Home at Last

After a very short night, we were back at the New Orleans airport very early for a 6:00 A.M. flight to Miami. From landing to take off, we weren't even in the city for 12 hours. Caleb may have started to catch up on his sleep finally. He slept the entire flight and even stayed asleep as we moved through the airport to pick up our luggage.

After getting our bags, we wet outside to wait for our ride. We stood on a sidewalk between the bus/taxi lanes and the car lanes. Caleb continued to sleep through it except for the occasional bus that pulled up directly behind him. The roadway was covered and after a few minutes standing outside, the noise, heat and exhaust fumes were starting to get to me. I made a comment and Mom took Caleb back into the terminal to wait for our ride.

Once our ride arrived, we loaded up the car, got Caleb's seat strapped in tight and we took off. Since it was mid-morning, I went straight to work before our ride took Mom and Caleb home. Loading into the car stirred Caleb enough that he woke up. I was sitting in the back seat with his carrier and he and I had a good time making faces at each other. However, when we got to my office, he was starting to act up and I was able to get out of he car, so I don't really know how the rest of the ride went.

Tonight we were out and Caleb started to get restless. Mom strapped him in to the carrier and they took a walk around. I had ordered water with my dinner and when the bottle was empty, Mom carried it to the trash for me. She came back to me a few minutes later because Caleb was holding on to the water bottle and examining it pretty closey without assistance. He wasn't able to hold on to it for very long. He's doing a good job closing his hand around objects small enough to fit in his fist and he can get his fingers hooked in objects with a gap. On the other hand, he has some work to do on his two hnad grip.

Even in the midst of a stressfule experience, Caleb has the ability to keep my focus on him and impress me.

Change in Plans

Well, I should be writing from my desk at home in Miami, but unfortunately, we are stuck in New Orleans. We had a delay out of Dallas due to engine maintenance. We got into New Orleans less than half an hour after our flight was scheduled to leave for Miami, but we were too late. We are now in a hotel by the airport waiting for an early morning flight to Miami. It's frustrating to be here rather than in our own bed in our own home, but we are safe and we are together and that is all that matters.

Other than that, here is a quick rundown of our day:

After unwillingly saying our goodbyes to Poppy and TuTu, we got a mid-morning start out of Roswell and Caleb was doing pretty well. He rode in his Mom's lap and didn't protest during the flight. Instead, he slept part of the way.

When we got to Miami, Mom strapped Caleb into the bjorn carrier to move through the airport. I took this picture on my phone as we walked through the train station in the Dallas airport moving between terminals. Caleb had awakened as we landed, but was in a good mood as we walked. his is also trying to turn the head support on the carrier into a chew toy.

We had a layover as it was, but we ended up being in Dallas for a long time. One of the lessons we learned last week was that Caleb does not like being cramped for a long time. Last
week when we got to Poppy and TuTu's house, it was apparent that Caleb enjoyed stretching out. 0nce we got to our gate, we spread out a blanket and laid Caleb down so he had some room to move around. he seemed to really enjoy kicking and squirming around. I got down in the floor with him and we played with one of his toys.

When he is down on the ground in a good mood, Claeb really likes to wiggle and kick. When he started out, the blanket was completely outstretched. It did not take Caleb lon to scrunch up the blanket so that it did not take up much more space than his body. After a while, Mom picked up Caleb to feed him and then he napped in her arms.

When we finally got onto the plane, we thought we had the row to ourselves and that we would be able to stretch out. We laid Caleb in the seat between us. We hadn't been in the seats long when the flight attendants announced that the flight was full. We hoped we would have the row to ourselves, but we ended up sharing the row with another individual. We gathered our things together and Mom moved into the middle seat with Caleb next to me.

Caleb was really cranky as we taxied and took off. I rocked him to sleep but had a hard time keeping him to sleep. Either the plane would bounce or there would be a loud noise. After we got into the air, he finally fell into a sound sleep. I passed him to Mom who fed him when he started to wake up and he stayed with her until the end of the flight.

By the time we got here, I wasn't surprised that we had missed our flight, but I was still hoping they would hold it for us. They didn't and the airline sent us to this hotel near the airport. Fortunately, we had stocked up on burritos and had some for dinner because we can't find a restaurant anywhere near our hotel. After eating, Mom climbed into bed to feed Caleb and get him so sleep. Before she fell asleep, she snapped this picture of Caleb and sent it to me.

We have a really early flight tomorrow, so we have to get some rest. On the bright side, Caleb will have now spent the night in his fourth state which was not in our original plan.

Last Minute Tasks

The last day of a trip is always hectic as we try to cram a lot of stuff in including goodbyes with family, picking up gifts and grocery shopping for Mexican ingredients we can't get in Miami. Today, we went out for one last meal with Dad's family. Mom and I sat at the end of the table so we could put Caleb's car seat on the table with us. We hooked his new toy bar to the handle of the seat. That has to be one of the best toy inventions ever. Caleb loves spinning the things on the bar. During lunch he was able to reach up and hook his fingers through one of the spinners and he held onto it for quite a while.

After lunch, Dad headed out to the golf course with his cousins. Caleb headed back to the house with Mom and Poppy and TuTu. While Dad was out, Caleb got in some play time. All week long, he's been getting play time on this quilt. This quilt has a silky bottom, so it slides reall easily on the carpet. When Caleb is on his back, he flails his arms and kicks alot, so the blanket is stays neatly laid out. He always manages to get it scrunched up. He's also able to grab the blanket and pull it around him. A couple of times, he's almost wrapped himself up like a burrito.

After Dad got home from the golf course, Caleb, Mom, Dad, Poppy and TuTu went out for one last dinner together and then for ice cream. We also went to the grocery store so Dad could have some ingredients to make Mexican food back in Miami. While driving around town, Mom took this picture of Caleb. Even though it's not really a good picture because Caleb got washed out by the flash, I like it because you can still see his eyes. What really cathes me is that he does not have red eye in the picture. We have a hard time getting pictures of Caleb without red eye when he's looking directly at the camera.

We have a had a great time here at Poppy and TuTu's house. I can't believe our week has already passed. We have had a fun time and I know Poppy and TuTu have had a good time showing off Caleb. But alas, we must head back to Miami tomorrow. The Caleb Summer 2008 Tour is coming to an end, but we have a whole new set of adventures ahead as we try to get Caleb back into his crib, as the school year starts and as Caleb is on a rocket ride of learning new skills. The last three and a half months have been the most thrilling times. I can't wait to see what else is in store.

Little Cowboy

Today was a big day for us, but it started out like any other day this week. Dad and Caleb spent some time playing in the morning. We worked on Caleb's legs and spent some quality time together.

Part of the play time inclued one of Caleb's new toys. He has received several new toys this week and has played with many of them. Some of them are big boy toys which will stay here at Poppy and TuTu's for a future visit.

Caleb received a couple of small stuffed animals from a
couple at church who have been longtime family friends of Dad's family. In fact, while looking through old photo albums, we noticed that this particular couple had attended Poppy and TuTu's wedding many years ago. We gave Caleb one of the animals while he was playing this morning. Of course, the first thing to do with a new toy is to stick it in your mouth to see how it tastes. Caleb is starting to master the skill of grabbing something right in front of him and he is now mastering the motion of moving said object to the mouth.

Although we had a nice relaxing morning, we loaded up the car and in the early afternoon, we headed to Ruidoso, NM, a small town in the mountains about 70 miles west of Roswell. That distance is about an hour long drive. During the course of the drive Caleb went through happy talkative time, nap time and screaming so loud you want to pull your hair out time. (Caleb's not really that loud, but when you are crowded into a car with four other people, including Caleb, and you are stil 10-15 miles from your destination, it seems awfully loud.) Mom caught this picture of Caleb as he woke up from his nap and before he transitioned to loud time.

We went to Casa Blanca which is probably one of our favorite Mexican food places in all of New Mexico. We sat a table by a nice big bay window where we could watch it rain through the pine trees as we ate our lunch. After lunch, we strolled through some of the shops in town.

Our actual destination and purpose for the trip was to go to the Flying J Ranch. The Flying J is a western style chuchwagon dinner and show. Dad's family has been going for many years. It had been a few years since we went, so we decided to make it a part of this visit. Prior to the show, we had the opportunity to wander the grounds and enjoy the fresh mountain air. In this picture, TuTu is holding Caleb on the boardwalk next to the dining area watching all of the other tourists mill about.

After staging a old west style shootout, a cowboy dinner is served. At this point, Caleb decided to get a little cranky. I held him through dinner. Even though he was a little difficult, I was still able to enjoy the barbecue brisket, pinto beans, baked potato, biscuit, apple sauce and spice cake (with a little assistance from TuTu who buttered my biscuit and potato for me).

After the dinner, the show started which is always the highlight of the evening. Mom tried to feed Caleb after she had her dinner. Caleb was eating pretty good, but when the music started, he wanted to know what was going on. Mom and I took turns holding him, but he was mesmerized by the action on the stage. I have no idea what was going through his head, but the lights and the motion on the stage kept his attention throughout the show.

After the show, we piled into the car headed home. It took awhile, but Caleb finally fell asleep and slept most of the way home. It was a long and fun day, but I think we are all pretty tired. Everyone should be crashed pretty soon.

Weekend Warrior

We had a pretty busy day today. We got up and went to worship this morning with Poppy and TuTu. We started out in Sunday School class where this picture was taken. Mom took this picture at the beginning of class. TuTu got caught by the Sunday School teacher a little later trying to take her own picture during class. Caleb sat quietly through most of the class except for the last couple of minutes.

We went to the worship service next and Caleb slept through most of the service. He did get fussy toward the end and Poppy got to take him out of the service so everyone could see him with his grandson.

It was nice to see so many people at the worship service this morning; a lot of people who have been special to my family for a long time. Of course, most of the people wanted to see Caleb and made sure we know how much Poppy and TuTu have talked about Caleb and how much they were looking forward to this trip. Many of them also reminded methat they knew me when I was Caleb's age. So this morning was a very special time.

After worship, we went to lunch with all of Dad's family. We went to Tia Juana's which is one of our favorite Mexican food places to enjoy when we come to Roswell. We had a nice visit with our family.

I have forgotten how many flies there are in this town. We don't have them in Miami in the numbers they are here. Everywhere we go there seems to be one buzzing around, even indoors. There was one that kept buzzing around Caleb during lunch and kept landing on his head. It didn't seem to bother him unless it actually landed on his face. We must be terrible parents because Poppy kept shooing the fly away while Mom kept trying to get a picture of it. I can't criticize because I didn't discourage her and the picture might have even been my idea.

After resting for awhile this afternoon, we headed back out to the Spring River Park and Zoo. The park has been here for a very long time and I remember visiting the park when I was little and we were visiting my grandparents before we ever moved here. The main attraction for our visit was an antique carousel and a miniature train that runs around the park. The prices are antique too...each ride was a quarter per person.

We rode the carousel first. I stood next to Caleb and put him on one of the horses and Mom was on the horse next to me. Caleb seemed to enjoy the ride. He certainly didn't protest or fuss during the ride. Next we rode the train. The train was a lot smaller than I remember. this may have been the first time I've ridden the train as an adult. All in all, we had a nice ride.

After our rides, Mom asked me to take Caleb back to the car and change his diaper. I laid him down in the back of Poppy and TuTu's car. It was pretty warm today and as I changed his diaper, I could tell he was pretty tired. He just sort of laid there and stared up at me.

After changing his diaper, I took him to Mom and we strapped him into the Bjorn carrier. Normally, he faces out so he can look around and explore. Today, he was so tired that Mom faced him toward her chest and put up the support behind his head. He cried a little bit, but it did not take long for him to fall asleep. He was sound enough asleep that we were able to take a stroll through the zoo.

After our stroll, we got in the car to head for dinner. Taking him out of the Bjorn carrier and getting him strapped in to the car seat woke him up. We took this picture of him as we pulled out of the zoo. You can just see the tiredness in his eyes. We have had so much fun on the trip to Tennessee and this trip and we have some more fun things planned before we head home on Wednesday, but I know he is going to appreciate getting back to Miami and getting back into a routine.

After dinner, we came home and rested for a while, then we headed over to Great Aunt Net Net's house (Dad's maternal aunt...TuTu' sister). We had a nice visit over there. Caleb must have had a nice nap after dinner because he was pretty mellow. He only fussed if he person holding him had the nerve to try and sit down. We watched Caleb's cousin Kelton play with his Dad. Kelton is about to turn three and is a blur of energy. It's pretty educational to see what is in store for us as Caleb grows up. Caleb sat and watched the whole time. He was pretty mesmerized with the whole scene.

After taking it easy for a few days, we squeezed a lot into one day. I think we finally found Caleb's limit. He still won't sleep on his own, but he seems to be sleeping for longer periods. When we get home, we're going to have to work on that whole sleeping by himself thing.

Sleepless in Roswell

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Whether it is because he is super tired or because he is teething or just because we don't know what we are doing, Caleb won't sleep without his Mom at night. It feels like a major step back. Prior to our trip to Tennessee, Caleb had fallen into a nice pattern where he slept through most of the night in his crib on his own. For the last two and a half weeks, Caleb has spent very little time on our own.

Both in Tennessee and here in Roswell, we have had pack 'n plays set up in a bedroom separate from our room. Fortunately, those rooms also have beds in them because Mom has ended up in them at some point in the night. Last night, Mom never even made it into our bed. She tried nursing Caleb in our bed with the thought that I would move him to the pack 'n play when I came to bed. He woke up almost instantneously and Mom moved to the second bedroom with him where they spent the night. This morning, I moved in there with them and we cuddled as a family for a while. When Mom got up to get in the shower, Caleb and I stayed in the bed and dozed a while longer. I pulled the covers up around us and Mom snapped this picture.

We got up and all went to breakfast together. A while back, some of the women at the church here in Roswell threw a grandmother's shower for TuTu and she got some nice things to keep here for Caleb. One of the gifts was a toy bar to strap onto the handle of the infant carrier. The bar has several toys that spin and are designed to work on Caleb's hand eye coordination.

Earlier this week, we put the bar on the carrier, but Caleb did not seem to pay any attention to it. We tried it again this morning and we lowered the bar a little to try and get it into Caleb's field of vision. At first, Caleb did not seem to pay any attention to it, but we kept spinning the toys for him which kept getting his attention. After a while, he started to reach up on his own. He knocked the spinners by accident a couple of times which only encouraged him to keep trying harder. By the end of our meal, he was pretty excited and had essentially mastered spinning the toy with his left hand.

The parents of another set Poppy and TuTu's surrogate granchildren brought over a gift for Caleb last night. Part of the gift was three handmade wooden rattles. One of the rattles is in the shape of a fish with the wooden circles in the body of the fish. There is an opening in the body of the fish that Caleb can get his hand into so he can hold on to the fish. We've been playing with the fish today and this afternoon, Caleb was able to get a good grip on the fish and was picking it up in his hand and waving it around in the air. Caleb has some neat toyes here at Poppy and TuTu's and we've all had a good time playing with them.

Goin' Parkin'

Tonight Caleb got to meet some more of Dad's family. Mom, Dad, Caleb, Poppy and TuTu went to dinner to meet Dad's uncle, cousin and Caleb's cousin Kelton. As always, Caleb was a big hit. People just enjoy seeing and holding a small baby. It is so fun to watch people play with Caleb because he is such a sweet boy.

The rest of the day was pretty routine. This afternoon, Mom and Dad took a walk so Caleb could get some fresh air. We wandered down to a park near Poppy and TuTu's house. We found a nice, shady spot to lay down, but we didn't bring a blanket, so I put my shirt down for Caleb. Mom was unsure of this arrangement, but I was able to finally convice her that we don't have chiggers in New Mexico.

We also spent some time in the swing. When I first put Caleb into the swing, he protested, but as soon as I had him situated and got him swinging, he calmed down and actually enjoyed it. Again, as I put him in the swing, Mom stood to the side fretting. This is going to be our pattern. Dad is going to be much more adventurous encouraging Caleb to take some risks while Mom stands nearby chewing her finger nails and peeking between her fingers.

We had a good time at the park. However, the sun is very bright in New Mexico. We covered Caleb with his burp cloth to keep the sun out of his eyes on the walk back to Poppy and TuTu's house.

The Real Thing

We had a pretty quiet day today. We went our for breakfast then returned home to relax at the house. We all got back out in the afternoon to go pick up TuTu from a meeting and took a quick drive around town. Other than those
trips, we just hung out today playing with Caleb. To cap off the day, we went back out to dinner with Poppy and TuTu's friends, Kali and Riley and their parents.

Kali and Riley's family worship with Poppy and TuTu and are two of Poppy and TuTu's many surrogate grandchildren. Prior to the announcement of Caleb's impending arrival, Poppy and TuTu were close to giving up hope that they would have grandchildren of their own. So in recent years, Poppy and TuTu had "adopted" some of the young children from church and befriended their parents. These children and their parents have become special friends of Poppy and TuTu. Even though their own children are special to Poppy and TuTu, these friends were thrilled for Poppy and TuTu to have a grandson of their own.

Kali and Riley's family are going out of town in a few days and they wanted to make sure they got to see Caleb, so we headed down to Hagerman, a small town south of Roswell, for dinner. We had a nice time and enjoyed our dinner. Kali and Riley are cute and entertained us and they also got a kick out of Caleb. Last night at church, they both crowded around me and enjoyed trying to play with him. They were the same way tonight. I enjoy watching other little kids with Caleb.

We've been here a little over 24 hours now. Caleb has been especially cranky last night and today. We have been attributing that to tiredness, but we are starting to attribute to something else. Babies teeth between four months and seven months, but Mom suspects that Caleb might be teething early. He has been drooling a lot in recent days and weeks and his sucking has become more and more chewing. As quickly as he has developed the ability to grab and hold onto things, he was just as quickly developed the reflex of taking things up to his mouth. Putting that all together seems to indicate that he just may be teething already. So we'll continue to monitor the situation and hope that he doesn't get any crankier.

Houston, We Have a Problem

We made it. 3 planes, 3 states, 2 time zones, 1 missing suitcase and 2 excited grandparents later and we are in New Mexico. The second half of the Caleb 2008 Summer Tour has begun.

We started bright and early (actually, it wasn't so bright, it was dark when we left the house) and headed to Miami International Airport to begin our trip west. The differences between the Fort Lauderdale airport and MIA are so stark. It's amazing to me that at 6:00 A.M., MIA was busier than many airports during midday and we had to stand in line for a really long time to get Caleb's boarding pass and get through security.

Our flight out of Miami was over an hour late taking off
(and we were on the plane for that time). We had taxied out to the runway and the pilot came of the intercom and said we were headed back to the gate. It turns out we needed more fuel. That's the
second time in less than a year I've been on a flight that was delayed because it didn't have enough fuel on it. I guess I'm glad they figured it out both times before the planes got in the air.

Caleb did pretty well on the first flight from Miami to Houston. It was not a full flight, so we were able to get a seat between us and Caleb slept on the middle seat most of the flight. However, our planes got progressively smaller with each successive flight. The flight from Houston to Dallas was a full flight and we were crammed into a row with a stranger. The flight was so full and crowded that I guess they didn't have room to put my suitcase on the plane. At the end of the flight to Dallas, Caleb got pretty cranky while we waited to get off the plane. For some reason, people were very slow in getting off the plane. Caleb was fussy on the flight from Dallas to Roswell and we passed him back and forth several times. Fortunately, no one on the plane threw rocks at us. Once we got on the ground in Roswell, he went right to sleep.

Although Caleb was asleep, all was not right with the world. My bag did not get off the plane with us. We talked to the gate agent in Roswell and she said it should come in on the last flight of the day and they would send it to us. When it didn't show up by time we were told it should show up, Mom called to check on it. That's when she found out that it did not make it out of Houston (supposedly). As of this writing, we're still waiting on it's arrival.

The bag was full of my clothes, thought that's not really the problem even though I would like to put on some fresh clothes. The big problem is that the base for Caleb's car seat was also in that bag. I can go with clothes. Caleb's car seat it a little more crucial. We told the airline and they gave us a loaner. Caleb is still in an infant seat and they gave us a multi-use car seat for bigger children. It took me quite a while to figure out how to get the thing installed. Once we got Caleb strapped in, he was swallowed up by the enormous seat. The seat also sits straight up and Caleb was sleeping, so Mom had to hold his head up the whole way to Poppy and TuTu's house. We got this picture a little later in the day when Caleb was awake and alert enough to support his own head.

Shortly after arriving at Poppy and TuTu's house, Caleb got his weekly bath. We went out to dinner for some good Mexican food and then headed to church where Poppy and TuTu enjoyed showing Caleb off for the first time. We saw several special friends who have been looking forward to seeing Caleb for a long time. Just like in Tennessee, I'm sure this was just the warm up for the big show Sunday.

Our time here today was short, but eventful and after such a long day, everyone headed to bed early. We need our rest for another fun filled week on the summer tour.

Repeat

Tuesay, July 15, 2008

The theme of this post is probably going to seem repetitive, monotonous and like a bit of deja vu. That's because it is. I try to be imaginitive, but I'm limited by my source material and Caleb just hasn't given me much else to write about.

Tonight, prior to our bible study, we went to eat at a Chinese place near the Starbucks where our bible study is located. I met Mom and Caleb there after work. Generally, Caleb has done well and allowed us to continue to enjoy eating out.
However, he was exceptionally good tonight. When I got to the restaurant, he was in a good mood. I played with him for a while and he sat in my lap while I ate my egg drop soup. Before the entrees came, Caleb went back in the car seat. He sat there quietly through our whole meal and entertained himself. Before I arrive at the restaurant, Mom said Caleb was fascinated with his rattle socks and was trying to reach out and grab one of them. Unfortunately, he didn't figure out he had to somehow make his foot and hand work together at the same time.

Toward the end of the meal, I put Caleb back in my lap. Our waitress brought us three fortune cookies, so of course I gave one to Caleb since it is bad luck to open someone else's fortune. Caleb immediately took it and began to examine it and squeeze it. He actually cracked it open, so we were able to retrieve the fortune. (I don't remember what it said).

I also gave Caleb the fortune, but Mom was worried it would go in his mouth. At one point he crumpled it in his fist and it could not be seen. Mom got really worried, but I knew where it was the whole time.

By this time tomorrow, we'll be in New Mexico having all manner of adventures and hopefully I'll be blogging each day if I can remember all of the equipment. I hope the change of scenery will give me something else to write about.