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...

Catching Up - Grandma and Grandpa's Visit in May

Organizing pictures is tough work when you take so many! I have finally organized the pictures from the last 8 weeks or so and can finally post about Grandma and Grandpa's visit in May! Connie and Rick drove here from Colorado and got here on Sunday, May 10th - Mothers' Day. We got to spend 2 short weeks with them but tried to do as many fun things as possible on the weekends when Paul and I weren't working. But during the weekdays, Caleb got some pretty intense G & G time all to himself! They took walks and they played; they cuddled and snuggled. Grandma even showed us cool stuff for kids on their iPad so now we're considering that... AS AN EDUCATIONAL TOY! Who knew?!

I'll let the pictures and captions tell the rest of the story of this most awesome visit:

Caleb! Guess what?! Grandma and Grandpa are coming to see you!

That means it's time for snuggling...

... and cuddling...

... being outdoors...

... and learning to suck it up when it comes to tummy time!

Rick, Connie, Caleb and I went to Ojai to have lunch with Grandpa Jay and Grandma Barbara... where we ran into Nana
and Papa! How cool is that?! Only person missing was Paul :(
From L to R: (front) G'ma Barbara (stepmom), Nana (mom),
Caleb, and G'pa Jay (dad)
(back) Papa (stepdad), Grandpa (Rick), me, and Grandma (Connie)

Grandpa trying to feed Caleb a Whodidily Cupcake in Montecito.
Bad Grandpa! (hehehe)

We decided to go for a cruise out of Santa Barbara on a big sailboat... this is right before we left.

The beautiful view of the Santa Barbara coast from the boat

Grandpa and Caleb... just chillin

Good times, good times!

The next day, we went to Boccali's in Ojai for the anniversary festival.

Mom and son... they are both so happy!!

Our friends Norm and Michelle, then me and Rick

Paul, Barbara and my dad

It was such a great visit and we can't wait to do it again!!