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.

Does This Have Milk?

Mom was really excited to show me this picture. She was walking around the school this afternoon carrying a cup of water in her hand and Caleb in her arm. She didn't realize that he was reaching for the cup and putting his mouth on the cup. It looks like he is trying to take a drink. Mom doesn't think he has really made that connection yet, but it still makes for a cute picture.

Rollover

I will tell you just a little bit about today's pictures, then let them tell the story. Mom took this first picture in order to capture a picture of Caleb wearing these shoes. The shoes are
part of a frog outfit and I guess they are supposed to look like frogs, but I think they are kind of creepy looking. However, as Mom was putting them on this morning, Caleb was
quite fascinated with them.

After taking the picture, Mom turned away for a second and turned back around to see Caleb on his stomach. Caleb ended up nearly off the edge of the quilt. Mom didn't let him roll of the quilt because he was lifting his head as he rolled and Mom did not want him to bang his head on the tile, so she kept him on the quilt. Mom said he kept rolling over all night long.

Here's a picture of Caleb on his stomach after he rolled over and he actually looks happy about it.

Roadtrip

I'm sorry for the layoff over the weekend. The whole family spent the weekend in Jacksonville, FL so we could see some friends we made during law school and so I could go to the Miami/Florida game in Gainesville and I have not had a chance to post before now. The outcome of the game could have been better, but we had a great weekend. Below is a recap:

Friday, September 5, 2008

Before I get to details about the trip, I have to include a picture from school. Mom went to the nursery to check on Caleb and he was sitting in one of the swings. She took this picture and wanted me to include because of how much he is sitting up in the sing on his own.

I left work early to come home and get Mom and Caleb so we could head to the airport to catch a plane to Jacksonville. We were on American Eagle and ended up on a small, regional prop plane. One of the flight attendants was quite enamored with Caleb and stopped by our row frequently to flirt with him. Lately, Caleb has been reaching for anything he can get his hands on. As the crew served drinks and brought the cart by our row, Caleb reached toward the cart trying to grab something. His new girlfriend gave him a cup to play with. Caleb was fascinated with the cup. However, he doesn't understand that he can't chew on something when he has a pacifier in his mouth, but his instincts still cause him to bring whatever is in his hand to his mouth. If he can't chew on it, he gets frustrated, so it did not take that long for him to lose interest in the cup. But we were grateful for the flight attendant to give it to him. But alas, it was a short lived romance as we had to say goodbye to Caleb's new flame when the flight was over.

Our host picked us up from the airport and took us to his house. His son Bryson was already in bed, so we visited for a few minutes before the adults headed to bed. Bryson is old enough to get baths in the regular bath tub so their infant tub was in the attick. Caleb had to settle for a bath in the sink which he has not had in quite a while. After a short visit, we all went to bed to get some rest before our long day Saturday.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

While in Jacksonville, Caleb slept in Bryson's pack 'n play. He didn't go to sleep right away when we put him down because we were still up visiting. Instead, he just rolled around and kicked his legs entertaining himself in the pack 'n play. Mom picked him back up and nursed him some more. After his snack, we all went to bed so we could turn the lights out. This time, Caleb went right to sleep and slept through the night. This was quite a development since Caleb would not sleep anywhere but next to Mom on our last trip.

Our hosts have an overly friendly dog named Tanner. Tanner was quite interested in Caleb and wanted to check him out. Our hosts would not let him near Caleb when he was in the pack 'n play asleep. I think this is about as close as Tanner was allowed to get to Caleb. Since Caleb was awake, I think they both enjoyed checking each other out.

I was disappointed that Mom did not remember to bring Caleb's UM onesie, but he did show his loyalties in honor of gameday with his bib.

Before going to Gainesville, we all spent the day in St. Augustine taking a tour around the city. Caleb was quite interested in the details of our tour. However, he quickly realized that the map made no sense to him, so instead he just tried to eat the map. After lunch, the guys headed to the game and the ladies and the babies relaxed in Jacksonville.






Sunday, September 7, 2008

We had a great time, but our trip was very short. After getting back to Jacksonville from the game very late, we had a very early flight back to Miami so we could be back in time for a Sunday School class I am teaching. Caleb started out the trip in his pajamas because Mom did not want to unnecessarily wake up Caleb. We got him up put him in his car seat, took him out of the car seat, went through security, boarded the plane and took off and he slept through it all. In fact, he slept through most of the flight.

He did wake up however and Mom changed his clothes so he would be ready to go to worship. As much as I appreciated Mom putting a UM bib on Caleb on Saturday, I was a little disappointed when I discovered the day after UM lost to Florida that Mom put Caleb in an outfit with a picture of an alligator on it and a label that simply said "Gator." After worship, we went home and all three of us took really long naps because our fast-paced weekend wore us all out.