month four photos

Well, once again it's been a while. Here are some photos from Caleb's fourth month to hold you over while I work on some more posts...

anniversary trip

The past weekend, Jason and I (and Caleb) went on a little getaway to Estes Park to celebrate our anniversary. Yes, our anniversary was almost a month ago...but we've been busy. :-)

We stayed in a little cabin by the Fall River.


It was a really cute place.


It even had a hot tub on the deck!


We just stayed for one night, but were able to fit in pretty much everything we'd wanted to do. We'd planned to go out to dinner, but decided to get food to go from a local Italian restaurant instead. We took the food back to the cabin, watched a movie, and relaxed in the hot tub with some wine and chocolate. In the morning we sipped hot cocoa by the river...


...and then headed downtown for breakfast. We spent the rest of the day in the town of Estes Park...walked around, took advantage of some of the really good end-of-season sales at the local shops, and visited the brewery (per Jason's request, of course). It was a tiring day for all of us, especially Caleb,...













...but we really enjoyed our mini vacation!

halloween

We didn't do too much in the way of celebrating Halloween this year, but I wanted to share a couple of photos of our cool jack-o-lanterns and our cute baby. :-)

pumpkin patch

A couple of Sundays ago, we went up to the Fort Collins area to visit my good friend Lindsay, her husband Justin, and their 2 1/2-year-old son Jeremiah. After a yummy lunch at Mad Greens, we headed to the pumpkin patch! When we arrived, we had a quick photo shoot by the pumpkin display. Doesn't Caleb look thrilled?


Then we took a tractor ride out to the field to pick out our pumpkins! The lighting in many of our pictures was pretty terrible, but here's one of Caleb and his daddy in the pumpkin patch anyway (yes, Caleb was sleeping).


After we'd picked out a couple of pumpkins, we rode the tractor back to our cars. Here's Jeremiah waiting for the tractor with one of the pumpkins we picked out (notice the little one he has stashed in his pocket as well).


The following Tuesday, Jason's sister Ali had a pumpkin carving party at her apartment in Denver. We brought along our pumpkins and carved away! It had been years since I'd carved a pumpkin so I had a blast. :-) Here are the final products...

froggie!

Caleb's froggie was one of the very first gifts we received for him...long before he was born. As you can (somewhat) see in this video, he loves his froggie. You can also catch some other fun things in the video like yawns, weird noises, and funny faces.

camera shy

Caleb is always doing really cute things until I think to grab the camera...and then he immediately stops. So I've wanted to share with you some of the cute things he does, but have had a very difficult time getting them on camera. Here's a video from his second month in which I was trying to catch him smiling and cooing, but had little success. You can still see a bit of him in action anyway...

month three photos

jeep! jeep!

Okay so I actually started this post in late September. Here's what I wrote then...

"Yesterday, I decided to take Caleb for a walk in his Jeep stroller. The stroller is awesome!! My girlfriends from high school chipped in to buy it for me before Caleb was born. We have another simpler umbrella stroller, but we're not supposed to use it until he is 6 months old. So we've been getting some use out of the Jeep stroller for everyday purposes even though it's a jogging stroller. When my parents were visiting, for instance, we went up to Estes Park and walked around town with Caleb in the Jeep stroller. At one point, we passed by a little kid who pointed at the stroller and said to his parents, "Look...a motorcycle!!" It is one cool stroller. :-)

Anyway...yesterday, Caleb and I took the Jeep stroller out for a walk on a dirt path near our condo. I even jogged some! Caleb fell asleep not long after we started our walk...and then woke up again before we got back home. It was a very short nap. Then he refused to go back to sleep and decided he was hungry even though it hadn't been that long since he last ate. So we still need to work on napping in the Jeep stroller, but other than that it rocks! I am excited to take advantage of the remaining warm weather and go on lots of little adventures in the Jeep stroller. We have yet to try out the music player, but I hope to do that soon (need to get some batteries first)! You can plug in a music source and the music plays through little speakers pointed toward baby. I, of course, am not up with the times and don't have an iPod to plug into the stroller so I'll have to pull out my discman instead...I am not ashamed!"

Okay, so that's what I wrote about a month ago. I have NOT done a very good job of taking Caleb on lots of little adventures in the Jeep stroller since then. To my credit though, the weather hasn't been as warm as it was. However, today it is absolutely gorgeous!! So I was all geared up to take Caleb out in the stroller. I planned on waiting until he was good and ready for a nap and then going for a nice long walk. Well, things didn't exactly go my way...

We got out of the house later than I had wanted, but we'd finally gotten out to the garage where the stroller was and gotten Caleb all strapped in. Then I put the batteries in for the music player, which I was super excited to try out. However, once that was all set up and I turned my discman on, nothing happened. I'd forgotten to bring the manual outside so I didn't know what to do. I wondered if there was an on/off switch, but I didn't know where it would be if there was. Turns out there was, and in a fairly obvious location, but in my desperation to get going with the walk so that Caleb could start his nap, I never even looked around much for it. Anyway, I gave up on that and we were about to start going when I decided to check the tires real quick. That's when I discovered that the stroller had a very flat tire! Upon examination, I found a goathead in it, which must have been acquired on the last Jeep adventure nearly a month ago. I was SO upset! I pulled out the tire pump, but couldn't figure out how it worked. Nor did I know how to remove the wheel from the stroller. As you can see, I had not done my research on the intricacies of the Jeep stroller.

In the end, I gave up on the Jeep adventure and took Caleb inside for his nap. I took the stroller inside too and proceeded to discover how simple it was to turn on the music player, use the pump, and remove the tire. I'm still not sure how to repair the tire because it doesn't seem like it has a tube to replace. I thought about leaving the goathead in and pumping the tire back up and seeing how well it would hold, but it's probably a better idea to repair or replace the tire. Oh well, at least I got some good photos out of the whole mess (you can see Caleb was fascinated by his stroller and eagerly checking it out instead of napping)...

falling in love

When Caleb was first born, I must admit he did seem like a bit of a stranger to me. Saying "I love you" just didn't seem too natural in the beginning. After all, I barely knew the little guy, right? But not so these days! I am curious how many times those words now escape my lips in just one day. This little man is precious! So adorable. So lovable. It is a neat picture of God's love for us. Caleb doesn't have to do anything to earn my love. I mean, there isn't all too much he can do at this stage, is there? But I am crazy in love with the little guy. And it seems like I fall more and more in love with him every day! Something as simple as a smile or a giggle from him can flood my heart with joy.

It is hard for me sometimes to understand how God can love me regardless of what I do or do not do...that there is nothing I can do to make Him love me any more or any less than He already does. I know that it's true, but it's hard to wrap my mind around it sometimes. It is easy to feel like we have to do things (or refrain from doing things) in order to be loved by God. I have, of course, experienced this sort of unconditional love from others in my lifetime (my husband being a prime example). But I am thankful for this additional bit of insight into the true love of God that I have received through my son.

marcia's wedding

A couple of weekends ago, we headed to the mountains for my dear friend Marcia's wedding. It was Caleb's first time staying overnight somewhere other than our place (since we got home from the hospital of course), and I wasn't sure how he'd do. But by the end of the weekend, I could gladly say that he did great. He may have slept slightly worse than usual at night, but during the days he did really well!

We went up Friday afternoon because the rehearsal dinner was that evening. We stayed in a cabin at Snow Mountain Ranch (where the wedding was to be held) that night. The wedding was on Saturday and I was a bridesmaid, so I spent most of the day until the wedding getting ready with the girls. In the meantime, Caleb went on his first hike with his daddy. When it was time for the wedding, Caleb came along to the ceremony and reception. We'd even gotten him a special outfit for the festivities! He did really well and everyone commented on how happy a baby he is. Here are some pictures from the weekend...

family - part three

And last, but certainly not least...my parents! They made the trek out here to Colorado in September and got to spend almost a full week with us. As Jason's mom had noted before their arrival, it ended up being a great time for their visit because Caleb had begun cooing and smiling and just being generally more responsive. Caleb had a great time with his MorMor (Swedish for mother's mother) and MorFar (Swedish for father's father). He discovered early on that MorFar has a really comfy shoulder...

And that MorMor was a lot of fun...


Although my mom and I had both come down with colds just before my parents arrived in Colorado, we were still able to do a lot of fun stuff while they were here. One of the best days was when we went up to Estes Park. We took the scenic route to get there...


During our visit to Estes Park, we visited a local glass shop where we got to watch a glass blower in action. Caleb had fun exploring all of the brightly colored glass in the shop with his dad...


Although they were here for six days, the time seemed to fly by (as it usually does when you don't want it to). It was sad when we had to say goodbye, but we are looking forward to seeing them again in December!

family - part two

In early August, my sister (Carrie), brother-in-law (Mark), and nephew (Nathaniel) made a trip out to Colorado to meet Caleb (and visit Jason and I). It was a short, but very sweet trip. Since Caleb was born, I had spent a good deal of time on the phone with my sister, but it was so wonderful to get to see her. And it was so fun that Caleb got to meet his big cousin...


Nathaniel was adorable. During their visit we would often hear him saying, "baby, baby!". Early on in the trip Nathaniel wanted to hold Caleb, so my sister had him sit down on the floor beside the couch, put a pillow on his lap, and set Caleb on the pillow. Nathaniel didn't quite seem to know what to do at first, but he warmed up to it after a bit. In fact, after that first time, he would sit down, put the pillow on his lap and pat it while saying, "baby! baby!"...so he ended up "holding" Caleb several times.


On the Saturday that they were here, we headed downtown, hung out by the creek, ate lunch at the Farmer's Market, got some coffee at a local coffee shop, and watched Nathaniel play in the fountain on Pearl Street...


And in their usual generous fashion, Carrie and Mark didn't leave without treating us to several meals and stocking our fridge and closets with food and other supplies from Costco. :-)

Being the short trip that it was, my thoughts quickly began to turn to future reunions. While they were here, my sister asked me what our plans were for the holidays. I wasn't sure we'd be venturing out of Colorado this year, but after their visit it made me sad to think that we didn't know when we'd see them again. So we've since made plans to go to North Carolina to spend Christmas with my parents and we hope to see my sister and her family then too!

family - part one

So for a while now, I've been wanting to write a post about our wonderful (extended) family. There is much to tell. Especially since it has taken me so long to actually write this. But I'll try not to go into too much detail...

So, as you may know, Jason's family (parents and sister) lives in Colorado. My parents and sister live in North Carolina and Georgia, respectively. So when Caleb came along, Jason's family members were the lucky ones who got to meet him first. Caleb's arrival deemed Jason's parents grandparents and his sister an aunt for the very first time. I guess you could say they were a little excited. If you read my birth story, you already know that Ali (Jason's sis) was present for a good portion of my labor. And she and her parents were waiting patiently at the hospital after he was born to come meet him. They then stayed at our place that night and came to the hospital again the next day to visit. Little did we know until we arrived home a few days later that during their brief stay in our condo, they also cleaned the whole place!! It was AMAZING to come home to...especially as exhausted as we were from those days in the hospital. Such a blessing.

But that's only the beginning, really. Jason's parents have been such an amazing support in these first few months....coming to watch Caleb so that Jason and I can have some time to ourselves every now and then, and always being willing to help out in any way that they can. And, of course, loving our little guy like crazy! Here are some pics of them with their grandson....


And then there's Caleb's tia (spanish for aunt). While looking for a job, she spent about one weekday a week in Boulder hanging out with her nephew and allowing me time to get things done. Now that she has a job I don't have that luxury, but it was very nice while it lasted! She, too, loves Caleb like crazy, and she has been such a good aunt to him! Here are some pictures of the two of them:


Recently, Ali has begun reading to Caleb, which can keep him entertained for quite a while! That brings me to one of my favorite pictures of Caleb with his tia...

our little houdini

Since day one in the hospital, Caleb has enjoyed being swaddled. In the hospital, they had these nice big blankets that they (and subsequently we) would swaddle him in. Before we left the hospital, we watched a video that talked about how swaddling was a key step in calming a crying baby because it reminds newborns of being in the womb.

Anyway, by the time we headed home, we were swaddling masters. Then we got home and realized that all of the receiving blankets we had were much smaller than the blankets at the hospital. Caleb had already demonstrated his squirming abilities and we knew there was no way those little blankets would hold him in. But have no fear...his SwaddleMe came to the rescue. This fascinating little blanket is made just for swaddling and has velcro tabs to secure the swaddle. We'd gotten one as a shower gift. I didn't know if we'd be able to use it in the beginning because the one we got was made with a microfleece fabric and seemed like it would be too warm. But we knew we weren't going to survive without being able to swaddle the little guy, so I pulled out the SwaddleMe and we gave it a shot. It was a life saver!

For a while after Caleb was born, if he was starting to fuss, we'd just swaddle him and lay him on his side and BAM...happy baby. I don't know what we would have done without it! After a bit I decided that we needed to buy another one because it was so hard to wash the one we had since we were using it all the time. Caleb was always swaddled when he slept and he slept quite a bit! So I went to Babies R Us to get another SwaddleMe. I opted for a lighter weight one for the remaining warm months. When I got it home and took it out, I noticed that it had a slit in the back. Apparently, this swaddle was designed to be used in a car seat! You could strap him into the car seat and still swaddle him! Someone was saying recently how it amazing how much baby stuff is out there...you think of something that would be useful and then you go to the baby store and there it is! But this? This was a dream come true. I know I'm being a little dramatic, but you have to understand how much Caleb hated his car seat in the beginning. He would scream at the top of his lungs the entire time he was in it...so much, in fact, that his screaming would preclude breathing at times. He'd already gotten somewhat used to the car seat before we'd found the swaddle, but it still seems to work wonders. I think he stays asleep much better in his car seat when he's swaddled, which comes in handy.

Okay, I've now written a rather long post about swaddling and haven't even gotten to my original intended point. You see, as I mentioned earlier, Caleb can be quite the squirmer. He has gotten pretty good at working his little hands out of the swaddle during naps...


But the other morning, Jason went in to say goodbye to him before he left for work and this little guy had squirmed his way halfway out of the thing! He was just lying there looking at us as if to say, "What?" It was pretty cute...

month two photos