Undeserving

My goodness! I am overcome right now with love and humility. God has blessed me so richly with a husband who strives daily to love me as Christ has loved the church and with a son who couldn't be any happier or sweeter. These boys fill my heart with so much love and joy! Thank you, Lord, for these precious gifts that I know I don't deserve. Please help me to treasure them and never take them for granted.

9 Months!

This post is late again, but happy 9 month birthday, sweet Caleb!

At your 9 month checkup, your stats were:
Height: 28.5in (50th percentile)
Weight: 19lbs 1oz (25th percentile)
Head Circumference: 45.5cm (50th percentile)

At this point, you're eating both Stages 2 and 3 foods. Vegetables seem to be your favorite right now, though you'll certainly eat fruits too. You're eating more and more table food. This month you tried oranges for the first time, and your reaction was similar to the one you had the first time you ate a lime. You made an adorable sour face but then seemed to love eating it. You weren't too crazy about pieces of bread or your Puffs at first but have grown to love them both. You've also enjoyed corn kernels, macaroni and cheese, Goldfish, bits of crackers and rice cakes, as well as many other things.

You're learning how to feed yourself, but sometimes it takes you using both hands to make sure the piece of food makes it into your mouth and in your lap.

When I'm feeding you, you love to play with things as you eat. It helps keep you eating, as opposed to looking and moving all around, so I have a stack of stuff that I hand you as you eat, including my cell phone, chapstick, thermometer, remote control and a Praise Baby DVD case.

You LOVE ice water, just like your mommy. You get so excited when you see a glass of it or when you get some in your sippy cup. I'm amazed at how well you drink out of a glass (with us holding it, of course), and you have even figured out how to drink out of our CamelBak thermoses (you have to bite down on the mouthpiece and suck at the same time). You're a little bit of an addict when we let you drink water from our cups.

You are now pulling up and cruising (walking while holding onto toys and furniture) really well, though you do have a lot more bruises from falling down.

I love how when you hear one of us come in the door, you get excited and start laughing and quickly crawling to the door to greet us.













You love to play, and your favorite toy this month has been an empty water bottle. You also like your stackable rings, and as always, everything that can go in your mouth does.

You talk so much and are good at imitating the sounds we make (deh deh, la la, etc.) You're also saying ma ma more, which I'm loving! You definitely seem to know who your "deh deh", "Daddy", "ma ma" and "Mommy" are, but I don't think you are meaning us when you say it.

You often will "get shy" with people. If I'm holding you and someone starts talking to you or making you smile, sometimes you'll turn away and bury your head in my shoulder, only to look back at that person with a big grin a few seconds later.

When you get around other animals you don't know, you'll start making this grunting sound. It's like you get excited and want to show us what you've discovered.

You have been so much more cuddly this month. You were cuddly when you were younger, but it seems like you were too busy being active the last couple of months. Now, when you're tired, you'll lay your head on my left shoulder facing away from me. You curl your right arm around my left arm and put your left arm down straight by your side. I love it! You've even fallen asleep like this a few times.

The day before your 9 month birthday, you tried standing up on your own in the bathtub. You often will stand, holding onto the side of the tub, but on that day, you stood up.

You truly are our little monkey! This month you climbed onto and sat on a case of water bottles and also onto the bottom shelf of a changing table at church. You've also attempted to get up on the dishwasher door, but thankfully, you haven't quite conquered that one yet.

You had your first airplane ride and trip to Texas this month, and you handled it all like a champ. You ate well on takeoff and then slept for most of the flights.

We love you, little Caleb. You are such a joy and are constantly bringing a smile to our faces. You truly are a happy, happy boy. You're always on the go, and I love how little it takes to entertain you. Thank you for making it so easy to love and care for you, and thank you for being our son!

8 Months!

Oh my goodness, little boy! This past month was such a big one for you! Just a couple days after you turned 7 months, you started crawling. I can’t believe how quickly you got the hang of it. Sometimes you would also get up in a bear crawl stance.

This month you also learned to pull up. It was quite a surprise when I peaked in your bedroom during nap time and saw you standing for the first time. We are now at the lowest setting for your crib mattress.

You certainly have a tendency to go for the few things in the room that you’re not supposed to have. You’re pretty amused by doorstops, and your latest fascination is a silver ring that’s on your daddy’s work bag.

Your favorite toys these days are your jumperoo and your Learning Table. I’m so thankful you still enjoy your jumperoo because you spend some good time in it in the mornings while your daddy and I get everything ready for the day. You LOVE your table and still laugh and squeal constantly while playing with it. You don’t have as much interest in the smaller toys right now because you seem to want to be more active.

You learned to say bah bah and later muh muh by putting your upper lip down over your lower lip. You can also say la la la now, which resulted from you sticking your tongue out to feel your teeth. You say it with your tongue sticking way out and a huge grin on your face. I can’t even begin to list all the noises you make now, but my favorite is when you squeal out of delight.

You now have your bottom two teeth, which came in within 5 days of one another. Thankfully, you haven’t really seem phased by teething.

This month, you tried squash, bananas, guacamole, limes (which you love), mashed potatoes (which you didn’t care for), apples, pears, peaches and prunes.

It’s so fun to watch you interact with your friends at church. You and your buddy, Rivers, seem to really enjoy playing together in the nursery.

We took a trip to Cincinnati and your grandma also came to visit this month.

This month was a whirlwind, filled with lots and lots of milestones. We love you so much, little one, and we're so thankful for the joy you bring to our lives!

Number Two

Probably not what you're thinking, but Caleb's second tooth broke through today. It's his lower right one. Two teeth in less than a week!

For the last couple of days, Caleb has constantly had his tongue sticking out. He seems to like to feel his new teeth with his tongue.

You're growing up too fast, little one! Slow down!! :)

More Videos

These videos are mostly for family, so don't feel compelled to watch them. To enlarge them, click on the four arrows that are in the bottom right corner, to the left of the word "vimeo".

This video was taken on 4-9-10, just a few days after Caleb started crawling. He had just turned 7 months at this point. By the way, I had taken off his pants to make it easier for him to crawl but hadn't gotten to his socks yet. :)

Caleb Learns to Crawl from Kelli Bishop on Vimeo.

This video was taken on 4-21-10 and is just a glimpse into the life of our 7.5 month old. Lots of smiles, talking, crawling and trying to put EVERYTHING in his mouth.

Caleb Plays and Talks from Kelli Bishop on Vimeo.

A Big Day

Caleb had one today. This morning while playing in his jumperoo, he said, "mah mah". Oh, what a sweet, sweet sound to my ears! I'm sure he doesn't know yet that that's me, but I love it! "Deh deh" is still his favorite thing to say, but I'm loving this new sound.

After I fed Caleb at lunch, he kept pulling at my hand and putting it in his mouth. This is nothing new, but I felt something unusual this time. For a brief second, I thought he had gotten something in his mouth. As I stuck my finger back in there, I discovered his first tooth emerging--the bottom left one. I seriously almost cried. We've had so many milestones in the last couple of weeks that I'm on a bit of an overload. Crawling, pulling up to standing, new phrases and now a tooth to top it all off! It's so sweet, though. By the way, I can't remember now who gave us the teething rings, but thank you!! Caleb hasn't been fussy or anything, but he sure loves them, especially when they're chilled.














Just a sidenote, I'm not sure if Caleb is picking this up from Wally, but he kept trying to crawl around with the teething ring in his mouth (like Wally does with his toys). Too cute.

This afternoon, Caleb got to play with his new table for the first time. One of my coworkers generously passed down a Leap Frog Learning Table that her children were through with. I wish I'd had the video camera going when he first started playing with it because he LOVED it. He just kept laughing and squealing. So precious!



Thank you, Lord, for such a special day!

Scratch That

In my last post, I said Caleb wasn't really crawling yet. I guess maybe being on all fours and pulling himself forward with his arms counts as an early form of crawling. Well, it doesn't matter because he's crawling for real now. My goodness--our little boy is growing up too fast!!!

7 Months!

Precious Caleb! You’re growing up too fast, little one! This month was one of lots of milestones for you.

At this point, you grab for EVERYTHING. It doesn’t matter what it is, if you can see it, you’re going for it and trying to put it in your mouth. You’re sitting so well now and finally rolled over from your back to your tummy. You kept getting so close but couldn't figure out how to get the shoulder that had been underneath you rotated back around. I realized we just needed the right motivating factor--my cell phone. Sure enough, as soon as I laid that out, you rolled completely over like it was no big deal.

At the beginning of this month, you started scooting backward. This was a new thing for me too because you no longer stay where I put you. You love getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth. You rock so hard that sometimes I wonder if you’re going to end up doing a face plant into the ground. You’ve now learned how to pull yourself forward when on all fours. Though not quite crawling, within the last week or so, you have gotten to a point where you can get around pretty well.

These days, you always have your tongue out and are often blowing bubbles. You’re so content, especially in the morning, and will often entertain yourself for quite awhile.

It’s getting harder to keep you in Bible study with us because you are constantly squealing with delight. You’re talking more and often let out these long sighs. Since around 4.5 months, you will sometimes make the “Mmm” or “Muh” sound when crying, but it's not all the time. This month, though, you said, “Deh” by mimicking me and then, “Deh deh” later that same day. Now thats all you say is, “Deh deh deh...”

You wear mostly 6 month clothes but are still in some 3-6 months. I’m ready to move you up to a Size 3 diaper, but we’re still working on finishing off all the 2s first.

Your day typically consists of 4 feedings and 3 1.5-2 hour naps. Your naps are usually around 9:30am, 1:30pm and 5:30pm, but we typically end up skipping your last nap on nights we have church or Bible study. The first feeding of the day is around 7:30 or 8, and the last feeding at night is around 7:30 or 8, depending on my work schedule.

For a few months now, you have loved when I sing you “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”. It almost always gets you to stop fussing.

You still don’t have any teeth, but you sure continue to drool like crazy.

You love your crawl ball, your blue octopus, your Monchichi, rattle ball, our cell phones and the remote control. All of these inevitably end up in your mouth.

Sweet boy, you absolutely LOVE your baths and and have learned to splash the water EVERYWHERE. You rarely want to lay back in your tub, instead, you like to sit up or lean all the way forward.

You got sick twice this month but only for a couple days each time. It’s mostly my fault, though, because I can't seem to get over my own sickness and end up giving it back to you.

This month you started solids. You tried sweet potatoes, then peas, then carrots, then green beans and have loved them all. I pray this continues and that you're not a picky eater as you get older. You love eating and will often moan a little bit if we’re not feeding you quickly enough.

One thing you do that makes me laugh is when you want something (even if it's just wanting us to pick you up), you hold your arms out in front of you and rotate your wrists around, so that your hands are going in constant circles. You also will sometimes drop your lower jaw down (and sometimes to the right a bit) and will open and close your mouth repeatedly, almost like you're chewing something. It’s pretty cute.

We love you, little boy, and we're so honored that God has chosen us to be your parents!

The Sweetest Sound...

I can remember hearing was Caleb today saying, "Deh Deh." Precious! Up until today he hasn't copied our sounds much, and this is so much fun. I'm unfortunately sick in bed right now, and all I hear on our baby monitor is our sweet boy in his crib saying, "Deh Deh." (Caleb is just now getting to bed because we were out late tonight.) I'll try and get a video of it soon. Praise the Lord for that sweet little voice!

Videos

These are a couple of videos that I'm posting mostly for family. I haven't posted any videos since Caleb was born, so some of them are pretty old. I can't believe how little Caleb was in these videos!

**You can make each video larger by clicking on the four arrows that are in the bottom right corner, to the left of the word "vimeo".

This video was taken after church on January 3 (Caleb's 4 month birthday). I think it's the first video we have of Caleb laughing.

Caleb Laughing from Kelli Bishop on Vimeo.

This video was taken the day after Christmas and was the third time Caleb rolled over from his tummy to his back. He was about 3.5 months old at the time.

Caleb Rolls Over from Kelli Bishop on Vimeo.

This video was taken right after we got home from the hospital. Caleb was 2 days old and was about to meet Wally for the first time.

Wally Meets Caleb from Kelli Bishop on Vimeo.

This video was taken 32 minutes after Caleb was born. The comment about Hudson refers to one of our friend's baby, who was also born with quite a conehead. :)

Caleb's First Video from Kelli Bishop on Vimeo.

6 Months! (Continued)

Sweet Caleb, I can't believe you're 6 months old! This seems like a big milestone, and it's a little difficult to embrace the fact that you're growing up. I'm excited for each new thing you accomplish, but it's all happening too fast.

This month, you went on your first trip to the Smoky Mountains as a belated celebration of your daddy's birthday. (I'll post more about that trip later.)

At the beginning of this month, you started this "fake coughing" thing, which you seemed to think was pretty funny because you were always smiling as you did it, and would often laugh afterward.

When I feed you, you often grab at my face--at my chin, at my nose, but most commonly, you'll hang your hand from my lower teeth. This isn't done in an ugly manner, but appears to be how you like to show affection these days.

You laugh a lot, but sometimes it can be tough to tell if you're laughing or starting to get upset because you'll still be smiling.

For a little while, when we would go to kiss you on your mouth, you would grin, open your mouth and start shaking your head back and forth. I think this started because one day I was quickly kissing back and forth between your right and left cheeks, and you kept moving your head back and forth to catch me.

You're getting more hair, and I really love your fuzzy little head. You don't have any teeth yet, though you still drool a lot and try to stick everything in your mouth.

You often clasp your hands together, with arms bent and move hands back and forth toward your mouth. You have also started to grab for everything.

Sometimes you'll grab my ears or cheeks and pull your face toward mine. I'm not sure if you're trying to initiate kisses, but I like to think so. :)

These days you still love your jumperoo and Bumbo. However, your Bumbo is getting less use because you're now sitting on your own.

Your sitting skills have improved a lot this month. At first you could only sit if you had one or both hands on the ground too. Then, you would sit on your own for a bit, but then start to tip either forward or sideways. Now you sit pretty well and seem to have better posture while doing it than we do. You'll still tip over some, especially if you're trying to get a toy that's out of reach.

You caught your second cold this month--poor little guy. You had a runny nose, watery eyes, and a sad cough, but thankfully no fever. I hate it when you're sick because you look so pitiful, but you're a trooper and still seem pretty happy.

You love to stand, and at this rate, I think you might be pulling up on your own before you decide to roll from you back to your tummy. You seem close to pushing up in a crawling position. (This was all true as of your 6 month birthday.)

At your 6 month checkup today, which was about 1.5 weeks late, you were 16lbs 6oz and 27.25 inches long, putting you in the 25-50th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height. My little boy isn't quite so little anymore! You did very well on your developmental testing, and we were given the go-ahead to start you on solid foods, which we're excited about. It will be so fun to see your reaction to so many new things. We love you little Caleb, and we're so proud to call you our son!

Precious!

Middle School Prank

Some of Ryan's students recently decided to fork our yard. This sounds like a typical middle school prank, however, there was one key difference: one of the girl's parents called and asked Ryan for permission ahead of time. You see, the girls were supposed to think they were pulling a prank on their teacher, however, the parents were actually pulling a prank on the girls. One of the girl's dads has a good friend who's a police man and he agreed to pretend to arrest the dad as the girls were forking our yard.

We were told what time they would be coming by, so we watched the girls through the blinds in our front room. They were pretty cute thinking they were being all sneaky. They rang the doorbell and ran, so Ryan walked out, looked around and acted confused. He then came back inside.

The girls then rang the doorbell again but waited at the door. Ryan ran around from the backyard and scared them. During all of this, the police man came, arrested the dad and drove away for a few minutes. The girls were all worried, but the police man came back with the dad, announcing that it was a joke.

It was fun seeing the girls, and the best part was that they picked up all of the forks before leaving. :)

6 Months!

Six months ago, we were holding you in our arms for the first time. You had been in this world for 46 minutes, and already you had stolen our hearts, humbled us, allowed us to better appreciate our Father's love for us and filled us with inexplicable joy. And now, 6 months later, the same is still true.

Caleb, you are such a joy to us, and I'm so very thankful that we can celebrate you today. It's crazy to me that you have been here for half a year now--the time has really flown by!

It was difficult coordinating Ryan's, my and our pediatrician's schedules so we could all be present for Caleb's 6 month checkup, so the appointment isn't until the end of next week. I'm holding off on writing Caleb's actual 6 month post until we have this month's statistics, but for now, here's a picture of our little boy. In case you can't see it, he's wearing his Manchester United (Ryan's favorite soccer team) sleeper, which was a Christmas present from his daddy.

We love you, sweet Caleb!!

Creativity and Deliberate Parenting

Over the years I have been amazed by these traits which I have seen displayed in one of my friends through her blog posts. I hope that when we're to the training and teaching stage with Caleb that I will be able to implement some of my friend's ideas. Check out her website here for great ideas on lessons for teaching children, not to mention yummy recipes and creative gift ideas. Thank you, sweet friend, for giving me a desire to grow in these areas.

It's Time to Weigh In

Ever since Caleb was born, people have had very strong opinions about who he looks like. Some definitely think it's me, and some definitely think it's Ryan. We've known from the beginning that Caleb's coloring as a baby is like what mine was (blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin), but I haven't been able to figure out beyond coloring who he looks like. Well, I finally got around to uploading Ryan and my old baby pictures. The first set of pictures is each of us in the hospital. The next set is what I'm guessing is 2-3 months later for each of us, and then the next set is I'm guessing a few months after that. In each set of pictures, Ryan's on the top left, I'm on the top right, and Caleb is below in the middle.

Please comment below on who you think Caleb looks like. Feel free to mention a specific feature if you notice a resemblance. After looking at these pictures, I think I finally have an opinion, but I'm curious to see what everyone else thinks.

Adoption

It has been such an incredible blessing to watch the Lord's provision in helping some of our dear friends bring home orphaned children.

Our friends, the Philpots, explained their decision to adopt so well, and I wanted to share a short excerpt from one of their first blog posts.

"We’ve been especially encouraged by some of the theological implications of adoption. You see, both of us were adopted. We weren’t orphans, at least not in the way most people think of that word. But, as C.J. Mahaney says, we were in a condition far more serious: we were strangers to the family of God, slaves to sin, and objects of the justified wrath of God. But in His grace, God convicted our hearts to turn from sin and trust in Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross in our place. And because of our faith in Christ, we’ve been adopted into a new family. God the righteous Judge became our merciful Father. He has given us a new identity in Christ. And our family will have the privilege of being a visual picture of God’s adopting work in the life of everyone who trusts in Christ.""

I have been humbled as we've watched so many children go from being orphans to being welcomed home by loving fathers and mothers. We rejoice with the Greens, the Clarks, the Hunters, the Hutchesons and the Philpots who have either brought children home within the last year or are bringing them home in the next couple weeks. We rejoice with you as you hold your long-awaited children. Thank you for modeling the Gospel so well!

Excellent Photographer!

My sister-in-law, Jill, is one. She's great with kids and took the picture of Caleb that now serves as our blog header. She recently started a new photography website, and you can check it out here. We're so excited for you, Jill!

Our New Tripod

Our little man started sitting on his own yesterday. Not completely vertical, but he's getting there.

Last Night...

we came home from Bible study to this:



We've had quite a bit of snow over the last few weeks (around a foot or maybe a little more), and there hasn't been much of an opportunity for it to melt. The first thing we noticed were the words written on our driveway, "We love the Odyssey." (Ryan is teaching through The Odyssey with his 7th and 8th grade Writing and Literature students.) Then we saw DSCS written in our yard, which is the school Ryan teaches at. Ryan's students who did this also wrote their initials in the snow. It took us a few minutes to realize that they also shoveled our entire driveway and sidewalks. So sweet! I can't imagine how long it took those two sweet girls, but we're very thankful for their service to us.

Poor Wally has had to run out in snow almost up to his stomach every day to go potty. I'm amazed, too, at how big the icicles get that hang from our gutters. Ryan keeps knocking them down with a baseball bat, but there are always more the next day. Here are a couple of other recent snow pictures: