Friends and Projects

Tricia, Addison, and Jackson came to visit, and Trish and I did a craft project. We made the boys little taggy blankets. They turned out super cute, and I really hope that Caleb forms an attachment to his!

Mishaps, Adventures, and Weigh Ins

Well as I type, Caleb is grabbing at the keyboard like a wild man! That's what he was doing last night with Daddy's blackberry and with the remote control. He is six months old and already getting into trouble!

Yesterday, I got myself into a little trouble with him. He was laying on the bed in the guest room while I was filing some papers. I had just moved him to the center of the bed, as he was getting dangerously close to the edge. I continued filing... I think we all know where this is going! I saw something out of the corner of my eye and heard a thump. Caleb landed on the floor right next to me! This was actually the second time in Caleb's life that he has fallen off of something. On the second day that he was home he flailed himself off of the couch while I was trying to get Heidi to stop barking. I was too embarrassed to write about that story on the blog at that time. That time he landed flat on his face. This time he landed backside down, which is better, but he sure did scream a lot more yesterday!

Last night for dinner, Caleb was supposed to potatoes for dinner. However, I had a little bit of banana left that would have gone bad overnight. So, I decided to give him the banana and then the potatoes. He was happily swallowing every bite of banana. Then I made the switch. As soon as the potato hit his lips, he started throw a big crying fit! I gave in and peeled some more banana for him. Later he did accept some of the potato!

Then today, I left Caleb in his room in his bouncy seat while I dried my hair. Afterwards I went in to check on him and saw this:
He was perfectly happy in this position just looking around the room hanging out. He did start to cry when I whipped out the camera. I guess he didn't want the embarrassment of a blog entry about his adventure!

Caleb's Measurements at 6 months:
Height: 27 inches 95 percentile
Weight: 14.9 lbs 25 percentile
Head: 42 cm 25 percentile

He really had only gained a pound in 2 months, but the doctor wasn't concerned. He seems to know how to tell me when he is hungry, so I think we are doing good. In fact, that is what he is telling me right now! Gotta go!

6 Months Old

Caleb is officially 6 months old tomorrow. It has been such an amazing and wonderful half of a year. We are thankful to God for the blessing that Caleb is to our family. It is fun to think about all of the stages he has been through so far. Here are a few of those stages: when he was a 6 week early newborn baby that had to be on a respirator, the day we got to bring him from the hospital, "Mr. Googly Eyes", Caleb barely being able to raise his head, Caleb starting to sleep through the night at 8 weeks, Caleb starting not to sleep through the night from 3 months until a few weeks ago, Caleb starting solids, Caleb smiling when Jon or I come in the room, Caleb and the "P's of our trip of WA", and so many more sweet memories. We are blessed beyond measure and can't wait to experience so many more "firsts"!

Baylor Bears Win!

Congrats to Jon! His men's cross country team won their meet at North Texas this weekend!
http://baylorbears.cstv.com/sports/c-xc/bay-c-xc-body.html

Friends

Caleb and I spent the night at our friend's house last night. Tricia and Jeff have two children, Addison, 2, and Jackson, 3 weeks younger than Caleb. Caleb was enthralled by all of the activity in the Durand household considering a baby and a two year old live there. He had a great time just taking it all in. Tricia and I took some time this morning for a photo shot. The boys did well until their "wrestling match" at the end. They were both hitting/biting each other and crying. I don't think that either of them could figure out why they were crying! Addison was happy when we broke it up, as we had spent a ton of time taking pictures and not paying attention to her! It was a great trip!

Firsts

Caleb held onto his own bottle last night. As soon as I started taking pictures, he stopped holding it correctly to drink out of it, but he really was holding it and drinking for about a minute. I am having happy visions of all the free time I will have once he can feed himself!

Caleb has starting pushing up and sitting propped up. I keep telling him, "You are such a big boy!" I can't believe that he is almost six months old! I guess that it is time to start thinking about our six month photo shoot! Being able to sort of sit up changes everything!

PIcs for Grandpa

Grandpa Pace called to let us know that we hadn't posted pictures in like a week. I quickly told him that we had just put up pics of frogs within the last few days. He said, "But, there are no new pictures of Caleb. I don't care about the frogs. I want to see that boy!" So Dad, here are two pictures that were on the camera. One is just a quick snap of him in his carseat. The other is Caleb and I at the Baylor football game. Baylor did well and scored lots of times- which was quite scary for Caleb. It went like this... Baylor scores, the crowd screams, Caleb makes the "boo face", the fireworks go off, Caleb starts wailing in fear! It was pretty cute to see! Actually by the end, Caleb didn't mind all of that noise. He even fell asleep for a good part of the game. We were able to lay him on the bleachers on a blanket, and he slept great! The highlight of the game for me was getting to eat Uncle Dan's barbeque in the Letterman's Lounge- a definite benefit on being married to a Baylor Letterman! It was a fun night, and Baylor won, too!

Just so you know

Kelly made a big deal about me buying a few extra pairs of goggles for the team. She just went to the store to buy a picture frame and came back with 3 Giant photo albums holding a grand total of 1500 photos!! It's not like we didn't have any to start with either. Maybe we'll take a poll on which one of us is crazier.

Frog Friends

After the drizzle the other night we got a visit from our backyard friends. This summer we have had a dramatic increase in our frog/toad population, forcing many last minute rescues during mowing. I probably am one of the frogs' greatest allies, who else stops mowing to rescue a frog. In the diminutive ecosystem that is my backyard, it works like this. Frogs eat bugs, I don't like bugs, therefore frogs are welcome. Most of them look like the bottom one in various sizes, the top one we don't see as often, but it is tree frog, sure as shootin.

A Bloggable Goggle Moment

Jon just came home with 6 pairs of new goggles. Then he pulled out his special goggle bag for some goggle sorting fun! Several days ago he came home with more new goggles.

So here is our net worth in goggles:
3 partial pairs of goggles
5 complete pairs of "personal" goggles
8 new pairs of goggles that are to be sold to members of the team
1 new pair of goggles for me
GRAND TOTAL: 17 pairs of goggles

I guess he thought it would be easier for me to take if he bought me a new pair of goggles too!

Do you think we have enough?

First Meet

After a long day in the hot sun, you might think you would want a shower. Unfortunately this one came with lightning at the exact point that we were supposed to start our meet. A complete deluge forcing us to take down all the of the electronics, collapse the tents, get wet, muddy the course, and postpone the beginning of our meet. This way the seemingly unending task preparing a course was prolonged .
All that to say that our season is off and running (sorry). The ladies put on a serious show of force and demonstrated that they will be a very notable team this year. My men's team was right in the thick of things. Getting good races out of my freshman and a respectable race or two out of my upperclassmen. We ended up fourth to some decent teams but I still think we are better than that, even though I was overall pleased with the performance. I wish you all could of come, thanks to those who tried, but I don't blame you if you didn't make it after the floodgates opened up. LINK

X-Country Meet This Friday Night

Isn't Caleb's visor adorable?!! He is getting ready to cheer for his daddy's cross country team this weekend. They have a meet on Friday night at the Baylor intramural fields at 6:30 p.m. Other Baylor fans are welcome to come. It is free!

Caleb's Baby Dedication

Our Prayers For Caleb

Psalm 139:13-16

“For You created my inmost being, You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was knit together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body.”

Isaiah 61:9

“Then my offspring will be known among the nations and descendants in the midst of the people. All who see them will recognize them because they are the offspring when the Lord has blessed.”

Ephesians 1:4-5

“For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love, He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure and will.”

Grandma and Caleb have gotten to spend the week together. We've all had great fun. This afternoon Grammy babysat Caleb, so Jon and I could go see Bourne Ultimatum. While we were gone Caleb was laying on the couch, and he looked over at his pacifier (Mr. Greenie), picked it up, and put it straight into his mouth!

Here Caleb is wearing this outfit because Grandma and Mom were playing dress-up. All week long we have been trying to get a smile on film, but we've been mostly unsuccessful. We even had a professional family photo shoot done by our friend Jennifer. No smiles though!

Here Caleb tries out his high chair for the first time. His stuffed puppy helps keep him propped up.

Day 2 in the high chair, Caleb is planning his escape route!

TEETHING???!!!!

Things That I Will Gladly Chew On...
1. The back part of my pacifier
2. Mommy's fingers
3. Daddy's fingers
4. Grandma's fingers
5. Your fingers
6. Mommy's hand
7. The tray on my swing
8. The plastic feet on my dog (toy- Jon felt clarification was necessary!)
9. The plastic feet on my lion
10. ect., ect., ect...!

Things That I Will NOT Chew On...
1. My teething rings!

Caleb is 5 Months Old!

Firsts and Soon to be Firsts

Last night Caleb took a bath without his hammock attached to his baby bathtub. He loved it! The hammock was really constricting his legs, and as soon as I put him in without it, he was kicking and squirming and really enjoying his new found freedom.

Last week Caleb got to hang out with one of his first friends, Seth. So far their friendship consists of Caleb watching Seth scoot around our living room, Seth trying to steal Caleb's pacifier, and Seth using Caleb's head to push himself up! It was an educational experience for me- I now know many things that will have to be put up in our living room before Caleb becomes more mobile! I think that Caleb may be teething. As a new mom, I go over about 800 different scenarios of why he may be upset or doing this or that, so I could be wrong. But, today he spent at least an hour crying - like really screaming! He has had other signs like lots of saliva, and I think that his gums are swollen. All that to say, he has not been a happy kid this morning. Finally after an hour of trying to get him down, he gave into the nap. This is the position he finally drifted off to sleep in! Then about 10 minutes later the phone rang! Now I hear him fussing again! The joys of motherhood!

More from our Washington Trip

If you haven't seen enough of our Washington Trip, feel free to watch the slideshow.
If you still haven't had enough, watch the outtakes as well.
Don't worry we left out pictures and video of P for Puke,
there just isn't a good song for the photo montage.
Thanks again to our Washington Family for making it possible.

Firsts

Caleb laughed for the first time last night. We have been able to tell that he thinks things are funny because he just smiles really big for an extended period of time. He also squeals at funny things, but we had been wondering when he would really laugh.

He was fussy, and I was trying to calm him down. I was laying on my back on the floor, and I set him on my stomach. Then I commented that I could do baby pilates with him there. I started doing sit ups and he started squealing and really giggling. Jon and I were cracking up. It was the cutest thing! If he keeps laughing at my baby sit-ups, I am going to be doing a lot of them. I guess Caleb may help tone the stomach that he caused! :)

The "P's" of Our Trip to WA State



P is for pee, which got all over Caleb and me at 7:00 in the morning right as we boarded the plane for our 4 hour trip to WA. This was after leaving our house at 3:30 AM and nearly missing our flight because the security line was so long.

P is for the Pike Street Market, which we enjoyed walking around in downtown Seattle.

P is for pee, which we smelled in numerous elevators when Jon, Caleb, and I stopped for fish and chips in Seattle.

P is for the picturesque morning canoe ride Jon and I went on around the lake that we stayed by. We took in views all around us of mountains and rowed up a "crick" as the Washingtonians termed it- aka "creek". My favorite part was the water lilies all around us. Thanks Aunt Candy and Uncle Glen!P is for grandPa's farm. Caleb got to meet his Great-grandparents and a cow or two. Andrew got to "ride" on the tractor.

P is for the answer to the important question "What's ready to eat on the farm?" PEAS- delicious right off the vine (??? is that where they grow?)

P is for Picking- All of the Aunts and Uncles have fabulous gardens. We picked our way from house to house. Here are some of the things we sampled: plums, carrots, catnip, lettuce, tomatoes, peas, lavender, daisies, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, sweet peas, sweet pea flowers, thimble berries, and so much more...

P is for Peer Pressure- Caleb felt the pressure when his cousin Owen was showing off his rolling over skills, so Caleb rolled over for the first time!

P is for the Purple starfish we saw when we went crabbing with Uncle Mike. We crabbed and then went back to Mike and Tindy's gorgeous ocean cabin to cook and eat the crab. We felt like we were at some expensive vacation getaway. It was a great way to spent Jon and my fifth anniversary!

P is for family portraits that we took before cousin Leah's wedding.

P is for a practically perfect trip, but...

P is for Puking, which is another thing the family shared. Eric, Leslie, and Caleb got it first. Then just when Jon and I were proud of ourselves for having such good resistance, we got it too. Jon was puking on the airplane, and I was dealing with Caleb's constant diarrhea diapers while on the airplane for 4 hours. It was by far the worst flight any of us have ever taken. I am sure that the poor guy sitting next to us felt the same way, too!

P is for packing in lots of excitement in just a week trip! We are finally about recovered from all that FUN! :)