I suppose that I should offer some updated information on my 6 month old, since none was included with the slideshow. I still have no weight to tell (seriously, it's impossible to get a kid weighed in this country) but he's officially 28.5 inches long and only 2.5 inches shorter than his 2-1/2 year old cousin. The kid is so long (and, well, his cousin is pretty tiny). :)

In any case, Caleb is SO CLOSE to crawling. He can push himself up to his hands and knees but then he immediately pushes with his arms, causing his knees fly out from under him and propelling him backward. Now he just needs to figure out how to move forward! I'm hoping it'll happen before I return to work so that I don't miss the first time he crawls!

His likes: bathtime, brushing his teeth (I have to pry his tooth brush out of his hand if I don't want to sit in the bathroom all day letting him brush his teeth), playing with other people, looking at pictures, reading books, singing, going out and about, chewing on everything in sight, being tickled, and being the centre of attention.

His dislikes: having his face cleaned after eating (though it does not bother him in the bathtub), having his nose wiped (though suctioning it is never a problem), being strapped into anything for any length of time (including his booster seat, which makes feeding a challenge at times, and his buggy) - the boy likes his freedom, playing on his own for an extended period of time, putting on his pajamas after taking a bath (I think this a combination of liking to be naked - he is a boy after all - and knowing it means bedtime is soon), and drinking formula (he has started refusing it).

He continues to be the wiggliest sleeper, but he can now move himself so much that he rarely gets stuck anymore. When I check on him, I often find him in some funny positions in his crib (you wouldn't think there are that many ways that a baby can be laying in a crib, but I think that it's an artform for Caleb). He will eat just about anything that you give him (except formula) and has only showed an intolerance to one brand of packaged baby cereals that you add water to (I guess it must be the way it's processed). He can drink out of a cup (with A LOT of backwash), out of a sippy cup, or out of a bottle (depending on what's clean, available, or convenient) and now always tries to steal my drink.

Caleb hardly ever cries a full-blown cry, knowing that he just has to wimper or whine to let us know he's not happy. (It makes for a very peaceful house.) He's always smiling and loves to flirt and have a chat with the ladies on the bus, tube, and train. It's very adorable. He's gotten so playful with different games that he likes and cute little reactions of laughter and squeals of delight that result. Caleb loves to watch his cousin Noah's video blog and look at videos, pictures, and slideshows posted of all his blog baby friends. He continues to show no fear of anything and is an extremely curious boy (I forsee that this will keep me on my toes once he is crawling).

But most of all, Caleb continues to be totally happy, completely social, and so much fun.

Labels: Caleb

I thought a nice slide show (with wonderfully selected music) would be nice for everyone to celebrate Caleb's 6 month birthday! After choosing photos and music, and finally figuring out how to upload it (twice) I was annoyed that the music does not work as it does on my computer. The first song was Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars" followed by Dave Matthews Band's "Everyday", however DailyMotion has decided that you will hear "Everyday" only and then no music for that second half. Also, once the song ends you will need to move the marker towards the middle to finish the slide show as it quits once the song is over even though there are more pics. I would attempt to fix all this, but we have to leave for church.

I realise that most of you won't care if there is music or not, but I really wanted it to work. Enjoy!
---this is Scott.

Labels: Caleb

This week has not been highly eventful so far, but Caleb has had a couple of new firsts. This weekend we purchased Caleb his first car. This car should serve as a rocker, ride along thing with parent handle, ride along on his own, and a walker. It grows as he grows. Nice. Caleb and Daddy put the car together and then Caleb rode his car around the house (the weather was too yucky to go outside). He's not so much a fan of the "rocking" aspect of it because it doesn't really move that much and Caleb likes motion but it's great when both Mommy and Daddy are home to push him back and forth. Now I can't wait until he learns to propel himself!

Caleb also tried his first finger foods on Sunday: baby teething biscotti. Sounds fancy, huh?! Well, I doubt any food that dissolves with your saliva is really that fancy, but Caleb seemed to enjoy it. I guess all his practice of putting his pacifier in his mouth on his own had prepared him for feeding himself finger foods. He never once missed his mouth! What an eating champ!

Here's a slideshow of pictures of his new firsts.

Labels: Caleb, First Experiences

Yesterday we went down to Brighton to meet up with our friends, Jeff, Andrea, and Mia. Andrea had told us it was a "beautiful day" in Brighton, so we made plans to meet up and go to the ocean. As it turned out, at some point between us getting on the train and arriving in Brighton (which was about 40 minutes) the sun went away and the rain clouds came out. Still, we would not be defeated so we decided to continue our plans for the day.

Thankfully, when we arrived at the coast, the raindrops seemed to stop, making the experience much more pleasant. We were particularly excited because this was Caleb's first time seeing the ocean. Per usual, Caleb showed no fear and seemed very intrigued by the tides coming in and out (which almost got us several times during the picture taking). This family photo was particularly difficult to take because Caleb was far more interested in turning around to watch the tide than he was to look at the camera. Sadly, the water was freezing cold (despite the three men we saw strip down to their underware and dive into the ocean) so we could not take off Caleb's socks and shoes and let him stand in the water. Of course, most British beaches are also rocky instead of sandy, so it probably would not have felt very good on his bare feet either. Still, it was a good first trip to see the ocean. Mia and I spent time throwing rocks into the ocean and Scott put Caleb on his shoulders so that he could watch the water without possibility of getting wet. All in all, I think Caleb will be a fan of beach trips in the future (Hawaii/Caribbean, here we come! - I'm determined to return to tropical islands even after having kids). Aren't Scott and "Mini Scott" just so cute?! :)

Labels: Caleb, First Experiences

Well, I guess after a year and a half I have finally established myself enough in this country to become the target of credit card companies. I officially received my first credit card application in the mail today, complete with an advertisement on the envelope:

"the credit card that helps you stay in control"

Hmm...that sounds a bit misleading. Probably why British people are drowning in debt (more so than Americans, I do believe). In any case, in the States I would simply rip these up and throw them in the bin, but I was curious (not because I want a credit card over here; because I know interest rates are supposed to be crazy) so I opened the envelope up. What?!

"Typical 39.9% APR"

Wow.

Labels: England

A lot of you may know, but we don't celebrate Valentine's Day - at least not in the traditional sense. This is not because I am the Valentine's Day Scrooge or because I hate the holiday in general. Because I don't. As a kid, I loved Valentine's Day, and the parties at school, and the candy and decorations, and the overall festiveness.

Then I became a teenager and all my friends started getting depressed on Valentine's Day if they didn't have a "significant other" or if somebody in the school didn't send them a flower gram, or whatever. This was the start of the downfall for me, I think. As I continued to get older, I realised how truly commercialised the day really was. What I dislike the most is that retailers mark up their items (especially flowers) dramatically for the one day, simply because it's Valentine's Day. I think that's silly. Besides, I prefer to be surprised by these things than receive them simply because the holiday says I should.

So, Scott and I started our own tradition when we were dating - we would go to Chuck E Cheese. This would result in a good time had by all without any unnecessary pressures from the day. And we have continued the tradition, figuring it would be fun with our nephews and children. The way I see it, everybody wins in the scenario: we can take the nephews and our kiddos and go play and my sisters can have the evening to have a romantic date (or go grocery shopping, as my brother in law recently suggested). :) In a way, we are celebrating Valentine's Day, just not necessarily in the traditional sense.

Have no fear, though. I do not plan on corrupting Caleb. I am excited about helping him make Valentine's Day cards, make Valentine's treats, and buying those chalky little message hearts. But I hope that we continue our family fun day as well. Caleb got his first taste of it last night. Chuck E Cheese does not exist in England, so we decided to go bowling with our friends Stephanie and Kyle. Turns out this bowling alley includes pool tables, video games, basketball games, air hockey, etc... Needless to say, we had a lot of fun. It was definitely a late night for Caleb, but he was a good sport the whole time. And I got to practise bowling with a baby strapped to the front of me (which is doable but difficult). Luckily this was only for a couple of frames.

Here are pictures from our Valentine's Day extravaganza.

Labels: First Experiences, Holiday

Only one tooth and already he's an expert tooth brusher! In fact, he was NOT happy when we told him that it was time to stop brushing his teeth. Apparently he's a fan of good oral hygiene!

Labels: Caleb, First Experiences, Teeth

This morning Caleb played with spaghetti for the first time. It turns out that "playing" and "throwing it all on the floor" are one in the same.
Still, he seemed to have fun.
Of course, in the end I had one messy boy, messy floor, and messy booster seat to clean up (and it turns out that spaghetti is much more difficult to clean up than I thought!). But it was all worth it for these cute little smiles and a little change of pace to our day.

Labels: Caleb

Ever since I joining the wonderful world of iTunes, I have always been looking out for new artists and new songs because it is so easy to sample them and just download a song or 2 versus committing yourselves to a whole album. This started with TV shows that use great music, such as ALIAS and Scrubs.

Then when Cheryl and I started attending Cross Timbers Church in Texas, I really wanted to know what songs we sang each week and without the standard C of C worship schedule in my weekly bulletin, I had to jot down plausible titles to search iTunes later. I discovered some Chris Tomlin, Jeremy Camp, and Hillsong (a church in Sydney) music that summer.

Once I joined Cheryl in England we visited Hillsong London as it sounded famailar from some of the new songs we had come to enjoy. The music was great and the church here even made its own CD recording in October 2005 which we were part of (you can totally hear us btw).

My search continued and I downloaded several Hillsong and Hillsong United (more youth/rock oriented) songs since that is primarily what they sing there. Since Caleb was born, it has been difficult for us to go to Hillsong because it is far too lound and bass-ridden for his little ears and we wanted a better lesson each week (the senior pastor is not the best communicator). Well, our friend and fellow American, Megan, found a smaller church with similar worship that was not quite so overdone.

We have been going to Holy Trinity Brompton since then. It is a smaller church, with a great worship time and has several great speakers. The worship is nice too because we listen to some older devotional songs from the Harding days and it is a nice change of pace. We have been singing some new songs the past couple of weeks, and this afternoon I wanted to search for some of them. Plus, I wanted to try out the Worship Central podcast led by the worship leader Tim Hughes.

I found a couple of new songs from Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman (which are currently in my iTunes shopping cart) then I started to listen to the podcast. Apparently, the worship leader at HTB has written several songs and previews them on his podcast.

The more I searched about music by Tim Hughes the more impressed and shocked I was. Tim Hughes is the author of some of the best devotional songs, most noteably, "Here I Am To Worship". Also, "Beautiful One" and "Consuming Fire" to name a few. During my search, I also found out the new song we sang today "Happy Day" was also written by Tim as well.

Cheryl and I were pretty amazed to learn that we attend church where such a great and famous songwriter is the worship leader.

Its like finding out your spouse is related to one of the most well known, influential, and significant Christian writers in the world. Oh, wait...

Labels: church

Saturdays are almost always relatively relaxing in our house. Aside from cleaning (which is a regular weekend chore), we often spend most of the day playing with Caleb and enjoying each other's company since Scott has been at work all week. A couple of months ago we began online grocery shopping (something I should have started when we first moved here!) so that is one less Saturday chore that we have to do. We typically have a lazy morning and then make it out around to the shops for different bits by the afternoon, but nothing too strenuous.

This morning, we finally got around to throwing out some boxes that had taken up residence in corners of the house and the guest bedroom in the past couple of months. During this task, Caleb got to play with peanut packing for the first time. He was a bit confused by it at first, then he began to enjoy it, then he began to eat it which meant that playtime with the packing peanuts quickly ended.
Once we finally got ourselves together, we decided it was time to upgrade Caleb's buggy. When there's bad weather or a lot of shopping to do, Caleb rides in the buggy instead of the sling. The past few months, he has been in his infant carseat which clipped into the frame of the buggy. Today we decided it was time to remove it (since Caleb hangs out of that infant carseat now) and replace it with the big boy buggy portion (after all, he can sit up now). This proved much more complicated to assemble than we had realised. When he was first born, it was simply used as a "pram" for Caleb to lay down in. Everything had to be taken apart, moved around, and put back together to make it a proper buggy, complete with sunscreen, fleece (because it's cold in England), apron, and rain cover (which we had to purchase today because they are pretty much a staple around these parts). Caleb was so excited to be able to sit up straight in his buggy and see everything around.
This is what it looks like when everything is snapped together for protection from the cold weather. We also picked up a booster seat for Caleb while we were out so that he can sit up at the table with us instead of on the floor in his Bumbo when he eats. (And we didn't forget his toothbrush either.) All in all it was a good day with a lot of upgrades to help transition Caleb further away from babyhood.

Labels: Caleb

Caleb has had a major oral fixation since he was two and a half months old, with EVERYTHING going in his mouth. This inevitably has led to everybody telling us for the past three months that he must be teething. Of course, we have known better because the fact of the matter is that he just likes to chew on everything. After all, that's one of his main ways of exploring and learning about things.

In any case, I have recently started the habit of running my finger along Caleb's gums daily to see if I feel any solid gums, indicating that teeth might start pushing through soon. I figure I need to prepare myself because mealtime could become painful and I don't want any surprises. Still, nothing. And I am happy with that.

Then, this morning, my finger runs across something sharp! What?! There was nothing there last night! So I try again. And again. And again. Yup, Caleb has officially cut his first tooth. I don't want to jinx it, but so far this has been accompanied with no rash, no fever, no swollen gums, and no excess fussiness. Hopefully this pattern remains. In the meantime, I'm excited that my baby is becoming even more like a real person!

Now we are going out to shop for a toothbrush.

Labels: Caleb, Milestones

Apparently some of you are having difficulty seeing the "dressing mishap" in the previous picture. If you look closely, both of Caleb's feet are coming out of the same leg of his jeans. It has nothing to do with the British flag on his jeans.

This is what happens when Daddy dresses Caleb:

It snowed again! I think this is the most snow that we have seen since moving here. There were 2-3 inches when I woke up this morning and then it snowed steadily for several hours after that. It was absolutely beautiful! Sadly, the sun then came out for a bit and turned a lot of it into slush, but we were able to enjoy it for a good part of the day and there continues to be a nice covering on the ground. These pictures were taken on our street and of the tennis courts right behind our house.
Anyhow, I bundled Caleb up in his snowsuit for attempt number two at him playing in the snow. Turns out that he's not the biggest fan of the snow. I think this is mainly because he doesn't like lying down in it (which is understandable since it's cold), but he has a hard time sitting because he's like the marshmallow man in his snowsuit and can't really keep his balance. He enjoyed eating some of it, however (don't worry, it wasn't yellow snow), and was happy as long as he was standing or I was holding him.
In the end, I think he was just as content to play inside in the warmth with his toys.

Labels: Caleb, Snow

In reference to a comment I made in the last post, not to say that Caleb will not also be getting chubbier, but he has apparently grown 3/4 of an inch in the past week and a half. He is now 28 inches long.

I realise that it was only just a week and a half ago that I provided a full detailed update of Caleb's development. However, I feel as though another one is due because the kid grows and changes at such a rapid speed!

Since turning 5 months old, Caleb has become a sitting champ. With the exception of the times when he gets really excited and throws himself backward (which still happens on occasion so we keep the boppy behind him just in case), Caleb is now able to hold himself very steady as he sits up and plays. He can lean in different directions, and then pull himself back up with his turbo abs. This, of course, makes my life much easier since, as previously discussed, he does not like to lie down when playing anymore.

In any case, because Caleb is now an expert sitter, I felt comfortable taking him into the "crawlers" room at church on Sunday. Really, my initial motivation for this was not because I felt he was now "advanced" enough to change rooms, but because there were more toys in there. However, it turned out that there were about three other kids who could not yet crawl. These kids could sit up, however, and were less apt to be trampled than if they were only laying on the floor.

Upon moving into the "crawlers" room, I discovered that there are actually church members in there to watch the kiddos so that parents can return to the service (unlike in the "cry room" where parents just sit in there and chat while feeding or playing with the babies). I was not expecting this and did not initially take them up on their offer to watch Caleb (after all, I've only left him with somebody else on one occasion, and that was with a friend, not a stranger). However, after observing them with other children, I decided that I would leave Caleb for the last 15-20 minutes to see how he (and I) would do.

It was so good to get to sit next to Scott and be a part of the church service again. I hadn't realised just how much I had missed it. And when we picked up Caleb after church, the workers raved about how he was the perfect baby, saying that he just smiled, laughed, and played the whole time. I couldn't have been more proud!

In other news, Caleb also now eats TWO jars of food at night instead of just one. I figure this either means that he's either about to start getting really chubby or he's about to start getting longer again. I suppose only time will tell.

Also, his hair has now thickened out enough that it officially gets very messy at times and I need to start remembering to pack a brush in his diaper bag! Because it's cold outside, Caleb never leaves the house without a hat on his head. However, on Sunday, when I took off his hat, I discovered a whole mess underneath. Not only was his hair sticking up in several places, but his head had apparently been sweating some (probably when he fell asleep in the sling) and his hair had turned curly in parts (though other parts were still brushed straight). He looked very silly because his hair looked confused. I have to admit, though, that I continue to be excited about the fact that he has curly hair.

Labels: Caleb

So I was reading an article online today about how the FDA has approved a new shot for inftants in the States that would allow some of the current vaccination shots to be combined:

"Currently, U.S. health officials recommend 23 separate shots for infants. Pentacel would reduce that to 16 shots."

As I read this, my mouth just fell open. Caleb had 7 shots. And he's done with all his infant shots. SEVEN! Once again, I'm a little concerned about the British medical system.

Labels: Caleb, England

Last week Cheryl posted about Caleb's eating habits. He is a very good eater and enjoys pretty much all fruits and vegatables he's had with a particular taste for sweet potatoes. She also mentioned that during feeding time we occasionally (usually) break into song for Caleb to finish his last several bites.

The past several days Caleb has still been eating very well, but only seems to really enjoy one song; "I've Been Working On The Railroad". We started singing this song during dinner as it is part of Caleb's personalised Silly Song Veggie Tales CD from Nana & Papau. Now, when we start singinig we have to sing "I've Been Working On The Railroad" over and over and over and over again.

Its fun singing to Caleb, but it gets tiring after the 6th time in one evening. However, I think Cheryl may have found another upbeat tune that Caleb enjoys; The Lord's Army. Now we got motions too!

Labels: Caleb