Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was a lot of fun because our family got to play host for the very first time. Marcus's mother, two sisters, and brother-in-law Josh all came here to Gainesville to spend Thanksgiving with us. At the last minute, Marcus brother, Mike, and his family also decided to drive up and join us for the day. I was excited and slightly anxious about cooking so many different dishes for 10 people in my tiny kitchen, but everyone pitched in and helped and it went as smoothly as I'd hoped. We had turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn on the cob, green bean casserole and crescent rolls, with pumpkin pie, strawberry cheesecake, and Aunt Traci's specialty, grasshopper pie, for dessert. Marcus insisted at the last second on rearranging the furniture so all 10 of us could sit at the table (that is designed for 4 people), which provided me with a little unnecessary stress. Regardless, we were eventually seated and had a wonderful meal together. Marcus tried to make everyone say 10
original things that they were thankful for this year, but a family protest brought him down to five, and everyone participated in the little tradition. That night we played poker and spoons and laughed quite a bit for an excellent conclusion to our first Thanksgiving in our own home :).


The day after Thanksgiving, we did a little shopping, though I didn't buy anything. I have never been shopping on Black Friday before, and I don't plan to do it again anytime in the future. It was a little frightening to see our little mall so transformed into a swarm of greedy, hurried people. Some stores were so full that I couldn't even get the stroller in the door, and the check-out lines were atrocious. That night after Marcus got off work, we drove the three hours to Marc's brother's house in Melbourne Beach and spent another day with family there. Caleb had a lot of fun running around Mike & Gigi's huge house with his cousin Chase, and then later on a bike ride to the park with his dad. By the time we got home late Saturday night, I was exhausted from over a week of traveling, cleaning, cooking, and traveling some more, but I didn't regret any of it :).

Trip to Ohio

From November 16-20, Caleb and I took advantage of some saved-up Delta Skymiles and flew up to visit my extended family in southern Ohio. Two of my mother's sisters own adjacent farms and five of my cousins live there or nearby. I had not seen these members of my family since our wedding five years ago, so it was a lot of fun for me to catch up with everyone and show off Caleb. I even got to spend a couple of hours chatting with my best friend from college, Alli Herren, who lives about an hour away from the farm. Caleb loved the farm animals! He added to his life experiences the following: hand-feeding granola bars to goats, having a very young calf suck on his hand, petting an unusually passive chicken, chasing a pet rabbit, and watching the daily antics of the four horses, six dogs and twelve cats. He also saw snow for the first time (though it didn't stick) and experienced temperatures in the 30's. He wasn't too crazy about the idea of wearing a coat either...apparantly he found it to be too bulky and hard to move in.

To add to Caleb's fun, my cousin's teenage sons were at the farm that weekend with two of their friends. Those four boys went four-wheeling, drove the tractor, played paintball at dusk, and built a huge bonfire and roasted smores. Caleb watched the"big boys" out the window with wide-eyed wonder, and he was ecstatic whenever they came in and played chase with him. All-in-all, it was one of the most fun weekends Caleb and I have had together. Everyone was comfortable and happy the whole time, and of course it warmed my mother-heart so much to have so much attention and love poured on my sweet little boy.

Halloween

Caleb was a lion this year for Halloween. Unlike the monkey costume that he barely tolerated last year, he loved this year's lion costume. Every time I got it out or he saw it in the closet, he would point and growl with a big smile on his face.

We went to three costume-clad gatherings on Halloween this year: First, at 10 am, we went to a local place called O2B Kids where one of my friends is a member, so we were able to get in and participate in their baby class and Halloween party for free. Caleb enjoyed the puppet show and singing, as well as playing in the large play area. I didn't let him have any candy at the party because it was just before his nap, but he found the other costumed kids to be pretty fascinating.

The second place we went for Halloween is a local extravaganza called "Boo at the Zoo". The local teaching zoo goes all out, decorating the entire walkway through the zoo with Halloween paraphernalia and college students dressed up as everything from zombies to Disney princesses. Caleb was actually more interested in the real animals in their habitats than all the Halloween stuff, but I was very impressed with how much work goes into this community production each year. Caleb was also fascinated with the five M&M's I gave him during "Boo at the Zoo" (which ended up being the sum total of his Halloween indulgences, since the next party was at bedtime).

Our final Halloween party was our church-sponsored "Trunk or Treat." Apparently this is a popular and rather common church endeavor during Halloween, but I'd never heard of it until this year. Church members park their highly-decorated cars in the parking lot in an enclosed rectangle. Then they plant themselves behind their cars and pass out candy to young tricker-treaters. This set-up is especially attractive to parents of toddlers because walking from car-to-car is much easier than walking from house to house; plus there are no streets involved and toddlers can roam freely from one side of the enclosure to the other. Even though it took place from 7-8 pm and was therefore past his bedtime, Caleb loved seeing all of his friends and their parents in costume. Though he would never say anything close to "Trick or Treat", he thoroughly enjoyed selecting candy from each hand-out basket and placing it decorously into his plastic pumpkin. It never occurred to him to inquire after that candy after Halloween, and Mommy and Daddy have been indulging themselves for the past few days. I'm sure we will not be so lucky next year :).

My Man

As my friend Katherine pointed out on her blog, the daddies/hubbies often get overlooked in the predominately mom-authored baby blog world, so here is a post dedicated entirely to my relationship with my man. (All of these questions are copied from Katherine's post of the same title.)

1. Who is your man? Dr. Marcus M. Wagner (the doctor thing is still new enough that I think its super fun!)

2. How did you meet? We probably saw each other for the first time in Athens, Greece in the fall of 1999 because our two study abroad groups spent a week there together, but the first meeting we remember is at a Bible study at Michael Lincoln's house in Searcy, Arkansas (January of 2000).

3. How long have you been together? We started dating in May of 2000, when we were both 20, so about 7½ years now.

4. How long did you date? We dated for two years and were engaged for four months.

5. How old is your man? He is 27 and he will turn 28 next month.
6. Who said "I love you" first? Two pregnancies have so addled my brain that I can’t remember for sure, but I’m 90% certain that he told me he loved me in a letter.

7. Who is taller? Definitely Marcus…6’3” to my 5’6”.

8. Who sings better? I used to, but my singing voice has declined since I'm no longer in choir or singing as regularly as I used to. I guess we're about even now.

9. Who is smarter? Again, I used to think I was, but four years of medical school has definitely given Marcus the edge in that arena, though we both still have our areas of expertise where we are inclined to defer to the other.

10. Whose temper is worse? We both lose our temper a little too easily in our own “pet peeve” areas, though we’ve learned to control that better in our five years of marriage.

11. Who does the laundry? I always do the laundry, though sometimes I leave Marcus's clean laundry folded in a basket for him to put away. Other times I just put it away myself.

12. Who takes out the garbage? I do. I empty all the little trash cans throughout the house and put the trash in the bin, and then roll it out to the curb on Wednesday mornings. Sometimes Marcus rolls the empty bin back to the side of the house.

13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I sleep to Marcus’s right, though that has switched several times during our marriage.

14. Who pays the bills? I do. I like paying the bills and keeping records in Money, and I have more time, so Marcus lets me do it.

15. Who is better with the computer? Marcus is way better with his Mac, but I am just as good if not better on the PC.

16. Who mows the lawn? Marcus. He also waters the grass and fertilizes, trims the shrubs, and takes care of almost all the outside chores.

17. Who cooks dinner? If anyone does, it’s me. Lately because of this second bout of morning sickness, Marcus has been scrounging for himself (poor boy), but usually I cook dinner.

18. Who drives when you are together? Marcus. I don’t like driving, particularly at night.

19. Who pays when you go out? Whoever isn’t entertaining or cleaning up Caleb at the moment.

20. Who is most stubborn? We’re both pretty stubborn about our opinions, but I’m more stubborn about day-to-day decisions, especially when the decision has anything to do with Caleb’s safety.

21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? I am very quick to admit that I am wrong as soon as I see that I am wrong, but Marcus thinks it takes me too long to see it.

22. Whose parents do you see the most? I think we definitely see Marcus’s family more, since we’re in school in his home state and both of his parents and all of his siblings live here. Sometimes Marcus tries to argue that we see my family just as much, because during our 1-2 trips a year to see them, we usually stay a full 2 weeks, but I have no doubt that even if we broke it down to hours spent together, the scale would tip totally on the Wagner side.

23. Who kissed who first? I confess, it was definitely me, though after the first millisecond, we were both very involved in it :)

24. Who asked who out? That’s kind of a long story, but lets sum it up with the fact that Marcus pursued me in a variety of creative ways for about four months before we actually went on a date.

25. Who proposed? Marcus.

26. Who eats more? Definitely Marcus, though I give him a run for his money in my third trimester.

27. Who is more sensitive? Definitely me.

28. Who has more friends? Me. I keep in regular contact with several close friends from college and keep up sporadically with dozens more, plus I have my close group of girls here in Gainesville. Marcus is content with keeping in touch with his best friend from college, occasionally doing things with the guys at church here, and spending time with his family.

29. Who has more siblings? Marcus, who has one brother and two sisters. I have an older half-brother and a younger brother.

30. Who wears the pants in the family? We both wear pants a lot. I only wear skirts on Sundays, and Marcus never wears skirts.

Baby Talk

Caleb is 18-months-old and he is using about 25 words regularly (including animal sounds, which my speech therapist friend assures me do count at his age). His animal sounds are really adorable and amazingly clear. I guess he learned to emulate certain animals so well from the Baby Einstein videos, because the pitch and articulation of his owl, elephant and whale especially are very true-to-life. He also still uses his ten signs to aid him in his very basic communicative abilities. Just because I like to do this from time to time and because Caleb's grandmothers read this site, I've listed his current vocab here. I don't delude myself into believing that most of you are interested in the exact words that Caleb is saying, so feel free to skip to the next paragraph :) Words: home, park, mall, store, church, mama, dada, my, ball, star, this, no, shoe, vroom-vroom (car), choo-choo (train); animal sounds: owl, dog, cat, lion, tiger, elephant, duck, snake, whale, dolphin, bird; signs: sleep, eat, drink, milk, outside, watch TV, please, hot, more, all done.

We are around other 18-months-old who are more verbal than Caleb and have larger spoken vocabularies, but two months ago he hardly said anything, so we are happy that he is making progress. His favorite word, which he acquired during a disagreement with his 2-year-old friend Noah during our trip to Destin, is "NO". He almost always says the word very emphatically with a tone of, "What made you ask such a ridiculous question?" It really doesn't matter what the question is, the answer is "NO" 95% of the time.

"Do you want to take a bath?" (Caleb loves baths.) "NO!"
"Do you want to eat some grapes?" (Grapes are his favorite food.) "NO!"
"Do you want to go to the store with mama?" "NO!"
"Will you share your train with mama?" "NO!"
"Can mama help you read that book?" "NO!"
"Do you want to watch TV?" "Dah! Dah!" (his word for "yes")

And such is the usual pattern of our conversations. The only question that consistently gets a "yes" is the TV. Anything else could go either way, but the scales are definitely in favor of a negative. I've learned that if I really want him to do something, I'd better tell him that we're going to do it rather than give him an option!

In spite of this burst of vocal independence, Caleb has actually become more affectionate and cuddly lately. He often comes up and gives me a spontaneous hug or kiss, and sometimes just wants me to hold him while he lays his head on my shoulder. He hasn't done that (without being sick or tired) since he could hold his head up! Yesterday, we were at an outdoor Christian concert in Clearwater and Caleb was in an exceptionally affectionate mood. He was sitting on my lap facing me, and he kept hugging me, then kissing me, and then saying "my mama!" I would respond in kind with "Mama loves Caleb!" We went through this routine five or six times, and then he hugged me very tightly and said "Wuv mama!" It was truly priceless.

Back Among the Living :)

I apologize to those of you who have actually checked this blog in the past six weeks. I have been so sick with this pregnancy that even when I had time to update, a nausea-induced lethargy has prevented me from even attempting. Praise the Lord for this, but it seems that my morning sickness is waning and my appetite returning several weeks earlier than it did with Caleb. I am thirteen weeks pregnant and I have felt pretty normal for three days now (I was sick until seventeen weeks with Caleb.)

So here are some of the fun things that have happened in our lives in the past six weeks: Our anniversary was on Aug 31st, and I surprised Marcus by arranging for his mother to keep Caleb for the night and took him to Orlando for Arabian Nights and an overnight stay in a beautiful Hilton Garden Suite. The best part is that the whole thing only cost $25! I got a big discount on the Arabian Nights tickets and the hotel was free because my dad let us use his Hilton points. We had a great evening together, and thoroughly enjoyed our first opportunity to sleep in together since Caleb was born. (This was the first time we'd left him overnight.)


After our anniversary, we spent a few days at the beach at Marcus's brother Mike's new house in Melbourne Beach, Florida. Mike & his wife Gigi recently bought a beautiful house just a block from the beach, so we had a great time staying with them, swimming in their pool, and taking daily walks to the beach or the park near their house. Caleb had a lot of fun with his 2 1/2 year old cousin, Chase. This was the first time the two have been together and actually played together (rather than just tolerating each other's presence). They would run back and forth along the cat walk that overlooks the downstairs living and dining rooms, squealing and laughing, for long periods of time. They had fun together in the pool as well, though Chase, being older and wiser, was more apprehensive about the dangers of the water. We had to stay very very close to Caleb because he would literally just jump into the pool anytime he felt like it, regardless of whether or not anyone was there to catch him or help him swim. He went all the way under several times, but it didn't seem to phase him. Hopefully he'll gain some sense before we go again.

After our four days in Melbourne Beach, we spent one night at home and then drove to Destin to join three other families from church for a beach house vacation. This is the third year that we have done this trip, and it has always been a lot of fun. This year was different because the Peters' family was not able to come and because the Westfall's joined us for the first time. In some ways, this year was probably more challenging because all seven of the kids were old enough to need instruction and discipline, while last year the four youngest were just babies. With seven children who are all able to initiate conflict at any time, we did spend more time refereeing than we have in the past. Also, with all the kids being toddlers and preschoolers, it was a little harder to have whole families sleeping in the same room (i.e. it was harder to get them to sleep at bedtime). On the other hand, the weather was beautiful this year and I don't think we had any rainy days (maybe one rainy morning). The beach was not crowded at all and the kids had more fun at the beach this year than they have in the past. The "big boys" (Luke, Carson & Noah) were more creative with their play in the sand and braver in the water, and the little ones were just happy to be walking around and exploring everything independently (as opposed to on Mommy's lap or on a blanket like last year). Overall, it was a very enjoyable four days at the beach, and we are already looking forward to next year!

Surprises!!

So...a couple of days after I wrote the last entry, I woke up with an upset stomach. Two hours later, after Marcus left for work, I took a test and was shocked to see that despite our careful efforts at birth control, we had become pregnant. Based on the nurse's visit a couple of days ago, I am 7 weeks pregnant and will deliver sometime around April 4, 2008. Even though this news was a complete surprise, we are excited that we conceived so easily this time (we took Clomid for Caleb) and that we will be welcoming a second child into our family. The timing doesn't seem optimal to us, (we will be moving two months after the baby arrives, and attempting to sell our house at the time of his/her arrival) but we realize that our view of the future and our concept of "good" timing is limited. We are very grateful that we have good health insurance through Marcus's job and that I will be able to use the same OB as I did with my previous pregnancy. The aspect of this news that is making it difficult for me is that I am experiencing morning sickness every day throughout most of the day, and some days even through the night as well. Marcus is being wonderfully supportive and helping with Caleb all that he can, but there are still many hours that he is working where Caleb and I are on our own, and I feel very overwhelmed with caring for him while feeling so sick to my stomach all the time. The good news is that morning sickness has a time frame and at some point it will subside and then disappear. Until then, I'm sorry to those of you who are very dear friends and who I have not called personally with this news, but I hate to call when I'm feeling so sick and I believe that you will understand.

Baking at Sea World

Yesterday we had a family birthday party for Marcus's older sister Wendi at Sea World in Orlando. Eight adults and two toddlers planned to meet at the park at 9 am, though we didn't all get there until and into the park until around 11 am. I had never been to a theme park with eight adults and two toddlers, and did not realize how slowly everything can move when there are that many people involved in every decision. It was not like anyone was insisting on their way at any point in time...in fact the exact opposite: everyone was being so flexible that it was hard to take a direction. Yesterday also happened to be one of the hottest, most humid days in Florida this summer. In spite of the slow progress and the oppressive heat, we did manage to see four shows, four animal encounter exhibits, ride a roller coaster, eat a meal, and even hang out in the kiddie area for a little while. We also managed to bring a small birthday cake into the park along with 31 candles for a covert little birthday celebration. We tried lighting the candles in a sitting area, but the wind kept blowing them out, so we all huddled into a little concrete alcove beside a building, lit the candles quickly, sang the song and laughed as Wendi blew them out (Traci had accidently included some trick candles in the mix...) Largely because of the heat, we were all totally exhausted by 7 pm. All in all, it was a fun day to be together and celebrate Wendi's special day, though next time we all agreed to go later in the year!

My Job

I've been a realtor now for 5 months, and overall it is going very well. I've enjoyed learning about property, real estate law, the mortgage market and our economy as a whole through this job. I'm able to work out of my home, so I rarely have to leave Caleb with a sitter. Usually I take him with me or Marcus keeps him, and I do most of my computer work while he's napping or after he goes to bed. I've been blessed with quite a bit of business so far, so we've been able to pay off one student loan and are very close to being able to pay off our car loan as well. Although I enjoy the job overall, I am very glad I only have to do it for the rest of this year, because I don’t like being distracted from the needs of my home and family. I feel terrible on days that I get a phone call and have to work on something immediately for a couple of hours, which leaves Caleb playing on his own during that time, and often not terribly happy about it. I hate feeling like I'm neglecting him, but I'm grateful that this job was provided as a temporary fix for some financial struggles.

Caleb Update

Caleb is 16-months-old now and is babbling all of the time. He likes to look at me very seriously, cock his head to the side, and say something like "Blah-zoo-ma-tu-tu-zong" with every intention of making perfect sense. He does have quite a few understandable words as well, but I'm currently pretty in love with the babbling. He's also pointing out all of his body parts, learning more sign language, identifying objects in books, making all kinds of animal sounds, and kicking a soccer ball around anytime he can. He is so much fun!!!!

--Rachel

Dr. Wagner

The most recent exciting event in our family was Marcus's graduation from medical school. He has been in his residency at UF for one month now, and it has been just as difficult as we expected it to be. He works a 30-hour shift from 6 am one day until noon the following day (staying up all night with maybe 2 hours of sleep, if he’s lucky), takes a nap in the afternoon, then goes in for 10 hours the next day. Then the cycle resumes, leaving him working 80+ hours each week (with staying up all night every 3rd night). It really is an inhumane work schedule, and we’re glad that he’ll have a better schedule for the month of August.

--Rachel

Caleb's 1st Birthday

Caleb's first birthday party took place today. We had it at our friends' neighborhood clubhouse and pool, which turned out to be an ideal place for the varied group in attendance. There were 12 children from infancy to age 7, as well as around 30 adults at the party. The only family members at the party were Caleb's Aunt Traci and Uncle Josh, and Great Uncle Mitch. We had snacks and cake, and the Gator basketball game was playing on the clubhouse TV (the only way the guys would come). I just used balloons and framed pictures of Caleb for decorations, and I made the cakes myself with Aunt Traci's help. I also put together a slide show of Caleb's first year and played that after the basketball game. We didn't really do anything structured like games or a pinata because the kids were all different ages and many were toddlers like Caleb. Everybody just swam and played until cake & song time, and then went back to swim and play some more. Caleb's grandmother (my mom) paid for an amateur photographer to come to the party and take spontaneous and posed pictures for an hour. The pictures turned out extremely well and I'm very glad that she came because we might not have gotten many pictures ourselves with as busy as we both were during the party. All in all I was extremely happy with the party and really wouldn't have done anything differently in retrospect: it was economical, a lot of fun, and we got great pictures!

Sickness

Caleb has been sick SO MUCH this past six weeks. He has had five different 3-5 day episodes of sickness. Some of them start with fever, some start with runny nose, and one started with a perfectly happy little boy vomiting all over our friend's furniture. (All over is not an exaggeration at all. He threw up four times in a row and we saw everything he had eaten in the past 12 hours.) His fever has been up to 103 several times during these five sicknesses. The worst was the vomitting virus he had from March 2-6. He lost 10% of his body weight in that one weekend and threw up for 4 days. He was so miserable at times that he would just lie on the floor or in our arms and stare blankly at nothing for long periods of time. We let him watch Baby Einstein videos (which are his favorite thing in the entire world) as much as he wanted to when he was that sick, though even they failed to entertain him during his worst times. The three times he was sick before this virus were more like colds or infections, with stuffiness and a high fever, but he wasn't as miserable as with this virus.

I'm definitely getting discouraged by how much he's been sick. I'm becoming somewhat of a germ-a-phobe. I carry hand sanitizer everywhere and use it on both Caleb and I frequently. We don't go to the park or the mall play area any more, and he's rarely around other children except at church activities. After the bad virus, Marcus finally agreed to start showering every day when he comes home from the hospital, just in case he was bringing home the bugs. But even after all of these precautions, Caleb has come down with something again today. He has a fever and a runny nose, and I can only hope that it doesn't get worse like it did the last four times.

I've talked to some other moms about how much he's been sick, and mostly what I hear is "some kids just don't have strong immunities." I know that is true, but it just seems odd that Caleb would go from having very adequate immunities and hardly ever getting sick to being sick all the time. I just hope that he outgrows this proclivity toward getting sick sooner rather than later b/c it is very depressing to have to miss out on so much of life because of chronic sickness. I haven't been to church or play group in 6 weeks, and I've only made it to Wednesday night prayer group twice during that time! And Caleb is definitely missing out on social time as well. Even if I was willing to take him out sick, I would quickly lose all of my friends if I insisted on bringing my sick child around their healthy ones :)
I am grateful that he was well for almost a whole week after the vomiting virus, and so we got to go to two birthday parties last Saturday. Most of the more recent pictures were taken at those parties and during the week he was well. That's also probably where he caught what he has right now, since its the only time he's been out, but we did get some GREAT pictures :)

Eating & Communicating

Caleb is such a good eater! Since he turned 8-months-old, he has been eating three hearty (for a baby) meals a day and two snacks in addition to his five regular breastfeedings. Since he turned 9-months-old, he has been eating everything that we eat. (I didn't follow the recommendations for introducing foods.) I just put a helping of our dinner into the Magic Bullet (food processor) and there is Caleb's lunch and dinner the next day. He has baby yogurt and oatmeal cereal for breakfast every morning, and Cheerios and fruit for his snacks. He eats everything I offer him, with very few exceptions. Just recently he has learned how to indicate that he would like a certain food (pointing at the cabinet where we keep the Cheerios, reaching for a banana on the counter), and he has sometimes resisted the meal in front of him because he wants something else, but he eventually eats what I'm offering.

A few days ago he started signing "more", and he signs "more" every time his food is gone. The first time I kept giving him more b/c I was so happy that he was signing, but now I just have to distract him when he's had enough, or he might just eat all day! I still do baby sign language with him regularly. I sign "up", "please", "all done", "open", "drink", "eat", "diaper" and a few others. For me, the purpose of signing is so that I can expect him to communicate some basic wants/needs without the whining that he uses now. When the baby gate closes right in front of him, instead of whining and crying, he can learn to say "open". Well, so far, all he has picked up on is "more", but I'm told that signing takes off more after a year. He DEFINITELY understands a lot of words, phrases and questions that he hears a lot, and I know he understands from his strong reactions every time he hears them. "Do you want to go outside?" sends him running to the front door. "Are you hungry?" sends him whining all the way to the high chair (as if he just realized he's starving). He also responds immediately to "Take a bath?" "Want some milk?" "Where's Dadda?" "Watch TV?" "Turn on the light" and "See the dogs?" "Time to change your diaper?" sends him whining and running, and "I'm gonna get you!" makes him laugh so hard he can barely walk.

He repeats the sounds that we make, particularly the initial sound "Ba" for "ball", "Da" for "dog", "ba-ba" for baby... you get the general idea, but doesn't have any words that he consistently uses to label the same thing. He does say "da-da", but he calls many things and many people "da-da" with only a slight but distinct preference for calling Marcus "da-da". I haven't heard any form of "ma-ma" from him since he was babbling at 5-months and then completely gave up the "mm" sound for months.
It is so much more fun to spend time with him now that he understands so much and is able to communicate some on his own. The downside is that wilfulness (on his side) and discipline (on mine) has entered our relationship, and that makes everything a little more stressful. My only sadness is that one year is almost over and I truly can't believe that he is becoming a little boy instead of my baby. If his independence at 11-months makes my heart ache, what will I do when he's a teenager??????

Mobility & Tantrums

It has been more than 4 months since I took the time to write an entry on this site! It has also been more than 4 months since Caleb became mobile... Hmmm...

Caleb started crawling at 6 1/2 months, and since then his personality has blossomed. So many options opened up for him once he could crawl: instead of just playing with whatever toy I put in front of him, he was able to choose any toy in the room. And he didn't limit himself to just toys, either! With the realization of his power to choose came the realization that many other things in his environment could be altered to please him, if he would just assert his new-found control. He wanted to touch and explore everything in sight, and he often threw a bonafide temper tantrum when he was denied what he was pursuing, be it Daddy's soda or Mommy's cell phone or the dogs' medicine. His fits at this age were (and still are) just incredibly adorable, and I really have to fight to keep from laughing when he throws them. His face contorts into the most injured expression imaginable, his bottom lip protrudes and quivers, and he wails. Often he adds to the dramatic moment by throwing himself forward onto the floor and wailing with his face buried in the carpet, with an occasional glance up to make sure that his audience is still there. For those of you who may be worrying that I enjoy his fits a little too much and may be encouraging them--fear not. What is cute in my living room is embarrassing elsewhere, and I have not once ever given in to one of his little tantrums. Alas, my consistency seems to be working and the adorable little pity parties are getting shorter and less frequent. I really hope I can get one on camera before they cease to be this cute...