patterns

recently, caleb has discovered that many fabrics have patterns. it's fun to watch his eyes be drawn to certain colors or designs. the funny part of this, though, is that he hasn't totally figured out yet the difference between 2D and 3D so if he sees a pattern he likes, he tries to pick it up. he is often very confused when this doesn't work (like when it's on his pajamas!).

sitting up

caleb can sit up! every day it seems he gets more and more confident and stable in the sitting position. it's so fun to watch him sit and play with toys... i could just stare at that picture all day long!

funny boy!

the other day i heard caleb in his crib awake from a nap. so, i went in there to get him up. as i walk in, i see him on all fours in the crib, but his head is down (usually it's up, looking for me to come get him). as i get closer i say, "hello, is there a baby boy in here who wants to get up and play with me??" he raises his head and... he has his sock in his mouth!! i ran to get the camera, but of course it was too late. so, this was the picture i got instead... still cute, you just have to picture it with a little white sock hanging from the mouth.

fake cough

caleb likes making a fake cough sound now. it started while he was really sick and i think it felt good on his sore throat. but now he's feeling better and still likes to do it a lot. it wouldn't actually fool anyone into thinking it was a real cough, but it sure is funny!

table manners

when, and how, do you teach a baby table manners? here's the issue... caleb is in love with blowing raspberries, especially when he's teething (which is now). it seems to be the most fun to blow raspberries when there is food in his mouth. you can imagine the issues this brings up. food everywhere! all over the floor, all over my clothes and glasses, all over caleb and his high chair, all over the walls, you get the picture. but i don't know how to teach him when he's still so young and doesn't understand "no". here are a few things i've tried... telling him no and then (when it continues) turning his chair around in a mini time-out. he just cranes his neck around to see me and thinks we're playing a game. i've also tried holding a paper towel up to his mouth to make him stop while saying "no". he just tries to eat the paper towel. i've read the suggestion of having the meal be over, but as we're just starting out with solids 1)he doesn't care if he gets to eat them or not and 2)i want eating to be a positive experience for him. so, any suggestions for what to do (and how to get peas off the wall and out of clothes)?

ticklish...

my baby is ticklish and it's so cute! yesterday i found out he was especially ticklish under his arms and would actually giggle when i tickled him there. i'm trying not to overuse this information because i have a hard time being tickled too much, but i have to admit his little giggles make it very tempting for me!

easter

in the midst of a hard couple of weeks with a sick baby, last sunday was a low point. i spent the day holding a crying baby and trying to avoid getting puked on. not exactly a celebration of Christ's resurrection! it made us stop and think, though, what do we want easter to be in our family? do we want a special breakfast? do we want to do easter baskets? what will we do to make that day stand out from the rest and give it the attention that it's due? we don't have any specific plans yet (and we've got about a year to decide) but it's something we'll definitely want to keep thinking/talking about. i would love any suggestions for possible traditions and celebrations!

the official diagnosis...

so, i took caleb to the doctor's office yesterday. i work hard to not be an over concerned mom, but i called them since yesterday was day 6 of him having a fever, even though it was a low one. i mostly just wanted to know if there was anything else i could do for the fever/cold/flu stuff he's been experiencing. when they called back they said they thought they should take a look at him, just to make sure there was no infection or anything. i took him in and the doctor checked him all out and gave us the diagnosis of "the viral crud". it's been going around and unfortunately, caleb's got it. bummer! the doctor also said to make sure to wash my hands a lot because he's still contagious and that usually it's been lasting 1-2 weeks for kids. i hope for caleb it's more like the 1 week time... which would mean he would be better tomorrow!! i can tell he's already getting a bit better. he's been sleeping great for naps (and better at night than he was this weekend) and is starting to have a little better attitude during his awake times. i just want him to be better and be able to breathe and eat at the same time!

hair...

caleb has hair now. i sort of miss his bald little head. one funny thing about him having hair is that now he likes to pull it! he used to scratch his head while eating and while he was sleepy. now, he still does that but then grabs onto his hair and slowly pulls on it. adorable!

redefining " tired out"

a few days ago i posted about being really tired because caleb was sick, grumpy, etc. i should have known not to speak so soon! now i truly have a deeper appreciation for what tired out actually means. caleb has a stuffy nose... a bad one! so bad that he couldn't eat and breathe at the same time, which really scared him. so he woke up every 1-2 hours last night because he was hungry... but unable to eat. we tried feeding him out of a sippy cup which helped a bit and gave him enough to at least tide him over. the other issue with his cold is that while he was sleeping it seemed like maybe he switched to trying to breathe out of his nose again and then it startled him awake when he couldn't. this resulted in him waking up crying pretty heavily and being scared of going back to sleep. i found that this continued over into this morning... he can now breathe ok so i was able to feed him, but he is really scared of being put into his crib to sleep. poor baby! as hard as it has been to not get to sleep and to listen to him cry pretty much all night, i feel so bad for him that it cancels out any feels of frustration i may have otherwise had. it also makes me so thankful for what a wonderful sleeper i usually have because i know there are some families for which nights like this are more common than not.

follow-up...

back in january i posted about a problem we were having now that caleb was in his new carseat. the problem was that he was too little to sit up in a cart and yet too big for his infant carrier. i got some good advice from people on things to try. what i ended up doing was just doing little shopping trips and taking him in his stroller. it worked great but was sort of a pain to get the stroller in and out of the car every time i wanted to shop. than a few days ago i was talking to my friend, janell, and she said they had found some stores that have restraints high enough up (like around the armpits) that they could support a baby who couldn't fully sit up yet. i tried it and, sure enough, it works! so now at most stores, caleb can sit in the cart. now i want to get one of those floppy things to protect from germs and other grossness.

peas

today we tried giving caleb peas for the first time. he seemed to like them fine... sort of an uneventful new food. except they are a pain to clean up as they like to cement themselves to anything and anyone foolish enough to get close!

tired out...

we're tired at our house. every one of us is tired. caleb's tired because he has a fever (poor baby) and his gums hurt and his tummy hurts. and all of that adds up to poor eating and sleeping... which makes him grumpy. and we're tired from caleb's being grumpy. it gets way worse in the evenings where, after his third nap, he decides that it's not ok for us to set him down or to sit down while holding him or to stay in one place. so we walk and bounce and pray for time to move more quickly so that we can put him to bed. he seems a little better today, but it's still early, so we'll see...

projectile vomit...

caleb had a bit of a hard day, but we were managing just fine and i thought it mainly had to do with his teething (he seems to be getting his top front teeth now). but this evening he was so grumpy and fussy and his tummy seemed to be bothering him. so, we got him ready for bed a little early and troy got out the tylenol. as he put it in his mouth, caleb started to cough. i thought it was just him trying to get rid of the tylenol, but when i sat him up to make sure he was ok, all of a sudden, vomit went everywhere! all over me and caleb and the chair i was in. yikes!! it smelled horrible but i was actually less disgusted than i thought i would be because i was so concerned about how caleb felt. i hope he's better now and we won't have to relive that for quite a while... if ever.

pears...

caleb loves them! and no wonder, they're GOOD! it tastes like applesauce except better because it's pears. just yesterday i started mixing it with some rice cereal, which again was a hit. i am really loving introducing new foods to caleb and watching his reactions. i think it's especially fun because his reactions are just various levels of "like it" to "love it". i am glad, however, that solids are still in sort of a "for fun" stage rather than being his main source of sustenance because i'm not ready for that responsibility!

trip to portland

this weekend, we took a trip to portland to visit our friends, bill and joy. we had a great time! we played games, ate good food, walked around costco (gotta love free samples!), had delicious "dutch tacos", and enjoyed many good conversations. caleb even got to meet their dogs, lilly and lola. he didn't like their barking, but loved when he could see them jumping outside the window. there's something so encouraging about introducing caleb to close friends and the way that they just jump in and love him.

tags

caleb is really into tags right now. like a, "hold the toy, just give me the tag" sort of phase. so, of course i pulled out his little tag blanket, thinking it would be perfect for him. the problem with it (in his mind) is that the edge is actually lined with ribbon, not tags. there are just two ribbons that feel the right size and material... they are the light blue ones and they are the only ones that caleb wants anything to do with. unless i hand him the blanket by showing him the blue tags, he doesn't even reach for it. but, give him the blue ones and it can keep him occupied for a long time... what a funny boy!

a friend for caleb

last week we had a fun visit from some friends from spokane. i got to have some fun girl/mom time with megan during naps and caleb and derek (he's about 14 months) were able to play during awake times. although their nap schedules didn't allow for a lot of time together, caleb loved whatever time he got to spend with derek. all derek had to do was make a sound and caleb would start to giggle... it was great! and derek was great about sharing toys with caleb and even tried to "read" him a book. in the car, the two boys were next to each other in car seats and caleb just couldn't get enough of looking over and seeing a friend right there! it definitely made me want to keep pursuing playdates for him.

100th post

wow... this is my 100th blog post. i remember troy kept pestering me to start a blog but i just didn't feel like i would have anything to say. plus, i knew that once i started, i would be obsessed with keeping it up to date. and look at me now...

having a baby makes me want lasik...

or at least contacts. in the last couple of weeks, caleb has discovered my glasses... and he loves them. he likes to feel them, pull them off, try to eat them, etc. even when i'm quick enough to stop him from pulling them off, he still leaves tiny little fingerprints all over the lenses. but i guess, if that's the hardest part about being a parent right now, i should be rejoicing, not complaining!

perseverance is key

the first three times that caleb ate banana, he hated it. he wouldn't eat much, he would make gagging sounds/faces, and he would start fussing after only a few attempted bites. i just sort of accepted that he wouldn't like banana and so wasn't going to buy any more of them. but then my pediatrician said to keep trying foods at this age and my friend, janell, said that her son started liking avocado where at first he didn't. so, i decided to give it another try. and it's a good thing i did!! caleb loves banana!

the problem with caleb...

is that he's always been a good sleeper. because of this, i haven't really had to work on sleep training with him. he has a 45-minute sleep cycle so he will either sleep 45 minutes or 1.5 hours. but, since that's always how it's been for him, i've never really had to teach him to go back to sleep when he wakes up. this is a problem when he only sleeps for a short time because he thinks that whenever he wakes up, it's time to get up. like yesterday, after church, he actually fell asleep in the car on the way home (which never happens) and slept for about 15 minutes. but then, when we got home and he woke up, he did NOT want to go back to sleep because, in his mind, he had already taken a nap. it took a long time to get him to go to sleep but finally he did and he slept 1.5 hours and felt a lot better afterward... if only he could understand that we really do know what's best for him!

that's the last time caleb gets to read a blog!

a few days ago, janell posted a blog about jackson eating avocado and how he likes to try and "help" janell by grabbing the spoon and feeding himself. i thought it would be fun to show caleb pictures of his friend jackson, so i let him look at it with me. BIG MISTAKE! before that blog, caleb would just hold onto his bib or his high chair or reach toward my slippers. but now, he's decided that it would be fun to help me out, too. thanks jackson and janell... we owe you, big time :)

easily distracted... or obsessively focused...

sometimes caleb is so easily distracted, mostly when eating. for example, i can only get him to nurse if it's dark in the room, he's tired, and i play quiet music so that he doesn't hear the outside sounds. and try to feed him in another house, chair, etc... forget it! or, when he's eating solids and i'm wearing my fuzzy purple slippers, he will totally ignore the food and stare at my slippers. i guess he'll be like his dad who often forgets to eat because he's working on something.
but then there are times when caleb is so focused on something that it seems nothing will distract him. like the slippers... or trying to get to his dresser to chew on the knob. no toy will take his attention away from that dresser. i thought this was the time when i could easily redirect caleb's attention to something more productive. but when he gets something in his head, it's very difficult to change his mind! again, he gets that from his daddy.

the colorful faces of caleb

i love taking eating pictures of caleb. especially since all his foods are so colorful! first i had the avocado picture and now this one... sweet potato. he wasn't sure what exactly he thought of the sweet potato at first, but after a while he definitely warmed up to them. lucky for him he gets to eat them again today! if i were a scrapbooker (and recently i have wishing that i was) i would definitely have a page devoted to eating pictures with an emphasis on all the colors caleb wears on his face.

books books books

i love reading and i knew that when i had a baby i was going to be doing a lot of reading to him... and i do. i probably read caleb at least three books every day. sometimes we get through the whole book, other times we don't, but i just think it's important that from a young age he is being exposed to books and being read to. recently, he has discovered that he loves to flip pages. specifically, he loves to close the book after every page we read. it makes the reading harder, but i love seeing his little fingers grasp the pages! also, he now very obviously recognizes faces in books. his favorite pictures are not of animals or objects, no matter how colorful, his favorites are of people.

6 months old

well, caleb is 6 months old. he doesn't actually have a half birthday because of february being so short, but since we're not big into celebrating half birthday anyway, it's fine by us. i took caleb in for his check up yesterday. he's 19lbs 3oz (88%) and 28.25in (95%). he also has a very large head (96%) which the doctor blames for him not being able to sit up :) i got the go ahead to try and work dairy back into my diet and am really hopeful that this time caleb's digestive system will be able to handle it. it's been a long time since i had any ice cream and i've missed it so much! sorbet just doesn't cut it! i'm also going to be working on doing more solids with caleb... making some brown rice porridge and trying out other veggies and fruits. i can't believe that caleb is more than 1/2 way done with his first year of life. it still feels so new to me...