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.

Round Two

Caleb had another busy day today. It started off with the four month visit to see Dr. K. Mom and Caleb arrived to the doctor's office a little early, so they waited in the car for a few minutes, Caleb clutching one of his many toys. Caleb now weighs 15 pounds, 2 ounces and is 24 inches long. His weight is now back down to around the 50th percentile. Dr. K. continues to be impressed with Caleb and today called him a lovely boy.

All was not well at the Dr. visit as poor Caleb had to have his second round of shots. He was not thrilled when the nurse stuck a needle in his legs three times.

For the last set of shots, we were able to just relax at home. However, Mom had agreed to help host a reception for a couple at church that got married out of state a few months ago. Right after the appointment, Mom headed to the home where the reception was being held to set up the decorations. She returned home for a while then we went out to get Dad some running shoes. After shopping, we went to the reception. Caleb was not really thrilled with the crowd at the reception.

After the reception, Mom and Dad had a date in celebration of our anniversary. We left Caleb with one of the many nice ladies from our congregation who have offered to keep Caleb for us. This was the fist time we have left Caleb with someone other than a family member, so this was a fairly significant event. (So significant, we didn't even take pictures.) We were a little concerned about leaving him in his cranky state (for her sake, not his), but she convinced us to leave him. We had a nice time and she told us that Caleb did really well and slept a good part of the time. We only left him for a little more than three hours, but Mom was really excited to see him and said she really missed him. So this was a good training opportunity for Mom as next week she is going to start leaving Caleb with her daytime baby sitter.

Caleb was fairly cranky today, but made it through pretty well.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

Friday, August 8, 2008

Mom came home for lunch today. Caleb was asleep when she got home. so she set him down by the front door while she grabbed a quick bite to eat. At some point during lunch, Caleb woke up. He was facing the mirror and he had seemed to enjoy interacting with the baby in the mirror. We don't think he realizes he is looking at himself, but Mom tries to get Caleb to look in the mirror pretty frequently. Sometimes he notices the baby in the mirror and sometimes he doesn't.

Caleb usually sits in my lap around dinner time so Mom can eat her dinner in relative peace. After we had eaten, Caleb put his hands on the table like a little man. Mom wanted a picture of it, but by the time she returned to the table with the camera, he had moved. He put his hands back on the table and Mom scrambled to turn the camera on and was just able to get the picture.

One Year

Caleb made it through another night again last night. There's a saying out there about "sleeping like a baby." Whoever came up with that saying surely wasn't talking about MY baby. Of course I'm grateful that he has been sleeping all night in his crib the last few nights, and he certainly looks peaceful if you go into his room and glance at him, but now we have evidence that all is not as it appears.

When Mom went into his room this morning, she found him like this with his foot sticking out of his pajamas. He doesn't fuss loudly enough to wake us during the night, but it is apparent that he does not necessarily sleep peacefully through the whole night. He obviosly fidgets enough to get his foot out of the pajamas.

Today was Mom and Dad's ninth anniversary. I wanted to take a picture of Caleb wearing this shirt because it was one year ago tonight that Mom used this little shirt to tell me we were going to have a baby. I came home from work last year and Mom was in the kitchen cooking. When I got home, she handed me a small, green gift bag. I opened it and I pulled out this tiny little white T-Shirt that says "There's Nothing Like Watching the Canes With Dad." I stared at the shirt for a minute and I meekly said "Really?" Mom said yes and we hugged. We just stood there in the kitchen holding each other for the longest time and I don't know how many times I asked her if she was serious. Every time I asked, she said yes.

That was a really special night. For a long time, before we were even seriously considering having a baby, Mom wanted to come up with a really clever way to tell me she was pregnant for the first time. I think she was wonderful and I will always remember that night.

Now, here we are a year later. Caleb's been with us for a little more than four months. I can barely remember what our life was like before Caleb came along and our life before last year seems like a distant dream now. Caleb has changed us and it is all for the better. His growth and advancement are so exciting to watch and I look forward to many more anniversaries when we get to recall two of the greatest moments in our lives: our wedding and the day we knew we were going to be parents.