toosh

I realized the other day that our little man has been around for almost four months, and we don't have a single naked bum shot. So after Gran gave him his last bath at the Lakewood house (for a while anyways),we set up a little photo op, bottoms up!

socks

Caleb has been kicking his little legs, pretty much nonstop, for several weeks now. The Grandpa Dale's theory is that he doesn't like wearing shoes, or socks, since it looks like he's trying with all his might to slip either off... but he does it barefoot too, so I think he just has a lot of energy and needs to move. A typical day features me carrying him around the entire house, one naked foot
just dangling there, in search for the rogue sock.

However, just recently, our little boy has found his feet, and discovered how much fun they are - especially when covered with socks. This particular pair stayed put on his feet for several minutes while he wiggled and tugged, and sucked... There's so much curiousity and concentration on his face.

yelling

I had a little get-together with two of my good friends from high school and their beaus. Lauren is newlywed to a great guy named Alec, and Shellie and Brian are engaged to be married in a couple weeks. They're all a lot of fun to be around, and since I'm heading back to NC next week to be with my own man, I had to squeeze in one more visit with them.

The conversation with these guys is great, and we just had a ball, mostly while playing a game I'd never heard of called the Great Dalmudi. It ended up being a very late night, especially for me and Caleb who are used to retiring much earlier. He slept through most of the excitement minus an hour or two where he was the excitement. I knew he'd get along great with the girls, because they can be really goofy, but this was completely unexpected. You'd think he was mad, but he was just goofing around.

What a dork.

lock up your daughters

There's a heartbreaker on the loose. We'll see if his attitude lives up to the reputation we've already established for him.

Thanks again Grandpa Chris for this amusing t-shirt.

being modest

Our little chunker let me take some naked pictures again, only this time there was no need to edit. He's such a happy pudgey baby. He's more than 16 pounds now, and already wearing 6-9 month clothes. It amazes me how big he's gotten, and how many things he can do. He really does change every day.

little runner

I took Caleb for a jog in our fancy stroller, because I still have a little baby weight to lose, and I've been itching to get back into running. The best part about him being with me was that most of my exercise was from laughing at this little boy gliding in front of me. I had to bundle him up all nice and tight because it was 8:30pm in Western Washington and there was a little nip in the air. Plus momma was going really fast! haha, not really. He rode so sweetly for most of the workout, but I think he was getting a little tired. It was fun while it lasted though.




Thanks to Gran for this super awesome body suit. We certainly are enjoying it.

giggling

I absolutely love that he can giggle now, because it's the best way to tell that he's happy and healthy, and it totally brightens up whatever mood I'm in. It's great when one of his conversations of babble is embellished with chuckles and squeals, and even more fun when he'll get in a laughing fit with you. He doesn't even know what's funny, just wants to share in your moment of joy.

I had to shoot this video from the side because he gets camera shy if he can see it. Who would have thought that a child of mine and Michael's could ever be shy?

rolling over

So far he'll only roll over when he starts on his belly (actually, he pretty much does it automatically) but it's a step in the right direction.

developmental milestones: 3 months

He's getting pretty good at this. Look at him kicking his back legs up and everything.

He also has great eye contact, decent tracking skills and interest in things. He likes to suck on his fist, or your finger if it's in his fist, and he's working on holding and slobbering on toys. We've seen a lot of smiles, and heard a lot of babbling, even some giggling (hopefully I'll catch him with the camera one of these days.) He'll even sit up and stand pretty well with some support until he gets tired and falls over.

after all that

Three months ago, all we knew about Michael's second and final deployment was that it would happen sometime this year. Three weeks ago, we knew it would happen sometime this month. Three days ago, we found out the plane leaves on the 2nd of May. Well we planned out our finances for the next 7 months and moved me and Caleb back out to Washington. Everyone was counting on us being here and him being gone, and I did a fair amount of crying, and worrying. Turns out it was all for nothing.

Sometime last week Michael twisted his foot wrong during a run at work and heard a loud pop. He finished the workout in pain and walked on it for several days, ran on it twice, and it popped once again. They found out this morning that it broke both times so it's a compound fracture, and now has a black cast on it. Looks like there won't be a second deployment for Lance Corporal Stover afterall, or for his friends and family.

So now we're in limbo again, trying to figure out how long I should stay here so Caleb and I can visit everyone, and how in the world we're going to get enough money together to get into an apartment, drive us back over there, repair the Rx7, and all the other little things... We'll just have to wait and see how all this turns out.