This is the phrase that just came from our adorable little boy! That's right, he said a sentence! Here's the context:

Caleb was playing in the bathtub and I was bathing him. Scott walked in, sat down, and said, "Hi Caleb!" Then, Caleb turned his head, smiled, and said "Hi Dada!" (Not even kidding.) Our mouths dropped open and Scott tried it again and got the same response!

He sounded so old! I can't believe how quickly my little boy is growing up!

*sigh*

Now he just needs to learn to say "Mama."

Labels: Caleb, Milestones

Well, my baby is now officially 8 months old (yes, this is a couple of days late) and I really can't even begin to tell you where the time has gone. In some ways I feel like he should be so much older and yet in other ways I can't believe how much he has grown and learned in such a small amount of time. Here's the skinny on what my boy is doing now:

Sleeping:
Caleb sleeps from about 7:30p.m. until about 6:30a.m. Recently, however, he has started a new little trend of waking up around 5:00 in the morning. He doesn't fuss and he doesn't want to get up. But he wakes up and he plays and talks to himself (or maybe he's talking to a stuffed animal...I'm not really sure). This little ritual lasts anywhere from just a few minutes to as long as 45 minutes. When he's done playing and talking, he goes back to sleep. I inevitably wake up every time because I hear him chatting away (which is really an adorable sound), but then he lets me go back to sleep until my alarm goes off. I don't know what spurred this new sleeping routine, but it amuses me. Aside from the sleeping pushups, Caleb has also begun talking in his sleep on a regular basis. This absolutely cracks me up since he can't talk yet, so I suppose it's really babbling in his sleep. He's very animated at times, though!

Teeth:
Caleb now has FIVE teeth - two top and three bottom. (And he currently has two more top teeth trying to push through.) The poor boy has teeth popping through constantly and he is not even getting a chance to stop and relax! This has meant a lot of runny noses and fevers this past month. Caleb has been a trooper, however, only really showing irritability when multiple ones were ganging up on him at once. This has, however, diminished his interest in brushing his teeth since his gums have been constantly sore for the past couple of weeks.

Eating:
Caleb eats only solids and formula now (the arrival of five teeth resulted in a quick change in his diet!). He continues to eat most foods, though his nursery occasionally reports that he is a bit picky with some of the main dishes. Overall, Caleb continues to love fruit and yogurt but apparently he hates rhubarb. (Really, who can blame him?) He is now a champion finger food eater with his pincer grab, but he is much more efficient with his left hand than with his right hand. (Actually, he typically picks up food with his right hand and then passes it to his left before putting it in his mouth.)

Mobility:
Caleb is up on all fours but he cannot yet crawl forward. He is a champ at moving backward, however. He is almost able to pull himself up to a standing position, but he can stand while holding on to something with ease. He often turns circles or scooches forward on his bottom and wriggles himself to and fro when I'm not looking. He can, however, somehow reach anything within sight, even though he's not technically crawling or walking. I'm not sure how he ends up getting to things at times, but he always manages it.

Other:
Caleb now says "dada" non stop and often says "hey." There have been no other discernable words, but he loves using the ones he knows and all of the sounds that he can make. He is a completely social being and will flash a smile at or chat up anybody around. He LOVES playing with the other kids at nursery, particularly the ones who are older than him (I think he finds the younger ones a bit dull because they don't actually do anything.) Caleb loves playing games and is constantly creating his own little games and laughing non stop when you join in. His current favourite song is "The Skunk Song" (don't know if that's really the title) that I learned in Kindergarten. He laughes at it every time. Caleb has still shown no real fear of anything and loves seeing (and petting) new animals. He watches everybody and everything and is eager to learn. One of Caleb's favourite things continues to be reading books. The kid loves when we read books to him and he loves reading books on his own. Seriously, I can sit him down and give him some books and they will entertain him for an extended period of time. It's pretty amasing.

So that's my little 8 month old in a nutshell. Isn't he adorable?!

Labels: Caleb

Our new family portraits are finally in!!! Once again, I'm super geeked because I absolutely love them! By the way, this top picture is actually MUCH larger than the bottom one in real life.

So we just returned from our overnight trip in Paris and it was oh so fun. We decided to ride on the Eurostar (the super fast train) for the adventure of it. The train proved to be a nice little mode of transportation to France and we were shocked at the fact that we were only actually in the Chunnel for 20 minutes! Caleb, of course, was a super trooper during the whole adventure, despite the fact that he was apparently teething and we didn't have any pain relief for him. (We discovered the teething when he was eating because every time he tried biting or chewing something he'd cry in pain. Poor baby!)

Our morning started early from London, we arrived at Gare du Nord by 11:30a.m. and began our journey to the hotel. On the way we saw our first major sight: The Statue of Liberty! It was like being in two places at the same time! (Now I don't need to go to New York!) We checked into our hotel at noon, and enjoyed a 15 minute walk by the Seine to the Eiffel Tower. The main purpose of our journey was to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. This proved to be the plan of every other tourist in Paris as well. The place was absolutely packed (and for all of you who think that it's the perfect place to propose, it's definitely not a place we would consider romantic). Still, it was fun to be up so high and be able to see all the major sights (ie: the Louvre, L'Arc de Triumph, Notre Dame, etc...) from aerial perspective. Notice that Caleb decided to sleep during the adventure to the top. There's nothing like dead weight from a sleeping kid as you're winding yourself through crowds.

Of course, he woke up as soon as we got back to the ground, just in time to have his picture taken with the famous sight. (And it's an adorable picture, if I do say so myself!)
We spent the rest of the day, walking by the river, eating dinner at a cafe on the Champs-Elysees, and visiting L'Arc de Triumph. This morning we had tasty French pastries for breakfast before heading back to London. It was a whirlwind trip but made us feel (for the day) that we live somewhat glamorous lives because we can go to Paris just for a night. Really, our life over here isn't typically this exciting, but it does have its moments. :)

Labels: Caleb, Trips

Like all parents, we have sat around wondering what Caleb's first word would be. We have attempted to influence it, both by repeating the traditional words of "mama" and "dada" as well as throwing a few curve balls in there, such as "kumquat." (I've always thought it would be really funny if his first word was something totally random.) A while ago, Caleb started saying something that sounds like "hey," though I admit that it could be my imagination running a little wild. However, this weekend Caleb officially said his first word. And he appears to know the meaning!

I was sitting with Caleb on Friday evening asking if he could say "mama." For some reason, every single time we say "mama," Caleb looks at me and laughs. I have actually been convinced for a while that he can say it but is refusing to because he has been giving a little mischievious smile when asked if he can say "mama" for a while now (even his nursery workers have commented on it to me!). But now it's official...Caleb is a little rascal. Seriously. Every single time you say "mama," he laughs. (I have to admit, though, it's completely adorable.)

Anyhow, after several tries and a lot of laughter, I switched to "dada." And he copied me!! (I realise that you probably think that I should have, therefore, posted a picture of Caleb and his daddy, but I wanted to throw you guys off a little.) We went back and forth several times and he repeated it every time! When Scott entered the room, Caleb would look at him and then say it (for some reason he would whisper it every time, but it was clearly "dada.") After several times, we switched back to mama and he laughed.

So, my little boy can now say "dada." He does not say it all the time yet, but he definitely looks at (or for) his daddy every time you say it. And he always looks at (or for) me every time you say mama - while laughing. What a silly kid.

Labels: Caleb, Milestones

The weather in England has finally warmed up to nice warm spring weather so we headed down to Brighton (the seaside) today to hang out with Jeff, Andrea, and Mia. After grabbing lunch, we all headed down to the children's area of the beach. Though England is full of rocky beaches, the children's area was a large sandy area. Sadly, the wading pool had not yet been filled for the season, but Mia and Caleb still had fun playing in the sand. In fact, Caleb was so interested in the sand that I couldn't even get him to look at the camera for pictures!

This was Caleb's first time in sand, so I kept his pacifier in his mouth to keep him from trying to eat it. I was successful until right at the very end when he managed to get a sand covered rock in his mouth when I wasn't looking. While attempting to monitor Caleb's sand intake, however, I came across another father doing the same with his little boy. As it turned out, his son was also named Caleb! This may not seem like that big of a deal, but it is the only other Caleb we have ever encountered in England (most people have never heard the name before).

Anyhow, while the kiddos played, Andrea and I attempted to regulate a bit of control whenever kids started throwing sand in their attempts to dig. We had copped a squat in a small patch of shade, but this seemed to be a unintentionally prime hotspot for flying sand. In the end, I ended up with a lot of sand being kicked, thrown, or dropped down the front of my shirt and the back of my trousers. Nice.

It was another fun and eventful Saturday, though we didn't actually go near the water because we were all so drained from sitting in the sun and playing with sand! I definitely look forward to introducing Caleb to his first "real beach" experience (complete with the getting his feet wet in the sea) when we're in Greece! We had a lot of fun, though, and I am so glad that the weather has improved and daylight is now extended so we can actually enjoy more time playing outdoors.

Next weekend: Paris.

Labels: Caleb, Weekend

These are pictures of Caleb sleeping this afternoon. Not even kidding. He is completely asleep, but he is just chillin' while pushing up the front half of his body. When I tried to lay him down with his arms by his side, he woke up, fussed a little, then pushed back up and went to sleep! Seriously one of the funniest things ever.

Labels: Caleb

Well, once again our plans to visit Stonehenge were foiled. We are determined to make it there one of these days and were planning on going on Saturday. However, when we were looking at train schedules we learned that there were planned railworks interfering with the journey so that rather than a direct train from London we would have to do a train, then a bus, then a train, then a bus. No thank you! So we ended up at the zoo instead.

Our day at the zoo was lots of fun. The weather was beautiful and we were accompanied by Stephanie and Kyle. We had also finally purchased an umbrella stroller so we didn't have to carry Caleb the entire day (though he still spent plenty of time being carried by mommy or daddy). The downfall of the day was that there were some aspects of the zoo that were seriously lacking (ie: there were no elephants, bears, chimps, or many large animals such as that). However, we were still able to kill about 6 hours wandering around and even enjoyed highlights such as being in an open area with monkeys and seeing donkeys mating.

We started the day with the giraffes. After all, we figured that Caleb should see real life versions of the millions (okay, that's a little bit of an exaggeration) of stuffed giraffes that he has. The larger animals proved to be better entertainment for Caleb, as we had a difficult time getting him to direct his attention to the small creatures, unless they were actually moving. He always seemed more interested in whoever was talking to him or pointing to the animals.

Halfway through the day, Caleb made a friend of his own, though, that he showed more interest in than any of the other animals. This monkey's name is Qwon (he's from China) and he enjoyed the rest of the day with Caleb in his buggy.
It was a fun day and definitely a nice change of pace for the weekend. Caleb did brilliantly all day and was in good spirits throughout everything. I must say, however, that I look forward to going to the zoo when Caleb is older and better understands what is going on and can actually comment on the animals.

We ended the day with some tasty Cuban food before returning to Croydon just in time to bathe Caleb and get him in bed. It might not have been Stonehenge but it was probably more fun.

Labels: Caleb

That's right, I'm practicing my Greek (lol) because we're officially headed to Greece: 29 May - 5 June We will be spending 3 days in Athens (where I will spend my birthday), ferry over to the tropical island of Santorini for 4 days (where they have black sand), and then fly back to Athens before heading on to England.

Once again I'm super geeked!

Labels: Trips

So blogging on a regular basis has proved to be more difficult now that I'm back at work full time. Go figure!

Anyhow, life has just been truckin' on over here in England. Caleb has adjusted well to his nursery and loves playing with the kiddos. And I am happy to report that I did not even have to sneak off this morning when he wasn't looking (to prevent him from getting upset). Caleb smiled at me and waved when I was standing in the doorway and then he started playing with a toy. (Hooray!!!) The only 'negative' feedback I have gotten from his teachers is that he sleeps so much that they don't get to play with him as much as they want! Seriously, the kid can sleep. Apparently he sleeps 3-4 times as much as the other kids in his class during the day (about 4 hours on average), and an additional 12 solid hours at night. Makes me wonder what his teenage years will be like!

Caleb has also learned to wave in the past week and loves demonstrating this newfound skill on EVERYBODY around us. He waves at people on the bus, street, tram, store, etc... The other morning on the way to his nursery, he would wave at the man sitting across from us on the tram, squeal with delight and turn around to hug me, then turn back around a wave again. This was the pattern the whole tram ride. So cute!

The nursery workers have had some difficulty getting Caleb to eat some of his veggies (because they apparently do not complete song and dance routines each meal), but have reported that he's a little piggy when it comes to fruit or yogurt. We also fed Caleb his first curry last night. For those of you who don't know, England is OBSESSED with Indian food (to the point that even Pizza Hut has an Indian line). Because of this, we discovered baby curry. I have to say that I have never seen Caleb less interested in a food. He might not like his veggies, but I can always get him to eat them. With the curry, he simply closed his mouth as tight as he could. It was pretty humorous.

Labels: Caleb

Okay, maybe not identical, but there's definitely a crazy family resemblence! I don't really understand how this has happened since Caleb looks exactly like Scott and the cousin is MY sister's kid. They're both super cute though. :)

Labels: Caleb

First Braves, then Cubs, and now back to Braves. Caleb doesn't seem to mind which baseball team he supports right now. When we get back to TX, however, we'll have to ensure that he gets some Rangers attire to wear to local games.



Side note: Kudos to those who recognise the quote!

Labels: Caleb