Our Life

A few days before we headed up North for Christmas, we had Brandon’s parents and brother, and our nephew over to have our Christmas celebration. It was a wonderful evening with a meal out, wassail, cookies, presents, and two sleepy little cousins just trying to get along :)

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For as long as I can remember I’ve held Caleb while I vacuum the floors. At first it was because he was pretty much attached to me, and it just made sense to hold him. Then, it was because he was afraid of the vacuum, and now it’s pretty much just what is expected. It’s getting to be a greater workout as my little one has gone from his tiny 8 lbs up to his current 25 lbs. Thank goodness for my Moby wrap :)

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Caleb loves to explore, especially when it comes to his food. Many meals have ended with a wet, sloppy mess extending about 3 feet out in all directions from one happy little boy in his high chair. These photos were taken during the beginning of his bedtime routine, which includes a little bit of rice followed by a long, necessary bath.

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Auntie made us some amazing quilled snowflakes a few Christmas’s ago and packaged them beautifully in a round box padded with gold tinsel… which Caleb found, and loved. Don’t worry grandmas, Mommy supervised him closely during every moment of his play with this obvious choking hazard :)

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I was really nervous about having a baby around our dear Kitty, Yoshi. I didn’t really believe Yoshi would be aggressive toward him, but I just didn’t know what he’d think. Prior to Caleb’s existence I actually made the statement “I really hope I can love my child as much as I love Yoshi.” Yeah. I’m laughing with you. Anyway, over time I’ve accepted the fact that we’re going to keep ‘that cat’ in the same house as our darling, precious Caleb, and once that was resolved, I’ve grown to appreciate the relationship they have. I think Yoshi actually likes Caleb, and we KNOW Caleb likes kitty. In fact, aside from Mama and Dada, kit-tay was Caleb’s first word! Since he was probably 7 months, Caleb’s primary interaction with his fluffy friend is to nuzzle him with his face just ever so gently. It’s precious, and we will get a photo of it someday soon :) In the meantime, here are a few of the little man enjoying his kitty. Later that day he rocked the non-sippy cup like a PRO! Such a big boy!

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Every now and then we pull out the camera to get a shot of something adorable Caleb is doing, and wind up with the camera attached to our hands for the rest of the day (and by we, I mean Brandon). This was one of those days. Instead of posting whatever photo initiated the whole photo shoot, I decided to choose several to give yet another glimpse into a fairly ordinary day with Caleb. PS This is 2 weeks before he turned one!… we’re inching toward that big day :)

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Whew, okay no more 2 AM posts… I think I got way too sentimental toward our beloved exersaucer :P Well, sometime just before Christmas (and Caleb’s 1st birthday!) we made our way to this great little community down the road to use their scenery as a backdrop for our family’s Christmas photo. When we got there, we discovered they had set up an adorable sleigh scene for that very purpose! They’re so thoughtful. We spent probably a good hour dodging families decked out in their red and green, sinking in the mud surrounding the beautiful scene (yeah, we get mud instead of snow..) and trying our hardest to get an 11-month old to look at the camera and say cheese. We had fun, but after all of that, we decided to use a photo we took a few weeks later during our visit to Michigan… where there is snow so it actually looks like Christmas :)

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You were a good companion. You freed up Mommy’s hands for meal preparation, and you taught Caleb that he loves to bounce and push buttons. Your tray held many a snack and sippy cup, and your holes, left where we removed your noisy toys, gave us lots of opportunity to learn precision as we dropped objects through to the floor. Thank you for the seven and a half months you cared for us. Enjoy your time in the storage closet with the swing and bouncy seat and we look forward to being together again someday!

Goodness gracious! The November 24, 2009 folder of photos has 151 pictures of Caleb in it, and for very good reason… this was a very big day for him! I remember it so well. Shortly after he woke up that morning, we were playing in the living room and he was crawling around on the floor military style (his ‘slug’ method since Sept 24… I just high-fived myself for keeping a good 1st-year calendar) and then he got up on his knees and started rocking as he had done frequently, and just took off! He went around the loop crawling like a pro! Before that excitement could even begin to wear off, he crawled over to the chaise, pulled up to standing, and then took 4 confident steps over to the couch. It was freakish. My son transformed overnight. He then climbed up on the piano bench and proceeded to play Beethoven’s Sonata Pathetique flawlessly… nope, he didn’t. After the incredible crawl-amazingly-fast-around-the-loop-12-times workout, he plopped on the floor. Somewhere after that he sat up, from the laying-down position, with no help at all. This was a skill I was getting anxious for him to master. He was an expert at pulling up on things to change positions, but it wasn’t always convenient to have to slug himself across a room to an object just so he can sit up. So, yay! We were feeling very sentimental that day, I think, thus all the photos. I’m going to share more than just the highlights because I want you to be able to sorta feel like you experienced that day with us :) OH, he also had grilled cheese for the first time that day. This is huge.

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