The grossest thing ever...

Okay, maybe not EVER, but it's pretty stinking gross. Caleb Zakai has been allowed to have meat since he was six months old, but other than the random pre-chewed bite I've given him - pretty gross in and of itself - he hasn't had any. I realized today that the time had come to introduce more into his diet when I watched my dad feed him a good chunk of a full Mexican meal.

(Which reminds me of Serena feeding him practically half of her piece of ice-cream cake. Girl, I thought he was going to be wild and then crash, but he remained pleasantly stable that whole day!)

Anyway, I go ahead and cook the chicken, and then puree it with some pear juice. I realize as I'm pressing this mixture into ice cube trays that I'm getting a little nauseous. MEAT IS NOT MEANT TO BE THIS LIQUID! ("Slurp-A-Lunch" on Aqua Team Hunger Force should have taught us this.) Ew. Just typing about it is making me feel a little sketchy.

Other big events of recent history: Caleb got his first cut requiring a band-aid today. We have some exposed carpet tacks in the entrance to our kitchen that we usually keep an entryway rug over. However, with a scootching baby, it doesn't stay in place anymore. So he moved the rug, then went back to where he started, and apparently caught one of the tacks with his toe. I honestly didn't even notice that he was hurt, because he's been a little fussy all day - teething again?! What the heck? So then later, as I'm trying to make him laugh, giving myself a concussion by allowing the ceiling fan to conk me repeatedly, I notice as I'm losing consciousness that his foot is bleeding profusely. Apparently he takes after his momma and Grandpa G and bleeds far more than the wound warrants. So we had a wonderful mother and son half hour playing with his feet in the sink. Once I've got the teensy eighth inch scrape cleaned out, I threw on some neosporin and a bandaid.

Note to self: if I ever need another ten minutes of peace, put a bandaid on Caleb's big toe. He's had SO much fun playing with it!

The other big news is that he's learned how to undo his diaper at night. It's been so lousy hot that I put him to bed all naked except for that, and he's decided that even that is too much. The first night was the grossest, because he had done a stinky grossness that required an immediate bath and two loads of laundry. I thought it was a fluke. But he's done it for the last two mornings as well. I'm going to have to put on one of those little diaper covers like Terra uses.

He sat with me in church tonight, the first time since he was a teeny baby. Because he's teething, he's cranky, clingy and the snot flows like milk and honey. Not the most ideal situation to take him to the nursery with other little babies. Even if I know it's a result of his teething, I doubt that his teachers or other parents would see it that way. He really got into praise and worship. Because he's starting to imitate everything around him, it was really fun to watch him "praise the Lord" with his arms up. But let me tell you, that kid weighs about ninety pounds when you have to hold him through a half hour of singing. But he did a great job, and kept flirting with the older couple sitting behind us. This kid is going to be a LADYKILLER! (Well, I guess a more accurate description would be "charmer," because he throws that million watt grin at anybody, male or female!)

He's officially moving to the mobile nursery at school tomorrow. He started taking "field trips" over there this week, so he's getting pretty used to it. I'm really going to miss the current teachers, but I'll still see them fairly regularly. And HE'LL still see them all the time. His new official teachers have come over to say hello on a daily basis for the last five months, so now his old teachers will go see him in his new room. I think every teacher at that place knows him. It's fantastic to see him always opening up to new people. He's already so much more wonderful than I am!

This morning started at 5:15 am. That's earlier than most weekdays! But we made the most of the time. It's amazing to just spend time with him with no agenda. However, I'm really hoping he sleeps in a little bit tomorrow. I'm going to keep him up pretty late tonight and hope that it works. I could use a lazy morning!

My little inchworm...

Happy Thursday! What a week it's been! First of all, last week was unbelievably long and wonderful. I had the whole week off just to spend extra time with my little man. He got to see a lot of his Grandma and GG (my Gram) and he travelled a TON! Plus, our van got fixed, we went swimmin', and had a failed camping trip. Delicious, no?

Anyway, he's really making an effort to get to his knees now. He'll sit and rock for a long time on his hands and knees, but when he wants to move, he just does his little army crawl. Man, is that kid cute! So today is the first time that I've seen him try to combine the two - he'll army crawl, then get up on his knees, then army crawl, and so on. Ugh, he's sooooo adorable!

Also, something fun and wonderful - and potentially a danger in the future - is how much he loves those dogs. Mainly, the part that could become a worry is how much he loves it when Nonny barks at him. Or at anyone, really. Nonny and Auggie "fight" all the time, and he'll just watch and scream with laughter. And when they run at him and jump over him, he's in hysterics. In a good way. So I guess at some point, we'll have to teach him that when OTHER dogs bark, it doesn't mean they want to be friends.

He got moved up to the mobile nursery. He was supposed to go at seven months or mobility, whichever came earlier. Well, seven months came and went. Total mobility came and went. But his teacher didn't want to lose him. I actually saw her sweep Caleb up in her arms in front of the director one time so that the director wouldn't know he was mobile. Niiiice. Finally, they're moving him up - and it's breaking a lot of hearts. His wonderful teacher is really having a hard time with it. But it's not like every teacher in the place doesn't go visit him EVERY DAY, so she'll still see him. I'll miss her, though...

We got really great video of him playing in the dog's water. (Ahem, Jonathan?) We also have a ton of adorable pictures of him on Grandpa Garmane's shoulders with bubbles. We really need to get the website updated so you can see how much he's grown! (And by we, again, I mean my better half - the techno-wizard Jonny Fashbaugh!) He's into absolutely everything. I swear, I'm going to put a swiffer duster on his tummy, he picks up so much dust and hair in the kitchen!

Okay, Nonny is getting a little agitated at the fact that her barking only spurs him into greater attempts to get to her. I better jam...

Uh-Oh!

Completely mobile Caleb Zakai just discovered the dogs' water dish. Life will never be the same again.

I guess on the upside is the fact that I just walked past him, and within his line of vision walked more than ten feet away from him without him screaming his lungs out. So while the dogs may not appreciate the intrusion and I don't appreciate the mess, it makes for five glorious free moments!

Make that two...

Independence Day Weekend!

So it's happened twice in the past week. I have told two of my favorite people in the world that I was angry and jealous of them. (One was far more serious - the second was simply because she happened to have a DVR and had all the episodes of House in her happy home.) Thinking about these two separate instances makes me realize how different a person I've become.

A while back, Angela and I were talking about aging. She turned the big three oh and was talking about how old we were getting. Now, I myself don't turn thirty for another two and a half months, but it's not such a difference. And truthfully, I'm a far better person now than I was ten years ago. And I'm not being philosopical about how age mellows us and teaches us to make better choices. I'm flat out a lot more fun now.

I don't know why it didn't happen with marriage. Jonathan is the most wonderful man I have ever met, and sharing my life with him has been amazing. However, I brought a lot of my neuroses into our relationship; my tendency to withdraw from people, my dislike of social situations, and my fear of trying new thing out of a fear of failure and/or rejection. Even with those things in my life, he doesn't think I'm a horrible person, but as they affect me, so do they affect our relationship.

But with Caleb in my life, suddenly, all the petty little crap seems is obvious to me. And rather than acknowlege it and slip back into it, I'm looking at the past four months saying, Hmm, it hasn't been an issue for a long time. For that reason alone ~ I mean, even if I didn't think the universe revolved around him ~ he is worth every dollar he'll cost us.

Which brings us back to my friends being exposed to my nastiness. The thing is, I've always been horrible like that. But I wouldn't have always said things like that out loud - can't risk offending the people that I actually enjoy, right? Instead, I would just let that garbage sit in me, and after a while, I'd be completely irritable with that person and wouldn't even remember why. So the fact that those friends know me well enough to love me despite the fact that I've just been completely honest with them is unbelievable to me.

So as we celebrate the fourth of July holiday, I'm praising God that said friends stuck around long enough for me to reach my own freedom. Thanks, guys. I love you all!