Caleb continues to learn lots of things. It's really amazing to see how he picks up on all these little things that we do, remembers them, and emulates them. He clearly understands everything we're saying now and reacts accordingly. here's some things Caleb has learned:
- Caleb's talking a lot more now too. the list of words Caleb knows and says grows everyday.
- English words Caleb knows & can say clearly: mama, dada, mommy, daddy, bye bye, hi, banana (although he often just says "nana"), dog, bird, bubbles, on, ball, baby, and boy (he says "baby boy" and points to himself :) )
- English words Caleb knows & can say....sorta: please (he says "pleaaa" or "plaaa"), thank you (he says "dak you" and "da you"), tree (he says "zzzreeee"), dumbo (he says "duba"), elmo (he says "ahmo" or "ahma"), car (he says "daaar" or "vrooom"), book (he says "bak"), up (as in pick me up...he says "uh"), off (he says "auh"), bus (he says "buuuh")
- Chinese words caleb knows & can say: poa poa (grandma), nai nai (grandma), bao bao (carry me), ju zi (tangerine), fei ji (airplane), che che (car) and...hmm, there's more, but I'll have to ask my mom. :)
Yeah, I'm probably missing a whole mess of words, but you get the idea :) - English words Caleb knows & can say clearly: mama, dada, mommy, daddy, bye bye, hi, banana (although he often just says "nana"), dog, bird, bubbles, on, ball, baby, and boy (he says "baby boy" and points to himself :) )
- Caleb also nods now. He's been good with shaking his head for a while, but i never quite got him to nod...until I bribed him with Grandma's yams (his favorite). The more he wants something, the more exaggerated his nod is. here's an example of something he really wants (the aforementioned yams :) )
- Caleb fake snores. We're not sure where he learned this from since Gabe and i don't snore (really! although i admit to talking in my sleep :) ). Grandma thinks she may have done it once when fooling around with him. I kinda bet it's her, because he does this when he hears "shui4 jiao4" (sleep in Chinese). he does this everytime he hears someone say "suai jiao," but tends not to do it when i'm filming him. but here's a video of it (although the sleeping part is really near the middle/end of the video. the beginning half is just of caleb making a ruchus)
- Caleb knows his animals (in English and Chinese)! He recognizes all the animals in his animal puzzle (dog, cat, horse, cow, rooster, sheep, duck, pig) and a few others like bird, lion, etc. He can also answer "what kind of nose does a cat make?" (he says "maaawww" which I guess is also like "cat" in Chinese), and "what kind of nose does a cow make?" He makes a pretty good attempt at dog, but most of the other animals he says "da da!"
- Caleb knows some of his colors (orange, purple, blue, red, green) and some shapes (circle, star, triangle, square). he'll sometimes call other polygons "stars" and other rectangles "squares" but that's pretty good, I think. :) He's also excellent with the shape sorter.
- Caleb knows his "A" "B" "C" and "D." He knows which letter is which (if I say, which one is "A," he'll point to whatever says A, etc). He also kind of says the letter names (he says "ahh" "buh" "deee" and "deee"). No, that's not a typo. He can't really say "C" so he says "D." If you listen carefully, he does say "C" slightly different from "D," but it still sounds much more like "D" than "C" :)
- Caleb knows to put his shoes away after a walk. He'll walk over from the front door, pick up his shoes, walk over to the shoe rack, and place his shoes in his special spot on the 2nd shelf of the shoe rack. Once he's done (he likes to make sure his shoes are nicely aligned), he turns to whoever is watching and claps. If you don't clap or if you happen to miss it, he'll pick up his shoes again, put it in, turn and clap again. Hey, the boy likes encouragement. :) (I have an example on video...needs to be uploaded. coming soon :) )
- Caleb knows all his body parts now. He'll point out his head, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, teeth, neck, hands, feet, toes, fingers, tummy, chest, and (sorta) his butt (he bounces on his butt if you ask him to point it out). This video of him pointing out some of his body parts is two and a half months old...but it's hard to get him to just sit and show everything (he usually wants to run around and play or take my camera instead), so I gave up and don't have a more recent one.
- Caleb gives real kisses now! And he even makes a kiss noise when blowing a kiss or giving a real kiss. It's such a relief that he no longer just presses wet lips against your cheek :)
Other Caleb tidbits and random stories...
- About a month ago, Caleb was (as usual) running around the house as Gabe and I got ready for work. He picked up my sock and was running around, singing his Caleb song and blabbering away. Suddenly, I realized there was no more Caleb singing and blabbering...so I wondered and said "Caleb?" Then I heard him from the bathroom say "mama!" So I went to the bathroom to find Caleb repeatedly dipping the tip of my sock into the toilet. Yuck. By the way, Caleb can open the bathroom door now, that's bad news for us :) Good thing that's the only thing he's dipped into the toilet...so far.
- Caleb now dances with his arms and his feet! (If you forgot, he used to only dance with his arms :) ) This is pretty new and like with most fun things Caleb does, he doesn't like to do it when the camera is on him.
- Caleb seems to have a kind and nurturing side to him :) I've suffered from headaches quite a bit recently and he'll always come to where I am, jently brush my hair away from my cheek (if I'm lying down or something), and give me a kiss on the cheak and a gentle patt on the head. It's just the right thing to make me feel better :)
- During the week, after work (before dinner), we usually take Caleb for a short walk around our neighborhood. About a month ago, however, he suffered his first big fall outside!
Somehow this sad video became unexpectedly popular. I admit, it's kinda cute and funny, but so sad to see Caleb do a face plant into the bush. Someone even gave this video 5 stars whereas videos of him like this one happily walking/running like normal gets 4 stars.
What is this world coming to? :P - Caleb also had his first game of wii!
Eventually he'll learn that being closer to the TV doesn't really help you play better.
- By the way, aparently, this is how Caleb feels about UCLA.
Haha. just kidding. He did show support for UCLA during the NCAA playoffs though.
- Since I'm mentioning UCLA, I might as well share some pics of my favorite little BEAR (not bruin, sorry :) ) from Santana Row (if you look carefully, you cna see the scratches on his face from his big fall)
He makes the chess pieces look so big.
Several random people wanted to take photos of Caleb. He was fine with it as long as they didn't try to hold him :) One of the ladies tried to and he was so scared that he ran away crying while holding a chess piece. It was very difficult for him since he's so little and the chess piece is so big.
We met up with Daddy for dinner after work.
And some other typical Caleb things that he's sorta always done:
- Caleb loves to play, but doesn't like to sleep (even if he's tired). So as usual, he tries very hard to amuse us so we don't put him to bed. He tries smiling, talking, laughing, singing, and fake snoring. It's so hard not to laugh. I usually never film it because I don't want to encourage it, but I decided to put him to bed early once and film it, just to capture his daily routine.
- Caleb loves books. Clearly he got that from his daddy and not his mommy. :) He often sits and "reads" out loud, pointing to the words and pictures on the page. It's impossible to capture this on video, and this isn't his best one (he usually makes a lot more noise, does a lot more pointing, and laughs at his book), but it's one of the few where he didn't just stop and stare :)
- I've never mentioned this, but Caleb is a tough cookie. Whenever he falls (unless it's really bad), he usually gets up and rubs the part that hurts and then continues to play. If he wants sympathy, he'll walk over to you, pat your leg, and rub the area that hurts (like his head). Once you rub it, he smiles and/or laughs and contineus to play. I love it :)
- Caleb also still LOVES his belly! Every time we give him a bath or change his clothes, as soon as he sees that belly, he laughs!
If only we were all so happy about our bellies :)
In other news...Caleb got a passport! it totally didn't occur to me that babies would need passports, but it makes sense. Yay! a trip to Greece is much more fun with Caleb (although it also requires much more luggage and arm strength :) ).
...wow, if you really read all that, you deserve a hug and kiss from Caleb...
