San Jose's Children's Discovery Museum

This trip was a blast. Our friends have year passes where they can get 2 guests in for free so Caleb and I joined in on the fun today. Here's Caleb in a fire truck with Sabrina.

There is a temporary Bob the Builder Exhibit that Caleb loved! He could have walked around that thing the entire time and never would have got tired of it.

There were other places to discover too:

Oh how Caleb loved the water! The aprons did little to stop him from getting wet but I guess it's better than nothing.

Some Cute Things to Remember

Talking to my family last night I realized there were a lot of things Caleb has been doing that I want to write down and haven't yet, so I'm doing it now.
1. One evening last week Derrick just came in the front door from work. He rested his bike on the wall and picked up Caleb while his helmet and sunglasses were still on. Derrick walked into the kitchen where I was doing last minute dinner preparations and Caleb immediately folded his arms and bowed his head. He knows when Daddy comes home it is time for prayer and dinner.
2. Caleb says "bye bye" to everything: when a truck drives by, when a bird flys away, when Derrick leaves for work or when people walk away from him.
3. Caleb will grab my keys and hand them to me when he thinks it's time to leave the house because he knows we bring them every time.
4. For a few days Caleb would point out the outside light fixtures next to every door in our apartment complex. He would point to each one fervently and say, "I, I" (light).
5. We are always playing in the car, it is Caleb's favorite place to play. I never taught him this but he knows that the key goes in the ignition and sometimes he actually gets the right key in it. How he knows the key goes there, I have no idea because I don't think he can see me do it from his car seat.
6. Caleb understands a lot of what we say here are a few of the phrases he knows very well:
-Do you want to brush your teeth (or wash your hands)? (he LOVES these two things and will run straight to the bathroom)
-Do you want breakfast (or lunch or dinner)?
-Where's your....cup, blue bear, blankie, hat?
-Let's wake up Daddy.
-Do you want to go outside?

So smart and a little conceited

Caleb loves this book and he knows four of the animals on the last page:

Caleb will look at himself in the mirror sometimes and just smile. It is only when he is alone though. I can only get this on camera until he realizes I'm there.

Life

Caleb loves to play our keyboard and he especially loves to turn on this beat and get into it by imitating the noise and moving his head side to side like this.

Caleb has recently discovered his belly. Often when he has his shirt off and we say where's your belly he will strain himself to look at it like in the beginning of this video.

Also, on a different note I wanted to add that I got a new calling at church. I used to be the choir pianist but I was released from that and called as the primary chorister. I am so excited for this opportunity to work with the kids. When I was little I said I wanted to be the primary chorister because I loved singing time so much and now I am! I know this will be a lot of fun.

Imitations Part 2

The day after I posted "Imitations" Caleb started folding his arms for prayer. We never force him to do it, we just say, "Fold your arms" and then we pray. Now when we say dinner prayer he folds his arms and tries to adjust them to be folded just like ours. It is so cute!

Also, Caleb is starting to imitate all of our sounds. All day long he is just jabbering away. So often we'll say something then he'll try to say it too and every once in a while, he says the words exactly. We can't believe how fast he's picking up on things.

Imitations

Caleb, like any other kid, wants to be and do things just like us. Here are a few of the things we've seen him do:
1. We always dump the sand out of Caleb's shoes when we get back from the park. I caught him the other day dumping out his sandless shoes but I knew what he was doing.
2. Caleb took a pen and pretended to write on the Post its. (I'm always using Post its)
3. Caleb will hand us the remote when he wants to watch tv. He knows that's what makes everything work. I'm just glad he doesn't know how to make it work yet.
4. Caleb always wants to feed himself with the spoon and he will refuse to eat until the plate is on his tray.
5. When he gets his hands dirty I taught him to wipe his hands off by brushing them off together. He is always doing this at the park when he gets sand on his hands.
6. Derrick was with Caleb at the park when a man stopped to do some stretches and exercises. He was doing squats and Caleb was watching intently. Then Caleb started doing the squats too.

4th of July

We got this cute outfit in the mail. It came all the way from Utah! There were also some cute flip flops that were like a flag but Caleb refused to wear them which was too bad because they were the cutest things!

The 4th of July, actually the 5th of July this year, we went to Golfland with our church. There was a BBQ/potluck. We had a lot of yummy food and Caleb enjoyed the water toy they had out for the kids. He kept thinking it was a drinking fountain and was always trying to drink the water. Whatever, it kept him happy for like 20 minutes!

The beginning of this video is the end of Caleb imitating a baby cry. Whenever this baby would cry, Caleb would imitate it. So funny!

Camping

Friday night the three of us went camping...our first family campout! We've been so timid with Caleb (bedtime and sleeping in his crib) but now we are starting to be more adventurous. We went to Joseph Grant County Park which is south east of San Jose. We had the perfect campsite! There weren't too many people around, we had 2 picnic benches (though one of them isn't in this picture), close but not too close to the bathroom and a view of an observatory.

When we set up the tent Caleb was so excited. By the next morning he knew the word tent and was saying "teh teh" a lot.

For dinner we had tin foil dinners then smores for dessert. Caleb loved the BBQ pit. When he saw the flames go up he was attached. I told him it was hot and immediately he started blowing in the direction of the pit. I am always telling Caleb his food is hot and then I blow on it. He will then immitate my blowing even though it isn't on the food. So when I said the coals were hot he knew that meant you have to blow on it. Pure logic.

When it was time to put Caleb to bed we put a beanie on his head with the hoodie over that, he had on a long sleeve shirt, warm pants, his sleep sack and to top it off I put a pair of my socks over his hands. When I first put it on he looked at his hands and he was so confused. Derrick and I couldn't stop laughing at how funny he looked. This picture is Caleb not liking the get-up. He got used to it quickly though.

After Caleb was asleep Derrick and I played Ticket to Ride and Nines (with Rook cards). Then we saw this frog. It was huge!

Derrick is like a little boy when it comes to gross things like frogs:

That night Caleb didn't wake up once until 5:30. He was sleeping like a rock. Even when Derrick and I got into the tent, in our sleeping bags and zipped up the tent Caleb didn't move a muscle.

The next morning we did a little exploring, packed up and left. Caleb found a pepper on the ground there. He seems to have a knack for finding produce (like the orange at the beach).

Fun Friday Night

Tonight we went to a park with a man made pond. Caleb loved the water and wanted to get in! He loved chasing the ducks around and he did that until they all retreated into the water. The picture above turned out really neat I think. I just held the camera above the water, facing it to Caleb and wah la!

After our fun with the ducks we headed over to Baskin Robbin's for some shakes. Caleb loved it!

Trip to San Diego

Derrick and I wanted to go to San Diego sometime this summer so we decided to come for my sister Jenna's high school graduation.

We met my grandma and grandpa for lunch one day at the Coronado golf course restaurant.

Everyone loved Caleb

Here's my attempt at trying to keep Caleb happy in the car, it worked for a few minutes. Since Caleb had a hard time sleeping at night he would be a bit cranky in the car so I had to pull out all my tricks to get him to be happy.

With the sleeping, my dad would be up with Caleb, not me. He said since it was our vacation he would watch Caleb, how nice!

He even did the grilling on Father's day. We had steak and it was yummy!

Another really cool thing we did while there was visit the newly renovated Mormon Battalion. I couldn't believe how neat it was. You would go from room to room and it was like you were traveling with them through their journey. There would be videos in each room explaining different part of their trek. And the tour guide made it really fun. Caleb was entertained the entire 35 minutes of the tour!

I have to write my favorite part of their story. At one point on their journey many men were getting really sick and so they had to stop at a town (Pueblo, which is a town in modern day Colorado) that they didn't intend on stopping at. At this location they learned how to irrigate fields and other useful information for living in the desert. These same men that learned these skills were the ones that helped settle in the Salt Lake Valley. Were it not for their stopping at Pueblo, the pioneers would not have known how to adequately survive in the desert. Amazing.

At the end of the tour there was a place to pan for gold, since these people from the Mormon Battalion were there when the first gold of the California gold rush was found. Caleb loved playing with the water. I would definitely recommend this tour if you are in San Diego, especially if you have kids.

We actually forgot our camera but it was ok because they have a place to take a picture where they print a copy out for you and you can also e-mail it to yourself. Pretty cool!

Obsession

Here's 4 short videos I combined into one. If there is one phrase Caleb understands it's: Do you want to watch Sesame Street? Every time we get this reaction:

Caleb loves his blankie too. He sleeps with it at every nap and bedtime. Sometimes he will walk around with it and he always brings it up to his ears. Often it covers his face and he walks blindly but not in this video.

Clothes

At my baby shower someone gave us a real wool suit jacket and pants for Caleb. He finally fits into them and we had him wear it to church last Sunday. I bought the white shirt and tie and doesn't he look handsome? Everyone at church was pointing at him and saying how cute he looked.

I made a dress! A friend is teaching me how to sow and this is my first project. It turned out really nice and it makes me want to make another one :)

Learning Soooo Fast

We are so amazed everyday how quickly Caleb can learn. He never ceases to amaze us. One day Caleb came walking out with Derrick's tie around his neck. He knows that's where it's supposed to go. He does this often now.

This is Caleb imitating the metronome sound

This is going to make Pop happy. Take a listen

I did this, then Caleb imitated:

We heard a funny story a while about Derrick's second cousin Lily saying "bummer." I have tried to get Caleb to say it, since I liked that story and he does pretty well. He also says "out" at the end here too.

Caleb's First Beach Day!

I didn't have work today so we decided to have some fun at the beach. Caleb is sporting the outfit Gram got him when she and Pop went to Hawaii not too long ago.
We found a half sand dollar and gave it to Caleb, it didn't leave his grasp for like 20 minutes. You can see it in this picture.



Me trying to feed Caleb his lunch but he just wanted to play:

Most kids find seashells in the sand. Caleb found an orange and he couldn't be more excited. Yes, someone left a whole orange, what a waste!

All in all, it was a good day. We had so much fun and can't wait to go back again...if only we weren't so tired when we got home :)

Funny thing

At work on Saturday a three year old girl came with her mom to the cleaning. I was talking to the girl while working on the mom. I asked the girl what her dad does for work and she said, "He golfs." The mom then explained that her husband was the head golf coach at Stanford. The girl was right, her dad golfs for work, how many kids can say that?

Words

Caleb says a few things with meaning like:
hat: haa (while he reaches for his head)
bye: bye (with a wave)
park: pa
duck: duh (when he sees a duck)
amen: num (This one is my favorite. I love that he really is learning from our example. Sometimes Caleb says it after we do or other times right before we do.)

Doggie love

Two days ago I was at the park with Caleb in the late afternoon when two women walk by with a small to medium sized dog with white curly fur. Caleb got really excited when he saw it. The women noticed his excitement and asked if Caleb wanted to see him. I said yes and we went over to where they were in the grass. Caleb smiled the whole time we were petting the dog. Then the dog started rolling around in the grass and Caleb laughed harder than I ever saw him laugh without being tickled. The dog proceeded to stand up and shake his head which got Caleb laughing again. The dog did this over and over...roll in the grass, shake his head. Caleb was so entertained by this and I loved that he loved it. I love seeing Caleb so happy.

Caleb's groove

Caleb has really gotten into moving with the music. Whether it's a song on Sesame Street or my upbeat singing.



All that dancing wears a little guy out! (I put this here to show that Caleb sleeps with his little blue bear. He loves that thing and will give it hugs all the time).

Caleb's One Year Photos

A big thank you to Liz Baker for taking the pictures and to Cheer Olsen for recommending her! We are so happy with how they turned out!

Caleb's Walking

Caleb has been walking more and more. Last week his record was 14 steps. It's hard to film him walking but this shows a little bit of how he's doing:

Play time and eating time

We keeps Caleb's old bathtub in his room. He loves to climb in and out and in and out of it. He will sit there like this and just play.

This toy is actually battery powered but Caleb is scared of it when it's on so he just plays with it like this:

Caleb loves watermellon:

Derrick's 28!

We had some yummy chocolate cake!

Why is Caleb's shirt off you wonder?

Because we knew this would happen:

I got Derrick some Get Fuzzy comic books and Avatar on Blu Ray. We've had a Blu Ray player for over a year now and this will be the first blu ray movie we've owned.

Happy Birthday my love!