Our 13 month old!
Our big boy is 13 months old. Didn't we just celebrate is 1 year birthday?! Oh man...time is just flying by. It's been quite a busy month.
Caleb was officially weighed in at the Doctor's two weeks ago, and he was 21 pounds, 14 ounces (almost 22 pounds). And he is 29 3/4 inches long! So he is almost half my height! He is doing really well developmentally. He continues to learn and talk our ears off! LOL! Our doctor is very pleased with his walking, interaction with people, talking, and learning.
He loves to run around the house (quite literally). He is all about running and then racing up to give hugs! Oh he gives the best hugs! He loves to open EVERY cabinet door there is. And he can actually reach our top drawers in the kitchen and can open them. YIKES!
We discovered he loves dogs and cats. Our sitter has a sweet neighbor dog and cat that sometimes comes over to her yard. And Caleb just loves to run over to them. He literally squeals with delight when they nuzzle up next to him. Haha! So cute!
He has also been working on his steps. We have a lot of steps outside leading up to our home, and holding our hands, he takes the steps up. It's so exciting to watch him want to do that. We can't go down the steps yet as it's scarier to do that. But we are working our way to that. He loves to be outside, and gets upset when we tell him we have to go back inside. He is all about sticks too. He loves to pick up random sticks and carry them around. We think it is because he feels like he can reach further because he likes to reach up high with the stick.
We also love that he likes to take our hands and walk. Sometimes he wants to be independent, but he loves to hold our hands and walk. He knows when we say "want to go outside?" or "want to go for a walk?" what that means. He goes right to our front door. And I gotta say, I love watching him with Todd. Todd and him are buddies for sure. Caleb already tries to imitate his Daddy's strides. It's so precious!
Holding his Daddy's hand!
See how he watches Todd's strides
We also played in his baby pool for the first time two weeks ago. He had a ball! And with as hot as this summer has been (I know - it just turned summer technically), we are going to need that pool!
Caleb loves to dance with us too. He loves to have one hand holding ours and we dance. All we have to sing is "Dancing...Dancing" and he is sooo excited. He loves to dance to whatever music is playing or if we sing ourselves. It's so cute!
Caleb has been somewhat regressing in his sleep, but some of that may be due to his recent MMR shots, and some of that might be teething (still working on those molars). I also think he has been having some very scary dreams lately. I saw him sleeping and there was this one moment where he puts his hands in front of his face and is all upset and scared (but his eyes were closed and still sleeping). And just my touch on his back, and he calmed down. I just hate seeing him scared like that. I heard that kids go through that, but it's still very hard. We have had to re-sleep train him, and it works sometimes. But there have been definite nights involving night terrors or bad dreams. Poor kiddo.
We are also being integrated into the toddler tantrums. Caleb is such a sweet boy, but he has his moments for sure. He gets all angry when I don't let him open up the trash can and pull out the trash. He gets upst when I won't let him keep the refrigerator door open so he can touch and play with everything in it. Sorry kid, but we pay for that electricity. We did pretty good with putting things up high or away that could break, but there are still moments where we take away something because if we don't, he will hurl it across our end tables, and I'm concerned he might actually break the end table. Or when he just throws things across the room to see what it does. He gets mad when his toys don't do something as he wants it to do (don't ask me what that is, as he can't communicate that very well right now). It's so cute to watch sometimes (his face gets all scrunched up and he clenches his fists and whines really loud). But it can get old too. LOL! I guess I have more fun to look forward to in the coming years. I just try to distract him with something else. The hardest part is when he just wants to be with Daddy and accidently touches something that hurts Daddy. Ugh...I hate that. Caleb doesn't understand and I feel bad because Todd wants to do so much more with Caleb too.
Caleb started drinking only whole milk two weeks ago (YAY - no more formula!). I wanted to wean him off of it to see how he would handle it because he has been drinking soy formula. But he didn't mind the change at all and didn't have any allergic reactions to it either. So YAY. Cheaper costs...I'd rather pay $2.58 for a gallon of milk a week vs. the $28 a week of formula!
Another big change - we have a new sitter. Starting in June, we have been with a lady from our church. She is truly a God-send to us! I noticed quite a difference with how Caleb interacted with her and how he interacted with his old sitter. He loves Ms. Jane. She has a calm and sweet personality, and loves to tickle and play with him. She prays with all the kids, and has so many fun toys. I expected that Caleb would struggle the first week with a new person, but he only cried for the first 5 minutes when I dropped him off the first two days. On Wednesday that first week, he didn't even cry. He was happy. And when I pick him up, he is happy. Todd and I both noticed he just seems happier now than he ever did with our old sitter, and that eases this mama's mind. Plus, she is not disrespectful and she doesn't do anything questionable. She is definitely an answer to prayer!
We also celebrated Father's Day this past weekend with family as well. Was nice to celebrate another Father's Day with our Caleb! Caleb had a "test" hot dog with the guys (my Dad and Todd). So he was just one of the guys ;) LOL!
Caleb got his Daddy a mug with photos of him with Daddy
Up close at the mug
But G-Pa also got a mug too for being the BEST G-Pa Ever!!
Eating a "test dog" like the rest of the guys!
And this photo is very similar to a photo of me with my Grandpa Dunmyer feeding me a big drink
from a big bottle! I had to imitate this same thing with Caleb and his G-Pa!
So all in all, Caleb is doing wonderfully. And he hasn't been sick since early May, so YAY! We are finally having a break from all of the sickness! Woohoo!
And in other news - Todd had surgery back on May 29th to clean out infection that was found. AGAIN. And they cleaned it out really well and kept him in the hospital for a week. While he was there, he had muscle moved from above his wrist and moved to the elbow to promote blood flow. This then allows the antibiotics to work better. And in that process, we received a pick line in his working arm so that he could take IV medication for the next 6 weeks. He can administer it himself and we only have a home health care worker come to the house once a week for dressing changes and for blood to be drawn. Todd had a wound vac attached to him for the first week in the hospital and at home, and it promotes sucking out anything nasty (leakage), and helps move the good tissue up and heals faster. But that was only the first week. And a week or so ago, Todd also had a skin graft done by taking from his thigh and moving it up to the elbow area where they placed the muscle. The worst pain actually came from that skin graft (which is normal), but even that is healing well. I change out his bandages on a daily basis, and it is nice to see that it is healing very well so far. I am seeing scabs where they should be and watching this skin adapt to its new location on his elbow is just fascinating. Maybe I could have gone into medicine. I think Todd is happy that I don't get grossed out by this stuff because I can help him more. It's been quite busy, but so far, so good, We have received much love from family and dear family friends, and many prayers from family and friends. So if you have been praying, we continue to say thank you and please keep it up. Our prayer has always been that this would be it, and I continue to hope and pray this is it. So far it is looking really good. But we still have a few more weeks of IV medication and healing before Todd would go back to work. So continue to be praying for us if you would! Thank you friends!
We are looking forward to this next month to see friends and family to celebrate Independence Day. This upcoming weekend, we are seeing our friends in Columbus area at a cookout, and this year, Caleb will be able to run around outside. Last year, he was only 4-5 weeks old. :) So it should be fun to see how he handles it all.
Enjoy the time with family and friends and stay tuned for most updates!
Much love to all of you!
