I Have A 1 Year Old!

My baby boy turned on on Monday. I still can't believe it. When people ask how old he is, I still just want to say 12 months. It makes him seem younger that way. I love this little guy.

We had an awesome birthday party for him on Saturday at the park. It was a "Where the Wild Things Are" theme. I'm so grateful for the friends and family that came to celebrate Caleb's first year with us. It was so good to see everyone there. My mom's friend, Theresa, helped with alot of the decorations and she did a fabulous job. My cousin, Natalie, helped me with the cake decorations, which was awesome. I couldn't have done it without her. And my friend, Kristen, took some pictures for us at the party which was wonderful! I have awesome family and friends.

Caleb cried some during his party- mostly just during the cake smashing. He wasn't really into his cake. I kept trying to get him to taste some and he would just spit it out. He was a bit clingy, also and didn't really want to let anyone hold him unless it was his mommy or daddy.

Anyway, overall, I think the party was a success. The playground was right beside the shelter that I rented so the kids got to spend a lot of time playing on the playground. I did have some games planned, but we didn't get to any of those- and I'm okay with that. :)

Sunday, we had a little family reunion to go to right after church. It was at the rivah (Rappahanock). It was nice seeing some family that we only see every couple of years at the reunion. And the view from the yard at the river house is just spectacular. I could seriously sit out there all day.

Monday was Caleb's actual birthday and even though we had already had a party for him, I still wanted his birthday to be special. So, we started out the day with homemade dairy free pancakes. He really seemed to enjoy them. Then we just played that morning and listened to music and went outside some. I also had some cleaning to do from all of my prepwork over the weekend for his party to do.

Then we headed out to Maymont Park, where we met Grandma Calton and Evan's fiance, Crystal. We stopped and looked at the animals in the little petting zoo. He seemed to enjoy that. It amazes me that he is not fearful at all of the animals. He let them come right up to them and would try to get as close to them as he could. It was a pretty hot day, but we walked all around the park. When we were half-way through the Japanese Gardens, we noticed that it had cooled down some and then suddenly, it started to get really windy. We hiked up this hill and got safely into a building right before it started to pour. We waited there for awhile until it was safe to continue.

Once we left, it had cooled down substantially, which was so nice because it had been sooooo hot! Anyway, we walked around and headed to the nature center, only to find out that all exhibits are closed on Mondays. So, we headed to our cars.

I decided that I was going to take Caleb to the Children's Museum. He had never been before and I thought he might enjoy it. It's only about ten  minutes from Maymont Park. Once we got there, Caleb was dead to the world asleep. Even when I got him out of the car, he remained sleeping. I went into them museum anyway, thinking maybe he'd wake up, but he didn't. I propped him up for a couple of pictures as proof that I had attempted to take him. Then we got a tour of the museum. It is quite nice and I look forward to taking him in one day.

Anyway, finally, we headed to Jeff's parents house for dinner. His mom was going to order pizza, but due to the storm, the power was out EVERYWHERE! She drove around looking for pizza places and nothing was opened. So, we ended up having sandwiches. Jeff, Caleb and I finally headed home that evening. It was quite the day. And though Caleb won't remember it, I don't think I'll ever forget the day my baby turned one.

Now for some pictures:

From Father's Day.

My sweet 1 year old. 

"No more pictures, mom!"

Some of the decorations at Caleb's birthday party.

The gift table.

Caleb's smash cake.

Pancakes!

Caleb loved them!

Loving the animals at Maymont.

Riding on the shoulders of Grandma Calton! :)

He seemed to be kind of scared of this bear... (sorry I cut his head off).

At the Children's Museum- proof that we went, even if we didn't get to play.

I can't believe he slept through all of this. 

Finally, some stats. We went to the doctor today. Caleb is now 30 inches long and his head circumference is 18.5. He still weighs 23 lbs even- what he weighed at his 9 month appointment. Because he's still in the 75%tile for weight, the doctor wasn't concerned. He did advise me to give him more milk. I am still nursing Caleb, but recently, he has not been nursing as frequently as he was in the past and sometimes his nursing sessions don't last as long either. So, I'm to give him coconut, almond or rice milk as a supplement. I did mention to the doctor that I was somewhat concerned that Caleb didn't call me "mama" or Jeff "dada", that he doesn't point, wave, or clap. The doctor didn't seem too concerned though. All of his motor skills are great.

This past month Caleb:
- has learned to climb down from the sofa feet first (and the bed, but the bed is kind of high up, so that's really scary to me.
- has tried more new foods.
- has started sleeping better (but lately we've not been sleeping too well)
- continued to gain more understanding of language.
- would sometimes "sing" when we sing.
- continued to enjoy being outside.
- loves the pool!
- walked even more without falling. He is pretty much a walker now, though he still prefers to crawl. He can walk across the width of his bedroom and halfway across the living room without falling.
- he has shown more "favorites"- he has favorite books, favorite songs, favorite toys, etc.
- he understands simple commands such as, "it's time to get in your bed", "look at this", "here", etc.
- he often wakes up in a good mood still and is such a pleasant little baby in the mornings.
- he loves to be out and about, though doesn't love to be in the car initially...
- unless he can be in the driver seat. He LOVES the steering wheel and every time I open the car door, he immediately tries to wriggle free from my arms and get in the drivers seat.
- has become afraid of being thrown in the air now- unless we keep our hands on him.
- gives sweet cuddles and hugs and shows concern when he notices others crying.
- has become more and more independent when eating.
- knows that daddy is more likely to play with him at night and mommy is more likely to rock him before bed. (After scriptures and song, he wants daddy- before prayer... and then after prayer, he wants mommy).
- has more separation anxiety.
- when we play Motor Boat, Motor Boat, he can do it independently. (Motor boat, motor boat go so slow. Motor boat, motor

Sick Boy

My poor little guy was sick all last week. On Monday, we had planned to go swimming at my mom's house. Caleb took a nap that morning around 9 and then again around 12 so we got a late start to the day. He hardly ever takes morning naps and rarely two and though I thought it was a little odd, I thought maybe he just needed the sleep because he was going through a growth spurt or something. Well then he fell asleep on the 20 minute drive to my mom's. Then we headed to drop my car off at the shop and he was incredibly fussy. We then headed to the store, again, he was very fussy, but then he fell asleep on our way back to my mom's house. I let him sleep in the car (the door open and me sitting beside him) until he woke up. Once he woke up, he was in a much better mood, though you could tell that he was still tired. I began to wonder if he was getting sick. I picked him up and he immediately lay his head down against my body. That's pretty much how he remained the entire time we were at my mom's. Jeff came and met us there after work and picked up our car. He also held Caleb and the poor boy did the same thing, just lay there.

While I was holding him, he was playing with my face and I realized that his hands were burning. So I felt his forehead and it was quite obvious that the poor boy had a fever. I headed to the store to get him some fever reducer. A little after I gave it to him, he perked up some and started babbling, so that was good- but he still felt warm.

Once we left, he fell asleep in the car and slept all the way home and remained sleeping when we took him out and put him in his crib. He slept until 5:00 the next morning. I took his temp that morning when he woke up and it was 102.6. I gave him more medicine and called the doctor. I got an appointment for that morning. By the time we got to the doctor, his temp had dropped to 99.7, which was good. The doctor said that his nose, throat, ears, eyes all looked good. She listened to his lungs and said that they sounded clear. So she decided to draw blood to do a blood count. That, too, came back normal. So, she said that we'd just wait it out. Then she heard him cough and decided that perhaps it was more a bacterial infection and prescribed him a broad spectrum antibiotic. I asked if we could wait to give it to him and see how he does in a couple of days. She felt comfortable with that plan.

Well, later that day, his temp was back up to 102.6. He also slept terrible that night. Wednesday morning his temp was up to 103.2. We decided to go ahead and fill the antibiotic that night so that we could start it the next day. Well, his temp finally went down that night and didn't return in the morning, however his cough sounded much worse. So, we started him on the antibiotic. Since he finally didn't have a fever (Thursday morning), we decided to meet my grandmother and her brother at the firehouse they "grew up" in. My grandmother wanted some pictures. Then we ran around the rest of the day running errands.

Later that afternoon, I noticed that Caleb had a rash all over his tummy and back and face and head so I called the doctor and they felt that he should be seen. This doctor said that the rash looked more viral. He said that often times a child will have a fever for a couple of days and then once the fever goes a way, a rash will develop and stay for a couple of days. He suggested that we give him Benadryl to make sure it's not an allergic reaction to the antibiotic (if it was an allergic reaction, the rash would go away with the Benadryl) and to stop the antibiotic. So we did that. The rash remained for a couple of days.

Now my baby boy has a lingering cough, but he's much better. Finally.


Oh yeah, and when we went to the doctor on Tuesday- he weighed 23 lbs and 2 oz. On Thursday, they weighed him with all of his clothes on and he weighed 23lbs 11 oz.

And, he slept from about 8 until about 6:30- except  for the little while that we heard him playing in his crib (in the dark) at 2:30 this morning. And then he nursed ands slept again until 8 and woke up for the day in the best mood ever. I love that I get to see his cute face every morning.

I realize this was a long post...

Here are some pictures from the week.

We did A LOT of resting last week.

Funny story... I was trying to make him laugh. It didn't quite work, as you'll see in the next picture. f

So grateful for these moments.

Finger Painting!!

Last week in an effort to do something different in our day, I decided that perhaps the Wee One was ready to try his hand at finger painting. To say we made a mess would be an understatement. While we were in the midst of our project, someone came to the door (some type of salesman) and looked us up and down (Caleb in my arms) and said, "Looks like you guys are having fun". Here are some pictures to show just how much fun we had! :)

Getting started.

becoming acquainted with the paintbrush.

becoming acquainted with the paints...

examining his work.

I thought I did well by just having him be in his diaper... I did not even think about my own clothes.  See his little handprint on my pants?

Getting the hang of it...

but clearly prefers his hands :)

squishing the paint between his fingers- he's my kid for sure! :)

Painting himself.

The plate is so colorful!