Nikki James Photography!

 

While we were in Ohio for a week, we were able to get my cousin, Nikki, to do a photo shoot of Caleb. She has just started a new business and even made a studio in her house while it’s winter. She got some really cute shots!

 

Gotta love those eyes!

Cute facial expression.

So sweet.

For the love of all things hats!

Signing “HAT”

 

A few Christmas numbers. Too bad we already did our Christmas cards!

If he doesn’t have a blanket/burb cloth to hold in his thumb sucking hand, he will hold his other hand. This is kind of a new habit for him. I told Nikki to catch it if she could, because I couldn’t! Look how sweet!

Rolling around with hats. He LOVES hats ya know!?!!?

Thanks Nikki, you did an awesome job! Glad to help you with your boy collection!

Wordless Wednesday

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Santa

We went Saturday and Caleb got to meet Santa. He wasn’t scared at all just would stare at him, I think he was thinking about playing his new game “whiskers”(taught by his G-dad). Josh was hoping he would go ballistic so we could get a funny picture. It was a little weird as a mom to sit my son on a strange man’s lap! I will say he was a very “good” Santa though (whatever the complete definition of that is, I don’t know.)

Plate

The other week we had a mom's night out. A few of us got together and did pottery. I made a plate for Caleb. It's so dang cute. I love it. I could think of a dozen more things to make... I might just have to go back!

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New Accomplishments

Caleb Loves playing Peek-a-boo. It’s really funny. He isn’t a quick peeker either- he holds his hands (or other object,whatever he has) for quite a long time. You would be impressed, you would think he forgot he was playing but then PEEK, he shows you his eyes and big smile! Josh does this thing with him too, where he will put his one hand over his one eye like he is totally flabbergasted with you. It’s cuter than it sounds. Ask him to do it for you when you see him next, he will do it on command. 

Here is Caleb playing “Peek” with Mommy after one of his naps. His eyes are closed only because of the flash.

The process of teaching Caleb sign language involves spoiling him to really teach him the cause and effect of it. If you ask or tell us what you want-you get it. I think we need to get a new technique now though. He now can sign hat(taps his head),eat(he either taps his mouth or puts his fingers in his mouth upside down), more(claps), want(hits his chest or rubs his hand down his jaw line). When we took the baby sign class almost a year ago, they told us that babies would adapt and do their version of the sign. Most of his signs are pretty close to the real deal, except his want(version #2). That one is a Caleb special.He is actually mixing hat and want making more of a give it to me now! Its really cute. I love it when he signs. Other things he does in the hand communication category is clap(for yeah!), the pat and point (he will pat my back and then point with pointer to what he wants or where he wants to go, definitely a Mommy favorite!) Here is a picture where he had asked for cheerios. We’re not so good with moderation around here!

We are also making some gains in the verbal communication front. He can say Mom/Momma(sometimes in a funny accent, we usually get the funny accent in the morning when he is desperate to get out of his crib), hat(of course), more and now ELMO. I think I am going to write that his first REAL word was Elmo, because the Mom is kinda of babble most of the time although I can point to a picture of me and he will say it, and hat is more of a hhhhhhhhhhaa. But he definitely does all of Elmo, pronouncing it in two distinct parts-EL…MO. Ok, maybe I will list the top 3. More is the latest addition. Oh, I love it. We were trying to get him to say Elmo on video the other day. He said it a couple of times but didn’t come out very clearly on the video camera. Daddy is holding the little Elmo, that I bought for decoration for his birthday party, and big Elmo is on the floor between them.

I was trying to hold out until December 27th to do a 14month update, but we are so excited about his new accomplishments and I am afraid I will forget to mention some of them.

Oh, how I love that boy!

Kristy,PT

Kristy is Caleb’s physical therapist. She comes to our house every Tuesday morning at 8:15. We love her. She is so great and know just how to work Caleb, pushing him just hard enough. Even though Caleb is going through his shy stage, he gives Kristy one shy look, she wins him over very quickly. The key to getting him to do what we want and work those muscles is DISTRACTION!

Kristy trying to get Caleb engaged in the dino/gator while she secretly uses her right hand to get Caleb in the side sitting position.

He is not a big fan of side sitting. This position requires more core control and makes Caleb feel less stable. He tries to wiggle out of it as quick as possible.

We are still working on crawling. He can hold himself in the position all by himself, but again he hates it because he is weak and feels out of control. The whole PT session is summed up with these two pictures-one minute screaming his head off, the next laughing!

Peak-a-boo! We use anything we can to keep him interested. It’s like the Mommy and Kristy show trying to keep him entertained. I had to snap a picture of this, he LOVES peak-a-boo now, and it was funny that his name is perfectly lined up. Each week, Caleb is able to tolerate everything just a little bit longer, showing that he is gaining strength.

Working on standing. When Caleb engages his core, he can stand. But almost all of the time, his core is not engaged and therefore he can’t stand by himself. Kristy is gently reminding him to engage that belly! (He really is his parent’s child!)

Standing and distraction:Little People.

He loves his Little People and his dump truck!

Since he hates the crawling position, another way to get his arm strength up so when he is standing to have him balance with his arms. Good job C!

Standing and distraction: Barney. There were several times that Kristy was able to let go but most of the time she was kind of tickling him reminding him to engage the core. He was so giggly with Barney, signing “want” and “hi”! So cute to see him so excited and communicating(oh and standing!) He is getting to be a big boy!

Even his breaks are working breaks. He is still watching Barney but sitting on her lap, core engaged of course!

360

 

One of our therapy goals is to pivot on his belly. There is a plan of care for Caleb with listed goals and ways to achieve them(parent and therapists). Our Care Coordinator, Martine, came up with this goal, and I just laughed. “Yeah right”. Not our boy, he doesn’t stay on his belly long enough to pivot. The parent’s action on this one was for us to get on our hand and knees and crawl around him “and infant will think it’s funny because parents aren’t supposed to crawl”. I can still laugh just thinking about this goal and the way it is written. Well ,it didn’t take me crawling around him, or Caleb thinking I’m funny. It just took our patio table! He happily pivoted all the way around! He is now pivoting all the time. Way to go Caleb!

Wordless Wednesday

Snow days

 

Last year we had this snowsuit(size 6-9mo thanks to his Nana’s consignment shopping) which was obviously too big(he was only 2 months old), but worked great from what we used it for. Well I was going through the closet the other day and was about to put it up in the attic with the baby stuff and was like well, what the heck, lets see if he can wear it! And by golly…like a glove! Haha! I was literally laughing so hard, I was crying(It was just Caleb and I at home). I think it was so tight he was able to stand up in it! Looks like we are going to get one more winter out of it! Good thing I found it when I did…

…because Saturday it snowed! Yippee! However, we had to make a trip to the Emergency Room that day because Caleb was having a hard time breathing. Croup, who knew. Actually, it was so bad it was past the “croupy” barky cough, so I would have never known. Long story short, we didn’t exactly have time to play in the snow. There was no snow when we went into the ER and about 1-2inches by the time we left!

Well, today is the day to play. Just Mommy and Caleb. He was nice and toasty, it was me that was freezing!

He is so dang cute!

Ok, time to try a new activity.

We biked around the neighborhood, but again I was the one that was freezing. The wind was killer. He usually whines some during our bike rides, but not this time. He loved it. By the way, what do you do with a toddler’s hands? I bought toddler gloves but yeah, not so much. I need tiny mittens that fit. Northerners…help please?!??! As you can see, most of the snow is melted but there is still plenty around to have some fun.