Day Off

Today, Virginia took the day off of work, which meant that we finally got to play! It also helped that Caleb's only taking one nap a day now, so our boys nap at the same time (as opposed to when we first got out here for the summer, and Caleb took two naps while Trevor napped during the only time Caleb was really awake during the day).

To start our day of festivities, we took the boys to a nearby park. I've been wanting to go there for a while because there's a ship that the kids can play on in addition to a normal playset. The ship turned out to be geared for kids a little older, since it was mostly climbing. Caleb didn't play too much at the park, since there were other kids around. But once they left, he started to have more fun. (Although, he definitely enjoys just watching other kids play. So I guess it's a win win.)





After naptime, Caleb and I headed over to Virginia's apartment. She had (washable) finger paints and canvases for the boys to paint on. I'd brought Caleb a different shirt to wear, in case he got a little paint on himself, but then decided we might as well let the boys paint naked. Good thing too!

Caleb painting.

At first, he was hesitant to stick his fingers in the paint, but that soon became his favorite part.

He liked sticking his hands in the paint so much that he forgot to paint on his canvas.

I think he ended up with more paint on himself than he did on the canvas.

When we told him he couldn't stick his hands in the paint anymore, he got so upset.

But look at those hands! He definitely didn't need more paint.

He was momentarily distracted by dipping his hands in the water instead. He liked scooping the water up and pouring it onto the carpet next to him.

After all that fun, it was definitely time for a bath! The paint washed off so easily and Caleb loved playing with all Trevor's fun bath toys. In fact, he loved Trevor's toys so much, he didn't even notice that he was in a big huge bathtub. It was the first time he's had a bath in the big tub (instead of his baby tub inside the big tub) without any tears.

We had such a great day. Probably the best day we've had all summer while Daddy's been working.

Time for School?

The other day, Caleb nearly broke my heart by how big he's getting. He grabbed the video camera bag, and carrying it in both hands, walked over to the door and said "bye bye" as if he was ready for his first day of school. My first response was, "No, don't leave me." Later that night, I even told Brandon that I might need to homeschool Caleb just so that he never leaves me. If we never have another kid, this poor little boy of ours might just end up smothered to death.

Chino Cousins

It's been a while now since our short trip to Chino, but I just loaded these images onto my computer.

Nora, Sara and Caleb sitting with Grandpa, as he reads them a story. (Which both Caleb's cousins love, but Caleb's not too big into reading books. He doesn't really like sitting still long enough for a whole book.)

Chasing each other in circles, trying to tickle one another.

Caleb loved giving Nora kisses.

Even though Caleb beat her on the head a few times, Nora was so good with him and didn't ever get mad at him. Caleb loved having her attention.

Empty Cupboards Blow

Caleb's been a crazy eating machine lately. He now understands where the food comes from (i.e. the fridge or the one cupboard with all his snacks) and will go into the kitchen and bang on the doors of either one of these when he wants food. Which is all the time. I seriously spend the entire day trying to figure out what to feed him next.

He's gotten into the funny habit lately of signing all done when he's eating when there is still food on his tray (no, that's not the funny part). I'll get him all cleaned up and start to take him out of his chair, when suddenly he gets this panicked look on his face and quickly grabs another bite or two to take with him on his way back down to the floor.

Today, he did another cute/funny thing. A few weeks ago, he had this obsession with my hair being in my face. If a strand ever fell into my face, he'd attack it, trying to brush it aside. Today was the exact opposite. Some hair fell in my face, as it tends to do, and I blew at it in hopes of moving it away. Caleb thought it was so funny. Several times today, he intentionally moved my hair into my face and then would blow on me, trying to make the hair move.

He's also taken to stroking my hair, which I think is so sweet and adorable. He's very soft about it, too. If my hair brush is lying around (which it usually isn't), he'll brush my hair for a really long time. I've been growing it out for him, which is funny to me, since when he was first born, I kept cutting it shorter and shorter so he wouldn't pull on it while nursing. Now it's growing long again so he can play with it.

He's starting to talk a lot more now. Still not a whole lot of words, but it surprises me every time he says something new. Since a month ago when I made his word list, he's added: tickle tickle tickle (which is so cute and usually accompanied by him trying to tickle himself), ball, tree, eye, up, bump and bottle. He's also finally saying mommy and daddy like he means it, but not a whole ton. He's started signing eat when you ask him if he's hungry (instead of just when he hears the word eat).

Other than that, not much going on around here. Caleb's got a fever again. Just when I thought we were all done being sick.

Sliding pictures

As mentioned in my last post, Caleb and I went down to Chino for a brief visit the other week. While we were there, Caleb and I walked over to the park in the middle of my dad's neighborhood. I was a little envious of the fact that a park is just two houses away. If we had a park that close, I'm sure Caleb would be dragging me there every day.

We've been to the park a few times before, but I'm not sure if Caleb's ever enjoyed it before or not. This time, however, there was no doubt about it. He was going down the slide all by himself, climbing up the stairs to get back to the top of the slide, and even trying to just climb up the slide itself.

Fun going down.

Look at him fly!

A big smile at the bottom.

I love this "roar" face he kept making as he was climbing around.

Thinking about climbing up again.

Trying to get to the top the "easy" way.

Later, we went back with Caleb's cousins, Nora and Sara. Caleb decided to be really shy and not want to play at all. He absolutely loved Nora though, and she was always so sweet with him. (Sara, on the other hand, thought it was fun to go down the double slide on the side that Caleb was standing at the bottom of, over and over again. But we still love her! And I don't think she beat him up this trip, so we're definitely making progress.)

Sliding

We've all been sick this past week, but are starting to do better now. Soon I'll be recovered enough to go through all the photos I took while Caleb and I were in Chino the other week. In the meantime, here is some video of Caleb going down the slide, all by himself. It was his first time doing it on his own, and I was so very proud of him.





(I know the camera goes funky at the end, but that was because I needed to catch my son when he reached the bottom, and wasn't looking as I tried to capture the big smile on Caleb's face. He loved the slide!)

Happy Father's Day

In honor of Caleb's daddy and his love for jean jackets. :)

Be Thankful for the Little Things

Today's lesson: be thankful for the little things.

Like, when your child refuses to eat anything all day long, be thankful for it. Because then, when he later throws up absolutely everything in his stomach, you know it could have been a lot worse. Instead of two fruit snacks and a bottle of milk, you could be cleaning up an entire day's worth of food.

Be thankful, as you are cleaning up said puke, that at least most of it got on the top sheet of the bed, which is way easier to throw into the wash than a lot of other things. And at least your child doesn't need an emergency bath session, since he more or less avoided throwing up on himself. That's something to be thankful for.

End of lesson. Hope you learned it well, so you don't have to experience it yourself.

Tooth number seven emerged yesterday. It's so easy to blame everything on teething. So when Caleb woke up a million times during the night two nights straight, then was beyond tired all day long both yesterday and today, resulting in him wanting to be held constantly, and then added to his other symptoms a utter refusal to eat, followed by a fever so hot that even his hands and feet were burning, I blamed it all on teething.

After cleaning up much puke, I'm starting to have second thoughts on the origin of his symptoms.

Sacramento

My friend Jocelyn is in town visiting, so we headed down to Sacrament for the day with our boys. Our first stop was the Railroad Museum. Caleb wasn't really that into it. He was feeling shy and overly clingy. He'd sit in his stroller fine, but if ever I took him out to try and get a photo of him, he wanted to be held the whole time and would cry till I picked him up (or put him back in his stroller, which still required picking him up first).

We did see lots of cool trains, as well as really old toy trains. There was even a section of toys that the kids could play with. Since that was our last stop at the museum, Caleb did a little better, but still didn't like being near any of the other kids. Mostly, he just kept bringing me all the toy trains from off the table.

After that, we walked around old town Sacramento for a while. Caleb was still in a funky mood. (It might be due to the fact that he woke up at 5:30 this morning, instead of his normal 8:30 or 9, and didn't want to go back to sleep.) I couldn't get a single good picture out of him. He wouldn't hold still anywhere and just wanted me to pick him up again. Which means that all I ended up with are pictures that Jocelyn took of Caleb and me together. But at least he'll know we went.

By the time we got to the capitol building, he was starting to relax a little around our friends. Finally, a few shots of him by himself!



Then, as I was about to take a picture of Jocelyn with her boys, Caleb completely surprised me. He started walking away from me. I was shocked. He'd been so needy all day long, I just couldn't believe it. He even climbed up the stairs on his own.



After that, he did a lot better and wanted to walk on his own. I was finally able to get some cute pictures of him. Here he is (above) in front of the entry doors and (below) sitting in front of a Redwood tree.



The one disadvantage, however to walking on your own, is that you are than available for tackling! Really, Teak was just trying to show Caleb love, but Caleb's not used to such body slamming love (except from his daddy who remembers to still be gentle or else Mommy will likely get mad).


Well, after a long day of fun, we headed into the Sees candy shop. The sales lady there hooked Caleb up good! So much for not eating sweets till he turned two!


(Sadly, he only got a tiny bit of it, just long enough for Mommy to take a picture, before I ate it out of his hands. Rules are rules after all.)

Cuteness

A few more cute pictures from last week's photo shoot at our apartment complex.




Caleb's excited face. It's especially fun when Daddy comes home for a minute and Caleb gets so excited to see him.

Getting Faster

While not running yet, Caleb's starting to be a quick little walker. Especially in the house. He's such a good little boy and will come wherever I want him to come. That is, until we go outside.

Outside, he's the slowest little turtle. He loves to look around at all the things, pointing at them, sometimes picking them up. Often, he'll take a wrong turn, though for the most part, he'll walk straight to the car (which is down a little ways from our apartment door). Coming home though, he never wants to go back in and will wander off wherever he can until Mommy comes to fetch him.

(At the store, he's not allowed to roam much, since he always runs away from me and thinks it's so super funny to have me chase after him.)

Quirks

Besides the below mentioned hatred of grass walking, Caleb's only real quirk is that he HATES when Mommy's hair is in her face.

It's rather cute actually. He always wants to move the hair out of my face. I've had to teach him how to be soft about it, because otherwise he just keeps hitting me in the face until the hair is gone.

Soccer baby

After hanging out with the Fox family one day, I decided it was time for Caleb to learn how to kick a soccer ball.

He's getting pretty good at it. Well, he walks with the ball in front of him, kind of kicking it as he goes, but I figure that's a start. He loves it when I have him sit in my lap, then I kick the ball (with his foot) really hard and the ball goes sailing. He also loves to just pick the ball up and carry it to me.

So far, most of our soccer skills take place indoors, as Caleb is still unsure about walking in grass. Even with his shoes on, he sometimes won't move at all once I set him down in the grass. He's doing better about it, and will eventually warm up to the idea. It just takes a little while.

Golden Hour

Last Thursday, as we were waiting for dinner to finish cooking, Caleb and I went outside and had a little photo shoot. Towards the end of it, we found this patch of grass that the last bit of sunlight was shining directly on. Since people often call that last hour of sunlight the golden hour, I thought we should go take advantage of this rare find.

Sadly, the golden hour translated into a really orange Caleb. But after playing around in photoshop a little bit, I really like the images. It's also a lot of fun to see how many cute different expressions I can get out of my kid.


Smiling at a stranger that was walking past us. Caleb can say hi, but sometimes gets too shy and will just smile instead.


Caleb's angry face. He also makes this face a lot when he says the word "no."