Oh, Cale Cooper. You have stolen our hearts.
Everyday, Cale is more like a toddler and less like a baby. He no longer drinks formula, but whole milk. He only drinks from sippy cups, and no longer from bottles. His breakfast usually includes a pancake or waffle, an egg, and raspberries, strawberries, or blueberries...yes, all of that. For lunch and dinner, he loves chicken nuggets or grilled chicken, stir fry veggies, peanut butter sandwiches, sweet potatoes, green beans, broccoli, and his usual assortment of fruit. Right now, he is loving kiwi and grapes. We are so thankful to have a relatively good eater.
He, thankfully, is also a pretty good sleeper. A particular sleeper, yes, but a good sleeper, none the less. He still doesn't sleep in his car seat, unless he is completely wiped out. He loves his bed, and often reaches for it when going down for naps. He has been known to play in his crib, without crying, for up to 30 minutes before falling asleep - thank you sleep training! As painful as it was, letting him learn to self soothe and cry-it-out when he was younger has paid off! He now knows that Mom or Dad will come and get him in the morning (usually around 7:30), and if he wakes up before then, he just plays contently and waits on us. Nap times are pretty easy. Morning nap is at 9:45ish and he wakes up between 11:30-11:45. Afternoon nap is at 2:45, and he will usually wake up between 4:30-5. Bedtime is at 8ish. Unless he is sick, we won't hear from him until 7:30 the next morning! For those of you have know Cale since birth, you know that it is a complete miracle that I can even say he sleeps well! We are so thankful, and we do accredit most of it to the babywise method of sleep training.
Cale is still not walking on his own. He finds speed crawling far too efficient to give it up to become a wobbly walker! He will stand on his own while playing with toys and walk holding one our hands, but as soon as we let goes, he hits the floor and goes into his speed crawl. Oh well. If his walking is anything like his crawling, we'll be running to keep up with him!
He's really starting to pick up on a lot of words. He says, "Ball", "Uh Oh", "Car", "Dat"(that), "Book", "Mama" and "Dada". He's started pointing to things he wants to go to or see. He has started imitating sounds he hears, such as people laughing, someone coughing, dogs barking, etc...
He's going through some major separation anxiety right now. He wants me, all the time, no matter what. And, he wants to be held all the time. When I'm in the kitchen, he will crawl over to me, pull up on my legs, and hang there, just whining away. It really frustrates him when I don't pick him up, but I'm trying to help him understand that just because I won't pick him up doesn't mean I'm going somewhere. I know it's just a phase, and hoping it is over soon! Thankfully, he does well with babysitters when I do have to leave.
A few weeks ago, during Adam's spring break, we had a family picnic at the arboretum. Cale had so much fun chasing the birds and having the freedom to crawl until his little heart was content. He didn't love the feel of the grass on his knees, so his crawl turned into a bear crawl on his hands and feet. Several spectators at the arboretum thought it was so funny, they stopped to take pictures of him! Too funny! Here are some of the pictures we got while we were there...
Our boy is growing up! We are more thankful for him each and every day!
