Plastic Man

I am amazed by how flexible Caleb is in the hips and how strong his abdominal muscles must be getting. He wore these little tennis shoes today. They were hard to get on, so Mom left them on until bedtime. At some point during the day, Caleb realized he had these shoes on and became fascinated with them. He enjoyed playing with them because he was able to grab the laces and untie the shoes. Of course, he wasn't completely satisfied because he couldn't get the shoes into his mouth which is his goal with any object within in his reach.

In fact, he will go to great lengths to get something into his his mouth. We have noticed in the last few days that Caleb is trying to sit up. When he is on his back, he can hold his head up and can even get his shoulders off the ground. Tonight, he was in his bouncy seat playing. Mom had given him one of his rattles and he dropped it at his feet. We were shocked when he leaned comepletely forward in an effort to get the rattle back into his mouth. He picked himself up on his own and ended up completely doubled over. All he has to learn now is how to sit upright so that he doesn't end up with his face in the ground.

Opposite Day

When I came home tonight, Mom was busy getting dinner ready and Caleb was nearby in his bouncy seat. When I got to where I could look at him, he was busy chewing on his pacifier, but rather than sucking on the nipple like a normal baby, Caleb had it turned around and was chewing on the ring. I tried to say hi to him and get him to acknowledge me with a grin, but he was far too interested in the pacifier to pay me any attention.

After dinner, I took Caleb into the nursery to change his diaper. He has been drooling excessively lately and so his the front of whatever he is wearing gets soaking wet. Since it was pretty close to
bath and bed time, I didn't bother putting any clothes on him.

We took him into the living room laid him on the quilt to play. Mom gave him his crocodile rattle, but in honor of the Miami/Florida game next week, we're calling it a Gator this week. Mom protested because it is obvious the rattle is supposed to be a crocodile, but sports passion trumped scientfic accuracy this time.

Caleb has started grasping this rattle like a little dumbbell and he can get a pretty good grip on it. Mom said he is starting to get good control of it. I asked her what she meant, and she said he can hold it out in front of him without dropping it. Shortly after saying that, Caleb jerked his hand toward his face and knocked himself silly with the rattle. He looked stunned for a second then when about his business. I told Mom the better description is that he is getting stronger, not better control.

BONUS PICTURE: Not much to say, just another cute bath picture.

Are You Ready For Some Football!?!?!

Tonight was the University of Miami's first game of the season and first game in Dolphin Stadium. The University is trying to create more atmosphere at the games and they are encouraging everyone to wear orange to all home games. In the spirit of the new season, Mom had Caleb decked out showing off his colors today.

We got a minor scare from Caleb last night. When I picked Caleb up from the cradle roll class, they mentioned that Caleb's foot was swolen and that Mom had called the doctor. The doctor told Mom to draw a line around the swelling so we could monitor whether it grew worse. You can see the ink on his foot. We looked at his foot together and I saw a very small bump that made us wonder if Caleb had been bitten by something.

This morning, the swelling had gone up a little, so Mom called Dr. K and she had Mom bring Caleb in. She checked him and she thought it was just a bug bite. She didn't prescribe anything, so Mom took Caleb back to school. The swelling is down tonight, so we are not concerned anymore. Dr. K did warn us that this might be an indication that Caleb is allergic to bug bites, so we'll have to pay close attention to him.

He's Global Now

Nanny is not keeping Caleb by himself. In addition to Mom, another teacher at school had a baby over the summer named Marissa. Nanny is keeping Marissa in the mornings while the other teacher works part time this school year, then she has just Caleb in the afternoon. A couple of days ago, Mom realized that Nanny was taking them outside and she was pushing Marissa in her stroller and carrying Caleb. Caleb is bigger and heavier than Marissa (even though she's only a couple of months younger, she really is tiny), so Mom took Caleb's stroller to school today to make it easier for Nanny. She can push Caleb and carry Marissa who is much lighter.

Dad had a pretty busy day today. I had a meeting after work that made me miss bible class last night, but I had a meeting at the church building scheduled after bible class. I was worried I wasn't going to see Caleb at all yesterday. Fortunately, my first meeting got out early and I was able to get to the church building about 15 minutes before classes were over. So when I got to the building, I went to get Caleb out of the cradle roll class. This is the chair he sits in right now and the teacher hands him things to hold and chew on and he sits and watches her. When I got there, I expected to just hang out with him, but when I took him out of the seat, we realized he had filled his diaper, so I had to change him first. But then I got to spend a few minutes with him before Mom took him home and I went to my meeting.

In each of these pictures, you'll notice Caleb is wearing some little green booties. I have some friends from my days in Gainesville who are now serving in the Peace Corps. They are in China teaching English at a Chinese school. Earlier this year, I helped arrange for our group at church to send some English books over to China so their students could have a library to practice their English skills. They recently sent us a nice little thank you package with several Chinese products. They sent us these knit booties for Caleb. We are so grateful for friends worldwide who love us and love Caleb even though they have only ever seen pictures of him.

Adjustments

Mom and Caleb wrapped up the first week of school today (today being the fifth day of school thanks to Tropical Storm Fay...the first full week of school is this week). The first week of school required an adjustment on Caleb's behalf which he seemed to handle quite well. Of course, being a baby, just about everything in life is an adjustment for Caleb and he just keeps rolling with the punches because he doesn't know any better. I'm sure there will come a time when he doesn't take changes to routines too well, but for now, he handles them just fine.

Anyway, Caleb had a different for the first week of school. Miss J decided she needed to earn a little more and got a different job. Fortunately, Mom had someone in mind who could easily step in and take over. Mom asked the new sitter what she would want Caleb to call her and she said Nanny. So Nanny has been keeping Caleb these first days of school. By all accounts she adores Caleb and enjoys being with him. As far as Mom is concerned, she is adjusting to being away from Caleb for several hours at a time, but I know that the best part of her day is when she goes in to the nursery to feed Caleb and he gives her a big grin.

Sleepy Boy

For the first time since we started sleep training at the end of July, Caleb did not sleep through the night last night. He woke up in the middle of the night quite unhappy and cried for quite some time. Mom went into the nursery every few minutes to try and soothe him, but he did not go back to sleep for quite some time.

Being up part of the night makes for a very sleepy baby. Mom had intended to run some errands in the afternoon but did not do any of them because Caleb fell asleep in the afternoon. That meant that we all had to go out to the grocery store after dinner. When I got home from work, Mom and Caleb were waiting out front for me with a nice, warm greeting. Mom took my things and I took Caleb. I played with Caleb while we finished dinner and made a grocery list. But once we got into the car to head to the grocery store, Caleb fell asleep in his car seat.

Caleb has pretty much outgrown the Boppy sling and now rides exclusively in the Bjorn carrier. For the longest time, the Boppy sling was the preferred method of transport while at the grocery because it allowed Caleb to sleep while we shopped. Now that he rides in the Bjorn carrier, it's harder for him to fall asleep even though he is pretty cozy in there. He does sleep in there, just not as often.

Unfortunately, tonight, he woke up from his nap when Mom moved him from the car seat to the carrier. While we shopped, it was obvious he wanted to go back to sleep, but there was too much catching his eye. It was almost bath time when we got home from the grocery store. He went down pretty easily tonight and I'm pretty sure he was quite relieved to do so.

Que Lindo

Que Lindo. That's Caleb's new Spanish nickname. It means "how cute." Several Spanish members at church come up to him and say that. It took a while to understnd what they were saying, so we finally asked someone and he exlained what it means. Ever since then, we've been able to overhear total strangers say it as they pass by and glance at Caleb. He still gets a lot of attention and may people will use the phrase as they pass by. Today, we were out to lunch with some good friends from church and one them had a visitor and she also said "que lindo" when she was talking to Caleb. So we decided that that just might have to be his new nickname.

This afternoon, after Mom and Caleb took a long nap, we took a drive around town before heading to the church building for a worship service and fellowship meal. One of our stops was at Baptist Hospital where Caleb was born. The hospital has a duck pond in front of the building and I like to head over there whenever we have old bread to feed the ducks and the Ibis. So we stopped by today. The birds are very used to people and will crowd around my very tightly in large numbers. So Mom and Caleb stayed on a bench away from all the commotion. After all of my bread was gone, a couple of birds wandered over to Mom and Caleb to see if they had anything to offer. Caleb was watching those birds very intently.

After we returned home from church this evening, I had the opportunity to change Caleb's diaper. Since it was close to bath time, I didn't put any clothes back on him. It was close to bath time, so Mom considered an early bath, but he was pretty wired up, so Mom decided to spend a few minutes playing with him before the bedtime routine. We brought a quilt into the living room for him to lay on as well as one of his rattles. This quilt is part of the decorations in the nursery. Since you aren't supposed to put babies in a
crib with any kind of blanket, it seems rather frivolous. So we started using it tonight as a floor quilt. Caleb had a fun time rolling around on the ground wrestling with his crocodile
rattle before getting a bath and finally going to bed.