Chores

Feeding Caleb is quite the mess. His food usually ends up all over his face, chest, the tray and the high chair. We have decided to put Caleb to work and earn his keep. You can see that he enjoys
cleaning up and does so with joy.

Tonight we went to a birthday party for several people from church who had October birthdays. It was a fun night because we kind of got a break from Caleb. There was an unending stream of people who wanted to hold him, so Mom and Dad were able to enjoy the evening in relative peace. We left the party a little later than his bedtime, so he was starting to get really tired by the end of the night. He fell asleep almost as soon as we got into the car.

Book Lover

Tonight, we went to our favorite book store. This is the bookstore where we purchased the last several Harry Potter books because they do really cool events. They also host lots of author events. Tonight, they hosted an appearnce by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson to promote their new book, Science Fair. Dave Barry is a humor writer who has written numerous books and he wrote a humor column for the Miami Herald that was syndicated in papers all over the country. We enjoyed his columns even before we moved here, but since he often wrote about the humorous side of Miami, we grew to appreciate him even more. A while back, he teamed up with Pearson to write a series of Peter Pan prequels. We decided to go to the first appearance at the book store for the first Peter Pan book because we are fans of Dave Barry. Mom enjoyed the book and we have since gone back to get the next two books in the series. When we found out Barry and Pierson had another book out, we knew we had to get it.

Mom picked me up from work and we went over to the bookstore. We browsed for a few minutes and before we took our seats to wait for the event to start, Mom picked out a couple of new books for Caleb to chew, I mean read. Caleb sat in his new stroller and did very well. He was not very disruptive during the entire presentation. While waiting for the event to start, an older couple next to us started talked to Mom about Caleb. They were highly impressed at his mellow demeanor and his curiosity for all that was going on. Numerous people passed by his stroller and he watched every one. At the end of the event, we waited in line to get our copy of the book, then we took a stroll through the neighborhood so we could get some dinner. After dinner and finding a new chocolate shop near the bookstore, we called it an evening.

Mom didn't tell me why she took this picture, but I wanted to include it because Caleb is such a happy baby.

Pulling His Weight

The first picture is really just here because Caleb is so cute. The second picture demonstrates the point. When Mom gets home from work in the afternoon, she hardly has any time to do
any chores around the house because Caleb demands her attention and to be held. Mom said this was the only chance to get anything done this afteroon as Caleb slept while she folded laundry.

Striking Resemblance

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

The swing we were given by the cradle rolle teacher is a pretty fancy contraption. The seat rotates so that the baby swings side to side or front to back. The control panel resmbles the inside of an airplane cockpit with about ten swing speeds, and controls for sound effects, lights and a spinning mobile. Above the swing seat is a ball that has lights in it and there is a mobile that goes around the ball that can actually spin. This is one high functioning machine. While the swing has been a lifesaver on many occasions, most of the features have remained unused up until now. Recently, I have notice Caleb looking at the fish on the mobile while he was swinging. Today, I caught him actually reaching for one of the fish. He was able to actually grab it for a split second but was not able to hold on because of the swinging motion. I now feel that we have gotten full use and benefit of the swing.

A while back, I added the Lily Pie birthday counter to the top of the blog so that we can all keep up with Caleb's age. Mom said it didn't fit because, at the time, Caleb was not eating solid food and was not sitting in a high chair. I'm happy to report that as of tonight, Caleb now completely resembles the icon. Caleb is perfectly capable of sitting in the high chair and he wears his food as well as the icon. But the final piece was put into place as we began the green vegetables this week. We have started out with green beans and the reaction seems to be mixed. He doesn't eat as much as when we feed him rice or sweet potatoes, but he does not flat out refuse it, either. It's interesting to watch him eat something new. After having the new vegetable in his mouth for a second or two, he closes his eyes, wrinkles his nose, shakes his head and his whole body shivers. He did this with some of the orange vegetables and he eats them pretty well now, so I'm hoping that this is more of a reaction to the new flavors and textures rather than than a flat out dislike.

Hide and Seek

Not only does Mom worry about Caleb knocking his head on the tile, Caleb does not like it when he rolls onto the tile which is cold and hard. He usually ends up crying when gets off the quilt onto
the tile. Mom tried to solve that problem today by putting a larger quilt underneath his quilt. But he is rolling so much that he rolls right off the larger quilt, too. So Mom tried to put him back in the middle of the quilt. The second time he tried to roll under the couch where Mom couldn't find him. I hope that he soon figures out that crawling is a much more efficient method to get around rather than blindly rolling to one side or the other. I guess the other option is to get a pack 'n play and confine him to a small space.

At Least He Enjoys the Sweet Potatoes

Monday, October 20, 2008

I may be criticized for writing about Caleb's "stinkier" side, but that is part of the package. Onward we go.

Snippets of tonight's conversations:

6:00 P.M. Mom (on IM): Hold on...I have to go do an emergency diaper change.

9:30 P.M. Mom: I'm glad you are home. I need you to take the cloth off the bouncy seat frame so I can wash it.

10:00 P.M. Dad: So, do we
have some pictures today or do I have to go wake the baby up?
Mom: No, I took some pictures of Caleb sitting up on his own in the bouncy seat. Those are the last pictures before the accident.

We were aware that Caleb's number 2's would take on some different characteristics now that we are feeding him solid food. However, we haven't seen much difference so far, though we started to see a change this weekend. Fortunately, Caleb is well trained and does most of his number 2's during the day time so I rarely have to deal with them. I guess tonight his system finally decided to clean itself out (as usual...I was still at work...thanks, C). We have had other parents describe "explosions" to us, but hearing about it from someone else cannot really prepare you for it. Caleb had his first real explosion tonight. I don't want to get too graphic (especially since I was not here for it), so I'll just say that Mom refuses to put Caleb back into the bouncy seat until it has been thoroughly washed and we'll just leave it at that.

Unusual Laundry

We knew the amount of laundry we would be doing would increase after having a baby, but we found an interesting item in today's laundry. Mom was folding some laundry and left the empty laundry basket on the bed where Caleb was laying. Because the basket has so many little places for a little hand to grab on, Caleb was immediately drawn to the laundry basket. Mom flipped the basket over and put it over Caleb and he thought this was so funny. He was just giggling and having a good time.

Later on, he wasn't having such a good time. We were in the kitchen worken and Caleb was on his quilt. We kept looking over at him and he kept rolling off the quilt. Mom wants to keep him contained to the quilt as long as she can because she is worried that he is going to roll off the quilt and smake his head on the tile. I sat him back on the quilt and surrounded him with pillows to try and keep him hemmed in and to soften the blow if he tipped over. The pillows did their job when he plopped over, but once he was on his stomach in the midst of all the pillows, he was upset and looking for a way out. He ended up scattering the pillows and rolling off the quilt where he continued his protests.

The last couple of days, he did not nap very well which has made the evenings very challenging as he has been pretty cranky. It helps him go straight to sleep at bedtime, but it is challenging when he is obviously very tired but he won't let you rock him to sleep. Hopefully, he will get back to his normal routine and take some naps during the day now that all the grandparents are gone and its back to being just the tree of us.

Mama's Pumpkin

Saturday, October 18, 2008

One of Mom's favorite nicknames for Caleb is Pumpkin. I often hear her cooing "hey Pumpkin!" Because of this she is keeping her eye open during the fall for pumpkin outfits and paraphernalia. We can never walk into Target and get past the $1 items they sell at the front store. She recently saw a pumpkin shaped photo frame at Target and snapped it up with no hesitation. So when Mom found this jack-o-lantern shirt, it was a no-brainer that she was going to buy it for Caleb. So now he's Mom's scary little pumpkin.

Caleb is growing more and more wiggly which makes it much more difficult to change diapers and put his clothes on. This morning, while Mom was was dressing Caleb, he flipped over on his stomach on the changing pad which was a first for him. We keep a basket full of toiletry items for Caleb on the changing table next to the changing pad. These items usually sit behing Caleb, but when he flipped over, the basket was right in his face. He quickly located his brush and he was obviously quite pleased with himself.

After he was dressed, we tried to get some work done in our side yard during the cool part of the morning. Mom set Caleb in his bouncy seat in the shade while we worked pulling weeds and trying to clean up some plants that have overgrown on the side of the house. We were able to get a little bit done, but it wasn't too long before Caleb grew tired on being confined to the bouncy seat while we ignored him. He was soon crying and Mom had to take Caleb into the house. I didn't work too much longer because it was starting to get hot already, but we did get a good amount of work done.

After coming in from working, I sat down to play a game of football on the Playstation. Mom wanted to go take a shower, so she brought the bouncy seat into the leaving room so she could leave Caleb with me while she showered. To be safe, she faced the bouncy seat away from the TV so Caleb could not watch it. For good measure, we gave him an empty water bottle to keep him entertained. Our efforts were futile because it wasn't long before he figured out how he could get a glimpse of the TV. Isn't it obvoius that the kid wants to watch football with me?

Caleb finally conked out about time we were ready to head out for the afternoon. We stopped for lunch at Arbetters, a famous hot dog restaurant. Caleb slept through our lunch. We then headed out to a mall for a leisurely stroll and we ended up picking up some clothes for Caleb to wear during the holiday season. We got home just in time to rest for a few minutes before we were back out the door to meet some friends to go to Octoberfest. We enjoyed sitting under a big tent eating bratwursts and listening to a loud band playing German music and various other tunes. Caleb did fine most of the evening and I was surprised how well he did with all the sound and stimulation. By the time we left, it was obvious he was very tired. When we packed up to leave, he was asleep in his car seat before we got out of the parking lot. He only woke up long enough to get a quick bath and a small snack before going back to sleep for the night.