Ta....Da!

We finally have a gate for our backyard. Thank you to my amazing husband who managed to build it within a couple weeks of getting all the supplies. He worked hard and it looks pretty good! The best part is, now no one can come strolling through to the backyard to try and sell us stuff while I play with Caleb. Yay for our gate.

Safety comes first

is Dave's motto. So we were pretty excited to find this safety gate at a garage sale for only a few bucks! We've have some great baby finds at garage sales. Caleb is trying to escape to dad in this picture.

A love of books

It's pretty amazing to me how young an interest in reading begins. A newborn, when read to, is interested in the sound of your voice; as an infant, they are interested in the bright colors; as a pre-toddler, the pictures, and now Caleb is very interested in everything about books. He pulls them out of the basket, chews on them, flips through the pages, stares at the pictures, and lately just loves loves loves bringing the books over to me to read to him. He crawls over, gives me the book, sits back, and looks at me expectantly waiting for me to start reading so he can turn the pages and look at all the pictures. (Sometimes when he hands the book over it ends up right in my face because his aim is still a little off). I am just loving this stage of reading. When I worked at the Children's Center I loved it when the toddlers would come over, plop in my lap with a book, and wait for me to read. I knew that day would come with Caleb, I just didn't know when. And now it is here, and I am tickled pink! We have a Peek-a-book series that he loves because he can flip open the flap and there appears baby. He squeals with delight over it. He is starting to take more of an interest in his touch and feel books and reaches out to touch the different textures. He loves his digger book that has lots of flashy aluminium.

Caleb is also understanding and following more commands such as 'bring over', 'can I have this?' (he loves giving us different things that he is holding, he'll even put his Binky right up to our mouth) 'come here', and my personal favorite, 'give kisses'. (and he gives them, slobbery and open mouthed).

Step 1. Find book in the basket
Step 2. Open book and flip through pages

Step 3 Read and enjoy! Peek-a-boo there's the dancing pig in the red boots (yes, i love these books too. some of the pictures and words are ridiculous)

Giles through the generations

Caleb got to meet his Great Grandpa Giles for the first time this past weekend and he was hamming it up. He loved 'flirting' with Great Grandpa across the dinner table with fake coughs and laughs. He got us all laughing too. He enjoyed playing with grandma and grandpa and can't wait to see them in October for his first birthday party!

Grandpa G, Great Grandpa Giles, Caleb, and Dave. Notice anything in particular about the heads? Everyone comments on how much Caleb looks like Dave. We think he has the Giles head shape.

And they just keep coming...

one right after the other. We're on to round 3 of teething. Caleb's got two more pearly whites making their appearance on the bottom of his mouth. This makes for a grand total of 6! It also makes for more fussiness...more bad naps...and more wakeful nights. I'll just try and remind myself that it only lasts a couple weeks as I suck it up and brave through it. (oh wait. It's Caleb enduring the real pain) Sometimes I forgot who feels worse. Me. Or Caleb. Bring it on teeth.

Sweet Dreams

all around this house because for these past 5 nights, we have not had to remove ourselves from our bed and we have not awoken to the sound of crying baby. ah. sweet bliss. I'm definitely not taking this time for granted! We've come a long way from those sleepless nights and terrible naps. The calm after the storm. Now if only Dave and I could actually sleep through the night along with Caleb. We're so used to waking up to him that we still wake up waiting for him to wake up. ha.

Sweet dreams everyone :)

And I seem to have misplaced my camera so here is a picture from Caleb during his not so great sleeping days when he fell asleep on me. in the living room. because he was so tired but those budding teeth were preventing us all from getting any shut eye.

Happy Anniversary

to the love of my life

Thank you for making my life so sweet. I love you always.

Relaxing on the Swings

So much fun

was our week with auntie jen!

Not a peep

all through the night! Yay. Caleb has been doing so good with his 'sleep' training. Two nights he's made it all night without us having to go in for a check-in. The other nights he has woken up once for a short time and Dave just goes in to let him know it's time to go back to sleep (after waiting a certain amount of miutes to see if he'll go back to sleep on his own). We're so proud! It was painful at the start but worth it. We are all enjoying a lot more shut eye!

side note. the mixed up pjs caleb is wearing in the picture are a result of a nasty number two right before bed that got all over the original matching bottoms and resulted in a mix match of pjs.

his head was also at the opposite end of the crib and he was on his back when dave put him to bed. seems to be a tummy sleeper like me!

Plaid Pajama Bottoms

have never looked so cute.

Through my chid's eyes

Train Ride with Dad

Same face. Same curiosity.

I love my boys!

Curious George

The Happy Dance

That's what we've been doing around here this morning. Because after only two nights of Caleb re-learning how to sleep he has remembered! Only this time he's not waking up once and I'm NOT going in and nursing him. Caleb succesfully slept ALL THROUGH the night last night! Yes. Shocker! Wait. Really? Yes. We couldn't believe it either. In fact Dave and I kept waking up through the night even though Caleb wasn't making a peep. We heard him once around 3 and anxiously waited for his cries to escalate but they never did and sometime in those 3 minutes that passed I fell asleep. Dave so kindly woke me up to tell me that Caleb fell back asleep. I so kindly told him I would have figured that out when I woke up later and he didn't need to bother waking me up to let me know!
Anyways. We'll be having a sleep celebration tonight. It's been a 'sleep crazed' ten months of good nights, bad nights, and it feels like finally we're getting to that happy land of sleep that I have long since forgotten about and only dreamed about. hehe
We're so proud of you Caleb!

Sleepy Mondays

So we're sleep training. AGAIN. The teething fiasco is over and our little guy has forgotten how to sleep through the night again. Big surprise there! He'll get there. So we're on to round 2. Since Caleb has taken to standing in his crib and the crying bits are louder than his six month old cries...and last longer too...the first night was a wee bit rough. 45 minutes...with 3 check-ins from dad...and a second waking lasting only 20 minutes. But only two awakenings the first night. Hurray. Last night Caleb only woke up once for 20 minutes and only one check-in from dad. (Notice I'm not the one checking in. That's because I cave. Big time. Pick him up. Rock him. And of course. Nurse him!)

Casa de Fruta

Caleb had quite the adventure at Casa de Fruta. We went there with his playgroup. I never even realized all the 'kid friendly' things they had there. Train rides, carousal, playground, picnic tables, grass, and animals. So much fun stuff. Caleb loved it. He really enjoyed the train ride. It was so relaxing that he almost fell asleep in my arms. He giggled on the carousal. And of course what's a day without food?! We had a blast and can't wait to go back.
Holding hands with his bff for the drive.

Sharing food with miss. c

smiling for the camera

getting ready for the 'choo choo train'

i'm not sure who was more excited, us or the babes.

enjoying the sights on the ride

checking out the animals

about to ride on the carousal

Fun times with my little guy!

BFF

Caleb loves holding hands.

A new way to eat cheerios

This is Caleb mid cheerio bite. (after waking up at 5am. thank you kindly to those budding teeth)

10 Months!

Happy 10 Months Caleb! I can't believe you will be one year old in two months! Our little baby boy is becoming a toddler before our very eyes. You are crawling now all over the place. You are a little spastic in your crawl but love to sprint to your destination (sprinter in training like dad?) You laugh so much over all our goofy antics, especially when you're doing something you shouldn't be (we're in trouble!). You really are such a goof, blowing bubbles and making all kinds of silly sounds to grab our attention. We love it. You enjoy sitting at the dinner table and entertaining us with all your silly sounds. What a little ham. We love watching you grow and discover your world Caleb. You bring us so much joy!

And I almost forgot, you are getting your two top teeth in! You've been pretty fussy because of it this past week, but thanks to some wonder working teething tablets, you are able to sleep peacefully again-and so are we! Can't wait to see those pearly whites.

We love you Caleb Lincoln!

Flower Shopping

We got our flowers and we planted them! Caleb was a big help. He sat up loud and proud in the shopping cart and tried to grab every flower within reach.
colorful trunk of flowers
our lil' cutie

ta...da...
Caleb enjoying the view of the plants...