Still Afloat

I can't believe that after six weeks this balloon is still floating high in my living room. I've decided not to take it down, I want to see how long it will survive.

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Happy 4th of July everyone, I hope you get to enjoy it with family and friends.

Caleb, I can't wait to play and enjoy the long weekend with you. As soon as you wake up from your nap, I mean.

And I really really REALLY hope that you aren't afraid of fireworks!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

June Travels

The second week of June, we took a trip to central Arizona.  Caleb yet again was a wonderful airplane passenger. When he wasn't playing or eating Cheerios, he was napping in my arms (and what mama doesn't love that?).

A scenic view south of Jerome, AZ

Playing in the hotel room

Caleb loved the swinging doors in The Palace restaurant on the Whiskey Row in Prescott, AZ

We also took him swimming for the first time!  The water was a little chilly, and there were several other little kids playing in the water so he was really distracted watching them, but he seemed to like it.  We've taken him several more times since then and each time he's had more and more fun.

We had a great time, I'm so blessed to have a wonderful family :)

Key Lime Cake

Mom and I prepared all the food for Caleb's birthday party ourselves.  Of course, Caleb had his own cake and we knew that once he was finished with it, nobody would want a piece for themselves, so we decided on a Key Lime Cake for the adults to enjoy.  It was a small party with family and friends and everyone, especially Caleb, enjoyed themselves.

Caleb got some awesome toys

And chatted with some friends

It was kind of a big day, so after a bath to get all the cake and frosting out of his hair, he took a little nap.

And while he was napping, the adults had some Key Lime Cake. 

Key Lime Cake

As seen on the Tulsa World website

From the book "Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood"

Serves 12

Key Lime Cake

Ingredients:

1 (3-ounce) package lime-flavored gelatin

1 1/3 cups granulated sugar

2 cups sifted AP flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

5 large eggs, slightly beaten

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

3/4 cup orange juice

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup lime juice (from about 25 small Key limes or 4 large regular limes)

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the first six ingredients well.  Add the eggs, oil, orange juice, lemon juice and vanilla.

Divide the batter evenly among the three pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.  Teast for doneness by lightly touching the tops of the layers or inserting a toothpick.  Cool the layers in the pans for 5 minutes, then turn them out onto cooling racks to cool completely.

While the layers are still hot, mix the lime juice and confectioner's sugar and pour it over the layers on the racks.  Pierce the layers with a fork to allow the glaze to better soak in.  Allow the layers to cool completely as you prepare the icing.

Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature

1 (1 pound) box confectioners' sugar

Directions:

Cream the butter and cream cheese.  Beat in the confectioners' sugar until the mixture is smooth and easy to spread.  Spread the icing between the layers, on the top and sides of the cake.

World Traveler

Caleb loved our trip last weekend.

He liked making friends with our airplane neighbors, in fact, the shiny bald head of the man sitting in front of us on the flight home was (unknowingly) reeaaaaalllllyyyy interesting to him.  We were laughing so hard at how hard Caleb was trying to reach out and grab that shiny thing.

He also really liked looking over the back of our seats at the people behind us.  Thankfully everyone around us was really nice, even when he belched a LOUD belch right in their faces.  One of the ladies even tried to give him a sucker (really lady??? sorry but he's only 11 months old, he can't have any candy).

We had lots of beautiful weather, and since Caleb loves being outside, he loved every minute of the festival.  There was a big off road bicycle race going on also, it was cool seeing all the riders in their gear lounging around the square.  There wasn't hardly any food though, or maybe we just never found it.  Lots of neat local crafts though, I got a wooden kitchen spoon whittled out of a piece of local wood, I can't wait to use it.

For some reason, the three of us were never all able to look at the camera at the same time.  We're going to have to practice, because this random picture is the best family picture we got the whole weekend.

And the cutest (to me) and most hilarious (to me) picture of the entire weekend:

Of course I laughed my arse off when I saw him like this, so he kept doing it :)

The dogs are SO fired (and a thank you)

Last night I discover that I had left an important item over at my in-law's house.  Being the kind soul he is, my father in law offered to bring it over this morning and leave it in my garage so I'd have it tonight.  Awesome, problem solved.

So this morning as I leave for work, I see said item already in the garage, evidently my father in law had gone to work early.  And not only that but he'd brought in the empty trash can from the curb.  Bonus!  Thank you!

However, we have two big dogs.  They like to bark at pedestrians.  They like to bark at birds in the flower bed.  But this morning?  Yeah, no bark.  No warning an intrudor had breached the perimeter.  Just two dogs crashed out on MY bed, waiting on me to turn the light off so they can go back to sleep for seventeen more hours.

So dogs, here's your warning.  Even though you are totally awesome with Caleb and let him pull your hair and take your toys, you are now on super double secret probation.  You are DOGS!  You are supposed to BARK when someone enters the house!  Next time, you betta represent!

Hands

Seriously, is there anything more precious than baby hands?  I remember holding Caleb's hands in my own when he was a newborn.  They were tiny, fragile, and absolutely perfectly minature recreations of adult hands. (I'm sure that some of you are reading that sentence thinking, "well, duh", but don't underestimate the wonder a new mother feels over learning her new baby). 
Boy have those hands grown in the past eleven months!  I can recognize family features in Caleb's hands.  He has Brent's thumbnails and he has my dad's palms.  It's so blaringly obvious to me that I actually get nostalgic for my dad about it if I think about it too much.  I think God gave me a daily reminder of my dad when He made Caleb's hands, and I'm thankful for that.
Caleb can now use his hands for so much!  He is able to fit blocks together and he is learning to put shapes into his shape-sorter box through the lid.  He has been feeding himself for quite awhile now and loves almost any type of table food.  And as always, he loves to place his pointer finger in his mouth.  You can almost always catch him with it in there, not sucking on it, not really chewing.  Just hanging out with his finger in there. 
Caleb now has a new skill to share...he can pull up not only to his knees, but now to his feet!  He used to only feel comfortable doing this while crawling on me, now he can do it on furniture.  He's still a little wobbly so I haven't gotten a good picture yet (I'm busy watching like a hawk in case he slips), but I can't wait to photograph it!

There's an app for that

Last night I tried out the Blogger feature that allows you to email a post from a phone. However, the picture didn't post correctly which sucked because it was really cute. So, I did a little research today and I discovered 'there's an app for that' so now we're cookin' with gas!


And here's a picture taken last week that I'm posting as a test to see if the BlogPress app really is worth the $2.99 I paid for it. (well, and I'm posting it because it's cute).

-- Post From My iPhone

Hello World!

Caleb wants to say hello to all of you nice interwebzers who still read this sadly neglected little blog.

There is even less cooking going on in the house now than there was in my first trimester. Caleb eats regular baby food, yogurt, chicken nuggets, steamed veggies, Cheerios and bites of whatever else I toss together (which isn't much). But we are having FUN playing and growing and enjoying the spring weather. I apologize that cooking has currently, temporarily, taken a back seat to baby-time. Hopefully any of you still following me are as satisfied by cute baby pictures as you are by recipes!

Sent from my iPhone

Caleb's First Christmas

We started Christmas morning by opening presents at home.  Brent and I got some cool presents, but I know that you, dear Interwebz, are more interested in Caleb's fun gifts.

Aunt Colleen got him this rad Baby Einstein music player thing and it's a favorite.

Some Fisher Price Roll-Arounds from his stocking are another favorite, he bats them all around the room, I love watching him army crawl all over as he chases them.  My favorite is the one with the blue octopus thing in it with all the mutli-colored little balls that jingle around.  Very fun.

Gee Gee was awesome and wrapped Caleb's presents super loosely so he could unwrap them himself. 

Caleb's big gift from Mommy and Daddy was a LeapFrog Learn and Groove Table that he lurves.  We practice standing up with it and he loves all the buttons, sounds and lights.  When his baby legs get tired, he sits on my knee so he can keep playing.

After getting cleaned up from our at-home Christmas morning, we headed over to Brent's parents for presents with Caleb's MeeMaw and Papa.

First up for Caleb was a bunch of fun clothes, including this cow patterned footed PJ number.

And even though he really appreciates all the clothes, he couldn't help but show his REAL opinion about all the new duds. 

Overall, we received and gave some really cool gifts.  Thank you so much, family, for making it a kick-butt first Christmas for Little Man.  In fact, Caleb is spending the night with Brent's parents and we are getting ready to go spend the Christmas gift my grandparents gave us.  Thanks for dinner Grandma and Grandpa Brunton!!!

Does anyone else think that Caleb really looks like Marlon Brando in this pic?  It's the chin, I'm sure.

Sweet sweet baby skin

I never realized how perfectly sweet my baby would be.  I remember when I first smelled his little breath as I lay in the hospital bed the day he was born.  I was in perfect wonder over the life in my arms, amazed that we had all made it safely through delivery, when I first caught a whiff.  His breath was like nothing I'd ever smelled before.  Perfect freshness.

And now the rain-fresh breath is no more, but he has this perfect, silky skin.  It's darkish toned like his dad's, and soft and smooth and wonderful. 

And he has these irresistable leg rolls, my mom calls them Dairy Queen wrinkles :)  He loves it when I am the nom nom monster and nom on those little rolls!  Baby laughs... but that's another post.

It's safe to say I'm intoxicated by my beautiful baby. 

Caleb v puffs. Round 1

Since he started eating purees, Caleb has tried all the Stage 1 fruits and vegetables.  The only one that he didn't seem to care for was the bananas, and I think it's because of the texture.  He seems to have a sensitive gag reflex (which has already given me a few near-heart attacks) and texture/dryness seems to really set it off.

We decided to try these little puff cereal things that dissolve really quickly.

They are a yummy strawberry flavor so we thought he'd enjoy them.

 

Well, so far the body language isn't giving us a lot of hope for the puffs...

What is this stuff you're feeding me...dirt??

Blech!!!

Sorry mom, I gave it my best shot!  Maybe next time!

All I Want For Christmas...and a seven month update

Is my two front teeth!  At least that's what Caleb says.  As you can see from some of these pictures, he already has one bottom tooth, it came in two weeks ago.  Another one is coming through today and my poor baby is sure feeling it.  I took these pictures last Friday afternoon, we all had fun playing since I got off early.  And yes, he's still in his PJs, we don't always get in a big hurry to get dressed when we are playing at home on the floor, I think he's warmer in his PJs and we don't have to worry about him pulling off his socks.  If you're reading this, Aunt Colleen, thank you so much for the fun presents!  We put the others under the tree for Christmas day, but this fun bendy ball we opened right away and he loves it.  Thank you!!!

(Please pay no attention to the man on the right...it's a good thing he never reads this blog, he'd probably be mad I took a picture of the top of his head, poor dude.  I still think he's sexy though)

While Caleb, Brent, Sadi and I were all playing together on the floor, Too Cool for School Gracie posted up on the couch. 

Also, Caleb turned seven months old yesterday!  He has all kinds of neat tricks including scooching around the room Army-crawl style, holding his own bottle, and babbling like a champ.  He also can eat an entire jar of stage one veggies twice a day, plus another half a jar of fruit at each meal too.  He's a good eater and even likes squash and peas!