Week 33- The Raspberry Week

It seems Caleb tends to learn a new skill and do it constantly for a day or two then move on. However, this week he discovered the art of "thppppp" or "blowing raspberries" or "furburts" or whatever your family calls them. And he is loving this new trick...starts the day in the crib, continues in the car, while we are playing, while we are bathing, while we are swimming, etc. It makes for a lot of fun while we are eating, as you can imagine. This shot below captures his lovely dining experience the other night- green beans everywhere with the dogs eager to get in on the action. We were trying out this booster seat to take on our trip to NC (or, more accurately, to have my parents transport in their car while we fly). He really liked it, mainly because he can see over the tray and realize the doggies are right under him.


Since I've been pumping like a million times a day, I've had some time to catch up on my reading. I read last week that giving a baby a plateful of spaghetti helps improve dexterity as they learn the pincer grasp between index finger and thumb. Caleb thought it was really fun and interesting at first. Then he tried to put the entire handful, including his hand, in at once. He was done after that.

We were finally able to get out in the pool again this week, armed with the swim diapers this time. I did discover, however, that swim diapers are not so great at catching leaks indoors while playing on the floor and waiting for the pool to fill up. Oops! I really slather on the sunscreen, including in his hair. It makes for a great styling product. Unfortunately, it does take several baths for it to come out completely. Any suggestions for products that protect his scalp without the SPF 50 "pomade"? I wonder if the aerosol sunscreen would be better?? (By the way, he's not crying - it just looks like it).


After a fun afternoon in the pool, we enjoyed just relaxing. I pulled out my snoogle pillow (a godsend I used from 7 months pregnant on). Caleb is having so much fun rolling around that I thought he'd get a kick out of it. He did wrestle around with the snoogle for awhile then made himself a little nest and took a break.


As you can see from the top picture, we are getting closer and closer to crawling. He is now lunging for an object and realizing he can walk his hands out slowly to avoid nosediving. And he's figuring out how to walk his hands back up to sit upright. And he loves to turn all the way around in a circle on his bottom. Today he was playing with the rings (his new favorite toy) and I was in laundry room and heard a "thunk". I peeked in to see him turn around from his rings and chewing on the handle of our armoire, which he kept at for several minutes. It reminded me of the part of the movie Billy Madison when Adam Sandler says, "You making out with the wall or something?" (Shout out to Kim H. for that one!)


Other news this week:

• We enjoyed lunch with Grandma and our friend Ethel, who has returned to OK from Canada, on Thursday. Yummy Jason's Deli with Caleb's first bite of their frozen yogurt :)


• Also, we've begun purchasing 12-18 month clothes. They are still a bit roomy but he's on the verge of outgrowing his 9-12 month stuff, especially in length, so anything new we're buying in the next size up.


• The 6th tooth is in with the 7th not far behind. Good thing Caleb likes to have me brush his teeth!

We are off to Asheville, NC early Wednesday morning and will return on Sunday evening, so doubt there will be a blog posted promptly that night. We are flying standby so wish us luck!!

Week 32 - pulling up (almost)

Caleb is getting more and more mobile but still not crawling. This week he has really begun trying to pull up on things (us, the couch, his big toys, etc.). He still needs a little push on the diaper to get him up, but he's getting closer to doing it all on his own. I think he enjoys the whole new perspective found from being on the outside of the Exersaucer or holding on while standing next to the activity table. He's also getting more comfortable with balancing while kneeling. It seems he likes it because if he does fall back down, there's 1/2 as far to fall.


He has begun lunging for some things too. I will put a toy just out of his reach and he will usually grab for it. Sometimes he manages to brace himself with his arms as he goes toward it but other times he just does a faceplant. (He's a little gun shy after the faceplants but you can usually get him fired up enough about a toy to get him to try again). In this photo, he's about to lunge for Lilah. Notice Lilah's look of concern and her "ready to bolt at a moment's notice" body position.


Caleb got to spend some fun time with my dad (G-Dad, as he calls himself) this week while I had a planning meeting for my 10 year HS reunion, which will be next summer. Marilyn and Heather both brought kiddos so they were sad not to meet Caleb but he was having way too much fun with G-Dad. My parents also babysat tonight while we went to dinner with friends Nick and Laura at Red Rock Canyon. Yummy again this time!

Yesterday (Sat.), Caleb and I headed to OKC to celebrate my friend Ashley's birthday. He slept most of the way there and all the way back. We went to Cheesecake Factory (!!!!!!) for lunch then Caleb and I stopped by my sister's house to say hi to Aunt Mo for awhile before returning to Tulsa. Ashley and her husband have new residents in their backyard pool, a mama duck and two ducklings. As we left for lunch, Kyle was on a mission to relocate the ducks to a pond at a nearby golf course. We decided it would almost be worth skipping the Cheesecake Factory to watch Kyle attempt this. Notice I said almost :) I can't remember if I posted it on here but WE ARE GETTING A CHEESECAKE FACTORY IN TULSA!! Everyone chuckled when I said I emailed C.F. about once a quarter to ask when they were coming to town...well, you can thank me when you are enjoying heavenly cheesecake this holiday season.


After a bizarre night that included a prank phone call, Caleb waking up, and another random call on my cell phone (all between 1:30 and 3:00am), we slept in and didn't make it to church. Caleb had fun hanging in his pjs until noon and really enjoyed his biter biscuit. He now has 2 top teeth in with a 3rd almost there and another close behind so I thought the biscuit might provide some relief. Pretty soon the biscuit was all over his face, hands, sleeves, and highchair but he was having fun.


He is getting more and more vocal (and more and more loud- as the other patrons of the restaurant yesterday can attest to). It is as if he is trying to say something, not just jabbering. We have it on video, as well as his new found excitement for the "ABCs song" and "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes" that his little play-n-learn pup sings. He's very musically inclined, you know!! I really need to find a better way to post video, so I'll work on that and get some on here soon.

Nothing too exciting coming up this week. It's kinda the calm before the storm of heading out of town for several trips.

Have a great one!!

Week 31 was full of swimming

I'd like to pretend I'll be able to keep this short since I did post on the 4th, but you know how I tend to ramble :)

Wednesday evening we cooked out with some of our good friends then went to see fireworks at Cedar Ridge. It was a good show and Caleb wasn't bothered by the noise in the least but the mosquitoes were out in droves (and of course we had no repellent) and the parking lot was full so we had to take a shuttle back to the overflow parking lot at the end. Overall a good day.

Caleb has started snacking on Cheerios. It is great because it keeps him occupied and contained in the high chair while I am working on dinner, unloading groceries, etc. I would say about 1/4 of them actually make it in his mouth and the dogs have learned to hang out under Caleb's chair to see what gets dropped.

Also new on the scene this week are some wooden blocks. I was reading a book that said this is a great age to start with blocks because he can get his hands around them but not choke on them. We mostly do this in the highchair so he has a flat surface to work with (like he's going to be building skyscrapers next week!!) but this actually means mommy just gets to keep bending over and picking them up after they've been thrown overboard.


It's a good thing that we've found these new entertaining things because also new is the fact that Caleb is no longer interested in nursing. For a week now, he totally freaks out when he even sees me in the rocker or if I hold him horizontally. I don't know if it's because of his teeth coming in (his top left is in so that's 4 teeth for him) or if he's just 'done' but he won't nurse so now I spend what seems like forever each day pumping then turning around and putting it in a bottle to feed him. When I called the St. Francis milk hot line (yes, I called it even though when they gave it to us at the hospital, I thought "Who would ever need to call the milk hot line?") they said just keep trying, so I do but it's not doing any good at this point. It is frustrating that for the first 7 months of his life, it was smooth sailing and now he's just called it quits. GRRRR! I have convinced myself that at least this will make the weaning process a lot easier when I don't have to deal with telling him that we can't or won't nurse anymore. And who knows, maybe he'll change his mind this week (though I doubt it because I've probably further traumatized him by continuing to try to get him to eat).

Swimming was a big thing this week. My friend Kimberly and her son Owen, who just turned 1, came over to swim in our backyard on Thursday. Owen is crawling all over the place and has just begun taking his first steps. It was fun to watch Caleb just stare at him moving around the living room, like "How's he doing that?" I do think Caleb is getting closer to crawling. He is beginning to pull up on things and if he is sitting up and is trying to get something out of his reach, he'll lunge forward for it, catch himself and the item, the roll back onto his back (spending as little time on the belly as possible, as has been his motto since birth).


This funny picture was taken while we waited for Owen to arrive. I put his hat on and, surprisingly enough, Caleb didn't mess with it. However, it must have been a fairly rambunctious time in the Exersaucer because when I came back in the room from changing into my swimsuit, the hat was turned totally around with the floppy part that is supposed to cover his neck and back now across his forehead.


We did a little swimming on our own on Friday afternoon. We have yet to get the Swim Diapers (honestly, I wasn't sure what was so great about them to make them so expensive) so Caleb was swimming in his regular diaper. Well, the diaper got a little full and the gel stuff that absorbs the fluid started coming out the top as it busted open. I set Caleb on the side of the pool, pulled off the diaper and threw it in the yard. Caleb watched me toss it, torqued his body around and promptly started urinating in the yard. Of course I started laughing so he looked back at me but was smart enough to keep his "stream" pointed in the grass. I had to call Aaron at work...what a proud moment for a dad :)

Saturday was Aaron's work cookout and pool party. It was a fun and relaxing time. Caleb enjoyed playing in his boat but got sleepy so Aaron took him out. The next thing we knew, Caleb was passed out on Aaron's shoulder, despite the noise of people talking, kids splashing, etc. He slept for quite awhile and we even transferred him to our friend Danielle who was sitting under some shade so we could hang out and talk with the adults!!


Then we swam again today at a friend's neighborhood pool in Jenks. Caleb was already sleepy and seemed more interested in chewing on the string from his trunks than enjoying the water. We didn't stay too long because we had to get home and get ready to head to the airport to welcome my mom back from Tanzania. The flight was delayed from DFW several times so Caleb wasn't his usual perky self by the time she arrived but you can see that didn't stop him from giving her the international greeting for "Yummm, Grandma!" by biting her nose.


The other fun news is that Caleb has started to say dadadadada. Aaron is totally convinced that he is saying "Dad" though it doesn't matter if Aaron is anywhere around. I think I'd think the same thing if he were saying "mamamamamama". We tried to get it on video but of course he stopped once we turned on the camera. Hopefully we'll catch it this week and post it.

Have a great week!!

Happy 4th of July!

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy Independence Day!! We are headed to a friend's house for cooking out then fireworks at a local country club. Caleb doesn't seem too bothered by loud noises so hopefully we'll be fine.

Also, happy birthday today to my cousin Brett and to his mom, my Aunt Debbie, whose birthday was yesterday!

Week 30- still raining

I heard that it rained 28 out of 30 days in June here in Tulsa. It is getting a little ridiculous. For us, it's just annoying as our dogs track in mud and when we can't swim but for lots of others in this area, it means floods and damage. With limited outdoor options, we got creative inside :)

We tried several new foods this week, both "big people" food and baby food. Caleb is still eating everything and still gets pretty upset when the food is all gone. The only weird reaction we've had so far was to cottage cheese. He wasn't sure what to think about the texture and really gummed it but kept coming back for more. As I was cleaning up his face, I noticed the skin around his mouth was red. By the time I had cleaned his bowl and spoon, his neck was red too. He wasn't feeling badly but I got out my trusty marker to note the current boundaries of red and made sure it didn't spread. I also gave him a dose of Benadryl. Guess that fixed things because it disappeared quickly. Here's a photo of the reaction at its prime.


Caleb is very close to getting in one of his top front teeth, with the other just behind. These are big teeth in comparison to what's come in so far so he is really drooly and fussy. He ran a 100 degree fever for a good portion of the week. This also means he chews on ANYTHING he can get his hands on. Like, for example, the drawstring of my pj pants that were in the laundry pile on the floor of the bathroom.


This week Caleb got to go to VBS at Asbury because his sitter was volunteering. He had a great time. Per my babysitter's suggestion, she went ahead and took Caleb on Thursday even though I wasn't working so I could have the morning to myself. I went to Walmart (in and out under 30 minutes!!), ran some other errands, and got a luxurious pedicure. It was wonderful. Because they don't make VBS t-shirts small enough for babies, they made a canvas bag with his footprints and the date. You can't see it clearly on this picture but you can tell that he likes his new bag a lot :)


I haven't heard from my mom since she's been in Africa but I do know they arrived safely. It is funny how accustomed I have become to chatting with her or calling her up on a whim. I didn't realize that until now, when she's not here to talk with.

We received the disk with all of Caleb's 6 month pictures in the mail from Betsy. She got a little creative with some composites that turned out really nicely.


My dad was part of a trio that sung at church today. He did a great job. You can go to http://www.asburytulsa.org/sermons/archives.html then click on the 9:15 service for today (it says June 1st but they mean July 1st). Go to minute 45 and you'll hear it. He's the nice-sounding tenor in the blue shirt, by the way. Way to go, Dad!

Well, after a busy weekend (sorority alum meeting, friend's birthday party, church, baby shower, small group dinner), I am going to call it a day. Oh, I got in my first fender-bender this weekend. When I was running around Saturday morning, a lady barely rear-ended me while we were getting off the Creek Turnpike. Thankfully we were barely moving and Caleb wasn't in the car. It did tear up my back bumper but pretty minimal damage. I guess the Volvo is officially "christened" now.

Have a great week!