Fall Colors

More things are changing colors than just the leaves around here. Those "baby blues" are now a hazelly brown.

April - Newborn

May - 1 month

June - 2 monthsJuly - 3 monthsAugust - 4 months

September-5 monthsOctober - 6 months
November - 7 months

Halloween Fun

For Caleb's first Halloween, he donned a costume his daddy wore as a little boy. When Dave was small, his Grandma Swan made this sailor suit:

If the picture above was taken on Halloween, I am guessing that Dave is about 21 months here since he is standing up on his own. Although Caleb is only seven months old (today actually!), his chunky body filled it up, making it a perfect fit! (There are professional photos taken in this costume on Facebook if anyone is interested.)

After church Sunday, we began our trick-or-treating so that we'd finish before Caleb's early bedtime. We started at Granny's (my dad's mom) for Sunday dinner. Granny gave Caleb a Halloween themed bottle and decoration for his bedroom door.

My parents and sister were there along with my Aunt Debbie and her children (Stacey and Allison) and grandchildren. My cousin Allison has two boys, Ryan (7) and Hayden(4). Stacey also has two children - twins named Anabella and Daniel; her little ones are nine months old and great playmates for Caleb. All of them were so cute in their costumes that everyone's cameras were snapping like crazy.

Ryan was a football player. I told him to look tough for this picture and he gave me and interesting look.
Hayden, or should I say Batman, was ready to show off his costume too.

Anabella was a little ladybug. (Her expressions in the pictures were so cute I couldn't pick just one!)

Daniel wasn't super excited about dressing up in a hot costume, but he was adorable nonetheless.

Trying to get a group shot was quite a task. Crying and wiggly babies make good picture taking next to impossible. Add about five cameras to the mix and seven or so adults in the background calling the kids' name and the chances of a photo where everyone is looking the same direction is next to impossible.

Grandma Sharon gave Caleb this hat and bib along with Charlie Brown's pumpkin video and a pumpkin bag to carry his "treats."


After visiting some with Aunt Julie and our cousins Cindy, Bailey, and Tate, we headed to our next destination. Our second stop was to Grandma Nora Ann's and Granddaddy Eddie's (my maternal grandparents). Aunt Brenda and our cousins Cole and Haley were there too. Cole played the part of a ninja while Haley was gussied up as a Southern Belle. Caleb's treat at this stop was a little bear that said the "Now I lay me down to sleep..." prayer.


Our third and final stop was to Caleb's Great-Great Aunt Carolyn's (Grandma Nora Ann's sister) and Uncle Jim's. I have pictures from when I was little dressed up in a mom-made pumpkin suit posing with Aunt Carolyn on Halloween; I wanted a couple of these for Caleb's baby album as well.

One of my favorite things to do at my Great Aunt's house was to play with this cat and kittens. Caleb seemed to love them just as much as I did.

After collecting a baggie of candy that mommy and daddy would have to confiscate and eat later, Caleb's first year of trick-or-treating was over. He fell asleep almost as soon as we left their driveway.

What you've been missing - Part 3:Daily life

Now that things are starting to be a little bit normal again, I thought I'd give you a peek into a day at the McKinstry household.

I'll start with Dave. He has been waking up at about 4:30 every morning to get ready for work in order to leave the house by 5:30. So far, this helps him beat the traffic, making his commute to Chantilly about an hour. Fortunately, it helps him to get home earlier than he did in Maryland. He usually works nine hour days so that he can have off every other Friday.

Caleb's also developing his own little schedule. Although he has been sleeping through the night since July when he turned three months old, lately our little boy has decided it's a good idea to wake up between 4 and 4:30 hollerin' for a bottle. We thought this might have been because his diapers kept leaking at night and making him wet. (His pjs and sheets had to be changed almost every morning for a while.) For bedtime, we always use disposable diapers since they pull the wetness way from his skin better, and we'd never had a problem with them leaking before. I did a google search and found that some people recommended buying the next size up and using those at night. We tried it and had success! Caleb has still been waking up early but we now joke it is because he wants to see his daddy before Dave leaves for work.

After eating about seven ounces of formula, Caleb goes back to bed usually until some time between 7 and 8:30. Then, we go downstairs and he plays in his saucer while I do a few things around the house and make him breakfast. This lasts maybe 15-30 min. and then he is ready to eat! I've mostly been giving him rice cereal in the morning with a baby food he's already tried before. (I'll have to do another post to let you know about all the foods we've tried and his reactions later.)

About an hour or two after Little Boy wakes up, he is ready for his morning nap, which is usually the longest of the day. Sometimes it is as short as a half hour while other days he may sleep two or more hours. This is my main opportunity to shower, unload thew dishwasher, do laundry, or take care of whatever else I need to accomplish. Those 30 minute nap days leave me very little time to do much of anything.

The rest of the day is not predictable. I'm not sure how to get him on a better schedule but I'm thinking it will come once I start feeding him three meals a day rather than just bottles. For now it's working though. Caleb is a happy baby and very flexible. If he's tired he sleeps, if he's hungry he eats, and if he's satisfied he plays.

Dave usually gets home around 5:15 in the evenings and plays with Caleb while I'm making supper. Caleb usually eats his evening meal during this time as well. For supper, Caleb has been eating oatmeal and a new food that he hasn't tried before or one that he hasn't had but once or twice. Sometimes he will play in his booster seat while Dave and I eat and other nights he wants our attention. This is usually the time of day when Caleb is most fussy. Occasionally, he will take a pre-bedtime nap, but for the most part he hangs in there.

At bedtime (~7:30-8:30), we wash him up, put on a onsie and socks, layer a sleeper on top of it, pop in a fufu (or pacifier), cradle him in our arms, walk and rock him to sleep, and lay him down in his crib. On Monday nights, I have my parents over for dinner and my mom helps put Caleb to bed. After he's asleep, Dave and I have a little while to do some more chores before our 9:00 bedtime rolls around. (By the way, we never make it in the bed by nine even though that's the goal.)

Here are a couple pictures of Caleb from our first night in the new house. He is getting ready to sleep all night in his crib for the first time.

The schedule fluctuates a bit but, for the most part, that's our Monday to Friday routine. On Saturdays we work around the house and spend a lot of time in Walmart or Lowe's buying all the little extras we need. Sundays we strive to have a day of rest; we've been trying different churches and then spending the rest of the day with family.

What you've been missing - Part 2:Transitioning

When we first moved to Virginia, Dave still commuted back to Maryland for about two and a half weeks for his old job. Thankfully, several members of our church family volunteered to let him stay with them instead of coming back to VA every night. He ended up taking two of the couples up on their offer. (Thanks, Chris, Erin, James, and Anna!) This was such a blessing because, otherwise, he would have been on the road 4+ hours daily. Meanwhile, Caleb and I stayed at my parents' house at night because the locks hadn't been changed at our new house yet and it felt strange in a new place by ourselves.

We closed on the old house Sept. 27th but kept having complications closing on the new one. It ended up being delayed about two and a half weeks because the lender and mortgage company were not being cooperative or efficient. Dave seemed to be on the phone with them constantly during that time trying to settle everything. Luckily, the church allowed us to move in anyway so at least we had a place to live and could start unpacking while everything was waiting to be settled.

About two weeks after we arrived, Dave's parents came to visit. Grandma and Grandpa McKinstry were lots of fun for Caleb!

While they were here, we were able to visit the Luray Heritage Festival, which is my favorite event of the year around here. While Daddy and Grandpa looked at the tractors, poor Caleb had to look at crafts with Mommy and Grandma so that we could keep him in the shade. Maybe next year he'll get to have fun with the men. However, he did get to watch the cloggers for awhile which was pretty entertaining until the dust in the barn started getting too much for a little boy.

Since then, we have been slowly unpacking and trying to get into a new daily routine which I'll tell you more about next time...

What you've been missing - Part 1:The Move

Over the past two months so much change has taken place. I'll try to give you a short overview of what we've been up to lately to catch everyone up on everything.

THE MOVE
September was filled with packing boxes and cleaning both the old house and the new.

My mom helped so much with this process. Since the new house sat empty for about two and a half years, the dust was pretty thick. She helped me clean and clean and clean. She also kept an eye on Caleb and entertained him which let me get quite a bit more done. Caleb and she both enjoyed the quality time.

A number of other family members chipped in to help too. My sister and granny helped watched Caleb a little, and we hired my uncle Larry to put a fresh coat of paint throughout the house.

Finally, both houses were ready and everything was packed. The movers took us to our new home on September 24, 2010.


Caleb just laid in his Pack-n-play and entertained himself most of the day. He was such a good boy despite the heat and all of the moving going on around him. However, we did have a small mishap. I can't remember exactly how it happened but Caleb's outfit ended up wet and the movers had already loaded all of his clothes. I was fearing he was just going to have to wear a diaper until we got everything unpacked when I remembered that I had a couple pairs of overalls in my car.

We made that two hour journey between the two houses for the last time and were finally here to stay.

**More pictures of the house will be on the way once we get unpacked.

Caleb loves the wiener dog

When I was about 12 years old, we talked mom and dad into buying us a wiener puppy named Ginger. She was the baby in the family for the last 14 years until Caleb arrived. We were curious to see how she would react to him and what he would think about her.

Initially, Ginger seemed not to pay much attention. She would walk by and try to lick Caleb occasionally and try to lay on his blanket when she found the opportunity. Sometimes if he started to cry loudly, she'd come into the bedroom to see what was happening, but for the most part she went on about her normal routine. The only time she seemed a little jealous was when one of us were down on the floor playing with the baby. She would try to stick her little body in between everything so we would pet her and love on her a little too.

Caleb also ignored Ginger for the most part. For the past couple months or so, he's been reaching out a little to touch her or grab her tail but that's about the extent of their interaction.

One day in May, I tried to do a photo session with the two of them. A lady from work gave me a wiener dog onsie and hat for Caleb at one of my showers, so long before he was born I had the bright idea of dressing him up and taking his picture with Ginger.

After several attempts to get a good picture, Caleb finally had a melt down because Ginger licked him in the face.


Despite the rocky start, today something magical happened and these two became best buddies. Here is a little preview of their blossoming friendship:

Not even his mommy can make him giggle like that. I guess it's my turn to be jealous.:)