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!