An Adventure!!!!

We finally went on an adventure worth writing about!!

This is a re-write from a letter I wrote to my non-interneting grandma, so pardon my rambling while I sort through things. Like most of you, we enjoyed a long President's Day weekend, and like every other human (and a few dogs) in Oregon, we were out at the coast.

It. Was. Beautiful.

We went to Brookings, OR for the long weekend. With the boredom setting in, we've been dying to get out of dodge. Jeff's Dad has a friend who owns a house over there and invited us to come stay. Wowzer! It was beautiful!! It was in the 70’s every day and almost no wind. Poor Jeff wanted to surf while we were over there, but it was never really windy enough, there was hardly any surf. But we did do some other fun things! Our good friends Matt and Amy were exploring the coast on their way up to Seattle, before they ship out for Japan on Thursday. We got to enjoy dinner and breakfast with them, and while neither was long enough, we were thankful at one last chance to spend time togther and say goodbye. I had no idea when I said "see you later" it would only be three weeks until we saw them again. The Air Force has given us such an incredible extended family, I can't believe how many wonderful people we can count as our friends.

We took Caleigh to the beach for the first time and dipped her tiny toes into the ocean. She’s quite the water baby so she enjoyed it, even if the water was chilly. It was so warm outside I don’t think she minded. One day while we were over on the coast, we drove down to Crescent City, California to visit and go to the Redwood Forest. It was so neat! We visited an attraction called the Mystery of Trees (I am all about this touristy kind of stuff), where we paid $30 to hike through some of the forest and take a sky tram up to a lookout. It was so beautiful. You could see huge trees for miles, and then the ocean in the distance. Couldn’t believe the weather, especially for the Oregon coast. Brookings has a pretty good gig though,

they've got that extra warm river due to the Chetco River down there. Gorgeous!

Caleigh finished her second week of swimming lessons last week, so we’re halfway through with those. They’re only half an hour, and really all we do is sing a few songs and then splash around in the water, but the teacher gives her toys to chew on, and she loves just being in the water. She’s the youngest of the four kids in her class, but by far the best behaved. She’s such a laid-back baby, nothing really bothers her. The teacher always wants to hold her and swish her around because she can't believe how chill my baby is. She gets it from her mama. (Not. She totally gets it from her Dad.)

I can’t believe how fast she’s growing. She now fully uses rolling over as a mode of transportation, and has started to kind of army-crawl on her knees and elbows. I'm learning quickly not to leave her alone with anything I don't want her investigating, because she'll wriggle her way right over to it and pull and yank until she gets what she wants. We’re planning another trip to Corvallis next weekend so Jeff and I can run a race, we're trying to get back into doing this kind of thing. And Corvallis comes with a convenient baby sitter. It’s another long weekend for Jeff, and we're looking forward to it!

That wraps up our weekend and this post, and the Peanut girl is now up from her nap and grunting for my attention in the other room. Better hop on over there and get her fed.

Take care my friends!! <3

Joy To the Fishies In the Deep Blue Sea

Admit it: you've been eagerly awaiting today's post because you're curious about what kind of SPECIAL ADVENTURE Peanut and I went on today. Amiright? Well let's not keep you waiting any longer!

Today was Miss Caleigh Marie's first SWIM LESSON!!!!! Although at this point, the term "lesson" is pretty much a misnomer, since she's not learning much of anything except that the world contains very large bathtubs into which she is occasionally placed by her mother. She's one of four littles in the "Parent and Tot" session, and by far the quietest. This could have something to do with the fact that she's not yet technically learned to speak and mostly just grunts and squeals. She's also the smallest, as the other three children are of walking and talking age. She did great though! She served as a model for the teacher to demonstrate how to hold kiddos in the water, and happily splashed around and reached for a small pink ball she was offered. There are eight lessons total in this session, so we'll go twice a week for the month of February.

I'm already looking forward to Thursday's "lesson," mostly just to have the opportunity to get her back in the water again. It's quite the workout to get myself AND a non-walking, non-sitting baby dressed for swimming, and then re-dressed in our clothes afterwards. I walked out of the gym today exhausted more from the swimming adventure than from my workout beforehand. Times like these, another set of hands would come in great. I find myself needing to use the bathroom, but with nothing to do with the baby, I end up holding it for so long I forget I even have to go. Something tells me this is a trait you develop in motherhood; forcing your urges to the back of your mind in order to focus on your kids.

The other nice thing about having a tot in swimming lessons: the exhaustion for baby. Peanut fell asleep in the car on the way home and slept for another hour and half after we got home, and then took another long nap in the afternoon. I expect her to sleep well tonight too. Not because she physically worked much, but it was, I imagine, quite stimulating and interesting for her.

I suppose that's about all I have for today. Given my sabbatical, I'm going to try and update more frequently, although I'm not sure how often there'll be news to report. It's up to the baby, I guess, to provide good blog material.


Until next time my friends!!


P.S. Since I was a first-time mom at our very first lesson (and alone) I didn't take any pictures today. So instead, I leave you with these generic photos of babies swimming, so you can maybe imagine what Peanut looked like today. If I get a chance (and a spare brain cell) I'll try and remember to take pictures on Thursday. =)

Six Months In

It's been brought to my attention more than a few times in the past few months that I seem to have taken a hiatus from my blog.

What can I say? The people demand my return, and I am obligated to satisfy these demands.

Today is an appropriate day to return from my blog sabbatical, as the not-so-tiny-anymore Peanut girl had her six-month checkup with her awesome pediatrician this afternoon.

But first, let me catch you up on what you missed in the past few months:

OCTOBER HIGHLIGHTS:
-Visited the local eye doctor for the first time, and he promptly referred us to the specialist on the other side of the mountains. Awesome. First available appointment with her? October 31. As it turns out, our insurance referral didn't come in by then, and we rescheduled to December 31. Don't you love insurance companies?

-Stayed for the first time with a stranger. I began leaving Caleigh with the fantastic Ms. M at the YMCA Child Watch so I could work out. At first she mostly just slept in her car seat the entire time I was gone. These days, she loves to snuggle with Ms. M and play with all the neato toys she doesn't have at home.

-I ran my first race since delivering Peanut. It was a 5K in Eugene and while I huffed and puffed my way through, I made it. Now I'm eyeing the Corvallis half-marathon in April.

-Visited a super cute little pumpkin patch to pick out Caleigh's first pumpkin. She slept most of the time, but Daddy and I took plenty of commemorative photos anyway.

-Celebrated Peanut's three-month birthday with some news about Daddy that changed our plans. This may or may not be a contributing factor to my blog sabbatical.

-First Halloween! Caleigh went as Peanut Butter and her very best friend Millie went as Strawberry Jelly. They were too cute. There was also glitter. Everywhere. There still is.

NOVEMBER HIGHLIGHTS:
-Began rolling over front to back! Go baby girl go!

-Plenty of road trips to and from Corvallis so Jeff and I could attend OSU Football games. She's a great road tripper!

-Thanksgiving trip to Vegas to visit Mimi and Grandpa, and meet Uncle Neil, Auntie Julie, Uncle Brad, Auntie Steph and cousin Easton! He loved hanging out with her, once he decided he'd call her Caleigh and not "that girl." We also met up with our good friends from Sheppard who currently live in Phoenix-what a treat!

-Trip to Vegas meant baby's first plane ride! The trip down was a little rough, probably due to the late timing of our flight. She did great on the way home though!

DECEMBER HIGHLIGHTS:
-More rolling over! She's practicing and getting better!

-She's started to show interest in grown-up food, particularly when we're out eating. She fusses unless she can sit in someone's lap and really be part of the meal. You can probably imagine how fun this is for Jeff and I.

-A visit to Corvallis for Christmas. Caleigh got to see her Auntie Bethany for the first time since she was born, and everyone got plenty of baby snuggles. She also got lots of neat new toys to play with!

-Finally visited the pediatric ophthalmologist on the other side of the mountains. She pretty much told  us the baby has poor eye sight, but not so poor that anything needs to be done about it just yet. She'd like to see Caleigh again when she's 11 months old.

JANUARY HIGHLIGHTS:
-Happy New Year! Caleigh had an uneventful night while Jeff and I entertained his b-course class for NYE festivities. We all had a great time.

-First fever! Lots of rest and a little Tylenol and she was back to normal in no time.

-Daddy's 30th Birthday! We had a quiet celebration at home, and then visited Sunriver (it's a local little resort town - Google it, you won't regret it) for some relaxation with my parents. Jeff and my dad had the opportunity to ski, while the ladies hung out at home. There was no snow in Sunriver, but we still all had a great time.

-While in Sunriver we discovered...TEETH! The two middle teeth on the bottom have cut through and are now visible. And more than that, you can FEEL them. Sharp little buggers, they are.

-We also started Peanut on some solid (pureed) foods and so far, she enjoys them! She's still not quite sure what to do with her tongue, and if the feeder isn't using the spoon to hold her tongue down, she has quite a time keeping the food in her mouth. But she flails her arms and grunts until the colorful stick with goo on the end comes back towards her mouth. Can't wait until she really gets the hang of it.

-Visited the Lava Beds National Park for some "caving" and hiking. Jeff and I weren't super keen on the caving, except in the very well-lit one, but the hiking was beautiful. We're lucky to live in such an awe-inspiring part of the country.

-Six months old. It has been half a year since we met out beautiful daughter, and every single day has been beyond what we expected. Of course we've had our challenges, but Jeff and I are settling into parenthood well and are really starting to feel like we've got the hang of it, and we can handle whatever this tiny person cooks up for us. (Like the "code brown" we woke up to the other day - up her back to her armpits. Definitely a two-person job.)


So you're pretty much all caught up now. We watched the Super Bowl last night, and hope Caleigh is more enthused about her next one. Obviously the wrong team won, but it was definitely a good game.

So far this month, we've moved up a diaper size, and had our six-month check up with the pediatrician. She's still very perfect, and has maintained her height/weight track on her growth charts, maintaining her spot in the 70-75th percentiles. I cooked up a little chart with her stats for comparison:

I can't believe she's more than two feet tall, and fast-approaching 20 pounds. Every day I ask her to stop growing.

I don't think she's listening.

So that about wraps it up for now, I've probably gone on too long as it is. I've got another adventure cooked up for tomorrow, but you'll have to wait to hear about that another time.

Cheers!