big boy

what they say is true: the kids are growing up so fast! we got Caleb a "big boy bed" (thanks to the monahans) and he's been trying it out lately. today he took his first nap and did very well. we've been a little apprehensive since he's been sick lately, but he seemed to understand mama when she told him he would be disciplined if he got out of bed himself. for better or worse, he definitely responds to the threat of discipline. so here's a little clip of Caleb and Alice enjoying his new bed. hopefully soon we'll move Alice into the crib in his room.

the longest saturday

Michelle had quite a long week with Caleb, who was sick with a cold the whole time. he would fuss and whine pretty much all day, and we'd give him the benefit of the doubt due to being sick. so we'd sometimes let the whining work, instead of the usual "no whining" rule we have. so after all that plus the usual lack of sleep due to feeding the tiny baby, she was quite happy to have me home for the weekend. Caleb usually does better when I'm around, as he's grown more attached since Alice arrived. so we were hoping for a weekend of everyone feeling better, as things seemed to improve on Friday.

but Saturday was the longest Saturday ever. it doesnt really do it justice to say that he whined all day. it was more like he threw a temper tantrum at every and any opportunity. not quite continuous crying, but close. there comes a point when you just let him cry it out, but it does start to wear you down. at one point I couldnt pick him up b/c I was making lunch, and he got in such a state that he was kind of twitching his head when he'd inhale from his cries. this freaked us all out a little, but thankfully a brief stroll around the back yard settled him down.

thankfully he's usually not a temper-tantrum kinda guy, so we're not quite used to it. more often than not, if he's upset about not getting something, we just have to ask him where one of his stuffed animals is, and he'll happily go find it for us (I'm actually surprised this trick works as often as it does). but we survived, and a couple beers and some pizza helped wash it away.

but now we're dealing with the aftermath a bit. thankfully he's feeling much better. but it seems he's learned that whining can get him what he wants. this morning when I was leaving he gave me the fakest cry I've heard from him. I couldnt help but laugh as I told him that whining doesnt work any more. he seems to be catching on again, as his little tantrums are much shorter now, and now and then I think I see a light bulb go off when we (once again) explain that he's not allowed to whine, but needs to ask nicely for things he wants. after the non-stop whinefest, we're thankful to have him more back to normal.

but is this just a preview of what is to come as he approaches the age of 2? and who knows how Alice will be with these things. we're realizing that we need to think and pray about these things more, and maybe pick up a few tips from the woodshed lady (who apparently changed the name of her site, but the "godly tomato lady" just doesnt sound as cool) and re-read Shepherding soon.

oh and lest I forget, then there was Sunday. he wasnt well enough to go to church, so I let mama go without the kids, and we watched "praise baby" during church time (b/c who doesnt want to watch goldfish and toys and kids playing ball while listening to "shine, Jesus shine"? -- it's not as bad as that sounds, but sometimes it's a little absurd. I take comfort that at least he's learning some good songs). and everyone had a GREAT nap in the afternoon (while I had a mental nap - watching the steelers game a bit). and mama recounted some of the sermon for me...something about giving our battles to God, who has won them all in Jesus already. good thing He's really in control around here, or we just might go crazy.

and finally, there are some more pictures here.

finally

we cut Caleb's hair, but not too much. and we love it. thanks, grandma!

not-so-little boy

Caleb has grown amazingly fast this week. on Wednesday he was our little boy, and now he's the big brother. now that we have the new baby, he really does look a lot different to me, much more grown up. I marvel at his big hands and feet and the strong muscles he's got, not to mention the whole walking and talking thing. we're so thankful that he seems to love his little sister, as he's always wanting to see her and snuggle with her. he listens well when we tell him "gentle" and he doesnt like it when she cries. we hope and pray that his affection for her will grow.

so here he is during bath time today. yes, we need to cut his hair (for the first time).

and here he is snuggling with his baby sister. more on her cool outfit soon.

as for other baby news, everything is going quite well so far. Alice is a good eater and not a bad sleeper either. mama is feeling pretty good, especially compared to last time. we were both surprised at how well we remembered the sleeplessness and difficulties with Caleb as a newborn, but forgot the wonder and beauty of it all. so we're doing our best to just treasure the time we have with our tiny girl. gramma and grampa are taking good care of us and having a blast with Caleb. and if any locals would like to stop by, call ahead and we'll be happy to see you!

subject to change

nearly all our routines and such will surely change very soon when the new baby arrives. we've been blessed for many months to have a relatively predictable schedule with Caleb, and I think it may be hard to be thrown back into all the unknowns again. but for the record, here's our general routine these days:

out of bed at 7:30 or so. earlier if there's an appointment or we're feeling chipper, but we all love snuggling, so we tend to take our time.
make a scrambled egg for Caleb (with bread and fruit too), fried eggs, bacon and toast for mama, cereal for me. tea if it's cold out.
sometimes sing a hymn or two before we leave the table. we want to be better at having regular family worship times.
Caleb is usually off to play on his own while mama showers and I do the dishes and make my lunch. I try to leave for work by 8:45, but these days with mama being a little slower, it's often 9. Caleb is often sad to see me go, which breaks my heart, but he's also really cute when he's looking out the window as I leave.
as far as I know, Caleb and mama hang out and do good stuff until lunch time (you'd have to get more specifics from her), and afterwards it's nap time for both. he'll usually nap for about 1.5 hours, but if he's kept up later sometimes he'll last 3.
I usually get home around 5:30 to much rejoicing by all, led in volume by the dog, in enthusiasm by Caleb (unless there's a video on), and in kisses by mama. then we figure out dinner together, which these days is often something yummy from the freezer. then we all get to spend time together and/or do dishes and whatnot as needed.
I love playing with Caleb until bedtime, which is usually somewhere between 7 and 7:30. I change him and get his bedtime milk ready (still in a bottle for only this time, although we're moving to sippy for this too) and when all is ready for bed, I take him to mama for his goodnite kiss. then it's milk, book, milk, prayers, and bedtime. he LOVES to snuggle with his blanket, especially the one with the tags still on it (he's always loved tags for some reason), so he settles right in and doesnt usually make a peep for 12 hours. as we have a newborn arriving very soon, and remember not-so-long-ago with Caleb, I realize that all that sleep is a huge blessing for all of us. hopefully little girl will catch on in good time too.
anyway, then mama and I get to hang out for the rest of the night, which is also a big blessing. sometimes we're off to girls or guys Bible study or whatnot, but we're so thankful for the good amount time we have for eachother. we actually have set aside Wednesday nights as our own time to look forward to, just to make sure we have that every week (I highly recommend this if your lives are generally busy especially). lately I havent been sleeping well (probably due to being excited/nervous about baby coming), so I'll stay up reading or watching sports or something, but not too late. then of course we start all over.

I'm sure all of this is subject to change very soon. I just hope and pray that we'll all adjust well to our new life together, and as energy and sleep are sacrificed, that we may be loving and faithful as we ought to be.

baby builder 2

just like I initially did when he started building wood blocks, I still get all proud of Caleb when he makes various towers with his toys. he loves to build his mega blocks, and he made a tower of 14 of them this morning. he's even learned to straighten it up when it starts leaning.

he also likes stacking his "peek-a-blocks." these blocks are pretty cool, but they're not particularly good for building. even so, he stacks them up one by one, and he got 7 or 8 of them in a tower tonight. of course I think this is pretty cool, and he picks up on that, so he gets quite proud of himself.

but the amazing thing to me is how quickly he learns just by observing. he'd stack 3 or 4, and it would be a little precarious, so I'd (rhetorically) ask him if I could straighten them out a little before he put the next one on. so I would, and he'd build it up higher. after doing this a couple times, he figured out what I was doing and started doing it for himself. if one was hanging over, he'd poke it until it was on a little better. of course this may be completely normal behavior, but it's cool to see him pick up on stuff like that. when I ask him a question (like "point to the baby" in one of his books) or when he's working on a task like building blocks, I love that I can see his little wheels turning.

and there are a few more pictures here, including one of mama at 9 months.

walking videos

here are a couple clips of Caleb walking. he's gained a lot of confidence, so I think he'll be running around in no time.

here's one in the living room (and a pixelated MOV version for grandma) and one in the kitchen.

3 steps forward

Caleb took his first steps on his own today! he is now 15 months old and quite an expert at crawling, and very cautious, so he hasnt been keen on trying to walk on his own. he's actually been walking fine for a while, but only if he's holding on to one of our fingers. it's not like he's holding on for support, but he's not confident enough to go out on his own. I suspect he may be cautious for his whole life, but he really responds well to encouragment.

so we were hanging out in his room, talking about getting him to walk more, and I remembered that he hasnt been standing much lately. so I picked him up on his feet and told him to stand, just to see how long he could do it. he happened to be holding his blanket. and just as I let him go to stand up, he took three steps toward me! I dont think he knew what he was doing, as the blanket probably fooled him into thinking he was holding on to something stable. of course mama and I went crazy with excitement. and then, still with blanket in hand, he popped up from crawling to standing for the first time too. this he clearly did intentionally, as he had his big proud grin on his face and of course we showered him with praises and encouragement. but no matter what we tried he wouldnt try again, which isnt surprising. he usually thinks the "stand up" thing is a game to fall back down again, but we'll see if he makes any progress tomorrow.

and here we are today on the porch. still no baby girl, but we did get some more stuff done around the house, which is always nice. hopefully she'll be here soon!

little videos

so as I continue to play with our early Christmas present (getting ready for baby girl of course), I'm trying out the various options, one of which is shooting the video to an SD card instead of the tape. the drawback is it's only 320x240, but it makes things very easy to get online. so here are a few videos of Caleb doing his thing.

wall-walking and such, one-hand walking, opening the mail and more mail

geek day, baby night

it's been a full day. (the next paragraph is relatively geeky. skip down if you're more interested in baby/family stuff).

early this morning Ed and I headed to an all-day geek event for work, namely a Microsoft TechEvent and MSDN thing. being Microsoft developers we get to take in these free presentations now and then. we have a good streak of bringing home decent door prizes (I won a PDA last time, which went strait to eBay), and there are always t-shirts and other schwag. the content of the actual presentations is usually somewhat pertinent to our work, although often it's either over my head or doesnt apply to what we do, or both. but today was very good for us, as it addressed the new versions of our database software (SQL 2005) as well as our programming platform (ASP.NET 2.0). for the first time at one of these, I knew exactly what they were talking about, could see the benefit of the upgrades, and even could ask some relatively intelligent questions. so we're looking forward to the new versions, and as Ed marveled, some of the features of the new stuff may be the first time we'll use a Microsoft product as it's intended (without bending over backwards with workarounds for our purposes). we shall see. oh and Ed won a nice laptop bag.

when I got home the fun began. Michelle had a get-together here tonight (which happened to be almost exclusively the wives of Coptix). so she was busy getting stuff ready, and I was on baby duty as well as trying to help with the dishes and whatnot. but there was also an event this evening for work that we needed as many work folks as possible to attend. so instead of going myself, I volunteered to watch Fuller so his parents could go. double baby duty!

it was actually a lot of fun so see the boys interact, and to marvel how different they are. then again it's not that surprising, because the boys' dads personalities are pretty different too. then Jaron showed up with his mom, so he joined in on the fun too. having 2 kids to tend to was eye-opening for what we're about to experience, but chasing after 3 kids isn't easy. I have new respect for the Wells. thankfully these boys are all low-maintenance, at least until bedtime fussiness kicks in. but after playing and whatnot, I got Fuller and Caleb put to bed, and handed off Jaron to his mama.

then I retired to the backyard to hang out with the dog and pluck on the banjo a little while the girls had fun together.

drug-free weekend

after at least 2 weeks of round-the-clock tylenol or advil, Caleb finally had a couple days without it. 2 of his lower molars are in now, and the upper ones are coming in too, but thankfully we all had a break from the pain, fussiness and drugs. and we had a great weekend to reconnect as a little family. Caleb hasnt been himself for a little while now, so it's great to just play and watch him enjoy a day.

we're loving the cooler weather! we bundled up a bit and headed to the back yard to play without fear of bugs or heat. it's been a while, but Caleb remembered how to play on his slide and dig up grass and whatnot. it was fun to walk together too, tho he had a little trouble negotiating the divots with shoes on.

then we had some old friends stop by with their cute little girl. they didnt quite play together too much, but we all had a good time catching up and basking in cuteness.

oh and I managed to stay up late reading Harry Potter 6, which was fun. my favorite is still 3, but I thought it was good. at least the ending was good enough to keep me up til 2am.

today we went to Caleb's first birthday party (that wasnt his own). we had a fun time celebrating with Fuller, and Caleb even tried ice cream for the first time, but he wasnt too interested. maybe next time. and he drew a picture for Fuller too, which I think is the first drawing he's done. I had to help a bit. and Caleb loved the family dogs of course.

and another first: he had is first minor injury. he was climbing on his chairs and table, and slipped, hit the table and cut his lip on his tooth. he was a little scared, but recovered rather quickly, and thankfully he's fine.

finally, the thing we're most proud of is that he's standing on his own. whenever I've tried to have him stand, he'd flop down, which he'd make into a fun game. so he never stayed up long at all. but something apparently clicked this weekend, as he'll stay standing for at least 30 seconds. of course we're thrilled with this progress as we're hoping he'll walk well before his baby sister arrives. he can tell we're excited as he'll stand there grinning before he flops down laughing. hopefully soon he'll take a step or two. in all the excitement I forgot to take a picture, but here he is in his super-cute cooler-weather jammies. update: mama took some pictures of his standing for us.

we're so glad fall is here, looking forward to holding our little girl, and falling more and more in love with our little boy.

lotsa videos

Here are a bunch of video clips in windows media format. Most are around 30 seconds and 5MB, tho some approach 1 minute and 10MB.

Block party:
Caleb's first block building (my favorite clip)
The last time we'll let him do this

Playing with Katie:
He loves her new do
They both love envelopes

Around the house:
Yogurt mess
Peek-a-Boo with mama

At the aquarium:
Checking things out
Butterfly
With grandpa

With grandparents:
Reading with grandma
The hat game with grandpa
On the phone with grandma

And now I would like to thank Microsoft Movie Maker for making it so easy to get these off the camera and into nice little clips.

butt-wipe bonanza

almost all baby wipes (and most diapers) have aloe or chamomile or some other plant-derived, supposedly good-for-your-skin kinda product in them. I'm sure most folks dont really pay much attention to such details. but it so happens that the medication Michelle takes for her fibro has an adverse reaction whenever she comes in contact with plant products. namely, it just doesnt work that day. given enough days in a row of "blocking", she'd be feeling consistently miserable again. so we have to watch out for plant stuff in every last thing: soap, hair gel, tissues, cleaning products, and yes, baby wipes.

one of the very few wipes that were plant-product free were the walmart generic "newborn" style. until last month. they changed the stinkin formula for no good reason! they added chamomile without any notice. it's a good thing Michelle was paying attention to the ingredients, because manufacturers are devious that way. so she checked the fibro email list and fibromyalgia treatment website to be sure no one else got caught unaware, and found out that the change was indeed quite recent. the only other option we could find is twice as expensive. so the race was on to find some wipes on the shelves that had the old formula.

Michelle and Caleb went to 4 different area walmarts (and twice to one location) in 2 days, scoring a couple dozen packs. then she called in the troops: Grandma T found some at her wally, and Grandma and Grandpa W went above and beyond the call of duty, traipsing all around central NC to get something like 40 packs! and the amazing thing is they apparently had a fun time doing it. so a big thanks to the fam for helping out. and if anyone out there (not in the Chattanooga, TN or Chapel Hill, NC area) wants to get in on the fun, let me know.

so at last count, we now have about 80 packs of wipes, for a total of 6400 individual baby butt-wipes. we're not sure where we're going to put all of them, but if we use less than 10 a day, they'll last us 2 years.

I used to use about 3 wipes on a poopy diaper, and usually none for pee, but now I'm trying to get it down to 2, which is possible as long as it's not too nasty. and we'll soon have 2 bottoms to wipe, and one will be flowing with wipable material for a little while, as the breastfeeding newborn poops often, if I recall correctly.

we could always make our own with paper towels and soap and such, but the last thing we need right now is another time-consuming task. but when our stash runs out, we may go that direction. meanwhile, we'll urge the manufacturer to take out the evil and unnecessary plant product.

getting chatty

Caleb has been communicating for a while now. he does great with his signs, doing more, please, all-done, and milk. he actually uses the "more" sign as an all-purpose "I want that" sign, and he's modified it to more like a clapping motion. and when he REALLY wants something (like a bit of my cookie), he goes through all of his signs in rapid succession, which is quite funny. but the point is that he can "talk" to us without whining too much. very nice. now that he's doing them well, we need to figure out a few more to teach him. we're currently working on water.

but he had shown little interest in actually saying words. he likes to do animal sounds (dog, cow, snake), but not so much enthusiasm for real words. until yesterday. we may be reading into some of his sounds, but we're pretty sure he's attempting these words now: "fit" for fruit (his favorite food item), "buh" for banana, "bah" for ball, "da" for daddy, "ma" for mama, "ah-um" for amen (which he's been doing a little while now at the end of every mealtime prayer), and he'll say "hi" to grandma on the phone, much to her delight. it's really cool to see him understand a whole lot of what we say too.

and while were on the subject of milestones, we're often asked if he's walking yet. the current answer is "not by himself." he LOVES to zoom around the house while holding our hands or using his walker, but he's not steady enough to stand and balance on his own. and he is naturally VERY cautious at all costs, and being so tall, I think it's hard for him to balance. so we'll see. mama hopes that he'll be walking well by the time the little girl arrives (probably less than 2 months!), but it doesnt seem like that is going to happen. all in good time. meanwhile, he's getting good at climbing up and down the furnature, and getting in and out of all manner of basket and such. it's so cool to see him explore his world.

oh and here's a common sight, which grandma spotted in this picture: he loves to clutch a cheerio or goldfish or whatever in his hand and carry it around the house. I've discovered that when he wants one of those things, he actually wants TWO: one to hold, and one to eat. this also makes for fun games with the dog, who follows him around, trying to get at it. I think he's figured this out, so they'll chase eachother back and forth. it's alot of fun to see them playing together.

baby builder

one of my favorite things about being a dad is watching my son learn stuff. sometimes it's just amazing, especially when it's me who is doing the teaching. I get so proud of him, and I can tell that he responds well to positive reinforcement.

he got a set of building blocks for his birthday almost 2 months ago. I really like to build with them, and he really likes to knock them down, so we have fun playing together. for a little while now I've been trying to teach him to build with them, but he showed no interest, until today. I put one down flat, and put another upright on it, and I gave him another one, the whole time saying stuff like "let's build" and "now you build."

and he took right to it. he put one on the other and looked up all proud. I'd of course say something like "good job!" and he'd light up. then he got to work, trying his best to put 2 up, but always knocking the first down. I just love how he concentrates and the looks he gets when he's thinking through something. eventually he got it where he could put 2 side-by-side, but all the knocking over was starting to frustrate him, so he got a little pouty. we're still working on the patience and perseverance part.

tricks video

after a couple REALLY fussy days (due to 3 teeth coming in, and perhaps his mosquito bites), Caleb had a couple blessedly happy days this week. it's so much fun to chase him around the house and just have a good time laughing together. we also like to have him do his latest tricks ("where's the baby?", "how big...", "give a kiss") which he has fun with. so here's a little video: Windows | Mac

oh and check out his new shirt over on mama's blog.

splish splash

another Caleb video: for most of us (pc); for grandma and others (mac)

nanci dance

it's a lot cooler in person, but at grandma's request, mama managed to capture a little video of Caleb dancing to the music. and as a bonus, you can see also him playing with his favorite toy, which is a stack of junk mail. finally, a use for all those papers.

update: here's a better video of his swaying, arm-waving dancing. and as a bonus, he does the "so big" game too. oh and while I'm experimenting with the video software, here's a Windows Media version, which seems to compress much nicer. but grandma is on a Mac, so perhaps the point is moot...

non-annoying kids music?

we love music, but until recently we've neglected to demonstrate this to our son. maybe that's not true, as I like to play guitar and mando and xylophone and such for and with him, but we really havent played him many CDs yet. we're not looking to push him to be a musical prodigy (actually I think I'd rather not deal with the baggage that seems to come with a "child genius"), but we do hope to pass on our love for it, especially as a means to relate to and serve others.

so when he started to dance and laugh at the stupid electronic music on one of his toys, I figured it was time to fire up the CD player in his room. the first step was to move it up on a high shelf. he loves to push buttons and open doors, so it didnt take him long to bring the music to a halt when it was down low. I didnt want to bring him to tears over not messing with the player, so up it went. shoulda done that a long time ago.

we have one kids music CD (and book) with Old MacDonald and such on it, so we'll play that for him and sing along. he loves to "dance" to it: swaying back and forth (to the beat? I'm not sure yet) and waving his arms and sometimes clapping. super cute and clearly a whole lotta fun.

the nice thing is that it's surprisingly well done. the arrangements are interesting, the musicians are skilled, and (I think this is the key) the vocals are done by adults. adults with fun voices, not kids with grating, overly-high, out-of-tune voices. no electronic cheesiness either.

so does anyone know of any Bible songs CDs that would meet these standards? I dont mind if it's kids singing, as long as they sound like regular kids, and not a boy's choir. I think I've found a couple that seem OK, which I found by surfing around:

the Praise Baby line sounds pretty good (tho I get a chuckle out of the name...arent we supposed to praise God?). there are kids singing, but it's led by an adult and the kids are in the background. I tend to favor old hymns (although with slightly contemporary settings), but we do like a lot of these praise songs too.

then there's the Cedarmont Kids label, which is more the fun kids songs kinda thing, like "Rise and Shine." I'm currently partial to this genre, as I play the guitar for Sunday School opening ceremonies every week. I think they do this pretty well, as the arrangements are fun, and there are kids singing, but they sound pretty normal (not too much screeching). and cant beat the price ($4).

and then there's always VeggieTales, which is somewhat of a genre unto itself. even tho it's a blatant attempt to cash in on the recent wave (or is it a parody? either way it's definitely VT), we'd probably like O Veggie, Where Art Thou?

of course we also play him "our" CDs, but there's something different about the kids stuff that gets him moving. we're sorely lacking in the classical department, although I did pick up Carnival of the Animals after Jeannette mentioned it. where's Auntie Sarah when we need her? I dont know much about it, but I've always enjoyed the Brandenburg Concertos.

so anyone have any "good" aka "not annoying" kids music ideas? or are we doomed to squeaking kids CDs?

moo juice

Caleb has hit a milestone that I've been looking forward to for a very long time: he's off formula and now drinking good old fashioned whole milk.

faithful readers will know we wanted so badly to have him breastfeed, but alas, it wasnt to be. so he was on formula, and it turned out the best stuff for him was the soy. and that stuff aint cheap. thankfully, our doctor's office would give us a case of liquid concentrate whenever we asked for it, and mama was never shy (always looking out for the bargains). so we were well taken care of. for a long time he was gassy with the powdered stuff, so every day-and-a-half, I would heat the water and use the blender and all that fun stuff (which I dubbed "the chemistry set"). all for the cause of less gas.

but, if all continues to go well, we're done with all that. he's still not good at feeding it to himself (a product of us long using a toy to distract him long enough to eat enough to sleep enough...yes, sleep or lack thereof affects us in many ways). but, ahh, the ease of just opening the fridge and there it is all ready to go. and it's less than 1/2 the price of generic formula (a word to any parents-to-be who end up using formula: get generic. really. it's the same stuff). and being much more fatty, it fills him up faster too. so far no ill-effects in his tummy or elsewhere, for which we are very thankful.

so hooray for cows. ask Caleb what a cow says, and he'll srunch up his face and go "mmmmm." he's still working on the "ooo" part.

tall

as mama reports, Caleb had his 1 year checkup today, and he is way off the charts in height. that's our boy!

and congrats to the Crabbs, who now have a cute chart-topper of their own. Caleb says welcome to the OT Bible Heroes Club, Adam.

party

amidst all the other activities this weekend, we managed to squeeze in a birthday party for Caleb. thanks to all who came and made it a great time. Caleb wasnt a big fan of the excellent cake, but I'm sure he'll aquire a taste for it soon enough. it was fun to see some of his little and big friends all gathered to celebrate the year of life he's been given.

happy birthday Caleb!

we love you with all of our hearts. this past year has been one blessing after the next, and we can hardly believe that your little sister will be here very soon. we pray that God will bless you and keep you, and that you will love Him forever.

birthday book

after starting 3 different homemade board books, we finally finished one, just in time for Caleb's birthday. we wanted to get him a book with lots of dog pictures in it, since he really loves dogs. but our local huge bookstore didnt have what we wanted, so I took matters into my own hands.

the bookstore did have an inexpensive dog breed book, with nice pictures of all the popular breeds. so I bought that and cut out a bunch of the pictures, glued them on (with non-toxic glue stick) one of our blank board books (which was only $1.25 at barebooks.com). then mama helped me put clear contact paper (only $5 for a whole roll) over all the pages. and it turned out great! I even have enough pictures left for later volumes if needed.

I decided to leave it very simple for expediency, and I like the way it looks too. so it's just pictures of dogs, no words or anything extra. maybe in future editions we'll add names of the breeds or descriptions, but meanwhile it will be fun to point to the picture of the lab and tell him about his "cousin" dog.

the best part is that he seems to really like it. he opened it this morning and started pointing and making the "oof, oof" sound, and requested that we look at it many times. hopefully it will hold up to all the attention it seems it will get. and now that this method seems to work, hopefully I'll finish the bird and catechism books soon.

one year ago

one year ago today: in the morning we went for a checkup, in the evening went to the hospital ready to have the baby (again), at night came back home (again) and at midnight went to the hospital for the last time (finally!).

one year ago all we wanted was to hold our little boy in our arms, and now here he is, zooming around the house, snuggling with his mama, laughing at the dog, and playing under his crib.

one year ago today was the last day I wasnt a dad. I like life better now.

dogs and birds

as I've mentioned before, Caleb loves dogs, and he especially loves our dog Katie, but she doesnt play with him too much yet. she's quite an expert at avoiding him. but now and then we'll get her to play with him, so here's a little video of their antics.

Caleb's been imitating Katie's yap for a long time now, but now he'll associate the "oof, oof" sound with all dogs. when he sees one in a book or video, he'll get all excited. the other day he and mama went down the dog food aisle, and he went nuts with the excitement of seeing all the doggies all around him.

he's also into birds. we have a couple feeders around the house, and he loves to watch and point to them. we've taught him that birdies say "tweet, tweet," and he'll do his best impression, not quite getting the "tw" sound, but definitely doing a "tweet" in his mind. we'll sit and watch them together on the couch, and he'll jump around with excitement.

so seeing his newfound interest, I thought I'd do another custom board book, so I've started a "birds in our yard" book. I borrowed some images from the internet (via Google Images), and I have all the pages already done and sent as 4x6s for printing. we'll see how it comes together, and I'm sure I'll use the lessons learned with this one for the catechism book. here are 2 of the pages I did:

so many thanks to the neighbors this weekend, who for whatever reason left their bird feeders empty, thus giving us lots of feathered friends to admire.

new game, no nap, I'm weird

Caleb made up a new game for himself this weekend. it's simple, fun and tons of laughs. I could explain it, but the video is much more fun.

last week was something of a change for all of us, as Caleb dropped his morning nap all of a sudden. we figured it was coming soon, but we thought it would be gradual. but no, he just decided on monday that he didnt want to nap in the morning. this drove mama a little crazy at first, since she likes to nap in the mornings too, but we're adjusting. she takes him out of the house much more often now, and we especially like getting out to our friends pool.

and finally, I am officially weird, scoring an 80% on this trusty weirdness quiz. awesome.

basket case

it's not as cute as getting stuck under the furnature, but it's still pretty funny. I guess he's doing his Moses impression?

I'll take the little story from the email mama sent to the grandparents and such (since she's too busy to blog these days): "I had a friend over and she and I were talking while he played near the book shelf at the end of the sofa. We have a basket of games and dog toys down there that Caleb loves to empty. Well I happened to look and see he was standing in the empty basket and by the time I grabbed the camera he had sat down completely. Gotta love it!"

other recent Caleb stuff:
he's craftier than I had realized. he bumped his head the other day, very lightly, and certainly nothing to cry about. but he looked up to see if we reacted, and catching mama's eye, he thought about it for a second, and then poked out his pouty lip and started to fuss. and so the attempted emotional manipulation begins.

he goes through phases of having a favorite babble word. right now it's variations on "shut," "zit," and yes, quite often: "shit." mama blames me. but I contend if it's pouring rain, and you're going 60+ MPH down the highway, and it's nearly impossible to see, and a truck is trying to merge into you, there's no better word to express your feelings at that moment. so Caleb's trying it out for himself, which is either amusing or alarming, depending on the context.

he loves dogs. he really loves our dog, but thus far his affection is unrequited. but when he sees a dog in one of his books, he'll often point to it and say "oof, oof." or I'll open a page and ask "where's the doggy" and he'll usually get it right. he long ago learned to mimic Katie's yap, but now he'll associate that noise with any dog (or fox, as the case may be). it's so cool to see him learning and interacting.

he's catching on to the baby sign stuff too. he'll do the all done sign pretty well, although only when we prompt him so far. I was trying to teach him "please" the other day, when I had a piece of fresh-baked bread (which he loves). I'd show him a bit, and ask him to say "please" (showing the motion at the same time of course) before I gave it to him. before too long he started doing the motion on me (which was super cute) but eventually he caught on. I'm sure we've got a long way to go before these stick, but it's cool to see progress.

he doesnt yet seem too interested in standing or walking, being very content to crawl very fast around the house. we want him on his feet before too long, so mama wont have to carry 2 babies.

we told him he was going to have a little sister. he took the news rather well.

staring at the son

I love to play with my boy. I also love to just sit and watch him play on his own. he's a ways from being self-conscious, so he'll happily do his thing while I study his moves. it really is amazing to see him discover his little world.

like playing with a box: moving the flaps back and forth, back and forth, checking on the contents of the box (a package of diapers), moving the flaps again. folding down the flap as far as it will go, watching it pop back up again. smiling at this new game. fold the flap. watch it come back. smile. look at daddy to see what he thinks (he smiles and says he thinks it's pretty cool). big grin. check on the contents. move the flaps again. this goes on for at least 5 minutes. amazing, considering nothing would console him 10 minutes ago.

I didnt take time to do much reflection on father's day, but just watching my boy grow and discover things fills me with thanksgiving and awe. I never realized how much I would love my kids. and here's a life that has been entrusted to my care. amazing.

yet I've realized I can fall into the trap of raising my kids to be just like me, especially since Caleb is a dead ringer for me (and everyone is always reminding us of that). sometimes I do feel like I'm looking at a tiny version of myself. but no, he's HIMself, as besides, he's made of just as much of his mama as me. JQ recently pointed out a good article on this topic. it's good to be reminded that Caleb and the new baby are NOT my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, as the old catechism says.

chicken

one weird and cool thing about having a baby is that he's doing brand new things all the time. things that he may be doing for the rest of his life, things that we do all the time. of course it would get old to celebrate each of these little moments, but it's just cool that he has those moments almost every day.

yesterday it was eating chicken for the first time. he didnt last long on the baby food stage, so we give him bits and pieces of things. he really enjoys feeding himself, and it's a little easier for us too. and the dog's a big fan as well.

so he's been loving his pears, peaches, bananas, pancakes, eggs, pasta, peas, carrots, sweet potatos and whatnot (like pretzels, graham "crackers" and animal "crackers"). so we figured introducing some kind of meat was in order. mama made some funky meatballs with a recipe she found in her baby meals book, but they were pretty gross. none of us liked them. yuck.

but yesterday I brought home some fried chicken, and we like it spicy. I figured if I got some closer to the bone for him, the spice wouldnt be down that far. so I peeled some off, did the blowing it off game (which he loves) and put it on his tray. down it went without a second thought, and he was looking for more. he was loving the stuff, so we figured the spice was no big deal.

awaking to his wails at 4am, we figured otherwise. it may have been because he hasnt been feeling all that good lately, but he was rather unhappy at such an unhappy hour. thankfully he took a bottle and we all slept in, but I think next time we'll do a crock pot chicken with NO spice.

104.2°

I'm generally not one to worry, usually taking stances like "it'll all work out" or at most "let's keep an eye on it and see what happens." when my kid's fever is at a relatively normal (in my mind at least) 101-102 range, it's easy for me to let things run their course.

but when he's positively radiating heat, and the new thermometer says 104.2 after a day's worth of fever-reducers, the worry wheels start to turn. just one tick away from nasty stuff like "possible bacterial infection" and only a few more till such things as "organ shutdown."

the first worry that sets in is quite practical: crap, what if we have to take him to the emergency room? I really dislike emergency rooms, as it seems you have to wait at least 8 hours while all the heart attacks and gunshot wounds get taken care of first. plus I dont even know where the kids hospital is, or if they even have an ER?

and lingering in the back of my mind are all the unthinkable thoughts. what if he doesnt get better? what if I've heard his laugh for the last time? it's no wonder Jesus commanded us not to worry, because this stuff could eat away my soul in short order.

so we pray and call the nurse and grandma (who is also a nurse) and are thankful for the little signs of health. he was especially into snuggling and books and TV. he was trying so hard to be himself. even when he was burning up and utterly exhausted, he still would wave his fingers at me in the mirror (while his thumb was in his mouth). when the tylenol would kick in, he'd sit up and play in my lap a little, even giggling at the silly games we play.

it's now a couple days after the worst and he's definitely feeling better, just in time for a short visit with grandma and grandpa. we'll see if the pox do in fact show up. while we're in the middle of all this, it can sometimes seem overwhelming, but then we get reminders that we still lead a simple life. right now I have a hard time imagining what 2 will be like, much less all the craziness with five.

a pox upon us?

it appears that Caleb may have the chicken pox. yuck. supposedly it's not as bad at this age, but he's already been up a lot in the middle of the night lately. hopefully this will pass soon. I imagine it will spread through the church rather quickly, as he apparently got it from his girlfriend (well they're not an item yet, but we have something of an agreement with her parents).

so we'll see how it goes. if you're not vaccinated or antibodied, stay away from our house for a while. conversely, if you WANT yourself or your kids to be antibodied, feel free to come by and catch the fever.

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UPDATE: apparently it's not the pox, but a "summer virus." his high fever is supposed to go down in a few days, and an intial blood test came back normal. so now we weather the storm and do our best to comfort the bambino.

waving

Caleb has been learning how to wave, and his little efforts never cease to crack us up. and he often seems surprised at his new found abilities. so we caught some of it on video, with mama waving to him through the mirror, as he strains to see her and starts his little inward hand flap.

that's our boy

Caleb went for his 9 month weigh-in, and he remains in the 90th percentile in height (~30 inches) and 50th in weight (20lb, 10oz), which is about where I've been my whole life.

we've recently started him on bits of table food, as he's refusing baby mush these days. it seems like he wants to feed himself, but his will is more advanced than his skills. so we cut up bits of pears, apple, peas, sweet potato, etc and he has a good time with it. of course cherrios still remain as the favorite.

so it seems like he'll grow up looking a lot like me, and probably have more of his mama's personality. cool.

yappers and construction

our dog Katie is a little yapper, and we love every ounce of her 6 pounds of fluff. Caleb is a big fan too, and since he started crawling, he's been having more and more fun with her. and since he started eating (and throwing) Cheerios, she's warming up to him again. for a while she stayed just out of his reach, as he was fond of pulling her fur, but now she's not shy about removing moistened cereal from his hands.

which brings me to Caleb's funniest antic these days. we were out in the yard, and someone was walking past the back fence, so as usual, Katie ran out to greet him with her maniacal yapping. Caleb looked over and imitated her quite nicely with his version of squeeky yapping. it may not be that funny to read about, but it's rather hilarious in action. sometimes we think he's actually trying to call her with his yap, and he certainly knows to look for her when we call her with her more conventional names. hopefully we'll catch the yapping on video sometime.

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my dad and brother-in-law worked hard for us over the weekend (I supervised, cleaned up, and played gopher). we gutted the water-damaged part of the back porch, replaced beams and whatnot, layed a new floor, and put up a new screen door, all before the rains came last night. dad worked especially hard all day yesterday to beat the weather, and now all that's left are a few details. it's great to no longer get a sinking feeling (in more than one way) when you step out the back door. it's so nice to have a successful, quick project done so well (assuming the rain isnt flowing in the house at the moment). now I've got to figure out how to replace the old aluminum siding back there.

baby sign

we've heard good things about "baby sign language" and we're going to give it a shot with Caleb. anybody out there have any experience with it? I just ordered a book that will give the rundown of the methodology and the signage, so we'll see what happens. I'm sure it's not for every kid and every parent, but it seems like a good way to help the kid communicate before his verbal skills are developed, thus hopefully averting frustration for everyone. so yes, we're adding to our collection of "the books".

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I just held our friends' newborn baby. it's been 8 months since I've held such a tiny one, and I'd forgotten how light, how small, how sleepy, how uniquely beautiful a newborn is. yeah, I've got baby fever.

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all of my immediate family will be here for a visit soon. my sister and her husband will be here for a weekend, and my parents will be here for a week. partly to hang out as a family and partly to help fix our sagging back porch/laundry room. hopefully the project will go smoothly (you never know till you get into it). it should be fun, especially with Caleb motoring around the house.

go heels

I enjoy college bball, and having worked for UNC one summer, and my folks living in the area, we cant help but root for the tar heels. meanwhile, Michelle's folks are planning on planting a church on the campus of the U of Illinois. should be interesting on Monday. our little tar heel was ready for the game tonite, but alas, it started well after his bedtime.

on the move

as of yesterday, Caleb is a crawler! we're quite proud of his latest accomplishment, and obviously this changes a whole lot of life around the house. this morning we were setting up his stacking cups, which he loves to crawl after and knock down. but once he looked over, saw a toy he wanted instead, and promptly went after it. his mama and I exchanged a look of surprise, pride, and maybe a bit of fear. I think we'll be investing in a baby gate quite soon, and the dog is in for quite a shock once he starts chasing her. should be fun.

here's a video of his crawling prowess. (5 MB)

flirt

he may be only 7 months old, but my son is quite a flirt. he is not shy about smiling at anyone and everyone, and he's quite methodical in how he gets people to react to him.

when he sees someone he likes (which is just about anyone), he'll smile directly at her, and look for her eyes. he's pretty patient with this too. sometimes he'll babble a bit as well...super cute "bah bah bah" kinda stuff. when the intended victim finally acknowledges his plea for attention with a look or a smile, he'll positively light up and give a big grin.

I've watched him do this in a room with folks coming and going, and when a new person enters, he'll watch her cross the room, hoping for interaction. as adorable as he is, he usually gets it, and everyone is quite happy.

I have no idea how common this behavior is, but I find it rather hilarious. I'm generally shy with new people, but Michelle is usually outgoing, so maybe his mama's personality is coming out here.

we have a friend with cute kids, and I know that they know it too, as she told us once that she addressed her 3 year old son. we'll call him Caleb.

mama: "hey Caleb"
boy: (interrupting) "I know, I'm cute"

while I love having a cute kid, I hope that it doesnt go to all of our heads.

caleb video

the latest video of our little scooter:

original, darker, mpg, 7 MB
or
compressed, brightened, mov, 1.2 MB

superheroes

I would really like to know why kids get so obsessed with superheroes, and if my kid catches the fever, where might be the line between obession and unhealthy obsession?

a bunch of our friends have boys who are REALLY REALLY into batman, superman, and of course spiderman. there's one kid who I've had in sunday school for a couple years. he's got an amazing memory, but, in my opinion, he uses his powers for not-so-good, as he can quote, in full detail, volumes of various episodes of "teen titans" and scooby-doo and whatnot. of course he's also quite good at learning our memory verses and such, but he is forever talking about superheroes and other various cartoon characters.

as a sunday school teacher, it drives me a little nuts, as a friend of his parents, it causes me some concern, and as a parent of a little boy, it kinda freaks me out. I know this kid's parents are great, and they actually limit their kids TV time, so it's not like he's watching it all day. but I have a feeling he's thinking about it all day.

something inside me says this cant be all that good. is it completely unrealistic to want kids to be that excited about Jesus? I know it doesnt have to be one-or-the-other, but still, why all this passion and energy over something that's just make-believe? (these are actual questions, by the way, for any who care to give an answer).

I was never really into superheroes when I was growing up, so maybe that's a sticking point for me. I went through a star wars phase, but I was mostly a transformers and lego kid. I think I can see the appeal of the supernatural in the superhero stuff, as it seems as if we were made to desire and admire things that are greater than ourselves. but if in a couple years all Caleb can talk about is spiderman this and spiderman that, is there, or should there, anything to be done?

shy scooter, etc

at almost 7 months, the boy is becoming more and more mobile. he can slowly scoot himself around in just about any direction but forward, and we're pretty sure he'll get that down soon too. just yesterday he figured out how to get up on his hands and knees (as opposed to flailing on his tummy). he gets all excited and quickly rocks back and forth before collapsing into a belly flop. now the rush is on to put those thingys in the electric outlets and figure out a good way to close his closet doors.

and he's suddenly shy around other people. he used to light up at just about anyone who smiled at him. now he turns away and hides his face in my shoulder. when we take him out, he still takes in every last thing, but instead of a look of happy excitement, it's more of a serious, if not sleepy, study of things. it's strange to us that we may be the only ones who know him as the happy, smiley, wiggly kid that he is. but yesterday michelle took him over to the neighbor's house, and he warmed up after about 10 minutes. maybe he needs time to adjust to things now.

he certainly seems fascinated with the out-of-doors, as can be seen in a few pictures we took recently: february pictures here.

we're thankful that everyone is healthy again. now we need to get back to getting up before the last minute so we can have time to spend in prayer and the Word in the morning. we're so glad that spring is coming, but it was also nice to see some snow this morning too. I've given up hope for enought snow to play in. maybe next year. in a few weeks we'll be off to PA for a family wedding, and we'll get to see our new nephews (born 11 days before Caleb). should be a crazy fun time.

sunbeam

when I was a tyke, my mom would sing to me "Jesus wants you for a sunbeam" and I apparently loved it. so it seems that in this respect, Caleb is taking after me. here's a video clip from last weekend of my mom carrying on the tradition with her grandson: sunbeam video (1.3 MB)

and here's another clip from today of Caleb playing with and squeaking at his alphabet abacus toy: abacus video (1.8 MB)

he's still got a stuffy head, but thankfully he's handling it pretty well.

caleb pics

babble

it seems like we've got a talker on our hands. just two days ago, Caleb's vocalizations were mostly limited to shrieks of delight and/or sadness (and only a look at his expression would let you know the difference). but all of a sudden, he's almost constantly babbling. bah-buh-bah-buh-babbuh-babba kinda stuff. super cute. of course this is no astounding skill, but I am certainly surprised at the all-at-onceness of it. was there some switch in his head that was thrown on? as his personality continues to be revealed, we both think he's more and more like his mama, which I think is really cool.

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in other news:
-many congrats to my old roomie dave on his engagement!
-please pray for our niece casey and her family, as they just learned she has diabetes. she's doing well, but of course there's lots to adjust to
-a bunch of the sites we've done recently havent been launched due to various hangups on the clients end. so even though they're relatively minor, it's nice to have launched 2 within a week: a small one for the college and a tiny one for the city. further evidence that matt rocks.

jumping squeaker

here's a video of Caleb in his door jumper thingy. he also displays his vocal talents of squeaking and shrieking with delight as he does his jumping. one of his latest tendencies is to reach out and grab just about everything, and he's wearing out his reputation as a mellow kid. we're guessing that once he starts crawling he'll be into just about everything.

without further ado: here's the jumper video.

toothy flipper

as can be seen in this photo (if you look closely), Caleb's got his first tooth! he cut his first one without too much distress. he would get a little fussy during the day, but he was able to sleep as well as he has been lately (12 hours or so). his little tooth is quite sharp, and we're pretty sure the next one will be here soon, as he's been fussy and had a hard time eating lately. his mama is having fun making lots of baby food for him (and I help too), and so far he's enjoyed the yummy goodness of homemade butternut squash (mixed with his rice cereal).

also, he's quite adept at flipping over, but so far only when he's in his crib. but then he cant sleep that way, so he cries until we come turn him back over. hopefully soon he'll master flipping the other way.

Laini and Jaron came over the other day, and Caleb enjoyed trying to baptise him or something (not knowing that he needs to be ordained first, and that Jaron is baptised already anyway, and besides he forgot the water).

our gift to you

...is quite possibly the cutest picture yet of the cutest kid around. click the thumbnail for a larger version:

no more work for the year! woohoo! "no more compys, no more books..." a little vaykay with the fam and we'll be back for relaxing good times here too (in time for my birthday).

merry christmas to all!

4 months

happy 4 months to Caleb! it's hard to believe we've had him for 1/3 of a year already. seems like its been longer, but its also flown by. some of the latest facts and figures:

he just weighed in at 14 lb, 1.5 oz (~25th percentile) and measured 27 inches (~99th percentile), so he's keeping up the whole tall and skinny thing. that's my boy. he's finally losing the hair on the sides of his head, but it's still long on the top so he kinda has that skater-punk look to him. still super cute of course, but now with a bit of an edge.

he's really into chewing on his hands (often shoving as many fingers as possible into his mouth), and the doctor said his gums are a bit swollen, so there's apparently teeth on the way. let's just hope we're able to get some sleep while that fun goes on. and they advised that it's ok to start giving him some rice cereal, so that'll be a bit of an adventure too. things are changing so fast.

he's been noticing the dog a lot more lately. he lights up with a big smile when she looks at him, and he reaches out to her. she's very gentle with him and enjoys licking his hands, which he seems to like too. mama's not a big fan of that. usually in the evenings the dog likes her space, but when he was sitting on the couch playing the other night, she came over to him to hang out. too cute. it's fun to see them becoming friends, and I'm sure she'll be quite attached to him once he starts throwing cereal and whatnot around.

only about a week-and-a-half until Christmas time! yay! oh and we had a paper snowflake party last night. sarah is the undisputed snowflake queen. and joe is the mastermind king. pictures soon.

learning, etc.

it's amazing to see my tiny son learning already. I know that he's been learning things for a long time now, but to see it in action is pretty cool. not surprisingly, the few things that I've observed involve food.

we have him on a relatively regular schedule, which is working out great. after his nap time, it's time for him to eat. he's pretty much used to the schedule, so he'll wake up about the right time for the latest bottle. these days he'll prop himself on his elbows and start crying. not too loud, but you definitely wouldnt be able to ignore it. anyway, when he hears one of us open the door to come get him, he'll stop crying and look over at us, as if he knows what's coming. I guess doing the same thing 5 times a day helps him catch on. he'll even stop crying and give us a smile. then he remembers how hungry he is and starts wailing again.

anyway, we're so thankful for how much of a delight he is. he's starting to interact with toys these days, drawing them close and chewing them and hugging them. too cute. he watches katie more and more, and he loves to cuddle when you hold him close. and he really seems to like the "super baby" game when I hold him high up in the air. I know it's probably not "manly" but I just love hugging him and kissing him. I could go on and on. and in fact I probably will as the days go on.

we had thanksgiving as well as a bit of early christmas with his grandparents this weekend (he scored some books, toys and clothes). lots of good times of getting some stuff done and relaxing and partaking in lots of yummy food. pictures here.

we're looking forward to christmas in NC in a few short weeks! michelle headed up the decorating of the living room, and it looks great (see pics at the link above). I love her creativity.

amy grant has already sung "TN christmas" and the tree is lit, so let the holidays begin!

weird

our son is a little weird, but that's to be expected, as his parents are a bit odd too. to any parent that happens to read this, feel free to confirm or deny how weird this particular behaviour might be.

***caution: this is about baby poop and pee. if you dont care to read about such things, then you should probably move on***

Caleb prefers to poop with his diaper off. he's a once-a-day pooper, usually mid-morning, which is fine. we'll smell what we think is his daily gift, and take him over to change him, but it usually turns out to be a false alarm. probably some gas. but usually he's got enough pee to justify a changing anyway. so off with the diaper, and suddenly he's very happy. I think he likes to be naked, which I suppose he gets from me too. but pretty much as soon as the diaper is off, he'll start making like he's pushing out the poop, red face and all. of course this process takes a little while, so michelle is usually left standing there, holding up his legs to make it easier for him. why does he hold it until his butt is bare? will this make potty training easier? harder? who knows.

what a little weirdo. and we love every little bit of him.

giggle

there's nothing quite as cute as a cute kid giggling. really, I could watch it all day. Caleb just started laughing a little last week, and if he's in a good mood (which is more often than not), and we tickle him and do some cutesy-faced baby-talk, he'll reward us with some little squeals and laughs. we attempted to capture it with the digicam, and we got a little bit.

UPDATE: they are in mov format now, and a much smaller download:

giggle video 1

giggle video 2

new routine

one of the chief disadvantages of working outside the home is being away from the family during the day. since caleb typically goes down at 7pm or so, I dont get a whole lot of time with him, except the 10pm feeding. so we've started a new morning routine that has lots of daddy time, and we're all loving it (as far as I can tell).

he wakes up around 5:30 or 6, famished from not eating since 10pm the night before. I will say it again: the fact that he can make it this long is a HUGE blessing. so I put a bottle on the fire and he makes quick work of it.

I dont know if all babies are like this, but he sure seems to be a morning person. after he's fed, he gets all chatty and happy. so we read a chapter from the Bible, maybe talk about it a little, sing some hymns together (he lights up whenever we sing to/with him), and have our morning prayers. usually by this time the dog figures out that we're up, so she comes in to request/demand that we let her out. meanwhile of course, mama is catching up on her sleep, and we're happy to let her.

we go check our email and the weather and news on the computer, but by this time he's getting a little tired of sitting up. so it's time to play under his play gym thingy, or maybe check out the mobile or the aquarium thingy from grandma, any of which will usually keep him happy for a while (where I take the opportunity to make my lunch). maybe mama will get up by now (or maybe not), when it's time to start breakfast and just about time for the first nap for caleb, which he takes without much protest at all now.

I really have no idea how long this routine will last (and it's only been going for a week now), as we've discovered that as soon as you think you've got something figured out, everything changes again. I love every morning I spend with him, and hope that we can keep it up (especially the reading/singing/praying part). I often find myself surprised at how much I love our little boy.

I dont know if you, dear reader, really care to read all this baby stuff, but in some ways the stuff I put here is for "the record." speaking of the record, I've added our old updates from our family website to the blog archives. threre's more about us than you probably should know.

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please pray for Michelle especially this weekend. she's been having a rough time with her health (hence the blog hiatus), and we're hoping to get the most out of this marriage conference. the good part is that we're pretty sure all the pain she's going through is an indication that her fibro medicine is doing its job (clearing out the bad stuff), but it's still really hard.

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oh yeah: happy 3rd month birthday to Caleb!

early christmas (almost)

I've never been a big fan of picking out your own presents, nor of getting them early, but this year we needed a new desk. so we convinced both sets of parents to chip in to get it for us for our Christmas present. michelle was pretty antsy to replace our crappy old (drawer-less) folding table that's served as our computer desk for years now. so we ordered it, and it came yesterday!

woohoo! early Christmas! but 3 of the main pieces were scratched or dented, so we couldnt put it together. after so much intial excitement, out came the pouty-lip, as we assembled only