Present Debate...& Other Misc Notes...

We've mainly been working on getting Caleb to 'self-feed'. He's really good at eating chunks of bananas and Cheerios (when he was going through his Cheerios phase). Currently, he's not a big fan of them. Instead, he's going through a Graham cracker phase. He loves holding on to a big cracker and just munch away on it.

He's also LOVES applesauce. Jay loves it too so I just buy the big jars from Wal-Mart and they go to town on it.

He's taken is first steps this past week, but I haven't seen him take more than 4 steps before he wobbles down to the floor. I'll give him another week and he'll be walking around wrecking havoc on our house.

The most fun thing so far is being able to plan his one year birthday party! We're trying to keep it small and simple, but we'll see.

There's also a debate going on with Jay & I. We don't really know what to get him for his birthday & Christmas! I was leaning towards something like a train set (Thomas is popular so I hear) since this may intrigue him well into his toddler years. Jay wants to get sports stuff (like a basketball hoop for babies thing). Then there's that educational VSmile gaming system for toddlers. Does anybody have it? What do you think?

Since it's only his first birthday and his first real Christmas (last year he was only 7 days old), I'm sure that he'll just be happy with the box and the wrappping paper. If he's lucky, he may even get nice sparkley ribbon to play with.

A Perforated Ear Drum

Here's Caleb wearing a Vancouver sweatshirt! Vicki (my 0ld PwC partner in NYC) had given this sweatshirt to me when I working in New Jersey last year and it's finally now fit him.

We've been out of commission at home. Caleb went to the doctors again since he wasn't feeling very well and had a low grade fever. It seems like his ear infection from the other week never went away and he now has a perforated ear drum (a hole or rupture in the eardrum, a thin membrane which separates the ear canal and the middle ear. The medical term for eardrum is tympanic membrane).

So now he's on some stronger antibiotics and medicated ear drops as well as needing the nebulizer to administer Albuterol for the slight wheezing in his chest.

My Sister's Bruno

Isn't this just the sweetest thing? My sister's dog, Bruno, is one of the "spokes-dogs" for this company called the K9 Biscuit Company.....Isn't he just so handsome??!! This just tickled me when I saw this.

Hey Michelle, could you mail us a sample so that I can have Bruno's picture on display in my cupboard?

Happy Birthday To Me!!!

I'm 28 today!!!

On A Serious Note

I rarely post anything that's truly serious on my blog but I am compelled today to send a message to the "B" family. They have just lost their son and brother, Ryan who was only in his twenties and according to his mom, he was only 2 weeks away from getting his GED. He leaves behind 2 young children who will carry his essence with them as they grow up.

This is extremely sad news that I heard from my old friends in Vancouver. After many different attempts at contacting his mother, I was successful after I found an old phone book of mine. Thankfully, she hadn't changed her number in the 5-6 years since I've called her last. This is the family of one of my old ex-boyfriends and we send our thoughts and prayers to their family after this terrible tragedy. I don't really communicate with anybody from that era in my life but I think of them fondly nevertheless. His mother is raising his two young kids with such courageousness and love that it just breaks my heart.

I also saw pictures of my Kit's '96 class reunion on shutterfly.com and I am again reminded of that no matter how far one thinks they've gone forward in life, we forget that we don't change as much as we think we do. Appearances may change and accomplishments may be gained, but how we think as people and how we care about the people that we call friends never really changes.

I'm fairly certain that few to none of Caleb's blog readers know this family personally or even know of this family but please think seriously of how short life can be and how we should appreciate everybody for who they are and tell your loved ones that we love them.

Cheerios and the 'Giggle-Monsters'

Cheerios!

Caleb's favourite food right now is Cheerios. Of course, this means that we now find Cheerios in the most unlikely of places. He's also developed quite a fine palate. We tried to purchase the no-name oat-O's and the little bugger can actually tell the difference. I guess we'll have to ante up the extra $1.50 a box to make him happy.

He's also very fond of graham crackers (especially if they're covered in cinnaman sugar) and those teddy-grahams also work very well.

He goes through phases. There are some days where he'll eat everything in sight and then other days where he only wants Cheerios and his bottle.

Can anybody believe that he's almost 11 months!!! That's so crazy to me.

The latest accomplishment is that he has learned to giggle. This makes for a very exhausting nighttime bedtime ritual since we just can't resist hearing him giggle so Jay and I turn into the 'tickle-monsters' and chase Caleb all around the house.

Caleb and the Pumpkin

There once was a boy named Caleb. Caleb loved look at his pumpkin...especially when it's all lit up with candles on the inside and smells of cinnaman and nutmeg.

Mommy Dressed Up Too!!

What's extra fun about Halloween? Now that we have Caleb, I now have an excuse to dress up for Hallween too! We dressed up and opened the door for trick or treaters. The most popular costumes of choice seemed to be super heros this year. We saw a couple supermans, spider mans...even a Captain America.

And!!! I got a really good picture of Caleb's first two teeth!! He's such a ham...

Caleb's First NC State Fair

Isn't it crazy to think that this time last year, Jay & I were at the state fair while I was 7 1/2 months pregnant? I was still working in NYC and I had flown specifically to eat at the NC State Fair.

This year we got to give Caleb his first state fair experience. We had bought ride tickets but by the time we ate and walked around to find the kiddie rides, he was fast asleep. There's a picture of him holding a big green straw and that was the biggest hit of the day. He held that straw pretty much the whole time we were there until he fell asleep.

He had his first taste of: smoked turkey legs, grilled corn on the cobb and cinnamon sugar funnel cake. We're pretty sure that the best part of the fair for Caleb was the eating. That boy LOVES to eat.

We did manage to go on one ride.....we rode the merry-go-round but he started getting a very concerned look on his face when the ride started moving. Alas, I did manage to pawn our many extra tickets to my boss for an extra discounted price.

This year we did not eat the fried candy bars.....but we did see a vender that sold deep fried apple pie and other unusual fried items.....last year, the deep fried candy bars and deep fried oreos were a big culinary eye opener to a Canadian like me.

Look Ma! All Grown Up!

Doesn't Caleb look like such a little man in this picture? You can't tell, but he's got two little teeth on the bottom and his hair is starting to curl up.

He's got the sweetest face. He's now able to indicate to us what he wants without having to cry. He grunts and somehow gets his point across. Florice (at Daycare) says that he's been the best baby all last week! He doesn't cry and he's into doing his own thing. He likes to push toy cars along the ground and he crawls all over the room with it. And sometimes, he isn't even using a toy car.....if it looks like it can be pushed around, he pushes it.....so there are many times we catch him 'driving' the remote control, cell phone, shoes.....it's funny.

He's also started to giggle at us for no apparent reason. There are moments where we'll be doing chores or doing something really boring like watching TV and he'll start cracking up like we're hilarious. It in turn makes us laugh and that makes him laugh so it's pretty funny cycle.

He doesn't seem to weigh much more (since I've only got a cheap bathroom scale and I can't really tell until he's gained over a pound) but he's changing everyday.

And his new favourite food.....is.......Cheerios! He loves that stuff. He could sit in his high chair and eat for an hour if we let him. I normally try to sneak in some apple sauce or someother canned baby food in there when he's not looking. He's also getting really good at eating table food. Yesterday, he had waffles with some pan fried bologna and he gobbled it up.

Caleb as a lil' ol' Cow...

Check out the link below for bigger pictures of Caleb in his cow costume for Halloween....since his Godfather was complaining that he didn't see any pictures of his lil' cow on the blog....

We figure that Mommy gets 2 years of halloween costume choices until he gets old enough to decide for himself what he wants to be. This may be cruel and unusual punishment....but it could have been worse....the costume could have had udders!

I'm arming myself with ammo so that I'll have full munitions against his teenage angst.

Isn't he ADORABLE????!!!!


https://www.searsphotos.com/?shareid=S204678895lYXUY4ZPN9B

Caleb & Gabriela

Isn't this sweet? This is Caleb and Gabriela at Gavin's 3rd birthday party....I caught them feeding each other in a quiet tucked away corner in Nicki & Luis' house.

Things will hopefully slow down now that it's past the October 15th deadline.....which hopefully will translate into more posts!

Kitsilano Blue Demons....10 year reunion....(already!)

There's nothing like a high school reunion to remind you of all the akward years of growing up. Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend the Kitsilano Grad '96 10 year high school reunion (Go Blue Demons!).....I would have really liked to see everybody and relive high school if only for one night.

Just reading the guest list brings back so many memories. There really isn't another period in your life where you have so many memories than those years where you're trying to figure everything out. Or maybe, it's only me. Maybe everybody else had everything figured out all along? Geez. Then I must have really stood out as the geeky awkward one. I sure did feel like one. I don't ever remember feeling as self-concious as I did when I was in Kits. It's also funny how there are different moments that flash into my memory about different people. I'll spare you all the details but there are certainly moments in high school that I dwell on for reasons unknown even to myself.

It's funny how we're now supposedly grown up but I really do feel like the same person I was when I was 16...we just now have more responsibilities. Mortgage, job, husband, kid....

What would you have done differently if you were to relive your high school years all over again?

Until October 15th is Done...

For all those who aren't in the tax world...it's busy season for us until October 15th so here's a quick blog and then I'm back to work...

The doctors still say that he's slightly underweight but we're resigning ourselves to know that he's never going to be a chubster....

Introducing...BRONWYN ELISE ADAMS

Here's the newest addition to the Sennet cousins...Bronwyn Elise Adams...

She was born on 9/14/06 at 9:19am by C-Section. She was 3lbs 15 ozs.

I'm sure that Eric and Kelly are so happily tired. Contragulations again!! We can't wait to meet her!

Look At That Face!!!

Look At These Beautiful Pictures Michelle Took...

Look at our Sweetie Pie...

Look at our sweetie pie.... his hair is just starting to curl a little and he still has a pretty big bald spot on the back of his head.

He's learning how to get what he wants and to get where he wants to go. At times you can actually see him trying to figure things out.

He's still going through a little separating anxiety and our daycare is working with him to get him through this tough phase.

Oh! And he got his first tooth yesterday!!! There'll be two teeth on the bottom soon (right now, the top of one has just broken through).

Since he can crawl to where he wants to go and pull himself up onto things, he's now starting to get into so many things and there will be little messes wherever he goes. He loves to rip up magazines and paper...and when he finds anything plastic he loves to carry it around with him wherever he goes.

And lastly,.....Congratulations to Eric & Kelly....they have a brand new baby girl born today....Bronlyn Elise (we're sorry if we've misspelled it!!)...details to follow...

The Starkey Family

The Starkey family will soon be welcoming a brand new baby girl into their lives...check out their new blog!

Auntie Michelle's Visit

This weekend was Auntie Michelle's weekend...we went shopping and shopping and then more shopping...one of our Caleb approved purchases was this walker which he LOVES. He hasn't used it for actual walking yet but he's pushed/crawled it around the living room. He seems to love the sounds and just playing with the steering wheel for many minutes at a time.

Caleb is going to be soooo sad when Auntie leaves tomorrow but they've had some good bonding time together. Auntie watched him all day today while I was at work and she flies out tomorrow morning back to good ol' Vancouver.