Category: Ally (Page 7 of 8)

Dear Caleb,

You are now almost a year old… you are eleven months old today.

Already when I look at you, you look like a little boy to me instead of a baby.

Everyday you seem to be discovering new skills that are taking you father away from babyhood and into toddler land. I don’t know if I’m ready for this yet. This is our last month together before I go back to work. I know you’ll do great without me… but I don’t think I’m ready to let you go yet.

You love to stand up now. Sometimes you are even brace enough to let go of things and stand freely for a few seconds. You also love to cruise along furniture- you can move yourself around the bathroom without once getting down to crawl. And you love to walk around holding our hands. Sometimes you even try to run (especially if you are trying to chase ducks in the park). But you are still quickest at crawling – and you are super fast. I know that if you hear the sound of the dishwasher or the dryer door opening, I have about 2.4 seconds to finish up my chores before you have crawled over and are grabbing hold of my leg to stand up beside me and help.

You are such a big help to daddy and I. You have also figured out how to remove all the child safety locks off the cabinets and empty out the contents, how to clear off a shelf in five seconds, how to grab the mouse off the desk and click it until you start downloading webpages, and how to pull all the plastic containers and small appliances out of the kitchen cupboards.

This month you have also developed real taste preferences, and definately have favorite foods – cheese, kiwi, bananas, veggy booty… and not so favorite foods -baby cereals, bland flavors, lumpy textures… to which you will shake your head “no” to.

You are very good at shaking your head. Anytime someone says NO to you or you are caught doing something you shouldn’t be – you shake your head NO. You have also learned some sign language – you can sign “more”, “banana” and a combination of eat drink and water. You understand when we sign to you, and get very excited when we sign “bath” or “banana”. You even yell NANANA! (Did I mention you really like bananas right now?) I’m still waiting for you to start signing “milk” – it’s a sign I’ve shown you at least a thousand times… yet banana I did three times before you started trying to sign it!

Speaking of milk, we introduced cows milk to you… and you are drinking it out of a bottle!! You seemed to have forgotten your inate hatred of the plastic nipples and will now happily suck away. You only take a few ounces at a time, but it’s a great start. You also love to drink water out of your sippy cups. YAY!

Another wonderful change in you has been your sleep. You now sleep through the night most nights. If you wake up, and we have to go to you, it’s usually because you have gotten yourself wedged inthe corner of your crib, or you are stuck in some ackward sitting position. It usually only takes a few minutes to settle you back down to sleep – and you are able to do this without boob! This is such an incredible difference compared to the 4 plus night wakings – each time needing me to boob you back to sleep- we had going on a few months ago. I’m so proud that we have managed to get to this point together. I also think it’s adorabley cute that you like to sleep on your tummy with your bum in the air!

You also nap better- and without my having to hold you the whole time. You are starting to move to one nap a day – right int he middle of the day. I still have to give you cuddles, but once you are asleep you’ll go down in your crib and stay asleep for hours. One day last week you slept for four hours – I called your dad worried that you were never going to wake up!

We celebrated your first Easter this last month. You had so much fun with the egg hunt, and you were a very cooperative little bunny.

We also did a family first – we climbed up Mount Doug with you in the Kelty carrier backpack. You loved it – you fell asleep half way up the moutain!

I’m so sad, that I have to leave you and all the fun we’ve had this year… the playdates, walks, trips to the park, swimming, movies, shopping, baby games classes, mother goose classes, babytalk groups… it’s going to be hard to cram all that fun stuff intot he weekends – especially since I’ll have to share that time with daddy too. But I promise that I’m going to try to make this last month of Caleb and mommy time the very best it can be!

I love you baby… little boy!

Love always,
Mommy
XO XO XO

Dear Caleb,

I once read in a book that it takes babies up to 40 weeks to learn how to sleep well and sleep throughout the night. Well, Mr. Textbook baby – you have hit the ten month mark – approximately 40+ weeks and you now sleep much better. Hooray! You are now ten months, 19 pounds and around 29 inches long. You sure have grown! And you are into EVERYTHING!

You are now moving aorund the house at lightening speed, either following us, crawling away from us, or chasing something you have thrown or rolled down the hallway.

You also love to stand up. You seem to have sprouted up and grown these super long arms that can reach everything. Nothing is safe!

And now you are trying to stand up while letting go of things. Why do I feel like waking is just around the corner? You also love to dance- and you shake your little booty to your Learning Table songs.

Your new favorite games include:
“what can I swipe off the coffee table / top shelf / sofa?”
“how many loud objects can I bang on the laminate flooring?”
“what happens when I push all of these buttons onthe t.v.?”
“how many long distance phone calls can I make by randomly pushing buttons on the phone?”
“how many wipies can I swipe out of the box before mommy comes back form the bathroom?”

You are also very good at shaking and nodding your head, and love to make an ah wa wa sound when we move our hands over your mouth.

And you have finally learned the most important word ever: “Mama”! You scream it at the top of your lungs “MMMMMMaaaamaaaaaaa”. You yell it when you are mad: “Mmmmmoooommmmmmm” and when you want your milk, you turn your little head into my cheast and pant “Mmm ma mmmm ma ma mmm”. I love it!

And you finally have learned to like love avacado! You would eat a whole avacado if I would let you.

You would also eat a whole banana in one sitting if I’d let you. Some other favorite foods include: kiwi – which I do let you eat all of, pasta, cheese, yogurt and bread products. Just like your daddy you get excited when we got to Tim Horton’s. But, instead of a double double, you are thrilled with your plain bagel in the paper Timmy’s bag.

You have also been reintroduced to oats and thankfully we’ve had no reactions this time. So now you readily enjoy Nutrios (a healthier cheerio), and I usually find little collections of these all over the house.

You still love the water. We go swimming once a week with your friends, and you love being in the bath. You also love to brush your teeth. You have three and a half now!

You also got your first haircut this month. Everyone thinks your baby buzz cut is adorable! Daddy did a great job.

Daddy and I still love you to pieces and love watching all the new skills you are learning everyday! We love you Snuggle Puppy!

Love,
Mommmmmmmmaaaaaa

XO

Dear Caleb,

You are now nine months old and a ball full of energy. This last month you have taken your independance to a new level. You are into everything! And if you can’t reach it, you sure attempt to. You are definately your own little person now.

You crawl lighting fast. Your favorite game is taking your rollaround balls and pushing them around the house and following them. You even use them to get into the tiny spaces you aren’t supposed to be. And when we get after you, you act very innocent…. If you could I’m sure you’d actually be saying “oops…. lost my ball behind the computer and I have to go get it”, or “oops my ball is stuck by the shoes baskets – I’d better empty the shoes to find it”.

You also love to bang on your learning drum.

Your other favorite place to crawl is under your high chair. You often go on a little hunt to find bits of toast or cookie that you have dropped. I think you actually drop food onthe floor to save it for later.

You have also gotten really good at pulling yourself up to a standing position using furniture, objects ont he floor, other people… whatever you can get your hands on. You love to stand up. Our glass doors are smudged with tiny fingerprints, as is the tv screen!

This month we have tried all kinds of new foods, and you love everything (except avacado!) You are now eating meats, whole wheat, and a few dairy products. Just like your mommy you love yogurt and cheese. And just like your daddy, you love bread. Every morning you expect your toast. You used to like little tiny pieces, and got very good at using your pincer grasp to pick them up. But now you expect to get a bit piece, and you love to munch on it with your two little teeth.

You still love the water. You really enjoy swimming, and bathtime. Although m,any times we have had to remind you that you can’t roll over and crawl int he water. And you really shouldn’t be drinking your bath water either!

You also love to play at the playground. You love watching the bigger kids, and playing on the swings and slide. I know as soon as you learn how you will be running around the playground like all the big kids do.

We took you to the petting zoo for the first time and you loved the goats. You also thought the squirrels and ducks were very funny to watch.

In fact, everything seems to make you laugh these days. You still love playing peekaboo. And you love to read books. And everyone thinks you are adorably cute when you giggle away as we sings songs in our Mother Goose class.

I love watching your expressions as you delight in all the fun things in life. And I love the way your face lights up when your daddy or enter the room. You smile instntly when we go in to get you up int he morning. And some days you are still smiling as I put you to bed. And I know it makes your daddy’s day when you crawl up and greet him at the door every afternoon when he gets home.

Thanks for warming our hearts up these last nine months little Squishy. You have now been part of our world out here as long as you were a part of our worlk inside of me. I can’t believe we have been so blessed to you with us for so long. We love you now more than ever.

Love and hugs,
Mommy

XO xo

PS – We do need to do something about your hair though!

Dear Caleb,

Happy 8 months little guy! (Although you really aren’t that little anymore… you are 17 pounds 9 ounces, and have grown almost 8 inches since you were born!)

This last month was rather a rough one for you. You got very sick and had an ear infection, a very high fever and a rash – which may have been roseola. You got very used ti seeing the doctor. You also had your very first trip to the ER. Daddy and I were very worried one night about your not sleeping and constant crying, so we took you to get checked out just in case. You hated all the tylenol we had to give you, but sure loved all the sponge baths we gave you in the sink.

Once your rash, fever and ear infection were gone, you ended up with thrush, and got your first prescription medicine. It tasted like banana, and I think by the end of the ten days (four times a day), you actually liked the stuff and would open your mouth really wide to take it.

Now that you are feeling better, you are completely on the go and crawling everywhere. No more commando crawling for you. Last weekend you figured out how to alternate your knees with your hands and that was it. You were crawling! The first time you did it really well was when your daddy came back from work. We were at your friend Keira’s house and daddy met us there (because mommy had locked the car keys in the trunk). Well as soon as you saw your daddy you bee-lined over to him. The next night you were chasing grandma and grandpa’s dog Rufus around the living room and kitchen. And now, I can’t go anywhere in the condo without having you trailing right behind me. And you are into everything!

The last few days however, you have decided crawling isn’t good enough – and have been getting up on your knees. You love trying to get to the t.v. this way.

You are also standing. You love to stand and look over the sofa at the fish tank. When I try to put you down to play you lock your knees so that you can stand up instead of sit. Yesturday, after standing and staring out the patio door, you threw a little tantrum because I made you get down. I have a feeling you will be running soon.

You celebrated your first Chinese New Year this year – and got lots of lucky money, which you promptly tried to eat.

Everything seems to go in your mouth these days – paper, glittery Christmas balls, the remote, my slippers, random objects you find in your travels around the condo… And you love to eat. Now that you have two little teeth you can make a rice cookie disappear in the time it takes us to blink. You love your fruit sauces and veggies. And we have gone through many boxes of rice, barley and wheat cereals. You also like to try and feed yourself!

You are definately a very determined little person, who loves to be included in everything, and loves to do what mommy and daddy do. Your favorite game is peek a boo – you can’t get enough of it. You also love to be flipped upside down. You are also starting to try to communicate with us. You can wave bye-bye (when you want to), and we are teaching you baby sign. You understand when I sign milk or eat.

You are so much fun these days. You keep us on your toes with all your shinanagans. You still don’t sleep very well at night, but we are making progress. And all those many times we must get up in the middle of the night are made up with all your smiles and laughs. I love the way your face lights up when either myself or daddy enters the room. And I love the way you will crawl full speed ahead across a room to hug me. Thanks for being such a wonderful little you!

Love,
Mommy
xo

Dear Caleb,

Happy seven months! And Happy New Year… it’s odd to think that you were born last year!

This last month was full of excitement for all of us. We celebrated your first Christmas. It was a wonderful, and busy time, and we enjoyed sharing our traditions with you and starting new ones as a new family.

You got totally spoiled by everyone. But by far, your favorite gift was wrapping paper, tissue paper and boxes. Your little face would light up everytime I open the door and the mail carrier was there with a package. You loved tearing into the boxes, and playing with all that packaging. And you are a present pro! You wanted to rip the paper off all of them – even the gifts that weren’t your’s!

Now that we have sent things to the recycling bin, you have really started to get into your toys. Your little face lights up and you laugh with joy every time you make your learning table light up, the aquarium fish turn, the dino roar, or make cookie monstor say hello. And you love reading through all your new books, and looking oh so cute in your new outfits.

The greatest gift for us has been watching your happiness. Although, if you ask daddy, his greatest gift was the fact that you learned to say dada while he has been on holidays, and you call out hi dada all the time. I appreciated the six hours of sleep you gave me Christmas night – I guess I forgot to say my Christmas wish was you’d do that everynight! Oh well… all in good time! The smile you give me everyday is better than present!

Thank goodness, you didn’t discover the joy of the Christmas tree and all those tempting dangling ornaments until last week!

And although you asked Santa for your two front teeth for Christmas, they didn’t arrive until the New Year. The last few nights you have slept horribly, and yesturday I discovered why… your two bottom teeth are poking through your gums – and they are sharp! We’ve given you lots of teething toys, but the best has been frozen applesauce in your fresh food feeder. You sure enjoy that!

In fact you enjoy alot of foods these days. Some of your favorites have been squash, sweet potatos, yams, banana, applesauce and most definately cantaloup. You don’t seem to like avacado or peas! And of course you love your rice cearal cookies!

You love to be able to sit at the big table with everyone, and to be able to eat foods with us when we eat out at resturants.

You also love to see what is going on and to be part of the action. Your curiosity has you creeping, rolling and dragging yourself across the room. You are now able to get yourself up into a sitting position or do the opposite and go from sitting to your tummy or back. And recently, you have started to pull your self up on your knees so you can reach the top of your toys, into your new toybox or try to grab things off the coffee table.

This last month, you also graduated from our Babytalk group. You were starting to roll over some of the younger ones, and stealing other babies toys, so it’s probably a good thing. But it is sad that the group we have been a part of since you were only 6 weeks old is now done. We’ll be starting some new grops soon, and it will be fun to see how you interact with older babies, and how much you’ll be moving around to keep up with them. I have no doubts that you will hold your own, as you are already a social little guy – with quite a few girlsfriends that you love to play with and kiss!

Daddy and I are really looking forward to starting the new year off with you, and being part of all the wonderous discoveries and milestones you will encounter as we head towards the end of your first year. Thanks for making 2005 the most wonderful year. Your arrival was the most fantastic part of the year, and each day keeps getting better and better. (And even better still when you learn to sleep a little bit longer at night!)

We love you little snowflake!

Love,
Mommy
xo xo xo xo xo xo xo

Dear Caleb,

You are now 6 months old… that’s a whole half a year!! Wow! Time has flown by so quickly, that I can barely remember all the days that have encompassed the last 6 months. It makes me so sad to realize you are growing up so quickly and no longer my little tiny baby. But at the same time, I’m so in love with your wonderfully bubbly and mischevious personality.

Lots of things have happened this last month that has made me realize just how much you are getting older. You have started to eat solids, and you love it. So far we have given you organic brown rice cereal, a rice cereal cookie and some carrots. You adore your rice cereal. Sometimes I can’t get it in your mouth fast enough and you try to take the spoon and bowl yourself.

You are also on the move! During a recent trip up to Nanimo and Ladysmith, you crawled backwards across your friend Emily’s floor… and you haven’t stopped moving since. I am constantly chasing you around as you roll and wiggle your way backwards and sideways. You are trying very hard to go forward, and can get up on your hands and knees, and push off with your toes… I know anyday day now you are going to just take off!

Of course with all this moving around, you also get into everything! You love going after the remote control. You also insist on joining in the conversation if I’m on the phone, and just like your daddy you love to pound away at the computer keyboard! More than once you have locked the keyboard on me, and done things to the computer that I have no idea how to do! You also love to play with boxes! And you’ll drag your toys with you to exchange them for anything that belongs to mommy and daddy!

You also roll over towards your friends, and have now kissed and been kissed by many of your baby girlfriends. You also went up Keira’s skirt. We’ll have to keep an eye on you!

And you have learned to sit quite well. You still topple over sometimes, but can sit and play with a toy for a longer period of time now… unless mommy disappears out of the room. Then nothing keeps your interest. We have to discuss this separation anxiety thing!! Daddy is fun too!

And thank you for letting mommy and daddy go on a date! You had such a good time with Auntie Amanda, and you were so good for her. We’ll definately have to do that again! And mommy is going to start having some time to go out on her own- and trust me you’ll have fun while I’m gone too!

You’ve also found your loud voice… your very loud voice. Sometimes you scream out of excitment and pleasure (like in our baby games class) and sometimes you start yelling at us when you are crying. We’ve been working on baby signing to help you communicate with us. But I think we’ll have to start praising you for using your inside voice too!

Now that it’s the holiday season, you have experienced more firsts too. You recently went for your first visit with Santa – who thought you were a very good baby. You were mesmerized by your first Santa parade, have gone Christmas shopping (and got your first Elmo from great grandpa) and recently we went for a walk in the snow! (Rare for Victoria). Like the parade, you couldn’t quite figure out what the fluffy white stuff was!

You definately have your favorite activites too. You love to play peek-a-boo and any silly songs and games are a riot to you! We definately have a lot of fun now! And the laughter and smiles you give me everyday, makes the lack of sleep all worthwhile!

We can’t wait to enjoy our first Christmas together as a family. You are about to be spoilt to death by everyone!

We love that you have been a part of lives for the last half a year. You have made mommy and daddy so very happy! We love all 16 pound and 26 inches of you!

Happy 6 months Caleb!

Love,
Mommy
XO XO XO XO XO XO

Dear Caleb,

You are now five months old. In the last five months your little personality has emerged and now you are this wonderfully loving little baby full of cute smiles, giggles and mischievious twinkling eyes. You have mastered the ability to flirt and draw everyone towards you. Everyday we have strangers coming up to us to ask how old you are, and tell us how adorably cute you are.

You have also become quite the ladies man among all our baby friends… you have several girlfriends whom you have held hands with, hugged, eaten their hands, or licked their faces. You love to be with your friends – watching them, laughing with them, sitting with them, doing tummy time with them, swimming with them, and someties accidentally rolling over on top of them.

Speaking of rolling over, you can now roll from your back to your tummy. You are very good at this and very quick at it. We can put you down on the floor and you will roll over and then roll over again. Your main objective seems to be getting off your blanket – and taking your favorite toys with you! It is also great entertainment for everyone at Sunday dinner. You thought it was great fun to hear everyone clap for you everytime you rolled!

Rolling was a trick you learned during your first ever trip to Vancouver. You spent almost the whole ferry ride there asleep on daddy’s lap.

We stayed with John, and you and Ella became fast friends. In fact, I’m sure I saw you trying to sneak the cat into your diaper bag.

While we were there, you slept in bed with mommy and daddy, and you figured out that if you rolled towards mommy you could help yourself to a snack, and neither you nor I would really have to wake up. From those two nights in bed with us, a whole new world of rolling and moving has opened up to you. At night, you will roll over to sleep on your tummy. Often times I find you in the morning proped up on your arms peeking out of the crib looking for us.

While in Vancouver, you rode ont he Skytrain for the first time, and you loved it! We rode to Metrotown and you picked a monkey at the Build-a-Bear Workshop. We named him Gooey.

You also rode on your first swing at the playground, and loved that too! I think you are going to be like your daddy, and love rollercoasters and thrill rides like him! And, just like daddy you are also a fish in the water. You love going swimming, although you are still unsure when mommy dunks you under. But your absolute favorite is having a bath inthe big bathtub. You love kicking and splashing around!

You also started teething this month. this means that some days you can be a very grumpy bear. It also means you try to chew on everything… fingers, leaves, other people…. anything you can get your little hands on!

You constantly have drool coming out of your mouth because of this, and because of your new found raspberry blowing skill! You also love taking sips of water off of spoons and water bottles. You watch us very intently when we eat, and have started to chew on your lip. We know you are anxious for solid foods – just a few more weeks, and you can have some cereal! That will be a whole new adventure!

The other skill you have been working on is learning to sit up independently. You can do it with a slight lean forward for a short period of time. We’ll have to be careful of the pants you wear now though, because occassionally while you sit you look like your Uncle Dave in the back!

We also recently enjoyed our first family Halloween. We dressed you up as Winnie the Pooh (of course), and also Charlie Brown. You looked adorable. We took you on your first hayride, so that you could pick a pumpkin, and we carved up to look like an owl. You thought the pumpkin was pretty tasty too!

We also got a new car this month, a Honda Accord. When we got it we moved you into your bigger carseat, because the infant carrier seat was getting too small. At 26.25 inches and 15 pounds 4 ounces, you are too big to fit in it.

You sure have changed lots in the last five months Squishy! We are having so much fun with you (except for those multiple ight wakings – but we’re working on that together)! We can’t wait to see what the following months bring!

Love,
Mama
xo xo xo xo xo