real meals

for the past week or so, i've really started to feel like i'm giving caleb real meals. he's eating three meals a day, plus a snack. for breakfast, he has oatmeal mixed with a fruit (usually pear or apple). for lunch, he has rice cereal mixed with something (usually sweet potato or avocado) and he has some juice. then, at snack time, i give him a little fruit (usually banana), some peach puffs, and some more juice. and finally, for dinner, he eats veggies and protein (usually peas or carrots and some egg yolk). it's fun to think about meals for him, although it makes going places a bit harder.

little tongue

yesterday, caleb learned how to stick his tongue out. i know many babies do that from much earlier on but i guess caleb is just a late bloomer in this department. the way it started yesterday was him doing his little fake cough, which involves sticking his tongue out a bit. but then he didn't cough. and then he did it again. and again. and again. it still takes quite a bit of concentration, but now he can get that little tongue to peek out of the corner of his mouth whenever he's in the mood.

adorable sleeper

the naps go in our home is that i usually feed caleb and then lay him down for a nap. then he plays and fusses for a few minutes and then goes to sleep. then i sneak in and cover him up so he doesn't get too cold. well, this morning when i went in there, he was sleeping on his side and, in his hands, he was clutching his little doggie-lambie. ADORABLE! i tried to go back in later and take a picture, but i wasn't tall enough to get a good angle over the crib bars. so i guess you'll just have to picture it!

my baby can sit!

caleb has been sitting up for a while now but only when i would put him in that position. and then there were a few times where he would end up sitting up but always looked so surprised with himself, like he had no idea how he'd gotten there. but not anymore. my baby can sit! from all fours he can almost always get himself into a sitting position. and he's even figured out where to be in relation to a toy so that he can reach it while sitting. he's still not all the graceful when it comes time to get back onto all fours, but he's working on it.

crawling...

i think it's official... caleb can crawl. at first it was an accidental scoot now and then. next it was the adorable little worm crawl. but not it's a full-on crawl. it still takes a lot of motivation, concentration, time, and effort on his part, but my little monster can crawl. it's pretty cute to watch him spot a different toy across the room and start heading toward it. and when he's upset, he likes to crawl back to me and climb onto me. i've heard this is a really tiring and busy time and i totally believe... but right now i'm still just thinking it's adorable!!

teeth...

it's fun to see caleb's smile filling up with teeth. he has 5 and a half right now (one is partly through) and while it was strange to see them in there at first, i'm now loving the toothy grin he has. one thing i wasn't expecting about teeth, though, is the sounds he makes with them. he's figured out how to grind his teeth. i'm not exactly sure how he does that without any molars, but he does. and the sounds sends shivers down my spine! i hope he forgets how to do that... and soon!

crying it out...

so, here's my philosophy when it comes to crying it out... i've always been ok with the idea but just sort of felt like we weren't going to do it because i couldn't handle it, and, after all, there are other ways. plus there's a lot of talk going around nowadays that if you do that, your kid will not trust that you'll come when he needs you. so, we were trying other things for getting caleb to sleep for naps and bedtime. and they worked ok, but not great. and when he would test me, i would cave.
well, that changed last week. it all started friday when caleb did not want to go down for his second nap. and he'd been testing me all week and i was tired and did not want to fight him. so i just left him in his crib. and walked out. since mom was there, i cried on her shoulder a bit and then she reminded me that i wasn't ruining my son. and that he still knew i loved him. and that crying is just the only way he has of telling me he doesn't like something but it doesn't mean he hates me or is in pain (well, it could, but that sounds A LOT different than the "i don't want to sleep" cry). so we decided to have lunch and then i was going to go back in there and try again to get him to sleep. i just needed a break. but by the time i was part way through my bagel, he had stopped crying and was fast asleep.
i thought, "this is too good to be true" so i decided to try it again when he wouldn't go to sleep easily. and it worked again... and again... and again. so now, i just get him ready for his nap and i lay him in his crib and leave. and he goes to sleep. sometimes it's fast... like 30 seconds. sometimes it's forever... like 10 minutes. but he goes to sleep. and the best parts are that i feel less frustrated with him and he sleeps better.
i know there will be times where this won't work and everything is always changing, blah blah blah. but please just let me enjoy this for a while!

visit from nana

my mom was just here for a visit. we had a great time just living life. i love that with family there isn't this pressure to go out and "do" things (especially since it snowed and hailed!). we got to bring her to church with us, go out to tea, play games, rent a movie, and just spend time with caleb. it was great to have a second pair of hands around throughout the day and someone to remind me just how precious of a boy i have. also through her eyes i was able to notice even more that caleb was learning.

chopsticks...

caleb is so funny! this past week i gave him gerber peach puffs for the first time. he liked them ok when i put them in his mouth but he could not figure out how to do it on his own. which is strange since it seems to me that he puts a lot in his mouth. but not these! he thought the right way to pick them up was by making chopsticks with his two pointer fingers. if that didn't work (which it never did) and he somehow got the puff in his hand, he would shake his hand until it fell out. we had a great time watching him, but i'm sure he burned more calories than he ate... so much for a little snack!

caleb's dedication

my friend, amy, reminded me that i hadn't blogged yet about caleb's dedication. so, here it is...

at the beginning of march, we dedicated caleb at church. it was a little strange since we just switched churches in january so this church was still new. and also we didn't know anyone there so it didn't feel quite a special as i thought it would. but, it was still really nice. we talked to the gal next to us and she took pictures for us... she even ran up to the front row to take pictures up close! and we chose a verse for caleb and read it to share with him and the congregation. the verse we picked was hebrews 10:23, "let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful." this is what we pray for caleb, that he would know that what God promises He will do.

a love-hate relationship

that's what i have right now with fuzzy bunz, the cloth diapers we use with caleb.
things i love: doing something good for the environment, the fun colors, how easy they are to clean, that caleb never gets diaper rash, not having to buy diapers all the time.
things i hate: caleb leaking through them every single night for the past week... at about 5-5:30 in morning... and then not going back to sleep once we change his diaper and clothes.

i don't get it

caleb used to be hard to put to sleep and then we worked and worked and it got better. and then it got easy... maybe too easy. and now it's gotten really hard again. he just cries and cries and won't calm down. i don't understand why he goes through such phases... and i want this one to be OVER! i need his nap times, and when they don't happen when they should it only makes us both grumpy.

he's got the whole world...

when i was pregnant with caleb i bought a pilates ball. i used it a lot after my appendectomy and while pregnant because it made my back feel a lot better. it was also great for bouncing caleb to sleep on hard nights during that first few weeks. and now it's found a whole new place in our home. caleb likes to play with it. he lays on his back and i hold it over him and he bounces it with his hands and feet. it's so funny to see him with something so big and so every time he plays with it, i can't help but sing "He's got the whole world in His hands".

caleb's eyes

yes, i may be a bit biased, but i think caleb's eyes are the most beautiful eyes i've ever seen. i've learned a lot about eyes since having a baby because this is the first time i've just relentlessly studied another person's eyes. there's something amazing about how a baby can just stare back without any embarrassment. i've learned that eyes can be more than one color at the same time. they have (or can have) this different ring right around the pupil. troy's eyes are light blue and right around the pupil they are also light blue (although the blue is a different pattern or texture, if that makes any sense). my eyes, however, are two different colors. a light green with a light brown ring inside. caleb's eyes are a dark blue with a light brown around the pupil. i love the contrast between the blue and the brown. i'm really hoping that they don't change.

new trick

after caleb's first nap of the day, i went in to get him up. usually he's on all fours looking up over the bumper, just waiting for me to come in. sometimes he's on his back sticking his little foot through the slats of his crib. but this time, he was sitting up. i have no idea how he got into that position... i've been waiting all day to see him do it again, but so far he's keeping it to himself. what's next? crawling? standing up? walking? college? yikes!

two front teeth...

this morning everything appeared to be normal. i got caleb out of his crib and started feeding him as usual. all of a sudden, he smiled at me and i saw his two front teeth. i knew they were coming in and have been watching them get more and more pronounced, but this morning it really hit me. my little baby doesn't look like a baby any more. he has teeth.

drinking from a bottle

caleb loves to drink from a bottle. except that he doesn't know how to do it. he likes to hold the bottle and shake it around so that he can hear the liquid sloshing around in it. and he's figured out how to get the right part into his mouth. but, once it's there, the whole concept of sucking escapes him. set on getting something, though, caleb has now figured out how to push on the nipple with his fingers so that it squirts out into his mouth. unfortunately, this also means that it squirts all over his face and clothes and whatever he's laying/sitting on, but at least he gets something to drink! funny little boy!

trip to spokane

i haven't blogged for a while because we were in spokane for the wedding of one of our closest friends. troy was the best man and i was his support crew and babysitter. my job was to make sure he had as little to worry about as possible so that he, in turn, could make sure the groom had as little to worry about as possible. i think we were successful and the long weekend was full of many highs... and a few lows.
highs: sneaking into a garage to decorate the getaway car, time with friends, caleb taking good naps, after-wedding calzones, watching troy do his job and love his friends, early morning cups of tea, finding a babysitter for the rehearsal dinner, etc, etc, etc.
lows: caleb crying so much for the wedding babysitter that she had to call me and i had to miss the wedding, being sick with a cold, having caleb sick with a cold, troy being sick with a cold, not enough time with the bride and groom (but it's a wedding so i was expecting as much), lousy pass conditions on the way home.
as you can tell, the highs far outweigh the lows. we had a great time... although it sure would be nice to have a weekend to recover from it!

here we go again...

for the past couple of weeks, i've noticed caleb developing a rash. it started on one arm and i thought it was just dry skin. i kept an eye on it and put on extra lotion. then, i noticed that it was also on the other arm. and on his legs. as of today, it was bad enough that i thought i should call the doctor. now, i try hard not to be a paranoid mother and the rash doesn't seem to be giving caleb problems, so i felt a little silly calling. but, the pediatric advisor website said to call if the rash lasted longer than 48 hours... and it had... a lot longer. guess what the nurse said when i described the rash to her? "has your son ever shown any signs of dairy intolerance? that sounds like a dairy rash to me..." NOOO!! i never even made the connection that about 2 weeks ago was when i started reintroducing dairy into my diet more and more. and caleb was doing so well... or so i thought. so, i'm back to no dairy. and if the rash goes away, i may be doing this no-dairy thing for at least another month. but if the rash doesn't go away, i'll have to take caleb to the doctor. i don't know which one would be worse...