Sleep

Yesterday morning Caleb was a wreck. Unless we were outside he couldn't stay calm. Around 10am I laid down with him on the living room floor, his head on my arm, and I sang to him while stroking his hair. He eventually stopped crying and his eyes started to get droopy. After 5 minutes he was out. I was able to slide my arm out from under his head and he slept like this for a half hour:


I was at the computer with my back to him and when he woke up, he sat up, I turned around and he said, "Hi" with a slightly sleepy face and a smile. He has never slept on the floor like that before.
I also wanted to get a picture of our bedtime routine. Derrick or I will sit in the rocking chair and read Caleb books, then we turn off the lights and sing him a few songs. Precious moments.

Crazy Boy

There is nothing to compare to the energy level Caleb had on Sunday evening. It was crazy even for Caleb standards. He was running around like a mad man. At one point he did this over and over again, no less than 50 times (I am not exaggerating):

As soon as he would finish he would run back again to the first sofa and climb up. At one point I sat in the spot he used to get up and he started tugging at my dress and saying, "dow, dow" for down. I moved and he proceeded.
That night after dinner he also got up on the chair at the dinner table and started spooning the juice from our green beans into his mouth. He then started eating the beans and splashing in the juice. Then he stuck his head right in the pot and tried to get the beans that way. I tried to get a video but he wants the camera too much. So here's Caleb crying for the camera but it gives you the picture of where he was when he ate the beans:

Maybe this was all because of daylight savings time. He still is not used to it and he has been sleeping less than usual. I am hoping he gets adjusted soon.

Bravo!

I've been meaning to write this story down all week: On Sunday I had the senior primary sing my song, "We Give Our Thanks" for the special musical number during sacrament meeting. We sat in the second row (no one sits in the first) so I could conduct the kids from right there. Derrick was watching Caleb during the song and he said Caleb was hooked to those kids the entire time. He loved them singing. Then as soon as the song was over and I was gesturing the kids to go back to their seats, Caleb starts clapping his hands and said, "Yay!" He had a huge smile on his face. I at least have one fan!

Halloween!

We had two Halloween parties on Friday and I am convinced that Halloween is Caleb's favorite holiday. Caleb was a scarecrow, I was a farm girl and Derrick was a stock of corn.

There was a person in a dog costume and we are certain Caleb thought it was a real dog. He was in love with this dog:


Another funny thing that happened (which I wish we had on camera) was that I saw a two or three year old dressed up in a head to toe Elmo costume--hood and all with the eyes and nose on top of the kid's head. I knelt down and told Caleb, "Look it's Elmo." The second his eyes found Elmo he went running up to the boy, whose back was to us. When Caleb gets right up to him he's practically touching the boy as he circles around him to look right into his face. Caleb thought this was the real Elmo and he was ecstatic.

There was also a bouncy house there but it was always filled with big kids so we just held Caleb while standing next to the structure and we bounced up and down. He was smiling the entire time and he really felt like he was in there too. At one point a little girl came up to him from the inside and put her hands on the netting and let Caleb tap her hands. I always love it when kids older than Caleb make an effort to play with him because it makes him so happy.

We ate popcorn while we waited in line to get balloon swords. Caleb was going around grabbing every other kid's balloon, so we had to get one too.

After the work party we went to our church party. We ate food, talked to friends and did a little trunk or treating. Caleb quickly got the hang of reaching out his hand to take the candy and put it in his sack. We only let him get like 7 pieces or so but he loved it and ate a fun size bag of m&m's on the way home.
I made some yummy pumpkin cake for the party and decorated it like this:

With the extra pumpkin puree I had left we made pumpkin pancakes the next morning and they were the most amazing pancakes I have ever had. We used this recipe, in case you ever want to try them. I will certainly be making them again!

Sunday

Grandma Isaacson sent Caleb two new ties that are actually his length! The one tie I could find for him was almost to his knees so this is much better:

In his suit with his scriptures:

For almost 10 minutes last Sunday Caleb sat quietly in his little play corner looking at books and playing with his toys. It was so cute I had to get some of it on camera. You will also hear him talk of Elmo in this clip. Elmo is his favorite thing in the world, besides me of course. We even got him an Elmo bowl and Caleb is always clearing the food out of the way so he can see Elmo's face.

Three Randoms

On Sunday Caleb and Derrick were both wearing white shirts and blue ties. I had to get a picture before church because I thought it was so cute. Might I say here too that I am so happy Caleb got Derrick's blond hair. I love blond hair!

Here's Caleb after eating rice for dinner one night. This isn't too bad, it's just funny. The bad part was all the rice that fell into his diaper but I didn't take a picture of that :)

This is Caleb watching a video on Derrick's cell phone of his Grandma and Grandpa. They are singing Popcorn Popping and he will watch this video over and over. I think his favorite part is when they say "Hi Caleb" at the beginning.

Palm Springs

We had a fun weekend in Palm Springs to celebrate my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary.

We went out to dinner two nights and had fun with the family. During the day we enjoyed the pool:

Caleb had fun with Gram and Pop

We also enjoyed frozen yogurt and doggies

My favorite part of the trip was our game night when we played Wits and Wagers, Apples to Apples and Guesstures. Everyone really got into game mode and we had a blast.
Back in Huntington Beach Caleb's favorite toy was the little car.

On Monday we wanted to take Caleb to the Zoo but it was raining too hard when we got there so instead we did a train ride. I didn't know how Caleb would like this but he had no problems staying on the train the whole time.



They also had horses/ponies there and Caleb loved looking at them.

Caleb thinks any big animal is a cow:

Our Tuesday

I felt all ready for my first baby appointment now that I knew what to expect. I knew they did an ultrasound on the first appt. so this time we had Derrick come too so he could see it. I got an early morning appointment but when I got there I found out this office does it differently than my last office. A nurse sees you on the first appt and goes over info, schedules future appts. and I get lab work done. There wasn't a doctor appointment open until 11:30am. We decided Derrick would take the day off since he wanted to be there and we had the missionaries over for dinner that night...otherwise he wouldn't get 8 hours of work in. So we went home for an hour and a half and then went back to the doctor's office.

The actual ultrasound is so much better than the picture. The limbs and torso were so much clearer and its perfect little heart was beating strongly. When I saw him or her the spirit overcame me. I am, quite frankly, terrified to have another newborn baby (I wasn't at all scared with Caleb)...but now I know the horrors that very little sleep does to my head, the blackouts I experienced, the 8 weeks of healing...and it makes me scared. But when I saw this little baby, laying there quietly inside me (Caleb was active and moving around for this ultrasound), I couldn't help but feel peace. He or she was meant to come to us and I am grateful for that confirmation.
When we got home, Caleb went down for a nap and Derrick and I read Harry Potter. This is Derrick's first go around with them and he is loving them. We are on the fourth book and we always want to be reading...it is so fun.
Later that day while I was preparing dinner Derrick took Caleb out of the house and as they were coming up the stairs Derrick yells out to grab the camera. Here's what I saw:

It was a hot day so Derrick decided to take Caleb out for a play in the hose. Caleb thoroughly enjoyed himself as he always does when it comes to water.
We had the missionaries over for dinner, that night we got some chores done and we read some more Harry Potter. Later that night Derrick got an e-mail saying that everyone in his organization was getting an extra day off for good performance! We were wary of taking the day off and when we got this e-mail, it was like someone was saying, "See, you were supposed to take today off...you made the right decision!" We had a great day!

First Week of Nursery

I forgot until now that I wanted to post about Caleb's first week in nursery at church. True, he still has a few weeks to go until he is 18 months but Derrick and I both have callings in primary so we got the okay from the nursery leader to bring Caleb in early.
I took him in and brought him over to the tables where the kids could play with toys. He sat right down in the chair without me even asking him. He was just fine as I left the room. I go back to primary, go through opening exercises and then at the end of junior primary singing time I see one of the nursery leaders come in with Caleb whose face was red like he had been crying. The nursery leader handed Caleb off to a friend until I was done with singing time.
I got Caleb and headed back to nursery with Caleb to see what happened. They said when he had someone's full on attention he was fine but whenever he was with the group of kids he would slowly break into tears. I played with him and the other kids until I had to go back to do senior primary singing time. Luckily when I left they were getting to snack time and Caleb sat right down at ate with the other kids.
I did singing time then came back to nursery to see Caleb sitting in a rocking horse, happily sucking on a plastic doughnut. I heard that all of snack time and play time he did great. I watched him play until the end of church and he did really well playing with the other kids. I think he will get adjusted to nursery very quickly.

Favorite Place to Play

Caleb is always asking to get in his crib now. He just never wants to get out and has me give him his stuffed animals and books and toys. As long he's happy with that, I'm totally ok with it...keeps him out of trouble.

Also, here's the shirt Caleb wore to Utah when we broke the news to the family.

Caleb is obsessed with the camera, as seen above. It is so hard for me to get any good videos these days...same in this video. He was about to dance for me but sees the camera...bummer.

Three things

The Saturday of Labor Day Weekend we went to The Tech Museum. Derrick got us free passes for this year from work which included 4 IMAX movies. We watched "Under the Sea." Caleb sat through the full 40 minutes of the movie! It was amazing. Here's the one picture we got:

Caleb knows his face parts:

Here's me getting Caleb to say words that he uses a lot. I wanted to remember how he sounded when he said them.

Monkey See Monkey Do

Last Saturday I was preparing for singing time. I was teaching the kids the second verse of "When He Comes Again" in sign language. I had memorized it weeks before but I wanted to review it again. I pulled up the video off the church web site and started signing with the lady. Caleb watched the video the whole way through. When I played it a second time Caleb starts waving his hands in front of him the whole time I'm doing it.

This morning the first thing Caleb noticed when he got up was that the lap top was open. He goes over to it, moves his finger around the mouse pad, then puts his hands in the typing position and starts pretending to type. He really looked like he knew what he was doing.

Utah Trip AND...

Alright, we're letting this out early but we are 8 weeks pregnant. It got out to almost the whole Isaacson family so we'll just let everyone know...yes Mom and Dad, feel free to tell whoever you want.
Caleb's travel clothes to Utah consisted of bright blue shorts and a shirt I made that said, "April 10th, 2011" on the front and "Big Brother in Waiting" on the back. That's how we broke the news to Derrick's family. Everyone on the plane and at the restaurant we went to when we got to Utah thought the shirt was adorable. Note: Caleb's birthday is April 11th, one day after the due date. For birthday celebration reasons I'm hoping for another boy. How do you pull off a girl/boy birthday party?
Onto Utah...Sunday after church we did a tour with Derrick's grandparents that included a house the Grandpa Isaacson built, a house that Great Grandpa Isaacson built, a house that Great Grandpa Spencer built, a cemetary visit (very windy) and some touching stories about family history.

Okay, I was AWFUL at taking pictures. Lisa took some that I will try get after she gets settled in at BYU.
Monday: Isaacson Family 5k. I jogged the whole time!
Tuesday: Temple Square--we went into the Salt Lake Temple while Paul watched Caleb, had a Cafe Rio picnic, Caleb got soaked in the reflection pool, ate some Hatch Family Chocolates.
Wednesday: Bowling at BYU, dinner in Provo (my mom and brother James joined us), visit to Gma and Gpa Isaacson's
Thursday: Intertubing down the Provo River (weather was perfect, water level was high and we even saw some beavers), bbq at a park near the river (my parents bro James and sis Jenna came too). We got this pic and video

Friday: 2002 Winter Olympic Center in Park City--zip line, alpine slide, watched professionals practice long jump down a watered turf on a mountain side and watch professionals ski down a ramp that led to a pool where they could practice twists and twirls in the air before landing in the water. It was way cool!

Other fun things:

-Caleb fell in love with his grandparents. They were the ones that took him to do fun things so naturally he wanted them more than Derrick and me. The grandparents: let Caleb help in the garden, put him in the kiddie pool, played with him on the slide and swing, took him to the park and much more. Here's Caleb in the garden:

-THE BEST THING was that I didn't have to take care of Caleb much for a full week of morning sickness. I was so glad they loved Caleb (and me) enough to let me rest. Lynne would even make me warm breakfasts in the morning since cereal doesn't sit well with me. Derrick would make my lunches for me and get me whatever I asked for. It was a blessing!

-We played a lot of 500...my favorite card game

Overall, it was a good trip. Back to normal life.

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).