Six-Month-Old Mister

Cale is now six-months-old.  Boy that went by fast!   What a fun ride this has been!

He has acquired three nicknames.  From his daddy - “Giggle Britches” which is sometimes shortened to “G,” as in “What up, G?”  From Claire - “Sugar Cakes.”  We don’t know where she got this, but we think it’s so cute that she calls him that.  And from Mommy - “Mister” or sometimes “Little Mister.”  All three names fit him perfectly.

Cale is now 28” tall (only 10” shorter than Claire and only 2” too short to ride the roller coasters in Fantasy Land at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom), putting him in the 90th percentile.  He weighs 17 lb 2.2 oz – 38th percentile.  Like Claire, he is a tall, skinny dude.

Cale has given up sleep.  I’m guessing we’re in the middle of the six-month growth spurt.  At night he wakes up about every three hours to eat.  His naps last as little as 20 minutes and no longer than two hours.  (I’m hoping to remedy this as soon as we move into a house away from noisy upstairs neighbors – only 20 days to go!)

We started him on solids.  First rice, which he hated.  Then oatmeal, which he hated.  Next up was peaches, and you all saw how sad those made him.  After that we tried bananas.  He’ll eat about two bites at a time before he starts blowing raspberries and refusing to open his mouth.  We also tried chicken.  He doesn’t like it either.  We’ve really got to get this boy to eat!  Our next effort will be veggies, since he apparently does not have a sweet tooth.  He can’t start yogurt until he’s about nine-months-old.

Perhaps our boy is just too busy to waste time trying new foods.  He is mastering milestones that one-year-olds are learning.  He can crawl very fast– no more army-man crawling.  He sits up alone.  He can pull himself up and stand supported.  He can throw balls and toys.  He will actually roll the ball back and forth with us or Claire for long periods of time.

He loves electronics and cords and cables.  He likes to take things apart and tries to put them back together.  He seems to be very mechanically-minded and analytical.  He even furrows his brow when he’s looking at something new and appears to be trying to figure out how it works.  He loves toys that make noise and light up and move.  His favorites right now are his musical zoo that he got for Christmas from Uncle Matt and Aunt Randi (in picture below) and his vTech laptop.  Both are very noisy.  He also likes to bang things together.  I recently bought him a Little Tikes workbench.  He loves to beat on it and uses the hammer to beat on other things too.

He has outgrown his infant car seat and has graduated to a regular convertible car seat.

This also means that he has to sit up in the grocery cart when we go shopping.  What a big boy!

He loves Claire.  He thinks everything she does is funny.  He also loves sitting with her in a chair or on the sofa all snuggled up.  They’re best buds!

Cale loves to scream.  Especially if we’re in a very public place where it might echo – like Walmart.  He takes after his Uncle Adam, who apparently used to have “screaming wheenies.”  Both boys like to scream just to hear the sound of their own voice and then crack up laughing when they get everyone’s attention.  Thanks, Uncle, for passing this on!

Cale hanging with Uncle

Cale has also started popping his lips and moving his mouth without making any sound.  He usually does this while watching someone talk.  He mimics their mouth movement.  I think he might take after both of his parents and his sister – once we learned to talk we haven’t stopped yet.  Our house is VERY noisy these days.  The soundtrack of my life is filled with laughter and squealing and singing and babbling and music from toys and the sound of banging.  Oh how I love it!  What a joy to be surrounded by such life!

Cale is quite an artist.  His first work of art appeared in my Mother’s Day Card this year.

Cale is very cuddly and snuggly.  He loves to be held.  He is everyone’s favorite in the church nursery and in the child center at the gym.  The workers at the gym told me that they get so excited when we call in and make a reservation.  They can’t wait to see him!  And when we take him to the nursery at church, all of the nursery workers jump up and run over to see who can get him first.  It’s so nice to have people love your kids.  I prayed that my babies would be a joy to be around, and they definitely are!

Cale is a happy little guy.  And he makes us happy too!  How very blessed we are!

Cale + Peaches = Sad Cale

The doctor gave us the “OK” to try baby food with Cale.  We decided to start with one of Claire’s favorite baby foods – peaches.  Here’s how it went down:

And he hates rice cereal too.  How in the world could I have given birth to a picky eater?  I just don’t get it!  :)

(Before anyone thinks I tortured him endlessly, those were the only two bites of peaches he had, and the second came back out.  He is now happy again!)

Happy Half, Baby!!!

Cale is six-months-old today.  He is so incredibly sweet!  What a joy he is!

Some of his latest tricks include crawling on his hands and knees, pulling himself up to a standing position, playing “catch” with a ball (He likes to roll it back and forth with anyone who will play with him.), throwing a ball and standing on his head.  He loves to play with cars.  And he loves anything and everything electronic, including cords, cables, remotes, cameras, phones, etc.  He is such a busy boy these days and makes his way around our apartment very quickly, getting into everything.  It’s a good thing we have Claire to help us keep up with him.

We gave him rice, but he doesn’t like it at all.  He cried and spit it out and slapped the bowl.  It was messy and quite traumatic but very funny.

Cale’s six-month checkup is scheduled for June 8th.  I’ll post another update then that will include his height, weight, etc.

Cale is a delight!  So glad he’s ours!

Happy Half, Baby!  You’re our favorite little mister!

Hanging With Uncle

Five Months

I can hardly believe that Cale is already five-months-old.  He celebrated on Sunday at the park by swinging on the swings for the very first time and by going down the slide for the first time.  He loved the swing!

Cale now weighs 16 lbs 13 oz.  He is wearing size 6-9 month clothes.  (Almost all of his 6 month clothes are too short.)  He is so sweet and giggles most of the time.  His daddy has nicknamed him “Giggle Britches.”  He is sleeping at least 8 hours at night, sometimes more.  He actually had a 12-hour night this month!  He’s very mobile and can move across the room so quickly.  He loves his toys.  He is trying to sit up.  He pushes up and can balance for a few seconds before toppling, but he pops right up again.  He’s going to get the hang of this very quickly.

I picked up my copy of What to Expect The First Year and noticed that Cale has mastered all of the five-month-old gross motor skill accomplishments, all of the six-month-old gross motor skill accomplishments and some of the seven-month-old gross motor skill accomplishments.  He is a very strong boy!

Cale has had a busy month.  MiMi and PopPop came for Easter, and Cale got his first Easter basket.

He went to the beach for the first time.

And he had a great time at the park.

Cale is cuddly and happy.  He thinks everything Claire does is funny.  He loves to giggle and blow raspberries and babble and play with toys and crawl around.  He’s amazingly sweet, and I am in awe that he’s ours!

My Happy Boy!

Just doing a few push-ups – what great form!

Cale loves his toys.

Cale will be five-months-old on Sunday.  My how time flies!  It has certainly been fun!  Love my boy!!

Four Months

Cale turned four-months-old this week.  He’s growing and changing so much so quickly.  We’re loving every second of it!

We took this picture today while swimming.  The color is a little off, but it’s easy to tell that he’s enjoying the water.  Claire is splashing around in the background.

Cale had his four-month checkup yesterday.  Here’s the scoop:

26 1/2” long – 96th percentile – He’s still a very tall boy.

16 lb 14 oz – 86th percentile – He’s a very tall, skinny boy.

Cale wears mostly 6 month size clothes now.  He can still wear a few of his 3-6 month clothes but not too many.  He is wearing size 3 shoes.  (Claire wore size 3 shoes when she started walking at 13 months.  Cale is going to be a very tall boy!)

Cale has been sleeping through the night and has finally figured out how to put himself to sleep.  (Claire learned this very easily and very early.  Cale had no problems with this once we re-read our sleep program and put it into practice.  I should have read it sooner!)  He naps a lot, staying awake for only about two hours in between his naps.

Cale loves his toys.  His favorite three are his monkey that he got from MiMi and PopPop, his doggie that he got for Valentine’s Day and the dog that he got from Claire for Christmas.  He loves playing on his play mat.  He’s not really too interested in his swing these days.  He would rather roll around on the floor.  He has started wiggling toward his toys and actually moved across the floor to grab one this week.

Cale is also very noisy.  He giggles and squeals with delight (my favorite baby noise ever!).  He says “Mama” a lot.  And I think he actually knows what it means.  I went to pick him up from the nursery this week, and he looked at me and said, “Mama!”  When I reached for him, he reached back and said, “Mama!” again and smiled.  It’s official, my baby is a genius!  He is also learning to repeat a lot of sounds.  He has copied Claire and will now say, “uh oh!”  This, of course, brings giggles from anyone who hears him say it.  And he will also say “hi” and “da,” although he is just repeating those sounds at this point.  I have not yet seen him make a connection to their meanings.

Cale loves to blow raspberries.  He and Claire can entertain each other for long periods of time with this.  Then they both crack up.  I love the sound of their giggles!

Cale is an absolute delight!  He is very laid back and calm.  He is happy and silly.  We are so glad he’s ours!