A chronicle of the first year of Caleb's life. Share with me the ups, the downs, the joys and the sorrows of this new adventure called fatherhood.

Lilypie 1st Birthday Ticker

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Hiatus

The blog will be going on a short break while Dad travels to Texas to see Miami play Texas A&M and Mom takes Caleb to Tennessee to see Whatshername and Granddaddy. Look for a full report on Caleb's trip to Tennessee sometime on Monday.

Until then, Go Canes!

More of the Same

Here's another picture of Caleb sitting in his bouncy seat as happy as can be. This picture wasn't taken long before I got home this evening. When I got home, Caleb was finishing up his dinner and was in a really good mood. The three of us played together for a few minutes and had a lot fun before we went out separate ways. Mom headed out to a board meeting and Caleb and I headed out to a restaurant to meet some of our friends for a birthday dinner. Caleb fell asleep in the car on the way to the restaurant, but did not stay asleep for long. He was awake during dinner, so I strapped one of the toys to the handle of the car seat. He seemed pretty content to play and entertain himself while I ate. Mom eventually joined us had dinner. By the time we got home, Caleb skipped his bath and went straight to bed. He is such a good baby and he is so easy on us. He rolls with the punches about as well as anybody can which gives us a lot of freedom to enjoy spending time with our friends. I've heard horror stories of people who never get to go out becuase their babies are so demanding of attention. We are blessed by Caleb in so many ways and this is just one of the many ways our lives have been enriched. We have the joy of being parents and in many ways we still get to enjoy life much the way we did before.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Survived Again

Caleb and I survived another Wednesday afternoon together. Here is how our routine pretty much goes. I leave work early so that I can get home and Mom can head to class. We almost
literally pass each other in the doorway and handoff Caleb as I am on the way in the house and Mom is on her way out of the house. Mom will have just fed Caleb, so he might be playful for a few minutes, but he will usually be ready for a nap. Once he's ready, I put him in the swing and he'll sleep between one and one and a half hours. Once he wakes up, I eat dinner, try to give him a bottle and then we head over to the church building. We make some rounds to say hello and then I drop Caleb off in the cradle roll class before going to my own class. Once class is over, I go get Caleb and we hang out until Mom shows up so e can do another handoff and Mom brings Caleb home and puts him to bed while I go to a meeting at church.

Tonight was off just a little bit. When I got home from work, Caleb was playing on the quilt and was wide awake. Mom said he even cried when she tried to put him in the swing after feeding him, so she put him back down to play. She took the first picture after he had rolled over and was trying to grab anything nearby. He likes to play with his pacifier and chew on it. If you look closely, you'll notice the nipple is facing away from Caleb. I took the second picture after Mom left. I put Caleb back on the quilt and pulled up a chair behind him. He looked cute straining to look at me, so I had to take a picture.

He started his nap a little later than usual and slept right up until it was time to go to the church building. I tried to feed him in the nursery before our classes started, but he doesn't seem to want to take the bottle from me. We'll have to keep working on that. Other than that, he is a really good boy and I enjoy our alone time on these afternoons.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Break Time

We've been fortunate to capture some really nice pictures of Caleb the last few days, so I was really interested to see today's picture when I got home and Mom told me she had taken a really cute picture of Caleb. When I saw this, I had to agree that this was a pretty cute picture. I guess even little baby boys have to stop every now and then, lay their heads down and take a break from all the playing.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Learning to Sit

Mom loves to catch Caleb trying to sit up. He can't keep himself up on his own right now, but if he is strapped down and has something to hold on to, he can pull hiself up pretty far. The bouncy seat can go from more of a reclining position to a sitting position. Mom has moved it to the sitting position to try and encourage Caleb to sit up on his own.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Big Boy Chair

Caleb's cradle roll teacher moved him from the bouncy seat to one of the upright chairs in class this morning. Mom came to our bible class after leaving Caleb in his class and she was a mixture of sad and excited. She said our boy was a big boy and he was in one of the big boy chairs in the cradle roll class. She also lamented how quickly he is growing. We're going to have to put a dictionary on that boy's head or something.

He didn't make it all the way through class, though. He go tired of sitting there, so one of the cradle roll assistants held him for part of class. When he was in the chair, he sat between to older children who are about two years old and he was a big hit with him. The little boy on his right kept kissing his forehead and the little girl on his right kept patting his head. Right now, he is the youngest baby in there, but that won't last for long because several others have been born since him. But that makes me glad because he should have a nice, full Sunday School class.

He's Got Skillz!

Today was the first full fledged college football Saturday that I've been able to enjoy from the comfort of my own home. As you can see from this first picture, Caleb was overwhelmed by the excitement and channeled his energy into this nap in which he was dead to the world.

When he did finally wake up, we enjoyed hanging out and working on Caleb's football skills. Back in July when we went to the first UM football practice of the year, one of the sponsors was giving away miniature nerf footballs which can be seen in the picture from that day. In honor of college football season, we gave him the football to play with. As with everything else, it was usually in or near his mouth, but did take the occasional break from chewing on the football to show off his mad football skills. He's got solid hands and he only fumbled a few times. We had a fun afternoon, but I'm looking forward to the day when he and I can wathch football together and I have the opportunity to teach about the game in some father/son bonding time.