March 12th - March 21st

Note: my hair looks huger than it is because of the shadow from the flash. 

As I look back at my notes to myself from four weeks ago, I am amazed at how quickly Caleb is growing and changing. For example, I was surprised a few weeks ago when we were Skyping with Grammy and Caleb was able to get the computer by rolling over. I kept it out of his reach by moving it away from him and he ended up eventually turning 360 degrees by following it while on his tummy.

Now he is so quick, he can drop whatever toy he was playing with and roll over a couple of times and grab the computer before I realize what he's doing. He loves the computer and gets frustrated I won't let him play with it. So I'll suspend reality for a little bit and go back to March 12-21 and write this as though then is now. :) And may be I'll get to writing about now now too. (Now has begun to look like an unreal word.)

Caleb likes to play peek-a-boo. While folding laundry on the floor next to him, he grabbed my shirt and pulled it over his face and kicked his legs excitedly until I pulled the shirt off of his face and said "Boo!" Then he would cover his face again and again and again. It was pretty cute! Maybe he just wanted to cover his face up, but I think he was playing with me.

Caleb ate carrots for the first time and liked them, especially when we did a mixture of carrot and banana. Bananas make everything else so much sweeter! He likes to gnaw on my apple slices and carrot sticks because they taste better than everything else he gnaws on. He is teething so he gnaws on everything!

Example of him gnawing on an apple chunk. 

 Caleb has discovered the elasticity of my bra straps... while eating, he grabs on, pulls back and lets go. He is amused by the snapping sound it makes or something. It is pretty funny to watch him but sometimes more painful than I expect.

Going out on a date: we got Caleb ready for bed before we left, hoping he would sleep in his car seat during the date... no such luck. He is a pretty cute third wheel though! Actually, we went on a double date that night so he was the fifth wheel.

Caleb talks in his sleep now and loves to play with the quilt draped over his crib when he wakes up.

He still likes to hang upside down frequently. I just have to be careful and hold on to his legs because he can really launch himself off of my lap.

Caleb likes to help me look for the best deals in the weekly ads. It keeps him entertained for at least twenty minutes. I think I know what he's going to get for Christmas: everyone else's wrapping paper! 

I bonked Caleb's head a the park this week, which I think may be his first owie (sp?) other than scratching himself. He likes to watch other kids at the park and I like to have other moms to talk to. We were at the park and an 8 year-old girl (that I don't know) got stuck upside down on some of the equipment so I went to help her out and she flung all of her weight on me when I wasn't expecting it. I lost my balance as I lowered her to the ground and Caleb's head hit one of the bars she was stuck between. He only cried for a minute and then got a little bump where his head had hit. I felt so bad! It didn't even bruise and there seems to be no lasting damage :)

Caleb has a fascination with my shoes and slippers... a bit of a shoe fetish. He likes to try to eat them.

Caleb gets very excited to go on walks. He recognizes when we're putting him the stroller and his eyes get wide as he smiles and flaps his arms and kicks his legs. While on a walk this week he was doing his happy scream for at least ten minutes. There was a couple on the path ahead of us who kept looking back as though we were beating our child.

Teething is making Caleb tired, he has starting falling asleep at the end of our runs. This has been nice because it gives me 20-40 minutes when we get home to stretch, clean and then shower without entertaining a baby. Because he is teething, he is now back to eating twice a night instead of once (midnight and 4 am) but still nothing to complain about!

Caleb has started to whine and cry when Dad leaves the room at night after family prayers. It is really cute! He arches his back to see if he can still see him.

I am very, very ticklish on my right side... whenever anyone whispers into my right ear or touches the right side of my neck, I get goosebumps and squirm. Caleb seems to be the opposite: more ticklish on his left side!

No, we aren't torturing him... just helping him imitate Michael Jordan, ball and all!

We had tickets to the Houston Rodeo (awesome!) on Saturday (March 17th) but Allen was feeling sick and Caleb was teething so I thought it might be a better idea to not go... I'm glad we went! It was a blast! It was a 45 minutes ride downtown and then 15 minute metro/train ride to the stadium. Caleb loved looking at all of the people, smiled and reached out to touch their faces and hair as we walked around for the first couple of hours.

We had to try something deep fried, so we opted for deep-fried cookie dough... I wouldn't recommend it. Next year we'll try the Snickers or twinkie. I've heard they're better.

Our seats were way up in the nosebleeds but it was still fun to watch the rodeo.

After the rodeo there was a Brad Paisley concert. Caleb was tired by the time that started and slept through it after singing along for the first twenty minutes. And then he slept as we carried him around the fairgrounds and the whole ride home!

Pretty sweet revolving stage.

I took a picture of a quilt they had there. Mom: this is an Old McDonald quilt! Click on the picture and you can see it up close.

Caleb is a rolling machine! He can roll quickly and only stops when he runs into the wall... except when he watches TV. He must have an ear for quality music because he laid still for almost all of Music and the Spoken Word.

Caleb can thrust and arch his way completely out of his Bumbo.