My First Thanksgiving Celebration - Carr Style

I was fortunate to be invited to a pre-thanksgiving celebration at the Carr household on Vashon Island. It was SO cool - not only was I able to take my second ferry ride but I got to eat turkey and mashed potatoes for the first time! Did I mention I got to spend the whole day with Auntie Shanny and Uncle Scott too?! Can't you tell how cool they are just by looking at the photo??

Oh yeah, and my buddy Gavin too. But he had a major blow out and I've never seen so much poo! Something tells me my mommy has though...

Here are some photos from my day.

Me, baby Gav and Auntie Shanny

My mom is the coolest!

Me plus Dad equals Good times!

I had so much fun I actually peed myself - well, ok, I do that even if I'm not having a good time but whatever! I learned that Thanksgiving is a time to share what you are thankful for - I'm thankful for my Mommy and Daddy. I'm thankful for a wonderfully large and colorful family and some of the best friends a 9 month old baby could ask for.

peace,

Caleb

9 months old and lovin' life!

Caleb is officially 9 months old (since last week) and we don't know where the time has gone. It's hard to believe that he's been with us as long as I carried him inside me. I guess time flies when you're having fun. Here is a quick debrief of our time together since we last blogged...

Caleb just had his 9 month check-up last week and he's 17lbs and 26 3/4in tall. He's slim and petite (as his ped calls him) and he's cute as a button. I know I'm biased but I have people who can vouch for this statement.

Caleb can now crawl a bit on all fours - he prefers to do the army crawl though. He can pull himself up and likes to stand with help and play with his toys. He giggles a lot and likes to play peek a boo. Caleb and mommy joined a Parent Education Bellevue Community College. Each week from Sept to May 09, we go to class for 2 hours. We play with other kids, learn new songs and rhymes, have snacktime and then have a discussion on nutrition and parenting topics. It's both fun and informative for both of us.

We were lucky enough to have Stuart's parents drive from Nebraska to spend a week and a half with us. We had so much fun - especially Caleb. Grandma and Grandpa took Caleb to the park to swing, they fed him bottles and solid foods and rocked him to sleep. We all had a great time!

Caleb also had a special day last Sunday. We had a baby blessing / dedication for Caleb at West Seattle Christian Church - the place where we were married. During the blessing, Caleb seemed as if on cue - trying to grab Pastor Alan's bible, blowing raspberries at the congregation and giggling a lot. Caleb was joined by his grandparents, aunts/uncles, great grandma and grandpa, cousins and friends. After the service, we had a celebration lunch at a chinese restaurant in the International district.

That's it for now - I'm sure there is more to talk about but it'll have to wait until the next blog. Time to listen to the news about our new President elect.

Lots of love from the Johnson clan -

Beth, Stu, Caleb, Lola and Rocco!

Go Big Red!

Me and Dad were rooting for the Cornhuskers this weekend. Too bad they lost...but at least I looked cute in my new baby legs!

xoxo -

baby Caleb

Pictures from the Pinkley Family Alaskan Cruise

Better late than never! Here are a few pictures of Caleb on his first big boating adventure this past July...

Caleb with Mommy, Grandpa, Uncle Doug and Cousins Sammy and Coco

Caleb with Mom and Dad in the Juneau

Random Pics and Updates

Caleb is now 7.5 months old and as busy as ever! He loves to play in his exersaucer (where he currently resides while Mommy gets a little computer time) and he loves to talk jibberish. We just loved into our new house several weeks ago and he's adjusted very well. It doesn't hurt that his new room is the exact layout as his old one - just not as cute. We live across the street from a great park and Caleb loves to swing. We've gone just about every day the past couple weeks, sometimes in the morning and evening, before the weather turns (which is just about any minute as we awoke to grey skies today.)

Caleb was just under 15 lbs and was 24.5 inches long at his 6 month check-in and we can't wait til our 9 month to get him weighed again. He's definitely filling out but he's still on the small and slender side. I don't mind as it's much easier on me to carry him around and he still fits comfortably in the Baby Bjorn!
Just last week, Caleb starting cutting TWO more teeth! That makes a total of 4 up top and 4 on the bottom - but who's counting! His friends from our Overlake Moms playgroup have only a couple teeth at best - many still have none at all. I guess that means he's ahead of his times! Probably not but that's what I tell myself.


With all these teeth, we finally started Caleb on all bottle feedings and 1 to 2 solid meals a day. He likes to eat Sweet Potatos and other veggies and turns his nose up to many fruit blends. He's also really fond of Veggie Turkey and gnawing on slices of apples, teething crackers and cereal bits. We've tried tiny bits of mango, bananas, avocados, and cottage cheese - all of which he's snubbed. I guess he is a man of refined tastes. He did, however, enjoy the few tastes of fortune cookie and popsicle that we gave him. (I just know I'm being judged by countless Moms against refined sugars right now...)

As I've said before, pictures say more than my words could. So here are some from the past 6 weeks. We'll try and post some more soon when we get his 6 month photos from JC Penney's back next week (ok, so they are not exactly 6 months since we took them last week but he'll never know unless you tell him).


Over Labor Day weekend, Caleb went to his first concert "Band of Horses" at Seattle's Bumbershoot festival. He had headphones on and loved to watch all the interesting people around him!




Caleb still loves bath time!











Caleb started sitting up on his own a couple weeks ago! He's still a little shaky at times - I guess this is why they call them Wobblers...






This shirt says is all!









take care and lots of love to those we don't see as often as we'd like,beth (and caleb, stu, rocco and lola)

All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth!

Caleb is 6 months old tomorrow and he has a whopping SIX teeth! It's crazy early since none of his playgroup buddies have even one tooth to show for. He's happy, healthy and really active. He's learned how to roll over, eat rice cereal and sweet potatoes and sit up without any help!

Lately, we've been pretty busy. We are still working on our new house, just listed our current house for sale and went on a week-long family cruise through Alaska's Inside Passage. It was a lot of fun but Caleb didn't enjoy being in the same room as us at night. He woke up a couple times a night and didn't sleep as well as he does in his own crib.

All in all, he's a complete gem and we just adore him. I don't have much else to report so I will let the pictures say it all. Hope this message finds all of you well.

Lots of love from the Johnson clan,

beth, stuart, caleb (and rocco and lola)

Banner Week!

Caleb is now 4 months old and changing every day. It's so crazy that each day brings something new that we've never seen or experienced. I'll do a brief recap and also provide some pictures of Caleb's 3 month photos at JC Penney's.

These last couple weeks have been active for little C-Note (Caleb's Rap Star name). He's started cutting not one but TWO of his front teeth. It's so cute and you can feel and see how sharp they are. They've already cut through the skin. If that wasn't enough, Caleb rolled over from his stomach to his back for the first time yesterday. Stu was very excited because he got to witness it first while I was doing dishes. He feels like he's going to miss out on firsts with the little man, so maybe Caleb wanted to show him first!

This past Friday, Stuart and I decided it was time to start sleep training. Caleb, from the time he was born, has not liked to sleep on his back because he has acid reflux. Because of this, we got used to putting Caleb to sleep in his car seat or the base of his swing to keep him more upright. And we also kept him at the base of our bed by putting the seat in the bassinet. Up until now, his beautiful nursery was merely a large walk-in closet / storage room. Getting him out of our room was a priority so we could get a better nights rest and we also heard that the longer we wait to train them, the harder and longer the process became.

On the first night, Caleb was so sleepy that he fell asleep instantly when we put him in his crib. He only woke up to feed once that night. On Saturday, we put him to sleep and he fell asleep after about 15 minutes of crying. We checked on him a couple times to comfort him a bit. He woke up 2 times that night to feed. Not to shabby! Last night, he fell asleep after 2 minutes and tonight was his worst night - it took him 1/2 hour to fall asleep. But I will say that some of my mommy friends tell stories of their kids crying for over 2 hours before falling asleep. So I think Caleb is doing pretty darn well! Stuart and I feel like we have our evenings back again and we sleep SO much better now.

Lots of love,

Beth, Stu and Caleb