A Momma's Boy he is not!

Ernest always says that I've turned Caleb into a Momma's Boy. Well, i haven't, however, I do plan on enjoying every second of this phase which is "i only want my mommy and no one else." The funny thing is that he only wants me if he sees me. Otherwise, he's more than happy to hang with others. Example, Ernest picks him up from day care and i don't get home till 7 so for 2 hours he's perfectly content hanging with his dad. The same goes for my mother. He doesn't even think about me but as soon as i walk through the door it's all about me. HA! AND I LOVE IT.

But if Caleb ever takes a nap on our bed guess who's side he prefers or who's pillow he prefers to get very snuggly with? NOT MINE!!! Oh yeah it's all about dad. Example, i put him down for a nap not too long ago but as soon as he saw Ernest laying in bed he wanted to play so he didn't stop until he woke his dad up. Then Ernest left the bed and Caleb snuggled up to his pillow slowly and lovingly closing his eyes everytime he smelled it.

Sidebar, what is it with babies and sniffing things? He'll take my shirts, his dad's shirts or anything we have on or have worn and just sniff or rub all over his face. Guess they smell something totally different.

Back to the story. So he kept hugging Ernest's pillow and then turning to me, then turning back to it and hugging it. Everytime he would snuggle with the pillow his eyes got heavier and heavier. Ernest returns and lays next to him. Moves the pillow and puts himself in its place. Caleb never moved. Ernest puts the sheet over him, snuggles Caleb close and that was it. Caleb is now napping with his dad.

I'm telling you. It was so beautiful to watch. It was a little more than i could handle and so i felt like the third wheel and had to leave the bed. Here i was waiting for him to nap so i can nap too but no. I'll let them have their moment. I wish i had a picture of it but you can imagine it. Maybe it's better left physically undocumented.

An apple a day...

Here are some pictures of Caleb Carter doing some solo eating of an apple. He liked it. Now that he has teeth he put some dents into that apple. It was amazing to watch my little boy holding that apple and scraping it with his teeth. Anyway, enjoy!

Changes

I've thought about it and here it is. I'd really like to be able to update this blog more often than i do but it's almost impossible to do and have pics to go along with the stories of Caleb Carter. Sooooooooo, what i'm going to do is blog shorter posts more frequently. I will try to post as many pictures as i can especially of milestones or anything else he's doing, but i can't promise that it will happen every time. He keeps us very busy especially now that he's so mobile. On that note, he's got another tooth to go along with another ear infection. Saturday morning was rough. He was screaming in pain and i could do nothing to help him aside from a little Motrin, which did help. What an awful sound that cry was. If i never hear that cry again it'll be the happiest just fine. Luckily he's a strong little guy and spent the rest of the weekend much better. Playing and being Caleb Carter. He's drooling like a mad man. There's drool everywhere. I've never seen him drool like that before. He's got more teeth on the way which i guess means more ear infections, hopefully i'm wrong.


He's also sleeping through the night. HALLELUJAH!!!! He doesn't wake up to eat anymore, which means less bottles for us to make - HALLELUJAH!!!!!! again! He does wake up at least once in the middle of the night. I go in there, he sees me, grabs his blankie and goes right back to sleep. How am i feeling? GREAT! He goes to bed at 9:30. Wakes up at 6:30 and actually just stays in his crib playing quietly. I went in there this morning because my alarm clock woke me up, otherwise he would've kept playing. What a lucky mom i am. What a beautiful boy i have. So now i just take him into our room and play with him for an hour. We laugh, he stands, ignores crawling, and we just have fun. Then we get ready for Day care. He's still crying when i leave but i've been told that as soon as i leave he's fine. I don't know if i should be happy or offended. Nevertheless, i'm just glad he stops crying.

One last thing. Recently i've been told that Caleb's taking on a little bit of his father's looks. Of course i choose not to see it because he mostly looks like me. His dad is handsome, yes, but i could show you some baby pictures of me and you wouldn't doubt his looking like me for a bit, but i won't, or maybe i will, but not on this post. Anyway, you be the judge. He definitely has his father's expressions and he's looking like Stephen (his big brother) a bit too. By the way, Stephen looks very much like Ernest. Ok, so here's a pic of Caleb looking like his brother who's looking like Ernest. Enjoy!

We've got a tooth!

PLEASE CLICK ON THE PICTURE OF THE TOOTH SO THAT YOU CAN SEE IT IN A DIFFERENT WINDOW SINCE THE BLOG CUTS OUT THE TOOTH.

Well, Caleb does. FINALLY!! After starting to teeth since he was three months old, finally, at 7 months there's a tooth. I was changing him last Thursday, i believe, and i was doing my usual silly dance and making faces at him when i noticed something white in his mouth. He was laughing (cuz i'm so funny at 6am) and i noticed it. So of course i tried to see it closer but he only stuck his tongue out and wouldn't let me. So i decided to be funny again and there it was. A TOOTH!!! It had just broken through the gum. He already looked cuter than he had 5 minutes before when i thought he didn't have a tooth. It all makes sense now. All those fevers and various infections the weekend before. They were pushing his tooth through. So now here's this tooth. A sign that he's becoming an actual person and is faster and faster leaving his baby-dom behind. How sad and amazing at the same time.

Another sign that he'll soon be off to college? He's standing. Still doesn't crawl but he stands. Why? Why is that ok? He's completely overlooking a very important milestone in his development and just cruising onto something that's just going to help him leave me quicker. Yes, this is about me. I'm going to use this blog to also work through my issues with Caleb growing up. Hope you can still stay with me.

Oh yeah, and he's also clapping like a madman. First thing he does in the morning when i go get him from his crib, after he gives me a big smile of course, is clap. While i'm changing him? Claps. While i'm feeding him? Claps. Usually while the spoon is in his mouth and then the cereal goes everywhere. You get my point. He claps. All you really need to do is say YAYYYYYYYYY and he'll clap. It's so satisfactory.

So, a tooth, clapping, and standing. When he starts walking i'm going to need therapy. Enjoy the pictures.

Caleb Carter is growing!

It's been a while. I know i promised i'd write more often but sometimes it's just too hard. And just to add more to our plate, Caleb developed an ear and throat infection last weekend as well as some hefty fevers for 3 days. I'll spare you the details, mostly because it was traumatizing for me to go through that. I will say that i've never in my life have met a braver, stronger, more resilient person in my life than my son. I don't know what i would've done with that kind of fever all weekend. He played and ate his food, and was more or less normal with some discomfort. Luckily the infections were just starting out and so there was no real pain but it was bad enough for mommy. Now he's on antibiotics - AGAIN! This one is stronger and it's actually also gotten rid of his slight congestion. He's doing great, though. Almost cured, which means he's as active, if not more, than usual. His activeness also means that while we hoped that as he got older he would sleep through the night, it's actually causing him to wake up more often because he can't sit still. We're exhausted :) Here are the things he's up to:

Trying to go from a laying position to a sitting one
rolling over like a mad man
once on his belly he moves backwards by kicking his legs very quickly
while sitting he scoots on his butt
while sitting he grabs on to me and tries to pull himself up
while sitting on his changing table he uses the railings to pull up onto his knees
bounces a lot
while sitting on the floor with one of us he uses his chair and pulls himself up to a standing position (almost fully).
while in his playpen he fall over a lot and then whines cuz he wants us to help him
He chews on everything
he grabs everything
he turns to see where everything is and where noises are coming from.
He's teething. Really teething. No. REALLY TEETHING! I think that had to do with all the infections and fevers. You can almost feel a break in the gums.
He's also practicing drinking from a sippy cup.
He says papapapapap babababababa papapapapapap papapapapappapap (he'll probably say Papa first - i can't win :()

I think there's more but this list is long enough. No wonder he can't sleep at night. He's very busy these days.

In terms of not getting a lot of sleep, it's really amazing that we're still standing. We still get to work on time and i can only speak for myself, although, somewhere deep inside i think Ernest also feels the same, you get to work and you feel a relief. Like you're having an incredible break, almost. But it never feels right because we miss him and think about him all day.

I guess now we're preparing for the next steps; crawling (if he ever decided he's going to), teeth, and walking. When he was a baby i use to hope and pray that he would grow up and be able to do all of the things he's doing now so that it would be easier on me. How selfish of me. Now i'd like him to stop and go back so that i can have a chance to enjoy him being a baby. I missed so much.

But this is not a sad post. This is one to show you how Caleb's growing and thriving and teaching us something new everyday. Enjoy the pictures.

Nice Weekend Indeed!

Before we start i want to let you guys know that Caleb had his first home-cooked meal. We boiled veggies and a piece of chicken breast. Let it cool. Blended and served. I can't tell if he liked it. He ate it. But let's be honest. Caleb is his father's son and those boys can EAT! Well you be the judge. Also, it was a really nice weekend. Saturday was the long awaited Bat Mitzvah of my boss' daugther. A little girl i babysat on and off from the time she was 6 months. She turned 13 on April 1st and had her Bat Mitzvah on Saturday. What a beautiful girl she turned into. NOt that i'm surprised at all. She's always been respectful, compassionate, independent, kind, extremely smart, and all of those wonderful things you hope your own child will possess. It was also a hectic day. Ernest had to work, as usual, which meant i needed to leave Caleb upstairs at my mother's in the morning so that i could head to the service in the city. Heels and a dress at 8:30 in the morning. NO FUN! It was a beautiful service and it was such a proud moment to watch Sophie up there being such a young woman. As soon as the service was over i had to rush back home because my mother had to work for a few hours. Got back. My mother left. Caleb and i ran errands in the neighborhood for a couple of hours. Luckily he slept the whole time till we got back. My mother arrived back home around 5:30. I quickly got dressed again and headed back to the city for the big Bat Mitzvah party. So fun. Friends, drinks, and dancing. MY FAVORITE! We had a great time. Sunday was more relaxed. We were home for most of the day then in the evening headed out to get diapers, wipes, and other baby things Caleb needed. Ok, so i'm gonna say it. I'm really looking forward to a day when i can stay home all day. Just me. I think i need it. I probably would go crazy and not know what to do with myself but i'm willing to find out. I feel i need to recharge my batteries. Regroup. Restart. Just rest! Ok, i said it. I feel better. AFter we got back from shopping Caleb spent some time with his papi. The pics i'm posting are from before we went shopping and after. Enjoy!

Oh, mom. Stop worrying!

CORRECTION! Because mom's are crazy and when something worries us we tend to not look past it, instead we obsess over it i made a mistake. When i put in the head circumference it was in centimeters (47). I was suppose to convert it to inches. Caleb is perfect. In the 50-75 percentile. Just perfect.



I did a little torturing of myself today. Because isn't that what moms do? We over-think everything and we believe everything we read. I went onto babycenter.com and into the growth Calculator. "I just want to see how Caleb's developing, that's all" I said to myself. I put in all of the necessary information: Ht. 27in. Wt. 18.2 Head Circumference 47. Here are the results:
Ht. - in the 50 to 75 percentile
Wt. - in the 50 to 75 percentile
Head Circumference - above the 95 percentile

That's a pretty big head. So now i'm worried. Will the rest of him ever catch up? Will he be made fun of? Will his head ever be smaller than over 95% of babies his age? UGH GRRRR AHHHHH I wish i'd never done that. I know it's normal for babies to have big heads but now i wonder for how long? I keep telling myself it's ok. He's perfectly healthy and if the size of his head was not normal his doctor would've already said so. I just want my little boy to be happy and perfect. We always notice that his head is a bit big and then there's all that wild hair. I'll be ok. He's perfect exactly the way he is.

Enough worrying. Enjoy these pictures from this morning at school.