Caleb's Walker

Caleb is really enjoying walking with his walker. Its so fun to watch him learn new skills almost every day!

They grow up so fast!

Since Caleb was born we have had more than a handful of people say to us… “Enjoy every minute because they grow up so fast!” And while we understand what they are saying, it has become a bit annoying too. I guess because the decision to have children was never something we felt we had to do, but instead a conscious decision—the comment assumes that we would get caught up in the details of having a baby and not be able to enjoy the moment…and we are really careful NOT to do that. Although having a baby has changed a lot of how we live…and totally changed how we look at life, we treasure every moment, every new thing he does, every new sound he makes, and every new face he makes. So it has become an inside joke between Craig and me, whenever Caleb executes a new skill and seems to advance into a new stage, we look at each other with raised eyebrows, a smirk, and say, “They grow up so fast!”

Making Frozen Veggie Cubes for Baby Food

With the stack of baby-related junk mail we received, I found a book offer about making your own baby food. I was intrigued with the idea so ordered the book. Caleb's pediatrician’s advice was to delay starting solid food as long as possible and start rice cereal as close to 6 months as possible. We worked hard to do that. But by 5 months old Caleb was extremely interested in watching us eat. His eyes followed our hands as we lifted food to our mouths.

We started him on very liquidy rice cereal 2 weeks before his 6 month appointment. His next food was sweet potatoes. I spend a couple 1/2 days a month making and freezing a new food. We cook the vegetable, purée it in the blender with water, strain it, and then put it in ice cube trays. After its frozen, we put the cubes in freezer bags, and then vacuum-pack them organizing cubes into a variety of veggies and fruit for each package. I am amazed at how much Caleb likes these veggies!

In addition to making fruit & veggie cubes, I also make Caleb's cereal. We worked our way solely from brown rice up to multi grains. The cereal is what I feel best about. I know that he's are getting more than what the commercial cereals offer, and he like it! Its become a joke with family and friends about the “approved” list of foods.

While I don’t really want to be a crazy uptight mom, I don’t see any reason to feed Caleb processed food, especially sugars when he enjoys my organic home-made food as much as he does! I usually dislike cooking and being in the kitchen, but I get such joy knowing that the food he's getting is all natural, healthy, and unprocessed.

Climbing to the Camera

This video shows Caleb's crawling skills. He loves pushing things as he moves. Here he's chasing his cereal bowl and letting it roll, but other times its a ball or a can of Diet Coke. (March, 2008; 10 months old)

Lunch time!

Here's a short video of Caleb eating some homemade baby food back in Jan.