Hungry Mobile Casanova

So yesterday (Tuesday) was a big day for Caleb, as he finally crawled for real! Since he turned 5 months old, we have watched him develop in his scooting and creeping and baby push-up capabilities, just waiting for his little mind to click and for crawling to occur. Well our wait is over (and so is our time frame for getting baby gates up...needless to say we went and bought one this afternoon!), he officially crawled using all four limbs in forward motion yesterday twice. The second time he did it, he went about 4 feet in one progression of it. It was SO exciting! So now he just needs to remember what he did! Ha ha! Additionally, before the crawling milestone occurred, Caleb and I had our first playdate yesterday too with other moms and babies from the North Shore Mom's group that I just joined. All the babies were super cute, so I posted some pictures of that too. Finally, there are a few shots and one video of Caleb's first experience with Cheerios. He started those about a week ago and I am finally posting that stuff as promised. Now he is a champ at eating them, it is so funny, he is like a little baby bird when a Cheerio comes near him. He opens his mouth super wide and sticks his neck out to receive those yummy little o's! More to come from this past weekend as well when Val's parents visited and from Caleb's baby dedication this past Sunday...those should be up sometime this week!

These pictures above were taken on Monday when he was still working on crawling. As soon as we catch the real thing on camera, we'll be sure to post it!

Here's Caleb at the baby playdate with Liam to his left, and Mia and Reese to his right.

All the babies just hanging out!

Here was Caleb patting Miabella on the back. They were so cute together!

And here was Caleb experiencing Cheerios for the first time last week. Now a week later, he still can't quite get them into his mouth yet, but he does pick them up and gets excited when he does so. And as I said, he loves when he is given them too. I'll have to post his baby bird look soon!

A tooth has broken through!

Since we have gotten back from the Pocono's, things have been pretty busy around here. We celebrated our 4th anniversary, had our friend Rob visit, and we had a lot going on with Caleb, transitioning him into the crib, etc. The biggest news though is that last Monday, Caleb's first tooth finally broke through! It is (no surprise) exactly where he has been gnawing for the last couple of weeks. Caleb also is continuing to work on crawling as well. When he pushes on his hands and feet and sticks his tush in the air as he is concentrating on trying to move forward, it is just hysterical! Last week he also went from the crawling position to the sitting position, which is a neat milestone as well. See pics of all that below. Finally, he had his 6 month appt. this past Friday, and he is now 15 1/2 lbs., and 26.25 inches long! He is growing so fast! He is totally healthy and the doctor is pleased with how his solid feedings are going. He also got the ok to start Cheerios, so you'll be seeing some pictures of that soon :)

There's that little snaggle tooth!

After Caleb's first night sleeping in his crib.

Here's the full body push up I was talking about. He tries any way he can to contort his body to move it forward like in the video. He's so close to crawling for real!

Now Caleb sits up in his bath tub like above!

We couldn't resist posting this...here is Caleb sucking his two fingers (backward) like he normally does. Most kids have a blanket or a stuffed animal or something, but Caleb's security move is his "two finger back suck" as we call it. He does is maybe 75% of the day!

Ok, so this post is kind of a menagerie of events, but I still wanted to share what Jason did for our anniversary. We had our friends babysit and we had a great picnic date on the beach, where Jason brought his guitar and we worshipped and walked by the water, etc. and just had a wonderful time. The moon over the water was so beautiful, I wish we would have taken a picture of that! After we got back home, I came in the door to a bouquet of roses and the cute set-up in the picture above with sparking cider and chocolates. What a great anniversary it was!

Now here are some pictures of when Rob (our friend from PSU) came to visit last week. We went into Boston one day to do part of the Freedom Trail and this is a picture of the guys at one of the cemeteries.

Here are the guys at another cemetery by Paul Revere's grave...looked how bored Caleb is!
Ha ha!

Here we are at a restaurant in the North End. It was Caleb's first time sitting in a high chair at a restaurant like that. Super cute!

On our way home, a shot of the skyline.

Rob and Caleb just hanging out.

Here are a few cute photos I thought I would post too. One above and below!

Finally, Grammy and Pops got Jason and me a cabana for the beach for our anniversary, and so the video is Caleb having fun playing in it in our kitchen when Jason set it up to test it out. The picture above is Caleb in the cabana bag...he looks like a little mermaid man doesn't he? :)

Pocono Vacation

I'm finally catching up with this posting of the Pocono vacation pictures/videos that we took with my (Val's) family about two weeks ago. We had a great time and really enjoyed just getting the opportunity to relax.

Uncle Matt hanging out with Caleb on the first night. (Check out Caleb's Eagles sleeper that Matt got him, too!)

Check the end of this post for the video of Caleb's first time in the pool. Here are some fun pictures of the gang at the pool as well!

More cute pool pictures!

Caleb floating in the pool in his life vest was so cute! I think he is really starting to enjoy being in the water.

We thought it was funny that we all had sandals/flip flops on, so of course we had to take a picture! :) Yay for family feet!

Dinner at Bailey's, our tradition for a night out.

Here's a video of Caleb's first boat ride.


He was not a fan of it at first (really he didn't like that he couldn't get his hands to his mouth because the life vest was too puffy!).

But eventually he began to enjoy it and he took a mini nap.

But the nap didn't last long...

Later, Jason showed off his last catch of the day!

Roxy checking out Caleb. (Rowdy was sniffing him all week too!)

Caleb and Uncle Matt in matching polo shirts...too cute!

Right before Matt had to leave, a quick shot of the kids.



Pops and Caleb getting ready for the fireworks.

Caleb turned 6 months old on July 4th, and it was a fun first experience for Caleb at that!

Waiting for the fireworks to start.

The first one that Caleb saw.

He wasn't scared at all! He was fairly mesmerized.

On the last day, saying good-bye to Grammy and Pops.

Last shot at the Pocono house before we left.

Since we were in the Pocono area, we decided to visit Nora and her family before heading back to Salem. They had us over for a wonderful lunch.

Nora and her sister Gwyn playing with Caleb.

We had such a great time at the Wandalowski's!

Two last videos of fun Pocono moments below:

The boat ride nap caught on video.

Here's the video of Caleb going into the pool for the first time!