finger foods

It took Caleb a while to develop an interest in feeding himself finger foods, but in just the past couple of weeks that has changed. Here's a video of him showing off his skills as well as his nose scrunch that he likes to do these days...

more hiking

Jason had Friday off so we took the opportunity to go on another family hike. We didn't bring the camera, partly because we were already on the way out the car when I realized we didn't have it...and with all it takes to get out of the door these days, I'd rather not go back if I don't have to.

We headed toward Eldorado Canyon and started at the Mesa Trailhead. It sprinkled a bit shortly after we got on the trail, but fortunately that was all the rain we saw. The highlight of the hike was definitely the wildflowers. They were amazing. All different colors, sizes, and shapes. As we hiked along, up some steps and past a little brook, I reflected on the awesome creativity of God and pondered how anyone could believe that the wildflowers I was seeing, in all of their beauty, intricacy and uniqueness, could have just come about on their own. I was torn between wishing I had the camera and being glad that I didn't because I'd want to stop every few seconds to take a picture of one.

We turned around after an hour and a half (that included a stop to feed Caleb) and headed down so that we could get back home for naptime. Jason had carried Caleb on the way up so it was my turn to give it a shot on the way down. He was heavy! Not sure I'll be doing many epic hikes with Caleb on my back. It was two days ago and I'm still a little sore from it. But we had fun.

water world!

On Monday, Caleb and I met my friend Lindsay and her son Jeremiah at Water World (a water park in the Denver area). I haven't been to a water park in ages. Actually, they kinda gross me out. But I thought I'd suck it up and give Water World a shot since I'd heard good things about it and thought Caleb might enjoy it. And we had a blast! I didn't get any pictures of him in the water, but here are a few that I took before we left...

camping at buffalo creek

Last weekend, we took Caleb on his first camping trip!! We joined Jason's parents and sister up in Buffalo Creek for two nights. Jason, Caleb and I got up there Friday afternoon. Grandma and Granddad happily accepted the job of feeding Caleb his dinner and Jason and I went on a little stroll to check out the wildflowers.


Then we pitched our tent. We'd brought Caleb's travel crib, which looks like a mini tent itself, to put inside our tent for him to sleep in. But he had other plans. He was hard to settle and put to bed and then woke up about an hour and a half after he got to sleep screaming his head off. With some difficulty, we got him back to sleep again. But of course, when it was time for us to get in the tent for the night, we woke him up and he started screaming again. So we ended up zipping our sleeping bags together and sticking him in between us. He did fairly well the rest of the night, but we couldn't really say the same. Oh well, I didn't have high expectations for his first night of camping anyway...

The next day, Jason, his dad and I went mountain biking and Caleb stayed at the campsite with Jason's mom and sister. The guide book said the trail would take 1.5 hours for intermediate riders. It didn't, however, say how long it would take completely out of shape riders like myself. More like 3 hours. We spent the rest of the day hanging out at the campsite. Fortunately, the rain had held out for our bike ride. Also fortunately, Jason's parents had rented an RV that we got to hide out in when the rain did start to fall. We did our best to keep Caleb entertained in the camper...


Then the rain stopped and we were able to get back outside. Caleb has some fun playing with his stroller wheels...


Here's a video so you can see him in action:

And here he is making friends with Theodore, Ali's roommate's dog who was on his first camping trip too!

The second night we planned for him ending up sleeping with us and we slept a bit better. But even though the sleeping situation wasn't ideal, it was a really fun camping trip. And Caleb definitely had a blast!

hiking adventures

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the REI garage sale and got Caleb a bike trailer and a hiking backpack! The bike trailer isn't quite ready to be used (still need the fit kit and a helmet for Caleb), but we hit the trail with the hiking backpack a couple of days after we got it. Because we got it at the garage sale, it is top-of-the-line...nicer than we would have gotten otherwise. It comes complete with a sun/rain hood, a diaper bag and changing pad, and a little mirror so you can look over your shoulder at your little passenger.

Anyway, Jason came home from work a little early the Monday after we got the pack and we headed to a nearby trail. Here are some pics from our little hiking adventure (if you double-click on the collage, you can see them up close):

peek-a-boo take two

I meant to write this post a month ago and now it's a little outdated, but I'll write it anyway. Back in January I posted about how much Caleb enjoyed playing peek-a-boo. Well he still does, but he takes a much more active role in it now. A while back he started "hiding" from us when he wanted to play peek-a-boo. He would cover up his eyes and make these happy grunting noises until he had our attention (which usually meant that his eyes wouldn't be completely covered so that he could see when we were looking at him). When we looked, he would take his hands away, we'd say "peek-a-boo", and he'd grin. I meant to get it on video, but haven't. And he doesn't do it as much these days as when he first discovered it, of course. But to me it's just a cool representation of his development. It wasn't that long ago when we had to do all the work to play peek-a-boo...put a blanket over him and then whisk it away...then he started to remove the blanket himself...and now he can do it all himself...no blanket necessary even. May sound silly, but it's fun to see that sort of progression with one particular activity. That's all. :-)

month eleven photos

Eleven months old!! It's hard to believe that his first birthday is right around the corner. Pretty soon he'll be walking around and then he won't even seem like a baby anymore! It seems harder to get good photos these days because he won't stay in one place too long. But here's what I've got for the past month...

summer time fun

This little man loves watermelon. Of course, he loves most food, but watermelon is a newer one and he's crazy about it. Usually we cut it up into little chunks, but last night Jason was giving him slices...

month ten photos

atlanta

In the beginning of May, Caleb got to take his first trip to Atlanta to visit his Aunt Carrie, Uncle Mark, and cousin Nathaniel. We hadn't visited since before they moved to their new house over a year ago and I was so glad we finally made it there! We arrived on a Friday and spent the evening at the house so that Caleb could adjust a bit. When it was time to get ready for bed, Caleb had fun taking a bath with Nathaniel and then fell asleep in Nathaniel's travel crib with barely a complaint!

On Saturday, we took a short trip to the park and then headed back to the house to meet up with my parents who were coming for a couple of days too! We relaxed at the house the rest of the day Saturday and on Sunday we visited the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, which were really neat. Sunday night, Nathaniel's babysitter, Lauren, was kind enough to watch both of the boys so that the adults could have a night out. We went out for a nice dinner at Two Urban Licks and then had drinks at the top of the Westin, where we enjoyed the views of Atlanta from the rotating cocktail lounge! We weren't sure how Caleb would do with Lauren because we usually leave him with Jason's family and he'd never been put to bed by someone he didn't know at all. But I was glad to hear that he ended up doing really well!

On Monday, Carrie and Mark had to work so my parents took Jason, Caleb, Nathaniel and I out for a yummy breakfast. We spent the rest of the time hanging out at the house. My parents left Monday afternoon and we left Tuesday afternoon. It rained a lot during our trip, but that was okay because the thing we most want to do was spend time with my family. Caleb had lots of fun with his cousin. Nathaniel was super cute...always going over to Caleb and giving him hugs and kisses.

When I reflect on our time there, it makes me sad that we don't get to see them more often. But because of that, the times that we do get to be with them are that much sweeter! Here are some (okay, lots of) photos from our trip (if you double-click on the slideshow, it'll take you to my web album and you can click on view all and see them faster if you want):

the rescue

On April 25th, Jason, Caleb and I participated in The Rescue...a global event aimed at raising awareness about the child soldiers in Africa. It was sponsored by an organization called Invisible Children (http://www.invisiblechildren.com/) that is working to rescue children in Central East Africa who have been abducted and forced to fight as soldiers in a rebel militia. The Rescue event took place in 100 cities all over the world and involved thousands of people "abducting themselves" and waiting to be "rescued", which required the attendance of cultural and/or political leaders as well as media coverage of the event.

Jason, Caleb and I headed to Denver where we met up with about 2,000 people in a park near the Capital. We then walked, single-file and holding onto a rope, through the streets of the city to another park a few miles away. Since it would have been too complicated with Caleb, we didn't stick around and wait to be rescued. It was a cold, rainy day so I wasn't too disappointed that we had to leave. But I was glad that we got to do the march at least. Caleb's little hands got pretty cold, but he was a really good sport. Here are a couple of pics of Caleb's first rally. :-)

pointer

One of Caleb's favorite things to do these days is point. He points at anything and everything that interests him...cars, trucks, birds, flowers, fans, people (though I've tried to tell him that the latter is a bit rude). He points and points and often seems to be waiting for us to tell him the name of the things he is pointing at. At mealtimes, he likes to use his pointing skills to let us know exactly what he wants. Kinda like this:

The other day I bought some flowers for the flower box on our patio. When Jason got home I asked Caleb if he wanted to show Daddy the flowers and he pointed at the sunflowers in a vase on our dining room table! Not exactly what I was going for, but that was the first time he used his pointing skills to identify something like that. We, of course, kept asking him where the flowers were and enthusiastically praised him for pointing to them. Now any time we ask him where something is (fan, phone, computer, Mama, whatever), he points to...the sunflowers. I wonder what he'll do when I get rid of the now rather dead sunflowers...

on the move

About a month ago, Caleb began to master the skill of pulling himself up. His initial motivation, of course, was the computer:

So now he has the army crawl down, has started crawling on his hands and knees here and there, can pull himself up on furniture (and mom and dad), and can even cruise a bit along the furniture. His increased mobility has of course lead to a certain propensity for bumps and bruises. But I'm sure that these are just the beginnings of many a bump and bruise. Toddlerhood, here we come!

cottage cheese

A while back (as is the case with most of these posts because I haven't been keeping up as usual), we tried giving Caleb some cottage cheese. He was not a fan. Here's what he looked like after a bite of cottage cheese:


And after another bite of cottage cheese:


But then we gave him a bite of applesauce and all was well in his little world once again:

caleb's first hike

So I recently realized that Jason had a bunch of photos on his camera that I'd forgotten about because I've only been keeping on top of the pictures in my own camera. When I looked through them, it reminded me about the first hike we took Caleb on back in March. Nothing crazy or anything. We just headed to a local park at the foot of the foothills and hiked a trail there (well, part of a trail). Here are a few pics: