Thursday, December 11, 2014

1 YEAR OLD!!!!!!!!! (Picture overload)

My dear, sweet, little Caleb. I cannot even believe that you are a whole year old. I can't believe that we kept a baby alive for a whole year! Ha! Wow, I was reading your cousin Nate's birth story (way to go Amy!!) and it naturally reminded my of yours, and it makes me feel both warm inside and like my innards are tying themselves into knots. It's hard to believe that there was a time when you weren't a part of our family.
0 days old
"Woof. Childbirth was rough. I'm going to need a few weeks to sleep that off."
365 days old and celebrating by eating a cupcake (rather neatly, I might add)
"Is that a hint of vanilla I taste? I would have gone with mint."

Events in your first year of life include:
  • traveling to 6 states
  • having one hair cut (not including the time I had to cut a dry booger out of your hair)
  • going on 9 flights (10 if you count the one just a few days after your birthday)
  • gaining 2 more cousins than what you had at birth
  • your great-grandmother passed away
  • vacationing at Snowbird, Lake Powell, and Lake Weiss
  • sprouting 2 bottom teeth (but not until the week of your birthday! Late bloomer!)
First haircut. You just wanted to sit in the sink. And try to to avoid the scissors.



You can now:
  • Stand on your own
  • eat everything (and you do!)
  • wave hi and bye
  • sign the word "love" (*heartmelt*)
  • pucker like a fish
  • roar 
  • blow raspberries
  • blow raspberries on the baby gate
  • applaud when we say "yay" or "good job" or "patty cake"
  • open and close your mouth repeatedly like a fish
  • figure out the remote control more quickly than your mom
  • push chairs around
  • activate Siri, who usually responds with, "Sorry, I didn't catch that." Guess she doesn't know how to translate baby gibberish yet
  • say "Mamamamamama", "Mommy", "Daddy" in addition to words I cannot comprehend
  • raise your arms in the air to do "so big!" or "throw it in the oven"
  • play peek-a-boo
  • drink from a cup
  • climb up and down stairs
  • be the most adorable baby on the face of the planet
Scooting around in your Christmas jammies on your new birthday present from Mops and Pops

Your favorite things to do are:

  • going outside
  • "playing" the piano
  • crawling all over the furniture. And your parents.
  • "Singing"...often at church when everyone sings you yell one note as loud as you can until the singing is over. This is one of my favorite things ever!
  • looking at your books
  • squeezing through tight, impossible places, such as underneath your stroller
  • ripping off the keys on laptops
  • playing with your toys
  • climbing up and down stairs
  • take advantage of opportunities to go into your parents bedroom to look at the baby monitor. And then try to eat coins on the nightstand.
  • playing in the water
  • making new friends, whether that be other babies, animals, or that cute friend in the mirror
  • yell at us when you want something we have that you don't
"Hi Lilly!"

Your favorite things to eat are:
  • whatever your parents are eating or drinking
  • anything you aren't supposed to eat, such as: bugs (live or dead), your mom's face, your blocks, long lost food crumbs, pebbles, coins, etc.
  • CHEESE
Eat all the things!!!!
Other favorites:

Book: Your Bible picture book with Czech vocabulary. (Naturally his favorite book is the only one in his collection that I can't read to him)
Outfit: your birthday suit
Friend: anyone who is about your size or smaller. You squeal every time you see another baby!
TV show: none. TV does not capture your interest. Which is totally fine by me.
Toy: tough one... toss up between your Leaptop and your lion walker

Favorite non-toy toy: this box of diapers. No, really.

Personality:

I don't have much to compare this to, but here goes. You love playing with your mommy and daddy, but you are also very content to explore and play by yourself. You are not much of a snuggler, except when your are tired or don't feel good. You are almost always so pleasant, so when you start complaining even a little bit, it almost always means something is actually wrong. Or it means we just shut a door. You love being independent, which means changing your diaper is a challenge because heaven forbid anyone should make you lay on the ground like that! Funny how you consistently wait until your diaper is off before you make a dash for it though. You love to be tickled, or do anything else that makes you laugh, which sometimes is something random. Like pushing someone's face to the side over and over again. 

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Your birthday! 

I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. I ended up receiving some magnificent Harry Potter paraphernalia and so we ended up having a big HP birthday bash!

homemade chocolate frogs!


Frosted with love from Mommy, a birthday tradition I grew up with and hope to continue
Guests were sorted by the sorting hat, courtesy of an app on my iPhone
Pin the scar on Harry (yes, hand-drawn). Ben Fuller won!
Visit Honeydukes!
Coloring station (by far the most popular spot of the night)
Bathroom visitors got extra surprises

The Chamber of Secrets has been opened!
"This way to the Ministry of Magic"
Hedwig!!!

Daddy and Caleb running through the wall to get to Platform 9 and 3/4
Cousin Tommy was the only one who tried out the photo booth. Thanks Tommy!
The birthday party was a huge success, special thanks to my mom who helped, and to Nate, who sent me so many wonderful decorations and props. And thanks to everyone who came!
Our first attempt at a cake smash. But like the second time, it was disappointedly clean!

Hi Fullers!

Skyler and Bekah! Plus a couple photo bombs.

Lauren!

Caleb really cleaned up! Look at that hoard!

The lovely Beirdneau family!

Cousin Ella! 

Well, I think that about wraps it up. If you made it this far into the post, well done!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE DUDE!!!!!



Sunday, October 26, 2014

11 months


Caleb you are eleven months! You are already trying to stand on your own, you mastered stairs, and today you even figured out how to terrifyingly go down them face first. You are so busy! You are so sad when any door shuts because t means you aren't going through it. Other than that you are one of the happiest babies around. You are starting to not like any puréed food, but who can blame you? Other than puréed food you will eat anything, including pickle spears as we discovered last week. You even sneakily swiped mini quiches off of other guests' plates at the baby shower on Saturday. Changing your diaper is quite the challenge, as you are still so determined to crawl away even as your dirty diaper is coming off. Little stinker. 


Not the best picture of Brent but Caleb is sure enjoying the quesadilla!


You love playing peek a boo with a blanket, opening drawers, pulling off your socks and sucking them, playing with other babies, climbing up stairs, furniture surfing (and even already attempting to climb the furniture!!), going on walks, and of course, eating. You also love to look at books and flip through the pages. It is so delightful to see you looking at the pages and turning them instead of trying to eat them or tear them out. You are a delight to everyone who comes across you!


You did go through a very hard stage for a couple weeks during which you would scream and scream whenever you were put to bed. Thankfully it passed and bedtimes and naptimes are easier as long as our routine isn't crazy. 



We cannot believe that you will be turning a year old next month! How did that happen?? My little baby is turning into a boy! I can already see how you will look when you get bigger. Many comment how you are your daddy's clone! There's a little of mommy there, but you are practically your daddy's spitting image. As one person joked, at least no one will wonder who the dad is! 

You can do some tricks now, like sticking out your tongue at anyone who does the same (which is strangely shaped like a w--you have a forked tongue!), clapping your hands, and doing that b-b-b thing where you pull your bottom lip down repeatedly while talking. We love it!

You did give us quite the scare this month though. At meal times you started cocking your head to the side, as if you were trying to put your ear on your shoulder. We thought it was adorable. But then that progressed into a very unsettling twitch. We went to a baby neurologist at the recommendation of Brent's neurosurgeon uncle, and luckily she didn't find anything to be immediately concerned about. She said it was most likely something sort of like a tic and would probably go away, but to let her know if anything got worse or if other symptoms started showing up. Luckily the twitching has decreased, but still happens occasionally. 

At the doctors office. The crinkly paper was very interesting. 

Who, me?




Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Caleb's first pumpkin patch!

We decided to go to a pumpkin patch for family home evening last Monday. I always love going to a patch and was excited for Caleb to have his first pumpkin patch experience. We found a lovely little patch in Springville that we highly recommend. The pumpkins are dirt cheap, they have free slides for little kids, a corn maze (kids under 2 and under free), a little maze made of bales of hay that is free (perfect for little kids), a petting zoo, and they sold yummy snacks. There was a donut truck there that smelled soooo good too! It's off of the 400 S exit in Springville. We definitely plan on going there next year when Caleb will enjoy the other activities more!


Caleb needed to taste all of the pumpkins before giving his approval

Going out to pick the perfect pumpkins!
"This one's good Mom."
This was the closest we could get to a smile that night. Silly goose!
Sunset over the corn maze

They had this super hokey haunted house for little kids made entirely with items purchased from the Dollar Tree. But hey, it was free, and perfect for tiny tots.