Big Boy PJ's

Caleb has finally outgrown most of his 9 month sleepers because he is just too tall for them! My mom got him some new pj's from the Osh Kosh & Carter's outlets by her house and they are all "big boy" pajamas in my opinion... no longer footed sleepers that look super babyish! Tonight was his first night to wear them and he looked so cute and more like a toddler than a baby.

When we went the doctor last week Caleb was 19 lbs and 29.75 inches. On the preemie growth chart, that put him at 60th percentile for weight and above 95th percentile for height. His weight is finally on the regular growth chart too - 5th percentile weight, and 60th height. We are so proud of what a big boy he is becoming!

Residency Match!

Good news!! Bryan matched at his first choice, which was Emergency Medicine Residency at Scott & White in Temple, TX! We were both nervous yesterday morning going to the match day festivities. They took group photos, passed out everyone's envelopes and THEN finally let everyone open their envelopes. We were both so relieved to see the paper inside said Scott & White!

After the match day results we went to lunch with both of our parents to celebrate, and then continued the celebration by going to show them our new house! We put a contract on a house here in Temple that was contingent on residency match. So not only did we find out where Bryan will be training for the next 3 years... we also found out we are definitely buying a house! It was surreal to look at the house this time and know how many memories we will make there with Caleb. We are so excited and blessed to have things falling into place.

Last night Bryan's class took charter buses to Austin so we could go on a dinner boat cruise on Lake Travis. It was a great way to celebrate and be with so many friends from Medical School. Yesterday was a great day and one that we will surely not forget!

With all of our friends from our Med School Bible Study

Bryan goes up to get his envelope

"Nervous face". Waiting to open the envelope!

With Bryan's classmates who are also going into Emergency Medicine (Bryan, Laura, Tiffany, Ty, Dylan, Tat, Salil & advisor Dr. Drigalla). We are excited that Dylan and Ty will both be at Scott & White as well!

Bryan puts a picture of his face on the residency map in Temple, TX

Getting ready to go on the boat cruise with the Sanborns & the Browns

In front of our new house with Caleb! We will close on the house April 30th and will promptly get rid of the dead potted plants left by the current owner :) !

Cruising, Boogers & Residency Match Day

How's that for a random blog post title?

It's been a busy week for us here in the Pickett household. Sunday night around 2am Caleb woke up with a terribly congested nose and lots of snot. Bryan and I were up for quite awhile trying to help him breathe again using saline drops and doing lots of singing, rocking and walking around. He seemed to feel better during the day but by Monday we decided to call the pediatrician for advice on what to give him (benadryl). By this morning Caleb had developed a cough that warranted his first "sick child appointment" to the pediatrician.

We have been blessed to have a healthy baby for the 5 months he has been with us. Today actually marks exactly 5 months since we set foot in the USA with our precious boy, and he's been getting stronger and more resilient ever since! At our sick child visit today our pediatrician suggested some cough medicine and told us just how much he needed. Giving a baby cough or cold medicine makes me nervous so I was glad to rely on her expertise! We are already seeing improvement in how Caleb is doing although he's not 100% yet. Luckily he just has a cold -- no signs of infection or fever -- so hopefully he will make a quick recovery! Being the dorky mom that I am, I had to take a picture of the first time he was sick. Poor baby! I will be glad when he reaches the age where he understands how to blow his nose!

We've been working with Caleb on cruising along furniture and sitting on his new riding toy. Caleb is much more interested in messing with the buttons on his riding toy than he is in actually riding it! :) We have found that Caleb is most motivated to army crawl or cruise along the furniture if he is going after a soccer ball! I've included some pictures below of both activities.

Tomorrow at 11am we will find out where Bryan has matched for his residency training in Emergency Medicine. He went on 12 interviews across the US this fall/winter and ranked the programs according to his preference. We know for sure that he got into a program.... we just don't know where! Although we have a strong preference to stay in Temple at Scott & White we trust that God's plan for our future will bring us great joy and hope. We're excited to see where He is taking us next! I'll be sure to post an update here as soon as I'm home from the Match Day festivities.

Our Little Ringbearer

This past weekend we celebrated the wedding of Bryan's younger sister, Carolyn, and her new husband Billy. It was a fun-filled and busy weekend that involved each of us being part of the wedding party. Caleb and I came to Houston on Thursday so I could attend the Bridal Luncheon Friday and then Bryan joined us after his classes were over on Friday evening for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.

Caleb was such a little trooper throughout the busy weekend! Although we did our best to keep his schedule and routine on track, it definitely wasn't just like being at home. My parents were awesome at taking care of Caleb when Bryan and I were both busy with wedding activities, driving him from place to place and most importantly watching him during the ceremony!

Caleb was so resilient and easy going about everything, including meeting many new people! We were so happy and proud to introduce many friends & family to Caleb during the weekend. Not surprisingly, he got many compliments on the baby tuxedo that GranJan and Grandpa bought for him to wear! We were so blessed to be a part of such a special time for Carolyn & Billy and wish them all the best as they begin this new phase in their lives!

Getting Caleb dressed for the wedding. Those socks crack me up!

Keeping Caleb happy before the ceremony with his favorite toy, a soft soccer ball.

Our little family coming down the aisle at the ceremony

Caleb demonstrates his interest in dentistry by checking out Aunt Michelle's teeth

Me with the beautiful bride

A four generation photo! This was nearing the end of the night for Caleb so he wasn't in the mood to smile at this point.

11 Months Old

It is hard to believe that tomorrow Caleb will be 11 months old and that today is the 5-month anniversary of our Gotcha Day in Kyrgyzstan. Caleb has changed so much in the past 5 months. He has blossomed into an incredible baby boy with tons of personality and determination. We are so very proud of him, can't get over how precious he is and pretend that he is going to stay this little forever! :)

Things have been very busy for our family! The wedding of Bryan's sister Carolyn is fast approaching and our entire little family will be walking down the aisle as part of the wedding party. Bryan and I are groomsman/bridesmaid and Caleb will be the honorary ring bearer, complete with baby tuxedo! While it seems most men in the family don't see the need for a baby tuxedo, Carolyn and I agreed it was a must ;). When else can you put a baby in a tuxedo??? The wedding is this coming Saturday and we are really looking forward to all of the festivities.

Bryan just finished a month long rotation at the hospital that was fairly demanding of his time and energy. He turned into a zombie by 8pm every night and was often found asleep sitting up on either the couch or various chairs in the house! He has now moved into 2 weeks of easy class time and we are thankful for a nice break.

Next week on March 19th we will attend the "Match Day" ceremonies where each 4th year Medical Student will find out where they are going for residency. We are blessed that Bryan had a great number of interviews at many programs that we feel excited about. We are hoping to stay in Texas but are open to where God is calling us to go for the next 3 years so he can complete his training in Emergency Medicine. March 19th is going to be a big day for us as it will determine much of our future!

Since it does not seem that Houston is a likely option for us, I will probably be leaving my current job of nearly 6 years. This has been a difficult and sad decision for me, but I know that staying home with Caleb and being supportive of a challenging season in Bryan's training will be a true joy and honor what God wants for our family. While working has been a great part of my life, being Bryan's wife and Caleb's Mom will always be better!

We had a great visit with our friends the Kahlers yesterday! They were making a trip across Texas yesterday and stopped in Temple to visit and have dinner. We came to know them during our adoption process of Caleb and join them in praying that many children will come home from Kyrgyzstan soon, including their son. It has been such an encouragement to have them as friends and to see the Godly way they have approached the hills & valleys that come along with international adoption.

Now on to the important stuff.... What is Caleb up to lately??

• Caleb loves to make noise! He likes to shout and is a real chatterbox. He is still saying Mama and Dada but the rest is random babble. Lately his favorite new sounds to make are "Guh Guh Guh" and "Za Za". I've also heard a few random "St St St" noises from his sweet little mouth lately.
• Caleb has finally started to be more mobile! After weeks of working with him on crawling he finally started to army crawl last Friday. We have found he only wants to demonstrate this task in order to gain access to his favorite toys...
  
• Caleb's favorite toys right now are any type of ball. He loves soccer balls the most but enjoys holding, throwing, rolling and hitting any type of ball. He also loves a spinning top toy. Although he's not old enough to make it work, he likes to think that he is in control of the top whenever we play with it.
• Caleb loves Baby Einstein, especially one DVD called Neighborhood Animals. He clasps his hands together and smiles, claps and jumps for specific animals during the video. He also tends to respond the same way when he sees our 'neighoborhood animals', Sophie & Ginger!
• Caleb is still a great sleeper at night and always naps at least once a day. He has tried to start boycotting the afternoon nap but Mommy is not quite ready to give up the 2-nap routine so I'm trying my best to keep it going as long as possible!
• Caleb is working on getting used to food with more texture in it. He's still not a big fan of food with chunks in it or putting much food in his mouth himself, but we are slowly but surely making progress. He was not truly exposed to any solid baby food until nearly 7 months and he's done great so far, so we fully expect him to make steady progress and be chowing down on table food in no time! It's kind of ironic that a baby with 8 teeth is not interested in chewing his food!
• I haven't had Caleb weighed lately but we did set him on the cat scale at the vet's office last week! HA! We think he's is getting close to 19 lbs. He's definitely a tall baby as I get comments nearly everywhere I go about how tall he is. The clerk at Gymboree even asked me if he was 2 years old. I think she must have been new at Gymboree since she thought our little bald baby might be 2 years old :)
  

And now for the best part.... LOADS & LOADS OF PICTURES!

Caleb dressed for a walk in summer-like weather one day...

And then dressed for a walk in more wintry temperatures only a few days later! I'm not sure what is up with his facial expression in this one...

Caleb loves his nightly bathtime & bedtime routine with his Daddy. He loves to 'smile at the baby in the mirror' after he is wrapped up in his bath towel.

Mr. Cool Guy sporting his sunglasses while chilling on the hammock with Daddy

We're not sure if he's teething or flipping us the bird in this one...

Caleb is 100% boy - he loves to be outside!
Here are quite a few pictures of him enjoying the great outdoors.

Caleb reading with Daddy

Sorry it has been so long since I posted anything! I will be sure to include pictures from Caleb's first experience as a ring bearer this weekend and also update once we know where we are headed for residency!