Since I’ve been very remiss about updating this blog for the entire month of December, I thought I would cover everything Caleb has been up to lately with a wordy summary. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to blog more frequently. Given the more flexible schedule I’m about to inherit w/o 1/12, hopefully this will be a doable resolution.
At the beginning of December Caleb took his second trip to Quito, Ecuador. We have the flight routine down to a science now given that he took 8 flights in six weeks (CA, Miami, Ecuador). Since Caleb is not yet required to have his own seat, we cash in miles for upgrades allowing us more room and the pleasant experience of first class. Caleb has never experienced coach and he’s going to be in for a rude awakening once he turns two… he’s really taken a liking to the hot towels, warm nuts and tiny tray that pulls out between the seats just for him. Oh, and did I mention the hot fudge sundaes? Poor guy.
Anyway, back to Quito. Caleb has a wonderful time– visiting his great-uncle’s farm in the foothills of Cotopaxi was the highlight. He got to see horses, goats, llamingos, cows, chickens, guinea pigs, rabbits, and Santiago a llama up close. (Sometimes too close for my comfort!) Eagles were another feature. Uncle Johnny has license to help rehabilitate wounded birds. We also were able to repeat a hike that we did when Caleb was 5 weeks old up to a hummingbird reservation on the backside of another mountain, Pinchincha. This time he actually walked part of it. Hopefully next time he’ll be walking all of it. We tried to track down the same giant leaf where we took a picture of him last time for comparison, but it was a little tricky. Here’s the fruit of our labor:
Caleb’s grandparents are developing some property a little outside of Quito in the valley. While construction on actual homes has not yet begun, the gardens have been planted, making a wonderful picnic spot. Caleb had a great time collecting avocados, and playing ball. We were also fortunate enough to be in town when the tree we choose to honor Caleb’s birth was finally planted. Here’s a picture of Caleb next to “his” tree:
I’ll do a separate blog post with just videos.
The rest of December concluded with holidays celebrations intermingled with two funerals and snowstorms. Caleb had multiple trips to CT, but it was good for him to see family. He was much more aware of the snow this year and isn’t a big fan. Well, he’s not a big fan of cold. He likes seeing the snow from his window, but when we got outside all I hear is “Oh no, Mom, snow! Oh no, snow!”. Here’s a picture of him “enjoying” the conditions:
We rang in the New Year on the Cape with friends, after nearly a five-hour drive from Boston in a major snowstorm. We opted to let Caleb sleep in the car vs. weathering a storm and a crying child which meant Caleb was just 45 minutes shy of ringing in the New Year with the adults.
One development milestone I want to make note of is that Caleb is beginning to talk a lot more. His vocabularly is slowing expanding- both in English and Spanish- and he’s even starting to parrot us. I think his favorite word is “huevo” (”egg” in Spanish). It’s the first thing he says when he wakes up in the morning. He does a “huevo chant” and even a little dance. We’ve tried multiple times to capture it on video, but he never seems to perform when we most want him to. So here’s a semi-decent attempt at the “huevo dance”:
Other words… NO, agua, up, Mommy, Papi, Lola, Elaine, shoe, hello, hi, bye, ball, BIG ball, snow, Oh No Snow!, apple, nino (child), cookie, light, bebe (baby), uh oh!, cheese, eat, tomato, thank you, please, brush teeth, PLEASE brush teeth!, ven (come), pee-pee, poo-poo.
A special set of holiday cards featuring pictures of babies/children he knows or should know are posted at his level on the door. He says and points out “TJ”, “Graham”, “Juliet”, “Drew”, and his favorite “Georgie”. He’s never met Georgie but he has a serious crush on her. I have to say her photo is so dreamy that little boys are helpless not to fall for her! Everytime he walks in or out of the kitchen he puts a finger on her face and says her name. While he’s become stingy with kisses, Georgie gets more than enough. It’s very sweet.
His favorite activity is “cooking” on the stove. He loves doing what we do. We’re trying to get him more equipment so he can do it on his scale… Montessori style.
He’s still ridiculously strong. The other day at Healthworks he went running to a 15lb medicine ball which I thought for sure would stop him in his tracks. Instead he picked it up without hesitation and threw it like he would any other ball. More than half his body weight. If anyone knows of a strong baby competition I can enter him in for some quick cash, please let me know!
Although Caleb is an active child all day long, he still uses bedtime to settle down and reconnect. A large part of this routine is still his bottle which is our only way to get milk into him since he refuses to drink it from a sippy cup. The doctor isn’t that concerned – says he will give it up in his own time and it’s not the worse thing for an active little boy to sit quickly for 10 minutes, but we’re ready to make the transition. Caleb had a friend over for dinner a few nights ago and she was drinking milk out of a sippy cup, so now he’s starting to take a few sips- still with a disgusted face, but he is swallowing. So, over the next week we’re going to try to make the bottle history. We’ll wait until after he has his first overnight with Grandma tomorrow night however.
