Nap time

i don't know why this picture is turned on it's side but whatever. today caleb decided that he would only take half of his nap in his crib so i moved him to the couch and decided to join him. lilo has gotten used to the fact that she no longer has the privilege of sleeping in my lap so she settled for my hip. 5 minutes after this picture was taken she threw up on the tv remote. nice. so much for napping!

Bennett/Richardson Family Photo

this is our first Bennett/Richardson family photo with caleb in it! i have such great in-laws. they're a good lookin' group too, huh?

Random pictures

lilo always tries to sneak in a few licks. she got him this time!
he looks like such a big boy in his high chair!

such a sleepy boy... notice caleb's open mouth... he was exhausted!!!

nothing new has been going on here, just enjoying every moment with my little boy. he is showing his personality so much now. he laughs at everything. today i was putting a new bag in the trash can and when i shook it out to open it up he started to crack up. why that was funny, i don't know but apparently it was hilarious! he loves his toys and is so intrigued by anything new. i am really enjoying this age. i can't believe he is almost 6 months old. time is FLYING by and i wish i could hit the pause button to slow it down a little bit!

5 month pictures

i'm a nakey baby!
my feet are my favorite toys!
what's up, dude?
ok, i'm getting tired now, mom....
oh, please can we just go home now?!?!

Poop Watch '08

caleb's cold is gone except for a tiny cough every now and then. it only lasted a day and a half so we are all very happy about that. however, john and i managed to catch colds of our own. we both have it way worse than caleb did but that's fine because i would much rather have a cold myself than have my baby have one.

we've been on poop watch for the last several days. caleb pooped on thursday like every other day until now. then on friday... nothing, saturday... nothing, sunday... a teeny bit 'o poop, then monday (this morning) --- AHHHH he let it rip. i've never been so happy to clean his buns. i'm sure he felt much better. but gone are the days of his mustard-colored-fed-only-breastmilk-not-so-stinky-poops. he has rice cereal stinky man poops now. my big boy.

Caleb's 1st cold

caleb has a little cold. he's not really acting sick but he has a runny nose and slight cough. you can see in the pictures above that he needed his nose wiped but instead of grabbing a tissue i grabbed the camera. mean mommy! but he doesn't look too upset, does he? he's starting to sit up but is still really wobbly. he still kind of forgets how to roll over sometimes but when he does remember, he'll roll over and over again. silly boy. he didn't sleep well last night (i think because he wasn't feeling good) and he hasn't pooped in over 24 hours. this is probably due to the rice cereal because he has never gone that long without pooping before. ever since we've been giving him the rice cereal he's been sleeping really well and pooping hasn't been an issue until now. hopefully it will happen soon because i can just imagine the explosion that will occur when it does!

last night john and i went to the movies so grammy came over to watch caleb. he and grammy had fun together. it was nice to get out as a couple but we both felt weird not having caleb with us. today we're taking family pictures with john's side of the family so i will try to post them when they come in. this will be the first one with caleb in it! yay! :)

C is for cookie....?

auntie shannon took this picture of caleb last night. doesn't he look hilarious? i don't know why but he reminds me of the cookie monster here. it looks like he's singing "C is for cookie, it's good enough for me". hahahahaha LOL

Rice Cereal

caleb tried rice cereal for the first time today. he liked the act of eating but wasn't so sure about the flavor of the cereal. even though he made some funny faces, he kept opening his mouth for more and ate all of it. good job, baby!


he must have really enjoyed eating because he was in such a good mood afterwards. he was laying on my bed and i took off his shorts and waved them at him and he started laughing hysterically. so we grabbed the video camera and got this...

i love him... have i mentioned that before? i know -- only about a million times! :)

10 of my favorites...

here is a list of 10 of my favorite things that caleb does. obviously, the list is actually much longer than this and some of these things are going to be the same for any mommy but here it goes...

I love the way caleb...

1. chuckles right before i put him in the tub (he LOVES his baths!)
2. squeals when he is enjoying himself
3. laughs in anticipation of a tickle or zerbert
4. smiles and laughs when i sing him a song / stops crying when i sing to him
5. wants to jump all the time!
6. holds on to my clothing when he is nursing
7. babbles and blows bubbles when he is trying to "talk"
8. flaps his arms when he gets excited
9. throws his legs up in the air and slams them down while he is sleeping
10. gives me the biggest smile just because he is happy to see me

i love my baby so much.

**UPDATED**
i forgot to also include the way he puts his feet in his mouth and sucks on his big toe. i know that makes the list more than 10 things but i couldn't leave this one out. it's so cute!

Friends

we've had a fun couple of days. yesterday steph, emily & KJ (twins), christian, chrissy, jamie, indy, star and baby kane came over and we all got to hang out. it was great to see everyone and have all of the kids play together. steph, chrissy, jamie and i have all known each other since high school and now we all live in different cities so we don't get to see each other as often as we'd like. it was really nice to hang out with them and their kids. hopefully we can get together on a more regular basis now!

today caleb and i had an early dinner with friends from my old work. i really miss them. most of the time when there are a bunch of women working together there tends to be a lot of cattiness and jealousy. not there, though. we all got along great and had fun laughing together every day. they were so supportive of me during my infertility treatments and while i was having complications with my pregnancy. they are a great group of ladies and i love them dearly! caleb had a good time too and was feeling good after he had a HUGE POOP that i changed right at the table... the kind that went up the back and stunk pretty bad too! thanks for your help, robin! :) i hope we all get to hang out again soon!

He forgot

ok, remember how i said that caleb was rolling over like a pro? he would be on his belly with his arms forward, lean, swing his feet over and tah-dah! he would roll! well, we had a busy day and didn't have any time to practice rolling and ever since then it's like he forgot how to do it! he is so close to doing it but then he puts his right arm down at his side and can't roll over it. what's the deal, man?

A day at the pool

we went swimming this weekend at papa/nema's house and caleb did great. here are some pictures of our day...relaxing in the pool with mommy... he wanted to go to sleep in the floatie!
and now with daddy...
had to get a family pic!warming up in mommy's arms...
sittin' with papa after swimming was over.... doesn't he look handsome in this picture? well, then again, he always looks handsome! :)

5 months old!

can you believe it? my baby is 5 months old!! how did he get to be 5 months old already?? he's rolling over like a pro now and soon he'll be crawling, then walking, and before i know it he'll be driving a car and moving away to go to college! ok, i'm being a bit dramatic but seriously, where did my little baby go? he's a big boy now!

this picture was taken yesterday at story time. he was supposed to be eating at the time but he has so much fun listening to and watching everything that's going on that he just can't be bothered with something like eating. he was doing everything he could to get out from under the hooter hider. as you can see, he won the battle and ate later when he was good and ready to. you can't blame him though. after all, it was storytime not eating-time!

so.... i haven't had a period since early june. no, i'm not pregnant. john insisted that i take a test and it was negative. i KNEW i wasn't pregnant. a lot of women don't get their period when they are nursing and besides that, i'm on the mini-pill. i didn't even get my period after caleb was born UNTIL i started on the pill and it was really light so i just figured that i'm one of those women that don't get their period while nursing. but it is still weird to not have one. even though i knew i wasn't pregnant i was a teeny bit sad not to see a line show up on the pregnancy test. in my head i know that it's too soon to have another baby. but i would love to have a daughter or another little boy some day. if the test had been positive, i would have been very happy and excited but extremely terrified that i would have to be on bedrest again/wouldn't be able to take care of caleb/not be able to carry the baby to term/lose the baby/etc./etc./etc.... but all that aside, i would love it if i could be one of those women who get pregnant without trying and have a normal pregnancy. i know that will never be me though. one day we'll have a little brother or sister for caleb. how we go about getting that to happen is the big question. i don't think i'd ever do infertility treatments again. we're definitely open to the possibility of adoption. john doesn't want me to ever get pregnant again since the last time was so hard on both of us. he said that when they wheeled me away to have the emergency c-section, he thought he was going to lose both me and caleb and that it was the scariest moment of his life. so i can understand why he feels that way. we decided that we won't make any decisions about it until caleb is a year old. maybe at that point we'll start trying to get pregnant again or start the adoption process or maybe we'll have a different plan altogether. for now, i am so blessed to be caleb's mommy and i'm happier now than i've ever been in my whole life. he is amazing and i thank God for him every day.