Look what I can do!

I took some pictures and videos two months ago when Caleb was beginning to do some pretty decent pre-crawling. We were so excited to see him moving around even if it was backwards!

The hardwood floors didn't allow him to get the traction needed to move forward very well. They also presented a hazard when Caleb was learning to sit up because he would tumble over at times. As a result, we decided to buy an area rug for the family room, hoping it would provide some padding and allow him to grip the floor better to move forward. It did help some as our boy practiced this new skill. Caleb started to straighten out his hind legs like he was making a bridge and often tried to use his head to scoot forward. Dave and I got down on our hands and knees, modeling how it's done. We moved his arms and legs the way they should go but nothing worked.

Oh, don't you worry! Caleb still got where he was going, but he had to be a bit more creative. I love this short video Grandpa McKinstry took, showing off Caleb's moves:

You can imagine my surprise then when I'm upstairs one day and hear my mom yelling for me to come downstairs because Caleb has just pulled himself to standing. I'm thinking...I thought they had to crawl first, right? I mean, I have heard of babies walking before they crawl but I guess I was just expecting everything to happen in sequence.

Caleb continued to master pulling himself up over the next week or two. When I visited the pediatrician for his nine month check-up, she asked if Caleb could pull himself to standing but never mentioned crawling, so I asked. She told me that crawling is not a milestone that babies need and there isn't even a set time frame when babies tend to set crawling; there is a huge window of time when infants acquire this skill and some choose to walk first or just skip crawling all together. That eased this mama's mind who was starting to wonder if Caleb's baby chunkiness was keeping him from being as mobile as he should be.

At this point, I was just resolved that I would have to skip filling out the crawling section of Caleb's baby book and move on to walking. However, about two weeks ago our boy surprised us! I'm not sure if he just finally learned how to coordinate his arms and legs or if his motivation to move across the room to his daddy pushed him to get it right, but our boy is now a crawler!

Ok, now it's time to baby proof!!!!!!!!!!!

Brush your tooth, Caleb!

For the past nine and a half months, I have enjoyed Caleb's beautiful gummy smile. Since he was probably two or three months old though, he's been showing signs of teething and we expected to see a little tooth poking through many a day. However, those pearly whites took their time and finally made an appearance last week.

Caleb had bumped his mouth while crawling on the floor the night before so I reached my finger in to check his gums during breakfast to make sure everything was okay. To my surprise, I felt something sharp! I decided to check again just to be sure. Caleb decided to bite me this time, leaving no doubt that his first tooth had arrived!

A few different family members tried to get a glimpse of the new tooth, but Caleb rarely let's anyone sneak a peak unless he is eating, smiling, or hollering. As you might guess, getting a picture of his chomper was a bit difficult. He kept running his tongue over this strange thing that had suddenly popped up in his mouth, making it even harder to get a good shot. Luckily, with a new camera angle and a peek-a-boo game to light up his face, I finally captured a few pics to share. (If you have trouble seeing it, look at the lower left central incisor.)


Of course, all teeth need a good cleaning. While the pediatrician said using a washcloth to wipe off the tooth was sufficient, Caleb and Mommy tried out his Sesame Street toothbrush and Elmo toothpaste today. Caleb loved brushing his teeth and did a good job. The poor boy actually cried when I took the toothbrush away and fussed several times today because he wanted to brush his teeth again. At least he has good hygiene!

Here is a short video of us brushing his tooth:

Things we do for fun

Although the holidays just passed and Caleb has a ton of toys to play with now, he is most entertained by random things around the house or classic baby games. Playing peek-a-boo, looking at himself in the mirror, riding around on someone's shoulders, and wrestling Daddy are just a few of the things that make Caleb squeal with delight.

Several months ago, my mom started giving Caleb horsey rides and he loves it. He sits on her foot as she kicks her leg and off he goes bouncing everywhere. Who needs toys when your grandma can turn her knee into a bucking bronco?

I tried the same trick and he liked his mama's horsey ride too!

From the window sills to the cabinet drawers to the spindles on the banisters, Caleb can find things around the house to entertain himself. He has been particularly enraptured with the large chandelier in the dining room and our ceiling fans. Tonight, while taking a ride on Dave's shoulders, he was thrilled when he noticed the small chandelier in the nook.

Lately, we've found another means of entertainment that usually keeps Caleb's interest even when he's bored and restless with everything else - his little red wagon! Our house is set up in a way that we can pull him in a circle from the dining room to the living room, through the hall, nook, and kitchen, and back to the dining room. Sometimes when I am wore out at the end of the day, we take several laps around the house in the wagon, looking out the windows and hoping to see a glimpse of Daddy pulling in the driveway. Unfortunately, Mommy isn't always the best driver so the wall has suffered a few nicks; I guess it's a small price to pay for a happy nine month old. A day or so ago while Dave was holding him in the kitchen, Caleb was even grunting and leaning towards the dining room like he remembered the wagon was in there!

Each day it's fun to see what Caleb will fall in love with next and watch his face light up with excitement.

Twins

Not long ago, I wrote about a couple of Caleb's best friends. Luckily, our boy is also very fortunate to have a ton of cousins around his same age to play with including a pair of twins who are only two months older than Caleb.

Anabella (aka Bell Bell) and Daniel (aka Dan Credle) are my cousin Stacey's children. They were originally due only a few weeks apart from Caleb but they arrived quite a bit early. Actually, they decided to make their appearance around the time of the huge snowstorms we had last winter. Although they are slightly older than Caleb, they are pretty much the same size and are doing about the same things. Almost every time one of them learns to do something, shortly after the others are doing it too. It has been great for Stacey and I because we always have each other to compare notes.

Although I gave you a glimpse of these little ones in my Halloween and Max posts, here are a few more photos and videos of these three buddies playing:

June - Visting the Credles' house:

Daniel and Anabella - 4 months; Caleb - 2 months

Caleb is so happy to hang out with his cousins!

Daniel, Caleb, and Anabella lounge on the back deck.

Anabella says, "I'm the rose between two thorns."

Caleb, Anabella, and Daniel

July play date at Granny's:

Daniel says, "Caleb, let's start a club. No girls allowed!"

Stacey is holding Anabella, Hayden has Daniel, and Ryan has Caleb.

Daniel, Anabella, and Caleb

September Play Date at Granny's:

Anabella and Caleb are happy babies

Daniel and Caleb holding hands

Anabella, Daniel, and Caleb - For some reason I think their
faces look like they are on a roller coaster.

November play date at Granny's:

Anabella and Daniel wore helmets to help round out flat spots from where they laid in the womb. Caleb seems to think the helmets are a toy and loves to pull on them. Stacey said they are great because they provide a little extra protection when the babies fall over trying new things. As much as Caleb tumbles over, he probably needs a helmet too!

December play date at our house:

December play date at Granny's:

Anabella, Caleb, Daniel

Granny has her hands full.

I had three cousins who were less than a year apart from me in age - Allison, Philip, and Diane. We truly enjoyed having each other to play with, so I'm thrilled that Caleb also has some cousins living close by that he can sleepover with, explore with, and maybe even start a few clubs with like we used to not so long ago.

We love reading!

I have a nerdy confession to make. Back in the sixth grade when everyone was writing "I love such and such" on their notebooks, I wrote "I love...." and then couldn't think of anyone. Instead, I decided to put "I love reading." HA! My freshman roommate from college and I have joked and laughed about this silly story for years. I guess I was definitely destined to become a Reading Specialist.

Caleb started his love of reading early as well. Dave and I have been reading to him since he was a newborn. I love listening to Dave read to Caleb. Without even knowing it, my sweet husband is teaching reading strategies already. For example, when reading Mercer Mayers's Just Like Dad, the book talks about the dad driving the son; Dave says "Does Daddy ever drive you around?" Text-to-self connection! One night he was reading a book, I also heard him questioning aloud because something didn't make sense. Good job modeling, Daddy!

We were blessed with a lot of baby books from the showers before he arrived and I have a ton of books from my childhood. For the first six months, we spent most of our reading time going through all of my classic Golden Books.

My childhood books

Caleb has a large number of books of his own. His favorite is a book called Peek-a-zoo. I'm not sure who gave us this book but it has lots of textures, bright colors, and cut outs that are perfect for entertaining a little one.

While Caleb will sit and listen to the story, his reading experiences are not nearly as passive as when he was a small baby. Now he wants to touch it and TASTE it! He loves pulling the books out of his toy basket and off the bookshelves. Christmas day I even noticed him chewing on books rather than playing with the new toys.


That's my boy!

The Twelve Days of Christmas - Days 8-12

Dec. 30th: All the logistics of packing, checking in, and going through security went very smoothly the next morning as we prepared to fly to IL in order to be with Dave's family. As terrified as I was of flying with Caleb, everything went extremely well. He made friends in the airport and on the plane, talking and cooing at anyone who would pay him a little attention and even a few who I guess he assumed had "forgotten" to notice him. As we prepared for take-off, I began praying over him and his little ears. God was gracious and protected him from any pain from the pressure it seemed because Caleb never complained. Actually, he enjoyed the mild turbulence we encountered and when we landed he excitedly began jumping on Dave's lap.

Since the rest of the family hadn't arrived yet, we spent some quality time with just Grandma and Grandpa McKinstry the first night. Grandma had put together a little bucket of treats, including a snowglobe and jingle bells to entertain the little ones until they could open presents the next day. Caleb received his shortly after we arrived and was quite entertained. That evening, Grandma also introduced Caleb to computer games. The boy fell in love instantly!

Dec. 31st: Aunt Amy, Uncle Keith, Lydia, and Luke arrived. (Great-Grandma Swan was supposed to come too, but unfortunately she wasn't feeling well.) We opened all the presents and each adult took turns stuffing the stockings to open the next day. Everyone headed to bed before the new year though, knowing we had little ones who would be up bright and early.

Lydia is in Grandma McKinstry's childhood rocking chair and Caleb is enjoying Grandpa's.

Jan. 1st: In the morning, everyone awoke fairly early and opened their stockings.


Shortly after, we tuned in to watch the Rose parade while the kids played with their new toys. Here is a video of the little ones playing with Caleb's presents:

The adults and Lydia began preparing food for the Christmas (or maybe I should say "New Year's") meal. By lunch time, we had a large holiday feast.

Caleb spent a lot of the day trying to eat Luke's puzzle pieces or climbing on Aunt Amy. Lydia thoughtfully kept bringing Caleb his own toys to keep him entertained.

Jan. 2nd: Caleb and his cousins played a little the following morning before we said goodbye to the Tyndalls and then headed for church.

The rest of the day was full of relaxing and enjoying each other.

Jan. 3rd: Monday we spent the day visiting and looking through old baby pictures to see if we could see traces of Caleb in Dave or his parents' baby photos. Later that evening, Dave, Caleb, and I donned our Virginia Tech gear as we prepared to cheer on the Hokies as they took on Stanford in the Orange Bowl. Because the game was so late, poor Caleb actually only got to hear the pregame show. He didn't miss much; we probably should have just gone to bed too. :(

Hokie pride!

Our little mascot!

Jan. 4th: Christmas began to come to an end as we boarded our flight and headed for home. However, I realized that we had forgotten to give Caleb his main present from Dave and I on Christmas morning - a rocking chair - and to let Caleb open his stocking. We took a few moments to finish up the celebration and then headed for bed.



I guess I'll have to start cleaning up tomorrow....