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.