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| Family photo at Lakeside |
New Milestones and Discoveries
Caleb is becoming a little mimic. He finds it hilarious when we do the same motions that he does or vice versa. He is starting to wave "hi" and "bye" more frequently.
He claps his hands, especially after we clap.
He can climb up stairs. He climbed up half a flight of stairs easily today. It's time to move! (We took our gates down while showing our house.)
He is pulling up on EVERYTHING. He can take cruising steps by taking side steps along the couch, the tub, etc. when challenged with a toy that he wants to reach.
He has started doing this REALLY big cheesy grin where you can see most of his teeth and his eyes slant almost shut as he scrunches up his little nose.
Eating more finger foods and more complex combinations of foods. His appetite has gotten huge.
His babbling sounds more like real words. Sometimes I'm convinced that he is really calling Jeremy and myself "Dada." He also says "baba" and "yeah."
Our little man still prefers Army crawling and it looks like he will do this as his main locomotion until he walks. He is amazingly FAST! He digs his forearms and elbows into the floor and pushes off with bent knees and his big toes.
Separation anxiety has started. He doesn't like me to leave the room he is in. He cries and comes crawling to look for me. He is more wary of strangers, but he is usually fine as long as he doesn't see me. Then, of course he wants Mom to hold him instead. So far, we haven't had any huge tearful good-byes at the church nursery.
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| Swim time at Nan and Pop's house |
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| Caleb with his great uncle, C.A. (mom's brother) |
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| Cheesy grin I described earlier! |
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| Caleb with great aunt Rita and great uncle Larry (Mom's sister) |
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| Not ready for this! What a pitiful face! |
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| Chillin' with cousins Maddie and Cooper |
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| Caleb loves his pool floats |
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| The kids with their great grandmother, Memommy |
Eating/Sleeping Habits
His sleeping schedule is about the same as last month. I'm still nursing him for probably 95% of his feedings, but if I have to miss a feeding, I usually have to substitute a formula bottle and pump later. We haven't tried to drink out of cups yet.
Good Bye Parties
We have been busy over the past few weeks with getting together with family and friends. Our social life has been very full and it makes me wish that we were more intentional all the time about seeing friends and family more regularly. On July 14-15th, we headed to Bowling Green to say good-bye to our extended family there. Mom had a light dinner and ice cream party at her house and several of my aunts and uncles and a few cousins stopped in to see us. The saddest part was saying good-bye to Memommy Meisel. She is 90 yrs. old and I cherish every moment we have to spend time with her. On Monday the 15th, my Aunt Cindy had a party for us at her home with the Lee side of the family. (Sad that we didn't take photos of that party.) We got a few photos on our i-phones. Aunt Cindy had a cute cake make for us that said #Good luck. Loved the Twitter hashtag. How perfect! We had a great time catching up with everyone and I was very encouraged by all of their support. They were all so genuinely happy and excited for us that somehow it made me feel more confident about our choice to leave home for a few years.
We've had some mid-week date nights lately. On the 16th, we checked on the Silver Dollar restaurant with the Pritts and Brown families. We had a blast. We've all decided we need to recreate that night in San Francisco soon. Then, this week we had dinner sans kids with Ed and Jen. Our kids are precious, but they make it near impossible to have a civilized leisurely talk during dinner. So, we all enjoyed our time together at Havana Rumba and coffee afterwards at Heine Bros.
We went to the annual church class party at the Dunn's house on the 20th. We still have one more week at church, so we didn't have to say too many good-byes just yet. Then, Don and Nancy had a hi/bye party for us and Ed and Jen on Sunday the 21st. Nancy invited her brothers and sisters and we had a few of our friends over for that. I failed to get a photo of everyone, but the time was more about connecting and communicating than documenting everything.
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| Hanging out with Greg (a work friend) at the Hi/Bye party |
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| Caleb with great aunt Sara Jane (Nancy's sister) |
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| Caleb with great aunt Debbie and great uncle David (Nancy's brother) |
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| The Oakley Family |
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| The Reiss Family |
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| Grandkids! |
And a note for little Caleb:
Caleb,
So proud of your many accomplishments this month! Looks like you will probably walk before your first birthday. You started cruising and climbing stairs this month. We will do our best to keep you safe before we move out of our 2-story home! You are an active, happy baby. You love to play hide and seek, peek-a-boo, and to chase us (or be chased.) During our party weekend in Bowling Green, your big cousins crawled on the floor with you and you loved all of the attention and having them on your level.
You have a strange affinity for plastic bottles. You love to hold it and crunch it up to make sounds. When we go for long walks to the park, you love to hold my water bottle!
We still have to discipline Emily to not be too rough with you. It is pretty much a daily occurrence that she makes you cry. I think this is probably a sibling thing and we will have to keep you two from picking on each other until you're in high school. You don't hold grudges against her though. She's one of your favorite peeps. Before too much longer, you'll be saying her name.
I'm hoping that you will be a good traveler. You're taking your first airplane flight on the 31st. Mom and Dad are a little apprehensive, but too busy to worry about it much. Dad and I pray every night that God will bless our family and make our move as smooth as possible. Our friends and family are praying for us and I truly believe that God is going to bless this next chapter in our lives.
I love you, sweet boy.
Mom
