Update!

So its been a shamefully long time since I've updated you all on the wee one. I'm sorry but the truth is that I'm a slacker...That or I've been INSANELY busy. One of the two.

Anyways!

You would not believe how big Caleb is now. Most recently we weighed him - using the house hold scale and the hold the kid, see how much you weigh, set the kid down and see how much just you weigh and figure the difference method b/c we were concerned that he was getting too big for certain toys. 24.6 lbs. My 7 month old (now 8) weighed in at 24.6 lbs!!! Holy crow!

And he's so tall! He's not fat at all. In fact I wouldn't mind if he was just a little bit more chubby - he's got the chubby baby thighs and arms but his torso is lean. Not skinny - he's got lots of muscle but not a lot of fat.

In terms of development he's out to see how many milestones he can blow away in record time. Caleb can now:

- Sit up. He can put himself into the sitting position all by himself and does so regularly and he's getting FAST at it actually. AND he'll put his hands out to catch himself if he starts to fall.

- Self Feed. He's getting the hang of the pincher grasp and really likes to feed himself those little gerber puffs. He doesn't have any teeth so I'm very limited as to what I can let him have but he sure wants to feed himself like a big boy. And I'd even say that probably at least half the puff actually wind up in his stomach instead of on the floor, the high chair, his hair, stuck to his clothes....

- Crawl. He still prefers to do his "butterfly stroke" crawl (his Grandma Donni says he's just break dancing "the worm"), but he can and does crawl with the standard arm and leg alternation.

- Pull up, Stand, and surf around the couch and coffee table. Thats right. You heard it here. Caleb can pull himself up to the standing position and then stay standing and even holding on the the sofa and coffee table go cruising around and get all the things Mommy doesn't want him to have!

We're through most of the stage two fruits and veggies and making our way through the meats. He won't eat the straight meat baby foods, but honestly those smell so nasty they make me gag and you'd think that the label should read Alpo and not Gerber. We gave up on the straight meat baby foods after I accidentally tasted some and almost puked. Good news is that meat mixes - ie chicken and apples, or beef and veggies are pretty tasty and Caleb eats those with out a problem.

So pretty much we've gone as far as we can go until he gets teeth. Because I don't want him to discover real food and how TASTY real food is and want to tell me his baby food is icky and he only wants that real food now until he gets teeth! B/c teeth are important for that whole CHEWING thing. And since mommy is overly paranoid about choking and doesn't feel like being a slave to the blender/food processor making baby safe foods so for now at least we're gonna stick to the stage 2 foods and wait until those teeth finally make their appearance.

And I will try to get pictures posted as soon as I can. I need to hunt down my camera.....

Random Thoughts On Boys

So this post started as a comment on a friends blog - she has two little girls and is debating a third child in the hopes of a boy but made the comment that she would have no clue what to do with a boy if she were to have one. I wrote back that I knew just how she felt and blah blah blah thats going to be below, but I realized that she probably didn't need a novel in her comment section so I decided to make it a post in our blog. lol.

Boys VS Girls

I honestly didn't really care if I had a boy or a girl, I just wanted a healthy baby - but I did say that a girl would probably be easier b/c I know what to do with one of those! I mean its me and my sister, of my 20+ cousins only like a half dozen are male, my sister has all girls, my cousins' have a lot of girls, we've got girls EVERYWHERE. I am well aware that the man decides the gender but its still ALOT of girls. So when I found out I was having a boy I just sat there and stared slack jawed at the ultrasound. LOL. I was so surprised. I just really truly assumed I would have a girl first.

Thus far taking care of a boy is not too different from taking care of my nieces (except he's more likely to nail you when you change his diaper) but we'll see as he gets older. Right now he's a HECKUVA lot more mellow than the nieces. I'm not sure if this is because he's male or just b/c he's a happy laid back little person, or if he's saving it for when he's a teenager. I mean yes he's FEARLESS and just GOES for whatever he wants but my nieces have been the same way so thats not so much a difference.

I have discovered thanks to this experience that I'm something of a closet chauvinist. I generally don't think of myself that way at all, but when I was picking bedding sets I discovered something - knowing that I was having a boy gave me the ability to be financially sensible and pick out an ultra cute gender neutral bedding set. You put blue sheets with it and its perfect for a little boy, pink sheets and PRESTO girlie! But to be honest - if I was having a girl - it would have been unabashedly pink, and purple and ruffles and ribbons. But really that has more to do w/ the girlie stuff being so insanely cute and my lacking impulse control (the pink... it just short circuits the budgetary brain cells) and not being that in love with baseballs and tonka trucks - so the straight up BOY stuff doesn't appeal as much so I can be more "reasonable" and go with something that won't require me to completely redecorate my nursery should I have a second child of another gender (there that sounds so much better all rationalized than thinking of myself as a bigot).

But I think the girl vs boy differences will become more pronounced as he gets older and people start pushing the cultural norms on him (intentionally or not). I mean I'm gonna do my dead level best to make sure he can cook and clean as well as any girl b/c I think those are skills that EVERY person should have regardless of their genitalia. But honestly if he wants to play with a dolly I won't freak (I played with toy cars and somehow turned out okay). Neither will I really care if he makes every single thing he picks up go "vroom vroom!" or "bang! bang!". As long as it makes the kid happy, its safe and its legal I'm cool with it.

Personally I really really want to see who he is and becomes and choses to be. I mean he could be an athlete or an artist, academic or business man. I want to see what moves him, what he's passionate about. I don't care what he does as long as it makes him happy (though I have to be honest and say that I hope it earns him a decent living and allows him time for a family and blah blah blah blah blah....).