Sneezing, mutant teeth and watermelon goo...

It's been an eventful time in Caleb's life. Every day seems to bring new noticeable development. It's incredible!

First of all, he's been an absolute angel since his latest two teeth came in. I didn't realize how much it was affecting him until we noticed that the second one popped through - he was like a different baby! I had been watching the progress of those particular teeth coming through because they had been showing for a very long time - under the surface. It seemed like the flat part - the part that people see when you smile - was going to grow through. I could see what seemed like the full tooth for almost a month before the bottom edge finally popped through. And at that, they were really crooked and sharp. (Hence the "mutant teeth.") It was a little freaky for a while, thinking about how horribly they seemed to be coming in, until Jonathan said that we really had no idea how baby teeth looked when they came in, never having seen any baby teeth.

Everyone knows how much I've enjoyed making his baby food. Well, sometimes, my joy in it makes me do dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb things. I blended watermelon last week, thinking that it would turn into a wonderful slush. Hmm. Actually, it just turned into pink water. And I know this is impossible, but it almost seemed even THINNER than water, if you know what I mean. So I cooked up some rice, too, and blended the two together before freezing it into watermelon-rice cubes. The hilarious thing is that he really likes it!

And finally, the big hilarity around here is Caleb's sneezing fits. Lest you think we are wretched parents who take delight in our son's respiratory issues, please be assured that these are fake sneezes worthy of at least a Golden Globe. Every time someone else sneezes, and is blessed, Caleb takes it upon himself to sneeze - at least nine or ten times. And this isn't just making the sneeze sound, my friends, he lifts his head on the "ah," then throws it down and closes his eyes with the "choo." (Sometimes he waits a second to close his eyes, and then screws them up like mad.) However, it's not a "choo" when our little bug sneezes. Oh, no. It's a full on raspberry complete with slobbery spit strings. After a long sneezing fit, his shirt often needs to be changed. We've got video of it. (Which will be put on at a later date. Jonny Fashbaugh is really busy!)

We have been living in a time of delight. It's hard to believe how much joy Caleb brings to Jonathan and I, and how much more it makes us enjoy each other. We're really looking forward to another "date weekend" ~ hopefully his Grandpa and Grandma G will find the time to take him overnight sometime in September so Jonathan and I can use some of the gift certificates we've got to go out. It will be nice to go to a restaurant without being interrupted forty times for people to tell us how fabulous our kiddo is.

Aw, who am I kidding - that's the absolute best part of going out anymore!

Through the window kisses...

This morning I ran outside to get something from my car and left Caleb crawling around with the dogs. When I came back, he was standing against the back glass door. When he saw me, he got all happy and screechy - my favorite! - so I just stood there for a minute. He then put his face up against the window and started smooshing it all around. Then he did one of his patented open mouth kisses up against the door with his crinkly eyes just a'shining.

Wish I had a picture. Dang, that kid just gets cuter every day!

My little travellin' man...

Well, Caleb Z and I have officially flown together! We just got back from MN, where we had a glorious time! Not only was he magnificent on the plane rides, but he was pretty much a peach when it came to meeting his Great-Grandpa, Great-Aunties, Great Uncle, and cousins Mark and Christopher - both of whom are removed or great or something. (But definitely great!)

The Barnum house - Grandma's! - was outfitted with a crib, high chair, outdoor swing, toys galore, and some new outfits just for such an occasion! It was so wonderful to see their house transformed into a kid-friendly place.

And Auntie Alisa freaked out a little to think about it, but that's the furniture that will house ALL of our kids in Minnesota! Her babies will be my babies' cousins! It was really fun to imagine all of us at the house someday. The cousins will go fishing on the lake together while we parents play bocce ball in the yard and swat at the bloodthirsty mosquitos that the kids don't even notice. Kids aren't bothered by little pesks like that. And they're not worried about the fact that the lake is all algae-y and smelly, either. They'll jump right in. Hmm...something to think about!

Anyway, it was a short trip, but eventful. Caleb learned to clap repeatedly. He got pretty pushy about it as a matter of fact - he'd start clapping and basically expect everyone around him to do the same. If we didn't react to his liking, he would give us a stern look and start clapping again. His Grandma thought it was a sign of brilliance, and would drop anything to go clap along with him. I guess it makes sense as Caleb only really started doing it after she modeled it this trip! Yay, Grandma! I'm hoping to have some pictures up shortly, but Jonathan is working really hard on a lot of other things.

On the school front, there are a couple of hilarious things going on. Did you see the pictures of Caleb getting a kiss from his friend Jaxson? Well, at school, there's a little boy named Jack that looks just like Jaxson! So the two of them, best buddies, welcomed the new boy to class today by smothering him. Jack laid across the kid's bottom half, Caleb laid across his upper body, and both of them gave him kisses. Caleb and Jack are big on kisses. Of course, Jack does a little better job of it than my buddy. Caleb leaves his mouth wide open and brings those little gums/teeth down on whatever he's kissing. Yowzer. Those top toothies are just about through, too, which means that kisses are going to become even more painful.

To all those parents out there, I'm curious about something. Ang and Wend, you gotta help me out here, girlies! Caleb refuses to stay seated in his high chair. (Another thing that Jaxson taught him!) I grab his little legs, pull him back to a seated position, and explain that baby bottoms have to stay in the seat. But obviously, he doesn't understand, and I hate to start thinking about disciplining over something that is just part of the learning process. On the other hand, I don't want to sound like one of those people who let their kids do anything "to avoid breaking their spirit." Gag me. (Yes, as a matter of fact, I AM my father's daughter!)

He tries to climb on absolutely everything. We have a wine rack in the kitchen that has a lower shelf that Auggie has always kind of claimed as his own personal den. However, now that Caleb is exploring every inch of his world, he's staking his claim there as well. There's been quite the power struggle under the surface, but thus far there has been an uneasy peace. Good night, they're both so cute with each other that it's tough to even care that they're making a mess of the kitchen by throwing everything on that shelf into the middle of the floor.

Also, he's really working on getting to his feet without help. It will be interesting to see how long it is before he walks, because he already seems to be making such an effort to stand. He's incredible. Tonight, Jonathan came home pretty early, and we just spent the evening as a family playing together. I'm trying not to be overly emotional about it ALREADY, but these days are slipping away. I want to take advantage of every minute! We are SO blessed!

Sick Days are Happy Days!

Last night, when I picked Caleb up from school, he was burning up. I didn't say anything about it, because any fever is looked at as a possible plague there. For which I'm grateful, but they called me to pick him up three times the first two months he was there because he was a little feverish. I'd take him to the doc, doc would say he's fine, and there I was having taken all that time off, spending all that money at the doc for what turned out to be nothing more than a temperature fluctuation.

Anyway, this time, it was noticeable enough for me to check his temp myself. The first time I tried, it was 101.5, but Caleb had jerked his head away while I was taking it, so Jonathan had to help. 102.5 was more like it. Yikes! So he had a sugar-free popsicle and tylenol for dinner, followed by a cold bath. He went to bed really early, even though he had taken THREE NAPS. Usually, it's a fight to get him to take one. This morning, his temp was hovering right around 100, and I was willing to take him to school because he was in such a good mood. But Jonathan has been REALLY sick since last Wednesday, and he said that if there was even a chance of Caleb having what he had, I couldn't take him to school.

Easy for him to say - he wasn't going to take the day off!

So Caleb went to work with me this morning so that I could get just a few things taken care of, then we went to see the doc. His fever was back up, but about the only thing wrong with him is an enflamed throat. (They did a strep culture. No worries.) So we got some cough syrup, pedialyte, and cuddle time!

Other than his fever, the only way I can tell that he's sick is that he's really clingy. I hate to say it because it sounds like one of those terrible things moms say, but: I love it when he gets a little sick, because he's not usually very cuddly. I've held him ALL day! And he'll put his head on my shoulder, which is something that he's usually too busy looking around to do. And he'll just lay there and drift off. Of course, if I think he's sleeping, I have to be careful not to put him down too quickly. I try to put him in his crib, and he wakes up and has to be held for another hour.

He's drinking grap pedialyte like crazy. The only thing that upsets me about that is that Auggie thinks it's the greatest stuff in the world, and keeps trying to steal his bottle. Too cute!

One thing that I forgot to mention is that I have the first crayon drawing done by Caleb up on the refrigerator. He ripped it in half, but I taped it back together and hung it anyway! So of course, my little brain starts going off on the tangent that says he's going to be an artist. Man, does he impress me!

Puppies!

I tell you what, so many people have asked how Caleb is doing with the dogs that I figured I'd go ahead and do a post entirely about their relationship. Synopsis: Auggie is a buddy, Nonny is not.

Auggie is probably the most neurotic and horrible puppy in the world. (Our fault, he's not trained.) However, when you see him spend time with Caleb and get a glimpse of how much joy he brings my little man, you forget all of that.

Nonny, on the other hand, is a reasonably well behaved little dog. She forgets about the no-barking rule occasionally, but is a little angel for the most part. She does NOT, however, enjoy Caleb Z. She chooses flight over fight, though, so everything is okay.

One of the things that we didn't think about is that Nonny came from the shelter, so she might have had bad experiences with babies before. She's been tolerant thus far, but it makes Caleb so sad that she won't hang out with him.

Auggie is worth his weight in gold to me. In the mornings, I like to do DDR. Caleb isn't allowed to watch television, so he has to sit in his saucer to the side of me where he can see me but not the tv. Auggie will sit up on his hind legs and look at Caleb, keeping him occupied so that I can get some exercise in. It won't last very long now, though. He's at that point where he HATES to be immobilized! But when I leave him to his own devices, he crawls right over to the mat and starts pounding on it. Not only do I have to dodge him, but sometimes he messes up my score. *whine* (Speaking of which, Nonny and Auggie were fighting on my mat this morning and actually changed the arrow options so that they disappeared before I could step on them. That took quite a while to correct.) Anyway, I'll enjoy it while I can.

And finally, speaking of puppies, I just want to take a minute to remember little Miss Scooter Pie. She went to heaven yesterday, and will be missed. I got to say good-bye to her last weekend, so at least I wasn't unprepared. It makes me appreciate my own two even more while simultaneously making me dread the day I have to say good-bye to them...

Eating my words...

Immediately after writing that Caleb still didn't pull himself up on furniture, he went and discovered both the open dishwasher and the piano bench! WOW! I thought it was rough keeping up with him when he was crawling - now I've got to deal with him falling down from a standing position! (As well as the very real possibility that he could pull the piano bench down on himself. I'm still trying to work out the logistics of that. At least I can close the dishwasher door!)

It may be an irresponsible mom thing, but I let him pull the tape out of a cassette. I figured that I always loved to do that, whiy shouldn't he? I keep an eye on him when he's in the same room as it, so I figure it's pretty safe. He's TOO adorable for words with it! He's got a bunch pulled out, and he'll shake it like a pom pom in my face. Then he'll sort of wrap himself up in it and see the web it makes with his arms. I may broach a similar concept to Baby Einstein!

For the last couple of weeks, he's just been off-color. Not so much physically, though that could be a part of it, but personality-wise. He's been more cranky in the mornings when I take him to school, and even in the evenings. He's cried himself to sleep longer and longer each night, even though he'd started going down with no more than ten or fifteen minutes of fussing. I really think that moving up to the mobile nursery is rougher on him than I thought. Jodi said that she'd read that moving a kid at nine months is one of the toughest times. (Hers was in reference to changing daycares, but I think it applies.)

I don't claim to have any idea about the psychology of it, but maybe it's rough even at this age to be the low man on the totem pole. Everyone else in his class knew each other and had their own set of buddies. Plus, the next youngest kiddo is almost two months older than him, so maybe he's just feeling the difference in their development.

However, yesterday morning, he slept until after SEVEN, and was the most pleasant little guy yesterday! And this morning, we've just been chilling out, playing together and with the dogs. Maybe he's finally adjusting a little better ~ maybe he's getting better sleep, or maybe I'm making a mountain out of a molehill.

It's entirely possible.

We're getting ready to do the next changeover of clothes - his nine months just aren't fitting as well anymore. But I refused to put them away without seeing at least SOME of them again, so today he's wearing clothes that really are a little snug. But they're sooooo cute! Maybe I'll just bite the bullet and put them away now that I see how silly he looks. Maybe...

The Rundown...

Here is a very quick, very brief list of the things that Caleb is now doing:

- pulling himself up on people from a prone position. He still doesn't pull himself up on furniture, but maybe that's because he doesn't ever want to get the furniture's attention.

- pull himself from his tummy into a sitting position.

- give "kisses." This mainly means that he will put his slobbery open mouth against whatever you put up to his face. It's really pretty gross, but I'm a mom. I love it. Until he practices on my nose, and decides that it's a better chew toy than kissing partner. My stitches should heal in two to three weeks.

- express himself more strongly. He doesn't speak in intelligible words, but what sounds he does know are strung together in sentence form and in the tone of voice that he is feeling most strongly. We were lectured about our lack of speed in getting him dinner the other night, and by golly if you couldn't almost understand him.

- spit raspberries. This is adorable until you realize that if you encourage him now, he may continue forever. I got a faceful of "macaroni and cheese dinner" the other day. Yum.

- try anything and every kind of food in the world. So far, there aren't any favorites. And to his momma's great joy, there aren't any least favorites, either!

- charm the socks off of anyone and everyone that crosses his path, be it child, adult, elderly or puppy. It's amazing.

Now, some of these things have been in place for a long time and I just haven't mentioned them. That's one of the things I continue to be lectured about. If one more person asks me if I have a scrapbook going, I may cry.

But they will be tears of joy that I am not ruled by the social mores thrust upon new moms across the globe...

Stand in awe...

Just now, my son decided that going to bed before eight o'clock was a travesty that must be protested with wails of anger. And just now, I decided that if he was awake, I was going to take the time to sit with him. And just now, I discovered that my son is honestly ticklish under his right arm but not his left.

These are the moments that parents look back on and are able to keep from being too upset with their teenagers. I literally saw into my future, saw him getting married, and knew that I would remember this moment as he was taking his vows. It was probably the least selfish moment I've ever had in my life. It was too beautiful to express in words, but I'm afraid that if I don't try, I won't be able to explain it to him later.

He is beautiful. He is brilliant. And even just as he's holding my hand and cooing at me manipulatively to get out of going to sleep, I would rather spend this moment with him than do anything else in the world.

Which puts God's love for us into a bit of perspective. Suddenly, I know why our worship is so important, why spending time with us is the only thing he wants. Oh, I'm all mushy and maudlin. I'll write later about all the wonderful things he's doing...