month twelve photos

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. :-)