8 months & 80 years

Caleb turned 8 months and my Grandpa V.W. had his 80th birthday during March. I'm so glad that Caleb has gotten to have his grandparents and great-grandparents around for his 8 months of life, and I hope he gets to enjoy all of them for many more years to come!

 Happy 80th Birthday Grandpa!

 The whole gang celebrating at supper in Adrian.

Caleb has become much more mobile now that he is 8 months old, and we have had to put locks on the cupboards under the sink and lower his crib. I feel like he is now a small toddler instead of a baby! His 8 month pictures were also a little more difficult to take because he did not want to sit still for one second. He was one of the most relaxed babies I have ever heard about, but he is one active little guy now!

Helping dad put child protectors on the cupboards...he wasn't quite sure about the power tools.:)

 Clapping!

 This pretty much sums up how the picture taking went for the afternoon...:)

 Love that little tongue!

Here are some other facts about Caleb at 8 months:
-he sleeps from 8:00-7/7:30
-he still takes 3 naps a day 9:30-10:15, 12:30-2:00, 4:30-5:30
-he drinks 5 times a day and drinks anywhere from 7-9 oz.
-he hates oatmeal cereal so we switched to carrots. he ate that for about a week and now hates that and squash, and if we even make a motion of putting a spoon in his mouth
-he can crawl (but still does army crawl when he wants to go really fast)
-he can pull himself up onto his knees and just recently has begun pulling himself onto his feet (although he is fairly unstable doing this so it is slightly hazardous)
-he takes a bottle great and goes down for naps/bed great, except at other people's houses in which he screams bloody murder
-he is a lot more afraid of strangers and new places and is much more tight with his smiles and often cries when he goes to new people
-he loves being outside on walks and at night he likes to walk around the house with John
-he likes the bath
-no teeth but is still drooling and eating everything
-he is quite a chatter box and we love hearing all of his new noises
-he is extremely curious and still refuses to eat in front of other people
-he loves to give kisses and clap/do patty cake and they are both the cutest thing

 I love his kisses...they are slobbery and are more like him eating my face, but they are the best!

He is still one very happy boy and is providing lots of entertainment for his parents!:)

Warm Weather

The past few weeks we have had some beautiful weather in Minnesota! Lots of sunshine and unusually high temperatures...it has been wonderful! Sadly this week is a little different story. :( But because we know the weather can change very quickly here, we like to take advantage of any nice day we have by spending it outside!

 His first ride sitting up in the stroller...he loved it!

Family walk on a Sunday afternoon...despite Caleb's facial expression, he really did have a good time. :)

Laughter

I have decided my favorite thing to hear is my son laughing. There is nothing sweeter than the sound of his giggles and the huge smile on his face.

Endings and Beginnings

With the snow melting and winter (hopefully) coming to an end and the sun shining and spring (hopefully) beginning, it has made me think about some of the beginnings and endings going on in our lives and with some of our friends.

Basketball season came to an end for us this past week. The boys lost a very close game to Central Christian. They played hard, but it was definitely a disappointing loss for everyone. John's sister also lost, so basketball at SW is officially over for the year. It is always hard for the season to end, but it has been nice to have John come home after school the past few days.

 Caleb was very excited for the game!

 The two teams joined in prayer after the game.

 The SW team. They had a great season!

So proud of our awesome husband, father, and coach!

Big thanks to my mom who came up to help out the last week of the season! (tournament time is always a little crazy for the coach and his family. :))

We have also had some exciting new family beginnings for some of our friends. One of our friends had a baby boy in December, and I got to babysit him the other night. He doesn't seem to like me very much yet (he will learn), but we finally got some snuggle time when he came to visit.

He is precious!

Some of our other close friends just had a baby girl a week ago. We had the blessing of going to the hospital to meet their little girl, and it was hard to believe that Caleb was that small only 7 1/2 months ago. Wow the time really has flown by! They are also moving in to their new house(which happens to be right in our back yard) today. We are so excited for Caleb and Cora to become friends and play together, and I am excited to hopefully get lots of snuggle time with their little girl! :)

She was so tiny! (almost a pound smaller than Caleb when he was born)

We are loving the beginning of a new season and being able to enjoy some walks outside. What a blessing to have a God who controls the seasons and blesses us with warmth after the cold.

 

Caleb's 1st Blue Ribbon

I think this week is the perfect week to start off "March Madness" in the Top household. Between John coaching and his little sister Tianna playing, we have basketball games Friday, Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday with scouting on Saturday and Monday and a coaches' meeting on Wednesday. The tournament madness has begun, but so far it has been a lot of fun!

The guys have won three games and now are only one away from going to state! Two out of their three games have been extremely close and lots of fun for the fans to watch! Most of the fans seem quite nervous at the end of the games, but Caleb usually sleeps or is busy smiling away during the final seconds. He has been a trooper and even got to celebrate winning the sub-section final game with his dad on Friday. Now hopefully one more win Thursday night! Go Eagles!

 Cheering on John and his team in our SW gear.

 The team lined up after their win.

 Caleb cutting down the net with his dad.

 Caleb loving the big win.

Caleb's first blue ribbon. :)

We love babysitters

I love Caleb. I also really enjoy getting away from him from time to time. And I really enjoy it when either set of his wonderful grandparents watch him while I am gone. There's just something about knowing he's in good hands, and knowing those hands are pretty excited to be watching him. It allows me to fully enjoy my time away.

This weekend Grandpa and Grandma Van Zanten came up to watch Caleb Friday and Saturday. On Friday night we had a Rook card party with 13 other couples. There was lots of good food, laughter, competition, and hands of Rook. We were no where in the running for first place, but we had a great time socializing with some couples we don't see very often.

Saturday was Super Saturday, which is quite the big deal around these parts. Why people get so excited about watching four games in a row of high school boys basketball in one day is a little beyond my understanding, but I have learned that I am the only one who finds it slightly strange. Because of this, I go and thoroughly enjoy the company, Cold Stone ice cream that the concession stand sells (thanks Dad Top for buying me some), and getting to go out to eat at Perkins after. I guess we all enjoy different things about basketball season:) I also very much enjoyed not having to worry about feeding Caleb who refuses to eat if there is any noise, interesting thing to look at, something close enough for him to kick his feet against, or another person in the same room. The other day he stopped eating for a good give minutes because he realized that when he pulls my strap on my tank top it snaps and makes a funny noise. He's a curious one, but so stinkin cute it's hard not to just laugh. :)

It was a great weekend for Caleb to see his grandparents and for us to enjoy some time out. Thanks Mom and Dad VZ!

7 months

Our little chubby boy is 7 months old already. It's crazy how much he has changed from 6 to 7 months, not only in appearance but in physical capabilities. He is as sweet and chunky as ever, and we are loving this stage. We both said the other night that it is so fun to see that he loves us. I mean, we are his parents and take care of his every basic need so we know he loves us, but to see it in his smile and his bright eyes is truly amazing.

 7 month pictures turned out to be a little more difficult than before with his new ability to move all over the place, but we thankfully still got a few cute shots that help to capture his fun-loving personality. :)

As I said in my last blog post, Caleb is on the move. He can army crawl all over the floor and we enjoy watching the look of determination on his face when he is going for something he wants. He can also sit up for long amounts of time on his own, but hasn't quite figured out how to transition from sitting to moving without doing a belly flop. Good thing his belly is so big to flop on. :)

Here are some other stats for Caleb:
-He generally sleeps from 7:45ish-7:30ish
-takes 3 naps a day (9:45-10:30, 12:30-2:00, 4:30-5:15)
-still doing eat, awake sleep, so he eats anywhere from 7-9 ounces after he wakes up from naps and then one more feeding right before bed
-he got sick and threw up a couple times a day for a week straight, so we stopped the oatmeal and haven't gone back since
-he no longer stays sleeping when he is transferred from the car seat to the house and has a really hard time going down for a nap anywhere besides home and daycare (he goes down amazing at home!)
-he chews on everything and is drooling all the time, but still no teeth
-he likes to stand up for a few seconds by himself next to a toy
-he has recently started giving kisses (aka sucking and chewing on my chin), but I think it is the cutest thing
-after being sick he went through a little mom/dad phase, but is still pretty good at going to other people (although it's better if neither of us are around)
-he does great with a bottle and will even take one from me now
-he has the cutest giggle when we say "achoo" like we are sneezing
-he loves to be naked and just roll around on the floor with us at night
-he loves his tongue, is starting to almost clap for himself
-he has started a new noise which sounds something like "da-da" and John is positive he is saying dad as his first word :)
-he is still a very happy baby and his smile can light up a room