obsession

have i mentioned that caleb is obsessed with music? this from my boy who previously couldn't handle too much going on and would start rubbing his ear if there was noise in the background. now, he goes to sleep thinking about music and wakes up thinking about it. while he's nursing, he'll reach his chubby little hand in the general direction of the cd player and make the sing for light (because that obviously means, "i want the music on please mommy"). when i come to get him out of his crib, he jumps up and down, reaches for the cd player, and makes the sign for light. we can't even play in his room because all he'll do is climb over to the bookcase, pull a book off, look at the cd player, and make the sign for light. when we're in the living room, he tries to climb up the table to reach the ipod docking station (and makes the sign for light).

it's not that i'm against music. actually, i love it. but it's not just any music that will do. there's a certain cd he likes... actually, a certain song. it's song number 6 on the red grammer cd. and not only does he solely want to listen to that song, he wants me to hold him and dance with him the whole time, too. which is cute the first 3 times, but then gets a little old (not to mention heavy!). and that cd is not even on the ipod yet, so that makes him mad. i'm at a point where it's actually hard for me to be at the house because i'm constantly either listening to that song or listening to caleb whine for that song. he needs to widen his tastes!

like mother, like son

when i was young, it would take me FOREVER to get ready for bed. just ask my mom. or my dad. or my sister. or anyone who ever told me to get ready for bed. but i wasn't trying to waste time or anything, i just had a lot to do. it was my stuffed animals' fault.

i loved stuffed animals. a lot. not only did i have a ton of them, they also all had names. in fact, whenever i got a new stuffed animal, there was a routine we had to go through. i would think of a name for this animal and then all of us (my existing stuffed animals, myself, and the new arrival) would go under the covers of my bed and we would have a conference. i would think thoughts and see if the new guy could read my mind. i would give hypothetical situation in which my sister and i were in a fight. and the new stuffed animal had to say which side he/she would be on. and then, assuming they passed, i would find them a best friend (or two). don't worry, they all passed the test.

think that's crazy? i'm just getting started. every night there would be a specific place that each animal would sleep. and they had to be placed in that exact position before i went to sleep every night. first came kim (a cabbage patch doll) with her arm up. next to her was jenny (another doll, with lovely red hair). on top of them, wrapped around kim's arm, was snowball (a bunny) and sea bert (a seal). then i wrapped a blanket around those and got started on the next layers. cubby (a tiger), feline (a cat, duh). i could go on and on, but you probably get the picture. i would do this every night before i could go to bed. and in the morning, when i made the bed, they all had new positions.

all this to say, i loved stuffed animals. and it appears that caleb does, too. he likes me to put him in his crib and then he points (and makes the sign for light) at a stuffed animal on his shelf. i get it for him and he plays for bit until he's ready to point to the next one. we also love to go to white horse toys and look at all the amazing stuffed animals (he likes the croaking frog and the black lab the best). my parents would have loved a store like this for times when my birthday list read "a goat stuffed animal" (which i got, by the way, and named edelweiss).

"light"

caleb makes the baby sign for light! hooray! but why? i've done "light" with him a few times, but mostly we focus on practical signs like eat, drink, all done, and more. but would caleb like to do one of those signs? no thank you. he will choose to do light. and what did i do in response? totally overreact, of course.

so now, caleb does "light" for EVERYTHING. it means, "turn on the music", "give me some food", "pick me up", "can i see that?", "come get me", "more please", etc, etc, etc. if he wants to communicate, he does the sign for light.

at least he's getting the whole using signs to communicate concept. and i'm sure he'll lose some of the generality at some point... right?

moving?

we want to move. we've been going back and forth on this issue for a while, but now it's official. we love our condo, but third floor is not ideal for a mother of a young child. and when the time comes for number two... yikes! how to get two kids up and down all those concrete steps... not to mention a stroller or groceries or anything else. plus, kids make quite a bit of noise. not bad noise, most of the time, but a lot of noise nonetheless. and while there technically isn't anything we can do about it, i feel bad for our downstairs neighbor (as well as thankful that she works full time and is only home on weekends!).

here's the problem... we LOVE our neighborhood. it has amazing sidewalks and trails, a community garden, two pools, tennis courts, etc, etc, etc. it's ideal for raising a family. unfortunately, the prices reflect that fact.

we have, however, found a place we want. we haven't technically seen it, yet, but it's a mirror image of the home of some friends of ours, so i feel like i've seen it. i would post the mls listing, but i don't want anyone getting any ideas and buying out from under us. it's always been a dream of ours to live in community. to just do life with people who have a similar faith and goals and dreams. to have other adults whom we trust be a part of caleb's regular life. to help each other in very practical ways. this world doesn't have enough of that and my heart greatly desires it. i want to grow and learn and i believe Jesus uses others to help accomplish that.

so, we're getting our condo ready to put on the market. it's nerve-wracking, to say the least! and since we don't NEED to move, there's no better time to try to sell. worse comes to worse and i have a newly painted bathroom that i love and new light fixtures. i can deal with that. the goal is to put it on the market beginning of august. so, if you happen to know anyone who is looking for a beautiful 2-bed 2-bath condo in our area, let me know!

thinking about all of this has made me so thankful i know the Lord. i can't imagine trying to do this without Him. i would be so worried and stressed. i love knowing He's got a plan and that i just need to do my part. and there's no other plan i'd rather be a part of than His.

is this normal?

the thing about having only one child is that i never know what is kid, what is boy, what is us, and what is caleb. his feet for example. you know how a lot of babies have sort of an oral fixation where they put everything in their mouths? caleb has that, but with his feet. do you call that "pedic fixation" or something? he likes to explore new things with his toes. sometimes he does this just while sitting up and playing with a toy or other object (that probably shouldn't be a toy but has been claimed as such) in his lap. with really interesting and exciting new items, however, he reverts to laying on his back so that his toes can have full access. it's really cute... but is it normal or a caleb quirk?

blogging...

i blog. there, i admitted it. the reason i blog is something i've denied for some time now. i started blogging because our family lives far away. very far. i though, "i'll start a blog. that way, family members can read it and know what's going on with their grandson/nephew/cousin/etc. without me having to call everyone or send out mass emails." did it work? no. does any family actually read this blog? only very rarely. but yet, i keep blogging. and that is because i am addicted. i love blogging. i love crafting blogs in my head throughout the day (just like MommyTime recommends), love finding the time to sit and put it all down "on paper", and i love being a part of the parenting blog family.

and it's an awesome family. some people's blogs i read because i know them and love them. and i want to read about what's going on in the life of their family. other blogs i read because i can't help it. either they are amazing writers or incredibly funny or refreshingly honest or particularly interesting. one thing they all have in common: they're moms. i often feel quite inadequate when i read the blogs of others. i know i'm not a great writer and don't have a specific voice or anything like that. but still, i enjoy it and if i was doing this for readers, well, i would have given up long ago. but i do this because i can't help it and, in some ways, it helps me.

cruising...

i love watching caleb "cruise" through the house... he goes from the couch to the love seat to the coffee table and back. over. and. over. in his bedroom he goes from the crib to the exersaucer to the footstool to the glider to the bookshelf. over. and. over.

for some reason this new phase has also been accompanied by the "open all the cabinets just to see if i can" phase. sometimes he takes things out of said cabinets. often, he just likes to open and close them. over. and. over.

repetition seems to be a theme with him...

community...

i've been learning a lot about community recently. especially about how much i need it. how much we all need community - people who love us and help (read: force) us confront our need for change.

sometimes i don't like learning about this. in fact, a few days ago i actually told troy that we needed to switch churches. i was (mostly) kidding. see, our church is great. it challenges me not just on sunday mornings but all through the week. my community groups are full of people who actually want to be involved in my life and help me become a better reflection of God. and sometimes i hate that. sometimes i wish i could just be alone. that i wouldn't have to grow and that i wouldn't have to help anyone else grow. it's scary... i don't want to lose friends or make things uncomfortable. but really, what kind of friend would i be if i let someone i love go down a path that isn't healthy for them. not a very good one.

besides being scary, though, community is also amazing. one of our factors in switching churches last winter was that we wanted to be at a place where caleb could learn about community. that he could learn how the body of Christ loves and serves. and the best way for him to learn about it was to see us participate. and i think that's actually happening. we have friends we can talk with, pray with, serve, and just be. these are the kind of people i want caleb to grow up knowing. and i love that. it's amazing how quickly i've felt cared about and i have never been around people who were so amazingly transparent. it makes me feel like i know them, even though it's been such a short time.

i know this isn't always the case. in fact, a lot of people have felt the opposite of love from christians. and i have, too. but for me, rather than make me run away or get bitter, it's made me crave the real thing even more. and now i'm getting a taste of that. which is scary. and beautiful.

visit from a friend

this past weekend my friend, sheri, and her son, edward, came for a visit. i've been friends with sheri since my freshman year of high school and i was glad to finally meet her son. it was crazy having two young boys in the house, but that made us get out and do lots of fun stuff (swimming, tea, toy store, dog park, etc.).


one thing i definitely learned, though, caleb is a boy who likes quiet and calm. i had sort of seen that the weekend before with troy's parents, but this weekend underscored it. he doesn't like to have a lot of noise in his world and gets stressed out when around too many people for too long. it was amazing what even just taking him into his room for some quiet mom and caleb time did to help him.


sometimes i was a little disappointed with this part of his personality. until i realized, i'm the same way... i just hide it better. at some point caleb will learn to deal with his discomfort in ways other than crying. for now, though, i'll keep pushing him and exposing him to different situations, but try to always take into account his sensitive and quiet side.

helping fight a forest fire... sort of

yesterday, we had quite the adventure! troy and i decided to get out of the house and take caleb for a walk. as we were heading down a trail near our house, we see a bunch of smoke and a kid comes running to us, asking if we have a cell phone to call 911. here's the story...

this kid, steve, was riding his bike and saw some teenagers light a firework. when they saw him, they got spooked and through the firework into the amazing greenbelt area we have out behind our condo. steve saw it catch the grass on fire so he rode back to a woman he had passed earlier and they dragged a hose from the community garden to try and put it out. once it became obvious that it was spreading too fast, he went looking for more help. that's when we came along. after calling 911, troy went to help direct the firefighters and i stayed with steve and the woman (holly). eventually we had two fire trucks and it was quite the adventure. i had to stay around for quite a while to give a report to the fire investigator. steve is totally a hero for getting help so quickly (in fact, the fire fighters said had the trees caught on fire they probably would have had to evacuate the condos). the firefighters even let him help put the fire out with foam once it was all under control.

family visit

fourth of july weekend we enjoyed a wonderful visit from troy's parents, al and deon. we played games and took lots of walks. a highlight for me, besides just watching them enjoy caleb, was going to an off-leash dog park to walk around and enjoy the puppies. also, they gave troy and i an amazing gift! as soon as caleb woke up in the morning, i would feed him and change him into warm clothes and they walked with him up to starbucks. troy and i got to sleep in and they got to spend some wonderful alone time with their grandson. it was fantastic. i'm so glad they came, although it just reminded me how much i wish we lived closer. sigh.

quite the attitude

caleb is so testy today! he's learned how to say "no" with his body. he kicks his feet and shakes his head. and today, he doesn't want to do anything i suggest. doesn't want to eat what i make for breakfast or lunch. doesn't want to go in the car to go to the park. doesn't want to swing in the swings. doesn't want to come home. doesn't want to go to bed. everything i do is met with wild, kicking feet and a shaking head. at first, i liked that he could communicate his displeasure. that lasted about 5 minutes. now it's just annoying! i hope he either forgets how to do that or else learns to talk real soon :)

caleb's strange eating habits...

he likes his pureed food to be warm. which means he doesn't eat yogurt... except when i can get it into his mouth without it touching his lips. i have no idea why.
for finger food, he likes it to be hard (like cheerios or veggie booty) rather than soft (like banana or avocado). but he will eat soft things if i let him take a bite himself rather than breaking it up for him.

so funny!!