Little monkey

As Cael gets older, he gets more curious about things around him. This has been both a blessing and a curse. A blessing in that he is easier to entertain, but a curse in that he is everywhere and getting into EVERYTHING. The other day Ryan pulled the cushions off of our couch to give Cael his very own little play area. He thought it was great, but what was even more funny is that he didn't seem to have any qualms getting down off the couch.... face first. He also loved sitting there as Ryan bounced him up and down like he was on a trampoline. Probably not good for the couch, but worth it to see Cael's reaction!!We also have a treadmill down stairs that he loves to crawl all over. I have been wanting to purchase an indoor jungle gym of sorts for Cael, but now I am thinking we are fine just using things we already have. Not to mention, Ryan thinks it is great that we are at least getting some use out of the treadmill (which he didn't want to buy in the first place). LOL!

So close

Cael is getting so close to walking. With every passing day he takes more steps all by himself and loves it! He is getting so much better at balancing and catching himself before he falls. It is great watching him prepare to walk from one place to the next. He loves having everyone's attention before attempting to walk a long distance, but will fall quickly. However, if you pretend to ignore him, he usually does much better and ends up walking further. It is like he doesn't lose concentration so he can do better when no one is paying attention (or at least pretending not to). I love listening to him giggle once he reaches his final destination and how he turns his little face to ours waiting for us to clap and cheer. 

Bottle weaning

We have been patiently trying to wean Cael from the bottle for the last couple of months. A few days ago it occurred to me that part of the reason he might not be drinking very much from his sippy cup was because he preferred the taste of the formula to the taste of whole milk. We made the decision to start giving him whole milk in his bottles instead of formula and surprisingly enough, it went really well. He didn't seem to have a problem switching and Ryan and I are thrilled that we don't have to pay for formula anymore. Yesterday, in an attempt to wean him from another bottle, I told the daycare not to give Cael his 8:00 bottle just to see how it went. Imagine my surprise when I went to pick him up and they told me he hadn't had a bottle all day!!!!!!!!!! We are going to take it slow, which means we will continue to supply the daycare with bottles in case he needs one, but it appears that we are on our way to becoming a bottle free household (for now)!

Dishwasher discovery

The other day, I pulled down the dishwasher door to entertain Cael while I did some tidying up around the house. I was in the living room when I realized that it had become rather quiet all of a sudden. I immediately ran into the kitchen to see what was going on and found him on the door of the dishwasher exploring the dishes and trying to take things out and throw them on the floor. Such a little monkey!! I honestly wish I knew what he was thinking and why he is so fascinated by the dishwasher, the refrigerator, the stairs and pop cans! Either way, it doesn't really matter because even at it's most annoying (when he wanted to play on the stairs and ONLY on the stairs), I love it. I love that he is so curious and intrigued by everything. It reminds me to stop and smell the roses every now and then!

So true

I remember before we had Cael, Ryan and I swore that we wouldn't end up buying a lot of toys because we had both heard the stories from our parents as well as other parents that babies are entertained by everything BUT their toys. Well, with a room of his very own dedicated to toys and a preference to play with anything and everything having to do with our kitchen, we realize how very true it is. I try to put Cael in his playroom so I can cook dinner, tend to the dogs or just rest my arms, but he won't have anything to do with it and cries for Mommy. However, if I plop him down in front of the freezer and let him pull out the box of Boca burgers to play with, he is immediately pacified and will spend a good ten to twenty minutes pulling them out of the box, examining them, putting them in his mouth and then throwing them on the ground.

A couple of nights ago, he got bored and started throwing a fit. I needed to finish up a few things so I gave him the jar that holds our cooking utensils hoping to entertain him for a few more minutes and he loved it. Honestly, I love watching him examine things with his childish fascination, however lately it doesn't seem like he is exploring so much as he is just being a boy and throwing everything all over the place and generally just making a lot of noise. Either way, when I need him to be occupied, it works for me.

Validation

At Cael's twelve month check up when we told our pediatrician that we still go in and give Cael a pacifier if he wakes up in the middle of the night, she warned us that at this age he is more aware of what it takes to get Mommy and Daddy to give him what he wants. We discussed letting him cry it out and I told her that while I supported the method, the few times I had tried it, he had ended up having an ear infection. Kind of makes you question your ability to judge the cries and whether or not you are making the right decision to just let him cry. Cael woke up at 4:00 this morning and was WIDE awake. I knew that although he was fine at the moment, if he stayed up until his nap at 11:30, it would completely throw him off of his schedule and he would be cranky and extremely tired. We decided to try letting him cry it out to see if he would fall back asleep. He cried on and off for about 45 minutes, but the best part was that he fell back asleep around 5:15 and slept until 7:45 (he normally wakes up around 6:45-7:00). Much better than if he had actually gotten up at 4:00. The comforting thing about listening to him cry for that long was that he sounded like a little boy who wasn't getting what he wanted as opposed to a baby that was scared or in pain. It was (and is) extremely validating to know that we made the right decision (and not an easy one) for our son and that it paid off!!! Hopefully we won't have to let him cry it out too much in the future, but if we do, I am sticking by my guns because it appears to work!

Winter wonderland

It snowed over the Thanksgiving weekend so we took Cael outside for his first romp in the snow and to try out his new snowsuit from Grandma and Grandpa. Suffice it to say he was not overly pleased about being outside in the cold. We took off one of his gloves so he could feel the snow and he was intrigued, but didn't seem to like the immobility that the bulky snowsuit caused. At one point he fell face first into the cold snow, which might have had something to do with his adverse reaction to being outside. Hopefully as he gets older and starts walking he will enjoy playing outside in the snow as much as Mommy, Daddy and the puppies do!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Bapa and Kim flew into town for Thanksgiving and we spent a wonderful day preparing delicious food and taking turns keeping track of our little Tazmanian Devil. In preparation Ryan had picked up a 20 lbs turkey not knowing exactly what size would work for a group of four. When we saw the size of the turkey we were a bit worried that it wasn't going to be thawed in time to start cooking on Thursday morning. I went home over lunch on Tuesday to put it in the refrigerator and we put it in cool water Tuesday night until it was time to go to bed (Ryan stayed up until midnight just to change the water every 30-60 minutes). I was worried our kitchen would be lacking any time I was asked if we had something (roasting pan, big pot, mixing bowls, spices, spoons - you name it), but was pleasantly surprised to find that we had everything necessary to cook a fantastic turkey dinner (guess registering for the wedding paid off - even if it is almost 5 years later). Cael LOVED the mashed potatoes and stuffing (just like his Daddy) and Bapa had fun feeding it to him. Everyone contributed to making it a great celebration. We are all very blessed and sometimes it takes a special day like Thanksgiving to remind us to slow down and realize what we truly have to be thankful for.

If it works......

Every morning I take Cael into daycare and he is in a great mood. He sits calmly and talks or coos all the way in to 'school'. Either that or he takes a cat nap. Picking him up, however, is a completely different story. For the last few weeks he has cried and screamed the whole way home and I am talking about screaming and crying so hard that he loses his voice and chokes on his own tears. I have tried EVERYTHING that I can think of to make him stop. Finally, last week, I started listening to the Spanish channel on the XM radio and lo and behold he fell asleep or at least wasn't screaming at the top of his lungs. I have tried it a couple of times and so far so good. I am not convinced it is the miracle cure, but one of the teachers in his classroom at daycare plays latino and hispanic music and mentioned that he really liked the beat. I have gone the whole gamut from he spends so much time around other people that he needs the noise to fall asleep, that he is upset that I am taking him away from all of his friends (he is a very social little boy) or that he is afraid of all the lights (which at night might not make as much sense) and the only thing I have come up with is that right now playing music on the Spanish channel works and I am sticking with it until something happens otherwise to prove me wrong. I also thought it would be fun to record this for myself so down the road I can read about the things that I did or that worked to pacify my son.