Sunday, November 26, 2006

Here Comes Santa Claus!

Thanksgiving has come and gone. We have so much for which to be thankful. I say this every year, but it means even more this year. Caleb continues to amaze us with his developmental growth spurts. He is now sitting up by himself for quite a long time - until something gets his attention and he leans for it...then he topples. He is rolling over and over and over...but still gets mad about it when he's tired. About a week ago, I was hanging up laundry in his room and he rolled himself against the bedroom door. He hadn't figured out how to roll the other way yet, so he was stuck. I showed him how to go back to his left and he's been "on a roll" since then. He has started yelling just to hear his own voice. It's usually something along the lines of "yayaya" or "wawawa", but he'll occasionally throw in a /b/, /m/, /d/ or /p/.

On the other hand...our little easy-going newborn has turned into an infant with an opinion. Don't get me wrong - Caleb is still happy-go-lucky most of the time, but when he wants (or doesn't want) something to happen, he is quite vocal about it. This is particularly true when it comes to having his face cleaned or being put down to play when he wants to be held. We've seen a lot of this the past 2 days. I blame it on his daddy's genetics, but I'm sure he blames it on mine. We can both be opinionated in our own right, I guess - we've never been accused of being wishy-washy that I know of.

November was a fun and very busy month. I'm so busy at work right now that I don't even want to see a computer when I get home. That's why I haven't been posting much. Rudy's after-hours work has decreased a lot now that marching season is over. (Yeah!!!) On November 19th, we attended the wedding of Rebecca Villines and Sean Franklin. Rebecca is Rudy's first cousin, so we got to see lots of family there. Our family from Texas (Larry/Ana, Alexander, Anthony, Mary, Jimmy/Sandy) came in for the wedding. Uncle Terry from Ft. Smith came in too. None of them had met Caleb, so we were extra excited about seeing them.

We spent Thanksgiving in Springfield, Tennessee, at Doug and Lisa's house. Ken, Dennis and Kathy were there too. Caleb got to meet more aunts and uncles! We had a fun time visiting with them. The only low part of the weekend was the Hogs' loss to LSU. Oh, well - the SEC championship game is this weekend, so we have 2 more games to enjoy (hopefully). We had a wonderful dinner on Friday at Doug's restaurant - The Depot - and really enjoyed our time with family. The trip was short and sweet and Caleb did pretty well overall. He got a little fussy in the car - it was a long way! I was able to climb in the backseat with him and entertain him most of the way. On the way back, we actually had to stop for a few minutes just to give him some time outside of the carseat. He was so tired of being restrained! I can't say that I blame him!

We made it home yesterday safe and sound. Last night was pretty low-key, just unpacking and doing laundry. Today, we put up the Christmas tree and the stockings. Rudy went to Target and Babies R Us to get baby-proofing gear. Since Caleb is on the verge of being mobile, we have to start thinking about the stairs, cabinets and outlets more and more. I'm hoping he waits until after Christmas to start crawling so that the tree is safe!

This week starts the official countdown to Christmas. I love that December is a short work month, but that just means that we have 4 weeks of work to do in just 3 weeks' time! At least I have all my shopping done...

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