pleased with himself

look what caleb can do! yikes!

and look how thrilled he is that he can do it!

double yikes!

i have a feeling we're in for a lot of fun in the near future.

baby and grad

there's nothing better to me that seeing people i love, love my son.

down the slide

a morning at the park while in kentucky gave caleb his first chance at going down a slide. his uncle luke initiated him into this amazing new playground adventure. it seemed that caleb's favorite parts of the sliding experience were sitting at the top and looking down at all the little people below and sitting at the bottom, once his eyes and stomach caught up with him. i think this was the start of a beautiful friendship between boy and slide!

adventures with P.d. Pooch

caleb had a great time with P.d. Pooch! it was so cute to see him totally enamored with our dog. he would hear pd's nails clicking as he came into the room and caleb's head would swivel around to find the pooch. caleb also started making a growling noise whenever he saw pd. it sounded a lot like his lion sound, but this was definitely aimed at the dog. sometimes even just the sound of pd's bark would get caleb growling. the best part was watching caleb try to pet pd. he would follow pd from room to room trying to get to him. pd is pretty much deaf so he wouldn't hear caleb until the last minute which meant that he could get pretty close. it was adorable... and transformed caleb into a much quicker crawler!

the week in review...

the first weekend we were out in kentucky, the whole family was there. dad, mom, luke (the graduate), hanell, mike, troy, caleb, and me. we let doc and nana babysit on saturday and all of us kids (minus caleb) went to see prince caspian. it was our first movie-theater movie since caleb has arrived and i loved it! i did wish there had been some better previews, though. that night we played some hand 'n' foot... i love that game!

sunday, we had a party! it was great to meet friends of luke's and some his youth leaders and teachers. and fun to see friends of the family that i usually just hear fun stories about.

monday, troy, mike, and hanell had to leave (crazy people who actually have jobs!). we looked at some houses for mike and hanell and went to luke's senior award night. i had to leave early to put caleb to bed, but got to see him win a scholar athlete award (he also won an all-around award). i was so happy that i was staying on for a whole other week to continue the celebration.

tuesday was swimming day! we got everything loaded up and when over to dad's seminary to use the pool. now, the first time caleb went swimming, he wasn't so sure about it. but this time, he loved it! we put him in his spring float thing and he was in the big pool with doc and uncle luke. he was kicking his feet and spinning around and was LOVING LIFE! we also watched the finale of american idol.

wednesday we took a trip to the park. caleb went in the swings and uncle luke took him down the slide. that night we rented national treasure 2: book of secrets which was just like the first... and that, in my book, is a good thing. we also found out david cook won american idol. mom was pleased.

thursday the fun started... caleb is teething again. majorly teething. the last incisor (bottom right) and three molars (two on bottom, one on top). that day was horrible... and it didn't really get better as the week went on. but being with family was a wonderful support. dad even babysat while mom and i went to meet with a friend for coffee/tea.

friday was graduation day! we got some great pictures of the grad with caleb (i'll post those in a later blog). caleb did well for part of the ceremony and we got to cheer on luke as he received his diploma and then we went home a little early to give caleb a nap and dinner. we celebrated afterward with chinese food and a movie!

saturday was full of games (lots of since and nertz) and fun and walks around the neighborhood. we even went to a professional volleyball game.

sunday was our last day in louisville. we went to church (doc and caleb did great in the nursery together), ate bbq, and packed. and caleb even did well on the plane rides!

i have lots more fun little stories (as well as lots of pictures) to share, but at least this will give a glimpse as to what the week was like.

so much to blog about!!

i got back last night from a week and a half in louisville. my brother graduated from high school so we made a trip out there to celebrate with him. it was great!! but now i feel so far behind with my blogging :) it will take a while to get caught up, but i definitely have some fun stories!

games

caleb now has two new games. the first i call "jingle bells' and the second is "lion".

jingle bells is played with some bells that he has. he hits or shakes them and then puts them on the ground and waits for them to stop making noise. then he hits them again, waits, and repeats. he obviously knows what makes the sound and i like that he decides to wait until the sound is done.

lion is also about noise, but caleb makes the sound himself. he growls like a lion, and then i make the baby sign for lion with my hands (a mane). i growl and make the sign and then he growls and i make the sign for him. he especially loves to do this in between bites of meals and sitting in his crib after a nap. oh the things that amuse an 8 month old!

sounds

caleb says "da-da" now. a lot. he says it all the time. i know he doesn't know yet what it really means, but i love hearing him practice forming sounds and syllables. he can also say "ba-ba" and "ta" and "ya". i'm so excited for the time when he starts talking!

the best mother's day ever...

i know that i don't have a lot to base that statement on, but just wait until you hear about my day! it started with caleb sleeping in until 7! just that by itself would have been enough to make it a day to remember, but it kept getting better. troy and caleb made me belgian waffles (with berries and cool whip!) for breakfast. caleb took a nice long (1.5 hour) nap in the morning waking up just in time for church. at church he even stayed in the nursery rather than missing me and making them have to page us! once we got home caleb took another good nap (2 hours) so that i got to eat lunch, talk with my mom, and play some mariokart wii! next came a trip to my favorite tea shop... this is what i've asked to do every mother's day... where i had some white tea and a vanilla scone. the boys got me a couple cute tops and made me a wonderful card. and now, i'm in pajamas, blogging, and looking forward to a night full of the survivor season finale! this is going to be hard to top!

invisible baby gate

kids change so quickly! i didn't even get around to blogging about this and now it's already done. caleb has been crawling for a while now, but he only would crawl on carpet (or rugs). this worked out nicely for containing him at home since he wouldn't leave his room or leave the rug in the living room. it was so funny to watch him crawl up to the edge of the wood floors and stop. maybe reach a hand out. and then sit up and just look out over the vast expanse of wood. that all changed today, thanks to a fun afternoon with our friends, dustin and sara. we went to their house (troy and dustin brewed some beer together) and they have wood floors everywhere. no rug to hide on. it took caleb a little while to get used to it, but now he's a wood-floor crawling expert! and it even transferred. as soon as he was let loose in our house after getting home, he just took off. so many new places to explore!

no more dream feed?

when janell posted a blog with the same title, she started with an explanation of what a dream is exactly. so, how about this... if you don't know what a dream feed is (and you care to know) check out her post. here's our situation... i've known for a while that caleb is old enough to not have a dream feed. but i didn't want to go back to him not sleeping through the night. so, i started to ease him out of it. we had been doing the dream feed at 11. then i moved it to 10:30. and then 10. and then, early this week, he sort of stopped. i still try to feed him, but he just won't do it. and he did start getting up once during the night again (although that may have to do with the fact that he has an ear infection). but last night... ahh, last night... caleb slept until 6. with no dream feed. ahhh.

caleb's body language

i've already mentioned what caleb means when he closes his eyes ("i don't want to do this anymore"). well, that's not the only body language he uses. kicking his feet means "i'm happy" or "i like it." and i think waving his hands around means "i want it!" although it usually takes a while before i figure out what exactly "it" is that he wants.

nursing is for those who have nothing better to do...

i think that's how caleb feels about it. he refuses to eat if there are other people nearby, toys around, or if he's just woken up. the only times he'll really eat is right before it's time to go to sleep, either for a nap or for bed. it's as though at those times he's saying, "well, i've done what i needed to do: i've played, crawled, sat up, made noises, etc. i guess i'll go ahead and relax and eat now." it makes me a little nervous because i want to make sure he's getting enough milk during the day. but, first of all, he eats a lot at those times, and secondly, he'll drink more if i pump and put it in a sippy cup. crazy boy!

eyes are the window to the soul

and, for caleb, closed eyes means, "i don't want to do this anymore!!!"
sometimes we see them when he's eating and wants to be all done. soemtimes when he's tired and wants to go to sleep. and sometimes when troy is taking pictures and caleb just wants to be held.

The Business of Being Born

my sister sent me the link to a great documentary called The Business of Being Born. it's all about the medical industry and how maybe doctors and hospitals are not doing what is best for delivering mothers. i found the documentary to be biased toward midwives and home births, but the facts that it presented were hard to deny. and i felt very validated by what it was presenting. to explain why, i'd better share my birth story...

caleb was due on august 20th, but i was not surprised when the 20th came and went because my mom always carried her kids longer than expected (i was about 2 weeks late). usually my doctor doesn't let women go longer than a week overdue but we she was out of town the week of the 20th so we scheduled an induction for the 29th. i had an ultrasound that week to make sure that the placenta was still looking good and caleb didn't show any signs of distress. everything was wonderful. now i look back and wish someone had told me that i could say "no" to the induction. i would have liked to give it a full 2 weeks. but i didn't know... and i trusted my doctor.

i went into the hospital and they started pitocin. which i hated. contractions are supposed to start out more slowly but not mine. i went from none to minute-long contractions with at most 30 seconds in between. it was awful. after about 4 hours of that they checked me and i was still only dilated to a 6 and was not making any progress. i chose to get an epidural so that i could rest a bit. it helped (mostly on one side of my body), but i didn't like that now i was confined to bed for the rest of the labor. one thing just led to another. external monitoring wasn't enough so i was given an internal contraction monitor as well as internal fetal heart rate monitor. awful. and caleb wasn't doing so well with the hard contractions of the pitocin. so they stopped the pitocin but it wasn't getting better. to make a long story shorter, i was scheduled for a c-section but at the last minute caleb's heart rate increased, they started pitocin again, and i was allowed to labor on my own for a while longer. finally, after about 2.5 hours of pushing, i was a mom!

i guess what was hard for me was that i felt one intervention (pitocin) led to another which led to another and it was a huge downward spiral. now, i appreciate doctors and all the amazing medical interventions we have, but i truly believe my body would have been able to give birth without all that extra "stuff" getting in the way. and that's what the documentary pointed out... how amazing a woman's body truly is and how they were designed to give birth. i felt like all the frustration and confusion i felt during my labor was explained by the documentary.

lest anyone think it was all bad, let me tell you of a few high points. some amazing nurses fought for me to not have a c-section. my doula, merrell, helped more than words can describe. troy was an amazing support and partner to me throughout the entire ordeal. God sustained my spirits and answered prayers left and right. i have an amazing and healthy son. and i've learned a lot. next time, i'll be getting a midwife and probably delivering at a birth center.

so anyway, for those of you still reading... it's an interesting documentary. you should check it out.

fuzzi bunz update...

no more leaking! for the past 2-3 weeks now, our fuzzi bunz leaking issue has been solved. here's the routine: for normal awake times, caleb wears a regular fuzzi bunz diaper. for nap time, we double up on the liner, and for bedtime, he wears a disposable. it's a lot to keep track of, but it's working for us and i get the best of both worlds... cloth diapers to help the environment and keep him from getting diaper rash, and no early wake-ups because of leaking. hooray!

pulling up

caleb can now pull himself up. not quite to his feet, but to his knees.. it's so adorable to watch because he has to work so hard for even that much. it started because i put all his toys in the bottom drawer of his dresser. and then i open it up during play time and he crawls right over to it. but in order to see into it and pull stuff out, he needs a higher vantage point. enter the pulling up. he usually just pulls everything out, but sometimes he looks as though he's really choosing which toy to play with.

hair cut

i got my hair cut this weekend. it was sort of spur of the moment, sort of not. see, i have curly-ish hair. and, while i like it, it frizzes if it gets played with too much. and caleb loves to play with my hair. so, i spent most of my time with my hair pulled back. so, i decided to cut it. then i started asking around for who to go to and everyone that was recommended was so expensive. my hair just isn't worth that much money to me! i decided to try a beauty school... but did i go to someplace nice like gene juarez or aveda? no... i went to a little place called bellevue beauty school. i wouldn't recommend it as it definitely didn't inspire confidence, but i actually really like my hair. it's short and cute.

swimming

yesterday, we took caleb swimming for the first time. it was sort of spontaneous; we got a call from friends of ours in our neighborhood who were heading to the pool so we packed up our stuff and met them there. at first, caleb really didn't like it... it was very different from the bathtub! but toward the end, he was smiling and kicking and loving it. he never did use his spring float, but just hung out in daddy's arms the whole time. we will definitely be doing more of this as the summer continues!

mondays

mondays are long days. in case you hadn't heard, troy is going back to school to get his master's in computer science. he has classes on monday nights, which means that i have a long monday! it starts when caleb wakes up (which, this morning was WAY TOO EARLY) and then troy gets home sometime after 10pm. as if that wasn't long enough, troy needs to take the car on mondays so that he can get to school. i get the car every other day of the week, so i don't mind, but it can often make the long day seem longer when i can't go anywhere. fortunately, i have the stroller so we just take long walks a few times a day.

the destruction phase

a couple of months ago, my friend megan came to visit with her son. she mentioned something about the "destruction phase" that kids go through where they like to dump things out and take things apart. but not put them back in or back together. i'm starting to see hints of that with caleb. he used to be fine playing with just one or two toys for a long time. but now, he likes to have lots of things out at the same time. and his new favorite discovery is that the books on his bookshelf can come off! fortunately, he gets so excited about getting 1-2 off the shelf that he leaves the rest alone, but i know this is just the beginning.