6 Month Check Up

Even though Caleb won't be 6 months until Sunday, today was his 6 mo. check up with the pediatrician.


You'll be interested to know that Caleb has fallen to the 91st percentile in weight- only 20 pounds 4 ounces. He is still in the 97th for his height (29 in.) and head circumference (47 cm.). As you can tell from the picture, he had a great time at the appointment- just cheesing all over the place. The doctor was pleased with his development and said we could start some mushy adult foods in addition to baby food, so bring on the yogurt, cottage cheese, mashed potatoes, and pudding! There were fewer shots this time and I think he was more angry about having to lay down on the table than the shots themselves.

It occurred to me tonight as I was rocking Caleb to sleep that it was at my sister's 6 month check up that her pediatrician felt something odd in her tummy and that, within days, she was diagnosed with liver cancer. Because I was so young then, I really don't recall much of the ordeal. As I grew up I understood more about the situation, but it hasn't been until now, when my own little (or not so little) one is six months old, that I really grasp what my parents must have gone through. YIKES! So to Mom and Dad- you're pretty amazing, to Mo- we're glad you're here, and to God- thanks for the miracle.

Ok, changing to a more light-hearted subject: I am sure Caleb will be mortified one day when he learns that I put this on the blog but he has had some serious constipation the last week or so. Bad enough that he has woken himself up in the night trying to "get things going". The doctor said it could be a side effect of the Zyrtec that he's on for his allergies and to try mixing his cereal with prune juice or to try not taking the Zyrtec since the worst of allergy season is over. I had picked up some baby food prunes the other day and gave them to him when we got home from his appointment. Let's just say they did the trick over the course of the afternoon. Ha!

Well, that's all for now. Today was the first day in quite awhile that we didn't have any rain but it is expected to return tomorrow and keep comin' for the next week. Lovely.

I am working all day tomorrow, then spending the weekend trying to get the house clean and the next week planned. Wish me luck!!

Rain Rain Go Away

So how is Caleb supposed to enjoy his new pool (and how I am supposed to get tan) if it is rainy and cloudy all the time?!? It's also cramping our fun walk-around-the-neighborhood times. Oh well.

In preparation for more pool time throughout the summer, I picked up a cute hat to keep Caleb safe from the sun's rays. We practiced wearing it, even though there were no rays to be had this week. It's pretty fun, is reversible, and is made of that easy-dry material. He had fun posing in it, as you can see.

We have continued the food thing with green beans, carrots, and peas in his repertoire now. "Aunt" Heidi also gave Caleb a tiny bite of a Club cracker the other day which he loved! Now he seriously gives you the vulture eye any time you're eating something and not sharing. He has his shots this week so I am going to ask when we can start giving him Cheerios and other fun crunchy things. Along with food, we've been working on learning to drink. He actually does a little better with me holding a cup with no lid because I control how much he gets in his mouth. The sippy cup is fun and entertaining but not so much helping in learning to drink. Though it doesn't leak, he just bites on the end of it letting water pour from cup to mouth to shirt.

Caleb is really learning to turn on the cheese for the camera. When we started this weekly picture thing, it was sometimes a challenge to find a smiley picture. Now it's hard to narrow down one picture from all the great grins he's giving.

On Saturday, Megan and Damaris came over to work on some pageant prep stuff before Miss Oklahoma. At one point we were outside listening to the Miss OK opening number song and watching them work on the choreography they'd learned so far. Caleb was very entertained. Both girls are so wonderful - I am excited to see them on stage at Miss OK and am proud of them, regardless of the end results of pageant week. Caleb wanted to get a photo with these beauty queens, though both Megan and Damaris admit it wasn't their finest photo op.

We went to a graduation party for Jonathan on Saturday as well. Nothing makes you feel as old as seeing a kid you grew up babysitting graduate! Now he's at least six inches taller than me and heading to OU in the fall. Caleb got to meet some new people and see several he hadn't been around in awhile, including my OB who is a mutual friend. Everyone was impressed with how big he had become and how alert and friendly he was. It was a fun time. Congrats, Jon Jon!

We grilled out at my parents' house last night then just hung around working on pageant stuff today. Aaron and Caleb are currently napping on our bed. Caleb has never been a great napper but for the last week or so he's been getting over-tired then still only sleeping about 30 minutes so he doesn't really get caught up. I think he must be hitting a growth spurt too because he's woken up hungry several times the last few nights and has been generally fussier than usual. Looks like we'll be stocking up on those 9-12 month clothes now.

Interesting week this week with our regular babysitter out of town. Tomorrow Damaris will watch Caleb while I work 1/2 day then Mom will have him all day on Friday. Then pageant week starts next Sunday. There are still many little things to wrap up so if you are bored and want to help, let me know and I am sure I can find envelopes for you to stuff, scripts to put into binders, etc.

Have a great week!

Week 24- Better Late Than Never

The evening got away from us last night so I didn't get a chance to post a blog of the week. In fact, we realized after we put Caleb to bed that we hadn't taken the Week 24 picture - hence the one above from Aaron sneaking into the nursery to take it. Aaron always photoshops the pictures to get rid of red eyes, etc. and he was in bed by the time I was ready to blog. So, here we are on Monday night.

One thing I've been meaning to put on here is Caleb's love of chewing and sucking on his toes. It started a few weeks ago but those pictures didn't get downloaded that week and I kept forgetting to go back and get them. So here's a funny one of him right after his bath. At least I know those toes are clean :)

He is also becoming more and more fascinated with the dogs. When he's in his Exersaucer, he's right on their level and just watches them go back and forth across the room. Now he's reaching out to touch them whenever he can. Most times he's pretty harmless, like the photo below. But there have been a few times when he's grabbed an ear or tail or has been touching them with his toes and starts pushing them off the couch or bed with his feet.

There's continued development in sitting up on his own. He's getting more and more confident and strong but still doesn't grasp the whole "can't fling yourself backward without falling" thing. I think it's because when he's in his Exersaucer or bouncy seat and rocks back, nothing bad happens. Thankfully, he's yet to learn this lesson the hard way because he's always propped up with the Boppy or with us. I am hoping he's sitting independently by the time we take 6 month pics, which is just a few weeks away.

The biggest news this week is the new addition to our backyard- a pool. I picked it up at Walmart last week, making sure to get one that is big enough to put an adult size raft in it so I don't look so pasty and pale all summer long. So we wait patiently until Aaron mows the yard on Saturday and gets it all set up. I slather the sunscreen on him, put on his adorable trunks (by the way, are you supposed to keep a diaper on in the pool or can he go without?), and head outside. I take one step in and it is FREEZING. I knew it was going to be a disaster but I couldn't help but forge ahead. After all, I blew up his cute little floatie boat and Aaron had the camera out and everything. Well, as soon as his feet touched the freezing "straight from the hose" water, he started screaming. I was just sure that once he got in, he'd be fine. Or not... he was so straight-legged that we couldn't get him in the float and by then my teeth were chattering so we gave up and sat in the sun on the porch to warm up. We'll try again as the outside temp and water temp warm. Here are a few photos from the attempt though. The one in the bath is actually from a few days before when we were doing a trial run.

Other stuff: wrapped up another busy week with the end of the school year and Riverfield's first-ever high school graduation; I took advantage of the massage my in-laws gave for my birthday on Saturday (it was great!!); we went to dinner with our small group from Covenant last night at Red Rock Canyon Grill (yum!!); pageant week is coming up quickly June 4-9 (yikes!). Guess that's about it. Have a great week!

Week 23- Happy Mother's Day to me and my fellow bloggers

OK, I just wrote a lovely week-in-review post and somehow it got deleted. GRRRRR!! So here's the short version:

We had a good Mother's Day with church, a 2 hour all-family nap (dogs included), and dinner with my family at P.F. Chang's tonight. Aaron was on poopie diaper duty all day too :)

We went to Broken Arrow's Rooster Days Festival yesterday. It was the first time Caleb sat in the stroller like a big boy, without being in the carrier in the stroller. He looked adorable and had a good time though it was a little toasty.


I thought Caleb would be done drooling now that his teeth are in. Apparently not, as shown in the photo below.


A few exciting new things this week:
1) Caleb is sitting up semi-assisted. He can catch himself if he falls forward but would fall back if he weren't sitting with us or wedged in the Boppy.


2) We introduced the first jar of baby food this week- green beans. He loved it. The books say to introduce one food at a time to make sure there's no allergic reaction so we'll stick with green beans this week then move on to carrots and squash.


3) We brushed Caleb's teeth for the first time. Our dentist, Dr. Hughes, gave us an infant toothbrush as part of our baby gift so I busted it out this week. Apparently fluoride toothpaste is bad for babies (who knew?) so I bought some special training toothpaste. Caleb was not at all sure about his first toothbrushing experience but it went much better tonight. (Disclaimer: We do not let him handle the toothbrush by himself; this was purely for photographic purposes.)


We had some fun taking photos in the yard tonight. We have a severe lack of "Mom and Caleb" photos so I asked Aaron to take some when we got home from dinner (it was my day, at least for a few more hours). Here are two that I really liked:

Other good news is that George and Ethel White are moving back to B.A. from Canada as we speak. Ethel was one of my "other mothers" growing up and one my mom's best buds. It will be great to have them back in town and fun for Caleb to grow up knowing them.

I can't really remember what else I wrote about earlier so that's the cliff's notes version. Oh, and a very Happy Mother's Day to everyone!!

22 weeks (that's 5 months!!)

This week was crazy crazy and Aaron gets the "Good Sport/Patient and Helpful Hubby" award for all that he did to make my life easier. From taking and picking up Caleb from the babysitter several times to going with Caleb to the doctor (nothing big - just an allergic rash and snotty nose), from flying solo on the bed/bath routine Wednesday and Thursday to spending 30 minutes cleaning the dog hair off the couches on Saturday morning, what a hero he was this week! Unfortunately, this week doesn't look any less insane but we'll make it work :)

So, as you can see, Caleb and Aaron had some quality time together this week. And you just never know what will happen when you leave Dad and Son by themselves. Wednesday was Caleb's 5 month birthday (can you believe it!) so Aaron was in charge of taking a picture for the month-by-month frame we have. Evidently Aaron wanted to go with a theme photo. Here's what we ended up with:


We have mastered the cereal thing and have tried to start doing it more than once a day. Good news is that Caleb is not picky so he doesn't care about the temperature or whether it's mixed with water or milk. Sometimes he gets a little antsy if you put him in the highchair then make him wait too long for the cereal but once he gets settled in there, he really likes it. In fact, he has fallen asleep in the highchair several times this week, usually after hanging out for awhile and getting bored. However, there was one instance where he could hardly keep his eyes open between bites. Aaron got it on video and it is pretty darn funny.


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On Friday, Caleb's second bottom tooth came in and over the weekend they both really pushed up out of the gums. Enough that I have been on the receiving end of a not-so-gentle bite while he was eating, if you catch my drift. HOLY COW! I seriously got tears in my eyes it hurt so badly. You can tell it is a new sensation for Caleb too because he spends a lot of time running his tongue over the area and making this weird whistling noise because of the drool that he's inhaling and exhaling along with it. Here's the latest pic of his teeth (I promise we'll stop torturing him to get these photos soon).

OK, much to do before heading to bed and it would be nice to start the week with a good night's sleep. Have a great week!