My mom has this doll that sings "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Caleb has always loved her Austrialian-sounding voice and the spunk with which she sings the song. He also loves to chew on her hair. That being said, when she sang to him today, he got so excited he waved his hands in the air and then kissed her! Or was he biting her face? I'm not sure, but it looks pretty kissy to me! Caleb is 9 months, 1 week here.
June 2008 Archives
He is SO cute! As you can see in this pic, he's cleaned up a lot since when we first brought him home. And he's a feisty little guy. When he's with the girls, my dad's two mares, he gets all prancy. His gaits are beautiful and you can actually jog with him when he lopes. He is also extremely refined for a little pony (just check out that bone structure). All of the ponies from my childhood were fat, like they had swallowed a barrel whole. It's so fun to have this little guy around.
My nephew, when asked what the pony's name was said, "KING PONY!!!!!!!!!" and threw his hands up excitedly. I asked him if "King Pony" was all one word or one name. He explained to me that "King" was the pony's first name and "Pony" was his last name. Worked for me.
We went in for Caleb's nine month well-baby checkup today. They said he is overall a very healthy and "advanced" baby in terms of his abilities. He is, however, below average when it comes to the regular baby stats. Here they are:
Weight: 18 lbs., 13.9 oz. (24th percentile)
Length: 27.50 inches (26th percentile)
Head: 17.17 inches (46th percentile)
He's also an eating machine. The doctor said that babies run a spectrum from being very eager eaters to being very finicky (in terms of eating "real" food vs. baby food). Caleb eats pretty much everything (except the "baby no-no" foods), and most of these are things from my plate that I just chop up for him. He will refuse baby food unless it is chunky, so I'll usually mix something in with it (usually rice or cereal puffs). His favorite foods now are cheetos, garlic cheesy toast, green beans (whole, cooked), meat, cottage cheese, and garlic mashed potatoes. I find that a dash of garlic or cinnamon can make the difference between lips clamped shut or mouth wide open. So, he's definitely a connoisseur.
Oh, and he also has a tooth! It broke through on May 22nd. It's the top-left tooth. I think the top-right is going to come next because it looks like it's ready to break through any day now. He's handled teething pretty well. We relieve the pain with my home remedy. I take one ice cube, put it in a baby washcloth, then twist it up with one of my hair ties. I dip it in water and hand it to him and he just sucks away. He is not even interested in store-purchased teething rings and I personally think they're a wasted effort. Sometimes we'll split a fruit popsicle too. I don't mind splitting popsicles! It's one of the honors of motherhood! (Mmmm... popsicle... garaglaaallllhhhhhahahahaha...)
He's growing, he's fantastic, and I'm loving every minute of it.
Caleb has been growing like a weed lately and he's almost 9 months old. He crawls really fast (watch out!) and pulls himself up on whatever he can grab. He has been trying to cruise and has been successful at it a couple of times. Since his motor skills started developing rapidly, he has relied less on speech. The only words I hear from him anymore are "Ella" in response to pretty much any dog he sees, and "Mama" when he's really upset (although he does sorta sing, LOL). That's about it.
But, yesterday he returned his first sign! Josh and I were at the Village Inn eating after the terrible hail storm. There were ceiling fans above us that Caleb was fascinated with (as usual). We gave him the "round-and-round" sign several times. He was very serious and eventually returned the sign. I was so stoked. He has repeated it this morning already with the ceiling fan in our bedroom and in his bedroom. It's so cool and I am so stoked. Oh, and did I mention that I'm stoked? I am.
