Another first!

Caleb has his first little tooth breaking through! I knew he'd been teething, but it seemed like he'd been teething from time to time since he was about two months old, so I wasn't honestly expecting anything. I don't know how long it's been there, to tell you the truth, because I haven't felt his gums for over a month.

Since he grabs absolutely everything and shoves it into his mouth, I've decided to start giving him littler foods that he can feed himself. He hasn't YET put anything in his mouth on his own - he grabs it, then squashes it in his hand. But like Jonathan says, eventually he DOES put that hand in his mouth, so it's sort of working!

We were having bananas last night, which I had chunked up and put in front of him. But since he was hungry and unable to get any of the mush as far as his mouth, I picked up a chunk and put it in that gaping maw. When he chomped down, I realized that I had a little sting on the finger that he was trying to devour along with the banana. So I extricated myself from his gums of steel and risked another attempt. Again, I was thwarted by Caleb's determination to chew everything entering his vicinity. But I shoved another banana in there, and while he was distracted, I could feel that there is definitely a teeny little tooth on the bottom right. Hooray!

I also forgot to note that he's regularly saying Momma now. If I forgot to mention it, he's been saying Dadda for oh, about two months now. I know it's a developmental issue, but it was a little disheartening to "feel" like I wasn't being acknowleged as much as Jonathan. Isn't it hilarious the things that can have the power to upset you? Okay, not hilarious so much as enlightening about my own mental state. Note to self: maybe everything that makes me feel less than worthy is this unintentional...

Yummy!

Rice cereal with leftover sweet potatoes and peas mixed in for breakfast. And it went down the chute in less than three minutes - a personal best.

And Caleb had bananas.

Ha! Mostly I just wanted to take a minute to reflect on how good life is. I know that there are things in my own life that need dealt with right now, but all in all, God has blessed me beyond what I could have ever expected. Far more than I deserve, certainly. I live with the most beautiful and FUN man in the world, my son is happy and healthy, we live in a country where it's possible to worship as we choose, our home is not neat but it's ours, Jonathan and I both has wonderful jobs that we enjoy (most of the time!) and Caleb's school is filled with people - both kids and adults - that adore him and will teach him when I'm not around.

When you start listing it out, it's humbling. Jonathan and I occasionally do our Top Five Things We're Grateful For in the mornings when it's tough to get up. I could actually go to about four thousand this morning, but I've got to go spend time with my son! (Who thinks that food should be measured by the amount of time it takes to eat, not by volume.)

Gone are the days...

...of baths in the sink, of baby carriers that hook into carseats, of holding Caleb in my lap while I type, of sleeping on his back, and of being able to watch television with him in the room by simply turning him away from it.

My baby is getting to be a big boy now. He bathes in the bathtub, has a new carseat, types almost as well as I do, thrashes when you try to put him on his back, and will wrench his whole body into unfathomable positions in an attempt to watch the television. He's a wonderful big boy, and I have loved every step of the way.

He got sick last week. Unfortunately, it was when Jonathan was in San Diego, so I had to deal with it on my own. We did okay, though. I just abandoned housework in an attempt to give all my attention to the little man. He's doing better now, and is fairly offended right now that I won't let him type with me.

We've got so many great pictures - Jonathan has been really busy with work and all his side projects, so he hasn't had time to get them up. But it's amazing to watch him grow up in pictures. The weird thing is that because I see him every day, I don't always realize the extent of his growth until I see a two week old picture. It's amazing to see the differences just in that brief a time.

Okay, gotta run - his frustration with not being able to hammer on the keyboard has translated into heartwrenching screams. I want to hold him.

Away from the computer!

It's Fruit-tastic!

Okay, so I've gone a little bonkers with two ideas, and combined, it's all insanity.

Premise number one: Caleb will not be picky like his momma.

Premise number two: Caleb will learn to love adventure in his eating.

SO! I think I mentioned in another post about how he likes mango, right? I picked up another mango, and decided that maybe blueberries went well with mango. Unfortunately, the blueberries were FROZEN when I pureed the two, which gave them an unnatural thickness. Not thinking, I added some apple juice to thin it out a little. Of course, then when I nuked it so he didn't have to eat frozen blueberries with mango, the consistency resembled something closer to poster paint. Tough to feed a hungry kid poster paint with a teeny spoon.

Enter the banana. So for the last two nights, Caleb Zakai has eaten mango blueberry glue with banana mixed in as a thickening agent. And this morning, he ate rice cereal with a little mango blueberry glue mixed in as a thinning agent.

It's a good thing he's not picky!

Happy Mother's Day!

Another fabulous day at the Fashbaugh household! There were disappointments, yes, but on the whole, it was absolutely amazing.

No, Jonathan didn't make me breakfast. I dunno, I guess I kind of just thought that was part of what Mother's Day WAS! So after eating a breakfast of my own design, we got on our way to church. As we were pulling out of the parking lot, I realized that we hadn't brought Caleb's stroller to be able to go to the zoo. So by the time we get the stroller loaded, we realize that we're going to be really late for church. So the idea pops into our heads that we could skip church and just get to the zoo really early.

It was my decision. And I decided that I wanted to be at church on my first Mother's Day. So we went to church ~ and it was fabulous! Every momma got flowers, which I thought was lovely.

Then we were off to the zoo, but we were hungry. So we stopped and did lunch at the Rio Grande, a new-ish restaurant in Park Meadows. We were waiting on our meals when Jonathan handed me a card, which was really lovely. At the bottom, it said, "Sorry it was too small to engrave on." I said, "What?" thinking he was wanting to engrave on the card. He said, "Oh!" and pulled out a jewelry box. It was a beautiful heart-shaped locket on a chain. So now I have to find a good picture of Caleb to put in my beautiful Mommy's Day locket.

Anyway, lunch was really super cheap! Before the tip, it was actually cheaper than we could have eaten at McDonald's. My only complaint is that they had Pepsi instead of Coke. Wah.

Finally! On our way to the zoo! Yippee! Guess what? After driving all the way across town to get there, there was NO way we were going to get in. Apparently, it's a very popular destination! As we drove by trying to find a way home, we passed people walking from like three-quarters of a mile away! So between not being able to go to the zoo and not having breakfast prepared for me, I did have a couple of cracks in the fairy tale day, but overall, it was quite perfect!

OH! And Caleb himself gave me a new hands-free microphone for my karaoke game and some Febreze. Does that kid know me or what?!

One more thing!

Remember how two weeks ago he was eating a couple tablespoons of veggies and rice cereal a day? I'll be darned if that kiddo doesn't eat a small bowl of rice cereal, two containers of veggies, and a bunch of fruit every day.

I'm making all my own baby food! Talk about a change in personality! I rarely cook for Jonathan and I, but I'm having SO much fun making Caleb's meals!

Ohmigoodness, he's smiling at me as he tries to grab a sunbeam on the floor. Seriously, this is the BEST THING EVER!

A whole lotta shakin' going on!

But it's a blast all the same! I can't tell you what a joy it is to watch this kid develop more and more every day. He's to the point where he'll only fall over when he's sitting up if the dogs run past him too quickly and he tries to grab them. He forgets and overcompensates. Well, he actually fell over this morning when I rolled a soccer ball at him as well, so we'll just say he only falls over with extenuating circumstances.

He's a fool for the dogs! He adores them so much, and surprisingly, both of them are really gentle with him. For example: Caleb grabbed me by the face yesterday. He actually was going for the nose, so he curled all five little fingers into the skin in an attempt to remove it from my face. He really scratched the side of my nose. I hollered and extricated myself as quickly as I could. However, when he tries to steal Auggie's nose, Auggers will be very quiet, and just kind of look at me, like, "A little help, please?" Mostly, he stays just out of reach, but near Caleb at all times. It is a beautiful thing.

Solid food continues to be a trip. Man, he's fun! Last weekend, Grandma and Grandpa Garmane came over for a quickie visit, and Gram got to feed him his lunch - carrots and bananas. Yummy! That's the trick with Caleb and veggies. I thought it was so stupid, but I tried it once out of desperation and will never doubt it again! If he refuses to eat something, I just try a little bit and WAY over-act enjoying it. Then he'll take it.

He's not a picky eater like his momma either. I picked up a mango a couple weeks ago to give him, and that kid ate it like it was going out of style! Of course, it was mixed with pear, so that might have been the attraction. And last night, I was giving him avocado, which he's not really keen on, but I put it on the spoon with a little banana, and he chomped it down!

Standing up is nothing new for him, but the fact that he's able to bend his legs and straighten them while standing is pretty new! As a matter of fact, we'll put him up against our coffee table and he'll lean all over and straighten himself up without assistance.

The other super cool advance he's trying ot make is that he's really working to understand how to get his legs up and under him when he's on his tummy for crawling. (The couple of times I have tried to help, he's ended up with his face in the ground, so I'm holding off on assisting any more!)

And in BREAKING news, as I type this, he just rolled from his back to his tummy and continued going over to his back again. I have a feeling my days of plopping him down and expecting him to stay are about at an end! Oops, back over to the tummy, and making a valiant effort to get those knees under him - gotta run be supportive!