This and That

Well.....so it seems that no matter how good my intentions are.....I just can't keep up with this thing!!! And I really do have good intentions!!

haha

So here goes....

One, he's one! And he is A.MAZ.ING. Simply amazing. I can sit and watch him play and figure things out forever. And yes for those who wonder there is a SMALL part of me that misses the tiny baby and the year that has gone so quickly, but the vast majority of me laughs at that small part and says WATCH WHAT HE IS DOING NOW! AGH, the personality! I love it! Why wish for what has come and gone when there is so much happing NOW. I can't spend my time lamenting over the quickness, I might MISS something!

Emotionally, the weeks surrounding his birthday have been a bit rollercoaster-ish. His birthday party was fantastic. However, I desperately miss having my family around.

(DUH)

I did not realize, though, just how much until they WEREN'T HERE. You see my sister and her family were trying so hard to be here. Randy ended up in the hospital the week prior though, so they weren't able to do it financially. *sigh* Randy, being the sneaky guy that he is, told me that they weren't going to make it, but I knew it was still a possibility for them to just appear and surprise me. Turns out they WERE trying to do just that, but weren't able. And, OF COURSE, I had convinced myself that my dad (also sneaky sneaky) would MAYBE turn up with them. Nothing like setting myself up right!

So the day appears, and they didn't.

Then soon after that day....POW. Mom, Angie, the girls. All gone, never to have met him. Can't talk to them, can't celebrate with them. I could go on, but you get the picture.

It IS currently better, but, like I said, a bit of a rollercoaster lately. Seems like it's what the holidays will bring. So I have been alternating between my typical holiday GIDDYNESS and sadness. For caleb, I have been bringing forth the excitement most because I am truly SOOOOOOO excited for him to see the season. He is in LOVE with the christmas tree, points and jabbers and likes it when I turn on the lights (have yet to actually decorate it though haha!)

I have been saying "ho ho ho, merry christmas" over and over again in the hopes that he copies me a little too!! And of course, because he LOVES ME SO, he has been *breathily* saying ho ho ho!!!! I LOVE IT!

And so to the newest-ish accomplishment, he will occasionally stand ON HIS OWN when he doesn't realize he's let go and take just a FEW lunging steps WITHOUT HOLDING ON which makes his whole face sort of go crazy as though he's thinking, WOW, WHAT IS THIS! It's pretty funny, I gotta say! He gets pretty excited about it.

Well, I think it's safe to say, I don't post often but when I do.......!

Crawler!

Well, I keep meaning to update when I have a chance to upload some pictures as well, but alas, I never remember!!! Yikes! So I was thinking.....maybe I should just UPDATE ANYWAY! ( I know novel concept!)

So here goes....

We now officially have a crawler! He's mobile! I think of all the babies that were born around (and after) him, he's been the last to get there. But he's such a laid back fella, and just had no motivation! He'd see the toy or whatever across the room that was interesting, make some effort to get there, then just grab whatever was closer and be happy. Now that he's discovered the joy in it, however, he's all excited to follow us around and discover his new, bigger world.

He's also much more aware of where we are and whether or not we are with him in the same room. And once he discovers this (or watches us leave) he just melts down! Sometimes he'll crawl and come to our voices but many times he's kind of whining while he does it. "how dare you walk away from me!"

Overall, however, he's still such a happy, cheesy smiley, kind of guy. He's discovered how to bob his head back and forth (thanks grandpa mike) and now does it to music.

Caleb and I also took a trip to see my family in Arkansas for about 4 days. We went to the lake, just hung out at my sisters, and saw Aneisa, Destinee, and Sadie. There were lots of others I wanted to see, but unfortunately didn't have time. We will get to some of them next time! We stopped at Nathan and Leanna's on the way down and let me tell you it's a VERY nice way to break up the trip! (not that it's horribly long, but still) It took a bit for Caleb to get used to all the new-ish faces, but in the end was quite enamored with everyone (as long as mommy was in view, lol!) On the way home I gave him his little photo book that has pictures of some of the people we don't get to see often and he just grinned over papa bill's picture and tried to eat it!

Well, I think that's the latest updates! Daddy made sure to get him all decked out for his first nebraska game today. He'll be sure to make him into a husker boy! Don't think I'll be abe to keep Craig from letting him watch tv when it comes to football, but I think I'll let that one go =).

Weekend trip

So we went to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousin on the other side of Iowa this past weekend. We had a TON of fun! Ate some great food (and brought some home! thanks gary, yum!). We also went to Kalona (amish community) and Amana (german colony). We got a beautiful hand quilted quilt for a really good price at Kalona. Kalona was great, got some yummy fruity wine and just walked around. We were *hoping* to stop into the shop that had some great wooden toys I saw last year when I was there with my dad, but no such luck. And, of course, it was also the only shop Craig really wanted to go into! He was very patient with us, though!

Caleb had so much fun seeing the *barn cats*, dogs, and horses. He got to pet all of them, although not much with the cats as they are kind of skittish. He squealed everytime he saw any of the animals, and whenever I made the animal noises for each of them. Cracked him up! He also got to have his first *sitting up in the big tub* bath. I was not going to lug along the baby tub for him!



And to top it all off, he got to eat some of the big people food! I gave him some little bits of the smoked chicken, smoked baked beans, cheddar biscuit, and mashed potatos. He LOVED it! I had to sneak in bites of his pureed veggies so he'd get some of that too!

Oh, and he says thanks aunt denise for getting some toys for me to play with while I was there! That bouncy pony was soooo much fun!

7 months!

We have a 7 mo old!  He's so much fun, I love it!  He's so full of smiles all the time. 

Latest accomplishments:

Finding his *squeal*...and it is FUNNY!  he takes a big 'ol breath and squeals his delight as his face turns red!

Sporting 3 teeth and almost 4!

Lovin his veggies and some fruits.  He's not as big a fan of fruits but he will go APE for some watermelon!

Gave me the funniest face nomming on some of my plum, but kept coming back for more.

Rolling all over the floor now and really trying to get ANYTHING he thinks he can POSSIBLY get ahold of.

Loves sitting up but hasn't figured out how to get there and thinks he can just lay back whenever.

Doin the back scoot.  I find him in some funny places now!

Got our 6 mo pictures done thanks to ChristieEck photography.  She rocks my world!  And bonus....Caleb *LOVES* her.  She gets some of the best sqeals of delight!

Long time no post!

Wow, um. Wow. I'm a LITTLE behind!!! Oops..  Well, I suppose I will start with the most important update (sort of!!)  I'm now officially a MOM!!  For 5 months now.  It has been without a doubt the most A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. thing to ever happen to me.  Craig and I are having the time of our lives with him. 

Accomplishments:

Smiling

Laughing (more like out and out squealing...he IS my child after all)

Chewing....and chewing....and chewing
Eating your face (or at least trying real hard to!)
Rolling from belly to back
Sitting with some assistance and supported
Getting one tooth peeking through (and another I suspect)

All in all.....he's a very busy boy.