15 Month Dr. Appointment, New Nap Schedule & Stair Climbing

Last Friday my mom babysat Caleb in the morning and then Dede and Rissa babysat Caleb in the afternoon. My parents then came over for supper because Rad and Jen were busy with Jen's mom visiting. We had a nice relaxing supper and then put Caleb to bed.

Sabbath morning we made it to Sabbath School again, although we were a little late. Caleb did not have a good nap Sabbath morning because he woke himself up coughing after 15 minutes and would not go back to sleep. We are really making an effort to be at Sabbath School every week, especially now that Caleb is getting older and can actually enjoy it more.

 

 

After church, we went to my parents' house for lunch with David and Yully and their friend that just moved here and a few other people. I was hoping Caleb would take a good nap there since he didn't do well in the morning, and luckily, he fell asleep pretty quickly and slept over an hour, so that was good. We had a nice visit with everyone and then went home late afternoon so we could take the dogs for a walk. I don't think anything else happened that day.

 

On Sunday, I worked in the morning while Steve took care of Caleb. Then Steve left in the afternoon to go with Dede to get a new car, so Caleb and I were alone the rest of the day. I put Caleb down for a nap around 2:15 and he was tired, but wouldn't settle down. He was also coughing so I think that prevented him from getting comfortable. Anyway, I was getting annoyed, so finally around 3:00, I went in there and put him on my lap and he ended up falling asleep almost immediately and I ended up having to wake him up at 4:30 because I wanted to make sure he would sleep that night! I couldn't believe he slept so long and I never have good luck transferring him, so I just left him on my lap the whole time. Luckily I at least brought my phone with me so I could do something while he was sleeping, but of course that's not what I should have been doing. Oh well. That kind of blew my plans to go out and get some groceries, so we ended up not even leaving the house the rest of the day.

 

On Monday, I worked all day because my mom is going to be gone on Friday, so she can't babysit. I don't think there was anything terrible exciting that happened that day.

 

On Tuesday, I decided that I was going to begin the process of getting Caleb to take a nap without his swaddle. I am honestly a little embarrassed that I have to use the swaddle to get him to take a nap, so I just decided it is time to break that habit. I have tried in the past to get him to sleep without it, and he just basically refuses to go to sleep, so I always gave up. This time I am determined not to give up. Although he has still been taking two naps a day consistently, I have resigned myself to the fact that this effort is probably going to result in Caleb going down to just one nap a day, because I don't think there will be enough time in the day to go through the nap process twice. So, anyway, we have play group on Tuesday, so I just decided that I would wait until after play group to put Caleb down for a nap, which is about 12:30. We went out in the morning before play group and did our grocery shopping and some other errands and Caleb did great and didn't show signs of being too tired. Then we went to play group and there were only 3 of us there this week. It was actually kinda nice because it wasn't as chaotic as normal. After play group we went home and I put Caleb down for his nap without the swaddle. He seemed tired, but as I expected, he would not settle down and was standing up in his crib for the longest time. I was tempted to give up, but finally at 2:15 (after an hour and 40 minutes of being in his crib), he lay down and went to sleep. He ended up sleeping just under an hour, which is not phenomenal, but I will take the fact that he even went to sleep at all as a small victory.

 

This is our whole play group last week when we got together at someone's house

 







On Wednesday, I worked again and my poor mother had Caleb again for a full day. I didn't know what to tell her in regards to Caleb's napping, so I just told her to do whatever. She tried to lay him down late morning and he wouldn't go to sleep, and then they had to go out to lunch with the office staff, so she just waited until they got back.

Out to lunch with Grampy

 

They got back from lunch and she put him down for a nap, and she said that he was asleep before she even turned on the monitor to check on him, so that was great! Unfortunately, he woke himself up after 35 minutes because his nose was stuffed up and then wouldn't settle back down, but Grammy picked him up and he rested on her shoulder for another half an hour. We ended up meeting my parents and Rad and Jen at a restaurant for supper because my parents had a gift certificate and they were generous enough to use it to pay for us too.

 

Today we had Caleb's 15 month doctor's appointment (he was 15 months on Tuesday). His appointment was at 11:30, so I knew that I wouldn't be able to put Caleb down for a nap until early afternoon again because I knew there wasn't even any point in trying to put him down before his doctor's appointment. The doctor's appointment went pretty well. Caleb's stats are:

 

Weight: 24 pounds, 6 ounces (73rd percentile)

 

Length: 31 1/4 inches (53rd percentile)

 

I actually don't think the length is accurate because Caleb was 31 inches at his 12 month appointment and I know he has grown more than 1/4 of an inch in that time because he seems pretty tall to me.

 

He did get two shots and they didn't go too well. They seemed to hurt a lot and he cried, so that was too bad. I also asked them about Caleb not walking and they aren't worried, so that's good. Other than that, everything was fine.

 



I was afraid Caleb would fall asleep in the car on the way home and that would foil my plans, and sure enough, he started to nod off when we were a few minutes from home, so I had to talk very loudly to him to keep him awake. I almost wasn't successful, but he was still awake when we got home. I went directly into his room and put him in his crib (no swaddle, of course), and his eyes were closed before I left the room, so that was a huge success! What was an even bigger success is the fact that he then slept for 2 hours and 40 minutes, which he has not done since he was probably about 2 months old (except for when he had his high fever and he slept for 4 hours). I am chalking it up to just getting his shots, but I will take whatever I can get! We will see how tomorrow goes with a normal day for a change, but I am hopeful that we will make this no swaddle thing work!

One other thing Caleb has been doing this week is climbing the stairs. The gate we have at the bottom of the stairs is really for the dogs more than Caleb because it is a gate that just swings closed with a magnet, so Caleb can open it. He likes to climb the stairs, although usually he only gets up to the second one before I stop him. However, if I let him, he will go all the way to the top, so sometimes I just follow behind him and let him go up and he thinks that is pretty fun.

As I have mentioned, Caleb has been a little under the weather with coughing and a runny nose and he does get some wheezing when he is sick, so we have given him his nebulizer treatment a couple of times this week to help with the wheezing and he handles it like a champ, but he just looks so pathetic.

 

Well, that's it for this week. Until next time!

Another Blizzard/Power Loss, New Car Seat, and Play Group Birthday Party

Well, this wasn't a very exciting week compared to writing about our cruise! We finally got Caleb a new car seat. He had grown out of his Keyfit (we actually should have gotten a new seat awhile ago, but I didn't realize he had outgrown it), so we needed to get a convertible seat. Babies R Us was doing their Trade-in event where if you bring in an old piece of baby equipment you can get 25% off a new piece, so we had an old seat that we had bought online just to get the base, so we brought that in. Babies R Us also does price matching, so we had found that Target had the same seat (Chicco Nextfit) on sale for $224.00, so we were going to do the price match and then get the 25% off to make it a pretty good deal. Steve's cousin had done the same thing, so we didn't think we would have any trouble. Well, Steve went to do that and they gave him a really hard time and wouldn't do the 25% off the price match because they said their policy was to only do the 25% off full price items. So, he opened a credit card and got 15% off instead, so we paid about $25 more than we would have, which wasn't too bad. Incidentally, Steve's cousin sent us her receipt and we took it in because we were going to get a second seat and they did price match that, so we did get the good price on the second seat. So, all's well that ends well. Anyway, the new seat is working out well. It seems pretty comfy and it is nice to not have to carry it in and out of the car, although it is a little more challenging getting Caleb ready to go, because I would always put him in his seat in the kitchen and then put his shoes and hat on while he was already in it. Here are a few pictures in the new seat.

First time in it - driving to Grammy's on Friday

Doesn't look quite as comfortable, but he is in a suit, so come on!

Friday was a normal day. My mom watched Caleb in the morning and Rad and Jen watched him in the afternoon. I don't remember anything in particular that happened, although Rad and Jen noted that he was very clingy and wanted to be picked up a lot. He has been like that with me a lot lately too, so I don't know what that's about. Jen also did get him to take an afternoon nap, which I was happy about, because he hadn't been doing too well for her lately. It was only 30 minutes, but just getting him to sleep is a victory!

On Sabbath we made it to Sabbath School at a decent time, and there were quite a few kids there, which was nice. Caleb wore his suit that he had worn on the cruise, and of course we got a lot of comments about how cute he was and how grown-up he looked! He would look more grown-up if he was actually walking, but that is another subject!

During church, Caleb was getting a little antsy, but we usually like to try to keep him in there until the sermon starts and then we go into the mother's room to play. He went up to children's story, but there were so many kids I couldn't sit there with him. Luckily there are many girls who are happy to hold him instead!

Another cute thing that happened during church was when my mom was standing up holding him in the back and she was standing next to Melbourne, our head deacon (and unofficial great-grandfather to Caleb), and Caleb lunged toward Melbourne to have him hold him. Melbourne was surprised but delighted, I think.

Caleb does that a lot where someone is holding him and he lunges toward someone else and then a few seconds later will either go back to the first person or to another new person. He especially seems to do that when he is tired, but will do it other times as well.

After church, we had potluck, and then I had a brief social committee meeting before we took Caleb home for a nap. It had started snowing while we were in church and we knew we were supposed to get a pretty big storm that night, so that was just the beginning. My parents came over so we could swap pictures from the cruise and Caleb woke up from his nap while they were here. I mentioned to Steve that he should probably bring some wood in in case we lost our power and so he did and he actually started a fire before we went to bed, so it got warmer in our room than usual. Another thing that happened that night is a tree came down in our backyard and came close to hitting the house. It wasn't a massive tree or anything, but it was still pretty good-sized. The dogs were outside when it happened, so thankfully they didn't get hit by it.

We woke up around 11:15 when our power went off. We knew it wouldn't be back on for awhile because no one would be going out in the storm to fix it and it wasn't supposed to stop snowing until the morning. The biggest concern is Caleb when we lose our power. #1, his room is downstairs and ours is upstairs, so we can't hear him without the monitor and obviously that didn't work. #2, we were worried about him getting cold in his room. Anyway, Steve was able to hook a couple of things up to the car battery so we could plug in Caleb's camera and sound machine and I used up the battery on the monitor. So, we left Caleb in his room until about 3:15 when we woke up again. It had gone down several degrees in his room and my monitor battery was almost out, so we decided to bring him into bed with us. Well, he stayed asleep during the transition, but Steve was working on the fire and when he came back to bed, Caleb woke up and then wouldn't settle back down. Since the fire had warmed up our room a few degrees, we moved Caleb to the pack and play in our room and for some reason, it took him another hour or so to fall back asleep, so he finally fell asleep around 5:30 and slept until 6:45. So, we were tired that morning. Luckily, our power came back on around 9:30, so it could have been worse (like last year, when we lost it for 3 days and Caleb was 9 weeks old!).

I am not sure how much snow we got. Probably close to a foot, but it is hard to tell because of all the drifts. All I know is that after Steve shoveled, we had huge piles of snow on the side of our driveway. This has been a brutal winter! I am so ready for it to be spring, but I still wouldn't trade it to live somewhere warm all the time. I do enjoy the seasons and some snow!

Late Sunday afternoon after Caleb's nap and all the snow was cleared up, we went out and got the new car seat at Babies R Us (the second one) and got a couple of things at the dollar store and Trader Joe's and then we met Rad and Jen at the Thai restaurant for an early supper. That was nice, because we hadn't been out in awhile with them.

On Monday we didn't do too much, although we did make a trip to the grocery store. Steve was home because it was President's Day, but he spent most of the day working on the play room in the basement, which of course I was happy about. He is making some good progress on the framing, but it makes a lot of noise! It will be nice when he is past the noisy part, so maybe he can work while Caleb is napping and sleeping at night. One thing we started doing this week is having me nurse Caleb before bed upstairs and then actually put him in the pack and play upstairs until Steve is done working and then we are moving him to his crib. It has worked out well so far, so we'll probably keep doing that for awhile so Steve can spend more time in the basement working.

 



One thing we have been working on this week is getting Caleb to drink more. He has had a hard time using a sippy cup because he likes to just bang it on his high chair tray and spill it. So, we have been giving him sips from a regular cup, which works ok, but I really want to find something that he can do on his own. I have also started using a sport top water bottle and he is doing well with that, but I still have to give it to him, so at least he is getting some liquid, but he is not doing it independently, which is what I want. It honestly amazes me how often we are doing new things and having to learn new skills. So often I think about how much easier it will be when Caleb does this or Caleb does that, but then there is something else to worry about, so it is a never-ending learning experience. It is a joy to see him learning every day, though, even if he doesn't pick up on things as quickly as I would like sometimes.

Trying to pick out a new sippy cup at Babies R Us

 



On Tuesday, we didn't have our normal play group because of school vacation week, but we did it at someone's house instead. We wanted to make sure we did it this week because 2 of the babies had a birthday this week (and one next week) and one of the birthday babies is moving away next week as well. So, we wanted to have a birthday/going away party. The mom's house we had it at is only about a mile from our house, so that was nice. We had a great time and it is nice to socialize with other moms. We have a group of 7 (soon to be 6, because of the one moving away), and I think that is a good size to bond and make friends.

Not a great picture, but all 7 babies are actually in the picture

 

Yesterday I worked and since it was school vacation week, Dede and the girls (Caleb's babysitters) were on vacation and they wanted to babysit Caleb, so they gave my mom a break and they babysat him all day. They had a great time and I am sure he did too. They give him so much attention, so he must just eat it up! He took 2 1-hour naps for them, although it did take him awhile to fall asleep in the morning. They are also going to watch him on Friday afternoon to give my mom another break! and Josie is taking an all day babysitting class on Friday (that we are paying for) to set herself up to watch Caleb by herself (or with her sister) in the future. She is excited about that.

 

 

Well, that's about it for this week. Here are a few more pictures from this week.

 

Peekaboo!

Enjoying a quesadilla



Caribbean Cruise, 2nd Haircut, & More Teeth

Well, I didn't write a post last week because we were on a cruise to the Caribbean! We had been looking forward to it for a long time and it was so nice to get away. We flew down to Tampa on Saturday, February 1. The cruise left on the 2nd but in the winter we didn't want to risk any bad weather, so we wanted to fly down the day before. Caleb was pretty good on the airplane but refused to take a nap, so he was in desperate need of a nap when we got to our hotel. Steve's uncle Don lives in Tampa, so we had arranged to meet him and his girlfriend, Kathleen, for supper. They met us at our hotel when we first got there and I took Caleb up to our room for a nap and Steve visited with them until Caleb woke up. Then we continued to visit until sundown and then went out to eat at Sweet Tomatoes, which is a chain restaurant down there that we really like. After that, we had to get Caleb back to go to bed, because it had been a long day.

Uncle Don and Kathleen

 



We didn't bring a pack and play because they were going to provide one on the cruise, so for the first time ever, Caleb slept all night in the bed with us in the hotel. We had a king-sized bed, so it wasn't bad. He slept pretty good, considering. After he got up, we went down and had breakfast and then Steve was going to take Caleb swimming since Caleb loves the water so much. Well, the pool was freezing and the Jacuzzi wasn't much warmer, so they went in the Jacuzzi but it was very short-lived because of the temperature.

 

After that, Caleb needed a nap, which I knew would be a challenge in the not so dark hotel room and with no pack and play. I laid on the bed with him and he actually fell asleep relatively easily, but then woke himself up coughing after 15 minutes and that was it! So frustrating! Especially since I knew it would be quite awhile until he could nap again. Oh well.

 

We were taking a shuttle from the hotel to the cruise terminal, so we did that around 11:30 and got to the terminal around 12:00. We were able to get in line quickly, but we soon found out that the previous cruise passengers hadn't even gotten off yet because heavy fog had delayed the arrival of the ship and they were several hours late, so that meant we would have to wait a long time to board the ship. That wouldn't have been so bad except that Caleb needed a nap and he refuses to fall asleep in the stroller or when there is a lot going on. After awhile I tried to nurse him to see if he would go to sleep, but no such luck. We finally got on board around 3:30 and my first order of business was to give Caleb a nap, but I literally laid him on the bed and they announced the mandatory lifeboat drill. I was not impressed, but we went anyway and then he finally got his nap when we got back, so I was happy. We got an inside cabin for this cruise, mostly because we knew it would be pitch dark in there for Caleb. That ended up working out well, but they are such small cabins and Caleb's pack and play was right next to our bed (touching it, in fact), so we were pretty jammed in there. I consider Caleb to be a relatively light sleeper, so that was a challenge, because we had to be pretty quiet while he was napping or sleeping at night.

 

His legs look skinny in this picture, but they are so chunky!

 

We went to the main dining room for dinner the first night and it was very nice. Caleb was a little whinier than normal because of his long day, but we had a nice time.

 

Earlier at the hotel

Getting on the ship with Grampy

The dining room was at the back of the ship, so you could look out the window

 

After dinner, we went to the opening show and then went to put Caleb to bed. We went to the early show almost every night on the cruise and were able to sit in the balcony every time in one of the boxes so Caleb was able to crawl around and stand up. If we had to sit in the regular seats, he would have been way too antsy and it wouldn't have worked out.

 

 

Monday we were at sea all day, so we had a pretty relaxing day. We went to the buffet for all three meals, actually. We usually went for breakfast and lunch, but Caleb refused to take an afternoon nap on Monday, so we ended up going to the buffet again because I didn't want him to be whiny in the dining room (and the menu didn't look that great anyway). Luckily, that was the only real problem we had with Caleb napping. Also on Monday we spent some time in the playroom they have for kids under 3 (unsupervised) and my dad and Steve played shuffleboard in the afternoon while we watched and we also went for a walk around the ship.

 

We got a new camera and I am pretty happy with the close-up pictures

Grammy was obsessed with getting Caleb to practice walking

 

 

Monday night we had a time change where the clocks went back, so that meant Caleb was up at 5:00 the next morning instead of 6:00, so we went to breakfast early and without my parents. We ate outside because it wasn't too hot yet, and it was very pleasant.

 

 

We were docked in Roatan, which is an island off of Honduras, so after Caleb's nap, we met up with my parents and got off the ship for the day. We found a van with a driver and a tour guide who would stay with us for the day. We pretty much just wanted to go to a beach, but they gave us a little tour of the island as well. We went to a beautiful beach that we had to pay $10 to get into, but at least it gave us use of the umbrellas and beach chairs and it wasn't super crowded, so that was nice. People kept coming by trying to get us to buy things, which of course we didn't. The strangest thing is everyone wanted to give you massages, but it's not like they were certified or anything.

 

I love how my mother looks like a shark creeping up on us or something

Making a beeline back to the water

 

Caleb loves the water, so he had an absolute ball in the water and playing in the sand. I know we are going to have a lot of fun this summer at the beach now that he is old enough to actually enjoy it! We drove back to the ship in the van and I could see Caleb's eyes getting super heavy and sure enough, he fell asleep about 5 minutes before we got back to the ship. I didn't think that would go well. In fact, I thought he would wake up just taking him out of the van, but luckily he stayed asleep and we ended up just sitting on the sidewalk for 40 minutes until he woke up, because I knew there was no way he would stay asleep if we tried to carry him back onto the ship.

 

Our driver and tour guide







Sleeping on the sidewalk 

 

Then we got back on the ship and took showers and got ready for dinner. I think Tuesday night we skipped the show but we went to the game show Deal Or No Deal and that was fun.

 

This is how we had to do his "bath"

I love this T-shirt

 













Wednesday we were in Belize. Steve and my dad went cave tubing, so my mom and Caleb and I were on our own. We had $100 shipboard credit, which is why Steve splurged for the cave tubing (otherwise he wouldn't have done it). We had to tender in Belize (take a small boat in to shore), so we went off late morning on the tender and just spent a little time shopping and then came back on the tender. It was very hot, so after we had lunch, I took Caleb in the kids' pool, even though he technically wasn't supposed to be in there. I had read online before I went that babies in swim diapers aren't allowed, but if I hadn't read it online, it would have been hard to figure that out, because it was just printed small on the rules and who reads the rules anyway? Also, there were hardly any other kids on the ship, so I knew we would be pretty safe and the kids pool was at the very back of the ship out of the way. AND...most importantly, I made sure he had just pooped before I took him in the pool, since I know that is the real reason they don't want swim diapers in the pool. Anyway, he loved the pool (it was super warm), so I was glad we broke the rules and brought him in.

 

Steve and my dad got back late afternoon and they had a good time, but were slightly disappointed. They particularly didn't like the 50 mile bus ride to get to the caves. Overall, it was a good time, though, just not worth the money. Anyway, we were happy to have them back and we enjoyed a nice evening.

 

Towel turtle left by our room steward

 





On Thursday we were in Costa Maya, Mexico. We had heard that there wasn't much to do locally unless you took a tour somewhere, so we got off the ship anticipating just doing some shopping. There was a lot of shipping, but we were also pleasantly surprised to find a huge public pool that we could go in for free. My parents didn't go in, but we all did, and we had a great time. Caleb loved it, of course!

Wearing flip flops for the first time!

Christopher, our room steward

 

We got back on the ship and had a late lunch at the buffet and then Caleb took his nap. Steve was very good to me on this trip and handled the majority of Caleb's naps so I could go out and get some sun and do some reading. It was very nice for me to have a break and get some relaxation in! Since we had a late lunch, we ate supper later as well and skipped the show but went back to Deal Or No Deal. This time, my mom bought cards to play, but didn't win anything.

 

 

On Friday we were in Cozumel for our last stop. We split up from my parents because they had signed up to do clear kayaking and we just wanted to go to a beach. We got off the ship and weren't sure where to go, but we ended up splitting a taxi with another couple and we went to a beach called Paradise Beach. We thought it was going to cost $12 to get in and use the umbrellas/chairs, etc. However, we were pleasantly surprised when we got there and they said it cost $3 to get in but that each adult should also spend $10 in food and drink. That was certainly better than just spending it all just to get in. Anyway, it was a nice beach, but the bottom of the ocean was full of coral so it was not as nice to swim there. The beach also had a large pool which was very nice and very warm. We spent the first part of our time in the ocean and playing in the sand while Steve snorkeled and then we went to the pool and got some food. We got some french fries, chips and salsa, and a virgin pina colada that was really good. It was another beautiful day and we just enjoyed being in the sun and the water.

 

 

We left the beach mid-afternoon and went back to the shopping area right off the ship and got a couple of souvenirs and then went back to give Caleb a nap. It was pretty late in the afternoon and I wanted to make sure it didn't take Caleb awhile to fall asleep, so I nursed him instead and luckily it worked and he slept about 40 minutes. Then we got ready for dinner. Norwegian doesn't do a formal night, but we had brought nice clothes, so we decided to get dressed up for dinner on Friday night so we could get pictures taken by the professional photographer. My mom bought Caleb a suit for Christmas and we wanted to have him wear it. Anyway, before dinner we took our own pictures because the photographer wasn't there yet and then we got the real pictures after dinner.

 

Love this!

These next few are pictures I took on my phone of the professional pictures so they don't look as good as they really are.

 

After that, I got Caleb to bed and then I met my parents upstairs for the chocolate buffet. It wasn't that great, but it was still worth at least checking out.

 

 

My parents wanted to sleep in on Sabbath morning and since we don't have that luxury, we went to breakfast in the dining room without them. The dining room has a nicer atmosphere and we wanted to have that on Sabbath. The food is also better too because the buffet had the same exact items every morning for breakfast without any variation.

 

Our waiter made a "mouse" out of his napkin

 

After breakfast, Caleb had his nap and then we took him back to the kids' playroom for awhile because we hadn't been back there since the first day at sea. He enjoyed himself and then we met my parents in the dining room for lunch.

 

 

After lunch Steve took Caleb back into the kids pool. Since we were getting closer to being back in Florida, it was starting to get slightly cooler, so it was nice that the pool was very warm. Caleb had a great time as always. He is definitely a water baby!

 

 

Then Caleb had his afternoon nap and this time I stayed in the room with him and Steve went out on the deck to read. Then we met my parents for dinner in the dining room for our last dinner and then we went to the final show.

 

Sunday morning Caleb actually woke up around 7:00, which was the latest he slept the whole time. My dad got off the ship early to go to the airport and rent a car and then come back to pick the rest of us up. We weren't going to get off the ship until about 9:30, so we met my mom in the dining room for our last meal of the cruise and we had a nice breakfast. We then got off the ship and although our embarkation process was not a good one, our disembarkation was so easy and smooth, which was nice.

 

Getting off the ship

 

My dad was waiting when we got off and we headed to the Tampa Zoo for the day because our flight wasn't until 5:45 on Sunday evening. I wasn't sure what we were going to do to get Caleb to take a nap. He is not really a kid that will just pass out in the stroller. He is so interested in everything that's going on (I call it nosy, but that sounds bad) that he won't just shut his eyes. So, I was hoping that if we kept him awake long enough, maybe he actually would fall asleep in the stroller, but no such luck. We spent a few hours in the zoo and saw lots of animals, and just had a good time.

 

First carousel ride!

 

So, Caleb had been awake since 7:00 and we didn't leave the zoo until after 2:00. The amazing thing was that Caleb didn't get cranky at all, however, he literally was asleep 1 minute after we got him in the car. I actually felt bad because he was clearly soooo tired and it was like he finally realized that he had permission to go to sleep since we were in the car. We stopped at a Sweet Tomatoes restaurant again to eat before going to the airport and my parents went in and we stayed in the car while Caleb finished his nap and then we joined them. Then we headed to the airport for our flight home, which was uneventful. Caleb slept a little bit on the plane, but it was more like a nap than going to bed for the night. He did sleep in the car, however, and then had no trouble going to sleep right away at home.

 

Looking out the window while we landed in Providence

 

Although it was a rude awakening to come home to snow falling and lots of snow in our yard and driveway, it is always good to be home. One thing I didn't really mention about the cruise is how Caleb was always waving at everybody. He would wave at everybody who walked by him and he got a lot of people to wave back. We met more people on this cruise than we ever have before because everyone wanted to come over and meet Caleb and find out how old he was, what his name was, etc. There weren't too many other kids on the cruise, so I really feel like Caleb was the star of the show. Another thing that I didn't mention is that although Caleb didn't necessarily sleep the greatest on the cruise, he was getting 2 teeth in at that time, so I think he did pretty good considering. He is now getting a third tooth as well, so I am sure that was affecting him on the cruise as well.

 

Anyway, Steve went to work on Monday, but I just had to work from home. I did all the laundry from the trip, and that was a good feeling to get that done. I tried to go out to the grocery store, but I got the van stuck in the snow/ice in our driveway and I couldn't go forward or back, so I had to abandon that plan and just stay home.

 

Tuesday we were finally able to get out of the house. We went grocery shopping and then to our play group. We had missed being at play group last week, so it was nice to see everyone again.

 

 

Steve wasn't feeling well on Tuesday, so he stayed home from work, however, he was in bed almost the whole day, so we didn't even notice he was home for the most part. We did all venture out for a walk with the dogs Tuesday evening.

 

 

Yesterday was my first day back to work and Caleb went to Grammy's. The napping went better for her than it has lately. At least in the morning. He slept about an hour in the morning and then it didn't go too great in the afternoon. He slept about 20 minutes and then woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep. That's not great, but considering the last couple of times he wouldn't even take an afternoon nap at her house, I will take it! The big thing that happened yesterday is that Caleb got his second haircut. His hair was wild and out of control on the cruise, so we decided he had to get another haircut. My dad's paralegal, Wendy, cuts my dad's hair, so my mom asked her if she would cut Caleb's hair, so she did! She did a really nice job and he looks really cute and like such a little boy!

 

Thanks Wendy!

 

Today was raining pretty hard (I was just happy it wasn't snow), so the only thing we did was go to Caleb's follow-up doctor's appointment to make sure his ear infection was all gone. Earlier this week, we thought Caleb was pulling on his ear again, so we were concerned maybe it wasn't completely gone, but the NP told us his ears were perfect, so that was good news. They also weighed him and he was 24 pounds, 5 ounces. I also did my taxes today, so it is good to have that behind me.

 

Tonight we had Rad and Jen over for supper because we hadn't seen them in awhile and also to say thanks because they took care of the dogs while we were gone. It was nice to see them and we missed them while we were gone and wished they could have come with us.

 

Well, that's it! All caught up - finally!