Flei Paper

Speech And Hearing

2012-01-19T15:32:00.001-07:00

For those of you unaware I have a genetic sensorineural hearing loss. What that means for me is that I cannot hear sounds in the lower ranges (such as mens voices) like I should. I can hear perfectly normally in the upper ranges, in fact I can hear some higher sounds I shouldn't be able to hear. And I read lips like a champ. In fact my audiologist has never seen a person before who can read lips like I can that hasn't had lessons teaching them how to do it.

Thing is my mother can do it to. Because she also has my exact same hearing loss (or she did. Because of cancer treatments she has now lost all hearing in her left ear and some in her right). In fact when I was a teenager our doctor remarked how he'd never seen anybody with matching audiograms before.

I think thats also why we both read lips like professionals. I have the same hearing loss my mother does. She has the same loss her mother did. I think somebody figured lip reading out back in the day and just taught their kids like it was second nature. My little sister got tired of not being able to understand what we were saying and she picked it up too even though she has perfect hearing (my Mom's brothers are fine). Now all 3 of us can talk across a crowded room with no problems and our husbands have no idea what we're saying *snigger*.

When I was an infant there was no technology to help my kind of loss. When I was 8 they came out w/ a really obnoxious contraption that had a speaker talk into a mic wired to a box and me wearing giant hearing aids connected by wires to another box. That didn't last long. So I just gave up. Sat front in center in all my classes and explained to my teachers I needed to read their lips.

That is until I was 18 and the school nurse explained to me I should look into this hearing loss thing as a source of scholarship money. THAT got my attention.

Thats when I realized how profoundly deaf I am. Because I don't sound deaf (my voice is well within my hearing range). But it wasn't until I started handing my audiogram to counselors and social workers and saw their jaws drop and they started stuttering about how they can't believe how functional I am and how good I sound do I realize just how much of a loss I have.

In the lower ranges I am profoundly deaf. The bane of my existence are deep southern men's voices that are already so low they're in the basement and then they compound the problem by not moving their lips when they talk. Lord save me.

That and every roommate I ever had, after a few days living with me, every last one of them would say something to the effect of, "Wow you really are deaf huh? You sure don't sound like it". (Probably b/c I don't shut up).

The upside is that technology had improved over the last 10 years and I was finally fitted w/ hearing aids that really do help things (I wasn't sure how big of a difference they made until I was on my mission and my companions would go, "You're not wearing your hearing aids right now are you?"). (FYI Cochlear implants won't help w/ my kind of loss b/c theres nothing wrong w/ my ears. The problem is apparently in the nerve/brain area.

Fast forward to having my first (and so far only) child. When I was pregnant with Caleb I used to stay up nights worrying about how my hearing (or lack thereof) might affect things. I was scared that I wouldn't hear him cry. I was terrified I wouldn't be able to give him the proper feed back to help him develop as he should.

The first fear went away by the first week after I gave birth. I don't know how but I would wake up if that child's breathing changed. He didn't even have to cry. And if I'm out of the room I make sure I have my baby monitor and that it has lights that go off and flash at me when he cries and I makes sure I have it directly in my line of sight. So the crying has mercifully never been a problem.

And I have mostly been okay about his speech ever since I talked it over with my family who pointed out that my sister and I's speech turned out just fine and my mother (at the time) had had the exact same loss that I did. So I started breathing again.

That and I knew that if Caleb had my hearing loss that it would show up from the very beginning (like everybody else's did) but Caleb passed his new born screening with flying colors and responds very well to my fathers ultra deep voice (he apparently uses a higher tone when he talks to me).

My pediatrician has been super paranoid though. For Caleb's first birthday we had his hearing checked again with Cardon Children's Hospital. He passed with flying colors. For his second birthday we did the hearing test AGAIN (the doc said if he passed this one he'd wait until he was 4 to do another one) and once again he passed. He's passed not only the screening tests but all of the milestone markers they want him to pass.

I know this is really long and I've got some more to say so I apologize I just need to get this out.

Now I'm starting to have a bit of a problem. And the pediatrician warned me about this - Caleb is big. He's huge for his size. He's literally off the growth chart for his height. Well over the 97th percentile. He's only 90-95th percentile for weight so he's a string bean but he is TALL. And the problem with that is that people expect more from him because he looks older. The doctor warned me that people are going to ask whats wrong with him b/c they think he's a lot older than he is.

Its easy to forget he's only 2.5. Heck I find myself getting frustrated and then I try to remember - he's only 2.5, keep your expectations realistic for his age. And I take a deep breath and I refocus.

And ya know I laughed at that doctor, because I figured the people who matter would never forget it. But I myself start to do it sometimes. And it hurts when people who should know better ask me if he's okay. They think that he's slow or not developing right b/c I can't parent him properly with my loss.

And in some ways their questions are fair. Caleb is way ahead of the game in the fine motor skills department. He knows all his letters, and half their sounds. He knows half his numbers and tries to count (though it usually goes more like 1, 2, 8, 9, 10!). He's super bright.

And he knows LOTS of words. When we read books (and he is in the mood to do so) he can point out every thing in them and at least take a pretty decent stab at pronouncing the name (elephant is hard and "ear" comes out more like "eeeawh"). He'll even sing a long with me sometimes.

And he has certain words and phrases he uses ALL the time. But he's not talking too much yet. He'll have a babble conversation at you but if you ask him how he's doing he'll just smile at you. When we're at home he'll talk a fair bit but he doesn't like to do it out side the house usually. He prefers to just grab you by the hand and drag you to whatever it is or point and get excited.

And so I can see how if you don't see him outside his space when he's in a cooperative mood you might think he doesn't talk at all (I say mood b/c I think he'll stop talking just to vex me).

But Cardon Children's gave me (from our first meeting when Caleb was just a year old and again at his 2 year screening) a packet of pages outlining the developmental milestones for speech and hearing by age and said that as long as he kept meeting those mile stones we're doing great. They also gave us a list of suggestions to help.

I do every last one of the things on that list. Well, I don't always use bath time as "sound time" but I get down on the floor of the living room with him to play and do the exact same things. Other things it says is to talk about things as we're doing things and going places. Narrate your life basically. Cuz I didn't talk to myself already. Now I sound like my mother (love you Mom).

I do phonetics with him (Clock says tick tock! T-T-T-T- Tick Tock!). I do all of the sound play - I let him feel my throat as I make "rrr-rrr-rrr" noises and hold his hand to feel the air of "p-p-p-p".

I expand on the things he says: "Car!", "Thats right! Thats a red car! It goes VROOM!"

I read at least 1 book with that kid EVERY SINGLE DAY. And we point out the pictures (I do it first and then he takes over) and we point out the letters and say their names and their sounds.

And as far as the mile stones go here are the lists for ages 2-3 (aka what he should be able to do by the time he's 3).

Hearing and Understanding
- Understands differences in meaning ("go-stop", "in-on", "big-little", "up-down") CHECK
- Follows two requests ("Get the book and put it on the table") NO PROBLEM (unless we're not at home)
- Listens to and enjoys hearing stores for longer periods of time. (Some days I wonder if I will ever get my finger back as we read stories - b/c clearly stories are best read while maintaining a death grip on Mom's pointer finger for use pointing at things on the page).

Talking
- Has a word for almost everything (Admittedly we're still getting there on this one. Getting him consistently to USE the names is still hard. But he LOVES to name things and enjoys asking for food by name - and we have time. He's not 3 yet).
- Uses two- or three- words to talk about and ask for things (He does this multiple times a day but not EVERY time "There it is" while pointing to what he wants, "Mom! Dad! Come on! Lets go!", "Oh kitty! Oops! There he goes! Bye Kitty!")
- Uses k, g, f, t, d, and n sounds. - kitty, go-go-go (his words for Cat in the Hat), phone (same sound), fishie, tick tock, and nana - CHECK.
- Speech is understood by familiar listeners most of the time. - Adam and I have no problems understanding MOST of what he says. And his most common baby sitters (my friends Kathleen, and Felly or my SIL Natalie or MIL Donni) all understand him no problems.
- Often asks for or directs attention to objects by naming them. - He's doing this more and more - he now points to the bananas on top of the fridge and asks for them by name, he'll ask for my phone by name, he points out every single clock we see with an excited "T-t-t-t!" sound. He's trying to say "Tick tock" but that one is a work in progress.

SO thats what he's supposed to do by the time he's 3. He's only 32-ish months old so I vote we have some time.

So please before you question my sons development and send me scurrying to my list again to MAKE SURE WE'RE DOING EVERYTHING (b/c thats what I do so I don't curl up and cry in fear that I'm a horrible mother) please make sure that your expectations are the same for him as they would be for a much MUCH smaller normal sized 2 year old.

He's only 2 after all.

Vote For ME!! (again!)

2011-12-21T00:57:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys!!

Its time to vote for the Vintaj Designer of the Year!! Since I won with my Caribbean Sun Set design earlier this year I'm in the running!! So please vote for me! My piece is #7.

http://vintaj.com/wpblog/?p=14010

Thank you SO very much for your love and support! And if you haven't seen our new website yet you need to go check it out!!

www.beadsjustforyou.com

Cheers!!
Ami

One of the Best Pieces of Parenting Advice I've Gotten

2011-11-30T01:12:00.000-07:00

I posted this as a comment on a friends blog but I think it deserves its own post here:

Ya know the single best piece of parenting advice I think I've ever got I actually overheard at a friends baby shower. There was an elderly grandmother there and her advice to the mom-to-be was this: Take every chance you can to hold that baby and to cherish that moment, just really enjoy it. She said that they grow so fast and one day your arms will ache to hold that baby again. You will hold other babies but you never get to hold *that* baby again so enjoy it and cherish it. She also said that her daughter used to cling to her skirts and drive her crazy and she found that the solution was simply to take some time every day when she got clingy and sit down and cuddle with her for a few minutes in the rocking chair. She just needed to be held for a bit and then everything was okay.

And I've found that really helped me to cope with all the craziness and the occasional (or regular) suckiness of my day - when I do get a minute to just grab Caleb and give him a cuddle and I try to push all my worries out of my head and just sit there and smell his hair and really enjoy the snuggle. Its almost a form of meditation for me now. I'm gonna have to find something new when he gets bigger and is too cool to cuddle with me...

Caleb 2 Year Check Up

2011-09-09T17:29:00.000-07:00

So just realized that the Fail Master here totally forgot to give you guys a stats update when Caleb had his 2 year check up a few months ago. I'm sorry. Since I'm sure you can hardly wait (ha!) heres the nitty gritty.

Doc says Mr Caleb looks GREAT. He is 39 inches tall. He's so far off the chart now he didn't even get a dot on his height chart this time.... YEAH. I really do need to post a photo of that... Neways, so he's literally off the charts tall (on and here's whats scary, he's gotten taller since then, such that I had to retire almost all his pants for being high water...).

He weighs in at 33 lbs which put him in the 95th percentile for weight (last time we were in a docs office he was playing on the scale and it said he was more like 35.6 lbs now, but that does include shoes). And he's got a 20 inch head so he's also in the 95th for head.

He only had to get 1 shot this time which was nice (comparatively).

Otherwise they made me get a CBC to check him for his iron levels and make sure he didn't have lead poisoning or anything ( we live in an older home). That all came back fine but the getting the blood drawn bit was pure hell.

They also made me redo his hearing test (ooh that was fun. Especially after getting shots and a blood draw) and once again he's fine there. They're paranoid b/c theres a family history of hearing loss.

SO we survived. Caleb now has a raging phobia of women wearing scrubs. And he's growing like CRAZY.

Tah dah.

Master Bathroom Light Fixture

2011-09-06T00:52:00.000-07:00

Hail the conquering Heeeroooo!! Nahhh nah nahhhh na na nahhhhhhhhh!!

*takes a bow*

Yes, its true. The dastardly electrical box may have won the first battle but by golly I won the WAR!! BWAHAHAHAH! *ahem*

Neways so I forgot to take a true "Before" pic b/c thats just the way we like to fail at life around here. So here's the I-already-took-the-funky-glass-and-copper-shade-circa-1970-off and unscrewed all the little mini round clear bulbs shot I took when I realized my mistake:

So the adventure really began when I got the cover off this baby and got a look at my wall. Yeah my junction box cover (little round circle sticking out of the sheet rock that was oh so expertly cut RIGHT UP to the edge of the circle (hahahah NOT ANYMORE!!). Leaving visible ONLY the 2 HORIZONTAL screw spots (yes thats a technical term. Shut up).

Wellllll, this was a problem, b/c my new fixture has VERTICAL screw spots (you can't see what I'm talking about in pictures b/c I didn't take any during b/c it was night, I was tired, and I *thought* it was gonna be a generic boring install job and theres LOTS of those on the web *dies laughing*. Which is why it was a special growth experience. ) SOOOO I had to figure out how to get the circle to change orientation to the vertical.

So we took a time out. Failed at google (takes talent I tell you). Called Daddy (mercifully he was still awake). Figured out what we were doing after staring at a bunch of pictures of junction boxes and covers on home depot (okay so odds are my screws are going to be.... there annnnnnd THERE).

Then we shoved our fingers in the hole in the wall (always kinda nerve wracking if you ask me) and felt around until I discovered I had one screw in the lower left corner and one in the upper right. So then I used my hammer and flat head screw driver to chisel through the sheet rock (definitely the intended purpose of the tool) to find said screws. And I tried very hard not to take any more sheet rock than I absolutely had to b/c I was greatly afeared that my new, much smaller base plate wouldn't cover the holes I was making. But I told myself some minor sheet rock repair (which I totally know how to do) was nothing to be able to install my gorgeous $4 (no thats not a typo I really paid 4 bucks for this fixture at a local thrift store) light fixture.

AND it worked. I found my screws, undid them, chiseled out some more wall to buy myself room to turn the plate to the vertical, screwed it down in its new position and 5 whole minutes later my wiring was all done and my new fixture was attached to the wall!!

So after we stopped w/ the victory dance and the yells of "Whose Da WOMAN??! I'm DA WOMAN!!" I took a few more pictures. Please excuse the horribly yellow cast of the walls. My sister was demanding pics and didn't want to wait for day light. And I swear that the fixture is level even tho it doesn't look like it in this pic. Thats just my mad camera skills winning at life for ya. And I know my middle bulb is different than the outer 2. That will be fixed when I hit up Wallymart tomorrow.

And with out further disclaimers: Here we go!

Yes I look EXTREMELY attractive in these pictures. Please remember this was late at night, w/ an experimental (and FAILED) hair do thrown back in a pony tail. Also the fixture will look even better once the wall gets painted. The master bath is on the renovation list but the wrecking crew hasn't made it there yet. This was the first of many baby steps.

Caleb Steals a Hat

2011-08-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

More specifically he stole his Grandpa's hat last Sunday when we were over at my inlaws house to celebrate my father in laws birthday. Bill (my father in law) snagged these super cute pictures and was kind enough to send them my way. :)

The Living Room BEFORE and AFTER

2011-07-27T17:17:00.001-07:00

Before I show you the "Before" pictures I must add this disclaimer: This is my idea of survival and function with a toddler, NOT my idea of Decor.

Ahem:

Here's what we did: Painted the ceiling a soft flat white, the walls are Martha Stewart Living "Artesian Well" color matched to Behr Premium Plus Ultra paint which is the paint/primer combo stuff you can scrub. I figured since I was going w/ a flat color in a room with a toddler scrubbable was a good thing. All the trim got at least 2 coats of semi gloss white paint.

I love this little shelf/ledge under the picture on the right. I'm still hunting the pretty things that are going to go on it. I think I'm gonna DIY me some art... Also we decided to see if Caleb would leave the computer alone if we took down the fence and so far so good! :D

Isn't that just SO much more open? I need to get stuff hung on the walls on this half of the room but I want to redo what I had there so it will take some time and doing. But no big I'm just going to do it one little bit at a time. :) We also ditched our huge coffee table in favor of this cute little chocolate brown faux suede storage ottoman. It holds all the throws and blankets and is the perfect height for Caleb to color at when he's sitting in his little chair. Also works good as an ottoman too. :)

My next project is this hall way. I've even got the paint for it already. Just need a couple days to whip the rest of the house back in shape (it got scary while my back was turned). And this is Vi, its probably the only time most of you will ever see that cat.

I WON!!!

2011-07-18T14:01:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to say, "Thank you SO very much" to everybody who voted for my piece on the Vintaj Monthly Design Challenge. Its SUCH an honor to win, particularly given how amazing some of the competition was.

I am SO frickin' excited I've been doin' a happy dance ALL morning!!

Thank you again!

http://vintaj.com/wpblog/?p=12700

Vote for ME!!

2011-07-11T17:05:00.000-07:00

Hi Folks!!

So for the first time ever I've entered one of my pieces in a jewelry contest! Vintaj Natural Brass is one of my FAVORITE suppliers and they have a monthly Design Challenge! Voting is open until Friday so if you would pretty, pretty please go vote for me I would REALLY appreciate it!! And feel free to tell all your friends to go vote too! My piece is #1.

http://vintaj.com/wpblog/?p=12564

Thank you so much!

Also if you haven't seen our Etsy shop its rockin' if I do say so myself:

www.beadsjustforyou.etsy.com

Annnnnd we're back!

2011-07-06T12:37:00.000-07:00

So we just took an awesome and otherwise fantastic trip home to Sugar Land to see my folks (and my sissy and her fam). It was SO much fun. That was the longest trip I think I've taken yet (12 full days!). And just to make it even more full of the awesome - my sweet hubby Adam was able to join us for the 2nd half of the trip (rock on!).

And just to add a LITTLE more awesome - it was the first 4th of July I've had with my fam in several years, which was flat out rockin' awesome because for once instead of drooling over pictures of BBQ on facebook (and shedding the occasional jealous tears) that my Daddy made I was THERE to actually enjoy the feast with everybody else! SO awesome!

But because I am full of the FAIL I neglected to take like ANY pictures so I'll see what I can steal from my Dad and sister and get them to you sooner rather than later.

Also to update you on the yard - the grass now looks like over grown jungle since we got back (rock on the grass is HEALTHY!!) so I'm thinking we might have to buy a real lawn mower instead of trying to make this little old rotary mower handle that beast. I just don't wanna shell out for it. But I also really don't enjoy trying to mow with the weed eater either (definitely NOT intended for whole yard usage). So we might have to break down.

AND if you wanna see what I'm plotting for my redecoration of the dining room/kitchen hop on over to http://ilikesparklyobjects.blogspot.com/ to see pictures and hear all the gushie details.

Brace Yourselves Folks

2011-05-20T03:15:00.002-07:00

Because I'm gonna get political.

I read an article today that ticked me the heck off. And I've just got it running through my head and I can't sleep so you guys get to hear about it.

Did you know that the US government received a letter from the people who regulate such things (I don't look up, I just remember content) threatening to slash our credit rating if we don't get the deficit under control?

Did you know that to try to balance the budget they're talking about slashing student loans?

Did you also know that we give away billions (possibly trillions but that would require me to look it up and I'm lazy) in foreign aid?

One of the very first things I learned in my water safety class at the Red Cross when I was a Girl Scout is that if you're trying to save a drowning man do not jump in the water with him. If you do, he will pull you under trying to save himself and you will both drown. You have to be on solid ground and reach out to lift them up.

We as a country are drowning. We have children starving in our own streets. If our credit rating is slashed the effects will be devastating both nationally and internationally.

If we as a country do not get ourselves on solid ground then we are all going to drown.

I am not saying we shouldn't send help and aid to countries who have suffered a major disaster or to assist in establishing democracy and protect human rights through out the world. But we cannot and should not do it to the extent that we jeopardize ourselves.

Additionally we need to carefully evaluate how we help other countries. A dole does nothing good long term. Its the whole "give a man a fish" vs "teach a man to fish" thing. The money should not be permanent. The aid should be given when needed, for a specific cause that will aid in future self sufficiency, with transparency and accountability and a schedule in place from the start as to how and when the aid will end.

And it royally ticks me off that slashing student loans even got on the table. As far as I'm concerned our children are our national security. Education is an investment, not an expense. If we fail to provide for the future of our country the effects will be devastating.

I know that the American public is currently up in the air about the true value of a college degree, particularly in this economy. But if you look at the employment stats the value becomes truly obvious. Those who only have a high school education are significantly (I *think* the article said 4 times) more likely to be out of work than those with a degree. And a middle class life style is becoming almost impossible to obtain with out some level of upper level education.

I know the collapse of manufacturing jobs in the US has been devastating for many people. I know there are many who long for the return of manufacturing jobs to the US. However, the reality is that I do not see that happening. Our economy is based on capitalism. If you can get the job done cheaper over seas, then thats what companies (who are in business to make money) are going to do.

Yes it sucks, but its reality. In order for us to compete on a global scale we have to be willing to grow, change and adapt. In another article I saw recently, one of the countries in Europe (I *think* it was Holland) is having the same problem. All of their manufacturing jobs went over seas and they had tons of people out of work. Instead of giving them unemployment benefits forever, they accepted that the jobs ain't coming back and instead instituted a program to reeducate the workers in another field with a benefit program that will help support them through their reeducation and then taper off to encourage them to get new jobs and support themselves.

Wow! What a great idea. Its empowering. Its supporting people through a rough patch, which I think we as fellow human beings should do, but it gives them the tools they need to be self sufficient long term. It shows confidence and the expectation that they can and will do better and we will not enable their wallowing in self pity.

I have never had a desire to go into politics. But I'm starting to get angry. I'm talking march in the streets angry. I know the system is huge and complex and bigger than I can comprehend and I'm running off of information I can glean from the media. I know there isn't an easy fix. But I'm starting to think I need to get involved.

My biggest problem is: I don't know who to get involved WITH. I do NOT like either party at the moment. Both parties are so incredibly polarized I can't say I agree by a long shot with either platform. There are things I like about both, and things that make me wanna smack them both.

I think we need a new party. I have no idea what to call it. Maybe the "Common Sense" party. Or the "Rational and Empirical Thinkers Party". Maybe just "The Moderate Party".

I'll have to think for a bit on what all I'd want on the platform. I know we need to reform the education system. Big time. I know we need to massively reform the tax structure. We need to get the debt under control. I think the Constitution is an inspired guide to the spirit of how we should run our country, but I also believe that our forefathers allowed amendments to the Constitution for a reason. They recognized that as the country grew and changed that we would need for Constitution to grow and change with it. But I also think with modern technology there may need to carefully evaluate balance of power and responsibilities between the fed and the states. I'm all for the use of technology to enable transparency and accountability.

And thats all I've got for now. But I think I may be on to something here. Anybody else feel a grass roots movement coming on?

Progress on the Yard

2011-03-30T23:16:00.000-07:00

I should have taken BEFORE pictures but I had a stupid so you'll just have to imagine the back yard FULL of thigh high weeds and the front yard completely barren except for the occasional weed... I've been busy lately.

This is the start of my bed of roses. That bush in the rear was practically dead by the front door when we bought the house. I transplanted it last year and got it to bloom for the first time. This year its looking even better. And the miniature rose in front is new this month.

I want to have rose bushes going all the way down that brick wall. The row of stones marks the lines of the lawn I'm hoping to seed by the end of the week.

I love that tree. Its a Texas Mountain Laurel and has the most wonderful smelling big clumps of purple flowers!

We have on going fantasies that the side of the yard there might one day be the home of a swing set or something equally exciting.

And over here I'd love to put in some raised veggie garden beds.

Managed to get this all cleaned out. I hate looking out the window at bare fence tho. Someday I hope to grow some sort of pretty flowering vines up the fence opposite the windows. :)

You get a second shot here b/c the 1st one didn't show the bricks well. Those edge bricks used to be like falling off w/ and inch or two of weeds between them and the rest of the patio. I fixed it!

The Front yard. I just planted all the cacti/succulents yesterday!

I love my little Palo Verde trees! They're a thornless hybrid which is a big plus. I hate HATE hate the grey rock tho. Someday I have fantasies of replacing it w/ something prettier. I think a nice sandy colored gravel would look good. I'd also love to run a sand stone path from the side walk to the porch...

To Fly With A Baby

2011-03-16T08:55:00.001-07:00

I had a Facebook friend ask the world for advice on flying w/ her 13 month old. And I discovered I had quite a lot of advice to give, so I thought I'd expand it a bit and make a blog post out of it for posterity.

I've flown with Caleb a dozen times now. I take a backpack (my laptop, meds, jewelry, and a book for me, lipgloss, a change of clothes for me AND him and my wallet) and a diaper bag and my full size stroller. I check the car seat in w/ my bags and take the stroller with me to the gate and then gate check it when I board. You'll need to get a gate check tag from the gate people when you get down there.

If you wanna bring any milk/water/formula/baby food through security the phrase you need to get past TSA is "Nursery Water" for water or "its for the baby". Fair warning they are liable to want to open ALL of it and check it so make sure you have ziplock bags b/c one time they made me open sealed baby food jars and then they came open in my diaper bag and I was NOT a happy person.

Also they will want you to take off the kids shoes when they make you take yours off to go through the scanners. And it will save time if you put all the food stuff you can in one or two gallon sized ziplocks so when you put the diaper bag in a bin to go through the scanners, pull that bag out and put it in the side of the same bin and they're less liable to FREAK on you than if they find it on the scanners.

I recommend like one or two FAVORITE toys and then get some new stuff. Books he hasn't seen before or coloring books, I swear by my mini magnadoodle thing I got for 5 bucks at walmart. You NEED to keep him sucking on the way up and the way down. I've done pacifiers, my fingers, sippy cups, crackers, ANYTHING. Otherwise the kid will SCREAM. A sweet treat he doesn't usually get can save you.

I also like to do a diaper change just before we board. Time it for about 40 mins before take off and you should be good. Diaper changes ON the plane are NO fun.

Also I tend to let the kid run around as much as he wants while we're sitting waiting at the gate because once we're on the plane I'm going to NEED him to sit still so I like him to get the wiggles out while he can. Otherwise just try your hardest to be calm and happy and super affectionate and that will help him to keep it cool. They need to wiggle so bouncing, rocking, letting him stand up on your lap and sing songs in public even will help keep him happy.

I know this is LONG but I always have people compliment me on how good he was during the flight and its taken me a bit to figure ALL of this out so I thought I'd share.

One final anecdote - there is ALWAYS one kid in the back of the plane who screams their little lungs out the whole damn flight. One time I had this person RIGHT behind me so I was able to hear what was going on. By the end of it I desperately wanted to smack her mother. The little girl was 2 and her Mom was completely unreasonable in her expectations for the child. Her expectations were appropriate for say a 5 year old, but telling a 2 year old not to fidget and to sit perfectly still in her car seat is not a reasonable expectation.

Yes she does have to stay in her car seat during take off and landing, but otherwise if she can sit in Mom's lap or climb over to Dad's lap and stand up and take a look around the plane she's gonna be happy, and most importantly QUIET than if you try to keep her strapped in that seat, with NOTHING to do for 3 hours and tell her she's not even allowed to kick her feet. The Mom kept complaining to the Dad, "OMG Shes just being SO unreasonable!" And I was thinking "Of COURSE she's unreasonable, she's TWO. Its your job to help her get the wiggles out in a safe, appropriate way.

The plane is something new and different and exciting. They're going to want to cling to you and get a look around and heck they're gonna want to explore this new place, and while that last one isn't so much doable you can at least let them stand up and take a peek.

Caleb at 21 Months

2011-03-01T23:32:00.000-07:00

He's growing so fast and he's so smart it takes my breath away.

Caleb is developing socially. He loves other little kids and is developing absolutely adorable little friendships with the other little kids in nursery at church. They are all excited to see each other and give each other hugs to say hello. I'm told he plays well with others and is a delight to have in class.

He's also inventing his own words for things. In spite of all my attempts to teach him the words "More", "food", "drink", "bite", "milk" etc, he has decided that the correct word for any and all of the above is "Guhk". If he wants a bite, if he wants a drink, if he likes it and wants more the correct way to ask is "Guhk!". Good to know.

And while Caleb LOVES to play with other people (grown ups, kids or animals) he will happily play by himself for extended periods of time. He sings little songs and laughs and talks. He likes to crawl up in the rocking chair and rock himself while he reads books to himself.

He loves to watch his cartoons in the morning while he drinks his morning sippy. We watch PBS Kids and his favorites are "Super Why!", "Dinosaur Train", "Sid the Science Kid" and "Word World". He's fascinated and loves to sing along and try to help out and participate in the shows. Its friggin adorable to watch.

Mr. Caleb is also learning his letters. He can point out and clearly say A, I, O, T, G, N, D. He LOVES kitties and puppies and will happily point to pictures or videos or the actual animals and he'll shout "Meow!" or "Woof!" or "Kitty!" or "Goggie!" as is appropriate.

Caleb is an adventuresome eater with a wide palate. He hasn't met a fruit he doesn't like and he'll eat most veggies. It can be a challenge sometimes to get him to eat meat but he's a serious cheese eater. And he's definitely got his fathers sweet tooth. So its a good thing he doesn't get them often because once he does identify something as sweet there is no rest until he either gets it or it mysteriously disappears. Scarcity is our friend is this case.

Mr. KB is so super affectionate. He'll come running to throw his arms around me. He gives kisses and cuddles and hugs. He'll blow kisses from across the room and he loves to cuddle and read books or sing songs. He is truly a delightful child and I am so honored and grateful to be his Mom. He is my sunshine boy and he couldn't get more wonderful.

Ami Turns 29.... for the first time

2011-02-15T02:17:00.000-07:00

Its kinda cool. I just had a birthday and now I will never age again. No.... I'll just have anniversaries of my 29th birthday. I think I can handle this. ;)

So I was fortunate to receive a replacement to my aged camera for my birthday from my very generous parents with the condition that they get lots and lots of pictures of the grandbaby on a regular basis. I will have you know that with in 24 hours of my receiving my gift they received this bunch of pics taken at a little shindig Bill and Jo threw for me at their house!

Be amazed - Caleb photos TWICE in less than a month. I know. I know. Try to contain your excitement. ;)

This here is Mr. Caleb investigating the side yard by the tennis court.

And I was checking out the Macro mode on my new camera by taking pictures of these TINY but GORGEOUS flowers growing up the wall in the side yard.

Mr. Caleb running around the tennis court! Camera also handles action shots nicely.

Caleb got interested in what Mom was doing and tried to scale the fence (with some help from Uncle Mark).

Tell me thats not one of the cutest faces you've ever seen! You can see whats left of his black eye. Got his first big shiner this week. He was playing on the love seat and totally face planted on the hard back edge of the sofa. Poor Caleb was seriously unhappy until I gave him an ice pack to play with. It was supposed to go on his face but he decided playing with it was a much better option.

And me with my birthday cake:

The cake was super tasty and very pretty.

Mr. Caleb was playin w/ Aunt Natalie's sun glasses. I think he looks like a cool dude myself...

Uncle Mark provided a lot of entertainment by thoughtfully unplugging this phone so that Caleb could play with it all he wanted. He had a blast.

Caleb 19 Months

2011-02-03T02:43:00.000-07:00

Well Mr. Caleb has done growed again! And a friend of mine was sweet enough to catch these pics of Caleb with her camera and even sweeter to let me copy them to my computer! So since it has been FAR, far too long since you guys got a glimpse of his cuteness here are some pics of Caleb from last month!

This first shot was taken the day after Christmas actually. He was walking around talking on the phone. He just loves that little Elmo phone. I felt like I was listening in on a conversation in a foreign language. I could only understand about every 5th word.

And here we are being silly at a restaurant up the road. We grabbed dessert with 2 friends of mine and Mr. Caleb was being cute while we were waiting for the food to arrive.

Caleb was no content to flirt from the far side of the table. So since the table was still food free he got away with crawling across the thing to be cute.

He's only slightly pleased with himself. lol

Caleb prefers the milk goatee to the milk mustache.

Caleb 18 Month Check Up

2010-12-03T12:52:00.001-07:00

Well Mr. Caleb had his 18 month check up with the doctor today! Our boy is now the same size as the average 3 year old!!! Oh My HECK! I gave birth to that!!

The stats are: 27 lbs 14 oz, 37 inches tall, 19.5 inch head. Putting him off the charts for height, 80th percentile for weight and 95th percentile for head. The doc says that he looks fantastic and doesn't need to see him again until he turns 2!

AND just to sweeten the deal we didn't have ANY shots this visit. We did do a TB test but that went really fast and Caleb calmed down amazingly well afterwards.

I've decided Caleb does know what a stranger is after all because you should have seen the looks he was giving the doctor and nurses. He was all "Excuse you, this is my personal space! Hey! Hey! Stop with the touching! I said NO TOUCHY! I don't know you! MOM!!!!" He like JUMPED into my arms and then started trying to remove the doctors hands and push him away. lol. And the facial expressions were priceless. I think he must have learned a thing or two from his cousin Leah when we were in Texas last week.

But we're home, a reward sippy has been had and he's now out for a nap!

Caleb At the Park

2010-11-05T00:40:00.000-07:00

So I took Caleb to the park today for the first time in recent months. The disgusting bake you alive Arizona heat does not lend itself to safely enjoying the outdoors with a wee widget. But its cooled down enough and I seriously needed to get out of the house so we went for it.

And at first Mr. Caleb was having NOTHING of it. He was kinda tired (I'm trying to wean him off the second nap because if he takes it he doesn't want to go to bed until like midnight and thats NOT okay), and so initially he did NOT want me to put him down. He did NOT want the swing.

I started to win him over by the two of us sitting and swinging for a bit in the tire swing and then Bre and I took turns going down the slide with him. And then he did another round in the baby swing and this time he enjoyed it (we put Bre at one end of the arc and me at the other so he had somebody cheering him on both ways).

And about then a bunch of other little kids showed up and he was just FASCINATED to watch them play. He would follow them around and just watch smiling. It was really cute. And then he started exploring the play ground and having a good time and played with a couple of toys.

But he finally settled in for a good long round of digging in the sand/gravel of the playground. He was just very intent. First he dug the hole, then he filled the hole. Next he decided to bury his leg. Then he started showing me all the little rocks and pieces of sticks and grass that he would find in the sand. And he did that until it was time to head home.

When I stood him up and brushed him off on the bench before we headed home he had a small PILE of dirt that came out the bottom of his romper. lol. He even had sand in his diaper! He got a bath tonight.

OH and he was so worn out he was rubbing his eyes and walking into the furniture at 9:30. :D :D

So I think it was a success and we definitely need to do it again soon and regularly. :)

Caleb 17 Months

2010-11-03T17:07:00.000-07:00

Meet Mr. Insanely Adorable. In the last month Caleb has really been turning on the charm. I love it. He's figured out how to say the "Boo!" part of "Peekaboo!" and so now he's forever popping up from behind, around or over things and shouting "Boo!" with a big delighted smile.

He's a lot harder to photograph now actually because he knows what the camera is, and he wants it, and he's so fast now. I can get maybe one shot and then he's climbing up me like a tree trying to get the camera.

Caleb is also a serious technophile. There are few things that will delight him like getting his hands on the remote or one of the computers. Of course not getting the thing he wants now leads to some rather hysterical to watch foot stomping. It cracks me up. I'm sure thats not the reaction he's going for but more often than not when he's expressing his displeasure with me for not letting him have something and he either growls at me (no I have no idea where he would have gotten that from....) or starts stomping his feet I just wanna laugh at him cuz its so dang funny. But the next step up from there is his pterodactyl scream which makes me more than slightly twitchy so I guess that it all evens out in the end.

Caleb is funny the way he uses Momma and Dadda. He'll go for a week or two at a time and EVERYTHING will be "Momma". Its his favorite word. And I of course enjoy this no small amount. And then he'll go through a phase like right now where everything for the last week has been "Dadda" and I of course find this somewhat vexing. lol. I'm wondering if one of these days he's going to decide that he can use BOTH words. It will be very exciting.

Caleb is using more words all the time. Mostly he babbles constantly but he'll pair words occasionally now like "Oooh YEAH!" and "Oh Wow!" He's still stubbornly resisting learning the three words I'd REALLY like him to learn - which are "Food", "Drink" and "More" just because those would really help make my life run a little smoother. But he's very expressive with his earnest little face. And his voice can be surprisingly deep for such a little person. I'll be very interested to see how it goes as he gets older.

He is also increasingly affectionate. He's usually so very busy getting into stuff that he doesn't often just want to be held, but lately he's started when he's in the middle of playing with toys he'll stop, run over to me, and give me a great big hug or just cuddle for a minute. If I'm really lucky he'll give me a kiss. And then he hops back down and goes back to getting into stuff but I love it just the same. It always makes me feel like a million bucks.

Caleb has gone through another growth spurt recently. He can now wear 2T and 3T sized clothes (although 3T is a little big still). I just can't believe how tall he is. I look at him and I'm like "Oh my gosh! You're a little boy now! Where did my baby go?" This does mean he can now climb on to both the love seat and the sofa and the coffee table and most chairs which has made life all sorts of interesting in that "repeated cardiac stress test" sort of way. We also had to buy a play yard to put around the computer desk because there was absolutely no way to keep him out of it now that he's so tall.

Caleb is also a Little Piggy addict. Be warned - if you do so much as "This little piggy went to market" you will be doing the whole thing at least a dozen times. Unless of course you're crafty and devious and you distract him with a round of "Eensy Weensy Spider" or something similar. Whats really adorable is he'll try to do it back to you sometimes. He doesn't say the exact words but the inflections are all correct. Its really, really cute to watch.

He loves to read books. Lately, instead of bringing the book to me to read to him, he's taken to sitting on the floor and reading the book to himself. He points at the pictures and the words and just babbles away and laughs. Those have to be some dang good story lines the way he carries on.

Also we're up to 7 teeth now. He's got 4 in the front center on top, two on bottom and he's got one of his right molars coming in. I some how thought he'd get the other two on bottom first but he's apparently decided to go for the gusto. Lets just say that "Teething Tablets" are my friends.

We have had some problems with Mr Caleb hitting people in the face. Used to be you'd just grab his hand and say "No no" or plop him on the floor and he'd stop but then he decided it was a great game and funny. Oh and he was tall enough that standing on the floor, if you're sitting on the couch he can still smack you in the face, which was NOT okay.

And since I've yet to reach the point of "kid smacks you, so you smack him back and say "Don't hit!"" making sense to me, so we have instituted Time Out. Yes, if he hits and won't stop, then I dump him in the portacrib I have set up in the corner for just such a purpose. And he gets to sit in there, with no toys while I ignore him for a whole 2-3 minutes. Oh the horrors!

Good news is that its working. There has been a MARKED decrease in the hitting phenomenon since we started with Time Out. So apparently this barbarous cruelty is effective. Cool.

And since this is reaching epic lengths we'll stop for now. I can gush about my sweet baby for extended periods of time. lol

Caleb 16 Months

2010-09-28T17:31:00.000-07:00

The alternate title for this post could read: Meet Mr. Chatterbox

Mr Caleb seems to have decided that this talking thing is cool after all and worth practicing. And I have to say its dang funny to listen to him.

Just this morning he looked at the cat and went "No, no no no no no no! Ooow!" He picked up "Ow!" yesterday from me after he totally beaned me in the nose and I went "Oooh! OW!" and he looks at me and matching my inflection perfectly "Ooow!" It was so dang cute. I was like "Thats RIGHT! It hurts! Oww!"

And Mr Caleb can now say "Nigh Nigh" for "Night Night" and "Ah- dah" for "All Done" and "Ooh!" for "Hello!" and "No no" which thankfully has not yet achieved favored word status and is still a little more "nuh nuh" than straight out "no".

He can say really clearly "Yeah!" which is just really adorable.

Its really cute because he's started not only imitating our speech but trying to mimic our inflection. So he can usually get the major syllable of a word and match its inflection to repeat back to you what your saying. So you get things like "Oh no!" becoming "Ohhh O!" as he looks at you anxiously after repeating what you said.

So I accidentally stole this toy from my Mom's house - I swear I was packing in such a hurry I just went "baby toy = pack" and threw it in my suit case, and its this "Light Up Alphabet Apple" and Caleb used to get really frustrated using it. Because it would be like "What letter makes this sound? 'EErrr!'" and he wouldn't get it right and I think he could tell and he'd get frustrated and yell at it and push it away. The toy is wayyy above his developmental level (ie "Where is the X-Ray Fish?") but the scary thing is - its like his favorite toy now and he's starting to figure it out.

I do think that the sound track for it may actually be seared to the core of my soul now I've heard it so many times it makes me twitchy to think of it but he loves that thing and it calls out to you and plays music for a while after you touch it to come back and play before it says "Bye bye!" and shuts off. Well he will come over, turn it on, play with it for a bit, then walk away but once it stops making noise he will come back to turn it on again and then go back to playing.

This is one of those times I'm grateful I'm half deaf or I'd go truly insane.

In other exciting news Caleb actually has enough hair on top of his head I can brush it now. Its a nice sandy blonde and from the texture I think this is his big boy hair growing in finally. Its really adorable.

Caleb 15.5 Months

2010-09-13T05:38:00.000-07:00

So I think I got a little spoiled. I had the worlds best behaved baby for so long that it was a shock when he started walking and suddenly decided he had an opinion about things. I learned then to be grateful that for the most part Caleb was still a very mellow, even tempered easy going baby because when he decided not to be... you would sooner talk water in to rolling up hill than get that child to do something he didn't want to do.

But I would still get compliments and questions from strangers who spent any amount of time with him. The questions were almost invariably "Is he always this good??" and the compliments were something to the tune of "Wow. He was SO good!"

So you can see why I consider myself insanely lucky to be the mother of the worlds best baby. But I have to admit the last 2 weeks have been a serious challenge. Caleb is working on a couple of teeth at a time now and it has made him extremely less than happy about things.

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly he can alternate from being completely and totally charming to be absolutely horrible. One minute he's happy and laughing and playing and the next some mysterious force will shift and he's suddenly screaming his little head off and thats nothing you can do to soothe him. It becomes extremely frustrating extremely quickly to be screamed at for no good reason.

But on the other hand I've had some sweet experiences of late. When we were with my folks a few weeks back my Dad was working hard on getting Caleb to say 'I love you'. He got as far as (repeated one word at a time) "Ah.... of..... Oooh!" It was really dang cute. So the other day I was sitting there with Caleb on my lap practicing this and we got as far as "Ah.... of" and while I was praising him for the "love/of" bit Caleb all on his own finished with "Momma!" and hugged me.

I almost cried I was so happy. We had a good cuddle with Mommy repeatedly telling him that he was the absolute bestest baby in the whole world and I'd definitely keep him. :)

And for another kudos to me - for MONTHS Caleb's favorite word was "Dada!" and he would say it over and over and over again. And you'd have me sitting there going "Say Momma! Say Momma! Mooooommma!" (And he could he'd done it before but almost never when I was IN the room). And Caleb would just look up and me and smile and go "Dada!" And I'd tell him he was a good boy if a rotten snot. And Adam would laugh and tell him he was a good boy.

Well, now he's decided the favorite word is "Momma!" which I am 110% okay with. And the other day I overheard Adam sitting with Caleb going "Say Dada! Dada!" and Caleb smirked at him and happily said "Momma!" I called out "Good boy!"

I tell you, most of the time I do have the bestest baby in the whole world.

We did find (a pharmacy tech recommended them and a couple of friends) some homeopathic little tablets that like melt instantly in his mouth called "Teething Tablets" that do seem to be helping some with the extreme teething crabbiness. I'm glad b/c these are like microdoses of herbs and claim to be completely harmless (hasn't killed any of my friends kids anyways) and I was feeling bad dosing the poor kid with tylenol every 4 hours when he was awake just so I wouldn't kill him b/c that tylenol is really hard on your liver.

This too shall pass. I think I'm really grateful I'm not pregnant right now because it would be even harder to keep from losing my temper if I was hormonal pregnant psycho chick. Its particularly hard because he is so big and he weighs so much, and when he's upset he like wants to climb up you like you're a jungle gym or something and those hard boney little toes digging into your stomach and thighs really fricking hurt. Add that to the screaming in your ear and life becomes dramatically unpleasant.

I guess the biggest things are the fear that something else is wrong and that I can't make it better either way. I'd take him into the doctor but he was worse last week and we did see the doc for his check up and everything was perfect. He doesn't have a fever or any other symptoms just new toofies and CRABBINESS. And I've tried everything but giving the kid whiskey (which a shockingly large number of people have suggested I do) and nothing has made him happy.

Oh well. As my friend Ruth reminded me today: This too shall pass.

PS - I'll post more pictures soon. Its just hard with my wonky camera....

Caleb 15 Month Check Up

2010-09-07T14:37:00.001-07:00

For the record this was written last Friday (4 days ago) right after the appointment happened and I'm just now getting around to posting it here.

So Mr. Caleb had his 15 month check up and shots today. It was a rough trip at the end of a rough week. Poor baby has been cutting teeth big time this week and having a hard time of it so he was not so much in the mood to be cooperative for the doctor today. But Caleb's been dosed with Tylenol and is down for a nap now so Mommy is getting a breather and life is livable.

Caleb is now 27 lbs 3 oz, 35 inches long (one more inch and the kid can go to Disney land!!) and has a 19 inch head. So he's roughly 80th percentile for head and weight but he is off the charts tall for height. Dr. Curran walked in and goes "Big C! Mr. First Round Draft Pick!" lol He made a point of showing me on a chart just how big Caleb is - he is the same height as the average 27.5 month old child.... at 15 months. That actually means he's LARGER than HALF of the 27.5 month olds out there. I knew he was wearing 2T and I was gonna upgrade him to size 5 diapers but some how I didn't realize he was THAT big.

Its kinda funny - they give me this paper with three little squares (height, weight, head) on it and each has a set of graph lines in the middle of each square for the 5, 10, 25, 50, 75, 90, 95 percentile lines and your kid gets a dot some where on the graph indicating where they are. Caleb's height dot has been at the top line since birth and getting higher and higher each time. This time he's so far off the top of the line set that his dot on the graph is almost up against the top of the square box that holds the chart. lol I'll have to scan it and post the picture to facebook or something.

I was worried that Caleb was maybe a little too skinny for his height (I keep trying to fatten him up but he just gets TALLER) but the doc is thrilled. He says Mr. Caleb looks great, every thing is right on track.

He had to get 5 shots today which was seriously crummy. Caleb hasn't screamed like that since he was little bitty. It almost made me cry again. He got the DaPT, HiB, Prevnar, Polio and Flu shots.

So thats the status. Mommy wants a nap....

I need to take more pictures and post them but my camera is pretty much fried so its gonna take me some doin...

GO MOMMA!!!

2010-08-17T22:31:00.002-07:00

20 years ago today.... I was a little girl who had just been on her first major road trip.

My uncles, along with some family friends, my sister, and I had driven the 20+ hours from Phoenix to Houston. I had no idea what to expect. I was so conflicted b/c in my mind Houston, Texas looked like a city from an old western movie and yet I knew Mom was there because of MD Anderson Cancer Center, which is the best cancer treatment center in the world. And I had such a hard time picturing this big fancy hospital in the middle of a town made of wood buildings and dirt roads with horses.

Turns out Houston was a lot like Phoenix only GREEN. I'd never seen so many green plants and rainstorms in my young life. And MD Anderson was mind numbingly huge and complex.

And my mother .... was a pumpkin.

That was my first thought anyway. When she had left Phoenix she'd had SOME small amounts of hair left. Now she was completely bald and the medicines they'd given her had made her swell up a fair bit and turn a little orange. Clearly, my mother was a pumpkin.

She was in an isolation room. I could see her through double paned glass and talk to her via intercom. I couldn't hug her or touch her. No one could. The doctors administered drugs to her through long plastic gloves built into the opposite wall and once a week a person in a bubble suit could come through the air lock to clean her room. Everything that came in had to be sterilized.

After 3 days of radiation treatments where she received the same amount of radiation that you would have received if you were at ground zero Hiroshima when the bomb went off, Mom had no immune system left. The littlest bug could kill her inside of a few hours.

I remember watching the day of the transplant. We were all gathered around the window. Momma was SO so excited. She held the catheter line up for us to see as they pushed in 3 BIG fat syringes of bone marrow in through the tubes that came through the wall. She gave us a big cheesy grin and a thumbs up!

We went to check on my Uncle Mike (one of my mother's younger brothers) who was her bone marrow donor afterwards. He had 6 little round needle holes in his butt. 3 of them on each cheek. He told Mom that now he can really say that she was a pain in the ass. (In fact until Mikey passed away 2 years go, every year Momma would call him and thank him for saving her life. And every year he would say "I love ya sis. You're welcome but you're still a pain in the ass" lol).

That was 20 years ago. And I still bawl like a pathetic baby every time I really think about it. I have no words to express how amazingly grateful I am to God, to science, to the doctors and nurses and to my Mother for being a fighter and going to hell and back so that I could grow up with my Mommy. I would not be a live today if it wasn't for her.

In so many ways I owe who I am to my wonderful amazing mother. You could not ask for a more loving and accepting, caring and compassionate person. Don't get me wrong - she'll kick your butt up between your ears if you really need it, but only b/c she loves you. I think she has done a SUPERB job of balancing being a mother and being a friend and that is not an easy line to walk.

For better or for worse, hers in the voice in my head. I found that out when I went to college. She's the one I hear, encouraging me, chastising me, reminding me and helping me.

She hasn't always been perfect but I can say this: Whenever it has been pointed out to her that something she has said or done was not right or hurtful or whatever, she never, EVER did it again.

As a kid, shortly afterwards I presented a picture to her transplant physician, Dr. Anderson (who just happens to share a last name w/ the hospital), it said in big crayon letters "Thank you for saving my Mommy's life". I want to say it again. Preferably through a mega phone from the top of a tall building, on the 6 o'clock news and on the front page of every paper in the world:

Thank you to every one involved in making it happen. Thank so much for saving my Mommy.

20 years baby. Here's to 20 more and many, many more after that!!!

Caleb 14.5 Months

2010-08-08T22:36:00.000-07:00

First a note: Mommy has gone and got herself a Twitter. The account is similarly titled: Fleipaper. You can also search by my name: Ami Fleischaker, or my email address if you have it.

And now on to the stuff you really care about: Our darling boy is now 14.5 months old. He is bigger and more opinionated by the day. He's also increasingly adorable, funny, flirtatious, cuddly and wonderful.

The dance of "I'm Independent/I want my Mommy!!" continues. At times he does NOT want to be held b/c he is very confidently going off after some thing that has caught his eye and he gets TICKED if you try to derail his plans. Other times he'll have a FIT if I put him down when he wants to be held.

Caleb is randomly afraid of some things and completely fearless of things he probably should be afraid of. The other day I flipped on the blender to make a smoothie and he had a category 5 melt down until I shut it off, picked him up and rocked him for 5 minutes. But while initially fearful of the vacuum he'll now walk right up to it. Go figure.

He's also unintentionally hilarious. The other day he was babbling at the receptionist at the chiropractors office and she says to him "Hey! Are you speaking french?" to which Caleb replied in perfect english "Yeah!". It was adorable.

He's capable of saying "Momma" perfectly clearly but he doesn't often do it. He seems to prefer to say "Dadda" and sometimes I think he says it just to get a rise out of me when I'm chanting "say Momma!" As part of my efforts to get the message across I tried patting my chest and saying "Momma" then I pat his and say "Caleb". I've used his hand to do the same thing. Well, he's decided that this means when I say "Say Momma!" he should walk up and pat me in the middle of the chest. lol. Smart little stinker. So now we're trying to teach him baby sign for Momma.

We're making progress with small amounts of baby sign. We've been trying to teach him "All done" when he's eating and so far he can do the hand motion, mostly, and the other day he even got as far as "ah-dah!" It was really cute.

Mr. Caleb is an enthusiastic user of Mommy's cell phone, or really any cell phone he can get his hands on, which is most often Mommy's (Mommy is VERY grateful for the password lock feature on her blackberry). He does love to play with his toy cell phone. He pushes the buttons and then holds the phone to his ear and says "Oooh?!" and then babbles and laughs and trys to hold the phone with just his shoulder like Mommy does with hers. He'll walk around with it. Its adorable.

So far he won't talk to an actual person on the phone. When Grandma calls and wants to talk to him I'll hold the phone to his ear and he just lights up and smiles and leans in, then pulls away to look at it, and then leans in to listen again, and then pulls away and then leans it. Until he's finally decided he's done and ready to go do something else, like try to steal the phone away and push the buttons.

Caleb is also a BIG fan of books. He loves to bring me a book and have me cuddle him on my lap and read him the story. Of course right now "read a story" mostly means I point out the pictures and make imitations of the noises that the animal might make or similar hilarity. He finds this immensely amusing and consequently we read LOTS of stories, several times throughout the day.

Caleb 12- 13 Months in Pictures

2010-08-03T23:40:00.000-07:00

Well its been a shamefully long time since I posted pictures of the cuteness so here you go. Mr Caleb in all his pixilated glory.

He gets so excited over the camera. He starts yelling and babbling excitedly:

And then he starts trying to get the camera!

I love that smile!!

More excited yelling. lol

Maybe if I try for cute and bashful she'll let me have the camera.

Makes me nervous when he walks on the couch like this...

Daddy was givin him raspberries on his neck and he was laughing.

I love this one. Such a handsome boy!

He's always so optimistic. This time he really will get the camera. He's sure of it...

This face cracks me up. He doesn't like the flash so half the time now I get one shot and then I get nothing but this face. lol

Daddy was givin him raspberries on his belly button. Caleb was laughing. It was adorable.

And more "flash face". lol

Playing with Mommy's water glass.

I love those chubby cheeks.

Ahhh now THIS is a GREAT blackmail picture! lol

Update! Caleb 12 1/2 Months

2010-06-14T02:02:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe just how fast our little Mr. Caleb is growing. Somehow I went to bed one night and he was a tiny baby and then I woke up the next morning and now he's a full fledged toddler with a wander lust to match any of the worlds greatest explorers. At times he's utterly charming and cuddly and others he's increasingly willful and defiant.

I will say that its a very good thing that for the most part he's a good tempered easy going kid because when he does decide to freak about something you will sooner be able to convince water to flow uphill than get that child to change his mind.

Separation anxiety is in FULL swing. He's learned the signs that I'm leaving. If I change into going out clothes he freaks. He's fine with the grubbies I wear around the house, its the nice ones I wear in public that he freaks over. Grabbing my purse is another big one. He FREAKS. He starts clinging to my legs and shrieking and crying and trying to climb up and if I pick him up I swear he latches on so tight I could probably let go and he'd stay stuck to me.

He's fine with Daddy coming and going. Probably because Daddy comes and goes every single day. But he's home with Mommy full time so we need to FREAK about Mommy leaving. I'm not even allowed to leave the room. He is just fine as long as I'm in line of sight. He'll happily play in whatever room I'm in, but if he can't see me... wow....

If I go in another room, he will stand at the baby gate and scream for a good couple minutes and then he settles right now and plays. I'm told if I leave him with somebody that he's fine until I actually walk back in the door at which point he freaks again. And I know its true because almost every kid I ever babysat did that. So its all for my benefit...

And he's developed this LOVELY new banshee scream that really, really makes me more than a little crazy. Its harder not to give him exactly what he wants just to get him to STOP making that horrible noise. Except that if we do that it reinforces the noise and we want that noise to go away and never, ever be made again. So right now its an exercise in pain tolerance while we work on NOT giving in.

Caleb has also started with the "I do it" phase. I'm no longer allowed to feed him. He wants to do it himself. In fact he'll scream and have a full blown melt down if I forget and try to feed him. For the most part this is fine but its hard because he hasn't mastered a spoon or fork yet and some foods just don't work so well as finger foods. So I'm having to try hard to keep his diet balanced using only things he can eat with his hands.

I'll admit its kinda funny to watch him get irked with a piece of food that won't get on the spoon. He'll try, and try and then he picks the food up and very deliberately drops it on the floor and tries again with a different piece. Its like the food has failed and will now be rejected for more cooperative food. lol

We are working on getting him to actually use plates and bowls. He's cool with them for about 2 minutes after which he will pick it up, turn it upside down and then dump it on the floor. I will say its a lot harder to keep the floor clean than it used to be....

He's not so much using words yet but he's very expressive about what he thinks. When he's done eating he'll look right at me and pick up a piece of food off the tray, reach over and very deliberately drop it on the floor and the put his arms up in the air to be picked up. If I don't pick him up he will repeat the process until I get the point.

Its also interesting to see his tastes evolve. Somehow fruit almost NEVER winds up on the floor or down the sides of his high chair, but other things appear there with shocking regularity. He loves cheese and is a big fan of Club crackers. He likes pickles and milk and turkey. He wasn't so much a fan of the Pepper Steak I gave him last week.

But he can be utterly charming. He is starting to laugh when other people laugh, just because they're laughing. Its a hoot. He loves to give cuddles and get kisses. I'm trying to get him to catch on that he can give kisses back but right now he seems more interested in receiving them.

He walks better and faster by the day. I still think he resembles a drunken sailor most of the time but he really is getting good. He can walk up to an object, bend over and pick it up with out falling down and then carry it with him while he's walking.

Caleb loves to chew on straws. He loves music and has started to dance when he hears it. Its so dang cute. He's working hard to master "In" and "Out" and "Open" and "Close". He loves to turn the pages when I read him stories. He loves animals. He laughs and gets so excited when he is near one. He tries to sneak up on me and "get me". If I have my back turned doing something all of the sudden I hear him go "Aaah!" as he grabs me and then laughs his little butt off. Its so dang cute.

He loves his bath time. He LOVES to splash in the water and play with his toys and generally has a ball.

We took him in the pool today for the first time. He really liked it. He was definitely very focused on clinging to Momma but he sure thought splashing Daddy was cool and he laughed and smiled and played for like a whole 15 minutes before he started shivering so we took him back inside.

Caleb is FEARLESS and he loves to climb. The combination has lead to multiple cardiac stress tests for Mommy and Daddy as we attempt to keep him from killing himself. Yes they do need to fall and learn that it hurts so they can learn not to do it again. But if they actually die in the process its hard to learn not to do it again when you're dead. So its a balancing act of trying to let him have to freedom to learn and judging the risk involved so he doesn't get hurt TOO badly.

In a lot of ways its a balancing act for Mommy. Its bitter sweet is so many ways. I love to see him grow. I miss the tiny baby who loved to cuddle with Mommy for hours on end. Now sometimes he's so busy being busy and getting into stuff that I have to pin him down to get a cuddle for a minute. And yet I couldn't be prouder of him. I delight in every new thing he does. I try hard to teach him as best I can. And in some ways I want him to be older, mostly so he can help pick up his toys and actually come when called. And yet I desperately don't want him to grow up because it means one day he'll be all grown up and gone... I guess the goal is to find joy in every step of the journey. There's good and bad in every part.

I loved the cuddles but I longed to have my hands free. Now I have my hands free and I miss the cuddles. I guess its just important to be careful what you wish for and try to focus on enjoying the now.

Caleb's 1st Birthday: Party #2

2010-06-01T21:40:00.000-07:00

Mr. Caleb is blessed to have a lot of people who love him and live close by, and since I didn't want to rent a country club to hold his birthday party in we're having three different parties here in Phoenix. So the Saturday after Caleb's birthday we invite my Dad's side of the family over and Adam's Mom's side, plus a few extra loved ones. Here's some pics!

Mr. Caleb was all ready to party, while Uncle Sam looks on:

Great Aunts Karen and Toni were big fans of having their picture taken:

Cousin's Payton, Jasmine, Savannah and Heather blowing bubbles and drawing gorgeous chalk pictures:

Great Aunts Karen and Toni, and Uncle Mark's girlfriend Randi:

Aunt Natalie, Caleb with Grandma Donni and Bruce. Note how Grandma Donni holds him like she's never going to give him back. I sometimes have to get the crowbar to pry him away. lol

Cousin's Savannah and Hailey playing with Mr. Caleb. He thought they were pretty cool!

Wow Check that spread out!

Randi, Grandma Donni and Bruce havin a good time!

Great Aunt Lorri stole lots of cuddles from Mr. Caleb when she was here! I thought I might have to fight to get to keep him when she left! :)

How does this hat thing work??

Does it go this way??

Oh I know! You eat it! Yummy!

Cousins Jasmine and Savannah were hammin' it up for the camera! Such cuties!!

Cousin Jessica helped Caleb and Mommy open presents!

Caleb thought this bear from Grandma Donni was seriously cool!

Cousin Josh objected at one point when I put a bow on Caleb's head so it was decided that he should model one for us. Thats Josh's wife Lacy helping him out there:

Really cool little people farm house! Caleb likes it lots!

Whoa! Its that singing again!!!

Don't worry! I know what to do with this cake this time around!

Playing with Grandma Donni!

Caleb's cousin's were blowing noisemakers which Caleb thought was wayyy cool! He almost caught it that time!

We had a lot of fun and we're grateful for all the folks that were able to come out and make it a special day!

Caleb Turns 1!!! (Part 2)

2010-06-01T21:11:00.000-07:00

The second half of the photos from Caleb's First Birthday Party #1:

Here's Leah all decked out and ready to party!!

She was having a good time playing with the noisemakers and Grandma!

Here's Liz, Lou, Emily and Leah all digesting their cake while I give Caleb his post birthday cake bath.

And here he is all clean! Took some doin to get him that way too! He had cake every where. I had to rinse the chunks of cake off first, let the water drain, then run the bath and scrub him down!

Here's Papa and Leah bein' cute:

So cute! Leah LOVES Papa's PDA and iPod but she knows the price to get to play with them is one kiss!

It's present time!!

Leah was super duper excited about presents:

Caleb was way excited about a set of stacking cups from Aunt Liz!

Leah was having a hard time with the notion that there were presents... and they weren't for her. *gasp!*

But a bow of her own helped!

Here I managed to catch Aunt Liz looking mildly perturbed but otherwise fabulous:

Momma, Caleb and Aunt Liz! Those glasses are tasty!

He looks so happy in this picture! lol

Daddy was havin' a good time!

Such a BIG boy!! He was really fascinated by the whistles that Grandma bought for the party!

Caleb Turns 1!!! (Part 1)

2010-06-01T03:37:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to my sweet sweet baby boy!!! Mr. Caleb turned on last week on May 21st! So far our darling over achiever is loved and adored by so many people that we have had THREE, count 'em, THREE birthday parties. And in fact he has one more to go next Saturday!!

The first was with Papa and Grandma in Houston a week before Mr. Caleb's actual birthday. It was such a fun trip (Caleb and I were there for two whole weeks and Adam was about to fly out and join us for one weekend) and deserves its own post. High lights include Leah deciding that Caleb's name should really be pronounced "Kay-Bee" or "KB" for short. It was so dang cute! Adam and I also got to attend my high school reunion, and I got to see my Mommy for Mother's Day. Of course the big event was Mr. KB's birthday party!

Leah was SUPER excited for the party to start!

And Emily was havin' a good time playin with her Daddy!

But first I had to top up Mr. Caleb with a bottle:

Okay now we're all stripped down and ready to go!

At first he was kinda concerned by the flaming cake and all the singing!

Whoa! The light just went out!!

Let's check this thing out...

At first he was just playing with the frosting so I decided to give him a taste...

Oooh! SO THAT's what you do with it!!

And THERE's my boy!!

I think he just might like it!

Yup that's for sure!

Cousin Leah was all sorts of excited about cake and ice cream!

Makin' progress demolishing the cake:

Dang woman! How many pictures are you gonna take?!

He was havin' a good ole time!

Oh! Wait! I found a clean spot on the bottom of the plate!!

Almost done!

Mr. KB, artiste en residence

And now I'm gonna have to break this party's post into two parts because its late and I am TIRED! You should all know I love you that I use blogger cuz its photo uploader is a PAIN.

Cardiac Stress Test

2010-04-30T03:28:00.000-07:00

Exerpt cross posted from I Like Sparkly Objects

---

Well, in addition to walking Caleb has unveiled another new skill. Yesterday I look up from my vacuuming to see that Caleb can now climb up on the couch, which he has done and is now STANDING on top of my lap top reaching for my water glass.

Yeah my heart just about stopped.

Also with his new found mobility is a whole new level of opinionated stubbornness and I have to say I really miss my mellow, laid back, easy going, happy baby sometimes.

On the positive side, I informed Caleb now that he's walking perhaps he should dedicate some time to figuring out the whole communication bit. I don't care if its speech or sign I'd just like him to perhaps express in some terms other than screaming what it is that his new found opinionatedness wants. He seems to be taking my advice actually. Today I stepped over the baby gate into my bedroom and left him in the hallway. He screamed for a minute like he usually does and then started to call after me, "MA!.... MA!..... MA!...." It was really cute. I'm like you're gettin there kiddo! Good job!

We had a good day today though. Some how I managed to go to bed at a reasonable hour, fall asleep and stay asleep all night long. Of course tonight its 3 am and I'm blogging but hey you can't expect miracles every night. But so after a shockingly good nights sleep we had a good morning and I fed Caleb grapes for the first time with his lunch. They were big fat green grapes so I chopped them into little wedges and he really liked 'em. The first one he put in his mouth and then went "HHMmm! MMMmmm!" It was really dang cute. He's a very enthusiastic little grape eater.

We're actually planning on making an afternoon snack a habit for him now b/c starting with his first birthday we get to ditch the formula and go with milk. So he's gonna need more of his calories from food and since his stomach is the size of a ping pong ball we're gonna have to increase the number of his meals from 3 to more like 5.

We're also working on getting him more used to real food. He had mac and cheese for the first time the other night. And it turns out he loves broccoli (well steamed) and is generally a greedy little food moocher who hasn't found anything on Mommy's plate he doesn't like.

Caleb's WALKING!!!

2010-04-27T15:28:00.001-07:00

So yesterday morning around 9:40 am I picked up the phone to call my girl friend and was watching Mr. Caleb playing around at his toy table thing. He turned around and let go of the table to free stand, which he's done before, and then decided he wanted the coffee table instead. Well the coffee table was about 3.5 - 4 foot away from the toy table. So one VERY shaky step at a time Mr. Caleb went step, step, step, step and then grabbed the coffee table with his hands and walked the rest of the way!!!

I was SO dang excited and proud!! If I had a lick of sense I'd probably be terrified but I'm still just so thrilled for him! He's doing so good!

And he seems to like this walking thing. Its like he went "Holy Crap! I can do this!!" and is now attempting to walk every where in the living room. So far he's getting better and can walk in straight lines on flat surfaces with no obstacles. lol. And he's doing better about keeping him self standing upright and balanced.

I would have tons of pictures and videos except for one significant problem. Mr. Caleb is a serious fan of the camera. He likes it better than the kitty cat and thats screaming something. So every time the camera comes out, he get so excited he turfs it and crawls at high speed to me as quickly as he knows how and proceeds to have a fit until I let him have the camera or it mysteriously disappears.

Never fear though, I'll suceed.... eventually.

But for now, shout it from the roof tops: MY BABY IS WALKING!!! YAY!!!

Caleb 11 Months

2010-04-23T21:26:00.000-07:00

Well our darling boy is now 11 months old! No, I can't believe it either. lol

Caleb is now so huge that he now can only wear 18-24 month sized clothing! He has also got three whole toofens (two on bottom, one on top) and is working VERY hard (and keeping Mommy up LONG nights) on cutting toofen #4. Right now I'm gonna bet he'll have it in by the end of the weekend.

We've also hit a couple other developmental milestones. The first of which is imaginative play. He has started trying to "feed" me his toys. If I smile and pretend to eat them, he gets a huge grin, then stops trying to force feed me his toy and goes back to feeding it to himself. I have to say prior to this week I didn't know I could fit a whole alphabet block into my mouth....

Caleb also waves Bye-Bye and Hello VERY enthusiastically to Daddy and I when we're at home. He'll do it most of the time when we're else where but not always. We're working hard on the signs for bottle, food, yes and no. He likes to shake his head "No" very enthusiastically as well.

He love to sing songs with Momma and have her help him with the arm motions. Thus far the part he likes best is in Eensy-Weesy Spider when the suns comes out and dries up all the rain. I don't know what it is about that particular part/motion but he thinks its just hysterical and giggles every time. But you have to do the whole song to get the giggle. If you just do that line he'll smile but not get super excited like he does if you do the whole song. Caleb also likes to read stories and is a big fan of helping to turn the pages and close and open the book, repeatedly. lol.

Caleb is a good little eater and is a BIG fan of anything Mommy and Daddy are eating. If we have it, he wants some. He's also a greedy little water moocher. I always have my big water glass near by and he'll come up and pitch a fit if I don't share with him.

And I have to admit that while the American Academy of Pediatrics says not to allow your child to watch any TV at all until they're at least two years old, my poor child only made it to about 10 1/2 months old before I got desperate enough to turn on the TV. I've only done it like a half dozen times but he LOVES those Baby Einstein videos and sometimes when its been a really long day (or night) and Mommy is about ready to flush it down the toilet, I just pop one of those videos in and like magic he is just captivated and will happily watch for 15+ mins which is sometimes exactly what Mommy needs.

Caleb has also decided that Mommy is no longer allowed to use the bathroom by herself. Should I attempt to go to the bathroom with out him present, he will open the door and let himself in, or should I have locked the door, he'll stand up and bang and shriek the entire time or until I open the door and let him in. Once inside he's a big fan of opening the cupboards and pulling out the towels (memo to me: install cupboard latches on cabinet doors), or attempting to unroll the whole roll of toilet paper, or hanging over the side of the tub trying to get at the toys in bottom of the tub, or just standing up in front of Mommy, holding on to her knees and chattering and laughing loudly. I have to say that a trip to the restroom is not the quiet moment of solitude it once was....

Caleb is SOOO close to walking. He can free stand for a minute or two easily and likes to stand and play with toys with both hands. He can get one foot forward no problem, but bringing the other foot forward to take the step usually results in him turfing it. Sometimes he'll get the foot all the way forward and stay up for about a second or two and then he turfs it. He's got the crawlin' thing down pat though. He is FAST! I call him Mr. Speedy McSpeedy Pants b/c that boy can GO!

He's also discovered climbing up things. He can now - with no help from me - crawl over to me when I'm sitting on the couch, pull up to standing, and then grab my clothes and pull himself up on to the couch and into my lap. I'm not ready for this. He can also climb up on to the ottoman that we were using to block his access to the TV (I looked up and he's STANDING on top of the ottoman reaching for the Wii sensor on top of the TV. Mommy ran REAL FAST across the room to get him down). We need to come up with a new plan because he's gotten his finger stuck in the VCR door once already.

Now I just have to figure out what we're going to do to celebrate his 1st birthday!

Roadtripping Review

2010-04-06T16:49:00.000-07:00

So I've been more than a little home sick for the last couple weeks/months so I when I discovered two weeks ago that Adam had last Weds off of work for Caesar Chavez day I hatched a crazy plan to drive to Texas for Easter to see my family and because my sweet husband loves me he agreed to it. And his boss is my new favorite person for letting him have Thurs, Fri and Monday off at the last minute so we could pull off my crazy plan.

So we left Tues nite and drove straight through the night, I made it driving solo all the way to Kerrville and about 2 pm before I decided that I cannot in fact drive that entire distance by myself with no sleep, which is what I was afraid of. And so I was very grateful to have my sweet hubby along so he could take over and I could get some shut eye. Caleb didn't sleep as well in the car as I hoped he might. He did okay but the lights from the big trucks as we passed them kept waking him up. Making a blanket tent for him to block out the lights fixed that one but he still woke up and was less than happy every time we had to stop for gas.

And because I was pushing it trying to get to Houston as soon as humanly possible, he had a couple of melt downs. I've determined the trip is not possible solo in less than a couple days because while Caleb is capable of holding a sippy cup, he hasn't caught on to the fact he has to hold it UP while he's sitting to get the milk out. He does fine laying down, but sitting up in the car seat didn't go well. I think if I got the straw kinda sippies it could work b/c he's a good little straw sipper but the ones you suck like a bottle? He starts out holding them up, and then they fall down, and then he's sitting there trying to suck the milk out like a bottle, but its down in his lap, and the milk aint coming and he gets TICKED.

So you either wind up with the person in the passenger seat losing all feeling in their arm while they hold the bottle/sippy over the back of the chair for the kid (does not help things that his car seat is still rear facing until he's 1 year old), or you have to pull the car over, get him out of the car seat and hold him and the bottle while he eats. And since he's the world's pokiest little eater, either option takes a long frigging time. On the way there, since we were in a hurry we opted for the hold it over the seat option.

We did try drugging the kid with benedryl one time on the way there (don't worry we asked the doctor first) b/c he was having a melt down and we were in the middle of NOWHERE. Didn't do a lick of good. Made him slightly groggy for an hour. And since he'd gotten crap for sleep the night before b/c we were on the road and he wasn't cooperating about napping as we continued our trip he was just a smidgen on the whiney side. *ugh*

On the way home since we were in less of a hurry, we tried decided to try regular stops etc in an effort to have the child be less whiney. This initially worked rather well. Every 2-3.5 hours or so when we needed more gas, instead of just filling and going, we'd stop, get him out of the car and let him play, have a snack, bottle, whatever for 20-30 mins. That definitely seemed to help him be a happier child for the first chunk of the trip. But it added massively to the time the trip took. So instead of making it in about 18 hours or less, it took more like 23 hours. Which sucked, massively. And by the end of it, he wanted a break every 30 mins for 30 mins to be happy and that just wasn't happening b/c I wanted to get home some time this year. So added stops helped with happiness short term, but the cost of the time increase was long term not worth it in the toll it took on us and him.

So next time I make the trip I'm going to do the following:

1. The trip will take TWO days. We'll start at like 9 am after rush hour clears out, and stop in a hotel over night. And we'll plan to take short breaks every 3 hours or so with a longer break for lunch (the stop at the McDonalds with the big play place was GOLD).

Yeah I don't think he'll like two solid days in the car but I think he'll be happier if he at least gets a good nights sleep, and since I can't drive the whole thing solo in one go thats how its gonna have to work if I wanna do this trip alone. We'll get there sometime on day 2. If the kid is feeling cooperative it will be early, if not it will be later. Either way Mommy will have a good nights sleep and be less inclined to thwack people b/c she's sleep deprived and irritated.

2. We need a better sippy cup strap. Sippy Pal looks awesome but its not yet available in stores and I didn't have time to order one online, so I grabbed some generic piece of crap sippy strap from the store and yeah it was worthless. Too short and a pain in the butt to use.

3. Caleb needs to be big enough to be a in a forward facing car seat, which he will be in another month and a half. I think this will help with a lot of my issues. Also when he gets bigger I see a portable dvd player being a god send.

4. Caleb either needs to catch on to holding the sippy cup UP to drink from it, or we need to switch to the straw variety.

5. If at all possible, the length of time between the to and from trips will be MUCH longer. 4 days was not long enough of a break between LONG drives. In the future, 10-14 days sounds MUCH better.

In other news, the time in Houston was WONDERFUL. It was so good to see my family and get spoiled rotten for a few days. And it was so dang cute to watch Caleb play with my nieces. He and Leah are just 18 months apart and they both thought the other was the coolest thing ever so they played and jabbered at each other in baby talk. It was so cute. I loved it.

Having the time in Houston be so wonderful has not helped my homesickness one bit though. lol. Now I want to move more than ever. I think I'm going to start searching job listings in Texas. lol.

Photo Post: Caleb 9 1/2 - 10 Months

2010-03-26T19:00:00.000-07:00

The first two shots here are from a couple weeks ago. He was bein' cute before bed time so I snagged a few photos.

So smiley and cute!

The rest are from this afternoon. He was just bein' adorable so I grabbed the camera.

Check out that toofen!! He's so dang cute and such a stinker!

Bein' adorable.

Everytime he sees the camera he makes a beeline for it so all these shots are super close up because I'm trying to fend him off and take pictures at the same time.

Distracted by the kitty.

Okay I'm focused again. Lemme have the camera!

Ah-ha! I almost got it!

I love that little toofen!!

Maybe if I try it from a slightly different angle she'll let me have the camera.

Is he not the cutest little booger you ever saw?? I love those chubby cheeks!!

Caleb 10 Months

2010-03-25T03:02:00.001-07:00

Well our darling boy is now 10 months old so I figured you could use another update:

Caleb is working his way up the simian family tree. He has now achieved Monkey by fullfilling "monkey see monkey do" by imitating Mommy doing the "indian noise" (can't think of a PC name for it - ya know where you make your mouth a round and then pat your hand in front of it to break up the sound). Its really dang cute. And slightly embarrassing when he decides to give us a performance in the middle of church...

Caleb has also achieved Chimpanzee by discovering tool usage - he will stack things so that he can stand on top of them to try to get to stuff he's not supposed to have.

And just the last week or so Caleb has achieved Gorilla! aka Sign Language! So far he's got one sign down and the other is mostly there. He recently started nibbling little bits of table foods and has discovered that he is a BIG fan of anything that Mommy is eating (which means I no longer get to eat in peace). Add that to the fact we've started him on stage 3 baby foods that have soft little chunks for him to learn to chew, so meal times lately have had a lot of "Chew! Chew Caleb!" and Mom and Dad modeling chewing motions, which Caleb finds absolutely hilarious.

We've also been modeling signs for bottle, food, more, kitty, hi and bye. Well, Caleb hasn't caught on to our sign for food but he's modified the Chew sign for his own purposes. Now whenever he wants food, he'll look at us pointedly and start smacking his lips imitating the chew chew demonstrations. If we ignore him, he cries, if we say "You want some food?" he perks right up and smiles and repeats the chewing/smacking face. Its really dang cute. He's done it both in the presence of food and when it got to be lunch time and he crawled over to me, stood up, looked at me pointedly and started smacking away.

Of course the down side is now anytime I have food, he comes over and starts looking at me, looking at the food and smacking away. If I ignore him he starts punctuating it with grunts. "UGH! Ugh!" Smack, smack, smack. Look at food, look at mom, pat moms arm, when she looks, smack, smack, smack. "Ugh! Ugh!" Yeah I get the picture and start searching for a part of my meal thats safe to give him. Its sad, I've started selecting foods I know have something I can pinch off and feed him just so I don't have to listen to him whine.

Sign two that he's mostly got down is waving Hi and Bye. I can get him to do it just him and me or with the mirror, but so far its a no go with other people present.

I'm teaching Caleb baby signs in the hope that we can avoid some of the tantrums and frustrations of the terrible twos. Theres a significant body of research that supports the idea that a lot of the frustration is caused b/c the kids have gotten to the point where they know what they want, but they've not yet developed speech to the point they can actually say what it is. So they're left to point, and scream louder. Babys have proven more than capable of using simplified sign language to express what it is that they want and theres a BIG body of research that shows that encouraging this significantly reduces tantrums and improves parent/child relationships.

And while there were initially some concerns that signing would retard speech development, its been shown to actually speed language acquisition. If you think about it realizing that a chihuahua and a Great Dane are both dogs is a BIG concept. Most kids have to wait until they're capable of saying "Doggie" to really start putting all this together through their interactions with adults. Well, teaching them the sign for doggie helps them start building their mental schemas sooner so as soon as they can produce the word they've already got a dozen things they know are dogs.

Baby signs also shows lasting increases in IQ and blah blah blah its a really cool thing and nerd that I am we're gonna try for it.

Caleb is also chattering more. Its still mostly the same noises - Mama, Dada, Baba. But he's using alot more variety in pitch and tone and making noises/tones that are more appropriate to the settings. Its really cool and amazingly cute.

He's also discovered that there's a whole rest of the house outside the living room and he wants to go discover it. We've been letting him do this to some extent but I'll admit to wincing when he discovered the cat food (and apparently thought it was tasty) and installing baby gates when I get tired of chasing after him.

So far he's not showing big signs of stranger anxiety, but he does seem to watch new people for a while now. Instead of immediately smiling and being charming he has to watch them for a while and decide what he thinks and then he'll warm up and be adorable. I consider this "so far so good" because a lot of kids at this stage get stranger anxiety bad and grab mom and SCREAM if anybody new comes near. Caleb just sort of gives them this blank look that can either be described as "You, I don't know what I think of you yet." or "I need a nap." I've been hopeful that with my dragging him around places fairly regularly and him getting passed around church and loved on every Sunday that we would avoid the worst of this and *knock on wood* so far so good.

He also recognizes people he sees fairly regularly faster - ie he only stares at them funny for a couple seconds before making a happy noise and a beeline for his friend. Its extremely endearing. lol.

The one toofen has made its appearance (bottom center left) and the one next to it is stubbornly refusing to break through. Its right there, you can even see lighter/white spots through the gum, you can feel it etc but its just NOT coming through. I think it must hurt him sometimes b/c once in a while he gets CRANKY and I try everything and nothing fixes it so I dose him with Tylenol and suddenly he's back to being charming.

Caleb is completely in love with the kitty cats. He gets SOOOO excited anytime he sees them or gets anywhere near them. The problem is that this leads him to SHRIEK and laugh loudly with excitement, which FREAKS the cats out so they run away. And he crawls after them laughing. lol. More than one panicked cat has been rudely awoken from a nap by a VERY excited Mr. Caleb.

I'll post more pictures soon. Just been busy.

Get your Groupon Baby!

2010-03-03T01:26:00.001-07:00

So I just have to take a moment to shamelessly pimp my new happy:

Groupon

http://www.groupon.com/r/uu872908

Check it out! I heard about it at Christmas - My Dad got my Mom like a 2 hour massage and facial at a top notch spa in Houston for dirt cheap and I was impressed. So I got home and checked it out. Apparently groupon is in most major cities and I was THRILLED to discover - its here in Phoenix baby!

Basically its collective buying power. Business that wants to advertise offers an awesome deal (usually like 50% off or better) if at least 50 people will buy the deal. Thus far I haven't seen a deal with less than 500 takers. And its awesome stuff! This last weekend we got 40 bucks worth of the best chinese food I've ever had in Arizona for 18 dollars. How sweet is that??

We can finally afford date night AND diapers! Rock on! And so I pimp my happy. Check it out folks:

http://www.groupon.com/r/uu872908

Caleb 9 Month Check Up and a New Couch!!

2010-03-02T01:45:00.002-07:00

I'm sorry for how long its been since your last update. I've got a couple goodies up my sleeve that hopefully I will get to share with you soon BUT what I've got tonight is this:

Caleb had is 9 month check up with the Doc. Caleb is now: 23 lbs 8 oz, 31.5 inches long, with an 18 inch head. All of which puts him in btwn the 90th and 95 percentiles for weight and head and well over 95th for height. Doc says he looks perfect. Little bit orange from a steady diet of carrots and sweet potatoes but he says thats the beta carotene and perfectly normal and not at all harmful.

Doc says that a lot of kids at this age actually start losing percentiles b/c they're eating a lot of solid foods so they're full but they're not getting enough calories (aka formula) so he says that because Caleb is doing so good at maintaining his percentiles what I'm feeding him is perfect so I'm feelin very proud of my self at the moment because I was so paranoid about him not getting the right balance I've been doing all sorts of research trying to find more info and apparently I got it right.

Basically, growth, muscle tone, reflexes, milestones all look perfect. He got the last Hep B vaccination today, also flu shot #2 and the first swine flu shot. We took the Tylenol with to the Drs and gave him a dose right after the shots, so he's crashed out for a nap right now and life is lookin pretty okay.

So all in all not a bad mini-birthday. He marked the 9 month day with his very first tooth coming in and then 2 days later he gets a positive review from the doc. :-)

AND in other news - we got a new couch!!! The other one had served us well and long but was in need of retirement and so we got this lovely little number from Ikea. I didn't want to spend a lot on something Caleb is sure to destroy in the long run and the cover on this one is completely machine washable and can be replaced!

Just ignore my hair in that picture. It had been in a clip all day and yeah... just... ignore. BUT see how pretty the couch is!!!

Caleb is a big fan of the new couch. And Momma is a BIG fan of the ground clearance! No more making Adam hold up the sofa while I reclaim the toys that have hidden underneath!

Caleb is good buddies with the baby in the mirror. He loves it when people will hold him up so they can play!

And a wide angle shot for all y'all.

A Series of 3 Photo Updates (3 of 3)

2010-02-08T13:26:00.000-07:00

This last post is very similar to the first, but it has some cool new skills that have shown up in just the last few days!! So here we go!

Caleb still loves the toys on this table, but he's decided that the seat option is for the birds, so now he just pulls right up to play. He has largely learned to get down safely by just sitting straight back from standing but thats not always the case so those foam floor pad squares are earning their keep.

Oooooh! Mommy has the camera!!

Check it out: ONE HAND!!

Ohhhh, feelin brave: NO HANDS!

Annnnnnd about to turf it (that no-hands trick only lasts like 3-5 seconds max):

But no worries! He's fine! (We REALLY like those mats...)

And now I'm gonna come get that camera! (He's decided to do big-boy crawling more often that not now days):

See, I come over and pull up! (I'm gettin FAST at this too):

And theres the stand!

Now, I am coming closer....

And closerrrrrr...

OH! Too close!

A Series of 3 Photo Updates (2 of 3)

2010-02-08T13:06:00.000-07:00

Caleb is a BIG fan of the baby-in-the-mirror, so he LOVES it when Daddy will pick up him and let him chat with his buddy!

Nah, Caleb is definitely not a happy smiley little person.

And he and his Daddy don't get along at all. Or like each other.

And they're not related either.... lol

Havin' a good time with the Daddy!

A Series of 3 Photo Updates (1 of 3)

2010-02-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

We're gonna break this into 3 posts because we're having issues with bloggers new picture uploader do-hicky. This is from about a week ago:

Caleb has learned how to pull up to every piece of furniture in the living room. One of his favs is the ottoman that goes with the gilder. he likes to pull up and then rock back and forth with it while standing:

I can usually only get one candid shot now days because he knows what the flash means! (It means Mommy has the camera! I want it!!)

So to get the camera, we're gonna drop to the floor, crawl to the couch and then pull up to kneeling:

Then we're gonna pull up to standing:

Then we're gonna cruise closer, and closer down the couch:

But Momma, I made it all the way down here, and I'm cute, so you should give me the camera.

See! Here's my cute, excited, interested face:

Caleb 7 Months

2010-02-02T22:52:00.004-07:00

Here is the long promised picture post. These were all taken in the last couple weeks.

Heyyyyy! You've got the camera!

I need another block!
I got one!!
One for each hand! Victory!
No I am not a shameless flirt!
Okay so maybe just a little....
Chillin' with my Daddy!
Mommmmm! He's getting me! And I like it!
So cute!
Mr. Thoughtful.
Behold the miracle!!! (He's holding his own bottle).
And a close up!
I promise to get pics of him standing and cruising the couch soon!

Update!

2010-01-27T14:19:00.002-07:00

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

2010-01-04T00:09:00.002-07:00

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....).

Caleb 6 1/2 Months

2009-12-19T01:28:00.002-07:00

Here's Mr. Ultimate Cuteness' latest!! Now that he's eating solid food (well, pureed and strained baby food might be taking "solid" a little far), he now has to get bathed MUCH more often and with PURPOSE. Something about dried oatmeal in the hair just does not appeal. Thankfully he's a big fan of bath time. I just have to make sure that he has a wash cloth to suck on so he doesn't try to steal the one full of soap that I'm trying to wash him with!

As you can see its also very important to suck multiple fingers at the same time.

No... no he's not a fat, happy baby at all. Why would you ask me that?

This one is from Chanukah with Grandma Donni. Poor Caleb was SO tired by the end of it.

And I got these just this mornin while he was bein cute!

I got a picture of the fish lips!!! These are new! He just started this and wrinkling up his nose this week!! I LOVE IT! SO DANG CUTE!!!

And no, he's not absolutely charming either.

I love this one for the little chipmunk cheeks and the look of deep concern (the concern was - "How do I get the camera? Hmmm....").

He loves hanging out in his excersaucer thingy. We have a seriously cool one courtesy of the world's most awesome cousins.

He looks so much like me at the same age in this one that its scary!

Caleb 5 1/2 Months

2009-12-17T12:57:00.006-07:00

Well, I've been a bit delinquent in my posting of pictures here. I'm sorry. So to make up for it I've posted a WHOLE bunch of cute baby pictures from last month and my goal will be to get a bunch of cute baby pictures from this month up here ASAP.

And because I never posted nursery pictures like I promised that I would:

Caleb 4 1/2 Months

2009-10-07T01:28:00.005-07:00

Hi Folks!

I'll do a full update soon but I just wanted to get some cute pictures up. These are from this evening. He was being cute so I just had to grab the camera!

This is his new trick - lift arms and legs off the floor while keeping his head and chest up. He can only get both arms up for a few seconds but he does it!

He adores this hippo. It plays twinkle twinkle and he just loves it.

In this one he looks so much like me as a baby I think if I dressed him in pink you couldn't tell the difference!

And right about here Adam started tickling him and he just started laughing his little tushie off. And it wound up being Caleb looking at Adam and laughing and Adam laughing his head off right back. It was so dang cute.

Caleb 15 Weeks Pictures

2009-09-09T21:56:00.004-07:00

So due to technical difficulties the film is gonna take me a bit longer to get posted on blogger. It is available on Facebook if you want it now though. So to tide you over - here are some pictures.

He can now flip himself on to his tummy from his back at will.

Whoa! What was that flash?!
That camera is reallllly weird Mom!

This is what Caleb and his Daddy like to do while Mommy makes dinner:
He really likes his Bumbo seat! He can sit up in it just like a big boy!

Caleb 15 Weeks

2009-09-08T22:53:00.005-07:00

You would not believe how much Caleb has grown in just the past week! He's finishing up another growth spurt right now, which mercifully means he's sleeping more, because I have not enjoyed his sleeping patterns of the last 2 weeks or so which went: Go to bed about 11:30 - midnight, get up at 4:30, eat, go back to sleep, up again at 7 am, up again at 9 and then if I'm really lucky he's out again until 11 but if I'm unlucky he's not out again until 2 or 3. Ick. Sleeping in 1-3 hour chunks STINKS. But thanks to this lovely growth spurt he's been sleeping LOTS and sleeping through the night more often than not so I have been a VERY happy Momma.

He is now snug in 6 month sized clothes, and fits into 6-9 month sized clothes and 9 month sized footy jammies are no longer too big at all. Oh my gosh this baby is huge.

Life on the Similac Sensitive formula continues to be very good. I haven't had to give him Mylicon in well over a week! :) AND you would not believe how many developmental milestones he has hit in the last two weeks! He is now firmly in the "see reach grab" phase. Everything get grabbed and he then makes a very spirited attempt to shove whatever it is in his mouth and if it won't fit in the mouth he'll sit there and lick it until it is dripping with drool. He can roll up on his sides at will and he can now roll on to his stomach from his back at will. He still hasn't master rolling back onto his back yet, so he gets on his tummy and he's happy for a bit and then he's ticked when he can't get back over. lol. He actually gets around pretty good on his blanket. I come back and he's in a totally different location than when I left the room. It does make me insanely nervous however when I come in and find him asleep on his stomach but there really just isn't anything I can really do about it at this point.

He's a huge fan of his mobile over the crib, he just stares and stares at it. And he even has favorite toys he likes to play with more than others. And I swear he dreams up new noises to make in his sleep because every morning he wakes up and has a whole new set of sounds he tries out. It's really, really cute. He's also started trying to get his knees under neath him when he's on his stomach so he's almost gotten up into the crawling position for a second or two a couple times in the last day or so. He loves to stand up now and he's getting to where he likes to bounce up and down while you hold his hands for balance.

OH!!! And he laughs now! It is the dang cutest thing you've ever heard in your whole life. He only does it little bits so far but it has to be one of the most delicious sounds I've ever heard in my whole life. I love it, love it, love it.

I'm going to post a video taken this weekend in a couple minutes. Enjoy!

Caleb 13 weeks

2009-08-23T07:56:00.002-07:00

Good morning! I'm posting wayyyy too early because Caleb got me up early and I know if I go back to sleep now then I will miss church again so we're posting to keep ourself awake. And yes we're using the plural we for ourselves this morning. We're sleep deprived okay? You wouldn't believe how big he is now. I've got him wearing 6-9 month sized onsies. He has to weigh at least 17 pounds. Probably more. I can't remember right now where I left you on my written status update but I think it's been a while.

I've now totally weaned off of pumping and Caleb is strictly formula fed now. We discovered that he's apparently "lactose sensitive" when we finished the weaning from breast milk. Breast milk has a laxative effect, without it he got constipated. And lemme tell you that a constipated baby is NO FUN. So I called the pediatrician and we got him switched over to the Similac Sensitive formula and he's doing MUCH better. On another random side note - the Sensitive stuff smells MUCH better than the regular formula. I mean its still kinda funky smellin' but at least it doesn't smell like something rotten. (The first time I smelled formula I remember freaking out and asking my mom if it was supposed to smell like that and when she said yes my response then was to ask "Well how the heck am I supposed to know if its gone bad??!").

I've finally got a bit of a handle on how some of the different brands of clothing fit Caleb. Gerber onsies run WAYYYY small. They're shorter length and narrower in the chest than most other brands for the same age group. Disney Baby is shorter bodied but WAY wide in the chest. I think it would work better for a little Buddha baby. Carter seems to run about the midline. Their stuff tends to be longer in the body and in some onsies narrower in the chest. Circo tends to run a bit big, as does Old Navy baby. And footy jammies have to be at least 9 month sized or they're not long enough. 9 month size is a bit big in the shoulders and chest but it's the only way to get enough length. Right now on a daily basis Caleb lives in a onsie and socks, pants make him too warm but socks keep the toes from getting cold with out over heating him.

I think I'm going to start throwing in little reviews of baby products I love/can't live with out and stuff that needs to have its creators subjected to some form of torture. Right now on my happy list is the Munchkin brand. Somebody gave me a box of their disposable "cloths" for my baby shower and at first I was like "What the heck do I do with these?" The picture on the box shows it being used as a burp cloth. Thats stupid as a burp cloth they suck. First time the kid pukes their toasted. They do however make the ultimate changing pad. Munchkin does make padded disposable changing pads - they cost more and you get fewer of them. I use these as a liner to protect my nice pad thats attached to my diaper bag and as a layer of protection when I'm changing him on the bed or couch or where ever. And they are worth any amount of money when you have to change a diaper that has over flowed its bounds. B/c it keeps you from trashing your surface. It doesn't matter if you get it all nasty. You just clean the kid, slip it out from under him, ball it up and dispose. Tah-dah! All the nastiness is contained in one nice easy to be rid of thing. These things are my friend.

Other Munchkin products I love: their disposable diaper bags/dispenser. Rather than have to shove old grocery bags in my diaper bag you just clip on a thing of these and you never have to worry about what you're gonna do with that dirty diaper while you're out and about. Munchkin formula dispenser. Holds enough for 3 bottles in nice pre-measured sections. Very handy on the go. Munchkin Bottle brush. It works good and hides a nipple brush in the handle so its a two-in-one space saver. Me like. Their stuff so far works good and doesn't cost a fortune.

More later.

Picture Post: Caleb 10-12 Weeks

2009-08-17T14:42:00.004-07:00

Caleb LOVES his Daddy!

I put the toy on his arm and he shakes it and gets all excited.

And tries to eat it...

These are from this morning!

He likes to play with his hands.

If Mommy holds on to his hands he can sit up just like a big boy. :)

But lounging in the boppy is good to.

He really likes this little ducky.

Likes to eat it...

Caleb 10 Weeks

2009-07-30T17:09:00.003-07:00

We have video! I was trying to catch him smiling and cooing while he was playing with the toys that hang from the arch on his hippo mat (he likes to go after them with his feet).

Well, my darling boy continues to GROW. He is now wearing size two diapers and 6 month sized onsies!! He can now get his hands to his mouth to suck on them consistently and he'd only been at that for a few days when he started grabbing our fingers and shoving those in his mouth as well! He hasn't quite got it down yet with toys but any toy, blanket, or burp cloth that gets too close he will try to kind of herd in the direction of his mouth. :)

Picture Post

2009-07-28T11:26:00.002-07:00

So my Momma was saying she needed a Caleb picture fix so here's a quick post with a bunch of pics. I'll try to get some text and some VIDEOS up soon! In the mean time here's the pics to tide you over. :)

He flipped that toy on to the top of his head himself. It was on his chest earlier.

Goofy face...
Happy goofy face.
He's becoming more and more aware and preoccupied with the camera. It makes it hard to catch the shots I want cuz the camera shows up and he STARES at it.
These are from this morning:

Caleb's 2 Month Check Up

2009-07-23T10:45:00.006-07:00

Oh man... that was awful. Watching him get his shots I mean. I cried. Not as much as he did but I cried.

Otherwise the appointment went really well. My cute little piggy now weighs 14 lbs 2 oz, is 24.3 inches long and has a 16 inch head. That means my little piglet is now 95th percentile for both height AND weight (he used to be 95th for height but only 50th for weight) and is still 75th for head. Basically he's HUGE! He's fitting into 3-6 month sized clothing already!

I am actually starting to enjoy the early mornings with him, b/c now that he's sleeping through the night (MIRACLE!!) I'm not a complete zombie and he is just SO delightful. It's like he's way excited to see me, like he missed me in his sleep and he just smiles SO big and he coos and wiggles and is absolutely charming. I think it helps that I hear him stirring before he fully wakes up so I get up then before he does so I can run and take care of my urgent morning needs and then get a bottle prepped and get back to him right as he's opening his eyes so he doesn't fully wake up and start screaming before I get to him.

Just one more update on the feeding bit - the bottle thing and pumping has been working good for the last couple weeks, however I'm having more issues with my migraines again (something about my hormones going all wonky post baby and my sleep schedule getting totally screwed) and I can't take the good drugs while breast feeding him, so I've reached the decision and both of our doctors are 100% with me on this - that Caleb needs a functional mommy more than he needs to be breast fed. So my pump is due back on the 29th and between now and then he's going to get switched to an all formula diet. That way I can bust out the big guns and get this crud under control so I can function like I want to.

And he's not just charming for me any more - he was charming the pants off the doctor and nurses - smiling big and cooing at them. I swear yesterday he was already starting to babble. He was making all these new noises all of the sudden. I was like "Whoa! Where did that come from?!" And he's such a little flirt - he'll watch for you look at him and then smile great big and scrunch up his nose and then look down and then glance back up at you from under his eye lashes like he's bashful. It's absolutely adorable!

But I do have to say I think I'm his favorite right now. :) And it makes me VERY, very happy. Because last night he was being a bit fussy for Adam, so I stopped whatever it was I was working on and came over and said "Come to da Momma" and picked him up and right then and there Caleb just smiled GREAT BIG and let out this really happy coo. It was SO dang cute. And Adam was like "Holy cow! Did you HEAR him?? Wow.... He REALLY likes you." I just smiled great big. It was a very happy moment.

Ya know, people keep asking me if motherhood is what I thought it was going to be, or if its a lot harder or what not and how do I like it etc. This might sound weird but motherhood is EXACTLY what I thought it was going to be. Its the most wonderful, stressful, amazing, completely insane thing I've ever done. I'm going to credit my mother for most of my preparedness on this one. I think she did a superb job of balancing out that yes, babies are wonderful but she definitely didn't sugar coat the realities of 2 am feedings etc so I definitely knew what I was in for.

People also ask me if I'm surprised at the intensity of the love that I have for my child. Apparently this surprises/amazes a lot of other first time parents, but I'm not surprised one bit. It's exactly what I thought it would be and I've decided that I owe that one too to my parents, because they taught me what love really is. I think there are an amazing number of people in this world who don't have a clue what real, unconditional love really is and feels like, so the first time they experience it - when they have their child - it knocks them on their butts. But I've been really blessed to have parents in my life who taught me that one by example so once again it's all just exactly what I thought it would be.

And now that you've scrolled through all my blathering I'll stop because I know that what you are REALLY here for is a bunch of pictures of Caleb from the last two weeks:

The timing on this next one was just so bad it was funny. I'm not sure which is funnier to me - the look on Adam's face or Caleb puking...

Caleb's Blessing

2009-07-20T14:06:00.004-07:00

So Caleb's baby blessing was last weekend and it was wonderful. We of course did the obligatory photo op after wards and so here's a picture post of the cute baby and adoring family members.

We really needed Louis and the girls so we could have gotten a good pic of the whole fam...

Caleb with his Grandma and Grandpa

Here's the boys (you know my husband is tall when he makes my Daddy look short...)

I have this obsession with his feet. I just think they're too cute!!

Clearly Caleb was very stressed by the whole picture taking experience...

Caleb Week 7

2009-07-15T14:16:00.003-07:00

I'm sorry for the delay in this post. I've been trying to get pictures to go with it but we're currently experiencing technical difficulties so we're posting pictureless for now and we'll get pictures online when things stop making me want to blow them up!

Caleb is doing wonderfully. He's SO BIG!! Holy crow! He now fits into 3-6 month sized clothing! At 7 weeks old! It makes me sad that some of my favorite outfits no longer fit him but oh well. He's getting SO chubby! He's got multiple jelly rolls on his arms and legs now. And he smiles ALL the time. I just love it. He's a doll! He's also a serious cuddle bug. Mom was commenting on it when she was here and my thought is - with Adam and I for parents I don't know how this kid could NOT be a cuddle bug.

Just to list off some of the developmental milestones he's already hit: he can roll from front to back AND from back to front. He can't do it consistently or at will but he's done both multiple times. He can push up with his hands and hold his head up to look around when lying on his belly. He can ALMOST keep his head stable in all directions. He coos and gurgles and growls and grunts and makes all sorts of noises. He's got the social smile thing down pat. If you put a toy in his hand he will grasp it and shake it. If you move a toy slowly across his visual field he will turn his eyes and head to follow its progress.

My folks and my sister Liz were here for the weekend b/c we had Caleb's baby blessing. It was really beautiful and it was so great to have my folks here for this wonderful experience. (For the non-Mormon folks: we don't baptize kids until they're 8 years old but we do haul them up in front of the congregation as infants to give them a name and a blessing. Its kinda like a christening, and for us - its a big deal). We had a brunch for the family afterwards and that was great.

OH! And he's starting to get HAIR!! He appears to be working on a full head of dark hair. OH! And he's got eye lashes now! And he's starting to get eye brows!

I'll post more as I think of it and with pictures as soon as I can get them to work right.

Caleb Week 6

2009-07-06T16:08:00.005-07:00

HE SMILED AT ME!!! He'd done little turn the corners of his mouth up smiles for me before but not the BIG gummy grins he's been doing in his sleep. Well, July 4th at 5:3o am I had just finished feeding him when he totally ripped one and I looked at him and said "Oh my goodness! Did you just poopie or did you just poot?" And he looked up at me and just started grinning this huge grin. I LOVED IT! He's done it for me like twice since then.

Life is pretty good this week. The last couple days he's slept for 5 hours at night, which is WAY exciting. I'm still pumping and giving him breast milk in a bottle. He's getting a little bit of formula but mostly breast milk.

Caleb also got to meet his Great Grandma Cleo on Saturday. Cleo is Adam's Grandma and she's not doing so well right now so we made sure we made a trip down there to see her this last weekend. Here's Adam, Caleb, Cleo and Donni:

Caleb also got to meet his Uncle Mark (Adam's little brother) for the first time this weekend. It was really cute to watch the two of them together, Mark was really taken with him.

Cute sleeping baby picture:

Here he is crashed out with Daddy on the bed in the living room. We have a bed set up in the living room from when my parents were in town visiting. Well... it stayed set up after they left so that poor Adam could get some sleep at night.

And one other random side note: I think my child has the goofiest baby hair I've seen yet. In addition to his male pattern baldness, he has now developed the classic semi-circle of baldness that a lot of kids get from laying on their backs. This means he's got this like patch of hair on the top and then a semi circle of hair around back. It's REALLY funny looking. I am however hopeful that his male pattern baldness won't last TOO much longer b/c he's starting to get some decided fuzziness on top of his head. I tried to get a picture but they don't quite do it justice (he was being highly uncooperative about holding still in the right position).

Week 5 1/2

2009-07-02T12:12:00.003-07:00

I just wanted to do a quick update, mostly cute pictures, b/c I realize that last post sounded a bit negative. For the record - I didn't sugar coat my feeding issues or cut it short on purpose. I had already gotten some flak from some people for my decision and so I was hoping if I explained fully that people would understand I didn't make the choice lightly and just in case somebody still didn't agree with me by the end of the explanation I included the line that I didn't want to know b/c I spent a lot of time feeling like a failure and wondering what was wrong with me and I needed to move past that.

In other news: Life is improving. A LOT. Caleb's mouth is totally thrush free and I am FINALLY pain free. As soon as the blister finishes healing I will be good to go! At first I wasn't responding well to the pump (apparently some women just don't) but I am improving by the day. I'm now averaging 2 oz more per pumping session than I was Saturday and the overall amount I get each day has roughly doubled so I'm very pleased and hopeful. The pumping has also meant that I'm getting more sleep - which is a truly glorious thing. And I'm now able to be conscious when Caleb is awake and I'm able to play with my darling boy.

And b/c I promised you chubby baby pictures - here they are!

I just love the Winnie the Pooh jammies! So cute!

Liftin' that big noggin' is hard work!

Caleb now LOVES his baths. He didn't cry once, even when I washed him this last time!

Just look at that FAT belly! I LOVE IT!

He was talkin' to the Momma after his bath.

Caleb LOVES his Daddy!

All ready to get rocked to sleep!

Caleb Week 5

2009-06-30T15:36:00.005-07:00

Wow... it's been a LONG week. You would not believe how much that boy can EAT! And how often he wants to eat it!! I swear he's gained at least a pound in the last three days! He has most definitely inherited his father's bottomless pit of a stomach! I think he must be gearing up for his 6 week old growth spurt. My mom used to tell me that she always knew when we were about to have a growth spurt b/c we'd chub up for a bit and then all of the sudden get longer.

But take a look at how strong he is:

I mean thats some serious height he's getting now when he pushes up! And soooo stable now too!

And he's shown a marked increase in the number and types of noises he makes. He coo's and ahh's and grunts and growls and squeaks. I swear he kept me up half the night the other day just b/c all the new noises kept freaking me out and waking me up. He definitely likes to make noise when he's on the hippo mat and batting at the toys. He's getting better at actually hitting that flower on the right:

It was my Grandma's birthday a little over a week ago so this last weekend we had a shin dig at my cousin's house to celebrate. It was the first time that most of my cousin's got to meet Caleb. All of my cousin Josh's little girls wanted to hold the baby. Adam snapped some cute shots. Here's Caleb with cousin Savannah and Aunt Lacy:

And here's Caleb with cousin Haley:

Caleb and cousin Jasmine:

Cousin Payton and Caleb:
This is me, Caleb and my Aunt Lorri:

You're probably noting the bottle... Right now I'm pumping and feeding Caleb with a bottle. He's still getting mostly breast milk, but I'm having to suppliment with formula b/c apparently I don't let down as well for the pump as I do for the baby. I finally reached the decision to go this route on Saturday afternoon after yet another long sobbing conversation with my Mom.

The problem goes something like this: every time I get a migraine my milk supply goes down. And since I'm breast feeding I can't take any good drugs. So I wind up with a hungry, screaming baby that I HAVE to give a bottle of formula to b/c I can't let him go hungry, on top of a screaming head ache. And then b/c he likes the bottle better b/c its so much easier to eat from I spend the next couple days getting screamed at every time he nurses. It goes: suck, suck, suck, pop off, scream! Suck, suck, suck, pop off, SCREAM!

And every time he latches back on it HURTS. And with the thrush it hurt so bad I couldn't even tell that he hadn't latched back on right one time and so I wound up with a BIG fat blister! And I'm not sure I can express just how much THAT hurts, especially since I FINALLY managed to ditch the thrush so I should have been gloriously pain free but instead I'm STILL hurting. BADLY and getting screamed at only stresses me MORE. And then if I get any more sleep deprived I get MORE migraines and my milk supply goes down MORE. So then every second I'm not actually feeding him, I can't wait to put him down so I can try to get some sleep. And then I feel horrible b/c he's only awake so many hours a day and instead of being a good mommy and talking to him and playing with him and giving him the stimulation that he needs, he's getting stuffed in the swing so mom can get some shut eye. Which stresses me more so I get more head aches.

So I will pump for as long as I possibly can so he gets at least SOME of the good antibodies and enzymes that you can only get from breast milk and formula will not kill him. I was a formula baby and somehow I survived. And this way I'm getting a little bit more sleep and I'm not stressing that he's getting enough to eat and I'm not getting hurt anymore feeding him and now Mommy can be the kind of mommy she wants to be and talk and sing to and love on her baby boy when ever he's awake.

If you think I'm making a mistake I don't want to hear it. I've shed enough tears, thank you.

I need to get some new pictures of him like today b/c these ones don't do justice to the chubbiness I'm describing but right now he's dead asleep and I'd rather chew my own arm off than wake him. ;) But I do have one last one for you from the party:

Here he is crashed out with Great Grandma Shirley:

Caleb 1 Month Pics

2009-06-26T07:54:00.005-07:00

Here's the last of the marathon series of picture posts. This is Caleb at one month old. He really likes to stare at the toys hanging from the arch of his hippo mat:

I think his favorite is staring at himself in that little blue mirror:
More goofy faces! I'm getting better at catching them:

Being cute is hard work. It's time for a nap!

Caleb at 3 weeks

2009-06-26T07:49:00.002-07:00

This is a series of pictures I took of Caleb when he was 3 weeks old:

More goofy faces! :) (I need a faster camera so I can catch these without them being blurry...)

I have this obsession with little feet. I LOVE his little feet and toes!!
He's started smiling in his sleep:

The First Two Weeks - Part 2

2009-06-26T07:42:00.004-07:00

We took Caleb to meet his Great Grandma Shirley (my Dad's mom). So this is me, Caleb, Dad, Great Grandma, Liz, Leah and Emily.

This is my Mom, Cathy, burping Caleb. This shot cracks me up b/c I think it looks like she's totally about to give him the what for and she just looks so happy about it.
My Daddy got this one of Caleb napping:
My mom's little brother, Adam and his wife, Merry, came to meet Caleb:
Another nap shot:
Jo and Momma with Caleb:
Momma give Caleb a bottle (this was when we were supplementing with formula).
Caleb loves his Grandma. Here they are having a little chat:

Me and Caleb.

The First Two Weeks - Part 1

2009-06-26T07:30:00.002-07:00

This post is going to be a random sampling of pictures from Caleb's first two weeks. They're not in any particular order.

Adam and Caleb chillin' in the new glider chair.

This boy makes some of the GOOFIEST faces. I love it! So I'm forever trying to catch them on camera. This one is just the first of what I'm sure will be many:
This was just after his first sponge bath at home. I think he looks a tad shell shocked. :)
And this was his first REAL bath (we could actually immerse him in the water) after his belly button and circumcision both healed up. He loved the warm water:
But did NOT like the actual washing bit:
This was his first visit to the pediatrician. Here's me and Caleb in the waiting room:
Getting measured by the nurse:
And weighed:
And here's Doctor Curran with Caleb:

The Hospital Pics Part 2

2009-06-26T07:15:00.004-07:00

Here's my sister, Liz with Caleb:

My Momma meeting her new grandson:
Adam's mom, Donni is a pediatrician, so she had to check him over herself. :)
Liz, Caleb and Adam's stepmom, Jo.
Adam's sister, Natalie:
Adam, Natalie, Adam's Dad - Bill, and Jo.
Three generations of Fleischaker men:
My Momma and my niece Leah.
Me, my Dad and Caleb - three generations of Davis'.
My Daddy and Caleb
My uncle Sam came to meet his new nephew.
Donni with Caleb.
All dressed up to go home:
We're outta here!

The Hospital Pics Part 1

2009-06-25T23:11:00.004-07:00

Here's the first set of hospital pictures. The labor and delivery. First up is me BEFORE the epidural:

Then here I am AFTER the epidural:
My niece Leah entertained herself by pushing the doctors stool all around the delivery room.
My mom and sister were WAY excited.
Adam's mom, Donni, looking on with sympathy...
Adam being sweet while I'm pushing and Daddy looks on.

CALEB IS HERE!!

Daddy and Baby's first picture together:
Our first family photo!

Caleb One Month

2009-06-23T16:30:00.004-07:00

So as of Father's Day, Caleb is officially one month old! This morning we had his one month check up. The verdict: he is THRIVING! Caleb now weighs 9 lbs 14 oz, is 23.5 inches long and has a 15 inch head!! I am THRILLED! The pediatrician says his weight gain is right on track and his development is totally normal. He's now roughly 75th percentile for both weight and head circumference and he is OVER the 95th percentile for height! He's LONG! People keep saying "Oh he's so TINY!", but this proves me right - this child is HUGE. lol. Seriously we saw another little bitty in the ped's office today and she was TINY compared to Caleb.

Only down side to today's appointment was he got his second Hep B shot. He SCREAMED and turned purple when they stuck him. I almost cried... But I got him breast feeding like 30 seconds after he was stuck and he settled right down. (For those who don't know, breast feeding is like the ultimate pacifier for him).

You should also know the other reason I'm thrilled:

Caleb has been strictly breast fed for a solid week! *does a happy dance*

Mind you he was TICKED for a fair bit when he stopped getting those bottles. His favorites were the bottles of breast milk - he likes the breast milk A LOT better than formula, and the bottle is a lot easier than me so those were like the best of both worlds. I got yelled at a lot for about 2 days... I also was VERY mean and I now refuse to let him use me as a pacifier. Nobody who is really hungry eats for 5 minutes and sleeps for 10 and then wants 5 more minutes. So if he falls asleep he gets put down and he doesn't get picked up for 15 minutes or so. It was REALLY, REALLY HARD to let him scream like that, but its what my lactation consultant (aka Momma) told me to do so I did and it has worked. I almost never have to do it anymore. He tends to be VERY dedicated during his meals now and in fact all I have to do now most of the time to get him to wake up is sit him up and he wakes up REAL QUICK. :D

In other news we've started doing "Tummy Time" - ie he has a cute mat on the floor with an arch over it with toys hanging on it and he spends some time there almost every day. He stares at the toys with this deeply concerned look on his face and wiggles away. And for part of the time I put a toy that makes noise on the floor in front of him and put him on his belly so he can push up and look at it. Thus far he's managed to push up so far that he actually flipped himself over! Both times he's gotten this completely shocked look on his face when it happened. He is currently kinda like a turtle - once he's on his back he's stuck there.

He has started making more noise that is NOT crying. It's not alot but its more grunts and "ooooh" and "ahhh". I still haven't gotten a good smile that I didn't think was gas when he's awake but Adam says he grinned at him real big the other day. So I continue to wait for my happy, but thats okay.

Caleb 1 Month

2009-06-23T16:30:00.001-07:00

Caleb Week 3

2009-06-15T00:27:00.003-07:00

It's been a long week. Mom and Dad left Sunday and I have missed them. If absolutely nothing else the sanitation level in my house has gone down now that I don't have Mom to clean. The clutter stresses me out. I'm trying very hard to ignore it and just focus on the two things I really have to take care of - Caleb and myself, but clutter just makes me twitchy. Thankfully I had Adam to help me this weekend so the clutter in the main part of the house has gotten dialed back a few notches so I can at least breathe now. The thing still sticking in my craw at this point is the fridge. Things growl at me when I open it and I just haven't taken the cattle prod to it yet to beat it into submission.

Caleb is doing beautifully well in some ways. He's getting chubbier which makes me VERY happy. I love his little round cheeks and the way his thighs and arms are filling out. I love that its no longer a straight line from his arm pits to his diapers - he's working on a little fat round belly. He's staying awake for up to two hours at a time and sleeping for up to five hours at a stretch - for which I am eternally grateful. When he's awake he can be absolutely charming the way he makes the cutest faces and just stares into your eyes and cuddles and wiggles with all he's got. He could not be cuter or more beautiful. For the most part when he nurses he latches on beautifully and doesn't hardly do anything to hurt my poor nipples. And the thrush in his mouth is ALMOST gone. He still has a couple patches on the insides of his cheeks and the very back of his tongue, but he's 80% better. He's even started smiling in his sleep. It's ADORABLE! According to the parenting book I'm reading (and its by the American Academy of Pediatrics so I vote they have a clue), they smile in their sleep for a while before they start smiling at you. So I am waiting with baited breath for the day he smiles at me with his eyes open.

But that child is a BOOGER to feed. LOL. Oh man. My mom says I deserve a medal for sticking with breast feeding this long given how big of a brat he is. I am still having amazing levels of pain from the thrush. Or rather in the last 24 hours or so since I finally talked the doc into giving me some REAL drugs to kill this thing I'm now starting to have a reduction in pain, but for the last week and a half feeding him has really, really hurt. And what hurts the worst is when he latches on and since he's a lazy little sucker who likes to fall asleep and fart around so he pops on and pops off and pops on and pops off, he's latching on at least a dozen times in a single feeding, and we're doing 8+ feedings a day. Thats a lot of pain. It would just be annoying with out the thrush. With the thrush its.... special.

I do however have a serious stubborn streak and I've always wanted to breast feed b/c its by far what's healthiest for him and to be blunt I can't afford formula anyways. And now that I've gone thru 3 weeks of hell I don't want to throw all that hard work away and just go with formula. In another month I might change my mind but right now that's where I'm at. I've got yet another brilliant plan (I average 2-3 brilliant plans a week) on what I'm going to try next to get him to cooperate with eating and establish a nutritive milk supply in spite of his best efforts.

The pressure here for all you non-lactation experts is this: you get 4-6 weeks to establish your milk supply. If you don't have the kid eating nothing but breast milk by the time your window of opportunity is up for some reason that we don't know the milk supply will peak at 6 weeks and then start to dry up. That's the big problem with supplementing with formula early on, you don't get adequate stimulation so you don't establish a nutritive supply. To establish a supply you need one of two things- a good little sucker (which Caleb can be but only if he's in the mood) or a medical grade breast pump.

So the gist of my problem goes like this - I'm not producing enough breast milk to keep him happy. So I need to nurse/pump more. So I feed him for 20 mins on each side and then I need to pump for another 20 minutes for the stimulation. So after I've spent 40 mins feeding the kid, he's only sometimes full, the rest of the time he SCREAMS until I give him a bottle of either previously pumped breast milk or formula. We need to have it be nothing but breast milk b/c that means I'm making enough. So far we haven't made it more that 24 hours with out at least 1 formula bottle.

But look at the time we're talking about here- he wants to eat roughly every 3 hours. The 3 hour count down to the next feeding starts when the first feeding BEGINS - not ends. And the boobs need to be emptied and THEN they refill. If they don't get emptied the body thinks that "oh I made too much, make less next time" which is the OPPOSITE of what we're going for. So after nursing for 40 mins, I then spend 15+ mins feeding the kid a bottle and THEN I get to pump for another 20 mins. Usually this whole process takes roughly an hour and a half. Then I get to feed myself, sleep, do whatever Caleb needs now for just over an hour before he starts screaming again. And this goes on 24-7. And just to make things a SMIDGEN more complicated: not sleeping enough, failing to eat frequently throughout the day, or getting too stressed all cause your milk supply to decrease. :)

And the more bottles he has the less he wants to breast feed. Bottle feeding is easy. It doesn't require half the work breast feeding does. And the kid ain't stupid, he like every other human on the planet is inherently LAZY. So now he's started nursing and then popping off to scream b/c he wants the bottle, but he's hungry and not getting it so he'll latch again for a minute and then pop off to scream again to let me know that he still wants the bottle. His diaper is clean, he's not too hot or cold, he's not sick, hurting or needing to burp. And if I give him the bottle he will settle down perfectly happy and suck away and not make a single peep. He's just ticked I'm making him work. And every time he pops off it hurts. And its just a tad stressful to get screamed at.

So my brilliant plan is that he gets 20 mins per side, unless he's being a good little sucker and then he can have it for up to 30 mins per side. I will then pump aggressively so that I can build my supply so that I can meet my goal of going three days with out having to give him a single formula bottle. When we get to that point I will know that I am producing enough milk and then we get to go through hell for a couple days. Because then I will cut off the bottles totally, and he is NOT going to be happy about it. But if I manage this feat in the next 2 weeks I just might be able to establish a nutritive supply and then we won't starve to death buying formula for the baby.

I'm a little ray of over sharing sunshine aren't I?

In other news I made significant headway towards reclaiming my humanity this week by managing to shave my legs and do my eye brows for the first time since my son was born. It's sad how much better the eyebrows in particular make me feel. lol.

I promise I'll post pictures sometime soon... If the stuff in the fridge doesn't eat me first. I posted some to facebook- iPhoto '09 will send picture emails and publish directly to facebook for me. I just need it to post directly to blogger for me now and I'll be set.

Caleb's Second Week

2009-06-07T22:21:00.002-07:00

In some ways its hard to believe Caleb is 17 days old now... and in other ways its hard to believe its only been 17 days. lol. He's changed so much already. Monday's follow up visit with Dr. Curran went great. Caleb was 8 lbs 4.5 oz, his jaundice was pretty much gone and the doc said his belly button and circumcision both looked great and said we didn't have to come back again until his 1 month check up.

We did however wind up back in the doctors office on Friday morning. I noticed starting Tues/Weds that he had some little tiny white spots on his tongue. At first I just assumed I was seeing some dried milk flecks or something, but by Thursday afternoon his tongue was covered in white spots and starting to form patches and I was having a MASSIVE increase in pain when I was feeding him. So we took him in Friday morning, and the doctor confirmed what Mom and I were thinking - he has thrush. For those unfamiliar with common issues in babies- thrush is basically a yeast infection in his mouth, and therefore in my breasts as well. So we've now got medicine to fix it and he and I are both getting dosed 4 times a day and hopefully it will be all cleared up inside of a week. Upside - they checked his weight on Friday and he's now up to 8 lbs 7 oz so he's still gaining weight like he should.

Honestly that trip to the doc's on Friday was totally worth the co-pay just to know that he was gaining weight like he's supposed to (I was SO paranoid), and to know that the pain really was legit and I hadn't turned into a wimp or something.

In terms of feeding Caleb has gotten MUCH better at nursing. Most of the time he latches on great now, his only issue is that he's a bit of a lazy sucker. He's getting more efficient but he's still slow and has a tendency to fall asleep on the job, but heaven forbid I remove him before he's done just b/c he's asleep - if I do he wakes right up and screams.

He loves his bouncy seat and his swing. Those actually constitute 2 of the 3 places he will sleep - the bouncy seat, the swing, and somebody's arms. So while I have these lovely places he's supposed to sleep - the bassinet, cradle, crib, etc - where he actually sleeps right now is with me, in the bouncy seat, or in the swing. And ya know what? I could care less as long as it buys me a couple hours of rest.

Mom and Dad left this morning.... I bawled my eyes out. It has been so wonderful having them here. Mom was an amazing help, I honestly don't know how any body could survive their first weeks with a baby with out a Mom like mine. I am so amazingly grateful for my parents - for their love, their support, their advice and good counsel. They've taught me so much and they continue to teach me the things I need to know. My only hope is that one day I can be as good a parent to Caleb. I'm so grateful that they were willing to take the time off work and spend the money to travel and be here with me for the last couple weeks. I know that they were planning on going to Europe this year for their anniversary, but instead of celebrating their 31st anniversary in France, they spent it on a plane flying here so that they could be with me when I had Caleb the next day. My folks have never had a lot of the material stuff, but they have always given me their everything. Thank you Mommy and Daddy. I love you so much.

Caleb had his first real bath yesterday. We'd done several sponge baths but you're not supposed to immerse the baby in water until the cord and circumcision totally heal. He was so cute, he really liked the warm water - he just sat there bright eyed and started wiggling and sticking his tongue out like he was trying to catch flies. He was totally cool with it until I used the rag to wash his face and he wasn't so into that part, but he liked being rinsed off with warm water. Adam got some cute pictures so hopefully I'll get those posted some time soon. So after his bath, I fed him and he went to sleep and stayed asleep for over FOUR HOURS!! It was such a beautiful thing. I slept so good. lol. And he smelled SO good after wards - I LOVE the smell of Johnson's Bedtime Bath. I think this nightly bath thing sounds like a good idea...

Caleb's First Week

2009-05-30T20:12:00.002-07:00

So Caleb is now 9 days old and doing good! He's had a couple issues eating - he's what the lactation people call a "tongue thruster" - meaning he likes to take his tongue and mash my nipple to the roof of his mouth pinching it. Not only is this HIGHLY painful for me its like trying to drink through a straw that you're biting closed. No bueno. But thanks to the efforts of my sainted lactation consultant mother he's doing MUCH better in that area, but he is still part barracuda - he likes to give me a couple good chomps while he's getting things situated. So he'll suck perfectly for the rest of the feeding but it starts with a big fat "OUCH!" *sigh* Hopefully, this too shall pass.

He had is first doctors appt on Monday. I really like our pediatrician - Dr. Curran. He's very thorough, and gives clear and detailed explanations. On Monday, Caleb's weight was 7 lbs 12 oz (it's normal for a baby to lose up to 10% of their body weight right after birth) and at 21 1/4 inches long he's in the 90th percentile for height, just over 50th percentile for weight and about 75th percentile for head circumference. The doc thought he looked just a tad jaundiced so he ordered a blood test and said Caleb looked great otherwise and wanted to see him back for a weight check on Friday.

Caleb's bilirubin levels came back at 12.6 which was within the normal range for his age and on Weds we took him to Donni's office (Adam's mom is a pediatrician as well) for his circumcision. I actually attempted to stay in the room with him, which was stupid. Part of me was curious b/c I've never seen a circumcision so I wanted to know what exactly they were going to do to my son, and part of me wanted to be there so that maybe I could comfort him.... He was fine in terms of pain. Donni numbed him up good so he wasn't feeling a thing down there but Caleb was TICKED about being strapped down for the procedure and it was very, very hard to watch him be that upset. I had to leave the room and go sit in the waiting room and bawl my eyes out before they'd even started. This probably has something to do with my currently being a giant ball of hormones... I was fine holding him in my arms for the heel stick for his bilirubin test but two days later I couldn't even watch him be ticked off about being held still. I blame hormones.

My mother, who's an RN as well as a lactation consultant assisted a bit in the circumcision and said that Donni did the neatest, most meticulous, nearly bloodless circumcision she'd ever seen. So I'm grateful for that. Caleb hasn't seemed to show any discomfort at all or even been particularly crabby and its already looking so much better.

So Friday we went back to Dr. Curran for a weight check. Caleb, at 8 days old was still 7 lbs 12 oz, which is good in that he hasn't lost any more since Monday but Curran wants him to be pretty much back to his birth weight by the time he's 10 days old, so he's having me supplement my breast feeding with formula and wants me to pump twice a day to see how much milk I'm actually producing. Also he was still a little more yellow than Curran wanted so we had to do another heel stick. His bilirubin level came back at 11 (so I was right when I thought he was looking a bit better) and my wonderful parents rented me a hospital grade breast pump.

After two days of pumping and supplementation we all think his color is looking much better and he's getting plumper by the day. We also have him sunning in the window a couple times a day, so we have our next appt on Monday morning and hopefully then the doctor will be happy. He really is doing great otherwise - he's VERY active and amazingly strong. We can't believe how good his head control is.

I'm sure you all want pictures but right now since I'm sleeping in 3 hour increments that is not the highest thing on my priority list for some strange reason. Here's some pic's my Dad has posted and I'll get some on here when I can.

http://gallery.me.com/jwdavis#100179

Caleb is HERE!

2009-05-21T22:21:00.002-07:00

So I woke up this morning at 5:45 to make yet another mid-night pilgrimage to the bathroom and when I laid back down I had the first contraction that hurt. I've had lots of Braxton-Hicks contractions but thankfully for me at least those were painless. This one hurt. By 6:18 am I'd had 3 more contractions that were increasingly painful. Then in classic Hollywood fashion- my water broke. I haven't gotten out of bed that fast in months. lol. By the time I made it to the bathroom I was soaked and it was running down my legs.

So needless to say I got to skip out on the whole induction process. An hour later we were at the hospital, I was dilated to 5 cm and I was praying that I could get an epidural like NOW. I am by no means a wimp but holy crap... I think that if the advent of birth control had not roughly coincided with the advent of effective pain management that the human population would be doomed to a slow extinction.

My favorite person of the day after my child and my husband was the guy who did my epidural. Once that thing was there my life was GOOD. I was now at 7 cm and I crashed out for a nap. I woke up when my nurse checked me next and declared I was crowning. So then we started pushing. We pushed for an hour to get that kid out. He had a BIG head.

At 12:56 pm Caleb Michael Fleischaker was born. He weighs 8 lbs 6.4 oz, he's 21 1/4 inches long and his head was 14.5 inches around. He is doing wonderful. He's the most mellow baby. He's hardly cried at all!

I'm doing well. I'm starting to fall asleep while I type this so this is about to get cut short. They had some issues getting me to stop bleeding so I'm getting watched pretty closely right now. No major drama but enough for them to fuss.

Pictures will come later. Now I sleep.

Because I Promised

2009-05-21T00:21:00.003-07:00

Before I get induced tomorrow morning and shed the giant belly I thought I'd post some last minute Belly Pictures. The first one is me at 8 months along.

And here I am earlier this evening the night before I deliver.

My Last OB Check Up!!

2009-05-19T13:12:00.002-07:00

So today was that glorious day... my last dr's appointment before I have the baby! WHOOP!

And the verdict today is:

I am 3+ cm dilated, 80% effaced and still -2 station. So she went ahead and stripped my membranes (not my favorite experience...) and everything is all systems go for the induction Thursday assuming that he doesn't decide to come on his own before then.

And all I have to say right now is that all these people who are threatening to be sick need to get over it NOW! My husband is home sick from work with the flu today and my sister is at the dr's office and not doing good. This is highly less than acceptable. I'm gonna ground them both if they don't get better in a hurry! I am pregnant - you do NOT want to push me!

So there.

Attn: All Non-Pregnant People

2009-05-17T20:47:00.002-07:00

So in the last 9 months I have determined the following phrases/topics of conversation are not helpful and should be avoided when talking with pregnant women (or at least this pregnant woman):

#1. "Oh, but it's all worth it".

While I am sure that once my baby gets here I will love him more than life itself and will clearly be willing to go to hell and back for him. However, the phrase "Oh, buts its all worth it" is NOT comforting. For me it makes me think: "Ya know I think I'd rather be skinned alive, dipped in honey and laid on a fire ant mound in the desert in summer than go through all that again, but don't worry .... it's ALL worth it." It's a phrase that bodes and it does NOT bode well.

#2. "Your life will never be the same again."

Maybe if I hated my life this would be comforting, but the truth is that I love my life and I am VERY happy right now. In fact, I admit I've done some mourning because I have really enjoyed the last two years of just my husband and me and I know that this is about to end and it's going to be a good couple of decades before we have any where close to the kind of alone time we've enjoyed the last two years. I'm excited to start a new chapter but sad to see this one end.

#3. All pregnancy/labor and delivery horror stories and tales of the traumas and worries of a new baby.

I promise I already have a FULL compliment of anxiety with regards to the pain and discomfort of labor. Pregnancy has sucked. Labor does NOT sound like fun. I do NOT need further encouragement to freak out by being told tales of labors that lasted for days, horrible tears/rips, pelvic fractures, and all manner of problems with the baby's health. Also I am fully aware that the first several months I will get no sleep, I will be a slave to a child who requires feeding every two hours day and night, and I will get soaked in all manner of bodily fluids and have no small amount of anxiety over his health and well being. There is no need to graphically rehash these details. It's not helpful.

A Quick Update

2009-05-12T15:25:00.002-07:00

And the results from today's visit to the OB are:

I'm now dilated 2 cm and still just 50% effaced and -2 station. In other news my blood pressure is still great and so is Caleb's heart beat.

And in other news the nursery furniture is all set up and in place! So now I'm starting to organize and put away all the baby stuff.