18ish month update

As usual, I'm bad at blogging, so there's tons of updates. I'll just mention a few that come to mind :)

Milestones:

• Caleb is talking more and more! He now recognizes and says most of the basic colors. He also added "O" to the list of letters he knows. His favorite letters are "A" and "O" by far. He LOVES to show off that he can recognize these letters. So if he sees one somewhere, he'll point to the sign/shirt/object/label and say "mama...A! dada...A! mama...A! dada...A!!" likewise with "O."
  
• Yesterday Caleb learned to put his finger over his mouth and say "shhhhh!" So if you tell him "Caleb, be quiet" he'll go "shhhhh." You can try it next time :)
  
• More hand motions - He knows the hand motions to the wheels on the bus, teddy bear teddy bear, and some others. i forget now. He finds "the wheels on the bus" and "dian chong chong" funny, so sometimes we him to smile for pictures by singing those. (it also works if you say "Caleb say 'Cheese!'" And if you say "Caleb, smile!" you get a very fake, toothy smile. it's cute though :) ).
  
• Caleb's new thing is that he LOVES keys. He says "thees, thees" (for "keys, keys") and tries to stick them in the door keyholes. He gets really excited whenever he sees any keys!
  

Excursions:

• Most recently, we went to Greece! Pictures are posted here: http://picasaweb.google.com/sandratang/GreeceMay2008
  
  Here's a random sample:
  
  Caleb was super good on the flight. He loves smiling at and playing peekaboo with the other passengers (he says "ba boo"). He also loved the animals in Greece! You'll find lots of pics of him playing with puppies and kittens. He also found the donkeys really funny (although he insisted that they were horses). There's also some pics of him and a Greek girl who really liked him (she progressed from hand holding to tummy rubbing, to tickling.)
  
  
• We had 2 weekdays off before we left for Greece, so we took Caleb to Monterey Aquiarium and Happy Hallows (park and zoo in San Jose).
  
  • Pictures from Monterey Aquarium are posted here: http://picasaweb.google.com/sandratang/MontereyAquarium5192008
    I also love this video of Caleb getting scared by a shark.
    
    And I thought it was really cute that the penguins liked Caleb. They were pretty far back from the glass, but came to the glass where caleb was and kept swimming into the glass like they were trying to get to him. :) Very cute. I have quite a few pics of it ;)
    
  • Pictures from Happy Hallows are posted here: http://picasaweb.google.com/sandratang/HappyHallows5202008
    
  
  
• And we also went to LA earlier in May. Pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/sandratang/LAMay2008
  
  It was definitely nice visiting family. The other baby in here is Caleb's cousin Cori :)
  

Other Tidbits

• Also before we left, there was a heat wave in the bay area. Caleb sported his first wife beater.
  
  I think he was pretty happy with it because he had easy access to his belly :).
  

Caleb also had fun playing with uncle Jonathan as he visited and with Uncle Raymond & Auntie Sandra, Auntie Gina & Uncle Eric, his GrX buddies, and his family. :)



See pics from Caleb's 17 month old here: http://picasaweb.google.com/sandratang/Caleb17MonthsOld

Random Caleb Stories

• Caleb's new thing is that he likes to "go to work" like mama and dada. He tries to put on our shoes, takes gabe's laptop bag (because gabe's rolls ;) ), takes our keys and/or cell phone, goes to the garage door and says "bye bye, bye bye." It's totally cute. I have a picture of him doing it, so I'll need to upload it sometime :)
  
  OK, I was going to blog more, but this meeting is over and I better get back to work. To be continued (I hope, no promises :) )