Mail call!

Noah loves mail. We are fortunate enough to get our mail delivered into our home via a slot in the door. When the mail comes Noah runs to it and cheers, "mail, mail!" Then he'll bring me any colorful pieces and inform me, "I got mails for Noah Samuelson," and proceed to open it. This is fine as long as it is one of our numerous pieces of junk mail, but one of these days...I just hope nothing important ends up ruined. Especially since much of "Noah's mail" requires him to write back with crayon on the same letter he just opened.

Caleb is advancing SO quickly. Of course, moms and dads are biased, but he crawls everywhere and sits down unassisted. I'm not sure that many 6 month old kids are doing the same. Also, I would consider Caleb to be the happiest baby I have ever met...though my perspective may be skewed since Noah was quite fussy the first few months. As long as he is rested and fed, Caleb has a smile on his face and is ready to laugh.

Caleb has also started yelling at us. It's rather endearing, in fact. He will be playing as I am making dinner and suddenly start shrieking. When I look over, he is grinning at me and then he just chatters away in his baby language. He started doing it the other day as I was holding him on the couch and Travis and Noah were playing nearby. Caleb looked over at his dad and started jumping and shrieking until Travis looked at him. Now that he knows he can get our attention, he'll yell at us with abandon until we acknowledge him. He is certainly social, but then again perhaps he simply knows that sometimes he has to compete with big brother.

First Teeth!

Caleb, our mover and shaker, has erupted two teeth in the last week. Along with these teeth he's hit another milestone as I have started feeding him some vegetables with our dinner. Caleb's thrilled about this. If we happen to be eating as we hold him he tracks our food as we eat it, watching with an open mouth, leaning toward the spoon, grabbing at it, making mealtimes very messy. So now he has his own little meals (he eats sans clothing, so I don't run out of stain remover) as we all eat dinner together.

Noah has also tried to get into the act. I caught him trying to share his juice the other morning as I made my coffee. I looked over and Caleb was in the exer-saucer with a straw in his mouth as Noah held up the juice box for him. It's like they are in cahouts. Last week Noah took a chicken finger to the coffee table and left it there as I was clearing the table in the dining room. When I came back from dropping off dishes in the kitchen I found Caleb gnawing on the chicken finger. The little sneak had crawled over to the coffee table, pulled himself up, grabbed the chicken and began gnawing away. Of course, when I exclaimed, "Caleb, what..?" he turned and lost his balance. The left-over chicken went to Henry and I had to explain to Noah (for the hundredth time) that he can't leave his food on the coffee table. Caleb...well, he had a guilty look on his face, but as far a lectures go, I decided to save my breath for his teenage years.

Transitions Since Christmas

As Christmas approached, Noah began to talk about Santa. I'm still not entirely sure where his information was coming from, but as I drove him home from daycare a couple of weeks before Christmas he began chatting in small sentences about "Santa coming" and "eating cookies". I told him yes, that Santa was coming and he would come to our house and eat cookies and leave Noah and Caleb some presents. I was then told "No," this would not happen because, "Santa is scary monster."

Well, here we are into January and Noah is still talking about Santa. He has really captured Noah's imagination and now that Noah has seen how he brings presents, we have decided that perhaps he isn't such a scary monster after all. This whole issue was greatly helped when Santa came to Grandma B's house. While upstairs in Aunt Kristen's bedroom Noah heard Santa enter the house, exclaim "Merry Christmas" and "Ho, Ho, Ho!" Then the front door shut as Santa continued on his rounds. When Noah came down, presents were gathered around the fireplace. Noah was very impressed by all of this and insists that Santa is coming again sometime soon, though we keep explaining that Santa is currently on vacation in the Bahamas for a few months.

Caleb, for his part, is currently very busy putting his crawling skills to use by chasing down any toy Noah leaves on the floor. Keeping up with both of them has become a big job, since Caleb no longer stays in one place when we set him down. Of course, Caleb can't quite keep up with Noah and this seems to frustrate him at times when he sees Noah leave a room without him. He calms down when we all sit on the floor and play together and I get glimpses of how much fun this will be in a few years when the boys can play together instead of just side-by-side.

Noah has also made a major transition over Christmas and New Years...he now sleeps in a his big boy bed. Noah got sheets and blankets (along with wall stickers and a lamp) with cars and trucks on them from Grandma and Grandpa Sam for Christmas. He calls it his car bed and it took only two nights to get him to stay in it for the night when he goes to bed. He has also had mixed success taking his naps in this bed as well. Of course, Travis and I are really excited and proud of this transition. The crib remains in his room for now, but will soon be in use by Caleb as I transition him out of my bed. The whole thing has gone fairly well, but most importantly, Noah wakes up in a much better mood. He enjoys being able to get out of bed when he wants to in the morning, rather than us coming to lift him out of the crib. His smiling face as he opens the hall door and comes running into the living room in the morning really brightens those days when I have been up with Caleb since 5 am. Now, if only potty training could go this smoothly.