Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

As you all are aware, this blog has experienced a shortage of posts lately. But the drought is over (for today) and we're back at 'cha.

So what did we fail to document these last 4 months?

1. The freakin' birthday!! Woo!
2. Crawling faster than the speed of sound
3. Standing up and grabbing everything that's not nailed down (and a few things that are)
4. New words
5. Sign language
6. Swimming
7. Walking (!!!!)

Ahh....where to start? Oh, nevermind, I appear to have this carefully numbered list that I just made, so we'll handle it that way.

1. The freakin' birthday!! Woo!


Yeah, Caleb turned the big numero uno on March 4th! Super good time. We had a big party with a NICE cake put together by my friend Morgan. Actually, there were two nice cakes...the main b-day cake and the baby cake (for Caleb to smash, destroy, obliterate, and partially consume). Lots of friends and family made the drive up, and the weather was pretty good, too, so we had a couple of yard games out and such.

2. Crawling faster than the speed of sound


It took the guy a while to get around to it, but once he started really crawling he picked up speed quickly. Sometimes he'll just have these little speed bursts and it catches you completely off guard. I ripped some major knee holes in a nice pair of jeans while crawling around after him during Jan/Feb/March, and now I just have calluses (shorts, warm weather). But no matter, it was worth it to kill the jeans just to be playing around with him.

3. Standing up and grabbing everything that's not nailed down (and a few things that are)

Eventually, he started noticing more and more stuff that wasn't on floor level, and just like any good baby/toddler, he just started pulling himself up on tables, couches, chairs, stools, Jingles, my desk...just grabbing and pulling everything he could get his hands on. Jingles didn't care for that so much, but he usually makes his mess and then crawls away. I clean it up, and he's back to stir it up again within minutes. We eventually figured out it was simpler to just clean up after naps and bedtime.

4. New words


In addition to "Jingles" and "mama" and "dada," he picked up "oooooohhh!!!" and "eeehhh?" and occasionally, we'll hear him say "Elmo." The best one is "Go Dawgs!" complete with fist pumping (yes, I totally taught him that one...it's never too early to start). The "Go Dawgs" is especially fun, because we also taught Jingles years ago to bark whenever we say "Go Dawgs" or do the fist pump motion. So now whenever he hears a dog bark or even sees another dog, he says "Go Dawgs!" and pumps his little fist in the air. Awesome.

But of course, we're probably stunting his vocabulary development because we've been teaching him...

5. Sign language

....well, sort of. I think some of the words and phrases he's learning are legitimate sign language, but the rest are just hand gestures we've taught him to get him to tell us what's going on. He can gesture for drink/thirsty, hungry, sleepy, hello/goodbye, "Go Dawgs," please, thank you, go for a walk and a couple of other things.

Oh, and yeah, we've taught him to point his finger in the air (symbol for "d" I think) when we're changing his diaper or going upstairs to change his diaper (or really, he does it anytime he hears us say "diaper" or if we physically check it out). Lately, he has actually started making the sign right when he's getting ready to load the diaper up. So at least that shows some potential for future potty training, if he already knows when he's getting ready to poop. Yeah, I said poop. It's a baby blog.

6. Swimming

So with the beginning of summer and the opening of our neighborhood pool, we've taken a few trips down there to test the waters out. For the most part, he starts off hating it. He has a hand gesture for "all done" that he uses when he's finished eating or drinking, but he's started doing it whenever we do anything he doesn't like (like serving him broccoli...he just puts his hands up as soon as he sees it). So we're walking down there and he's in the stroller (he loves going for walks) and as soon as we go in the gate and he sees what's happening, he just puts his hands up.

Once we get him in and start playing, he seems to be okay with it, but it's fairly short-lived for right now.

I will add this, though...we went to the pool with Abby and Andy and Caleb's BFF Liam this weekend, and he did great! He was playing laughing, giggling, just having a great time! We must have been in the pool for nearly 2 hours and he wasn't really ready to go quite yet when we finally left. This definitely bodes well for next week, when we take the annual Jolly family trip to St. Simons Island.

7. Walking (!!!!)


This is really a completely recent development. He's taken a few steps in the past month or so, but never much more than that. He'll walk his push car thing all over the house, and walk along tables and couches, and walk with us holding his hands. When it comes to independent steps though, he's been more than hesitant about it. However, again with this recent weekend, he started walking back and forth in our foyer while the Garlands were here (after we got back from the pool, and also dinner). Yesterday we tried it some more, and he really seems to be taking to it well right now. Perfect timing, too....his 15 month Dr. checkup is this Friday, and they like to have toddlers walking by 15 months (although many kids learn it around the time they're 1 year - 12 months). So really good timing there.

That should do it for now. As always, pictures are on Facebook, so get on it (oh, and you'll have to friend my wife, since she handles the pics most of the time).