8 Months- 10 Months

So once again, I've neglected to keep up with the blog. It's hard when you have a little one that you chase around the house all day. I did attempt to post a blog several weeks ago, but the internet was having issues and so I gave up. So... now you get to enjoy a LONG posting to catch up. Also, I have recently started a Shutterfly picture site that you are welcome to enjoy. Let me know and I'll add you as a member!

Alright so October (8 months) was another eventful month! On October 1st Caleb got his 3rd tooth, the upper Left medial incisor. Then just a few days later on the 6th he got the upper Rt medial incisor, for a total of 4 teeth! Then, of course, he turn 8 months on the 7th. On Oct 11th, Caleb was a "big boy" and went into the nursery at church for the first time. They said he was an angel and had fun playing with the other kids. No surprise there! Moving forward...on the 14th Caleb started "cruising" (walking while holding on to furniture) and also stood without holding on to anything for a few seconds. On the 16th he got ANOTHER tooth...man they are coming faster and faster now! This time it was the upper Left lateral incisor. On the 18th he had a taste of meat for the first time (turkey and sweet potato dinner) and then on the 19th he fell in love with avocado! The last major event of October... you guessed it, HALLOWEEN! Caleb actually dressed up twice. Once for a church event as a MONKEY and then for Halloween he was a TIGER!see the two new teeth?

one of my favorite new "toys"

picked out my very own pumpkin

went to a demolition derby...fun stuff

being a monkey with my friend Jackson

Caleb the monkey

just had to post this one!

Grr... I'm a tiger!

November, although a ton of fun, was not as "eventful" as some other months. Caleb turned 9 months old on the 7th. He had his 9 month check-up on the 12th. We found out at this visit, that Caleb had not grown very much since his 6 month visit, at least not in weight. The nurse seemed a bit concerned but the doctor was not since Caleb was SO big to begin with and Jess and I are not big people! At 6 months, Caleb was 27 1/4 inches and 21.1 pounds. At 9 months, he was 28 1/2 inches and only 21.8 pounds put him at about the 67th percentile instead of the 90th. We attribute this to the fact that he is now crawling like crazy and trying to walk, burning a lot more calories than when he was just sitting around and rolling over! Speaking of burning calories... on the 17th Caleb discovered and climbed the stairs, all 14 of them with out any hesitation! Time for another baby gate!!! November 23rd brought another tooth, the upper Right lateral incisor (rounding out at 6 teeth). Then on November 25th we took our first road trip with Caleb... 8 hours to Niles, Michigan to spend Thanksgiving with Nonnie and Poppie (Jess' parents). He did surprisingly well. He only fussed a little bit. Thank goodness Jeanna (Jess' sister) was with us and riding in the back. I am confident that she was a big part of why Caleb was so content sitting in his car seat for that long! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Caleb had a great time with his Nonnie and Poppie. We jogged/walked a 5K on Thanksgiving morning and Caleb slept the whole time while we pushed him in the jogging stroller. What a trooper!

loved Nonnie's rocker

downtown Niles when they turned on lights

Nonnie and Poppie

December has been a blast!! Caleb turned 10 months on the 7th...I can't beleive it! His birthday is just around the corner... On the 20th, we flew up to Massachusetts to spend Christmas with the my parents and brother on the Cape. The only thing that could have made Christmas with my family any better was snow... and BOY DID IT SNOW! There was a huge winter storm the night before and morning of our arrival. I think it totalled about 21 inches in all! Thankfully some friends of ours gave us their son's old snow suite which we took with us. Mom, Salli (my aunt) and I went out shopping and bought Caleb some snow boots so he could go out and play in the snow for the first time. He really liked it.

winter wonderland

walkway

fun in the snow

playing with uncle Johnny

Caleb loved spending time with my parents and my brother. He also loved my mom's cats. They would play with him and let him pet them. Our cats run from him most of the time! While we were there we went to Edaville, a big plot of land where they set up tons of lights and have a train that takes you around the property to see everything. Caleb sat on Santa's lap while we were there...but didn't really know what to think!
Caleb got to be Santa's little helper on Christmas day and passed out the stockings. Then he stole things from everyone's stocking and put them in Jess'...almost as if he was trained! :) He wasn't so sure what to do with the wrapped presents, but he liked playing with everything once I opened them. He got more presents than the rest of us combined, what a spoiled little guy right!

Edaville lights

picture with Santa... not to sure about this..

Santa's little helper

look at all my presents

So as you can see its been a great few months and we are looking forward to many more. Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, how crazy! That means that Caleb's birthday is just a little over a month away. Time to start planning a party. What do you do at a 1 year old's party?

Oops...missed month 6. On to 7 months :)

Well, I had every intention of posting a "6 months" blog but just never quite got around to it. It's too bad because month 6 was a big month for Caleb. He went to his first birthday party, started playing in his jumperoo, started riding in his stroller without the car seat, went to the zoo for the first time, got his first two bottom teeth, learned to crawl, had his first trip out of the country and said "dada". In regards to his teeth, he was a champ. He didn't exhibit the typical signs of teething such as excess drooling, chewing and fussiness. I only knew because I was checking his gums daily and felt a little bump. The crawling happened the night before we left for the Bahamas and he said dada while we were in the Bahamas.

At Benny's first bday party

playing in his jumperoo

riding forward in stroller

trip to zoo

got first two teeth (look close)

can you see them now?

first trip to BAHAMAS

We were in the Bahamas for a week (Sept 3-10). It was Caleb's first trip out of the country. He was the talk of the resort. Everyone fell in love with him and made comments on what a cute and well behaved baby he was (no argument here). We already knew that Caleb loves water, but he REALLY loves the ocean. Apparently he finds salt water to be quite tasty. He also seems to find the sway and sound of the waves to be quite relaxing. He fell asleep every time we went down to the beach. Oh, and he HATES having sunscreen put on! He also got his first bruise while there. He bumped his head on the side of a chair.

1st time in ocean

fun in the pool

hanging at the restaurant

see the bruise above my Left eyebrow?

walk on the beach

Now Caleb is 7 months and he is already on a roll. On Friday (Sept 11th) he figured out how to get into a sitting position on his own and today he pulled up to standing! We had to lower the mattress in his crib so that he can't fall out!

Well it's now midnight so I better say goodbye for now. I will try my best to keep up with this more regularly, especially since he has "taken off" lately.

Caleb is 5 Months!!!

Caleb turned 5 months on July 7th! Oh my gosh...he is growing up so fast. There aren't a lot of new updates since the last post, I mostly wanted to post pictures. There are a few new things though. Caleb experienced his first Independence Day this year and got to see some fireworks. I'm not sure he knew what to think, but he didn't get scared.

Caleb and ONE of his girlfriends...Emma Bogle

Dads and babies. You can't tell but all the babies have on July 4th outfits

Watching fireworks. We covered the babies ears.

Don't know what prompted this expression, but it was NOT fireworks!!

On July 7th, Caleb used a sippy cup for the first time. Now, babies don't typically use sippy cups this early. But he has been grabbing at our drinks for weeks now and actually putting straws and the rim of the cup in his mouth. So, I decided to buy one and see how it went. He knew exactly what to do with it. He took it from me and put it straight in his mouth without my help! And last night.... he ate baby food for the first time... PEAS! He actually seemed to like them just fine. He grabbed the spoon from me and wanted to feed himself. WAY too advanced if you ask me.

Very first time with a sippy cup...straight to the mouth!

Showing Daddy later...

Very first mouthful of PEAS!

Give me that, I can do it myself!

So there you have it. Caleb's new skills and some awesome pics capturing them. Hope you enjoyed them. We will keep you posted!

July 1st update

It's a new month, so we figured its time for a new blog too! Caleb will be 5 months old in just a few days (on the 7th). He went to a new pediatrician today in Franklin TN, Dr. Kalb. Dr. Kalb was very nice and we picked him because he is a promoter of naturalistic remedies when possible and he supports alternate immunization schedules. Today Caleb measured 26 1/4 inches and weighed 19.4lbs. As you may have noticed, he growth has slowed down a little which I am thankful for. He is still in the 95% for weight so no worries. He also got his first immunization today and he didn't even cry!!! What a big boy! :) We are doing an extended schedule. Typically babies get 5 immunizations to start, and start getting them when they are 2 months old. They get Dtap, Hib, PCV, IPV, Hep B. Many also given an oral immunization for rotavirus. Caleb only got the Dtap today, and he will get Hib and PCV in a month when we go back for his 6 month visit. We are postponing Hep B because you can only catch Hep B through sex or IV drug use, which I can assure you Caleb is doing neither :). IPV is the polio vaccine. Caleb will get this a little later. We don't have polio in the US anymore, but its important to have if we do any major traveling.

So what's new with Caleb you ask? Well...he can now roll from his stomach to back...sometimes! It depends on the positioning of his arms and he hasn't figured that out yet. So sometimes he still gets "stuck" on his belly. He doesn't like to be on his belly for long periods of time and gets frustrated when he can't get back to his back. However, he is now set on sleeping on his belly!

Caleb has a great sense of humor. He has the most AMAZING and CONTAGIOUS laugh ever!!!! He is very talkative, especially for the first 30 minutes after he wakes up. He is still very well behaved. He typically only gets fussy when he is either hungry or sleepy. He is still only getting breast milk, but he has been showing interest in "real" food recently. He reaches for everything we eat and even put a straw in his mouth last night. We will likely start him on veggies in the next few weeks. He continues to sleep through the night. Thankfully, he has also started to take some naps during the day which makes my day a little easier!

Some of you may know that we were suppose to go to the Bahamas June 21-28. This didn't happen. Why you ask? Well the airline, on two separate occasions, told us that Caleb just needed a birth certificate to travel. Then when we got to the ticket counter at 6am on the 21st they informed us that he did need a passport after all. So...we didn't get to go. Thankfully, the resort was very understanding and let us reschedule our week to Sept 3-10 and we got a full refund on our tickets.

The good news that comes from that is two-fold. First, it made it possible for us to go to a family reunion in Texas for Jess' dad's side of the family. We were happy about that because it allowed Caleb to meet his Great Nana for the first time. It was so sweet to see them together. Also it means that my friend April is going to be able to come to the Bahamas with us! YAY.

Very first time to meet Great Nana!

11pm first night in TX and still happy

Great Uncle Ken

All smiles in my Great Nana's lap

Great Nana, Poppi and Me

So that's it for July 1st. We love you all. Take care and we will post again soon.

~Faryn, Jess & Caleb

Caleb is 4 months!!!

Look at my Monkey, the cutest baby ever! (I'm a little biased ofcourse)

Well, what's new....? The "little" guy is now 4 months old, as of June 7th. But, he is wearing 6-9 month clothes!!! Goodness! He isn't really a little guy. I mean he weighs almost 19lbs already. But he is SUCH a good baby as I'm sure I've mentioned a million times.

He is so interactive now and doesn't like to be still, even for a moment. I think we might have a hyperactice child on our hands. Just kidding! He grabs at everything, including our faces. He is so very talkative all the time. He recently started sleeping through the night and has therefore graduated from the cradle in our room to his crib in the nursery. He has also MASTERED rolling over. Everytime I set him down and walk away for a second he is on his belly when I come back. Unfortunately, he hasn't figured out how to flip back over and that seems to irritate him. I have a feeling that he is an over-achiever like his parents, especially his dad!!!

I don't have much new to mention, I just wanted to post some pics. We recently got Skype, so if you want to webchat, feel free to look for me (Faryn) on there!

Love you all.