First Birthday

I don't feel like posting a bunch of pictures but here are a few.

Here is Caleb's smash cake before it became his

 He loved eating cake.  Notice both hands are full (he isn't showing a particular handeness at this time).  I would say he has eaten about half. 

 He's sharing with Daddy

 Going to town, eating, eating and still eating until...

 We took the cake away.  This is all that was left when we said, no more.  It is a bit decieving b/c there is  white plate under the cake.  There isn't much left. 

Max wanted some cake also.  This is where you can find Max after every meal.  It really is the perfect height for him.

Fall is in the air

Can you believe Caleb is almost 1 year old? I can't.  Time has started flying.

Oh so a quick warning before you see any photos, Caleb is sporting a Harry Potter look.  Not it's not his Halloween costume (Chris wants him to be Yoda, we already have a tiger outfit so we will see).  Caleb was at day care playing with a toy, which evidently the battery cover fell off leaving an exposed edge.  Caleb stood up and scraped his  head.   They say it didn't bleed but clearly the first layer of skin was removed.  Okay thats all I will say about that.

On saturday I went to Costco and brought home a bunch of meat and stuff.  Which always takes a while to put away since you have to break it down and date everything.  So Caleb crawled into the box and started playing.  Adorable

I love Fall clothing.  I finally get to dress Caleb in sweater vests again.  I love a good sweater vest.  When Caleb got home from church, post lunch (a must if you want a happy baby and not a grouchy terror) he tried to pull out my quizzes from my work bag but I told him no and he listened.  So very exciting to interact and see what all he understands.  Well of course he had to grab something from the bag so he grabbed my calculator (yes it is an old one).

Scene of the crime

Putting the lid on the table.  He seems to enjoy stacking things and putting things on the table.

Attacking mommy.  

Later that day we played outside, while glancing at the Blue Angles flying over head.  Couldn't see a whole lot because apparently they were turning around and getting back into formation above our house.  The noise was awesome and the few views we did get were spectacular.  Can't wait for Caleb to enjoy it.

He was going to town with these sticks.  

The boys playing with sticks.

I thought this was a good picture for perspective.  Caleb is still not out of range of the tale but one day he will be free of the tail to the face.  Currently he sees it coming and starts blinking more rapidly than normal.  He doesn't appear to be bothered by it (most days).

I love the action shot.  And yes he often walks with something in his hands, usually something large.

Caleb is showing so much more personality these days.  It is so much fun, and at times annoying.  He is a strong willed child, which is putting it nicely.  This can be difficult since I"m a working mom who only gets to see him for two hours in the evenings which is usually his fussiest of times.  I try to treasure my Saturdays and not fill them up too much. But some times I just get bored, and well so does Caleb.  Sundays are always a blur, so much happening and nap time comes a few hours late.  Yep if you know anything about babies, they like routine, so a few hours late is a big deal.  But we love going to church and seeing all of our friends and being involved.  So it is what it is.  And you know, he gets over it and is happy as a clam the next day.  Actually he is happy as a clam on sundays as long as he is around other people.  Such a social little guy. Okay so that was a bit of a tangent to get to my earlier point of I really have to treasure my moments with Caleb as he is growing up so very very fast.

His one year birthday is right around the corner and I still have no theme.  I should get on that, as I should also be fixing a test, creating a worksheet, finish grading quizzes, decide what to do about the not so fabulous grades and record them, oh and I'm finishing laundry, cleaning the kitchen and ignoring the dust/leaves that is accumulating around my floor.  So much to do and so little desire to do it all.  Yes that list is all stuff that needs to happen tonight.  Oh well, I had a fun weekend.

Check out the raised eyebrow (he gets that from his dad).

Check out the raised eyebrow (he gets that from his dad)

Playing with Aunt Tonya in the Tupperware cabinet

Family photo (and I have no idea what is going on with my hair)

In an earlier post I mentioned that Caleb broke our camera.  To be more specific he broke the view screen.  His new favorite thing is to throw balls, or anything round.  He lifts them over his head and then throws it.  Well he threw a hard plastic ball directly on top of the camera busting the screen.  This week he has been so adorable that i picked up the camera and started snapping like crazy in hopes of getting one good shot.  So here is what we did on Wednesday afternoon, Sunday morning and on Sunday afternoon.

Helping mommy sweep the leaves off the back deck (we have a tree that goes through the back deck and it started shedding leaves in July, maybe June, oh and he picked up the broom and started playing with it.  He did not like it when I tried to take it away)

Playing with the swiffer sweeper don't know why he loves this thing but he follows me around every time I pull it out (while Max runs away).

Action shot.  What a great helper one day

Such a sweet smily baby (don't hate on me because you can still see the supplies from breakfast in the back ground, we had pumpkin pancakes.  Hooray for fall)

They are playing together.  I can't believe I caught it on film.  So the story is a bit more like Caleb was walking around with the toy and Max decided he wanted it so he took it, but Caleb has a firm grip so it took a bit of tugging before Max got it.

Here's an action shot before Max took the toy.  I love that Caleb hunches his shoulders when he is excited and trying to "run" somewhere. In case you are curious what Max is doing he is sticking cleaning out he highchair of any remnants of food.  It is so helpful to have a large dog around, notice his head is just the right height for the high chair.  

Another action shot.  It makes me smile

Another new fascination, placing items on top of tables, shelves, cabinets.  Then he retrieves them later (assuming he can reach that high again, and yes my house is a disaster.  Caleb was playing with the empty creamer bottle and dropped where he was no longer interested in it and I didn't see it until after I got all snap happy with the camera)

This is how Caleb stands up.  He is pretty fast at it now, but Chris was pointing out how funny it would be if adults stood up like this.  

Look at that grin as he runs past me.

Uber late update

Due to an unforeseen accident Caleb broke the screen on our camera.  So I have no pictures at the moment. I'll give you more on the story later.

~ On Aug 22 Caleb got his first tooth. The only reason I know the date is we had a bunch of friends in town for a wedding that weekend. I didn't even see it coming.  Caleb loves my coffee mug and I had let him play with it (after emptying it) that morning and as he was "drinking" out of it I heard a scrapping noise. Low and behold he had his first tooth, right in the middle on the bottom.  This weekend I discovered he has a second one, next to it. I have no idea how I have missed all of the signs of teething.  We are a bit late on the 9 month check up, so we went on friday (he turned 11 months old on that day) and the doc said she thinks his top teeth are going to come in all at once b/c his gums are all swollen.

~Even though Caleb is behind in the teeth department he is ahead in movement.  This week he started walking.  Yes people I said my child can walk.  About two weeks ago he took his first step (always towards a ball, guess he needed to be motivated) and slowly added more and more until now he is a walking fiend.  He still has that adorable early baby walk where he wobbles and gets ahead of himself so he falls over. But he gets right back up and keeps walking.  Occasionally he will start crawling somewhere but he usually stands up and finishes by walking. He prefers to walk while holding something, this is typically a ball, or a shoe (held by the shoe laces) or a spatula, you know anything he can find around the house. 

~ Caleb has learned how to throw a ball.  A real win win for me and Max.  Since Max is obsessed with tennis balls and loves to retrieve them.  Caleb likes to play with Max, and now Max has something to look forward to beyond the usual hair pulling.  The hard part is convincing Caleb to throw the ball and not just hold onto it forever.

~ Caleb spent his first and last night for many years camping.  Hmm lets just say not the brightest idea we ever had.  In an attempt to not ruin everyone at the campsites life (lets say 15 families) we took the brunt and didn't get a whole lot of sleep. 

~  Caleb has been bitten at daycare 4 times now.  Twice in the same day.  I am not happy about this but it seems unavoidable at this age.  

~ Since little man is walking so much now, we bought him his first pair of shoes.  Absolutely adorable and makes him instantly look so much older.  My sweet boy is almost a year old. Wow

I bet I missed something.  I'll keep thinking.

Click here to watch a video my mother in law took of Caleb early last week.

Pictures are worth a thousand words

Sorry it is all I have time for and I figure it is what you want anyways.

I thought i would update you on work and post a few pictures.  Work is going better.  I am enjoying my students more and the concepts I 'm teaching are fun.  Still trying to iron out the collaboration process since the three other teachers I'm working with do not have the same planning as me.  Which makes things more difficult.  Overall I have a bunch of good students who are fun and make me laugh.   What more can I ask for other than a love for math.  I hope to win them over by the end of the year.

On the other front, Caleb is growing by leaps and bounds it feels like.  Since moving up a class at daycare, he now feeds himself.  He eats normal people food, given it is cut up uber small and he eats with his hands.  But he isn't my little baby anymore.  He also drank out of a sippy cup.  Chris and i have been working on this skill for a while to no avail.  I feel like I bought every type of sippy cup out there to give a try.   Chris got annoyed and disabled the no spill feature (aka cut a whole in it).  On Friday night during family dinner time Caleb reached over for his sippy cut grabbed hold with both hands and drank from it.  Then he set it down and proceeded with eating.  I almost cried, he's growing up.  Then on Saturday I realized just how much taller he is getting when he reached for the top of the table.  Wow.

Here's some pics from the weekend

This is how I found them when I returned from a women's breakfast at church on saturday

Later that day sharing a popsicle.  Max clearly wants it, Caleb not so sure he likes Orange flavor

Now he likes it

Playing under the table. 

Big smile

Off to work I go

I started back to work over a week ago and the kids came on Thursday.  I am usually really excited about the first day and come home exhilarated.  Not so much this year.  I don't think there is a single cause, I think it is a combination of a bunch of stuff.

1. I just spent the whole summer, all 8 weeks of it, with Caleb.  Watching him grow and progress in his movement and cognative development.  Each week seemed like he was changing by leaps and bounds.  At the beginning of the summer he had just learned to pull himself up but wasn't very good at sitting down yet. And now he can sit down so gracefully.  He is so fast now and he is climbing all over and into stuff.  He can even stand for a few seconds (up to 20) unsupported.  He now can make b, d and m noises and is experimenting with his volume and his lips while babbling.  He actually plays with toys.  Oh I could go on
2. I have always taught freshman.  Typically all of my classes except maybe one were freshman classes.  And this year I have one freshman class and four junior classes.  Such a difference in temperament. I know that I will enjoy my juniors but I really do love the freshman. They are so cute and innocent, and they are actually afraid of me on the first day.  Unlike my juniors which most of them already know me.   This should and will be a good thing but at the moment I'm just a bit bummed.
3. Last year I loved my classes, I had all honors classes.  This year only one of the courses I am teaching is honors.  My style and personality really clicked with the honors kids.  
4. Juniors have to take and pass the graduation test.  I am feeling a bit of pressure and I'm kind of letting it overwhelm me.  There are a couple of things that are making this a bigger deal than normal ( I have taught juniors before and didn't worry then) the math curriculum is new and the test will be changed to reflect the new curriculum, but I haven't seen it and won't get the chance to see it before my students take it.  My school has to have 81.2% passing rate to meet AYP.  This rate might not seem like that big of a deal but it is pretty high especially given the circumstance, not a lot of wiggle room.
5. I am teaching a class I have never taught before.  Which is normal since ever year I have taught at least one course I haven't taught before but for some reason it seems a bit more overwhelming.
6. Oh and volleyball season started and I'm no longer coaching.  I don't have time to devote to my family, my students and my players, but I do miss it a lot.

So I'm a bit blue, when I'm typically really excited and refreshed.  I hope this goes away soon.

Since you read this whole post I am rewarding you with a video of Caleb using his walker (this video took forever and a day to load so I gave up sorry,  oh and then it took me 3 days to actually click the publish post button, oops)

Look at me, I love to stand

Caleb loves to stand.  It is his favorite thing of the moment.  Not too interested in moving while standing (aka walking)  but just wants to stand.  Oh and he has been crawling in and over things a bunch lately. He got stuck under a chair yesterday, but of course the camera battery died thus i have no documentation of this hysterical event. 

Caleb smiles more for his daddy than anyone else.  It is adorable (and yes I'm a bit jealous).

He is talking more and more, well it is more like babbling.  Sometimes it is just noise where he is experimenting with volume.  The babbling centers around babababa, dadadada, or mamamama.  Not sure yet if he has made the connection to who dada is or who mama is.  Only time will tell.

Always on the move

Daddy and Caleb playing with a new favorite toy

All the boys hangin out

Trying to play with Daddy's computer

Check out the chubby legs

Who wants to play with toys when you can play with the basket the toys are in.  He played with the basket for a few minutes.  It was hysterical

Not sure if you can tell what is going on here.  I was lying on the floor playing the Caleb and Chris was sitting on the couch doing work.  Caleb was really excited so he stood up and jumped up and let go of everything.   Amazing.

All that play, time for a little rest.  (not staged at all, this happens all the time, so precious)