15 Months!!

How did we even get to this point? For whatever reason, 15 months seems like so much older than 14 months and certainly so much older than 12 months. I can't believe my boy has gotten so big. (But he's still my little baby).

So this month, I feel like Caleb has really learned a lot and it's been so cool to watch him grow and develop. He is such a fun boy and we really have a blast with each other. He has learned exactly which buttons to press and he knows when he's being cute. He also knows when he's in trouble for something and will sometimes try to get out of it by giving me a slick smile. So stinkin' cute. He really is just such a joy and he's so affectionate towards his mama. :)

This month, Caleb has had several doctor appointments which were documented in earlier blogs. The good news is that nothing came of any of them. He just has a mild allergy to raspberries and some environmental allergies. Nothing showed up on the EEG that we did earlier this month, which was expected but welcome news.

We've had some fun doing some fun activities. We've enjoyed time at the library, Children's museum (we got a membership this month), visiting new babies, meeting a great-aunt and uncle (Kathy and Erick) and attending Uncle Evan's wedding. We had a cook-out with family for Labor day in Powhatan, enjoyed the first time at the beach (right after he turned 14 months old- very end of August), and had our 20 week ultra-sound. This month has been full and awesome. :)

Now for some pictures:

Falling asleep while continuing to eat.

Riding his horse.

Sick boy... he e was fussy and Jeff put this on his head. He immediately calmed down. He lay there awake but then fell asleep. He did this three times and each time, it worked. Interesting calming method. :)

For some reason, Caleb thought it was so fun/funny to walk around pulling this phone charger. 

I really think he looks like a baby Chris Farley here. He doesn't look like himself. 

Funny face.

Fine motor activity- putting sea creatures into an empty wipes container. 

He really liked this activity.

Ready for a walk on a chilly morning. 

Playing with cloud dough... when I first made it for him, he gently touched the stuff  then stood up and walked around the bowl a couple of times before deciding to sit down and play. Once he did, he loved it. 

He kept taking pieces and sticking it on either the rim or the lip of the bowl. 

I was trying to clean the floor so I asked Caleb to sit in this chair. He did well for awhile, but then kept dropping things on the floor. 

Then he would pretend to cry. 

When I acknowledged his "cry", he'd stop. 

Sometimes he'd laugh.

He dropped a ball I gave him to play with.  If you look closely, you can see his pouty lip. 

Then he points to the ball for me to give it to him. 

Once his beloved ball is back in his hands, he's all smiles (this is his favorite ball, by the way).

On Caleb's 15 month anniversary, he put his hand in this jug and it got stuck. I couldn't help but laugh and had to run and grab my camera. I love his face in this one. 

But I love this one more! "Mom, please, no more pictures. Just help me get my hand out!"  It wasn't that stuck by the way. 

That same morning- just ten minutes earlier actually, Caleb was playing with a lamp by my bedside and pulled the cord. The lamp fell and hit him in the eye. I felt like the worst mother in the world. Poor boy. 

This past month Caleb:

- weighed in (on 9/26/12) at 24lbs 1. oz.
- is 31 inches long (shorty- he's in the 40th percentile for height... I hope he starts growing sometime soon.)
- his head circumference is 18 3/4
- He has learned how to clap on command. Yay!!
- He started pointing and saying "dat" to everything two weeks ago. This is super exciting for me and very helpful- when I don't know what it is that he wants, he will also point and say, "dat". It is really adorable. I spend the day labeling lots of things for him. Also, when he needs help with something, he also says, "dat" at that time and points to whatever it is he needs help with or wants.
- He says "daddy" when his daddy comes home- so it's safe to say that he is actually saying daddy. It's super cute because he gets super excited. This happened for the first time just a couple of days ago (Tuesday night). It was absolutely adorable and there was no way I could deny it. He has yet to call me mama, mommy or anything of the like. One day.
- He LOVES dancing and we love having dance parties together. He will even get upset if I don't dance with him sometimes.
- He pretends to cry, laugh, cough.
- He has an "I need help face" where he scrunches up his nose and kind of whimper- sort of like a dog.
- If he wants something and he fusses and I ask him to ask nicely or say please, he will say, "puduh puduh". Usually, I give in at that point.
- He continues his obsession with bottles- all bottles. Currently, he loves to carry around a cinnamon bottle and a children's tylenol bottle. But he also loves soda bottles, juice bottles, water bottles, etc.
- He is super smart and understands so much. My pediatrician said it's a blessing and a burden.
- He loves to "help" around the house- closes the dishwasher for me, pushes laundry into the dryer and closes it, closes the refrigerator or freezer for me, throws things away, puts away dish towels and sometimes helps with putting his clothes away. He has also helped me with dishes and dinner and he helps to clean up his toys.
- He loves to read and will pick out books for me to read to him.
- He LOVES cats! Every morning, he looks for the cat that is sometimes on our back porch. He gets super excited when he sees him. All animals make the same noise and if you ask, "What does a dog say?" or "What sound does a pig make?" he says, "aaagghh!" Whenever he sees any animal, he makes that same noise and points.
- He still really likes Alex Boye and loves watching his videos (check out this video)- pretty much the only "tv" he watches at this point. He knows nothing of mickey mouse or the Wiggles or anything of the like.
- He plays "hide-n-seek". Jeff or I will hide somewhere in the house and Caleb will go looking for us. It's super cute when he finds us because he gets super excited and says something that sounds like "I did it!" or "Did it!" or something. I suppose he knows what he's saying.
- He's figured out how to ride his horse by bouncing and rocking and loves it.
- He goes to bed super easily now and sleeps through the night on a lot of nights.

I know that's a lot, but I feel like I am missing something. Hopefully not. Anyway, like I said, he's really learned a lot this past month. It's been so exciting to see how he's just flourished. I'm grateful that he is learning how to communicate. He is at such a fun age and it's so fun to watch and learn from him, too.

Ultrasound day!

Today we went in for an ultrasound. First, let me tell you, I had the hardest time sleeping last night. I kept thinking of all of the things that could happen at the ultrasound. I slept so lightly that I heard every noise- Caleb woke up 8 times last night. Sometimes it was just a little cry out and he'd be back to sleep, sometimes he'd cry for a couple of minutes. We only got him one time though, but I just kept hearing him and well, this morning because of all of that, as excited as I was, I had such a hard time getting up. Anyway, Jeff noticed this morning that Caleb is growing a couple of new teeth and they are trying to poke through- so I guess that's why Caleb was waking up so much.

Anyway, all of that is really beside the point. Today we got to see our little bean... our little jumping bean is so active! :) I first started feeling the baby move right at 18 weeks and now I feel this little baby move all of the time and it's such a wonderful feeling. Sometimes, I feel kicks and punches, other times it feels as if the baby is doing flips in there.

The ultrasound tech was fabulous! This was so much better than we went in for Caleb's 20 week ultrasound. She went over everything she was seeing and explained everything (in factual terms as she could not tell us if anything was bad or good). It was so thorough. It was just awesome. Baby's heartrate was 141- good. :) And the baby currently weighs 13oz. I can tell that the baby has a smaller face than Caleb's was. Caleb had such big cheek in his ultrasound pictures, but this one doesn't. The baby is beautiful from what I can tell.

We didn't, well, too be more accurate, I didn't want to know the sex of the baby. Jeff did. She didn't tell us to look away and to be fair, Caleb was a bit fussy and so we were both distracted somewhat, but Jeff did a great job trying to calm him (and he was definitely more distracted than I was while dealing with Caleb), and we didn't notice anything. Jeff kept hoping she would slip up and say "he" or "she" , but she didn't . I think we're having a girl- Jeff thinks we're having a boy. We'll see who wins on D-day! :)

She said that the baby measures 13 oz. and a due date of Feb. 5- 4 days after my original due date. Obviously they are not going to change my due date (which for the record, I think is wrong anyway- at the latest I think it's Jan. 29th), but still. There was another lady there, due later than I am and she is bigger than I am, though this is her third pregnancy. Anyway, so I am measuring slightly small, but nothing to be worried about. Today I am 20 weeks and 5 days pregnant and I finally took some pregnancy pictures. :)

20w5d pregnant

20w5d pregnat

See, smaller face than Caleb's for sure! (See Caleb's face here)

Best profile we could get. 

Since she was having a hard time getting a good shot of Baby's face, she took out the 3D scan. We didn't do that with Caleb, but it is seriously the coolest thing! It was so cool to see that baby with so much more detail.

Isn't that such a cute face?!

Oh my goodness!! My sweet baby! 

 Oh, and the baby looks healthy! Excellent appointment! By the way, this pregnancy is a bit different from Calebs. I know, I know, they are all different. But, I am definitely more tired this time around. I don't have morning sickness, but I have felt nauseaous a couple of times. I don't have any food aversions, which is great. My sense of smell has increased by 20 times. I am a very light sleeper most of the time and don't sleep well. I also have crazy dreams (I also did with Caleb). Anyway, the pregnancy is going really well and I feel so blessed to be able to have another sweet baby join or family. Caleb is going to be a great big brother! :)

Summer Vacations

I realized that I never did post about our vacations this summer. Caleb and I went to BV for a weekend which was awesomely fun! It was so great to see some good friends! On the way home, we stopped in and visited our good friend, Melissa and met her sweet baby boy Wash. I really need to see him again sometime soon!

At the end of July, Jeff, Caleb and I went to Massanutten for a weekend. We had a great time. We listened to an Appalachian story teller who was just sooo fun! I think I love story tellers. I learned how to correctly pronounce Appalachia ("I'll throw an apple atcha" she would say to help us remember). Her stories were great. She told a bear story, oh no! This is why you should write things down right away, I can't remember what the other two story types were called. Blast! Oh well, they were all very enjoyable. After that, we had s'mores! Yum. We let Caleb have a graham cracker which he thoroughly enjoyed.

We went to the Water Park there and had a blast!! So fun! Caleb even napped while we were there, too. We were there for several hours. Jeff and I took turns with Caleb so that we could go down the water slides. Caleb had fun on the little water slides and in the baby area. He loved all of the water!

Anyway, it was just a fun quick weekend getaway. We had fun just spending time together as a little family.

At the end of August, Jeff, Caleb and I headed down to South Carolina- Myrtle Beach with my dad and three nieces for another mini vacation. We had sooo much fun!! Caleb LOVED the ocean. At one point, we started heading back up towards our tent with my nieces and Caleb let go of my hand and tried to escape towards the waves again. Silly boy! :)

We went and played in this little pool of water by the ocean- in the sand- with my nieces and another little girl and her aunt and grandmother. Caleb was right in front of me and was leaning over playing in the water. The grandmother commented to her granddaughter, something along the lines of: "See that little boy, he puts his face in the water". I did not realize at all that his face was in the water. I just couldn't see it from my vantage, even though he was right in front of me, butt in the air. I quickly grabbed and pulled him up (his head was not under water at all, just his face barely). He coughed a bit and then vomited. I felt so bad!!! I felt like the worst mother in the world. My poor boy was nearly drowning in front of me and I had no idea. He wasn't flailing, he was calm and it really appeared that he was just playing in the water. I held him for a few minutes and then he was ready to play again. He seemed just fine. But that night, I looked up drowning signs and read a couple of articles to make sure that I knew when someone was drowning- and the signs are not what I thought they would be, certainly not what is portrayed in movies and tv shows. I read them to my husband, too, so we would both be able to recognize the signs.

Caleb, unfortunately, was sick our entire vacation. He started right before we left and continued until well after we got home. He had terrible, and I mean the worst, diarrhea. We even took him to an urgent care center to make sure he wasn't dehydrated. He was mildly dehydrated and that night was just so sick, lethargic and all. It was so sad. Despite being sick though, he remained in good spirits during the trip. He had fun playing on the playground, in the baby pool, in the ocean and with his cousins.

Our last day there, it rained, but we went to the ocean anyway. The girls had a blast for a minute, but then got cold. Someone gave us their umbrella and chairs that she had rented and so Kyrah and Miyah bundled up in their towels and sat under the umbrella. I held Caleb wrapped up in a towel under the umbrella as well. Jhaelyn and Papa Barry, as the kids affectionately call my dad, had a blast in the ocean and continued to play. Jeff played some, too and then he was done. All-in-all, everyone had a great time.

The next morning, Jeff, Caleb, and I got up early, packed our things and headed to the beach one last time. We took some family pictures and walked the beach a little. Caleb still wasn't feeling great though, and it didn't take long for him to want to head back. So we didn't stay too long. When we got back everyone else was up and dressed and packing up.

On our way home, I had wanted to make a couple of stops, but since Caleb wasn't feeling great still, we just headed home except for some stops for potty breaks and lunch. It was a great vacation and so fun to be with my family. Hopefully, we'll be able to do it again in the future and more of us can come. I enjoyed spending time with my nieces and dad, too.

Our summer was definitely full with weddings, vacations, birthdays, pirate day, and other fun!! Now bring on the Autumn!!!