Buddies

In a rare (only?) appearance on the blog of someone other than Caleb, here is a picture of Caleb and Marissa riding in their double stroller. Since they spend so much time together, I guess I can make an exception.

Riding in Style

I have previously mentioned that Nanny is keeping Caleb and another baby, Marissa, during the morning. If she wanted to take the kids outside the nursery, she had to push one in a stroller and carry the other. Marissa's mom went out and got a two seat stroller so that Nanny doesn't have to carry one of the babies. Caleb got his first ride in the two seater today.

Today was a big day for Mom as she resumed classes for her Master's degree program. For the next few weeks, she'll be in class on Wednesday nights. For her to take class, I've got to leave work a little early so I can get hom to take car of Caleb. After I got home, he slept for a little while in his swing.

After he woke up, I loaded up Caleb, the diaper bag and my things for church and headed out to grab some dinner. Caleb sat in his car seat while I ate dinner. I gave him a teething ring to play with, but he was half out of it and didn't show much interest in it. After I got my order, I dropped my bottle of water struggling with the car seat, the diaper bag and a tray of food. I also had a hard time getting into the church building with everything. I have a new appreciation for Mom for doing this every day.

Mom's class got out before bible class was over, so she headed over to the church building to get Caleb so I could attend a meeting after class. After visiting for a few minutes, Mom took Caleb home to get him to bed. When she got to the house, she found him playing with the strap that we use to tighten his shoulder belts. Frankly, I'm amazed it took him this long to discover that strap because it sits at his feet every time he's in the car seat.

Catching Up

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Yesterday, we got some rain out of the far western edges of Tropical Storm/Hurricane Hanna. This past Sunday, we had some really heavy rain and breezes out of the eastern side of Hurricane Gustav as it moved around the Keys into the Gulf of Mexico. As I write, two more storms are lining up behind Hanna potentially taking aim at South Florida. It could be a really busy September.

The whole time we've lived in Miami, I am struck by just how far a way the effects of a tropical storm system can be felt and now that we have Caleb, I am struck by how similar a baby is to a tropical system, at least with regard to how far out the effects of a particular action can be felt.

As you may recall, we went out with friends on Sunday night and were out past Caleb's bedtime. We figured it would be OK since we could sleep in on Labor Day. Caleb did remarkably well and did not fuss much and seemed to be in a pretty good mood. Even though we did sleep in a little yesterday, the late night apparently started to catch up with him tonight.

We were out with our usual Tuesday night group having coffee. He slept on the way to Starbucks and only woke up when we set his carrier down. As we visited,it was well before his bed time but Caleb started to get cranky and was obviously tired. Once we finally loaded up and came home, he went right back to sleep in his carrier. When we got him home, we debated whether to give him a bath or just let him sleep. In the end, we decided he would wake anyway as we changed his clothes and he would end up awake in the middle of the night hungry if he did not get his bedtime snack. So after bathing and eating, Mom laid him down and he was out almost immediately.

Chik-Fil-A Rocks!

I was washing dishes this morning and I got a little cut on my thumb when I was washing a vase that has a chip in it. Mom put a bandaid on my thumb and I put some pressure on it to try and make is stop bleeding. Putting pressure on it actually made the blood stain on the bandaid get bigger. I wasn't sure how deep the cut was nor how much it was actually bleeding so I drew a circle around the stain to see if it was growing. Throught this weekend, Caleb has laughed whenever I loosely cover his face with my hand. I had him this morning and I was playing the game with him. I covered his face with my hand. I pulled my hand away and saw a blue circle on his cheek which had apparently transferred from my thumb to his cheek.

Our main activity to the day was lunch at Chik-Fil-A at the mall. Chik-Fil-A had a promotion today for college football. Everyone who showed up in football themed apparel would receive free chicken strips. As a family, we all got on our Miami clothes and headed out for a cheap lunch. After lunch, Caleb and I were sitting together and Mom was able to take a picture of us showing off our loyalty.

Mom also needed to do some shoe shopping while at the mall. As we were leaving the mall, Mom decided she wanted to cary Caleb. When she picked him up, Mom discovered that Caleb had had an incident with an overflowing diaper. Earlier this week, I had used the additional onesie in the diaper bag, so we ddn't have a change of clothes for Caleb. Instead, the poor boy had to ride home in just his diaper. As you can see it bothered him tremendously.

We got Caleb cleaned up and headed out to a barbecue where we enjoyed some good food, some nice fellowship with folks from church and Mom and Caleb got to go for a swim.

We had a fun day today and hope everyone had a nice Labor Day. It seems appropriate that today is Labor Day since Caleb was born five months today.

Cosmopolitan

Tonight, our life group from church decided to go out for some fun and chance to hang out together. We started the night at a bowling alley on South Beach called Lucky Strike. After bowling a few games, we headed to a German Restaurant on Lincoln Road. While we were at dinner, Caleb played with his toy bar. His arms are getting a little longer and he is getting stronger. He reached up with both hands and solidly grabbed the toy bar and started pulling himself up as if the bar is chin up bar. Now we have to keep an eye out for Caleb pulling the bar down and smacking himself in the face.

We ended our night at an ice cream parlor called Frieze. Caleb ended up being the center of attention as we all stood in a circle around his stroller eating our ice cream before breaking for the night and heading our separate ways. Caleb seemed to enjoy the atmosphere.

Tonight was an interesting experiment for us. Although we are working hard to keep Caleb on a schedule, we have always acknowledged that our lives will not always be conducive to the schedule on a particular night. Since tomorrow is Labor Day and a day off for both of us, we decided to do an experiment and see how Caleb handles being out past his bedtime. We were pleased with how he responded. He was obviously tired by the end of the night and quickly fell asleep once we were in the car, but he did not get overly cranky and he did not have a meltdown or tantrum. So we learned that, at least for now, we have a little freedom to enjoy our time out with our friends.