Referral

ugh, it feels like it's been so long since i've blogged. i took caleb back to the doctor on monday because he was constantly tugging at his ears and waking up several times at night. even when i would bring him into bed with us he would wake up screaming, saying "no, no, no" every hour. so, i took him back to see his pediatrician. she wasn't able to see any infection, but she did see fluid in his ears which can be an indication of infection. so he got a shot of antibiotics since all of the oral antibiotics haven't cured him. my poor baby. he has been on antibiotics almost continuously since the beginning of january. the antibiotics cause him to have diarrhea so his diapers have been really fun to change! the shot of antibiotics hasn't given him the runs yet, but he pooped 8 times yesterday. EIGHT!! and he is sooo hard to change because he twists and turns a million times while you're trying to clean him up. it's really fun when poop gets everywhere. yay.

anyway, he slept great last night and he is in a very happy mood today so i think the shot helped. his pediatrician is giving him a referral to see an ear, nose and throat doctor. i'm so glad. finally, he might get some relief from all of his ear pain.

caleb is walking everywhere. he can walk around our entire house and he has a ball walking around the playground. i take him down the spiral slide with me and he loves it. today he spun around and went backwards down the slide and he was cracking up laughing so hard. i love him.

11 month pictures

In just a couple weeks (March 1st) my baby turns 1. How did this happen so fast??

Fat Lip

he was trying to shield his face from the camera here. i think the flash was too bright for him!
ah, the hazards of being mobile..... this morning caleb lost his balance and went face first into my bed frame. there were lots of tears and a small amount of blood. my poor baby! many, many hugs and kisses later, all is okay but this is the result of his face plant. BOYS!

he is no longer a baby. he is learning and growing more every day and i am in awe. today we stopped at the pet store and he loved seeing all of the puppies there. he kept saying "DUHG! DUHG!" over and over. he also loves cats and will say "DAAAT!" every time he sees one. sometimes when i am trying to teach him not to touch something i say, "no, no, no" (in a nice voice) and he thinks it's funny and says it back to me while shaking his head. it is so cute. he tries to say "duck" (he loves toy ducks for some reason) but it sounds a lot like dog. you can tell he knows the difference though. he watches this baby.ein.stein animal video and i swear, he learned the names of these animals after watching it twice (i also point out dogs and cats to him all the time and repeat what they are several times). i wonder what his next words will be???

Another ear infection

this is caleb's 3rd ear infection since the beginning of the year (4th if you count the time he had one in each ear). he was pulling at his ear and acting a little more clingy/fussy than usual so i figured something was wrong. i took him to the doctor on wednesday and his pediatrician confirmed that he has another infection in his right ear. so, he's on another round of antibiotics. ((sigh)) he has his 12 month doctor's appointment on march 4th so they'll check his ears then to see if the infection is gone. if not, she's going to refer him to a specialist to see if he needs tubes. even if it's gone, i'm going to ask if he can see a specialist because he obviously has an issue with his ears. i think he's going to have to have tubes put in. i really don't want my baby to have surgery but if it will help him in the long run then i'd rather have it done sooner than later. why prolong it when he is in pain? john had 40% hearing loss because of all of his ear infections and after the tubes were put in his hearing was normal. i don't think that caleb is having hearing problems but how would i know? hopefully we'll get to see a specialist so we can figure out the best way to go from here.

Caleb's First Haircut

daddy has been saying that i've needed a haircut for months so mommy finally gave in. they took me to this really cool place and i got to sit in a jeep while they cut my hair!

i was such a good boy. those clipper-thingys tickled my neck and made me laugh. mommy was so proud of me.

the sides and back are all done! what's that you say? scissors? i'm not so sure about that...

get those blades of steel away from my head!! dad, help me!!!

ok, i guess it wasn't that bad but i don't wanna go back for a looonnng time!

In the crib pic & walking video

this is for you, Neenie! it's a staged photo because when i actually go in there at night there's no one awake to take the picture! as you can see, caleb is NOT amused. he was not ready to go to bed when this pic was taken. :)

here is a video of my little walker! i'm trying to get a video of him dancing but i either don't have the camera ready when he does dance or he refuses to dance when i try to get him to do it. i'll get it on video one day!!

11 months old!

Caleb is officially one month away from being a 1 year old! I can't believe it. My baby is no longer a baby anymore. He is such a big boy. His walking skills improve every day although he still prefers to crawl since he's so much faster at it. Today he walked across the living room all by himself. He can walk around the house/park/anywhere while only holding onto my pinky finger so I know he could walk more if he wanted to. He just needs the confidence to let go and walk on his own.

Caleb is a dancing baby. He has discovered his love of music and notices it now. He dances along by clapping, moving his legs and waving his arms. It's really cute.

He still doesn't sleep though the night! He wakes up at least once, sometimes twice, a night. I haven't had a good night sleep in a year. I try to let him cry it out but he stands up in his crib and jumps up and down screaming at the top of his lungs. It's impossible to ignore and it wakes up John (who has to wake up at 5am for work). I know it's not the ideal situation, but lately I've been letting him cry for 30 minutes and then I go and lay in his crib with him. We both get to sleep right away and then when I wake up I go back to my bed. I don't feed him in the middle of the night and I know he's not hungry, he's just waking up because he wants me to come get him. I'm trying to avoid having him sleep in bed with us so sometimes my going to sleep in his crib is the best option. A while back we were making progress with him crying it out but there was a major setback when he got sick and had ear infections. I'm going to try letting him cry it out again. I'd really love it if he slept through the night by his first birthday.

We're going to have a small birthday party for him at our house. Mostly family and a few friends. I'm still not sure on the theme or if we'll have a theme at all. I'm kind of looking around at cute and inexpensive ideas that work for a 1st birthday party. I can't wait to see him shoving his face with birthday cake and making a huge mess! He had a small taste of cupcake today and loved it (huge shocker) so I know he'll love his very own birthday cake!

HAPPY 11 MONTH BIRTHDAY, CALEB!! MOMMY LOVES YOU!!!!