Firsts: fire ant bites, scraped knees, hair cut, trip to Austin

Sept 17-23, 2012

"This is what remotes are for, right Mom?" He loves to chew on the clickers but he also knows to point them at the TV. You're in trouble if he has the DVD remote while you're trying to watch a movie. He will bring you back to the main menu about every two minutes. I don't know why they made that button so big and blue and right in the middle of the remote.

Forgot to post this one last week... it was from Sunday so I'll put it at the beginning of this week. 14 or 15 weeks pregnant (at night, because in the morning I don't look nearly as prego as I do at night with this pregnancy)

On Monday Caleb got his first fire ant bites (three of them) in the morning while we were playing on our driveway. Then later he got his first scraped knees... I asked him not to play in the street so instead of walking, he ran down the driveway. He not only scraped his knees but also scraped the pussy scab things off of his fire ant bites. He was tough though, he just got back up and ran toward the road again. Then he fell even harder and cried to be picked up.

He loves to push his high chair around the kitchen

We're also back to the 4:30 am wake ups, in addition to one other night wake up.

Action shot: bringing book to Mom to read and about to trip into her lap

On Tuesday we were going to go with Allen to Austin. He had a recruiting thing in the evening (bowling and eating pizza with the actuarial club... tough work) that he was supposed to go. We were going to stop at the Blue Bell Factory on the way there. Then Monday there were some things that "blew up" at work so he couldn't go and instead had to leave for work at 3:45 am and didn't get home until the usual time. Poor guy. 

Finally figured out how to drink out of a straw but he decided he liked the straw more than the juice.

Caleb kind of fell down the stairs. I was above him on the stairs trying to get him to slide down on his belly and he decided to stand up. He fell down two of the stairs but somehow I managed to catch him before he hit the landing so he wasn't hurt at all, just scared. But, it scared him into going down backwards now! When he gets within two feet of the stairs, he drops and sprawls out on his stomach and starts scooting backward toward the stairs. It is so cute! He knows to get off of our bed and the couches that way, he just tries to be a big boy and walk up and down the stairs. 

Caleb also loves pushing the laundry basket around the house.

When Caleb wants me to play chase with him, he goes to where the cords are in the living room, makes sure I'm looking and then grabs them. As I tell him not to grab them, he laughs and starts to run away, wanting me to chase him. He now plays chase standing up instead of crawling.

After my runs I do pushups and a core work out. Whenever I'm in the plank position Caleb thinks that's a cue to come climb on my back to play horsie... and so we do.

Caleb likes to "carry" things. This is pretty heavy but he hefted it around the house for a long time but got stuck when trying to take it upstairs.

It's hard to guess what he will eat. It's like he chooses a favorite thing every day and will only eat that. 

He insisted on feeding himself the yogurt...

...successful spoon to mouth moment...

...his forehead was hungry. 

Wednesday while we were at the park Caleb slid his feet into the swing and stood up. I stopped the swing, made him sit back down and then he did it again. We were done swinging after that. I have figured out that he can't fit his feet up in the swing when his shoes are on so we only swing with shoes on now. He just likes to stand up everywhere and keeps trying to walk in the bath. We warn him not to stand up otherwise he will have to get out... we have had some really short baths because he uses up all three strikes and has to get out.

Still loves the bath

For Activity Days we made little teddy bears to donate to the pediatric part of the hospital. The girls think I'm an amazing seamstress and want me to teach a free sewing class where they can make their own teddy bears to make home. 

Thursday we were playing in the study and Caleb tried sliding off Dad's chair but went under the armrest and got stuck because of his huge noggin.  

This is Caleb prepping for a big splash. He gets up on his knees and raises his arms as high as he can and then smashes them down into the water. And repeats. And repeats and repeats.

He's getting better at playing on his own as long as I'm in the same room and not doing anything other than stare at him. For example, I started making some Christmas presents this week (I think it's the nesting instinct kicking in) and was measuring fabric in the same room Caleb was playing in. Caleb got jealous of the attention I was giving to the fabric, so he grabbed his toy and came and sat on the fabric and continued playing. 

I have no idea what happened on Friday.

And now, for our picture journal of the weekend:

Saturday morning I gave Dad a haircut, then he held Caleb so I could give him his first haircut!

Then Caleb decided he needed to sit on my lap while I finished.

 After haircuts, we cleaned up, packed up and headed to Austin for the weekend. Caleb didn't particularly like the car ride...

We stopped at Dairy Queen on the way to Austin.

Caleb loved the french fries and ice cream and walking around and yell-talking.  Notice the hair cut.

Cooling off in the river/lake after walking around trails

Under the bridge: a grandpa and his grandson were fishing with fake hooks beside us. 

Falling down in Zilker Park, where we played and read Hunger Games (book 2) and people watched. 

Walks with hands out for balance still

Mmm... Torchy's Tacos for dinner. 

Caleb was so exhausted that we gave up on the rest of our plans for the day and headed back to the hotel early. Saturday night we were in a Holiday Inn in Pflugerville. It was nice! It was just off the freeway, free internet, a yummy free breakfast and it had a separate front room with a hide-away bed/couch, desk, tv, etc which was where Caleb sort of slept. The only thing that was not so nice was that we got stuck with the room closest to the lobby so it was loud in our little front room.

Caleb slept on the king bed for a couple of hours while we read Hunger Games in the other room.

Then we moved him to his crib so we could go to sleep and he slept in it for about three minutes. He ended up back in bed with us and then on the floor in the other room on the couch cushions.

Sunday I forgot to take pictures but we spent all day with Allen's cousin Zerelda Beckstead and her family. They live in Pflugerville, which was why we stayed in the Holiday Inn out there. We went to church with them and then to their house for lunch/dinner, dessert and games (and Caleb and I napped on their guest bed). I still can't believe I didn't take any pictures while we were there.

Sunday night we were in a fancy hotel downtown since Mercer was paying for that night . . . it was two-three times as expensive but we weren't that impressed. No free internet, no free breakfast, no room in the fridge for our stuff, no microwave, not even a nice bathroom. The bed was nice and I think there were a couple more pillows but the best part were the robes. Again, Caleb wouldn't sleep in the crib but he at least slept on pillows on the floor instead of in bed with us.

Monday morning we went to IHOP, you can tell Caleb is smiling because of his eyes

 Allen gave Caleb cold water out of the straw. Here's a funny video of it!

but when we yanked his binky out, this is what it looked like.

 After we dropped Dad off to go recruit, Caleb and I ate at a buffet at Pizza Hut and then headed to walk around the capitol building.

Caleb was hot and bored

Later he had his shoes off so he wasn't as hot, but still bored.

We played on the capitol grounds for a while

Looking at the tree

Throwing Mom's flip flops

After walking around the capitol grounds and going to the visitors' center, we wandered around downtown. We didn't find anything too exciting before we visited Dad. We saw him for a few minutes and then dropped him off at the next part of his recruiting trip before Caleb and I went to find dinner. We got Taco Bell and headed to the bridge to watch the bats.

Every night thousands of bats come out from under the bridge and eat millions of bugs.

Caleb made a friend with a boy the same age as him (11 months): Mark from Germany. He was prepared, he wore a batman shirt to see the bats. Caleb loved playing with him! He even walked on the grass to go touch his face and grab his arm. Mark liked Caleb better from a distance.

The bats emerge.

And then it was time to go get Dad and head home. Caleb slept and I read Hunger Games to Allen the whole way back. We made pretty good time since Allen had work early the next morning. 

Side note: during the weekend Caleb started clapping (finally), he waved a couple of times and started Indian yelling on his own (where you yell and hit your mouth).