Day with Luke

Today Luke and I left Caleb with my dad so he and I could have special one-on-one time together. We both have really missed our excursions since little brother has entered the picture. We've been seeing ads on PBS for the "From Here to There" exhibit at American Airline's CR Smith Museum, and on Monday Luke asked me, "Mom? Will you take me from here to there?" Of course I said yes!

The museum (or nuseum according to Luke) is pretty cool. We practically had the whole place to ourselves, which was cool. The "From Here to There" exhibit was neat, designed for kids to be totally hands-on. There were lots of different things for kids to do related to transportation and how things get from one place to another. Luke loved making the hot air balloon fill up and float, and he loved the HoverChair...a chair that floated a few inches off the floor. There were handrails next to it that you could use to make yourself move.

**Disclaimer: all pics are from my iPhone so don't expect any wonderful photography here!***

This was another hit...I forget the technical name for it but you could send the balls through the pipes to another station identical to this one across the room.


If you didn't push the ball into the tube all the way then it floated in mid air.


We also saw a replica of an airport and listened about each area...


...plus what the inside of the cockpit looks like.


We used air to make the sailboats float in certain directions...


...and pulleys to pick up heavy weights.


Luke loved the big airplane that we "actually got to GO INSIDE!"






It felt really strange inside the plane because it was on an incline. It made me SO dizzy! Luke loved it, though.

The highlight of the day, at least for me, was watching Luke in the flight similator. A retired pilot sat in with him to show him what it's like to fly an airplane. They flew under a bridge, he learned all about altitude and speed and wind direction; they did loops and flips and flew upside down and backwards. Luke got to fly by himself for a bit, and then they landed it.


Before they started, the pilot asked me how old he was. Then while they were flying, he asked me if Luke had ever done anything like that before. I told him no. At the end, the pilot told me that he had never had a child as young as Luke do as well as Luke did. He was super polite, listened very well and did exactly what the pilot told him. The pilot said Luke was "a natural" and that "you have a very gifted boy there". So THAT pretty much made my year.

It was a fun time! I'm so glad we went and I can't wait to take him back this summer when they change out "From Here to There" to "Zula Patrol" - an exhibit all about the weather.

Caleb's 9 Month Checkup

Today was Caleb's 9 month check up. His stats are:

Weight: 21 lb 9 oz (50th %)
Height: 29" (50th %)

It was a mostly uneventful appointment. He's right on track in his physical development, fine motor and gross motor skills. The only things he really doesn't do are clapping and waving...although he saved his first official wave for Dr. Daniels. Good timing there. But his doctor said he wasn't concerned with is development at all.

The only "issue" was with his iron test. At 9 months they prick the babies toes to check the iron levels. His hemoglobin came back at 10.6 and they want it to be at least an 11. Dr. Daniels said that it's possible the machine they have in the office didn't read it correctly, and that he wanted Caleb to go for bloodwork at a lab so we would know for sure if he is anemic or not. {I immediately asked if it was hereditary considering all the issues I have had lately with my iron levels! But iron-deficiency anemia is not hereditary.} So we went to Quest after we left the dr office.

Let's just say it did not go well. There was only one lady working at the time - the other one was at lunch - and they didn't have the stretcher thing that they usually use for babies to keep them from moving. So I had to hold him in my lap while she tried to find a vein. But he was freaking out so badly, which meant he was moving too much, and he is freakishly strong. Almost as soon as she got him stuck the vein blew. So no blood. She asked if I could wait for her coworker, but at that point I needed to leave to get Luke from school. So I have to take him back in the morning to do this all over again.

What's amusing is when looking back at Luke's stats at 9 months, I remembered that I had to take him for bloodwork at 9 months, too. For different reasons, but still.

***Update from 2/22***
I took Caleb back this morning and they were able to find a vein and get the blood. He was very, very unhappy and kept yelling "no no no no no" and then going, "daaaaa daaaa!!" like he thought Daddy was going to swoop in and rescue him. After we left I think he was asleep before I pulled out of the parking lot. Poor baby. But it's over and he won't remember it.

9 Month Comparison

Do you think they look alike?

I do NOT.

9 Months.

3/4 of Caleb's first year is over! Crazy.

Not much new has happened with Caleb this month; he's been perfecting his new skills from last month. He is crawling everywhere and has figured out that there are more rooms to our house than his room and the living room. His favorite thing to do is crawl into his brother's room when Luke is in there - he doesn't want to miss a thing! He is walking a lot behind his push walker, and has even stood for a few seconds on his own, but he doesn't seem to be in a huge rush to walk by himself. And I'm in no hurry for that to happen, either.

He has a couple words now..."Mama", "Dada", and "baba". We aren't sure if "baba" is like "bubba" for Luke (although we never refer to Luke as "bubba") or if it is just a babble. Luke likes to think it is for him, though. Occasionally I hear him say something that sounds like "hi" and the other night all three of us heard him say "all done" after dinner, but we're pretty sure that was a fluke. It hasn't happened again.

Caleb loves food and eats anything we give him. I hope that continues! New foods from this month include blueberries, lentils, refried beans, and chicken. He is still toothless, but he can gum his food like a champ. In the past week he has decided purees are for babies - he doesn't want a thing to do with it unless he can pick it up himself. He's a chunk, too; his well baby check is in five days and I expect him to be at least 21-22 pounds. He's heavy! He's wearing mainly 9-12 month clothes...12 months mainly for the length right now. I hope he doesn't grow too fast because I have a bunch of 12 month spring/summer clothes left from Luke that he needs to be able to wear! :)

Sleep is getting better. I ended up doing some sleep training right after he turned 8 months and it seems to have helped. We actually had a week where he slept from 7 PM - 7 AM...but now he's back to 7 PM - 5 AM, bottle, then usually back to sleep. The difference is now, even if he is awake, he stays in his bed until 7 AM. No. Matter. What.

He is just such a great baby...full of smiles and laughs...and a big flirt just like his brother.

Pics were a little easier this month...got him right after a nap. Plus his cold seems to be slowing him down a tad. He was more content to just sit and look at me instead of jumping around like a monkey.





Including this one b/c I love his face...

Rainy Day

The weather today is yucky. Super cold and rainy. They called for possible snow today so at least we don't have anything like that! But because it was in the forecast, our Monday morning Bible study was cancelled today - just in case. Which was nice because I don't want to get the kids out this morning. But that means a day at home - no errands, no outside activity. So we got creative...and made a cave!

Memorizing Scripture Verses

Before Christmas I went to the Ladies Christmas Dinner at our church with a group from my SAHM Bible study. One of the ladies brought us some goodies, including a group of Bible verses to memorize with our kiddos, each starting with a letter of the alphabet.

I'll be honest - I forgot about them until after the first of the year, but I figured that was a great time to start. Luke was all about it, so our goal is to learn a new verse each week, and also review all of our previous verses.

We're currently on letter F, but here's a video I shot of him at the end of January...this is for letters A, B, C and D. {At the end of February we'll do another video of E,F,G,H and maybe I.}

Look, Mom, No Training Wheels!

Luke is {officially} riding his bike without training wheels!

Back in November he wanted to give it a shot. We took his bike to Nana and Daddy Matt's at Thanksgiving for his first try and he did great...until he fell for the first time. After that he was too timid to really try again, so after a week we put the training wheels back on. He just wasn't ready.

Until last week.

One of our neighbor's friends at left his bike at their house. It was the same size as Luke's bike, and it didn't have training wheels. On Tuesday (Jan 31) he decided he wanted to try riding it. So I helped him and by the time he was done, he was doing really good - but I still had to hold the bike until he got his balance. The next day he did even better and by Thursday (Feb 2) we took the training wheels off his bike. He was able to start by himself, and he was doing really good. He just needed to work out balancing and steering. He would get so focused on pedaling that he wouldn't watch where he was going and then run into the mailbox. Or the truck. Many times.

It clicked over the weekend, though, and now he is 100% riding without training wheels! We're so proud of him.

This video was from today:


And some pics:


He even gets tricky and goes down the curb:

Walking {kind of}

Last week Caleb started walking by pushing things around the house! He's been trying for weeks, but always ended up falling over and hitting his head. But last week he figured it out and now he loooooves to walk. He pushes his walking toy, Luke's chair, his Leapfrog table...anything he can get his hands on. And he is so proud of himself!





He got moved up again at church because he was pulling up and trying to walk everywhere. His previous classroom was right when you walked into the hallway to drop off kids, and apparently he was pulled up on the baby gate "greeting" everyone. Michelle said if he could wave, he would have been; but everyone that walked by got a great big smile.