Making Connections

I'm pretty sure I'll be able to post this exact sentence with each passing phase/age: it is so cool to see Caleb figure out new things and make connections! It's like you can see the wheels turning. Turning the hall light on, then off, then on, then off, then on... with that really fun lightswich! Getting the straw out of, then back in, then back out of the cup was a brilliant revelation! (at first... because now I swear he does it just to splatter milk/juice/water everywhere) Last week he closed the gate to his room while I was still in there, with the connection in his head being FREEEEEEDOM!!!!!!!

He has a good grasp of where he should and shouldn't be. We make it a point to not follow him every step of his explorations. If we see him heading down the hall, there's a pretty good chance he'll try to get into the office or our bedroom. The only allure to these rooms? They are the least baby-friendly rooms in the house and he knows he only has about 10 seconds until we come to get him and redirect him to another room. Same goes for the doggy door. Every time he enters the living room, you can watch his face light up if he looks at the sliding glass door and sees the doggy door isn't blocked. We have approximately 4.2 seconds to get and insert the plastic thingy that slides down next to the flap that closes the door... or we're instead chasing him out onto the deck. Yesterday at the park I watched him figure out that when he approached a bird, it would fly away. He was fascinated! He wasn't mad or upset he couldn't get close to the birds... he was surprised he could "make" the birds move. And as a little sidenote, I was watching from probably 50-75 feet away because I was working on NOT being a helicopter mom. He had some freedom, and I had time to just watch and enjoy his little bit of freedom :) Connections, connections everywhere!

For every bit of learning he's doing, we're trying to do the same. We read parenting books, parenting articles, research behavior that we question (for instance, the two latest queries: head banging and the concept of toddlers sharing their "stuff"). We ask his daycare provider if she has experience with X, Y or Z. We talk about our childhoods and watch other parents and either try to model behavior or become aware of what we might want to do differently. I knew parenting would be physically exhausting from holding a squirmy kid when changing diapers, chasing him at the park, and sleepless nights of teething and ear infections. What I didn't know is how mentally tired I would be. Are we doing this/that right? Is he happy? Is he doing age-appropriate things? Are we providing him with enough structure/down time/stimulation/educational opportunities/etc.? Are we preparing him for a Harvard education and the paycheck that comes with that? (whoops!!! how did that last one sneak in there?!?)

I have so many pictures to download from the camera, but I did snag one to send to a friend the other day. Here's a recent shot of our cowboy fireman:

Happy Easter!

That darn Easter bunny didn't visit until Caleb's naptime today. He just left this on the deck and now we're sitting here waiting for the little guy to wake up. I'd go nudge him, but I know better ;)

One Handsome Little Guy!

We held out until 13 months... but finally had to get his hair cut.

Before...

 During...

After...

Just as handsome as when we started... just cleaned up a bit around the edges!

One Year - We Made It!

Caleb turned one on February 21st! I cannot believe 12 months have gone by so quickly and quite frankly am a little nervous that subsequent years will pass faster. He is an amazing ball of energy... he walks, he jibber jabbers, and he tests his (and our) limits EVERY SINGLE DAY. He shakes his head "no" about ten times for every "yes" shake... can you tell he's not so agreeable all the time? Actually, I'm not sure he even knows what the whole head-shaking thing means at this point. He definitely knows the word "no!" though. We've been limiting how much we use that word. In non-urgent situations, something like "that's not for babies... let's go play with your toys" seems to work. But when he's doing something that needs immediate attention, a quick "no!" will send him right to tears. He's a good boy for the overwhelming majority of the time and that's a good thing! The kid's got quite the temper and we, along with anyone else around, know when things aren't going HIS way. He can be quite loud while communicating his displeasure with our ways, or downright bratty - like when he slams his sippy cup on the floor because he can't yet say "no, you idiots, I don't want water. I want to play right nowwwwww!!!"

Grandma C and Grandpa R traveled all the way from Denver to spend Caleb's first birthday here and he loved it. He got to go to the park almost every day and got to show them just how "boy" he could be from dirt to constant motion. We spent his actual birthday-day at the Santa Barbara zoo and had a completely wonderful, memory-rich day. It's times like these that make me so thankful that digital photography exists... lots of pictures to remember great times!

Things he loves:

• Wagon rides (gift from Grandma and Grandpa for his birthday)
• Climbing out through the doggie door in hopes we'll put him in his swing attached to the deck cover
• Bath time! still a favorite...
• Coco and Starr (our dogs)

Things he doesn't love so much:

• Restraint... in the form of his high chair, especially if he's not particularly hungry; in the form of his carseat if he's not done running around; in the form of holding him if he wants down so he can keep moving; or in the form of the gate that keeps him in his room while we're trying to change him or get him dressed for the day
• Us cleaning his face after meal time
• Us taking longer than 3 seconds to get him something to eat/drink (see the blurb about "temper" above)

We had a great party at the park to celebrate the one year mark, and make no mistake: the party was for US. He'll see pictures eventually, and he'll think it was about him (that's cool), but it was a true celebration of a successful, wonderful, eye-opening, experimental, adventurous, tiring (who am I kidding? at times EXHAUSTING) first year. I thought I'd be "over it" by now... but I am sooo NOT over it. More in love every day with him and what he's doing at each stage.

Since I'm running out of time, here are some pictures of the birthday boy from the last month or so:

Mom and Dad with Caleb at the SB Zoo

Grandma and Grandpa with Caleb at the SB Zoo

A birthday cupcake. We put together all the picks (horse, pig, or cow with a barn) in the days leading up to the party and all I can say to my husband and in-laws is: I love you so much for putting up with my complete cupcake topper neuroses. No one else on the planet would have placated me by punching out eyes the size of a pin head, nor gluing the tiniest of pieces together. And a special thank you to my mom, too, for frosting the green "grass" into the pasture on each of the 60+ cupcakes. Thank you soooooo much!!

Cupcake face! He didn't 'dig in' the way I anticipated... he went about it quite gingerly. I stopped videoing around the 12 minute mark thinking 'what kind of kid takes this long to eat a cupcake?!?!'

The birthday boy leaving the party in his cool new wagon!

Starr being very patient with the birthday boy who wanted to open presents on the dog bed (whatever) and layer her in tissue paper. Bless you good dog!

And a sampling of the professional pics we had done to mark the occasion:

Our Baby's First and Hopefully Last Surgery

Caleb's basically been a walking crawling ear infection since he started daycare the first week of November. Daycares are notably breeding grounds for germs regardless of how clean they look (and his looks super clean) because, well, they specialize in small people who generally have no sense of hygiene! The children let snot rivers flow freely down their faces, put everything in their mouths, and have no qualms about what they've touched - ever. It wasn't really surprising when Caleb caught his first cold during his first week there. We half-joked that he was building his immune system. Twelve weeks later, here we are. Several colds led to other things... congestion, ear infections, sleepless nights, a chronically medicated child. After 6 antibiotics over not quite 3 months, that became just as serious as the infections themselves. After meeting with an ear/nose/throat specialist, we decided to have tubes put in his ears. We decided this on Friday and the surgery was today.

Our little champ handled it like a pro (dare I say me, the medical pro??). We got to the surgical center at 6:30 a.m. and were home by 9 a.m. It was a 15 minute procedure (or less - he was actually only out of our arms for 15 minutes to include the trip from pre-op to the OR, then to recovery where we got to hold him again) and the only residual symptom he had was being a bit tired for a couple hours after. Hello unplanned early morning nap!

The tubes will likely fall out on their own in about a year, when hopefully his ears have developed a bit more and the fluid that was getting stuck behind his eardrum will be able to escape at the back of his sinuses/throat at that time. Until then, we have to be a little careful not to let water pour into his ears... no special treatment at bath time and if we dunk him underwater when swimming, he'll have to wear earplugs. The biggest benefits: the likelihood of future infections is really low, he won't be taking antibiotics because he won't have infections, and his hearing won't be compromised like it could have been with fluid stuck in there and/or scar tissue that results from chronic infections.

A few pics of our brave boy this morning:

Do you see how cute their pediatric gowns are? Of course, he makes everything look WAY cuter, too... ;)

The anesthesiologist gave him his mask to play with beforehand so he wouldn't fear it when he was on the table getting gassed. Caleb quite liked it. (Not sure what he'd think about it NOW, after how they used it on him to make him sleep and all!)

And this is the little champ, in recovery. Binky and his froggy blanket. Complete nirvana.

This Makes any Crappy Day Better!

To lighten my mood I just went and looked at Caleb pics. That's a pretty sure-fire way of making me smile in any situation.

Since I didn't share any Christmas morning pics on here, here is one of him doing what ALL KIDS INHERENTLY DO... climbing UP the slide! And here I thought slides were for sliding DOWN. Silly me :)

And one more. Paul made a castle for him out of a computer box. Front door, back double doors, windows... one big box and some duct and electrical tape. He (Caleb, not Paul - just to be clear) loves it and still plays in it/around it/on it every day!

One

One last post for the year. One more look back at everything that has happened this year. One more miletsone hit today: the 10 month mark. Lots of "ones."

I can't believe the end of 2011 is here. Although such a whirlwind, I clearly remember January and the baby shower at which so many awesome friends and family members celebrated the upcoming arrival of Caleb with me. As if it were yesterday, I remember the caravan of Mom & Bill with their trailer and me in my car, first to Santa Nella and then to Red Bluff - with Paul following 10 days later - to wait until Caleb was born. At the time, that seemed like the longest wait of my life. I remember seeing Caleb for the very first time and remember the overwhelming rush of emotion those first moments. It's still so very vivid to me.

March, April and May were all about bonding, adjustment, bottles, diapers and sleep! It was so good to find our groove... to find what worked for us. There were no arguments over who HAD to feed the baby or change his diaper. Can an adrenaline rush last for many months?? I went back to work in April and we got into a new groove with a new schedule, but it was an easy transition.

The summer months were so much fun. Every week from the time our nieces and nephews got out of school for summer break until the week they had to go back to school, one of them was here to babysit. It was great to have full-time in-home daycare, the cousins got to bond, and I got some good time with all of them :)

After the kids went back to school, I took another leave of absence from work. Those weeks were the most fun! At the beginning, Caleb turned 6 months and was turning into a fun interactive little person (from an adorably baby-ish baby). We played, went to the park, shopped, went to lunch with Daddy and with friends. The transition from my 6 weeks off went right into another 6 weeks that Paul took off from his work. That was a bonding extravaganza. Paul was in heaven as was Caleb. In that time, we took a week long vacation to Palm Springs and enjoyed the time we got to spend with him. Caleb hit so many milestones during this time - crawling and teeth to name two biggies.

Paul returned to work at the beginning of November and Caleb has been in full-time daycare since then. I am so, so happy we found a great daycare provider! After visiting a few places, my heart was heavy as I began to think I would have to settle in some way - whether it was a schedule I didn't agree with (3 hour naptimes?) or a distance I didn't want to travel (neighboring city that would add at least an hour of driving to each day). But on that fourth visit, I was so relieved to know we didn't have to settle on any one of the wants on our wish list. I am truly at ease when he's there... our provider is super!!!

So here we are in December. December 21st. Caleb is 10 months old today. He's on the verge of walking, has five adorably placed and spaced teeth, is eating mostly "real" food instead of baby food, squirms like a fish when getting his diaper changed (he has better things to do than slow down for that, you know), loudly expresses his opinions at times, climbs *over* Starr instead of around her, thinks Coco's growling "leave me alone" sounds are absolutely hysterical (uh ohhhh), and crawls through the doggy door faster than you can say "the doggy door is only for doggies!"

We have over 3,000 pictures that encompass everything from pre-birth ultrasounds to this week's trip to the beach. To skim through them beginning to end is just mind boggling, but what a great trip down memory lane. The best words on which to end 2011: happy, eager, proud, relieved, but most of all, grateful. Looking forward to a great 2012 for us, and for you!