A clean baby is a happy baby...

most of the time. We love bath time, however, we do not enjoy getting out of the tub. Note the before and after shots here. The funniest thing about these pictures is what you don't see--Callan's audience! Seven adults watching one baby take his bath. Oh to be loved!!!

And the world smiles with us!

LOOK what we have here! These little smiles are abundant in the morning and scarce in the evening. (Go figure--my new boss is a morning person.) However few or many, they are endlessly entertaining to me!

Communication

Callan has added a fourth hunger cue--hand to mouth! So now we have 1. He's awake. 2. The baby bird face. 3. Hand to mouth and occasional hand sucking and 4. CRYING! (I have a feeling that there is a fifth universal sign, but luckily he doesn't have enough dexterity to give me that one, yet.)

We're getting better at this so usually we can fill his request by the time we reach stage 2....but sometimes Mom is just not fast enough. Here's a little picture of his new sign language.

It's Tricky...

Callan's Aunt Beth came to visit us a few weeks ago and took his 1 month pictures for us. We (the adults) had a great time--the pics turned out fabulously! Callan didn't mind the photography, as long as there was meal time between takes. It did prove a little more tricky to get Callan to look at the camera instead of out the window. Here's one of my favorite pictures w/Callan in a bib from Uncle Ethan and Aunt Liza.

P.S. Bonus points for those connecting the post title and the bib! ; )

P.P.S. Double bonus points for anyone who can help me find a black nursing bra. Seriously.

An Overnight Visit

OK, this is a really belated post, but it was a milestone sooo here it is anyway!!!

Exactly one week after arriving home, we had quite an exciting evening...
We were getting Callan ready to go to his first party, when the windstorm hit. We lost power for about 15 hours. I decided that I wasn't rugged enough to be able to care for Callan w/out electricity. Something about changing a diaper while holding a flash light under you chin just didn't work for me. So he and I packed up and headed out to spend the night at my parents house. Since it was already late in the evening (10p ish) we didn't have enough light at home to get the Pack'n Play loaded up, so I left w/a portable swing hoping that would work for the night. Once we got there and my parents helped us settle in, I couldn't stand the way Callan was sitting in the swing so I decided that he should sleep in his car seat instead. Once I got him nestled in there, I spent the night worrying that his chin might be resting on his chest and obstructing an air way. So I spent most of the time worrying and occasionally flicking on my flashlight (in place of a nightlight) to make sure all was well. Callan slept like a champ...in fact until two nights ago I believe that was his longest stretch of sleep on record--nearly 4 hours (and I spent it awake and watching him. good plan) . What I learned from that experience is that Callan will be fine, and can pretty much make himself comfortable wherever he might be...it's me I have to worry about!

A Tale of Two Great Grandmas

It was the best of times, it was...just really the best of times! Callan was lucky enough to get to meet two of his Great Grandmas a few weeks ago.

My Grandma Gladys, Callan's Great Grandma (henceforth to be known as GG)...drove down to visit us (I say us, but we all know who I mean). She joked before hand that she had been working out lifting ten lb. bags of flour to prepare for holding him! Lucky thing since I roped her in to watching Callan while my mom (Thank you MOM!!!) and I cleaned the house. Callan was being so

spoiled by GG, that Vegas felt a little short changed. So when ever GG sat down with Callan, up came Vegas. An 11 pound baby on your lap doesn't leave a lot of room for a 15 pound dog, but Vegas found a way!

We also took Callan out to Wahoo to visit his Great Grandma Francis. She was delighted to see him, even though he spent most of our visit loudly announcing his presence. He also showed off by dirtying three diapers in about 30 minutes. It was an eventful day!

P.S. A careful observer might notice two new things about Callan from these pictures. His HANDS! After forcing Callan to spend the first three weeks of his life with his hands in mittens or, when in a bind, socks, so that he didn't scratch his face....I was finally given the confidence to trim his nails! A group of friends came to visit and reassured me that I wouldn't be able to maim him for life with the safety trimmers. Thankfully, they were right...or at least so far.

Lessons learned!

HI! We are severely tardy in our posts. SORRY! I don't have a very good excuse except the usual. I have to face the facts that showering is a major accomplishment---updating the blog ranks up there with completing the Iditarod. It's pretty freakin' impressive (if I do say so myself). I got ambitious last week I wrote about 8 paragraphs to catch everyone up on our goings-ons...but of course, I left the computer to do something and it rebooted and erased my work. In an effort to avoid a repeat performance, I have decided to make each post separately, even if they are no longer in the correct order....so these are the "events" as I recall them. We'll get caught up eventually!!!!