Caleb has done great with his tubes. We haven't had any problems at all! Yeah!!!! The day after the tubes went in, he started to babble more. We even heard "Mamamama" for the first time! He's now doing a lot of consonants and a lot of vowels too. He still prefers "dadadadada" and that's his response any time you try to get him to talk to you.
As far as mobility - Caleb is still doing his ever-popular wounded soldier routine. He has started to prop up on his left side pretty often, though. We're thinking this may be the precursor to learning to sit up on his own. He can now readily go from sitting to crawling. We've started to see more rocking on his knees too. I don't think it'll be long before he's crawling up on his hands and knees, but I've been saying that for weeks now, so we're just waiting. Caleb's newest love is pulling up from sitting to standing by holding onto my arms. He loves to grab on and then stand right up! He can't stand alone, so I support his hips or under his arms, but he has quite a bit of strength in those little legs.
This past weekend, we went to Hot Springs for a visit. On Friday night, we flew in to Little Rock. Mom picked us up at the airport and we made a b-line for Hot Springs. We were exhausted! Saturday was a relaxing day of napping and visiting with family. We went to see Aunt Harolyn and Uncle Poppie's new house they are building. It's going to be so pretty! We went to dinner with Mom, Pepapa and Anna Joyce at KJ's Grill. Ms. Kelly (one of the owners) came and got Caleb and took him back in the kitchen for a look around. She said he loved it and was most impressed by the ice machine and the noise that it made. Mr. L. came home from deer camp on Sunday and had a blast playing with Caleb. We went to Pepapa and Anna Joyce's to celebrate Uncle Jimmy's 40th birthday. Jimmy and Kim came over from Sheridan and we enjoyed visiting with everyone. Caleb even got to have a little cake and ice cream since it was a special occasion.
Sunday was a day of firsts too. All of a sudden, Caleb decided that he would start waving to everyone and everything. He waved at us all day and all night! He also discovered that he can make interesting sounds with his tongue. For 2 days now, he has been clucking and clicking his tongue like crazy. It's pretty amusing - especially to him. He's also getting better at clapping. He tries so hard to get his little hands together, but sometimes he misses.
Tonight was a dark night in Caleb's very young life. When we got home from Arkansas, it was time to say goodbye to our beloved pacifiers. To keep us from giving in and giving them back to him, I actually threw them in the trash - all of them - gone. I allowed him to have them through today, because we were flying and I needed to be able to give Caleb a pacifier in case his ears hurt, but once we got home - POOF - they were gone! I paid the price, too. I put Caleb down to bed like normal at 8:45. He screamed and screamed and SCREAMED for an hour and 45 minutes! I tried everything: I put him in bed and walked out. I rocked him. I read a story. I turned the lights low. I turned the lights off. I turned on music, then turned it back off again. I sat in the rocking chair next to his bed, I folded clothes in his room, I walked the floor with him and I rubbed his back. Finally, I gave up. I decided to fight one battle at a time. I scooped him up and brought him to bed with me. This is the one thing that always works, right? He started screaming all over again. Finally, it actually got a little funny. The sad little sounds he was making were just plain pitiful and I had to laugh to keep from crying myself. Eventually, the poor little guy had all he could take and he went from crying/screaming/moaning/wailing to snoring in a matter of seconds. I let him get into a good, deep sleep and I carried him to his room. That was over an hour ago and he's still sleeping...
I know the next few days/nights are going to be rough, but I really want to stop the pacifier usage now. I actually wanted to stop it at 6 months, but that's when the ear problems were starting to get really bad and I just couldn't take it away from him. Now, he's reached a point where he doesn't have a developmental need to suck anymore. He is old enough to self-soothe when he's upset and he's old enough to get himself to sleep. I want to get rid of the pacifier now - before it becomes something that he is so hooked on that it will take an all-out war to remove. We're at the point now where we're going to start phasing out the baby stuff (pacifiers, bottles, baby food, etc) and phasing in the big-boy stuff (sippy cups, table food, bowls, etc). I hate to admit that my sweet little baby is growing up so fast, but I have to do what I have to do. This feels right and it's what I'm going to do. So...bye-bye paci. We'll miss you - but only for a few days.
As far as mobility - Caleb is still doing his ever-popular wounded soldier routine. He has started to prop up on his left side pretty often, though. We're thinking this may be the precursor to learning to sit up on his own. He can now readily go from sitting to crawling. We've started to see more rocking on his knees too. I don't think it'll be long before he's crawling up on his hands and knees, but I've been saying that for weeks now, so we're just waiting. Caleb's newest love is pulling up from sitting to standing by holding onto my arms. He loves to grab on and then stand right up! He can't stand alone, so I support his hips or under his arms, but he has quite a bit of strength in those little legs.
This past weekend, we went to Hot Springs for a visit. On Friday night, we flew in to Little Rock. Mom picked us up at the airport and we made a b-line for Hot Springs. We were exhausted! Saturday was a relaxing day of napping and visiting with family. We went to see Aunt Harolyn and Uncle Poppie's new house they are building. It's going to be so pretty! We went to dinner with Mom, Pepapa and Anna Joyce at KJ's Grill. Ms. Kelly (one of the owners) came and got Caleb and took him back in the kitchen for a look around. She said he loved it and was most impressed by the ice machine and the noise that it made. Mr. L. came home from deer camp on Sunday and had a blast playing with Caleb. We went to Pepapa and Anna Joyce's to celebrate Uncle Jimmy's 40th birthday. Jimmy and Kim came over from Sheridan and we enjoyed visiting with everyone. Caleb even got to have a little cake and ice cream since it was a special occasion.
Sunday was a day of firsts too. All of a sudden, Caleb decided that he would start waving to everyone and everything. He waved at us all day and all night! He also discovered that he can make interesting sounds with his tongue. For 2 days now, he has been clucking and clicking his tongue like crazy. It's pretty amusing - especially to him. He's also getting better at clapping. He tries so hard to get his little hands together, but sometimes he misses.
Tonight was a dark night in Caleb's very young life. When we got home from Arkansas, it was time to say goodbye to our beloved pacifiers. To keep us from giving in and giving them back to him, I actually threw them in the trash - all of them - gone. I allowed him to have them through today, because we were flying and I needed to be able to give Caleb a pacifier in case his ears hurt, but once we got home - POOF - they were gone! I paid the price, too. I put Caleb down to bed like normal at 8:45. He screamed and screamed and SCREAMED for an hour and 45 minutes! I tried everything: I put him in bed and walked out. I rocked him. I read a story. I turned the lights low. I turned the lights off. I turned on music, then turned it back off again. I sat in the rocking chair next to his bed, I folded clothes in his room, I walked the floor with him and I rubbed his back. Finally, I gave up. I decided to fight one battle at a time. I scooped him up and brought him to bed with me. This is the one thing that always works, right? He started screaming all over again. Finally, it actually got a little funny. The sad little sounds he was making were just plain pitiful and I had to laugh to keep from crying myself. Eventually, the poor little guy had all he could take and he went from crying/screaming/moaning/wailing to snoring in a matter of seconds. I let him get into a good, deep sleep and I carried him to his room. That was over an hour ago and he's still sleeping...
I know the next few days/nights are going to be rough, but I really want to stop the pacifier usage now. I actually wanted to stop it at 6 months, but that's when the ear problems were starting to get really bad and I just couldn't take it away from him. Now, he's reached a point where he doesn't have a developmental need to suck anymore. He is old enough to self-soothe when he's upset and he's old enough to get himself to sleep. I want to get rid of the pacifier now - before it becomes something that he is so hooked on that it will take an all-out war to remove. We're at the point now where we're going to start phasing out the baby stuff (pacifiers, bottles, baby food, etc) and phasing in the big-boy stuff (sippy cups, table food, bowls, etc). I hate to admit that my sweet little baby is growing up so fast, but I have to do what I have to do. This feels right and it's what I'm going to do. So...bye-bye paci. We'll miss you - but only for a few days.
No comments:
Post a Comment