All I want for Christmas is...my first tooth!

This past Sunday (Dec. 20), Caleb was a little fussy in the afternoon. That's not unusual on a Sunday afternoon after missing his morning nap, but he had been drooling even more than usual lately, so Joel did a little exploration. Lo and behold, Caleb has his first tooth! It is on the bottom left. One of my friends wanted me to get a picture of it, but I don't think that will be happening anytime soon. We can barely get his tongue out of the way long enough to get a glimpse of it ourselves. :) But it's there! Our baby boy is growing up so fast! We're enjoying all those gummy grins while we can.

Lots of Animals (a.k.a., I'm really behind!)

For the past several years, our friends the Hammers have come over to our house for Halloween. They even came last year when we were out of town! They help us set up some little games in our garage, and Joel and Shawn make balloon animals. While the kids are waiting for their balloons, Shawn hands the adults big hundred dollar bill tracts. One mother told me this year that her kids have remembered our house all year and asked repeatedly to come back! We are so grateful to the Hammers for helping us be a blessing to our neighbors. I didn't get any pictures of the actual event, but here are a few of Caleb's first Halloween and three out of the four adorable Hammer children.

two cute puppies!

Joel was a Rogaine model :)

coyote

On the Move

Well, it's official! Caleb has been crawling for a week now. We've thought for quite a while that he was getting close, and then last Tuesday (the day after he turned 9 months), he finally "got" it and has been moving ever since! We are charging the video camera so that we can capture some of the action, and I plan to post it on here if I can figure out how. :) We haven't been taking many pictures lately, but I do have a few I need to post soon. For now, it's time to sign in to work!

First Food

We delayed starting Caleb on solid foods until after we returned from our trip to SC, and so he was 7-1/2 months old before he had his first taste of anything from a spoon. It's been quite a battle! He's tried rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, pears, applesauce, and bananas. So far, the only thing he's eaten more than a spoonful of is applesauce. The first picture is the "Before" pic from the first day. After I uploaded the pictures, I realized that he's wearing a different shirt in the "After" picture, so that must be from the second day! Oh well! It takes so long to upload pics on here that I'm not going to worry about it. You get the idea!

Aw!

We enjoyed getting to see CJ and his oldest son, Cole. Sugar and the other kids weren't able to come, but Cole seems to be a great big brother! He and Caleb seemed to like each other a lot!

Mmm, that face tastes good!

Caleb and Kiddo

There were many people we would have liked to see during our visit to South Carolina, and we simply did not have time to see everyone. However, we were fortunate to be able to meet Lindsey for lunch. Joel was a big influence in her life when she was a teenager. He affectionately refers to her as "kiddo," and she calls him "adulto."

Wow...next to Lins, Caleb looks REALLY white! :)

Caleb had a ball playing with Lindsey's bracelets

Family

Caleb with Uncle David

happy face with Aunt Abigail

Ooh...her hair is fun to play with!

Benjamin gets a ride on Uncle David

Like Caleb, Benjamin likes Joel's furry face!

having fun with great-grandma

impossible to get all the kids looking at the camera...at least no one's eyes were actually closed in this one!

Benjamin and Uncle David like the fish at the zoo!

Cousins

I am just not good at making sure I take pictures! Sadly, I got very few pictures of Caleb with Linnea and Benjamin while we were visiting. :(

My Little Man

I was going to start posting some pics from our trip to South Carolina tonight, but I ran out of time. So I'll just post this one for now, taken at Ben and Stephanie's house. Isn't our little man so precious? :)

The Great Outdoors

My wonderful friend Rachel took Caleb's six-month pictures a couple weeks ago. We decided to try doing them outside this time. It ended up being a muggy, buggy, muddy day after Austin FINALLY got some rain...not very pleasant. Perhaps that's part of the reason why Caleb didn't cooperate very well for the pictures! But Rachel still managed to get some good ones. Enjoy!

Party Animal

This past Saturday was an exciting day as my friend Amy got married. I have known Amy since we were both around 11 or 12 years old. She attended college at CIU, so Joel has the privilege of knowing her, as well. Amy has battled two types of leukemia in the past six years and is now doing very well after a bone marrow transplant. She is an incredibly strong, godly woman and was a radiantly beautiful bride!

Caleb did not attend the wedding due to his propensity for making loud noises at inappropriate times :), but he did come to the reception with us. He now wants to be part of whatever we are doing and is always reaching for things. (I had him in the Bjorn with me today while I was grocery shopping, and he kept grabbing the list and ended up tearing one of my coupons! He also kept trying to "help" push the cart.) Anyway, he was pretty interested in the "champagne" for the toast. No, he didn't really drink it. :)

I wish I had more pictures to share, as I loved seeing Caleb in big boy clothes rather than the onesies that usually make most sense for him to wear. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera! I'll have to dress him up again sometime soon.

Six Month Stats

I can hardly believe that Caleb is six months old! He went to the doctor a few days ago, and so I wanted to post his latest "stats." He is now 15.44 pounds, which puts him in the 13th percentile for weight. He is 26.5 inches long, which means he is in the 52nd percentile for height. Lastly, his head circumference is 16.5 inches, which is in the 8th percentile. Like both his parents, he evidently has a small head! At six months, this is what Caleb is like:

He is starting to become more aware of the world around him and will reach for objects (like Ranger). He likes it when Ranger licks him, which we think is precious. If we have him in the living room while the TV is on, he is very persistent about wanting to turn his head and watch it!

Everything goes in his mouth, of course. Joel and I have both had the pleasure of having our noses gummed by Caleb. He just opens his mouth wide and leans forward and closes down on whatever happens to be in the path. He almost managed to get a mouthful of Ranger's fur recently. :)

He is obsessed with his feet. I've only seen him actually put his feet in his mouth once, but he loves holding onto them.

I recently bought a Johnny Jumper for him at a garage sale, and he LOVES it! He bounces all over the place. Even when he gets tired and starts crying, it's hard to get him out because he won't stop bouncing! Here is the only picture I could find of him in the jumper. We took a video a few weeks ago, and I need to figure out how to get that on here.


Caleb is a chatterbox! He likes to make noise, and it's not unusual for him to wake up from a nap and just lay in there cooing and talking for a while.

He's ticklish! He smiles when I give him raspberries or pretend to eat his neck, but he laughs hysterically when Joel does it. I think it's Joel's facial hair...at least that's what I'm telling myself so I don't feel bad! Caleb seems to be a Daddy's boy.


That's probably more than anyone wants to know! We are just loving our sweet little boy!

Good News

We had a follow-up appointment with the neurologist this past Wednesday to discuss the results of Caleb's tests. He told us that the vision test revealed no brain response to visual stimuli. We expressed our surprise at those results, since Caleb is now reaching for objects and seems to track things with his eyes and respond to us. After examining Caleb himself, the neurologist concluded that the test must have been wrong. He said he was pretty concerned about Caleb a few months ago but feels much better now. Yay! Praise God! We will continue to follow up with the neurologist and eye doctor, but it's definitely great to hear good news. :)

Pink and Blue

Caleb turned six months old this past Monday, September 7 (Labor Day- appropriate enough!). In honor of his half-birthday, I decided it was time we got a few pictures of me with the little guy. And of course, Ranger made his way into some of the pictures, too. :)