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!

Merry Christmas!!

Everyone takes their kid to the pet store to get the Santa pic, right??

Baby's First Christmas.

Our Little Chameleon

How fast things change. It seems Caleb is displaying/practicing/developing a new skill or attribute every day. Let's see... he's an official turbo crawler, has three teeth on the bottom (and none on top yet), pulls up on anything in front of him and walks around holding on to furniture transitioning from table to couch and so on, and is starting to clap! My absolute favorite, though, is when he waves bye-bye. It's soooooo cute and clumsy at this point... his whole arm waves. MELTS MY HEART! I even pretend I have to leave so we can do the whole bye-bye routine, I go into the garage, and then I come back into the house and do the whole "you're home!!!!" routine. Pure awesomeness. He also started the whole repeating-consonants thing with "babababababababa" and then moved to "mamamamamama." Of course I love the "mama" noise, but he knows no connection between "mamamama" and me..... but I still answer him as if he's talking to me ;)

He started daycare full-time when Paul went back to work (after a 6 week leave of absence) on November 2nd and since that time he has caught two colds, had two ear infections, and conquered all of it like a champ with the help of antibiotics. He's finally getting back to his non-sick sleep routine which lasts from about 7 p.m. to about 6:30 a.m. waking once or so for a bottle or snuggles. All that fun at daycare wears him out. He comes home so tired that sometimes it's hard just to get him to eat before the bedtime routine starts. It's hard seeing him so little throughout the work week so when I get the chance, I pick him up early.

Caleb was 9 months last Monday, November 21st, and we went for his checkup. Basically, he's the size of a 14 or 15 month old weight- and length-wise. I'll update with the real stats and a recent picture soon.

Happy Halloween!

No time for words other than life is great, Caleb is even better! Happy First Halloween, little man!

All dressed up for daycare

We nailed "happy, cute, sweet skeleton" this year. We'll try for scary another year...

A fun trip to Boccali's Pumpkin Patch in Ojai. Wasn't too fond of the hay poking him until we put a couple of pumpkins next to him :)

A "First" I Didn't Want Just Yet

Just when everything is going great, bam! His first cold. I am so sad! He wheezes and sneezes and coughs and it sucks. I wasn't looking forward to *this* milestone :( I would love to make it all better so he could actually get some good rest, alas this too shall pass.

Don't Blink or You'll Miss Something!

It's been exactly four weeks since I last posted and ohmygosh have things changed! A month ago, Caleb was sitting but was still a little wobbly. Since then, he mastered sitting. If you lay him down on his playmat, he'll immediately push up into a sitting position. If you lay him in his bed, he'll bounce up into a sitting position. There is no more laying this kid down! It's like a game of Whack-A-Mole! (Disclaimer: I do not hit my kid with any sort of mallet. Kidding about that whole Whack-A-Mole thing.) But honestly, that's so two-to-three weeks ago because now his favorite thing to do is pull himself up into standing position. Sometimes there may be a brief sitting session in between laying down and standing up, but inevitably if there's something he can use to pull himself up (crib, laundry basket, ottoman, couch, barstool, chair, end table, coffee table -- get it??), he's up. This is kind of fun during the day! This is kind of NOT fun at naptimes and bedtime! He can be super overly tired, but he'll still pull himself up in his crib. And even more fun? In his tired and cranky state, he gets super pissy because he doesn't really know how to sit back down. Half the time he falls down (and half of those times he hits some part of his body on something that doesn't feel good and cries) and the other half of the time he hollers for requests help. Good, busy times!

Ok, so the point of that whole blurb was to say he's mastered sitting, and is almost the master of standing while holding on to something/anything. But that's not all he's done... that would be boring. He's also learned to crawl! Crawling! Yay! We smile nearly non-stop during the crawling hours because he's so cute!! And what's more? He sprouted a new tooth (fully showing) and another tooth (little nubbin' popping up)! Teething! Not quite as much "yay!" as yelling to one another "where's the damn teething gel/pellets??!?" and "ohmygod is he ever going to sleep normally again?!?!" and "arghhhhhhhhhhhh I just want to sleeeeeep!" Milestones. Hittin' them with a vengence.

Not so much a milestone as just lovely noise... he has been experimenting with a different-than-normal voice for a while now and it creeps me out.  I heard it one day and warned Paul it was kinda strange. Then he heard it. I swear it sounds like Grandpa Simpson/decades-long smoker/Chuckie doll evil voice. I am doing my best to capture it on video. In a much different voice, he also sounds like a very loud parrot. The kind of voice that would turn all sorts of heads in even the kid-friendliest of places. It'll be such a proud moment some day. And in yet another voice, his "normal" voice, he babbles like a baby. Imagine that.

The Six Month Check-Up

This guy won't stop growing. And that's good and all... but perhaps the rate at which he's growing could slow down?? Here's the quick update from our visit to the doctor this past week. Caleb is:

Weight: 20 pounds 13 ounces - 95th percentile (the average of a 10 month old)
Head circumference: 18 inches - between 90th and 95th percentile (also avg for 10 month old)
Length: 29.75 inches - off the percentile charts and the average length of a 1 year old!!

He's wearing 12 month clothes for one-piece things, but can still wear 9 month shirts and even 6 month bottoms. Crazy. I'm going through his clothes today for the umpteenth time to weed out the too-small stuff and replenish with larger things. He'll be stylin' in a new wardrobe by this afternoon ;)

Our Baby is Six Months Old!

Whoa! What happened there? How did six months fly by already? It seems the majority of conversations I've had about Caleb include some version of "Enjoy every moment. It passes by way too quickly." Of course as I grow older I've noticed how fast time flies, but I'm actually going to say I appreciate having a kid at this point in my life (read: late in life) because I DO know and recognize this. I'm not one to leave dishes in the sink but part of my conscious "enjoy these times with him" thought is to leave some things for later... dishes, for example. I won't let them sit overnight (neither will Paul) but we will let them sit there until Caleb's asleep for the night, napping or has some solo play time. 

I try to photodocument as much as I can so my soon-to-be-senile brain can remember these moments. In the first six months, we've taken approximately 1,500 pictures of him. It's really more than that, but sometimes I thin the herd as I'm reviewing them by deleting those with poor lighting, a wonky eye, or blurry and unrecognizable action. I'll admit it's disturbing seeing that number. I need to chill out. Where do we sign up for the study that correlates camera flashes with poor vision?

Some highlights since I last posted are a trip to AZ to see Paul's grandpa, parents, and aunt and uncle -- and some big firsts: sleeping in his own room/crib, swim classes, trip to the zoo, and professional photo session! There are also lots of developmental milestones he's nailed, my favorite being the yoga pose "cobra." Ironic that the baby who didn't like tummy time at all is alllllllll about tummy time now. He realizes it's linked to his mobility and that he can get from *here* to *there* by being on him tummy and scootching. There is certainly no more leaving him on the bed unattended (dammmmmmit!) as he freely rolls from back to front to back to front... you get it. He also gets himself in crawling position then looks at me like "now what?!" Countdown until he's crawling starts NOW. And I'll be honest. I'm ok if he delays hitting that milestone ;) At least right now I'm faster than he is, but once that crawling starts... uh oh.

Things Caleb likes:

• Meal time! Put him in the highchair and he's alll excited about food time.
• Baths, stroller time, and books. They've been on the list before, but they are all still HUGE "likes"
• The dogs. Actually not sure if this belongs on the "likes" list or the "intrigued by" list, but since I don't have the latter, we'll just put it here. He actually notices the dogs now. He wants to "pet" them. By "pet" I mean he wants to grab them and pull. Starr (yellow Lab) isn't affected because her hair is short and he can't grab on quite yet. But she's mellow and likely won't care. Coco (Yorkie) on the other hand, is just pissed. He grabs the hair by her face and pulls. She nips at him. It's not ok for her to do that, but it's not ok that he does that either. We intervene but unfortunately Coco takes the brunt of the punishment since he doesn't understand he shouldn't "pet" her in such a way. But in Coco's defense, she's not all that bright at times and I don't think she understands either. For the time being, I'm going to re-establish a barrier between the two... baby pen is going back up so they can each have their own space.

The one thing Caleb really doesn't like:

• Falling asleep. He fights it and fights it until he succumbs to the evil heavy eyelids. I am hoping this is one of those things he'll grow out of...

Here are some of the highlights over the past month...

Our trip to AZ:

4 Generations!

Grandma and Caleb having some fun at dinnertime

Caleb teaching Grandpa a thing or two about the iPad. Or vice versa...

Caleb with Grandma and Great Grandpa

Took the blow up pool with us to AZ to beat the heat.

Reading time

We also had new dining experiences, to include:

Dining al fresco in the backyard. See Daddy working up on the hill?

Painting with prunes! (Because Caleb doesn't think they're worthy of putting in his mouth)

And a couple more firsts:

First swimming lessons! 4 Saturdays throughout August at the YMCA.

Santa Barbara Zoo with 4 of his cousins!

It's been such an amazing, awesome, wonderful, incredible, remarkable, brilliant six months with our little-big guy. I knew it would be great, but so much more so than expected.

A Few Firsts and some General Cuteness

Wish I had time for a real update, but work has been hellish and I just don't have time. On a good note, I am taking another leave of absence from work during August/September to spend four weeks with Caleb and I can't wait!!!!

A few "firsts":

First time in the pool (June 18th, Hyatt in Indian Wells)

First rice cereal (July 2nd)

First yams, although apparently yams in North America are sweet potatoes... so whatever they're called (July 19th)

And now, some general cuteness:

Llama foot dreams

Eat my shorts!

Cousins

Just plain cute!

Still loving every minute... even though the teething has begun. Hopefully I'll get to post a toothy grin soon :)

Happy 4th of July!

Growing Like a Weed

We had our 4 month visit to the doctor this week and she concurs: Caleb's a big boy! He is:

• 18 pounds 1 ounce (90th-95th percentile, the average of a 7 month old)
• 27.5 inches long (off the charts and the average length of an 8 month old)
• 17 inches around his noggin (75th percentile)

He's also hit a couple of great milestones in the last week... rolling from his back to his tummy and getting his first (semi-)solid food!!

Caleb performed his most recent trick, rolling over, at Paul's aunt and uncle's house when we visited them and Paul's grandpa last weekend. PAUL'S UNCLE HAD THE BEST REACTION TO THIS EVENT, EVER! I know it's wrong of me, but I almost wish I would have taken a video of him instead of Caleb. I mean, we've seen Caleb roll over a zillion times in the past week, but I suspect we may never see Jim jumping up and down like a contestant winning a new dryer on The Price Is Right ever again! But since I wasn't fast enough to capture that particular moment, I'll share the picture that I did snap:

Immediately after he rolled over by himself for the first time!

We had such a good time with them! Here are a few pics from our visit:

Representing 3 generations, we have Great Grandpa, Caleb and Paul.
Grandpa was mesmerized by Caleb's blue, blue eyes.

Auntie chilling with Caleb. Please read the t-shirt... I think I may need one of these some day!

Who do you think is the most excited in this picture? I'd venture to guess it's the tall guy with the beard...

The most recent of milestones was achieved today with the introduction of single grain rice cereal. All I'll say is, I'm not sure any made it down into his tummy...