Cheering, Sleeping & Smiling

Mom and Mr. L. came up this past Thursday afternoon. They kept Nola for me on Friday so that I could go to a conference for work. They reportedly had a great day and I survived being in the grown-up world for a whole day.

On Saturday, we went to the Razorback basketball game. The Hogs lost to Ole Miss in the final minutes of the game, but we had a good time anyway.

Though Nola slept through pretty much the whole game, Caleb has always been sensitive to loud sounds. He spent a lot of the game with his hands over his ears:
The fake foam finger is from his Fredbird build-a-bear that we got at the Cardinals game when he was 6 weeks old. He thought he just had to take it to be able to cheer for the Hogs. After he and Rudy had "prayer meeting" about his whininess and crying over the noise, he was in a much better mood. He finally perked up after halftime and had a good time. He even called the Hogs and cheered on his own.

The highlight of the game for me was getting this picture:

I know...probably not the best idea to hand my 5 1/2 week old child off to a mascot, but I could not miss this photo op and it didn't even cross my mind that it wasn't a good idea until well after the fact. I tried to get Caleb to stand closer and smile, but he was too distracted by the crowd and all the hoopla going on around us. A lady beside me asked how old Nola was and when I told her, I said something about giving my infant child to a Hog. Big Red rubbed his stomach like she would be a good snack for him. I thought that was pretty funny. :) Mom said that everyone around us oohed and aahed over Nola when Big Red was holding her. Only in Razorback Nation...

After the game, we went to dinner at Abuelo's. When the food runner brought our meals out, he apologized for something and Caleb looked at him and said very matter-of-fact, "You're fine." Apparently whatever the guy apologized for was just no big deal to Caleb and didn't bother his dining experience at all.

When Mom and Mr. L. left for Hot Springs on Sunday, Rudy took Caleb to Lake Ft. Smith to spend some time outside. They fished, had a picnic, went on a hike and pretty much did "boy stuff" all afternoon.

Caleb loves being outside with his daddy and I think the feeling is mutual. I would've liked to have been with them and I'm looking forward to the time when Nola is old enough that we can join them. It just would've been too much hassle to get her out there and worry about feeding her and changing her and keeping her covered up from the wind. We'll do that soon enough. Instead, we stayed home and took a nap.

Before I forget - I have two milestones to report... Nola slept all night long last night! I put her in her bed at 11:00. She slept most of the day and was awake and alert most of the evening. She napped in my arms for a while before her last bottle at 10:30. I went to bed at 12:00 and didn't wake up until I got a text at 5:45. I looked at the clock and realized that she had been asleep for a really long time, so I went to check on her. She was sleeping soundly, so I climbed back into bed and slept until 7:00. Caleb was still sleeping too, but woke up just after I did. Nola started to stir at about 7:30. Amazing!

Almost as good as sleeping all night is that she has also started to smile. She has done it a few times here and there and Mom said that she smiled at her on Friday, but yesterday was the first time she really looked right at me and grinned ear-to-ear. She did it several times yesterday and again this morning. She's also imitating more and more. She'll stare at my face intently and imitate me by sticking out her tongue and opening her mouth. Last night, she seemed to be trying to get me to play with her by sticking out her tongue and then smiling. This is when things start to get fun!