Sleepy Baby

Caleb is a great sleeper. Ever since we took him home from the hospital, he has loved to sleep. In his first few weeks of life I would have to wake him up to feed him. He slept through the night at 8 weeks. He sleeps 10 1/2 hours at night and still loves his naps. We have learned that when he is tired and  wants to sleep, there is almost no stopping him. Pick him up, walk around, talk to him, turn on lights, he doesn't care. And I LOVE it. :) It makes him easy to take places because he will sleep almost anywhere. I have been taking pictures of all the random places he falls asleep so I could share them with you all...

 In the pack and play.

 In the bassinet.

 

On his stomach in the living room.

 Next to dad on the couch.

 On my legs.

 In the moby while I mow the lawn.

 In the carseat next to the beach.

 In my arms at the lake.

 In the car while driving.

 On the ground next to the lake.

 On our spare bed in front of the TV.

 In the middle of the living room floor.

 In  my arms on the couch.

 In the gym during bball open gym.

His favorite place of all...dad's chest.

We hope Caleb keeps sleeping like this for the rest of his childhood. And even if he doesn't, we sure are enjoying it right now. :)

Top Family Fishing

Saturday was a perfect fall day. It was warm, there was lots of sunshine, and there was hardly any wind. This type of day does not happen that frequently, so we decided to take advantage of it by...going to the lake of course. :) This fall has been great weather for fishing and I have loved getting to see the beauty in God's creation on all of our fishing trips. The colors this fall seem to stand out in a way that I don't remember from the past years.

 John's parents had his two nephews for the night, so all the grandsons got to go fishing with grandpa and grandma. Although Caleb and I did not catch any fish, the guys did get three keepers. We had a great time grilling, fishing, and just hanging out together outside.

 J.T. and his nephews Ethan. I can't wait until Caleb is old enough to fish with his dad.

 I have been begging for a fall family picture...so this is what I got. :) No pretty fall leaves or nice clothes, but we did get the lake and our fishing pole.

 John's little sister Tianna with Caleb. 

J.T., Ethan, and Andrew with their walleyes.

Grandma Top with her grandsons...Caleb is once again avoiding looking at the camera. :)

3 Months

It is hard to believe that Caleb John is three months old already. Everyone told me that he would grow up so fast, but I never quite believed them...until now. Before having Caleb I was hoping that the first few months would fly by because I was afraid about nursing and being up all night. But now that he is here and the first three month are gone already, I kind of wish I could get them back. I miss the way he would curl up in a little ball on our chest and sleep all day. I miss the way his newborn onesies were too big on his little stomach and legs.  I just miss how teeny tiny he was. But as much as I miss some parts of the little baby stage, there are definitely parts I don't miss. I don't miss him pooping 4-5 times a day. I don't miss getting up in the middle of the night to feed him. I don't miss his feedings taking over an hour and struggling with now knowing what I was doing. So I guess I'm a little sad to say my little baby is growing up, but I am also excited for the new developments he has every day. Who knew I would be one of those emotional moms who can't decide if she is happy or sad that her baby is growing up:)

It seems like daily he is growing, changing, and learning something new. It has been a lot of fun to have him interacting with us more and more. There isn't a much better feeling then walking into a room and having him hear your voice, turn his head, make eye contact with you, and give you a big smile. That little smile seems to make everything ok. And even when I mess up as a mom (which happens frequently), he just keeps on smiling up at me with those beautiful dark blue,gray eyes. Now that is something I know I am going to miss one day...  

Here is a slight overview of what Caleb is up to at three months:
-after trying to drop a feeding a few weeks ago and then going back to feeding every 3 hours, I think he has now settled in to eating about every 3-4 hours and feeding 5 times a day.
-it takes him about 20 minutes to eat (usually longer with a bottle)
-he has his last feeding around 8:45, is in bed around 9:15, and we wake him up around 7:45.
-he is eating anywhere from 5-6 1/2 ounces when he takes a bottle. he takes a bottle everyday at Becca's and still does very well with them.
-he can find toys and then reach out and grab them.
-he likes to look in the mirror and smile at himself.
-he is starting to yell (as you have seen in the videos) and is cooing more and more.
-his favorite thing is just to lay on a blanket on the floor and talk to John or I.
-he has a dirty diaper anywhere from three times a day to once in four days. (normally more like once a day or once every other day)
-he is starting to sit up by himself when we lean him against the couch.
-he doesn't cry during his bath, but doesn't really seem to enjoy it very much anymore either.
-he is very willing to be held by anyone (which is good because he gets passed around a lot!)
-we are still doing the eat, awake, sleep schedule so he is usually up anywhere from 1 1/2-2 1/2 hours and then sleeps until he eats again. he generally takes a 2 hour nap in the morning at Becca's and another hour and a half or 2 hour nap in the afternoon.
-he can fall asleep almost anywhere, including very loud gyms, but he wakes up more quickly now when transferring him to other people or from the house to the car.
-he seems to love to sleep in his carseat and almost always falls asleep in the car or when I am running with him in the jogging stroller
-he doesn't love tummy time, but he can lift his head up and move it around.
-he hardly ever cries, usually just when waking up from his nap, when he needs to burp, when he is very hungry, or when he gets scared by very loud noises.
-he is getting very fat. :)

Here are some of his three month pictures...he looks so old! 

Alumni Weekend

Dordt had their alumni weekend this past weekend and I got to play in the alumni volleyball game. We played younger alumni vs. older alumni, and it was a ton of fun. It was great to see some of my teammates who I haven't seen in awhile, and to get to play competitively again. I definitely miss playing volleyball, but there are just a lot more things in life that are more important right now. :)

All of the volleyball alumni before the match.

Caleb loved his first visit to Dordt College. I think being a Dordt Defender is in his future...just don't tell his dad. :) He did great as usual with the loud gym and being shown off to lots of people. My dad spoke at Dordt on Friday so they got to see Caleb as well which was nice. This was our first time of not putting him to bed in his crib, but he didn't seem to mind a bit. We stuck him in the carseat after the alumni game and he slept in the car and then fell right back asleep when we put him in the crib. We feel so blessed to have such a content little guy!

 

 It is crazy how much he has grown! 3 months today-I'll post his pictures soon!

Speaking Spanish

Caleb has officially found his voice this week. On Monday when I brought him home he started squealing and almost screaming at me. It has been so much fun listening to him and seeing him get all worked up like he has something really important to say. I have decided that he is beginning to speak Spanish, although his father might disagree. :)

Fall Fishing

Since I met John, whenever I think of the fall, I think of one thing....fishing. Every year when the weather starts to get a little colder and the leaves start to change colors, my husband resembles a little kid in a candy store. He gets a little twinkle in his eyes and starts doing crazy things like waking up super early to be at the lake before the sun comes up. And as crazy as it is, I have learned to love that excitement and now sometimes I am even the one asking to go fishing. There is just nothing better than sitting next to a lake on a beautiful fall night with the sun shining on your face and the leaves falling around you. Now if only every time we went fishing the weather was actually like that. :) But rain or shine, it has become one of my favorite date nights with John and now it has turned into one of my favorite family outings. I'm not sure, but I think even Caleb likes fishing. Well...I guess he doesn't really have a choice. :) In his short two and a half months of life he has already been on quite a few fishing adventures. Here are some pictures of our recent trips to the lakes.

 Caleb's 1st fishing trip...sadly it rained almost the whole time. 

 Caleb catching his 1st fish with dad. 

 It was slightly smaller than we were hoping for, but just his size. :)

Taking a little snooze next to the beach.

 Sharing fishing stories with dad.

Fishing buddies.

Big Weekend

We had a big weekend siding our house, but it was also a big weekend for Caleb and I. On Thursday night we went to some of our friends' house to watch the Vikings (thankfully the company was better than the game :)), and my mom stayed home to baby-sit Caleb. She gave him a bottle and put him to bed which was the first time I didn't put him to bed after feeding him myself.  I started him on a bottle at about 3 1/2 weeks and he has always done good with them, but I wasn't sure if he would still sleep through the night after taking one.  Thankfully he did great and woke up at the same time as always the next morning! I am pretty excited that John and I can maybe have a few more date nights now that Caleb can go to bed with someone else.

I don't know why you're worried mom, I love to sleep through the night! :)

This weekend we also changed up Caleb's schedule. For three weeks he has been sleeping from 10:30 until 7:45 and then I feed him every 3 hours during the day. Then the last week or so I kept moving up his last feeding time until he was feeding at 7:30 and then again at 9:30 before bed. I started having to wake him up from his naps and wake him up in the morning so I decided to cut out a feeding. On Saturday I changed him to a 3 1/2 hour schedule and made his last feeding at 9:15. I was very hesitant to cut out a feeding because I again worried he wouldn't sleep through the night, but he did great! I fed him at 7:45, 11:00. 2:30, 6:00, and 9:15 and he slept until 7:45 again the next morning. I was also very excited about the new schedule change! It gives my schedule a lot more flexibility and gives me more time during the day where I'm not feeding. He is such a champ and I am so thankful he does so well! 

He is such a happy baby and has started to smile a ton!

This was also my last weekend at home because I went back to school today. It was hard leaving Caleb, but it was so nice that my mom stayed to take care of him. Today was a big day, but it was great to see students again. I know once we get into a new routine it will work out really well. I got a lot of texts and e-mails today with friends and family telling me they were praying for me, and I truly appreciate the prayers. I never thought it would be so hard to leave my baby.

We love our happy baby!

Re-Siding Our House

This weekend was Heartland break so we didn't have school.  John went down to Sioux Center for conferences Thursday and Friday, but got back early afternoon on Friday so this was the perfect weekend to re-side our house. Well, we thought it was, until it was 32 degrees on Friday and even snowed a little bit. :) But despite the very cold weather, we had a big crew of friends and family come out to help us. Mom and Dad VZ came up again to help with siding and take care of Caleb. Scott came down from Sioux Falls, Andrew was home for break, and mom and dad Top came too. We also had some of our good friends come to help out. Thankfully one of our very close friends does construction for his job so he has been a great help. Between all of the work we had a lot of fun getting to eat some meals together and hangout.

We all tore off on Friday and got almost the entire house torn off. Then on Saturday we finished up tearing off and got almost two sides of the house re-sided. It was a big weekend of work, but we were very thankful to have so many people around to help. John is hoping to put in a lot of work after school this week and next to try to wrap up the job. We are very excited about the new look of the house!

John and I putting on the new siding.

Dad, I, and Scott. Their extra height helped a lot. :)

Part of the group on one of our many "lunch breaks."

The grandmas had the tough job of taking care of Caleb for the weekend. :) They even gave him a bath after he exploded in his diaper.

We feel so blessed to have such great friends and family. One of the things I love about living in a small town is that whenever there is a job to be done, everyone shows up. With moving, having a baby, and re-siding our house all in a few months, we have certainly been well taken care of.

Fishing Stories

Caleb is already learning to tell his dad some pretty big fishing stories. John thinks this one is about the huge walleyes that he is going to catch with dad this fall. :)