Water Baby

We had a nice day today. I had class this morning and during a break between sessions, I made a visit to the men's room. As I came out of the restroom, I just happened to run into Mom and Caleb wandering around the hotel, killing time. Of all the places in the hotel we each of could have been, it was pretty amazing that we end up in that same spot at the same moment. It was nice so see them so I could kiss Mom and snuggle with Caleb a minute before going back to the letures. Seeing them at that time helped me get through the rest of the morning.

After I returned to the room at the end of the conference, we went out to lunch and debated what to do the rest of the day. We finally decided to spend some time down at the hotel pool where we went for a swim...all three of us. Caleb got in the pool with me and stayed in for quite some time. He really seemed to enjoy it. We hung out in the loungers next to the pool util we got caught in an afternoon downpour which came up on us with little warning. We had all dried off from the pool and we were soaked from the rain by the time we got back in the building. We came back to the room and leisurely cleaned up. Caleb harldy said a word throughout the entire ordeal.

We headed out for dinner and then rushe over to the beach to catch the sunset. We got to the beach just before the sun was about to drop below the horizon. They sky was a beautiful combination of pink, blue and purple. We watched a pod of dolphins playing in the water just off the shore. While we stood at the edge of the water taking it all in, we held Caleb's feet down in the surf as the waves moved back and forth across the sand. Again, Caleb did not protest and seemed to be pleased with the experience. After soaking in as much peace and quiet as we could, we returned to the hotel to pack and get read to go so we can leave first thing tomorrow morning.

Today was a pretty long day for the adults, much less Caleb. As we were settliing in for the night, Mom put Caleb in his pajamas and fed him so that he could go to bed. While he was eating, I took a picture of the sweet feet that got into so much water today. I am looking forward to many more sweet days like today.

Vacation

We are lucky that we are getting to spend the weekend at a Ritz Carlton for the conference I am attending. Here in Naples, the Ritz has a golf resort and a beach resort. Whil I was in seminars all day, Mom spent the day with Caleb. She loaded him up and they rode the shuttle over to the beach resort so Mom could get some beach time in. When she got there, Caleb cried and cried, but eventually calmed down. The lady from school who has given us so many things gave us a playpen that is designed for outdoor use. It has a cover so Caleb can lay in the shade and not get sunburned.

Mom and Caleb also spent some time at the pool. Mom decided to let Caleb try out the water fully expecting him to hate it. But Mom said he seemed to enjoy it. This coming from the kid who hates having baths and will flip out if the water temperature is not just write. After a few minutes in the water, Mom wrapped Caleb up in one of the "luxurious" Ritz Carlton towels and took this piture of him lounging poolside.

I grew up in the water. Swimming pools, ocean, you name it, I liked to swim in it. Hopefully Caleb will like the water to so that we can spend lots of time swimming together.

Road Trip

This is where Caleb woke up this morning: in his bassinet, nice and happy. He was in a really good mood today and made it hard for Dad to leave for work. Today is Dad's birthday, so Caleb and Mom came to have lunch with me today.

After work, we packed up the car and headed to Naples, Florida for a conference for Dad. Caleb did not have a very fun time in the car. He cried himself to sleep as we left Miami, but he then woke up somewhere in the middle of the Everglades and would not cry himself back to sleep again. Mom pulled over in a campground to feed Caleb. After having a little snack, we pulled back onto the highway and Caleb cried himself back to sleep as we continued on into Naples. We wearily ate dinner at a nearly empty Carrabba's that was about to close. Our waitress was enamored with Caleb and would not let us eat in peace, but she was nice enough. Of course, she may have just been bored since we were by far the last people to leave. We are finally at the hotel and Caleb is sleeping in a hotel crib. It's a little roomier than his bassinet.

We are planning on leaving early enough Sunday morning to be back in Miami for church. At the rate we went tonight, we need to leave some time Saturday afternoon to make it back in time.

Class? What Class?

One of the challenges we are facing is how to deal with Caleb at church. He's not consistent. Sometimes, he will sleep right through class, other times, I have to rock him at the back of the room. During actual church time, he's only made it through one worship service. Mom usually spends worship service with Caleb in the cry room or the nursery. The problem is, we both like to be in worship and we both want to be in class. However, one of us usually ends up missing part of class or worship. One of the ministers at church has started a new Wednesday night class on Thursday and we are both looking forward to that class. Caleb slept through the first class last week. This week, however, he was having none of it. We had not been sitting a minute when Caleb started crying. I took him out, but within a few minutes, it was obvious Caleb was hungry. I got Mom and I don't think she made it back to class. Of course, irony of ironies, I was rocking Caleb shortly after class was over and he went out like a light. His sense of timing is perfect.

As you can see, Caleb has just about outgrown the bassinet. He will be moving to the crib soon. Guess we have to get into the nursery and finalize everything so Caleb can start sleeping in there. He's been with us in the same room since he was born, so that is going to be a really strange transition. I have no idea how that is going to go.

Sleeping on the Job

Caleb has been going to work with Mom the last couple of weeks. So far, Mom has had a hard time finding the right balance of paying attention to Caleb and getting her work done. He has been pretty demanding of her attention and has not allowed her to put him down very often. She spends much of her day in some variation of this picture.

In addition to Caleb's sling, we were given one of those trendy, preppy harnesses for carrying a baby. Caleb is just now getting big enough to ride in it. We tried it out this past Friday before the baseball game, but he didn't seem to like it. We decided that we needed to give him a chance to get accustomed to it before using the harness in public. Mom decided to give it a test ride today and I took this picture of Caleb when I got home from work.

Doesn't this picture look like it could be an advertisement for the product? Of course we think Caleb is a beatiful little boy. But we get so many compliments from friends and strangers alike. I've heard so many comments that I've considered checking out a baby modeling agency. I'll let you know if Caleb has a future in front of a camera (the professional kind).

A Picture is Worth...

We had a quiet evening together. After dinner, we headed to Babies R Us (FINALLY) to pick up a few items remaining on the baby registry. After we got home Caleb spent a few minutes playing on Dad's lap before Caleb went to bed. I am learning enough about Caleb that I can fairly easily coax a smile out of him and Mom was able to capture this picture of him. It is an amazing feeling to know that Caleb is my son and I understand him well enough to get him to look like this in a picture.

Overflow

Caleb showed no signs of a reaction to yesterday's immunizations, so I guess we are past this obstacle and on to the next challenge in this gauntlet called parenthood. We have said all along that we would allow people to hold Caleb after he had his shots. We had anticipated being able to pass him around today. To our surprise, no one held him at church this morning and a couple of people held him at our small group tonight.

It's a good thing no one held Caleb this morning. For some reason today, Caleb has been generating a lot of excretions. He caused three diapers to leak today. Mom got either pee or poop on both her dress and her blouse from this morning and had to change clothes when we got home from worship.

Mom had dressed Caleb in a white linen shirt, a little pair of khaki pants and his white shoes. Caleb's diaper leaked all over his pants, so he spent most of church in his linen shirt, white shoes and a diaper. Two different people bought us a pair of khaki pants, so Mom put the clean pair on him for small group tonight. Before we left small group, Caleb again filled his diaper so much that he soaked his pants and spent part of the time in just the shirt and diaper. This is a picture of Caleb in his shirt and diaper before Mom put on his pajamas.

I guess we are going to have to work on getting his diapers on securely