Embarrassing...

Wow...this is embarrassing...Cale will be ONE this weekend...his last post was when he was um...shall I dare say it? 9 months old.  This is only because he has kept me SO BUSY:) Whew...so I guess i won't go into ALL of the details on what's consuming all of my time but I bet you can take one guess...a BUSY BUSY BUSY little boy:)

Please hold while I re-read my last post to see what I haven't filled you in on....

Cale now has TEETH! Multiples that is....his top and bottom two are in and ADORABLE and he's working on two others right now also.  So far they haven't given us too much grief which is a blessing.  I'm scared for those molars.

Still not walking...pulling up on EVERYTHING (which is scary cause I'm afraid he's going to knock those teeth out).  He will walk along the couch and tables but has no interest in going on his own.  We practice a lot...and he'll just it when he's ready!
Some days I wish he was walking cause I see how dirty my floor is but I know as soon as he does I won't want him to anymore:)

We started milk this week and are going to go off formula.  I read in the last post we were going off the bottle and big shocker, that was unsuccessful.  Not because he wasn't interested...we just never did it!!  Time goes so fast and we say "oh ya lets do that tomorrow" and start a new "routine" and we never do! So really...this week will be the week because again, he's going to be ONE!

Let's see...he went to his first wedding!  That was fun...Jason and Kathy (Ramm) Waller got married Oct. 1st and we took him.  He was of course, wonderful!  Honestly though...both of our parents were there and I think that's the only way we made it through!

Donna had to take a day off so Daddy, Grandpa Dale, and Cale went to the Farm Progress Show in Decatur.  They had a great time!  Of course, he didn't leave empty handed. And no, not the combine below but it sure is cute!!
  

He also spent time at his 1st 1/2 Century of Progress.  He loved going on rides on the mule with us and of course...having ice cream!


It was also time for the exciting...1st HAIRCUT!! (actually we are ready for the next already too!)

Can't forget the first shopping trip with Daddy to Farm and Fleet's Toy Land!


We'll end with Halloween...Here's  a scary monster!!


And...the cutest little cow you'll ever see!!


I could go on and on and on but....Mommy has to get back to planning his 1st birthday party....and I will be posting pictures of the awesome Barnyard Birthday Bash next week!  Stay tuned....

An entire month??

Am I really behind an ENTIRE MONTH??  Wow...I really am not good at this blogging thing though.  I think I'm going to set a goal to do this for a year...and if I can't keep up after that I won't consider myself a failure!  Really though..I just have way too much going on.  Working full time, part time, mom, wife, "housecleaner", attempting to become "good" at running, and trying to make time for a social life can get quite overwhelming!  But hey..you only live once!  Recently I've been searching home decorating blogs in my "spare" (lol) time and would really love to be able to do these awesome, frugal craft projects...i need about 36 hours in a day to do all that though.

Anyways--enough about me..let's talk about my not so much of a baby anymore, Cale.  9 months...is he really going to be 9 months old already? I remember the day I was yelling into the aaron that he needed to come looks at the pregnancy test!  We go monday for his 9month appointment and i'm interested to see how much he really weighs.  We are now transitioning into 18mo. clothes.  I was going through his clothes the other night and almost teared up putting away those true baby clothes and getting out the real boy clothes.  Time sure does fly..

So what's new??  Well we officially have a crawler.  He is EVERYWHERE I tell ya...and we're not just armly crawling anymore.  He is on all fours and into everything!  Its so funny cause he knows he's gone too far and turns around and looks at me like "are you gonna tell me no?"  then goes just a little further!  Just a few days ago I was in the other room and he was in his walker (which he still hasn't figured out forward yet) and came back to find the chair knocked over and the coffee table cleaned off.  Needless to say, tomorrow will be spent officially baby proofing.  

Besides crawling, he's learned to high five (only when he wants though), got his first tooth!!!! woohoo!!!, working on the second tooth, we're working on waving hi and bye and...gesh I can't think of what else.  I REALLY need to start updating this more often:)

We've started Stage 3 foods...one of my goals was to at least TRY to make baby food...so far i'm unsuccessful on even trying.  One day I WILL at least make an honest attempt!  The sippy cup is a work in progress...This week we are going to try to start doing at least one sippy cup in place of the bottle and see how well that goes.  I'd like for him to be off the bottle at one for good!

He went to his first tractor pull last night in Rossville.  We seriously can not have a better baby.  He was perfect the entire time!  Wasn't scared of the noise, stayed up late, and fell asleep without a hassle.  He seemed to actually enjoyed it to.  It was the cutest thing watching him and aaron both stare at the tractors as they went by!

Last weekend we went to Mt. Olive for Jackie Good's baby shower and he was again, AWESOME!  He was up, alert, and busy of course the entire shower and at the end I was holding him and I looked  and he was passed out on my shoulder.  He NEVER will fall asleep on my so I was pretty excited:)  Then we stayhed at Michaela's and my mom came with us to watch him so I could go out with her...which is always a good time:)  Everyone was amazed at how good he is.

Okay...better get ready for cousin Conlan's first birthday party!  We'll be planning that way too soon as well!!!

Monday is his 9month appointment so my plan is to update his stats and upload some pictures too (i'm sitting outside and started to sweat!)

Tata!!!

Lots of Firsts!!

7 months old sure is a fun age!!  Cale is working hard on crawling...we started with the rock...then it got faster and faster...now we are onto the Army Crawl!  I'm sure in no time he will be crawling along.  I'm not sure we're properly baby proofed but I'm sure we'll figure it out!!

Guess who went to his first rodeo??  That's ride...this cowboy did!  Grandpa Chuck's horse was being used by Dan to calf rope in so we went to watch!  He loved petting Uncle Chris' horse Diesel too...And of course Grandpa had to buy him his first Cowboy Hat!

Fourth of July weekend was an interesting one...I went swimming in a "real" pool for the first time.  We've been to the Rantoul pool many times but we aren't able to use that float in the pool.  So, we went to daddy's aunt and uncles.  The day ended up with mommy at the er after she got attacked by their dog.  But...we sure are glad it wasn't worse than it ended up or Cale.  VERY scary!  Lessoned learned to NEVER go near a dog you don't know.

We just got home from our first family vacation!  We had such a great time relaxing and spending time together. You don't realize how busy life is until 5 days of no day to day life is in the way and you actually get to spend time together!  We stayed at a resort in Sheridan, IL called Fox Valley River Resort.  It had putt putt, swimming, fishing, 5 hole golf course, tennis, and LOTS of relaxation!  We did a lot of swimming, I went golfing for the first time (I'm a pretty good caddy!), and we even played putt putt!  We took one day to go to Ikea which was awesome.  We also went into Chicago to visit Navy Pier and Millennium Park.  I went on my first boat ride too! Wow was he a trooper...we kept him busy the entire time we were gone and he only had a few screaming moments when he was super tired, otherwise he was perfect!!

Before we took off for vacation, we made a trip to the Historic Farm Days in Penfield.  Grandma and Grandpa got me a super cute new hat while I was there too!!

Pictures to come later......

Daddy come back!!!

Daddy is gone for work this week and we REALLY, REALLY miss him!!!  This week was a wake-up call for mom on how much daddy really does for us!

On top of missing daddy, we have a tooth coming in.  This thing has GOT to come through soon.  We normally get to sleep all night but the past three nights have not gone all so well.  We're hoping to go for a good night tonight!

On top of that, we're going to try to get into a new, better food routine.  We haven't quite kept up on the breakfast, lunch, dinner routine so that's going to be our new plan with snacks/bottles in between. I can't believe my baby is 7 months old now too...that is just CRAZY!  I feel like it was just yesterday I thought they were going to put me on bed rest and little did I know they told me I was going to go home with a baby! He's really trying to get up on those knees and elbows and scoot.  His super cool trick is to do circles laying on the floor. If you put toys in a circle he will spin around and play with all of them.  He got a new toy, well more than one, but a hammer that he's going to help with on our house!!  Thanks to Jackie!  We're also in our walker however we can barely touch the floor so we don't make much progress.  The fun thing while mommy cooks it to play with the animal magnets on the fridge.  **Pictures to follow once downloaded!

Things have been CRAZY busy as usual.  Mommy learned to golf, daddy tore down our shed, Father's day, daddy goes on a work trip.  I'm sure it will get crazier than calm down before we know it.  Since Cale has taken over our house we need more room so we're in the plan of an addition.  It's going to be a LONG road!

'

Sleepy boy!

I'm really starting to love watching Gabby:) Soon I'll be pulling her tail!

Best news of all...I can hold my own bottle now!!!!

Happy 1st Father's Day!

Love my Mommy!

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Sippy cup!!!
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Swimming and sick:(

Well...we made our first trip to the doctor this week:(  He had a runny nose for the past week and we just thought it was teeth.  Then he started with a cough.  Tuesday night, after a VERY long and tiring weekend, someone was VERY grumpy and the cough was horrible.  We went to the dr Wednesday and he had fluid in his left ear and chest congestion.  Of course, they tell you to come back the next day if it gets worse and since he hadn't had a fever yet.

Good news is...we have our happy baby back after a few days.  Still a little raspy sounding and coughs once in awhile but we seem to be on the mend!

Anywho....Where has time gone?!  Can you believe that I bought my preemie baby boy 12 month clothes this weekend?  He's wearing 9mo. and I know will be out of those shortly.  He is growing like a week.  I almost teared up when I was buying them cause it made me realize just how fast time has gone.  It feels like just yesterday we were discussing having a baby.

Guess who can almost sit up alone?  That's right...this big boy...

We got this super cool toy at a garage sale that he has to sit up to play with and he loved it.  Which reminds me...NEVER again does anyone need to buy a toy from a store.  Seriously...$2 for what would cost me $20...guess where you can find me...garage saling!!!

And...we are also now in..

Our BIG BOY CARSEAT!  Woohoo!!!  That carrier was getting way too heavy.  Bad news is we haven't figured out how he's comfortable in it and when he's tired he screams until you get him out  So...I think we need to do some adjusting. 

Guess who went swimming for the first time?!??!  He loved it once he learned to kick his feet when we were in the water.  We also got a pool (garage sale find) that's just the right size for him to play and me to lay out!  We can't wait to use it this weekend and the rest of the summer!

We have a SUPER busy weekend plan...garage sales, swimming, mommy's doing a 5k and celebrating her birthday and daddy will be working on our new project....tearing down and building a new shed....then onto the house...

Adios amigos!

6 Months Old

Hi Everyone!!  I'm 6 months old and today...I learn how to use...a Sippy Cup!!!

I haven't totally gotten the concept yet...but I am working hard on it:)  We have quite the chunker on our hands...6 month stats:

Weight: 19lb 2oz (75th percentile)

Height: 26 1/2 in (50th percentile)

Cale has been rolling ALL OVER the place.  And whoa...can he sit up!  When you sit him down in his carseat or rocker he tries to sit up straight.  We really need to get switched to the convertible carseat.  He's kind of nosey too (not sure where he gets it:) ) and has a hard time napping when action is happening. Oh..and he LOVES to jump.  A few days ago he spent an entire hour in the jumperoo.  I could literally sit and watch him for hours playing.  The past few weeks he has really learned the concept of how to grab onto things.  His favorites are anything on your face or the cell phone!  

No teeth...yet.  WE (and yes I say we cause I hurt for him when I know they are bothering him) are working on it.  The hand rarely leaves the mouth unless its for something else to go in there.  

Otherwise--that's all that up in the world of "Baby Cale" as they call him at Donna's. We have a SUPER busy summer coming up....lots and lots going on:)  I'm sure next post will involve crawling cause that little booty "rump roast" as Daddy calls it is getting up the air and he can scoot from one end of a blanket to another.  

Tata for now...enjoy the pics below:)

Who you talking to?!

In

Carpet farming with my daddy!

Always behind....

Since I'm ALWAYS behind on my blog postings...I'll post a 5 month picture since Cale is almost 6 months old!

In the past few weeks we have discovered our feet, ear, and mommy's lips!  That's the newest thing...when mommy makes a noise with her lips I try to find them but it takes me a little while to figure out where i"m putting my hand.  I love to pretend I'm in a boat with mommy and we sing "row, row, row your boat" and practice sitting up.  He's doing awesome...we are ALMOST there! I tried to sit in a high chair last week (5 mo. 2 weeks old) and I had a little trouble with sliding with I did pretty good!

 Trying really hard to sit up on my own!

Sitting in a high chair at TGIFriday's for Hailey's birthday!

Hmn...what else have we been up to?!!!  Oh ya...how could I forget...yesterday was MOTHER'S DAY!  Woo-hoo....mommy's get celebrated ONE day out of the year:)  Cale woke mommy up with presents in bed followed by breakfast!  Then we took a nice long nap together (after a full nights sleep) before heading off to Grandma Ackerman's to get kissed on a lot. Then Daddy, Cale, Grandpa and Grammy worked in the yard!  

I may be partial but I think I got the best present ever....here is a picture of the necklace they got me. I LOVE it!

Guess what else I'm REALLY working on doing....

You got that right....holding my own bottle.  I'm such a BIG boy.  It's pretty funny to watch because if he "starving" (or so he thinks!) he gets super mad and will grab onto it like if he doesn't get it in his mouth the world will end.  He can't keep it in steady so we help.  If he is at the end he gets mad cause he can't quite figure out how to tip it up.  It's so fun to watch cause he's slowly figuring it out:)  

Just incase you were wondering..Cale has been busy making his 1st birthday wish list..he'll get you all his list when he's got it written out:)

It is so amazing to look back and see how big he has gotten and to watch him grow and discover.  Aaron and I always say "I can't wait until he does ...(ex: walk)" but in reality...time is going WAY too fast:(  We're just so lucky to have such a happy, healthy, good baby!!

Videos I've been promising: ARghh....the uploader for videos isn't working....Will upload these later:(

Bed for now...I REALLY need to get my pictures uploaded to shutterfly..heck on my computer for that fact.  If only there were more hours in a day......Goodnight:)

SO BEHIND...

O-M-G...I am SO behind on posting to this blog.  Why does time go so fast and life is so crazy?!?!?!?!  I just want it to ssssllllloooowww down.  Guess who is now rolling over?!  You got that right...my 5 month old baby boy.  5 months already?...I know that's what you just said.  Where has time gone?!  5 months ago yesterday we were welcoming baby Cale and now he's a rolly polly little boy.

Easter is the weekend...so we HAD to go see the Easter bunny of course!  Luckily he wasn't taking a carrot break while we were there and we had to hurry cause Mr. Nosey would NOT nap while we were out in about and he was just starting to get cranky!

I have videos I desperately need to post.  Of course Mr. Congeniality does not like to display his awesomeness on camera.  As soon as we pull the bloggie out he gives us a blank stare and stops what he's doing! aah!!!  One day he'll show off for us!  

Next post...all about rolling over and VIDEOS!!! Finally!!!

Adios!

Outside Fun

It was finally nice enough for Cale to get some fresh air last week! Here's a few pictures....

Grilling with grandpa:)

Chillin' outside at my grandma's!

Enjoying an evening on the patio with my puppy!

He's now eaten applesauce, bananas, pears, and sweet potatoes.  And...he's had NO emotions over them!  I keep expecting a funny face or a reaction and he just acts like its nothing different! I guess I can't complain:)

Yesterday we had a cute little boy that had NO interest in napping....aaahhh!!! He thought napping for 40 minutes the entire day was going to cut it.  ha! i don't think so:) Needless to say it was a LONG evening....We're not sure if it was the teeth, the excessive amount of fresh air, or being overly tired.  Either way...it was patience testing for sure.  My mom said it's payback because I was always too nosey to nap...NOT funny:)

We've switched bottles to the thinner ventair...they are fast flow too and he seems to be doing fairly well with them.  Last time we tried fast flow it went ALL over him but they were the wider bottles so that may have been why also.  Trial and error is how our life now is:)

Ta-ta for now...let's hope warmer weather is here to stay!

Basically so Cale can wear this cool hat....

3 month pictures

Click here to view these pictures larger

Chunky Monkey

Boy do we have a chunky monkey on our hands!  Cale had his 4 mo. appointment today..here are his stats:
Weight: 16lb 61/3oz
Length: 25 1/2 in
Head circumference: 42.5 cm

Dr. Melvin said he is exploding off the charts especially for being so early!  He said..."you tell his dad he's got a stud on his hands!"  We sure do love Dr. Melvin...

We've been eating cereal for about a month now...Sunday he tried applesauce and loved it!  The doctor also said we can start other foods as we want.  We don't have to go in any order and its up to us on how much he gets.  So...I guess we really are in charge?!

Cale spent the night at his great grandma's for the first time last night.  He slept on a little air mattress surrounded by pillows...it was so cute:)  He met his great, great grandma Kay and great Uncle Don from Tennessee also.

As much as I love that my little boy is independent and can fall asleep by himself...I'm starting to get a complex because he won't nap with me:(  After his shots today he was so tired so I thought for sure we get a nap in and sure enough he wanted nothing to do with me.  I sat him in his swing and he was out like a light.  Yes, I know this is a positive thing but it makes me sad:(

Since I didn't get the good nap today I wanted i'm off to bed.  Goodnight:)

Videos....finally:)

Skinny jeans

Look at my skinny jeans!  My daddy says that I look like the guy on the Miller Lite commercial with his "woman jeans" on.  Daddy also thinks i'm a "thug"...with my 'wife beater' shirt on...he's so silly!

Could it be?!

Could it possibly be...could we maybe have an ALL-NIGHT sleeper?  You got that right....so far we've gotten THREE full nights of sleep!  I seriously feel like I could rebuild Rome with all the sleep I've gotten.  As I type this it's 9:35 and I can still hear him stirring so I really hope this isn't a bad sign tonight we'll break our streak:(  I've learned the earlier he goes to bed, the longer he sleeps but dang...it is SO hard to get him to bed so early.  Especially during the week when we get home, play, eat dinner, cereal, bottle, bath.  Whew...We need more hours in the day!!!

Cereal is going great....he is eating more and more everyday.  So far we're only doing one time a day but we plan to up it to two soon.  Maybe tomorrow will be the day?  I'm hoping to do cereal before we leave then he can do a bottle at Donna's. 

We have a Talker!  No idea where he got that from ;)  Every night he tells us all about his day (babbling for a good 20 minutes or so) and he loves to chat while he gets his diaper changed!  I think he's telling me how he's going to potty train early so he doesn't have to wear those silly things so long! hahaha 

Cale is loving his hands these days..just yesterday he started sticking almost his entire hand in his mouth.  And we have a lot of drool going on.  Teething? Not sure yet...he doesn't seem too cranky or feverish...but I think it may be in the works!

Daycare has been wonderful...I dropped him off the other day and another little boy, Jace (sp?), came up to play with him and he was smiling like "hey, there's my friend!"

Mommy and daddy have been SUPER busy at work....which is why this blog is not up to date at all.  I am way exhausted when I get home or don't have time.  I definitely need to get new pictures and videos up here.

We got his three month pictures a few weeks ago (anticipating their arrival) and are hoping they turn out well.  He is definitely not an "i love my picture" boy but he's so cute i'm sure they'll be great!  And of course...we are a smiling fool now and did he smile for ANY of them? NOOOOO....really?!?!  Then I lay him down to change his clothes and guess who starts laughing and smiling!  Stinker!!!!

He still has a dang cough...can't seem to get rid of that stinking thing!  We were titling the crib but apparently that makes him squirm down so it did not good.  He would wake up with his head where his feet would be which was totally defeating the purpose!  Hopefully we get some warm weather soon and we can get outside.  Mommy's ready to start running outside!  Only a few weeks until her 1st 5k...woohooo!!!!

Mommy's off to bed now....in anticipation of sleeping ALL night:)

Pictures and videos will hopefully be up tomorrow...during the Bachelorette Finale...go Emily!!

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

I am WAYYY behind on posting but have been SUPER busy...my goal is to have pictures and fun videos for you by this weekend:) 

I've noticed the longer I wait to post I forgoet:( Which having this blog is supposed to help my memory!  aahhh!!

I promise there will be super exciting info to read this weekend (well exciting to me anyways!)

Love-me

Yummy!!!

Our big boy is now eating cereal!!!  We are feeding him just a tiny bit before bed and it seems to be helping him sleep longer.  We're still not sleeping ALL night but we're getting there.  I guess in technical terms "all night" for a baby is 5 hours so I guess technically he is but to mom and dad he's not:) 

Oh..and other big news...he's sleeping in his crib now too!!! Mommy was weak and kept making excuses as to why he couldn't sleep in his crib.  I finally took the plunge and he did great!  The first night we tried (last Tuesday) and he was quite cranky anyways so it didn't last long.  Wednesday he made it half the night.  Then Thursday...all night yay!!!  Last night he slept from 8:30-3:30.  He's got a cough so we elevated his crib where his head lays.  I woke up at 2:30 freaking out cause I hadn't heard him and went in there and he managed to turn sideways.  I didn't want to wake him up so I left him and then when Aaron got up to feed him around 3:30 he was completely backwards.  So much for elevating it for his cough!

Ok I FINALLY got our videos (which I need to be much better about taking) uploaded so I'm going to start posting them to our blog.  I have a sony share site and if I figure out if you can post a link for people to watch videos I'll do that too so I don't have to upload all of them on here. 

So...here's the 1st one of our little man eating cereal for the very first time!!

Adios amigos!

3 Months Old!!!

 Do I look like Al Bourlen or what?!

 Story time with mommy...I'm actually paying attention too:)

 Me and my cousin Conlan...we're not sure what to think of each other yet

 Mommy's Valentine

 Mommy and BOTH of her Valentines:)

 Smiles are REALLY hard to get on camera

Can you believe I am 3 months old already?!

So...where does time go? Do we really have a 3 month old already?!  Everyone tells you time flies but I never believe it until I experienced it.  I feel like every day he does grows and does something new.  The newsest this is eye rubbing.  He just started it this weekend.  His eyes get red when he's tired and now he rubs them.  It's super cute!  I need to try to get a video of it. 

We once again had a busy weekend.  Does it ever slow down?  Cale stayed at Grammy and grandpas friday night since mommy and daddy both had to work on Saturday.  Today is Presidents Day and grammy Barb didn't have to work so he spent the night there last night too.  Last night Grandpa Chuck and I were playing with Cale and showing him with our fingers that he was three months old...then he showed us with his fingers.  Okay i know it's totally a coincedence but it was so cute!  He would hold his 3 little fingers up after I did.  I'm pretty sure he's a genius already! 

Everyone keeps asking us who he looks like...at first he was identical to Aaron but now he's getting some of my features.  However...I have decided he definitely has Aaron's personality.  Very calm, easy going, and relaxed...but has NO patients and can get grumpy quick:)  He's not quite a smiley baby either.  I can get him to smile once in a great while but he doesn't naturally smile a lot.  I'm still working that:) 

Next weekend we get his 3 month pictures taken...i'm super excited and praying that he cooperates this time:)

Tata for now!