Drum Roll Please...

Our little guy is finally rolling over! Better late than never right? We thought he would be one of those babies that simply never rolled over. He did so here and there. As in I could count on my left hand the number of rolls he did. And then, all of a sudden, he started doing it right and left. Last night Dave watched him roll over back and forth about 5 times and he kindly did it for me this morning! What a guy!
I of course had to capture this long awaited moment!!
Here goes. In order of occurrence.

Sitting and looking cute!
Reaching
Rocking on all fours (without a stuck leg this time!)
Plop!
Hmm...
Here he goes!

Hey mom, look at me.

I'm rolling over.

Ta Da!!

Go Caleb!

What a goof.

Sometimes we think Caleb enjoys 'playing' with his binky more than he enjoys sucking on it. It is probably his favorite toy.

Lately

Caleb has been trying so hard to pull himself to standing. He is getting close...

Sleep Saga Continues

The Nightime Sleep.
We did a little bit of the 'crying it out' with Caleb some time after he turned six months because he was waking up every 2 or 3 hours to nurse and we knew he was capable of self-soothing and really wasn't hungry. It was hard at first but we could see the amazing results. Caleb was humming himself back to sleep within 20 minutes usually only about 10 minutes. Then the dreaded teeth started coming through and there was a whole lot of fussiness going on so we stopped. Since then he has been sleeping 12-13 hours, going down so much better than he used to, and waking up 2 times in the night. I usually nurse him back to sleep because it is the quickest way to get that darling boy asleep. But we have decided it is time once again to let our little guy cry it out a bit to see if he will go back to sleep. I haven't really been giving him the chance to in the night. So last night was our 'trial run'. He woke up at 12:40. Dave and I lay there in the dark in a half fog sleep induced state. We listened to his whimpers...5 minutes pass...silence...10 minutes...whimpers....15 minutes...silence...20 minutes...all members of the house once again sleeping. We were pleased as punch that he successfully put himself back to sleep during his first usual call to mom and dad. 2nd time around we heard the whimpers. We waited...silence...more whimpers...cries...cries escalating...whimpers...and then since it had been 9 hours my nursing side kicked in and I couldn't hold off any longer so I went in and nursed him. But-I'm feeling more powerful tonight. We know he can do it (it is us that are the weak ones!) He was going through the night with no nursing for about a week until those teeth made their appearance and all I wanted was to comfort my little guy! So we are going to be strong tonight...hopefully. The funny thing is that Caleb is so capable and usually puts himself back to sleep pretty quickly, it is me that is the weak one. I hate hearing him cry, it cuts me to the core. So I am telling myself to be strong! And hoping tonight Caleb will put himself back to sleep with no help from mom and dad and that I won't give in to my nursing weakness and hopefully we can help our little guy find his inner 'soothing' self!

30 minute intruder

Caleb has this thing where he regularly takes 30 minute 'catnaps' in the am. Catnaps because his naps should be lasting at least one hour. Some of the time I can save these pathetic attmepts of a nap other times I can not. Sometimes he will sleep for 3 hours in afternoon if he only has had a 30 minute morning nap, other times he will not. Sometimes he will sleep for more than 30 minutes with no assistance from me, but unfortunately, more times than not, I am desperatly trying to SAVE his nap. This has been happening since the time he turned about 6 months. Day in, Day out. And. It. Is. EXHAUSTING. FRUSTRATING. ANNOYING. and all I feel is COMPLETLY helpless. I really have tried EVERYTHING> I have read books, I have tried every single thing they say to do to get Caleb over that brief awakening and back to sleep on his own. So if anyone has any ideas PLEASE send them my way.
There are days where I just surrender to the 30 minute nap intruder. I give up and go on. I try and let go of the obsession to get Caleb to take two naps that last at least one hour each instead of this strange combo of catnap in the morning and 3 hour marathon nap in the afternoon (that usually still requires an intervention on my part to keep it going after his 30 minute wake up to the world moments). Sigh. I don't think it is normal and I also know every baby is different. But sometimes I wish this baby could just follow all those baby books for once in the area of SLEEP. NIGHT SLEEP, NAP SLEEP. Sleep, Sleep, Sleep. Who would have thought something that seems as simple as sleep could be so complex! This mama certainly never did. So for now I will long for and rejoice greatly on those rare days where the 30 minute nap intruder has yet to make his appearance and in the mean time I will do everything possible to 'save' those naps any way I know how.

First Family Flight and Reunion

Omaha Bound for an Ohana Reunion and Wedding. (Ohana is the name of the group of volunteers I lived with two years ago during my Vincentian Service Corps.)
And it all began with our 6:30 am flight. Caleb woke us up at 2:30am. He was very excited to get going even though we still had another 1.5 hours before we had to leave! He thankfully took two naps on our first four hour flight to MN. One flight down.


We finally arrived. Caleb got to meet all of our Ohana together for his first time!

My Ohana together again! And it has expanded :)

The best part was that Caleb let everyone hold him and Dave and I got to dance the day away on the dance floor during the wedding. We even snagged in a few slow songs. We soaked it up and enjoyed every minute of our 'alone' time.
Caleb loved gorgeous Auntie Jodi Beth.

Caleb took the best 2 hour nap during the reception. The guards kindly looked after him while we enjoyed the dancing!

And when we had to leave, this is the face that charmed all the passengers on the airplane for both flights, a total of 5 five hours, no naps on either one. A lot of hard work on our part, a happy baby on Caleb's.

When we finally touched down sweet California soil after an exhausting, but wonderful trip, no one was more happy than Dave and I to be back home, in our comfy beds. Well, Caleb was pretty happy to be in his crib sleeping a great 12 hours once again with no 4 am happy hours.


It was a great reunion, beautiful wedding, and amazing time with friends!

Tears

Thanks to Nicole for this adorable pic. What a face!
I don't think I have any pictures up of Caleb crying which is ironic since that is almost all he did for his first couple months of life! And continues to do on a daily basis. Aw Caleb. It is good to see those tears because it makes all those sweet smiles worthwhile.

Awkward Moments.

I found this story on one of my 'mommy' blogs and just had to share! Now that Caleb and I have a very established nursing relationship I can look back and laugh at all those embarrassing and awkward nursing moments in public. This story that I found takes the cake. While I have yet to experience a nursing moment this bad, it helps to know there are plenty of mamas going through the same awkward situations!
click here to read on...

Our Walks

Caleb loves his walks. As soon as he gets in his stroller he perks his head up and lunges as far forward as possible pulling himself up as much as he can. He peers around the stroller taking in the sights with one arm happily hanging off the side of the stroller..The stroller can magically cure any ounce of fussiness and after taking in all the sights Caleb is lulled into a peaceful sleep. We love our walks!

A tribute to hair

Sadly and nervously, we decided to buzz Caleb's hair. (Nani isn't speaking to me after this) Grandma wasn't here to give him a nice trim like his first hair cut and after the awful job (truly awful) trim I tried to do for his second hair cut, I wasn't about to attempt it again. And seeing how Caleb hair grows so quickly, I'm also not about to pay to cut it on an almost monthly basis. Caleb cried, I cried (well, I wanted to) and away went the hair :( Glad it grows back so quickly.
It's starting to grow on us. He looks more like a little boy and less like a man with a toupee or a girl. The funny thing is he has less hair than he has ever had in his whole life! Yes he was born with more hair on his head than he has now. So I am doing a hair tribute for Caleb. Caleb's hair through the months. From curly, to shaggy, cute to crazy, and finishing with the this month's latest hair style :)

born with a head full of dark hair! spiky and cute
starting to grow wings (for side burns)
this is my favorite and nani's (don't worry mom we'll get back there!) after bath time curls
the Mohawk days
continue
his hair at it's best after grandma trimmed it. perfect!
a little shaggy after mom tried
sigh. you're like a lot of other babies now caleb. fuzzy hair. but it's all even!
Two peas in a pod now. I guess I was feeling inspired after I cut Dave's hair last night.
And after a traumatic morning for Caleb and us, we happily trotted off to our favorite spot. Where else but the beach!
to play and enjoy the beautiful summer day!

These are a few of my favorite things...

as I begin my 8th month!

Trying to figure out how to crawl with Dad cheering me on

Holding on to hands that I love (in this instance, my auntie's)

Taking off all my cute hats

Watching the world around me

and of course, playing with my toes

Books

Caleb's starting to really get into reading and we love it.