his fist and he can get his fingers hooked in objects with a gap. On the other hand, he has some work to do on his two hnad grip.

Even in the midst of a stressfule experience, Caleb has the ability to keep my focus on him and impress me.

Change in Plans

Well, I should be writing from my desk at home in Miami, but unfortunately, we are stuck in New Orleans. We had a delay out of Dallas due to engine maintenance. We got into New Orleans less than half an hour after our flight was scheduled to leave for Miami, but we were too late. We are now in a hotel by the airport waiting for an early morning flight to Miami. It's frustrating to be here rather than in our own bed in our own home, but we are safe and we are together and that is all that matters.

Other than that, here is a quick rundown of our day:

After unwillingly saying our goodbyes to Poppy and TuTu, we got a mid-morning start out of Roswell and Caleb was doing pretty well. He rode in his Mom's lap and didn't protest during the flight. Instead, he slept part of the way.

When we got to Miami, Mom strapped Caleb into the bjorn carrier to move through the airport. I took this picture on my phone as we walked through the train station in the Dallas airport moving between terminals. Caleb had awakened as we landed, but was in a good mood as we walked. his is also trying to turn the head support on the carrier into a chew toy.

We had a layover as it was, but we ended up being in Dallas for a long time. One of the lessons we learned last week was that Caleb does not like being cramped for a long time. Last
week when we got to Poppy and TuTu's house, it was apparent that Caleb enjoyed stretching out. 0nce we got to our gate, we spread out a blanket and laid Caleb down so he had some room to move around. he seemed to really enjoy kicking and squirming around. I got down in the floor with him and we played with one of his toys.

When he is down on the ground in a good mood, Claeb really likes to wiggle and kick. When he started out, the blanket was completely outstretched. It did not take Caleb lon to scrunch up the blanket so that it did not take up much more space than his body. After a while, Mom picked up Caleb to feed him and then he napped in her arms.

When we finally got onto the plane, we thought we had the row to ourselves and that we would be able to stretch out. We laid Caleb in the seat between us. We hadn't been in the seats long when the flight attendants announced that the flight was full. We hoped we would have the row to ourselves, but we ended up sharing the row with another individual. We gathered our things together and Mom moved into the middle seat with Caleb next to me.

Caleb was really cranky as we taxied and took off. I rocked him to sleep but had a hard time keeping him to sleep. Either the plane would bounce or there would be a loud noise. After we got into the air, he finally fell into a sound sleep. I passed him to Mom who fed him when he started to wake up and he stayed with her until the end of the flight.

By the time we got here, I wasn't surprised that we had missed our flight, but I was still hoping they would hold it for us. They didn't and the airline sent us to this hotel near the airport. Fortunately, we had stocked up on burritos and had some for dinner because we can't find a restaurant anywhere near our hotel. After eating, Mom climbed into bed to feed Caleb and get him so sleep. Before she fell asleep, she snapped this picture of Caleb and sent it to me.

We have a really early flight tomorrow, so we have to get some rest. On the bright side, Caleb will have now spent the night in his fourth state which was not in our original plan.