Caleb's new things...

likes to touch his feet now...for a while he was doing the pulling back on his knees like he's in the giving birth position...now it's moved to grabbing on to his toes

he's been having a harder time going to sleep on his own...he wants to be carried...last night was tough cuz i wanted to have him practice going to sleep on his own again...but he started screaming like a maniac and i picked him up before 5 minutes, which i had said was the length i would let him cry...i'm a wuss.

he's taking short naps now...he wakes up refreshed, but we notice that he gets crankier and harder to go down when it's time for his next nap...then he power sleeps for like 1/2 hour, gets up, and the cycle starts again

he's still not consistently eating 35 ounces...for a big boy, i'd expect him to be on cereal already, but no...so we'll wait until we're pau school to start him...

tomorrow he's going to the beach for the first time...but i don't think we're taking him in. he's too young for sunscreen and i don't want him to get burned. we'll chill in the shade and expose him to grass...

i keep reading in the book that he's going to start having stranger anxiety...so far he's been so good with new peeps...i hope he skips that phase...

i secretly love that caleb knows who I am and will stop crying when i carry him...but then i also hate it cuz sometimes i'm tired too and don't want to carry the big boy...

he actually stayed in his carrier thing today when we went to pearlridge...in fact, i got tired of it faster than he did! my back was just getting way too sore, and because my arms are short, it's hard to look at stuff cuz he's grabbing at it too...and his feet hang down to my knees so i feel kind of weird cuz it's like a midget carrying around another little midget...

that's all for now...sooooo tired...and dave wants me to watch stepbrothers with him...

Just as I thought I would get my sleep back to normal and regain some sanity...Caleb decided now was not the time for that. He went to sleep before 8:00 p.m. last night...and slept until 3:30, when he woke up to eat. Of course, having slept for so long at that point, he thought it was time to wake up...so he proceeded to stay up. Dave and I put him in the crib, where he contentedly lay awake...he made like he was going to sleep, so we left the hair dryer on, but he just laid there...so we waited, and waited, and waited. Finally sometime after 4:30, my mom woke up and we left him to her so we could get some sleep. Grrrr. Grouchy some more. Lol.

Caleb is sleeping right now...he had a hard time this afternoon...didn't want to be put down...viciously attacking anything he could get to bite on...I wonder if he's still having issues with his teeth...maybe the top two are going to come in soon too.

Last night we took him to a get-together at a co-worker's house...he was such a good boy...but then again, he was being carried pretty much the entire time...

Went to the Baby Expo today...nothing too exciting. Many expensive, not necessary stuff available. Caleb nicely sat in his stroller for the most part...my mom picked him up toward the end and he made doodoo so we changed him and then just carried him cuz we were leaving. It's amazing that he actually sits contentedly in his stroller now...

Got some new bottles today...the Playtex Vent-Aire wide nipple ones. I'm tired of buying the liners for our other bottles, and it is NOT earth-friendly at all. So we'll see how these ones go...we had the skinny vent-aires before, but then realized that his big mouth wasn't doing too well with it so we switched to the wide nipple Playtex Drop-Ins, which seemed to work better. The only thing is these ones have the fast flow nipple, and I'm not sure if he's ready for that...we had him on the medium flow nipple and that worked well.

I'm debating whether or not I should wake him up right now cuz I'm too tired to have him up all night....he was stirring earlier and we made his milk cuz he only ate little bit at 4:15...and it's now 8:05. Dangit.

I better write some updates before I forget...

Caleb's first tooth, the bottom right middle, popped out on Mother's Day, May 10. His second tooth, the bottom middle left, popped out yesterday, May 14.

He is now very good at turning over and over...he also "crawls" backwards in his crib. He makes high-pitched "shrieking" sounds. He has been going to sleep at around 10 p.m. and wakes up around 6:30 a.m. His new thing is doing the "airplane" when he's on his tummy...lifting up his arms in an outstretched position and lifting his legs off the ground too.

That's all I can think of...every day is a new thing with him and it's so cute and cool. NOW I can definitely say that mommyhood is wonderful!!!!

Another milestone...Caleb's first tooth broke the gum today...bottom right one. So cool to be able to feel it and know that we weren't trippin' when we figured he was teething. So he'll be 5 months on Thursday...my first tooth/teeth came in at around 4 months too...pretty cool.

He's also learned to shriek...he's testing his vocal chords and I can't say that I'm thrilled about that. I don't want him to learn to shriek at everything...I don't want him to be the kid in the store shrieking and throwing a fit when he doesn't get his way. He'll get beat down if he does that...lol.

He's also being a sleep fighter...sometimes. Sometimes he'll go down super easy for his naps, other times he needs to be held to go down. Seems like the early evening nap is becoming difficult for him...we'll see. Maybe he's going through that stage of not needing as many naps...I'm just praying that he isn't going to start making it a habit of waking up in the night again...

So recently I've been wondering about what is the appropriate response when someone criticizes your parenting. Of course, there's the criticism from moms and mother in law...which is just a given and easily goes in one ear an dout the other cuz you've practiced that skill all your life. But when someone outside of your immediate family or circle of close friends makes a biting comment about your parenting, what do you respond with?

If you're Dave, you respond with ignoring the comment and not even letting it bother you.

If you're me...you think up all the kinds of smart-butt comments and snide remarks that you could have made if it were said to your face.

Then...I think of what the appropriate response is and how to handle the anger that boils inside whenever I think of what the person said. So, because I'm striving and growing to be a better Christian woman, I know that retaliation and anger is not the answer...and that I just have to forgive and forget...ha. And you know that in my struggle to grow, my thought is, yea, I gotta forgive people for being IDIOTS and forget that they're DUMB. Lol.

Goodness gracious am I irraz. I am a sucky homeroom teacher and because of that, my homeroom sucks...they irritate me every single morning with their immature behavior. I swear I feel like I'm in a kindergarten class sometimes.

Caleb woke up at 1 a.m. to eat...we kind of expected that because he went to sleep kind of early and didn't eat before he slept. Anyways, when I was feeding him I started to feel that racing heartbeat thing again, then when I got back in bed it continued and it felt like my left arm was getting tingly/numb. It was really weird...I was kind of scared to go back to sleep for fear of not waking up again. This morning I feel like my heart is beating fast again...dunno why. It feels like it felt when I was pregnant and would get that dizzy, feeling faint, racing heartbeat thing. Lol...NO, I'm not pregnant again! Hehe...

Okay, gonna try to curb my irritation...just yelled at the boys about how they irritate me every single morning...grr...not a good way to start my day...good thing I can vent here...lol.

Caleb is eating like a good boy again...his cold finally seems to be pretty much over.

We cut his hair yesterday and once again cut it a little too short...oh well, it grows back fast so maybe it's a good thing if we use the short guard.

I think somebody's grouchiness rubbed off on me cuz I feel a little grouchy too right now. Hehe. I think I'm just tired cuz Caleb's been doing the wake up at 4ish to eat thing again...hopefully it's just a growth spurt and not the norm.

So far I've been pretty proud of keeping up with my grading and planning and stuff. Thank goodness for Lit Circles (thanks Leish!) and not having to look at my crappy co-teach work cuz the other teacher takes the work. My preps are being used very wisely now to get stuff out of the way so I don't have to worry about it too much when I come home...

Gonna go sleep now...and pray for an all night sleep instead of an interrupted one...thank goodness it's short day tomorrow! Yay!