Hiatus

The blog will be going on a short break while Dad travels to Texas to see Miami play Texas A&M and Mom takes Caleb to Tennessee to see Whatshername and Granddaddy. Look for a full report on Caleb's trip to Tennessee sometime on Monday.

Until then, Go Canes!

More of the Same

Here's another picture of Caleb sitting in his bouncy seat as happy as can be. This picture wasn't taken long before I got home this evening. When I got home, Caleb was finishing up his dinner and was in a really good mood. The three of us played together for a few minutes and had a lot fun before we went out separate ways. Mom headed out to a board meeting and Caleb and I headed out to a restaurant to meet some of our friends for a birthday dinner. Caleb fell asleep in the car on the way to the restaurant, but did not stay asleep for long. He was awake during dinner, so I strapped one of the toys to the handle of the car seat. He seemed pretty content to play and entertain himself while I ate. Mom eventually joined us had dinner. By the time we got home, Caleb skipped his bath and went straight to bed. He is such a good baby and he is so easy on us. He rolls with the punches about as well as anybody can which gives us a lot of freedom to enjoy spending time with our friends. I've heard horror stories of people who never get to go out becuase their babies are so demanding of attention. We are blessed by Caleb in so many ways and this is just one of the many ways our lives have been enriched. We have the joy of being parents and in many ways we still get to enjoy life much the way we did before.

Survived Again

Caleb and I survived another Wednesday afternoon together. Here is how our routine pretty much goes. I leave work early so that I can get home and Mom can head to class. We almost
literally pass each other in the doorway and handoff Caleb as I am on the way in the house and Mom is on her way out of the house. Mom will have just fed Caleb, so he might be playful for a few minutes, but he will usually be ready for a nap. Once he's ready, I put him in the swing and he'll sleep between one and one and a half hours. Once he wakes up, I eat dinner, try to give him a bottle and then we head over to the church building. We make some rounds to say hello and then I drop Caleb off in the cradle roll class before going to my own class. Once class is over, I go get Caleb and we hang out until Mom shows up so e can do another handoff and Mom brings Caleb home and puts him to bed while I go to a meeting at church.

Tonight was off just a little bit. When I got home from work, Caleb was playing on the quilt and was wide awake. Mom said he even cried when she tried to put him in the swing after feeding him, so she put him back down to play. She took the first picture after he had rolled over and was trying to grab anything nearby. He likes to play with his pacifier and chew on it. If you look closely, you'll notice the nipple is facing away from Caleb. I took the second picture after Mom left. I put Caleb back on the quilt and pulled up a chair behind him. He looked cute straining to look at me, so I had to take a picture.

He started his nap a little later than usual and slept right up until it was time to go to the church building. I tried to feed him in the nursery before our classes started, but he doesn't seem to want to take the bottle from me. We'll have to keep working on that. Other than that, he is a really good boy and I enjoy our alone time on these afternoons.

Break Time

We've been fortunate to capture some really nice pictures of Caleb the last few days, so I was really interested to see today's picture when I got home and Mom told me she had taken a really cute picture of Caleb. When I saw this, I had to agree that this was a pretty cute picture. I guess even little baby boys have to stop every now and then, lay their heads down and take a break from all the playing.

Learning to Sit

Mom loves to catch Caleb trying to sit up. He can't keep himself up on his own right now, but if he is strapped down and has something to hold on to, he can pull hiself up pretty far. The bouncy seat can go from more of a reclining position to a sitting position. Mom has moved it to the sitting position to try and encourage Caleb to sit up on his own.

Big Boy Chair

Caleb's cradle roll teacher moved him from the bouncy seat to one of the upright chairs in class this morning. Mom came to our bible class after leaving Caleb in his class and she was a mixture of sad and excited. She said our boy was a big boy and he was in one of the big boy chairs in the cradle roll class. She also lamented how quickly he is growing. We're going to have to put a dictionary on that boy's head or something.

He didn't make it all the way through class, though. He go tired of sitting there, so one of the cradle roll assistants held him for part of class. When he was in the chair, he sat between to older children who are about two years old and he was a big hit with him. The little boy on his right kept kissing his forehead and the little girl on his right kept patting his head. Right now, he is the youngest baby in there, but that won't last for long because several others have been born since him. But that makes me glad because he should have a nice, full Sunday School class.

He's Got Skillz!

Today was the first full fledged college football Saturday that I've been able to enjoy from the comfort of my own home. As you can see from this first picture, Caleb was overwhelmed by the excitement and channeled his energy into this nap in which he was dead to the world.

When he did finally wake up, we enjoyed hanging out and working on Caleb's football skills. Back in July when we went to the first UM football practice of the year, one of the sponsors was giving away miniature nerf footballs which can be seen in the picture from that day. In honor of college football season, we gave him the football to play with. As with everything else, it was usually in or near his mouth, but did take the occasional break from chewing on the football to show off his mad football skills. He's got solid hands and he only fumbled a few times. We had a fun afternoon, but I'm looking forward to the day when he and I can wathch football together and I have the opportunity to teach about the game in some father/son bonding time.

Don't Turn Your Back

We are quickly learning that we can't turn around and take our eyes off Caleb. It is no longer unusual to turn your head and then turn back to Caleb and find him facing a different direction. For the longest
time, we didn't have to worry that he was actually going anywhere. He simply rotated his body. Now that he can roll over, we have to be aware of where he is at all times. Earlier today, Mom put Caleb in this Boppy pillow in a sitting position. Mom turned away for just a short amount of time and when she turned back to Caleb, he had slid down and flipped onto his stomach.

Tonight, we went up to Weston to have dinner with friends who had yet to meet Caleb and who have a six week old baby boy of their own. While we were at their house, Caleb swung in their swing. He was quite captivated with the swing at first, however, as with everything, Caleb decided it would be more fun to simply chew on the swing rather than play with any of the available toys.

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.