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 ;)