Baby Caleb Tyler Tang

3.5 Years old...

2010-08-02T14:02:00.001-07:00

It's been super long since i updated last...

Well, Caleb is now a big brother! He's really just SO wonderful and loving towards his baby brother. Baby Micah is 4 months now, and Caleb has shown no signs of jealousy and is just constantly showering his little brother with his attention and many hugs and kisses. :)

Here's some of my fav pics of the brothers:

Caleb loves to try to get Micah to eat his teething rings :) He also often goes to "hang out with Micah" when Micah is on his playmat, etc.

Caleb loves to ring to Micah. Other favorites are singing songs, dancing, and putting on puppet shows for Micah

Caleb always says how he will take really good care of Micah

Some random Caleb stories that I just want to document somewhere...

12/2009: On the way to take Caleb to daycare, was listening to a rock radio station. But apparently wasn't edifying enough for caleb who said "mommy, change the music station to positive, encouraging Caleb" (yes, he thinks K-love is named after him ;) )
2/2010: We often take walks together in our neighborhood. As always, Caleb stopped to pick me flowers. I said "Thanks Caleb, you're always so sweet to mommy. That makes me happy." He replied "If it makes you happy mommy, I'd pick all the flowers in the whole world for you." :)
2/2010: every morning when Caleb wakes, I join him in bed and hang out with him a little bit before he gets up. One morning, Caleb put both hands on my face, looked me deep in the eyes and said "mommy, i love you. i'm always going to take care of you. when i'm a grown up, i'm going to take you on the bus." (which to caleb is probably just about the coolest thing ever. which is pretty amazing since he only rode the bus once in bermuda and once in new york)
2/2010: For a few weeks, Caleb started only been giving gabe hugs and not kisses because he said "kisses are for ladies, you're not a lady, daddy." then he runs to give me a kiss.
2/2010: Caleb often says "HI! mommy you say 'hi'" and when I say "Hi" he repeats me and says "HEY! we have the same voice!"
3/2010: Every night (for a few months), caleb prays the same prayer. "dear God, please make sure that mommy is ok and help her to watch where she's going and be careful. amen." Since then, he started praying for others...see below :)
3/2010: My mom heard caleb peeing in the bathroom without the light on, so she went to see if he wanted some light. caleb noticed her in the bathroom doorway and exclaimed "hey! wai poa (grandma), this is NOT a show!"
4/2010: i was talking to caleb about how mommy and daddy's 7 year anniversary is coming up and had this conversation. caleb: but i'm only 3. me: yeah, we've been married much longer than you've even been alive. caleb: it's ok that you're old, mommy and daddy. yeah, that's ok to be old. i love you. -_-
4/2010: caleb said "if you and daddy want to go on a date night, I'll watch Micah. don't worry, i'll take gooooood care of him." if only i could take him up on his offer without getting reported to child services.
7/2010:As usual, Caleb, Micah, Gabe & I were all hanging out on Caleb's bed at bedtime. WE were playing around and started tickling/zebbeting Caleb. He was laughing and laughing and then yelled "I'm TOO Loved! There's TOO much love!!!"
7/2010: We were at dinner when Caleb noticed a duck hunt style video game. he grabbed both guns and started to do a little dance while shaking the guns around. he named what was on the screen ("shoot the tanks" "shoot the people" "shoot the animals") then it displayed a wall of beer bottles and caleb exclaimed "Shoot the juices!"
8/2010: we were talking about an 80's theme party we went to & i said "most of the girls weren't dressed up." caleb looked up and asked "they were naked?!"

Other highlights include:
Caleb horse back riding:

Joining a sports class & swimming lessons:

and of course, just enjoying family life!

Big Brother

2009-11-07T16:56:00.001-08:00

Caleb's going to be a big Brother! Caleb has been super excited and absolutely wonderful to his mommy and baby brother. Here's some stories we've been waiting to share:

Every night: Caleb sings every night to mommy's belly and often talks to baby.
8/2009: Caleb spills the beans
Caleb was one of the first people we told that we were expecting. We (foolishly) thought we'd be able to keep it a secret a bit longer from the rest of the world, but Caleb was just too excited!
At school the next day, when he gave me my daily hug and kiss goodbye, he also said "i want to give baby a kiss" and hugged and kissed my belly. Then he ran to his teachers and said "I gave baby a kiss!" They were a little confused and asked "What baby?" Caleb replied, "the baby in mommy's tummy!"
A few weeks later, one of our friends gave Caleb a present. Immediately he turned around and put it to my belly and said "baby do you like it? I'll share it with you when you come out!"
9/2009: Caleb & Katherine
Several kids in Caleb's daycare are also going to have siblings. This is one conversation Caleb had with his friend Katherine:
Caleb: I'm going to be a big brother!
Katherine: I'm going to be a big brother too!
Caleb: No you're not. You're going to be a big sister.
Katherine: Awww, but I want to be a big brother just like you, Caleb.
Caleb: Well...there's nothing I can do about that.
(they continued eating, Caleb was eating a lot of cherry tomatos)
Caleb: I'm going to feed my baby tomatoes.
Katherine (who doesn't like tomatoes): well, I'm not going to feed my baby tomatoes. Not everyone likes tomatoes.
Caleb: I think my baby will like tomatoes a lot.
9/2009: G&E's Wedding
While getting ready for Gina & Eric's wedding, Mommy was trying to squeeze her pregnant belly into a fitted bridesmaid dress. Caleb came in, reached for my belly and said very excitedly "Baby's getting bigger!!!" I replied "great, just what mommy wants to hear before going out in a fitted dress ;) " Caleb responded, "Mommy, you're always beautiful!" That's my sweet talking son ;)
10/2009: Pumpkin Patch
While at the pumpkin patch, Caleb found one of those oddly-shaped gourds that kind of look like a watering pot. He took it and pretended to water my belly. "What are you doing?" I asked. Caleb replied "I'm watering baby so that baby will grow and come out!"
10/2009: Caleb discovers flattery
Caleb's Auntie Linda was very kind to lend Mommy some maternity clothes. One of the shirts is pink with white splotches. It's not usually the pattern of clothes that mommy would wear, but I wore it one day with a coat over it. Later that day at dinner time, I removed the coat. Caleb was sitting at the dinner table and saw me in the pink shirt and his eyes widened and he said "WOW. Mommy, you look so beautiful!" I had never seen him have such a reaction, and I asked "Is it the shirt?" He replied "Yeah, that shirt....it's so beautiful on you!" I said thank you and gave him a kiss.
The next day, I wore something much more normal for me, and he said the same thing "WOW, mommy you look so beautiful." I thought that was rather fishy, but still i said thank you. The next day, I got him from his bed wearing my robe and he said the same thing. "Caleb! are you just saying that or do you really mean it?" I asked. Caleb just snickered. :)

More to come...I forget all the stories, but there have been lots of good ones :)

6+ Months of Caleb updates

2009-07-24T10:38:00.001-07:00

It's been a long time. There are many things I wanted to document, but didn't get around to, and now I've forgotten a lot of funny stuff :( But here's some snippets from the past 6 months of Caleb's life:

Some funny stores:

7/2009

Caleb & I were at the market when he headbutted me. I said "Ouch Caleb! That hurts!" He replied, "Mommy, you used good words. I'm sorry." Look what he learns from daycare :)
Caleb said "Mommy, we say 'Jesus loves the children of the world.' But what is world?" I explained it to him and he said "Does Jesus love the grown ups too?" I said he loves everyone in the world. Caleb thought a little and said "Mommy, are there people who aren't in the world?"
One of his friends at school bit Caleb. My mom asked him "What finger did Navye bite?" Caleb proceeded to stick each finger in his mouth and bit it lightly. After biting 4 fingers lightly, he bit his index finger on his right hand and said "this one!"

6/2009

Caleb taught his friends at school to say "Peace out, homey." (he learned that, and "Go let the dogs out" and other goodies from his Auntie Ally. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLm8tg1t_PI)
One day as I was changing his diaper, Caleb said "Mommy, I'm thankful for you." and I said "Awww, Caleb, I'm SO thankful for you!" Caleb paused and said "what doest thankful mean?" I explained the definition to him, and Caleb replied "Yeah I'm thankful for you mommy."
I took Caleb to this huge McDonalds playground that we always pass but never went in. He was a bit young for it, but made it up and down. Everytime we pass, he said "Oh, the Old McDonald playground! When I'm older, I'm going to go there!"
My mom said "Caleb, say 'Wai poa is smart, Caleb is silly.'" Caleb laughed and replied "'Wai poa is silly. Caleb is smart.'"

5/2009

I cut 9 inches off my hair. When Caleb saw me he said "where did the rest of your hair go?" I said "oh, I got a haircut, sweetie." And he replied "Mommy, put it back!"
While in Bermuda, we went to The Lobster Pot & Boat House Bar. As part of Caleb's kid's meal, he got this great looking ice cream sunday. We never let him eat such things, but we figured that we were on vacation so he should get spoiled :) When the server put it down in front of him, Caleb took the wafer off the top to eat it. Gabe tried to show him how he can put some ice cream on the wafer to eat together, but Caleb scraped the ice cream off and ate the wafer. He then grabbed his spoon. We assumed he was going to eat some, but instead he took a big spoonfull and fed it to daddy. Then he fed me. We couldn't convince him to even try a bite, he only wanted to feed his ice cream to mommy and daddy. We, of course, appreciated that! It was yummy!

4/2009

We went to visit Uncle Raymond for his Birthday and brought over a cake. I don't usually let Caleb eat sweets, so cakes and things are a rare treat. Auntie Sandra asked him "Caleb, do you like cake?" and Caleb replied "Yeah, I like it... A LOT!... for a long time!" (I guess he just wanted to think of something even stronger than saying "I like it a lot")

3/2009

A while back, one of his daycare friends became a big brother. We had a parent's night where the family brought the newborn (who cried a lot!). Caleb said "look, it's will's baby brother." I said "Yeah that's right. Do you want a baby brother or sister?" Caleb said "no! no! please no..." So I replied "Why not?" Caleb said (covering his ears) "Babies cry loud!" A few months later, Caleb played with a ~11 month old babyfrom another classroom. Later that day when I was driving him home he said "I played with Baby Sophia today. Baby Sophia is very nice........yeah I want a baby brother or sister, Mommy!"

2/2009

After doing something supercute, I told caleb "Oh sweetie, you're so cute." and he replied "No, I'm handsome"
While I was changing his diaper, Caleb said "Kiss feet!" and I said "You want me to kiss your feet?" He replied "Yes please!" After I kissed his feet, he said "Kiss hands!" putting his hands to my face. After I kissed his hands, he said "Kiss forehead!" after I kissed his forehead he said "Kiss Mouth!" and I said "Caleb, we don't kiss on the mouth." He replied "Only married people kiss on the mouth. Mommy and daddyare married, but Caleb is not married!"
Usually after his nap, I would ask Caleb if he had any dreams. For about a month, every day he would say "Yeah! I had a dream about wai poa...wearing a hat!"

1/2009

A new girl started in Caleb's class. She had a hard time adjusting and would cry a lot. One day, Caleb sat next to her with a big block (that he pretended was a guitar) and went to sign her songs in attempt to cheer her up. She kept crying and crying, so finally he said "Angela - Don't sorry, be happy!" When the teachers told me about this, I said "where did you learn to say 'Don't worry, be happy?'" He replied "from a fish!" I thought hew as just being silly so didn't think anything of it. Later I was retelling the story to Gabe and Caleb said "Yeah, from the fish at Wai Gong and Wai Poa's house!" (this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1ug0vJyT_4)
Caleb often speaks of president obama. He'll often grab my phone and say "I want to call President Obama. President Obama is busy, can I leave a message for him?" He also says "Uncle Raymond is always busy, just like President Obama!"

12/2009

Caleb never wants to nap, he's much rather play. Usually when I say it's nap time, he gets very gigglie and super playful in hopes that I will play with him instead of putting him to bed. One day he thought he'd see if flattery worked. So I said "Caleb it's nap time." and he said "i love you mama! mama is so pretty!" And I said "OK Caleb, no more talking, it's time for bed." Caleb replied "OK Mama. I love mama. mama is wonderful." I replied "Caleb, I'm going to leave if you keep talking." He then said softly "Ok. Caleb sleep. Xiao Caleb Guai Guai....(then he sang the Chinese song my mom made up which means "little Caleb is a good boy...see here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0em6BGshDo0 :)" He also often puckers and says "but I want to kiss mama!"
I told Caleb "that's because Mommy's a cool cat. Are you a cool cat?" and Caleb said "No, I'm C-dawg."

12/2009

We took Caleb to the place where we got married. Caleb said "Mommy and Daddy are married. But Caleb's not married." I asked him if he wanted to get married and he said "no! no!" and whined. I said "why not?" and he replied "I like living with Mommy and Daddy!" I made him do this again (much) later so i can capture it :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOAMXoQOZ4g
Caleb caught me snacking on some apple jacks. He said "what are you eating, mommy?" I didn't answer, but I showed him my bowl. He said "oh, cheerios. Can I have a cheerio please?" So I let him take one and his eyes widened in delight and he said "WOW, that's a GOOD cheerio!"

Caleb's new favorites:

Band: Coldplay. He loves coldplay. He can't stand Atlantis Morisette. He'll yell "change the station!" if any of her songs ever come up.
Songs: Viva la vida, By your side (by Tenth Avenue North). Anytime he hears any part of any of these songs, he says either "I like this song!" or "this is a good song!"
New Hobbies: Playing with scissors. He can sit there cutting slits into a page for hours! Also we recently got him a new trampoline to help him work on his jumping. He can get really high now!
Vacations: Bermuda in May, Kauai in January.

Caleb's highlights in Bermuda (based on the order of what he enjoyed most first) were riding the trolley, riding the bus, playing at the beach, going to the zoo and aquarium, going to the caves (he often says the limestone formations looked like bunny ears), seeing the fish and turtles on the glass bottom boat, riding on the "other" boat.

Caleb's Kauai highlights are seeing whales, dolphins, and seals on the "bumpy boat" (which he did not enjoy), playing with pizza dough, sittingin the hammock, seeing the waterfalls, seeing spouting horn, playing at the beach, looking at the fish in the lava pools, and he did not really enjoy the many hikes where he was stuck in the backpack carrier :)

We also went to LA many times, as usual. During Christmas we made it down to San Diego to go to the zoo and to the Palm Springs Arial Tramway for Caleb's first snow experience!

Some video highlights (see here for all videos: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=babytang&view=videos):

Caleb's Train dance:
Caleb's singing feet (right foot is low voice, left foot is high voice)
Caleb's puppet shows
Singing
Rockstar

Some picture highlights:

Pics!

2009-01-16T14:07:00.001-08:00

I'm SO terrible at updating. We've been busy! But, I did manage to put up some new pics of our recent adventures. So in lieu of updates, here's some pics!

Kauai: http://picasaweb.google.com/calebtylertang/KauaiJan2009
Christmas (LA, SD, Palm Springs): http://picasaweb.google.com/calebtylertang/Christmas2008LA

Happy 2nd bday Caleb!

2008-12-04T15:11:00.000-08:00

Lots happened since my last entry. The biggest thing is that Caleb turned 2!!

We celebrated with 3 birthday parties (1 in Nor Cal, 1 in LA, and 1 at daycare). It's always wonderful to be able to hang out with so many buddies. Some random tidbits from his bday:

At the Nor Cal bday party (celebrated on his actual bday - Nov 22), Caleb had his first taste of cake! Usually we don't let him eat junk food and sweets. Caleb's Auntie Sandra made him a special cake (fluffy Chinese cake with very little sugar) so we let him have some. He took one bite, opened his eyes wide, looked at me and said "gooooood." haha.

As always, Caleb is quite a "lady's boy." At school, he's always hugging, kissing, holding hands, and touching girl's cheeks. At his bday party, the only other relatively-younger girl there was Cady, the daughter of my high school buddy. I was talking to some guests and notied he was sharing a tender moment with Cady under the table, holding hands and touching cheecks.

Caleb also made sure to wear his Cal jersey since his birthday was on the big game day. He also said "Go bears" several times throughout the party. And...whooo-hoo! the Bears won.

Caleb always wanted cupcakes. He has a book about cupcakes, but since we never gave him cake or things like that, he's never had cupcakes. But since his 2nd bday introduced him to cake anyway, we had cupcakes (really they were cranberry orange bread in cupcake holders) for his bday at school. He was so excited! His friends at school also made him a gift (hand painted with their little hands)

And Caleb was able to blow out his own candle! I expected him to need help, but I wanted him to be able to try on his own for a few times. But it turns out that Caleb can blow it out all by himself! The photo on the left is actually the first candle he blew out (at daycare). You can see the smoke from the candle, but he blew it out so quickly that we didnt' get a good shot of it. ;)

So Happy Birthday Caleb! We're so proud of you and SO blessed to have you in our life. We're so touched every day by your joy and your sweetness. Words can't express how much we love you. :)

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T11:30:00.000-07:00

Caleb was a baby bummble bee this year. Costume sent to him by his great auntie Cynthia.

More Halloween pics can be found in his Halloween Picasa album.

When we first got the halloween costume mailed, Caleb didn't want to wear it, but he did want to practice his buzzing :)

to get ready for when he's all dressed up at the harvest festival:)

I'll also upload pics from Googleween soon :)

Weekend to LA

2008-10-23T14:54:00.000-07:00

We made a quick somewhat spontaneous (hence driving instead of flying) trip to LA last weekend to visit family. It was great to see everyone! Here's some random pics from this weekend. Or see all the pics on his picasa page :)

Car Ride:

YAY! COWS!
As usual, Caleb was really great with the drive. He LOVED seeing the cows. He kept saying "Cow! Moo! More Cows! YAY! (clap) More cows! YAY! (clap)." He did this for a really long time and I was sad that I had the camera in the trunk :P After some time, I realized I should just use our phone to take a video since it was so funny. I caught the end of the cow area...but need to d/l it from Gabe's phone. :) Will post later.
Stuck in Mama car
It was really funny. After some time of sitting in the car seat and singing songs and pointing out "Mama Cars" and "Dada Cars," Caleb paused and said "Baby stuck in Mama car." It was totally funny. He wasn't complaining really, more just saying that he realized that he was stuck in Mama's car.

Caleb's favorite "LA" things

Coo Coo Clock
It's funny, Caleb has a great memory and always recognizes places and remembers people even if he hasn't seen them in a few months. One of Caleb's favorite things in my parent's house is the coo coo clock (which Gabe and I actually got them from Switzerland 5+ years ago from our honeymoon). So every time we pull up to the house he says "Wai Poa! (Grandma) Wai Gong! (Grandpa) Coo Coo! Coo Coo!" Even when he looks at pictures in my parent's house, he'll point off the picture to where the coo coo clock would be and says "coo coo!"
Apples
Caleb LOVES to pick apples. He loved it in our first house and he loves it at my parents house. He'll look outside and say "Apple! Apple!" Actually, this is semi-unrelated, but Caleb knows how to spell apple now! Here's a quick video

It's funny, he learned this from a Chinese book about fish :P Many of the pages showed a picture of an Apple can that said "Apple" and had a picture of Apple. Since Caleb knows his letters, he'd often say "A-P-P-L-E...Apple!" and thus learned how to spell Apple from a Chinese book about fish :)

Kumquats
Along the same lines, Caleb loves to pick and eat the kumquats...even though they're so sour! Here's a recent picture and an older video :)

The purple chair
My parents have this purple plastic chair. You'd think it's not a very exciting thing - especially when Caleb has lots of really cool toys there - but he loves it! He thinks it's so funny. Here's some pics from last weekend and a video from last time we were in LA.

Harmonica
My dad has always loved to play the harmonica. And now there's someone who loves his playing :) Yi Poa (Great Auntie Cynthia) also got him his very own harmonica this time. He loves it! Caleb's been playing nonstop! He actually has been playing the harmonica with one hand or no hands so that he can still read and play with other toys :) And oh boy...we heard a lot of harmonica playing on the way up from LA! He calls it "haaa-mo-ka"

Snacks!
We usually hide from Caleb when we eat snacks...but in LA...boy oh boy. People spoil Caleb! My parents always have tons of snacks on the table. And whenever we're there, there's tons of people tending to Caleb. So he gets spoiled and gets lots of snacks :) Here's Caleb with a little can of nuts. :)

Go Bears!

2008-10-14T16:16:00.001-07:00

Every time Caleb wears his UCLA hat (shown below), which was given to him by Auntie Kimmy for Christmas last year, Gabe says "We GOTTA get him a Cal hat!"

Unfortunately, we haven't been back to Berkeley in a really long time. But we went to the east bay last weekend to celebrate Helen & Will's wedding (CONGRATS! :) ). Before the wedding, we popped in for a quick visit to Ned's and made a few very quick picture stops before rushing back to the car to get to the reception. Caleb got to sport his Cal football jersey (a gift from Auntie Gina and Uncle Eric). Here's some pics from our quick photo trip around Cal:

Waiting for daddy to pay for his new hat

Running around Sproul

Walking through Sather Gate (they're dong something to the middle portion :( )

At the campanile

And he kept shouting "GO BEARS!" :) Good boy. I gotta take a new video since he's much better at this now, but if you haven't seen it already, here's the old one.

Jesus loves me...and other updates.

2008-10-06T15:48:00.000-07:00

The other day, Caleb was "praying" and it sounded like he said "Jesus Loves." So I replied "Jesus Love me..." and Caleb replied "I know!" I was shocked. We have sung "Jesus loves me" to him in the past, but very rarely. But, it turns out that Caleb is actually pretty good with the lyrics...with a little help :)

Other updates:

First Dance
Oh! Last week, Caleb had his first dance with a girl! The daycare teachers have pics, but I don't have them yet. But it was SO cute. They started playing music and the kids started dancing. Caleb LOVES to dance at home, but was shy about dancing at school. He was such a typical "shy guy" too. He put his hands in his pockets and slightly bobbed his head to the beat. haha! But Alex (Alexandra...the girl who always hugs and kisses Caleb and calls him "Cay-Cay") came over and grabbed his hands and started dancing with him! She was SO happy. Caleb was ok with it :) Hopefully I can post a picture later.

Shoreline
In other updates, we enjoyed our first weekend in a while where we didn't attend a wedding! (Back to another wedding next weekend though :) ) So we ran some errands, spent some time with friends, and went to the park. :) We took Caleb to shoreline park again...we took him once before when my mom was here a couple months ago. But as soon as we pulled up to the park, Caleb remembered. He started saying "Throw rock" (since last time he enjoyed throwing rocks into the water) and was very excited to see the water and rocks again!

He also enjoyed the sunset :)

But we definitely missed Wai Poa this time! Here's a few pics from when we went last time (during the day) when Wai Poa was here!

First Craft
Also, Caleb made his first Sunday School arts & crafts! It's a series of little plates with verses from Genesis.

I made him pose in his crib with it since it's taller than him. But now this is like a new game for him. He always wants to stand in his crib and play with his craft!

He's quite proud of it :)

"Go in Mama Car"
Now that Caleb is much more expressive, one thing he says all the time is "Go in Mama car." Caleb LOVES to play in my car. It's like his favorite playground. He loves to pretend to drive

He loves to climb and jump from the front seat to back seat, back seat to front seat, etc.

He loves to climb into his car seat and try to buckle himself in (he climbs into his high chair and buckles himself in now too!)

He's really happy when he actually straps himself in successfully. :)

Go Bears
One more video just for fun....Despite his UCLA hat from Auntie Kimmy, Caleb shows that he's a bear at heart :) Especially with his new Cal Jersey from Auntie Gina!

Caleb's Jokes

2008-10-01T14:47:00.000-07:00

Caleb has been talking more and more...but every now and then he starte blabbering words that don't make any sense, then he cracks up! He does this for like 10-20 minute straight. It's pretty random, and amusing :) Here's a video of this, although by this time, I've already had him call a few people on the phone :P

Caleb's also been getting really into BIG hugs. We alwyas do "family hugs" where the 3 of us squeeze each other. Kind of like this...but not facing the camera :)

So now, Caleb will put his arms up and say "HUG!" Then during the hug, he says "squeeze" and then makes a noise like he's trying to squeeze really hard (or like he's trying to lift something heavy) and we get a nice little squeeze :) It's awesome!

Spiritual Baby :)

2008-09-25T11:10:00.000-07:00

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned how Caleb LOVES to read the bible. In fact, he often goes hunting for his bible and exclaims "Bible! Bible!" Well, Caleb also loves to pray!

AMEN! :)

In other updates, Caleb is learning SO many things! He says SO many words now and basically understands everything. The biggest advancement is that I can now have some real conversations with him! It's really nice to be able to chat about our days. For example, yesterday I asked him what he did at school. He said "Play Amber, Jessica Sand. Alex hugs. Play water." He also has a pretty good memory. My dad played him 3 songs on the harmonica while chatting on the webcam. Later that evening Caleb was pretending to play the harmonica. I asked him what songs Wai Gong played for him and he said (in the correct order too!) "Star" (doing the twinkle twinkle motion), "Baa Baa" (as in Baa baa black sheep), and "Itsy Bitsy" (doing the itsy bitsy spider motions). It's SO much fun! It's also nice because he says things like "mama, hug please!" putting his arms out (he does this also with "kiss!"). It's just so much fun! :)

Surprise Discoveries (counting & animals!)

2008-09-18T14:16:00.000-07:00

Over the past week, we've stumbled upon some nice discoveries of things that Caleb can do.

Counting

A couple days ago, I discovered that Caleb can count from 1 to 10! Caleb has been able to read the numbers for a couple of months now, but we never really explicitly taught him how to count. But we were reading a book that had a lot of cats, and I asked him "How many cats are there?" and he pointed to each different cat, counting "One, two, three...." Gabe and I were shocked and pleased with this discovery. :) I think he was pretty pleased that we were pleased and so now he'll count from 1-10 if you ask him to. Here's a video of him doing so:

I added some subtitles in case you can't tell what numbers he's saying. Some of his numbers aren't that clear. He also sometimes gets stuck on "Seven," but he's gotten a lot better. (He used to say: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6....5, and then look confused. haha)

Animal Impressions

Caleb was looking through his Curious George book (Which he calls his "Monkey Book") and in it he saw a picture of a penguin. He pointed at it and said "mmmmm" (which is what he says when he wants me to tell him what it is). So I said "that's a penguin." Caleb then stood up and started trying to act like a penguin! We never ever taught him that, but when he walks around in his sleepsack, we usually say something like "you look like a little penguin!" so I guess he remembered that. Since Gabe was working late that day, I started to film it to show Gabe. When he stopped doing his penguin impression, I asked him to do a chicken impression (not sure what he'd do). Turns out, he does a pretty good Chicken impression. Later I found out that he'll also do a duck impression. For cats and dogs, he just makes the noise, he doens't really act like them, although he has crawled around barking/meeowing. :) Here's some videos I took that first day of his impressions:

(that one was when I first disovered his Chicken. Below is another video I shot shortly afterwards)

Bye Bye Home!

I also realize that I forgot to mention that we sold our place last month and so Caleb moved out of his first home. Here's some pics of our last minutes at the house (Caleb picked some more appples from our backyard before we left)

As we pulled away for the last time, Caleb waved and said "bye bye home." Since then, he actually does this a lot. For example, when we drive and he sees a "mama car" (prius), he'll say "bye bye mama car" as we leave. When he poops a bubble at Gymboree, he says "bye bye bubble." When he eats a blueberry (his new fav) he says "bye bye blue baby" (which is what he calls blueberries :P)

Anyway, hopefully we'll find a new better home soon! In the mean time, we're staying with Caleb's Nai Nai and Yie Yie (Grandma and Grandpa Tang).

Camera

One thing mama had to say bye bye to is her trusty Camera. It broke :( So there will be a bit of a hiatus in Caleb pics and videos. I've been eyeing a new canon that they don't seem to have in stores (at least the ones I've looked at recently) so I'll probably have to order it. In the meantime, I have uploaded some new pics at Caleb's picasa site and some new Caleb videos on youtube.

2008-09-10T14:50:00.000-07:00

Some things I forgot to mention in my last update:

"Mama car" & "Dada car"
Caleb is really good at recognizing what belongs to me and what belongs to Gabe. For example, he'll see my keys and say "mama keys," find Gabe's keys and say "dada keys" (which is pretty good considering we have most of the same keys ;) ). He does this with many items, our laptops, our laptop bags, out toiletries, our clothes, and our cars. Caleb especially LOVES to spot "mama cars" (Silver Prius). Many many googlers drive prius' because Google gave a $5K rebate for their employees who purchased fuel efficient vehicles. So it's really funny because he comes to Google or every morning when I drive him into the Google daycare parking lot, he perks up and points to each car and exclaims "mama car!" I love it :)
Oh yeah, he also likes to play with the mama car:

"Mama hair" & "Dada hair"
Along the same lines, Caleb recognizes my hair. Last month, Caleb found a long hair of mine on the floor and picked it up. The following conversation happened:
Caleb: (holding a strand of my hair up) Mama hair!
Gabe: Yeah! That's right. That's a mama hair. Where's Caleb's hair?
Caleb smiled, touched his hair
Caleb: (pointing to the hair on top of his head) Baby Hair!
(Caleb calls himself baby mots of the time unless we ask him specifically "what's your name?"...to which he replies "Ca-Luh!").
Gabe: That's right! Caleb's hair. Where's daddy's hair?"
Caleb smiled and picked up Gabe's pant leg and pointed at his leg hair. Hahaha. :)
Doing house chores
My mom is super mom (and now super Grandma). She not only takes care of Caleb, but always (despite my and Gabe's protests) cleans the house, cooks, and even makes friends with my neighbors. However one side affect of this is that Caleb now has a big interest in cooking and cleaning. He LOVES to wipe counters and floors, pretend to vacuum (and he also likes to pus the real vacuum), pretend to cook (and he often really insists on mixing whatever I'm cooking on the stove, etc). Here's some videos of Caleb "helping" with the house chores.
Reading the bible
Caleb received 2 children's bibles for Christmas last year (thanks Uncle Jonathan & Auntie Kimmy!). He's read though the whole Children's bible at least 3-4 times by now. I usually keep the bible a bit out of reach for him since the pages are regular pages and I'm afraid he'll rip it and because it's so heavy. But Caleb LOVES his bibles. He'll often walk over to the table I have the bible on and yell "bible! bible!" (now that he's quite the climber, he just climbs to get it himself, so I no longer keep it out of reach ;) ). He'll sit there and read story after story and point at the pictures, speaking words he recognizes like "circle," "sun," "moon," "ma" (Chinese for horse), "apple," etc. Here's a video of him reading his bible.
Pretending to talk on the phone Caleb loves to pretend he's on the phone. He'll take anything - our cell phones, a calculator, his hand, even my hand ;) and pretend it's a phone. His favorite person to fake talk to on the phone is his Grandfather's, followed by his Grandmothers and teacher at Day care. He'll usually say something like "Hi Yie Yie, Hi Yie Yie!" or "Hi Wai Gong! Hi Wai Gong!" followed by a bunch of words that only Caleb can understand.

Other random tidbits:

Spicy!
Last weekend, Caleb took his parents to LA to celebrate the wedding of mama's high school (and college!) buddies Allison & Delwin. The reception was a Chinese style banquet. Caleb had already finished his dinner by the time the first dish came out. I was busy chatting with some old high school friends and Gabe served me some food. Caleb saw the jellyfish on my plate and was very excited. He started to take jellyfish off my plate and ate TONS of it. I watched him as he gobbled down lots of jellyfish, but figured it was ok. After a while, Caleb started getting whiny. He's usually very well mannered, so we were a little surprised. I thought he was just sick of sitting there for so long. He looked like he was trying to take something off his tongue. I was worried that he was allergic to the jellyfish so Gabe and I took him out of the banquet room. While outside, Caleb saw the escalator (one of his all time favorite things). He quickly forgot about whatever was bothering him and was excited to go up and down the escalator. After a while of that, we went back inside and he started to cry (very un-Caleb like!). I brought his milk out and we gave him some milk while on the escalator and he calmed down. Then he was ok. I figured he was just being fussy so I "lectured" him the way we do during his "bedtime chat" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sWI5jeZPoQ. By that time, he was his usual well-behaved self again. Then I started to eat the food on my plate and found out the Jellyfish was SPICY! (to be fair, Gabe said he didn't even notice the spiciness, but to me...whooo-eee! that's spicy!). I felt SO bad that I lectured Caleb when really his mouth was probably just on fire! But I'm also impressed that my little boy can take as much spiciness as he did! Here's some pics of him eating his spicy jellyfish.

Other new Caleb videos uploaded to Caleb's youtube page and more photos uploaded to his 21 month old picasa album.

20th month update

2008-08-28T06:54:00.000-07:00

I'm in the hotel, trying not to wake up my roommate right now :) This is also the first time Caleb has not seen me for more than half a day. I'm in Tahoe for 3 days for a team off-site. :( I miss him. :'( Since it's too early to call him, I'll write about him.

Anyway, here's some random pics from Caleb's 20th month:

Random updates:

Caleb knows ALL his uppercase letters now!
Caleb knows numbers 1-10 now! (he's got a new thing for playing with a deck of cards while he eats breakfast. In one breakfast, Daddy taught him the numbers 1-10! He also knows J, Q, K, A from before, but he'll say Queen and King)
Caleb's been learning more and more colors. He learned the basic ones a while back from his curious george book (that he calls "monkey book"...or as he says it, "mmm-n-key bu-k!"...thanks Andrew & Jen!) but he's learning a few others now too.
Caleb's Grandpa, Uncle Victor & Auntie Karena came to visit last weekend before Uncle Victor's surgery. Here's some pics.

One of Caleb's new favorite things is taking LOTS AND LOTS of photos of himself! Every time I turn on my camera, I have tons of new Caleb photos taken by Caleb himself! They all look something like this. (the first one is his first every photo of himself)

And the big one...Caleb started his first day at day care earlier this week (8/25)! He got into Google daycare after sitting on the waitlist for a long time. Yay! Such great facilities and teachers. Here's a pic from Caleb's first day.

Finally updated Caleb's website

2008-07-30T10:44:00.000-07:00

It's been a loooong time (I know, because the page I just replaced said "Caleb is now 7 months old!") since I updated Caleb's website. I figured since it's been well over a year since I updated it last, it'd be a good time update the site to contain more general terms (like "Caleb is a toddler!") and to put up a new poll that's been suggested by several people before, "What is your favorite Caleb Video?". The poll is also on the right column of Caleb's website.

I put up some videos that the suggesters mentioned, but if I left out your favorite, let me know.

GW also suggested that, as a follow up to my previous post about Caleb's "Girlfriends," I create a poll so that you all can tell me who Caleb's GF should be :) So, here is is! Sorry you have to click the link, embedding is making this page buggy :)

Climbing

2008-07-24T10:36:00.000-07:00

Boy, this is my 3rd blogpost in 3 days. YAY!

Anyway, one thing I forgot to mention in my 19 month update is that Caleb has become quite the climber! He's always loved to climb things and he'd manage to get to great heights somehow (he'd move his potty stool, pillows, books, boxes, chairs, etc) so that he can get on the bed or play with things that were out of his reach. He's actually becoming much more adept (much to our dismay) at climbing very difficult things - like his high chair! When he's standing on the ground, the foot rest of his high chair is about armpit level. So it's pretty amazing that he can climb it (I sure wouldn't be able to). So now he moves his high chair anywhere he wants to get to (usually it's the door locks) and then climbs the chair. Here's a video of it:

He also climbs the shelves in my mom's closet. For the past half year or so, my mom's closet has been one of his favorite places to play. He hides in there during hide and seek, he takes all her things out of the drawer, he takes things he finds from around the house and puts them in there (I once couldn't find some of my mail and found it in my mom's drawer months later because Caleb put it there!). Now his new favorite thing is to climb the wire wrack we have in her closet. It's very difficult to climb and when he gets up, he can't quite get down. So he stands at the top and yells "Wai Poa! Mama! Dada! Wai Poa!" until one of us comes to get him. Silly boy.

Caleb's "girlfriends"

2008-07-23T14:58:00.001-07:00

I've mentioned Caleb's "girlfriends" before in the past and have gotten lots of questions about them. :)

First of all, let me clarify that this is not something I started. :) My mom (very graciously) stays up in Nor Cal to take care of Caleb. Since she's come, she takes Caleb to the nearby park and library everyday. My outgoing mother quickly made friends with my neighbors as well. One of the neighbors has a little girl just a few months younger than Caleb named Sanjie (but they all call her by her nickname "Gua Gua" because she likes to eat squash). Gua Gua's mom started to call Caleb "Gua Gua's Boyfriend" and would tell Caleb he had to be nice to his "future mother-in-law" etc. When I would get home from work, my mom would tell me about what Caleb did during the day and she'd refer to Gua Gua as "Caleb's girlfriend." Later, a "second girlfriend" came along as another girl, Yvette, started joining the library crew. The mothers called both girls "Caleb's Girlfriend." Actually, they started fighting over which girl gets to be Caleb's "second wife" because they said the guys like the second wife better than the first wife (yes, very sketchy. But again, not my idea! I was at work during these conversations!)

So, anyway, here's some tidbits about Caleb's girlfriends:

Girlfriend #1
Sanjie (aka "Gua Gua")

Tidbits:

Caleb knows her name and recognizes her house. When he sees her or when he walks by her house, he points and shouts "Gua Gua!"
Caleb also *gasp* kissed her on the lips. (He kisses people on the check if you say "Caleb, give ___ a kiss." When we said to give Gua Gua a kiss, he kissed her on the lips!
Gua Gua cried instantly when she saw Caleb holding Yvette's (Girlfriend #2) hand.
Gua Gua lives just a few houses down the street, so they see each other most often

Girlfriend #2
Yvette

Tidbits:

Yvette was the first baby that Caleb held hands with.
Yvette was also the first "baby girl" that Caleb kissed on the lips. As they were leaving the library, my mom told Caleb to give Anita (Yvette's mom) a kiss. He kissed her on the lips. She then told Caleb to give Yvette a kiss. He then kissed her on the lips! :O Don't worry Caleb, I won't tell your real future girlfriend...unless she reads this blog. :P

Girlfriend #3 and Girlfriend #4
Abby & Minna

Abby:

Mina:

Tidbits:

These are the "older women" babies in Caleb's life. They're also buddies from the library. They just joined the others in being "Caleb's Girlfriends" since Caleb is the only boy baby :)

Caleb's "Just friends" Girl Buddies
These are Caleb's baby girl buddies. Since they're not library friends, they didn't join the "Caleb Girlfriends" bandwaggon. :P

The Greek Girl

She spoke nothing but Greek, so I don't know her name. But she wouldn't leave our table and kept wanting to touch Caleb and tickle him. She's definitly in the "older women" category!

Eleanora

This little cutie is definitely not shy, but Caleb's always been shy around her :( But they enjoyed a little forced fun at the coach's bbq a few months ago. :)

Taylor

She actually gave Caleb his first friendly (not on the lips. phew!) kiss back when he was 6 months old. At first he kept pushing her away, but he warmed up to her after a while :)

19 month update

2008-07-21T10:18:00.000-07:00

Caleb's getting very big now! He learns new things everyday. I can't really remember everything, but here's my attempt to jot down some things that happened in Caleb's 19th month.

Caleb says I love you!
He started this about 2 weeks ago or so. I was working on my laptop next to him as he played with his toys. He stopped, walked over, put his hand on my shoulder and said "I lolololove mama" (he says "lololololove" instead of "love" probably because I tell him "I love love love love love my Caleb!").

I was SO happy that I picked him up and ran to my mom and said "Caleb said 'I love mama!'"). He smiled at her and said "I lolololove Wai Poa!" Of course, my mom was thrilled too. :) We then took him to Daddy, who was still sleeping, and he said "I lolololove dada." Gabe slept through it, but I woke him and made Caleb say it again :)
Caleb says "Caleb"
Caleb's always called himself "baby." When he sees pictures of himself, he says "Baby." If you say, "where's Caleb?" he points to himself and says "baby." (Auntie Allison also taught him to point to himself and say "baby" if you ask him "who's the cutest baby in the world). But now, if you ask him "What's your name?" he says "Caleb" (it's really more like "K-luh" or "K-buh" depending on his mood. every now and then he gets a pretty good "Ca-leb" in there though).

Still, he reverts to "Ca-baby!" whenever he can. He knows the right answer (if you bribe him with something he wants, he'll always answer "Caleb," but if he's not being bribed, he may still answer "Ca...BABY!"
Caleb knows his numbers
This was actually a surprise discovery. He has the leapfrog leappad book (he loves this!) and one of the pages has the numbers 1-5 on it. As he was playing with it, I asked him to find number 1. He touched the number 1 with his leap pad pen. So I asked him #2, he did the same to #2, etc etc to number 5. Then I went out of order. I was pretty shocked that he knew this since I never taught him it (my mom says she didn't either). He doesn't know past 5 though :) Maybe he'll magically learn that sometime too. He also continues to learn more letters...
Shhhhhh!!
A while back, at least a few months ago, Caleb learned to put his finger over his lip and say "shhhhhh!" when you say "quiet." Since he'd then resume to be loud again after saying "shhh" i realized he didn't qutie get the meaning. But now, he totally does. A few days ago, Caleb woke up pretty early (6:45 ish?) and I was still really tired. When he wakes up, he usually stands in his crib and yells "mama!" So I went to get him and told him "Caleb, mama's still tired. I'll bring you into bed with dada and I, but you have to be quiet, ok?" He nodded and said "shhhhh!" So I put him in bed, he smiled at me and held my hand. I fell asleep pretty quickly and woke up about half an hour later to find my baby still laying there, playing with his hands in the air, and smiling.
Using his fork and spoon
Caleb's also now able to eat his whole meal with his own fork and spoon. Yay! Now mama and daddy don't have to take turns feeding him when we're out :) Of course, he makes quite a mess on his face though :P
Dancing and Singing
A lot of times, Caleb sings to himself and dances and does handmotions. Sometimes we can figure out what song he's doing, sometimes it's difficult since he doens't sing it quite right :) He's getting really good at "Row Row Row your boat" lately though. Although he sings it "row row row row row, row row row row row...row row row, row, row, row...etc" every now and then, he throws a "boat" in, but it's usually just "rows." I've been trying to capture this with my camera, but he gets too distracted (just like the "I lolololove mama"). Maybe sometime soon :)

Other than that, it's just a lot of playing, running around, laughing, etc. Oh, a few new Caleb Videos have been uploaded. http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=babytang

There's a lot of them, here's a few of my favs:

Caleb always says "uh oh" if he drops something, if his shoes fall off, if something is out of place, or if his pants are falling (like this) :)

Caleb playing Grandpa Shen's harmonica. (after which, Grandpa Shen said "it sounds funny...I think Caleb had a LOT of drool! haha)
Eating sour kumquats. For some reason, he likes to eat sour things, even though he doesn't like it :)
Bedtime silliness. Caleb always laughs for no good reason around bedtime because he doesn't want to go to bed. So whenever he has his PJ's on and his face lubed up with aquafor, he gets super gigglie. The video gets blurry half way through because he touches the lens with his aquafor hands!
Caleb fake laughing. We can always make Caleb laugh by laughing ourselves, even if it's at nothing :)

The little library thief

2008-06-30T14:08:00.000-07:00

Yet another overdue Caleb update...

Caleb is still a total sponge, absorbing everything he sees and copying. Here's one sponge-related tidbit:

Grandma Shen has been taking Caleb to the library several times a week (there's one walking distance from our house, across from a park where he plays almost every day). Aparently, he's observed my mom pick out books/videos and check them out using the electronic checkout stand. About a month ago, Caleb picked out a video (a Russian Video!) and pushed the library stool to the electronic checkout stand. Took my mom's keychain, climbed up the stool, and placed the correct library card key fob underneath the red library card bar code scanner. (Pretty impressive that he got it to scan too! Mommy has trouble with it sometimes :P). He then put the video underneath the scanner as well. He then got off the stool with his video and started to walk out! But since he didn't key in the pin number (the key pad is too high for him), it didn't actually get checked out and the alarms started to sound as Caleb tried ot make a break for it with the Russian video. My mom picked him up and the librarian came out to find the little guilty culprit. Since that first time, Caleb has attempted this same heist at least 2 other times as Grandma Shen looked on. :)

Since I'm usually the one taking the gazillion Caleb pics & videos, I don't have a picture of this :( But here's a random pic of Caleb playing at the library.

Hmmmm...much more to say, and many other stories, but for now I'll leave you with pictures!

Pics of Caleb from Birth through 18 months have been uploaded here: http://picasaweb.google.com/littlebabytang

Pics of Caleb from 18 months up can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/calebtylertang

Admittedly, I'm terrible at keeping blogs up to date. But I have been pretty good about keeping these pics up to date.

some quick highlights from his 18th month:
http://picasaweb.google.com/calebtylertang/Caleb18Months- eating with forks!
- hanging out with his "girlfriends" (yes, there's 4 total). He loves to share with them and *gasp* even holds Yvette's hand.
- Playing with Grandma & Grandpa Shen
- trying to "kick" in his kungfu outfit from china
- hanging out (and giving hugs) to his cousin Christopher
- and lots of fake smiles.

Happy Birthday Uncle Victor!

2008-06-06T09:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Bday uncle Victor! See you next month :)

18ish month update

2008-06-03T14:40:00.000-07:00

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 :) )

Greece

2008-05-31T22:37:00.000-07:00

Back from Greece! Caleb had his first trip outside the US (He's been to Hawaii, Vegas, and LA. I guess technically he's been to Canada too, but that was when he was still in the womb). He was SO good. I'll add more details later, lots of fun Caleb stories and he started doing all sorts of new and funny things :) For now, here's a link to some pics from our trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/sandratang/GreeceMay2008 Enjoy!

16 month update

2008-04-19T21:57:00.000-07:00

OK, like usual, it's been a while since I posted, so here's another compilation of randomness. Yep, it's a lot, but since I don't post often, I gotta let the momentum keep me typing. :P

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 :)
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...

Happy Birthday Uncle Raymond!

2008-04-15T22:36:00.001-07:00

I keep thinking about how I have a TON of Caleb updates & funny stories, but I think bed instead :( maybe sometime soon :) But I will say that Caleb is talking more and more and he clearly understands everything we're saying in English and in Chinese. And he's more fun than ever :) Anyway, the thing that *finally* got me signed back into blogger is that we wanted to wish uncle Raymond a very happy birthday!!! Here's sa pic of Uncle Raymond, Auntie Sandra (not to be confused with Mommy Sandra), and a 7 month-old Caleb.

Happy Birthday Auntie Allison!

2008-03-18T09:48:00.001-07:00

Yeah, this photo is really old (recent photo of Caleb & Auntie Allison at the bottom of yesterday's post), but it's one of my favorites!

Thanks for alwyas spoiling Caleb! He still recognizes you :)

15 month update

2008-03-16T15:24:00.001-07:00

OK, another blog bundle since I haven't updated in a while :)

Lets see, since I last posted, Caleb had his 15 month checkup. His head is now about average sized, instead of huge (90th percentile last time!). He's still relatively thin, even though he looks like a pudge-ball to me. :P Grandma Shen and Grandma Tang have been making him lots of delicious things to eat and has been working really hard to fatten him up. He's also about average height now and in good health, yay!

Caleb's 13th and 14th teeth are coming in now. I think he had his first 4 molars come in when I posted last time, but I forgot to mention it. He's actually been really good with teething. No fussiness or waking up excessively.

Caleb does lots of new things now. He really picks up on all the things we do and tries to imitate us. For example, I had a cold a few weeks ago and he would take a tissue and pretend to blow his nose just like me :) One of the new things Caleb loves to do now is DANCE! Here's a video of some of his moves:

There's also a shorter Caleb Dance video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA7HbByWGug

He also knows all his body parts now. I need to take a new video of this, this one's kind of old and before he knew everything as well :)

Caleb's also learning a lot of hand motions like Twinkle Twinkle little star (but you'll notice that, for some reason, he likes to point to his nose for "like a diamond in the sky." I can't seem to convince him that that's not right :P )

and other songs like With Jesus in the boat. Row Row Row your boat is still one of his favorites as well. Here's another video of him doing the Itsy Bitsy Spider: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnBCOSoyHpM This one's kind of new for him :)

Oh, another milestone change: Caleb now only takes 1 nap and doesn't have separate milk and solid feedings. It's really nice, we have so much more time to play! But even on one nap, Caleb would still much rather play than sleep. Every day, when my mom or I try to put him to nap, he smiles and laughs at us repeatedly to try to convince us to play with him instead of napping. Usually I try hard not to laugh so that he'll sleep, but I decided that I should film it at least once :) So here it is, Caleb's nap time giggles :) :

Enough videos. In other updates, my mom (Grandma Shen) and I also gave Caleb a hair cut. Here's Caleb right before we began:

Since Caleb is usually very active and interested in everything, I put on a Baby Einstein DVD for him to watch, which leaves him as you see above - completely mesmerized. We don't normally let him watch TV for this reason :) Anyway, I'm totally afraid of messing up Caleb's hair (and I realize I'm a terrible hair cutter), so I usually cut the absolute minimum to keep him looking like a little boy. But then my mom came and took over and cut much more (which by the way looked much better...except for a bald spot on the back. My little boy is ticklish and he winced while we were cutting! Oh well, it's growing out now :) ) Here's my mom taking over (and Caleb still engrossed in the Baby Einstein DVD):

Here's the after shot:

Since my mom's been back, Caleb's been walking to the library and park (very close to our house) everyday. He joins the other neighborhood kids for story time & playtime. Gabe and I join the park excursions on the weekends too. Caleb's new thing now is that he loves the slide. But the swings are still his favorite. Whenever he's on it and we ask "Caleb, do you want to get off? Caleb, do you want to go home?" He'll violently shake his head. haha. And when we are leaving, he'll keep pointing at the swings. He just can't get enough of them! Anyway, here's some pics of the walk to the park & playing in the park.

We also had quite a few visitors from LA, including:
Grandpa Shen

Great Auntie Cindy and Great Auntie Emily (my mom's sisters)

and Auntie Allison:

I also posted lots of new videos. Too many to call out, so if you'd like a large dose of Caleb videos, check them out here: http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=babytang

Rub the belly...love the belly

2008-02-19T10:40:00.000-08:00

Yay for presidents. I got to spend 3 days with Caleb :)

Anyway, random story from the weekend. Caleb will come and give you a kiss if you say "Caleb, give [person] a kiss" or if you say it in Chinese. But it was pretty funny because Gabe had the hickups yesterday and everytime he hickuped, Caleb would stop what he was doing, crawl over, and give Gabe a kiss. Hahaha. Silly.

Oh, lots of new videos uploaded. Some I've referred to in the past and just finally got around to updating. I forget if I blogged about this before. Anyway, whenever take off Caleb's clothes to get him ready for his bath, he'd kind of laugh at or stare at his bare belly while giving it a little rub or a pat. I guess he never really sees his little belly :) Here's a video of this:

Whenever he'd do that, Gabe and I would say "Rub the belly...love the belly...pat the belly" etc. Then after a few times of that, he started to associate the words with the action. I didn't notice this till later when I was telling my parents about how Caleb does this and he started to rub his belly. So this is just another one of the fun things Caleb does now

He also does the handmotions to twinkle twinkle little star, minus making a diamond with his hands. Video to come later :)

Caleb's also walking around a lot now. Here's an older video of him walking around between Gabe and I in his PJs.

HE's acutally a lot better now and walks around everywhere, but it's hard to film because usually he just wants to jump on me or play with the camera, but here's a short Caleb walk:

Oooh, shortly after Caleb turned 1, I started to let him feed himself with the spoon. He was pretty good and it was pretty funny too (I think I have an old video somewhere, I'll have to dig it up), but it was VERY messy. There would be food all over his face, his hair, his bib, his clothes, his fingers, his high chair, the floor, etc. So after a short time, I stopped doing this. Yesterday he grabbed the spoon and started feeding himself. So I let him try again with some dry food and he was actually pretty good!

After proving himself with the dry food, I let him feed himself some applesauce too and he was pretty good. When he dips the spoon in himself though, he either gets very little (which takes him forever to finish) or a whole heap (which usually falls on himself or on the tray or floor). Ah well, we're workin' on it :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T11:22:00.000-08:00

Here's some V-day fun. Thank you Auntie Allison for the cute Valentines day shirts (and jeans, and socks, and rain boots! :) )

(this shirt says "I enjoy ice cream, insightful cartoons & long walks in the playground" :) )

There were 2 innocent tulips that were completely destroyed in the taking of these pictures. Poor tulips.
It started out so innocently:

Then Caleb tore off the bottom of the stem:

Then he started removing petals as if to say "she loves me, she loves me not:"

Before long, the petals were all over the room. In this shot, I asked "Caleb, what happened to the flower?" and he threw his arms up like "I don't know mommy"

Sponge...

2008-02-13T10:17:00.000-08:00

Caleb's totally a little sponge now. He picks up all sorts of things from us. For example, my mom's been here about a week now. After changing his diaper, she'll put him in his crib and say (in Chinese) "Grandma is going to wash her hands" and she'd shake her hands. Well, now everytime we say "wash your hands" in English or Chinese, Caleb waves his hands in the exact manner my mom does.

He also learned this from Grandma & Grandpa Shen and his great Auties.

It's a Chinese rhyme that basically means "little bug...little bug flies!" and you're supposed to do with your hands what Caleb is doing in that video. He loves it so much that he does this all the time. He'll motion with his finger until you say the rhyme. When you actually say it, he'll smile or laugh.

One thing he loves even more than that is "Row Row Row your boat." If you're sitting down, he'll often walk/crawl over and sit right in front of you, grab your fingers, and start doing a rowing motion until you say "Row Row Row your boat..." (or do the Chinese rhyme that my parents do with this).

Another thing Caleb does now is he reads books and takes his index finger and goes along the words. He'll go left to right, then go down to the next line and so on and so forth. All the while "reading" out loud. Actually, I'm not sure where he learned this since we don't really do that when we read books to him, and he's definitely never seen any of us do that when reading. Hmmm...I wonder if he's been sneaking out to the library or something when I'm not looking.

Silly Caleb

2008-02-12T10:27:00.000-08:00

A little silliness for your Tuesday Morning

Things I'm trying to capture on video (Caleb does these frequently, but gets distracted by the camera :) )

Caleb singing and playing piano. He sings his favorite song, then pounds on the piano, then sings, then pounds...etc. it's funny :)
Caleb reading to himself. He LOVES books and sits there and makes a whole bunch of noise like he's reading aloud as he flips through the pages. He also points at things on the page and laughs. hahah

little boy...

2008-02-11T10:22:00.000-08:00

Gabe & I always used to watch Caleb on the video monitor as he slept. Usually I'd affectionately refer to him as "my little bean head" becuase his head was shaped like a little bean - one of the many "baby features" he had. A few months ago, we peeked in via the video monitor and noticed his head was less bean shaped. See, here's a pic from Saturday...less bean-like I think.

Anyhow, I think that's been the start of my little Caleb losing some of his baby features. Many people have commented on this lately...*sniff* little baby caleb is growing into a little boy. (His head still seems pretty large to me though :) )

Anyway, here's some other pics on our journey to the park (1 block from our house)

Caleb's Art

2008-02-09T11:47:00.000-08:00

When he was around 11 months, we discovered that Caleb loved to play with crayons (see the old post). After a while though, he seemed to want the eat the crayons more than he wanted to color, so the crayons went into the "forbidden toys" pile, only to be brought out for special occasions. But recently when Gabe was sick, we took them out again to make him a get well card. Since then, Caleb's rediscovered his inner artist, making lots of various pieces of "modern art," much like this one from last week:

The scanner doesn't do it justice, he's quite a little Picasso. :) He actually puts a lot of little dots of various colors. And because he hits the paper rather hard, the bits of crayon left behind add nice texture to his artwork :P haha.

Anyway, random Caleb story. Gabe usually likes to sleep in a bit more than Caleb & I, so to wake him up I usually put Caleb in bed with Gabe. Caleb will usually do something like grab Gabe's nose or start singing his "dada" song. But yesterday he actually crawled up to his sleeping daddy and said "dada" and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Then he lay his head on Gabe's chest. It was male bonding at it's finest :)

Another thing Caleb does all the time now is he likes to sit and read books out loud (well, at least his version of what the books say!). He'll sit and flip the book from cover to cover, blabbing the whole way. He'll even point to certain things on the page and laugh. My mom said he especially enjoys her people magazines. Oh boy. I hope he grows out of that one!

bilingual baby

2008-02-08T12:49:00.000-08:00

it's so nice having grandma & grandpa shen here. Since they came last weekend, Caleb's learned so much Chinese. :) Things he understands in Chinese now are "give [person] a kiss" (he'll walk over and give a WET kiss), "blow a kiss," "point to your ear," "point to your nose," "show me your teeth," "eat this," and others. Pretty soon he'll have better Chinese than his daddy :P Just kidding.

Also since Grandma and Grandpa Shen have been taking Caleb on a daily walk to the park, he's come to associate his brown hat (see this post from a few days ago) with going out. When he wants to go out, he'll bring my mom over to his brown hat, put on his brown hat, and then point to the door. Hahaha. Such a silly boy.

By the way, thanks Auntie Allison for the cute shirt :) Caleb got lots of V-day clothes from Auntie Ally, more to come on a V-day post. Here's a teaser. haha.

Happy Chinese New Year!

2008-02-07T07:38:00.000-08:00

It was especially hard getting him to keep this hat on! (even more so than his brown winter hat below :) )

Oh, here's a shot of his karate chop

Don't mess with my Caleb! :P

Yay!

2008-02-06T11:30:00.001-08:00

Yay for better weather and for Grandma and Grandpa Shen visiting again :)

That means more visits to the park with Caleb. He still loves the swings!

But it's sure hard to keep his hat on :)

It sure makes my day to see my baby laugh non-stop on the swings.

2008-01-29T14:11:00.000-08:00

Ah yes, I'm behind in blogging. Sorry Caleb :)

Anyway, there's been much excitement in the wonderful world of Caleb. It's just so wonderful to see him grow up and learn. Some of the things Caleb does now (some of this is kind of old...but I haven't updated in a while!)

"Smile!"
Caleb does a sort of fake smile when you say "Smile!" it's definitely not his best look :P but it's cute anyway!

"Show me your teeth!"
Caleb is getting tooth #7 and #8 and he loves to show them off when you say "Show me your teeth!"

Wave "Hi" and Say/Wave "Bye Bye" & Blow Kisses!
Caleb will wave to you if you wave to him and/or if you say "Say Hi!" or "Say bye bye!" Here's him doing "bye bye" (after someone just left the room)

That video's kind of old, he now also blows kisses when he waves. I guess i need a new video :)
"Point to the ____" (he knows Tree, Car, Light, and a few others)
He actually is starting to point to Gabe and I when we say "point to mama" and "point to daddy." But he's much better at pointing to trees and lights. :P
"Find (mama/dada)"
Caleb loves to play hide and seek. We did this first in the exersaucer a long time ago, but since he's been able to crawl and walk on his own, it opens whole new possibilities to get Caleb to crawl/walk/run around the house with a huge smile on his face. I do have a video of it that I've been meaning to upload, but I need to dig through my hundreds of videos to find it.
"All done!" and "Hands up!" and "Arms up!"
When you say "all done" and/or "hands/arms up"...Caleb does this!
"How much does (mama/dada) love you?"
We're working on this one. Right now he throws his hands up, but we'd love for him to streach them out really wide!
"Give me your foot!"
This is helpful when putting his socks, booties, and shoes on. He also puts his legs in his pants...if he's in the mood to :)

And some oldies but goodies:

"How old is Caleb"
I blogged about this one already. He learned it shortly after he turned one. It's still one of my favorites :)
"Who am I Caleb?"
This is the first replies he learned. He answers "mama" or "dada." Sometimes he gets tired of it and answers "mamamamamadadadada" haha.
"Sing!"
This is probably the second thing that Caleb figured to do in response. When you say "Caleb...Sing!" he sings his famous Caleb song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggOUmjadFaA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt_bsbFp4Vk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0lzpghtRtg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtIGnY8ryBI

Usually after taking a few videos of Caleb doing something, I stop uploading them...but Grandma and Grandpa Shen love his singing, so I was uploading these for a while. (But now, Caleb calls them and sings to them on the phone instead!)
"High-5!"
Another one he's done for a long time, but it's always encouraging to get a high-5 from a baby :)
"Where's Caleb?"
Again another thing he's done since he was 8 mos or so. He STILL loves this game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoCDZB4CXI4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aESZGoosEg
"If you're happy and you know it"
Caleb's been doing this since he learned to clap! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT6qplCzqbA
But well, he's always loved that song :)

Ah yes, there's probably more, but I can't remember now. Anyway, some fun things since I last posted:

We went to Christmas in the Park! Caleb loved seeing the lights and various displays. He was very wide-eyed, pointing everywhere (especially at those fake snow machines!)

There actually is a big tree behind them, but the lights blink and we happened to get them when they were off :) but you can see the floating star behind the camouflaged tree.

Caleb's now getting more advanced with his megablocks playing. Before he just did destructive things like take them apart and clapped them together, but now he builds a little...see his creation?

OK, he didn't actually make that...but he did decapitate it quickly.

Fun with glasses. Caleb & I had a lot of fun while daddy was picking out glasses :) Yes babe, if all else fails, you should model glasses.
And of course, we all had tons 'o fun at Christmas hanging out with the family! Here's some pics:

Caleb got to play iwth his cousin Christopher, see horses, play guitar hero with daddy, do funny mirror tricks, and go to the wild animal park.
We also visited the ball pit, dinosaur, and edible garden at mommy's place of employment :)

Oooh, i forgot to mention, here's some Video/pics of Caleb when he first started to walk! Such a funny boy.

Lots of other new videos...I'll upload the site one day...:)

How old is Caleb?

2007-12-01T21:52:00.000-08:00

One!!

I feel like Caleb just keeps getting more fun. I taught him that one over dinner last week :) He also responds to lots of other things...like if I say "Caleb, show me your tongue!" he'll stick out that super long tongue of his. If I say "Caleb, sing!" Then he sings his signature Caleb song. And he still does some stuff that he learned a few months ago (He claps when we sign "If you're happy and you know it." He also answers "Who am I Caleb?" although he still calls me "da da" sometimes and gabe "ma ma." He still shares whatever he's holding if you say "Caleb, share with me" But he does this fake out share now. He looks like he's giving it to you, but right before you grab it he takes it back...tricky!).

Caleb had lots of fun at his bday parties. Thank you to all his aunties & uncles for coming and making his 1st bday really special! And thanks for all the way cool gifts. Such a lucky boy to have so many wonderful people in his life :) I have pics to post...but I haven't gotten around to uploading yet...I will soon!

Caleb didn't eat his bday cake though. I tried to give it to him, but he kept feeding it to me instead. He didn't really care much for it, but he's taken a liking to feeding me. Here's a video of him feeding his great auntie Emily (also on his bday)

Lots of other new videos posted a few weeks ago. Again, too lazy to update his website, but I plan to sometime :) But you can always see them here anyway. Personally, I like this one:

even though he has really weird hair in it (we just washed out some aquafor from his hair when this video was taken). Haha. silliness.

Happy Birthday Caleb!

2007-11-22T21:30:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving...and Happy 1st Birthday CALEB!

I'm so thankful for my baby boy. I think he's the sweetest, best baby ever (but, of course, I'm biased :) ). I'll post more later about his way fun bday party with 50 of his favorite auntie's an uncles and his way fun actual bday celebration with LOTS of family, lots of excitement, and a really cool nemo cake :) For now, I'll just say happy bday sweet baby, mommy & daddy love you lots!

Caleb update

2007-11-08T15:12:00.001-08:00

Caleb's almost 1!! His bday falls on Thanksgiving this year. Last year, he was born the day before thanksgiving and we enjoyed our thanksgiving dinner in the hospital - cold turkey slices, stuffing and pumpkin pie. But it was worth it, we had our happy baby boy :)

Here's some Caleb updates:

Tooth #6! Tooth #5 (top left) has started peeking through the gums. So now Caleb has his 2 bottom teeth and 4 top teeth.

New Hobbies: Dropping things
Caleb's new fascination is dropping things. He LOVES to drop things onto the floor. He'll walk around (hanging onto something), grab an object, and drop it on the floor. Then he'll stare at it a bit, kick it around, then try to pick it up. It sounds simple, but picking it up is rather difficult for him since he has to lean on the couch, exersaucer, table, or something of the sort to hold himself up. So he takes a few steps back, holds himself up with one arm and with the other really hard to get the item. He makes all sorts of noises like he's really really trying to stretch and reach it. Eventually after a while of trying, he's usually successful (or he sits and grabs it if he really can't get it). After all that effort, you'd think he'd be happy with his accomplishment. But no, he picks up the item, looks at it for less than 5 seconds, and drops it again. Then he restarts the whole process. Such a strange little boy :)

New Hobbies: Playing with laptops

Caleb is quite fascinated with our laptops. He actually frequently IMs people that I'm chatting with. He actually hits enter too (my enter key is blue, so it's probably easy for him). So some of you may have gotten some messages from Caleb. It's usually something like

ajsf;leja;ef okk[okp'oplop oooooooooo '']]]]]]]
aasdfghjkl

which i like to interpret as "glad we're buddies!" But seriously, Caleb loves our laptops. Sometimes, I'll leave the room for one second to grab something and as soon as he sees me walk away, he makes a mad dash for my laptop. He starts hitting keys, touching the screen etc. Sometimes I'm shocked as to what he's accomplished in the short amount of time he has frantically pushing random keys. For example, he's managed to change my desktop picture, change my screen resolution, upgrade firefox, close documents (without saving!), initiate chat conversations, continue chat conversations, and of course, crash my browser ;) That's my little boy! I do have some footage of this, but I need to find it to upload it :) (Embarrassing confession: I'm on my 16th dvd of Caleb footage.) In the mean time, here's a pic. This is what happened when I went to prepare his food.

But yes, he's definitely a child of technology. I let him play with my cell phone sometimes and found that he's called gabe on it! When gabe is on speaker phone, he also points at it and says "Da da!"

New Skills: High-Five
Caleb learned quite a few new things. He's really good at repeating what we do (he clicks his tongue when we click our tongue, claps when we clap or sing "if you're happy and you know it," hides when we hide, and sticks his super long tongue out when we do it...see below)

So another new thing he learned is to give high-fives! So try it out next time you see him.

New Activity: Coloring
While we were in Hawaii, one of the restaurants gave Caleb a box of crayons. At the time, I figured he'd just eat them, so I didn't let him play with them. But about a month ago, another restaurant gave him crayons again. This time, I figured it'd be fun for him to try out (true) and perhaps he wouldn't eat it (yes, I was thinking madness. Of course he'd want to eat them too!).

So he now loves to play with crayons. The weird thing is, he'll sometimes just look at them and play with the crayon paper, sometimes doodle on paper, but mostly to color the crayons themselves. What I mean is he hold one crayon in his left hand and one on his right. He takes the one in his right hand and colors on the wrapper of the crayon on his left. Then he does the reverse. So a lot of his crayons have different colored wrappers. :)

Singing
Caleb is singing more and more now! He's got more variety in his songs compared to his original song. I've got lots of video of it, so I plan on uploading something when I get the chance. again, I need to find it first :)

Walking
Caleb's getting really good at walking. He still requires to lean on something, but he's not so wobbly anymore and can move around pretty quickly. He actually tries to stand on his own every now and then. He's usually successful for a few seconds. He's pretty good at finding a path of things to hang on to and can take a step in between things if necessary. We really have to step up the baby proofing!

Talking
Caleb is still saying his usual, "Hi" (although less frequently), "Hey" (more frequently), "Dada" and "Mama" (most frequently) and "bye bye." The unfortunate thing is he usually says "bye bye" after I've hung up the phone or after the person he's saying bye bye to has left. For gabe and I, he's actually pretty good about saying "bye bye" when we're leaving. (he even says "bye bye mama" or "bye bye dada"), but I find it to be like snufulufagus since he rarely does it in front of people. Gabe can attest, I'm not making it up! :)

Caleb walks!

2007-10-23T05:43:00.000-07:00

Ok not entirely on his own, but he loves to walk holding my hands or holding onto other things. We've changed our coffee table orientation so that he can walk around the exersaucer, then arond the coffee table, then onto our couch. He loves it!

The video is actually a little old. He's really fast at it now! Yay!

Publishing an old post :)

2007-10-14T05:16:00.000-07:00

(OK, i started this post 2 weeks ago and I never published it :) rather than update it, i'm just gonna do it now :) )

Thanks everyone for your well wishes! Caleb got over his cold pretty much after 1 day f fever & runny nose. Babies are amazing! I still have a cold from over a week ago!

Caleb really seems to be learning a lot lately! Last Friday, Caleb started trying to emulate our clapping, but he actually just hits his legs to make noise (since his hands seemed too soft to make noise). So I told my mom on the phone on Saturday that he tries to clap but can't really do it. Then when I got home, Caleb was clapping! Yay!

Also, Caleb's been calling both Gabe & me "da da" for a few months now. In fact, we'd try to get him tto say "ma ma", but he'd keep saying dada! Our conversation would go something like this:
me: Caleb, say "ma ma"
Caleb: "Da da!"
me: "ma ma"
Caleb: (pointing at me and smiling) Da Da!
me: "mmmmmmmmmmmm-ma mmmmmmmmmmm-ma"
Caleb:"Da da"

It'd go something like this:

Silly boy. Anwyay, he started saying mama more regularly a few weeks ago & YAY! These days I'm finally "ma ma" to him! YAY!

sick :(

2007-10-04T10:59:00.000-07:00

Caleb has his first cold. He's still happy and playful, but has a runny nose and watery eyes. My poor baby :(

On a happier note, I had to use a loner laptop yesterday with broken wireless...so I couldn't do too much at my long meeting and decided to *finally* update the video page on Caleb's webiste.

http://littlebabytang.googlepages.com/video.html

Lots of new videos! Updating this page has made me realize that I have a whole lot of caleb videos online (and like a gazillion more offline that I've been meaning to upload! :) ).

2007-09-21T17:31:00.000-07:00

Milestones: (this time only a few weeks old :) ) Caleb Stands!

He actually started taking steps now (with help :) ).

Caleb's new fascinations: Caleb's fascinated by really random things (trees, buttons, dump trucks, water bottles, dump trucks, badges, etc). Every now and then, he's fascinated by something new. For the past week, it's been light switches.

He can actually switch them on and off now too! He seems to enjoy the old-fashioned light switches better than the other ones that you just push. Aparently, those aren't as funny :P

In other Caleb news...he's been learnng to share & he loves it! He loves to hand over his toy and watch other people enjoy it (and he's got lots of fun new toys :) ). The other day, he ketp sharing his toy with me while I ate dinner. I got tired of having to pick up the toy, play with it, and hand it back so I tried to just eat and not grab the toy. Caleb started making more and more noise, offering me his toy repeatedly. Since I didn't take it, he threw it at my plate of food. Now I have to teach him about how force sharing is bad :P

overdue post of randomness...

2007-09-13T11:50:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted (minus the vacation posts, which were basically pics :) ). So these milestones really occured a while back, and I'm probably forgetting a bunch of them.

Milestones: Hello tooth #5! Caleb now has 5 teeth popping out of his little gums. I don't remember if i mentioned his 3rd or 4th tooth. Hopefully I did :) He now has 2 bottoms and 3 on top (2 middle, one more on his right).
Milestones: Caleb has added a few words to his vocabulary. Most recently, he added "bye bye!" It's really more of a "buh-buh," but I think he means bye bye :) He also says "da da" a lot!
Milestones: Caleb is very good with his fingers now! He's mastered eating cheerios (which is unfortunate b/c he used to be so funny when he ate!) and he points at things that he wants now. Acutally he points all the time. We like to do the E.T. Phone home thing :) [I'll post a pic of this later]. He also explores a lot more with his fingers and his hands. He follows the textures and the colors on his toys or whatever has his attention at the moment. He still eats everything though after he's done exploring it with his hand :P

Since clieu requested it, I posted a video of Caleb eating cheerios. I really wish I filmed him doign so earlier b/c he was really funny before when it was new. He'd make all sorts of funny faces trying to place the cheerios perfectly on his gum. He'd also struggle getting it into his mouth. He used to pick up the cheerios, make a fist, and then stick his fist in his mouth. After a while, he'd take it out and see that the cheerio (now mushy) was still in his fist. *sigh* They grow up so fast! :P

Since I got to posting videos, there are quite a few others. I'm kind of on a posting roll (and I haven't put up any in a while), so I'll probably continue to put more new ones and add them to caleb's website when I'm less busy/more motivated.

Here's some links in the meantime:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z32OYv6btH8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfnGU0Spl9g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImvdWnivubA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB3JTnUj9cg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lfHmzC_2bs

OK, back to work. I miss Caleb...

Aloha!

2007-09-04T19:24:00.001-07:00

We're back from Hawaii! We had soooo much fun traveling with Caleb!

He was super happy (and super well behaved) on the plane! In fact, Caleb is usually pretty shy when meeting people he's not used to in places he's not used to - he's not usually his super-happy self unless it's just a few people over at our place. But on the plane, he was very outgoing - laughing, talking, and trying to look at/get the attention of the others on the plane. He also ate well and slept well on the plane.

Caleb also adjusts amazingly well to jetlag. He adjusted to hawaiian time right away and adjusted back to cally time instantly. It was SUCH a relief. I thought I'd be getting up at 3:30 with him everyday...but he actually slept till 7am or later every day that we were there!

Caleb loved the hotel we stayed at on Maui. They had swans, ducks, penguins, parrots, and other birds that he loved looking at (plus of course, his favorite - trees!). He also loved looking at the waterfalls, playing in the pool, and looking at the beach. Caleb could stare and stare at the ocean with delight, but being in the ocean was another story ;) He just kind of looked blankly at the water around him the way he does a new person he's not used to. Oh well, maybe next time he'll be better aquainted with Mr. Pacific.
He was also super happy on our hike in Oahu...that is, until he fell asleep :) In usual Caleb style, he was talkative, smiley, and kickey in the begining of the hike hwen things aren't that interesting, and right before we get to the exciting look out point, he falls asleep! This time the wind at the top of diamond head woke him up though so he did get to enjoy the scenery and he stayed up on the way down. Phew!

I must say, the best part of going on vacation is getting to hang out with my boys all day :) Anyway, here's the rest of our pics from hawaii:

Vegas, Baby!

2007-08-28T05:51:00.000-07:00

Caleb had his first trip outside California last weekend! We had trouble getting airplane tickets that landed in time for our showtime of Ka, so we actually ended up driving. As usual, Caleb was really good at entertaining himself in the car, kicking, laughing at random things, and making his funny car faces and noises. He definitely kept me entertained! :)

Since Caleb was so good while we all watched shows, ate lots of buffets, and endured lots of temperature changes from the cold casinos to the hot Vegas air, we spent quite a bit of time at FAO schwartz! He loved playing with his toys and was really interested in a talking/dancing homer. (It was actually pretty amusing).

Anyway, here's some pics from Vegas. I realize there are some dups...but I don't have time to go through it. We're leaving for Hawaii in a few hours :)

By the way...if you look at our photos, you may notice that Gabe is making a funny face in lots of them :P It's because we often get Caleb to smile for photos by saying "Poop poop poop" (which he still finds as funny as he did when he was 5 months). So nice of Gabe to sacrifice his smiling to make Caleb smile :)

Playing at the Park!

2007-08-20T17:25:00.001-07:00

I've been meaning to blog for sooo long. Quick updates:
- Milestones: Caleb now has 4 teeth! The 2 on the bottom are pretty much fully out now (I think). The one on the right on top is out a little bit, and the one on the top left just poked through his gums this morning. yay!
- Milestone 2: Caleb eats cheerios now! Actually he has been for a few weeks. It's super cute watching him. He makes some really funny faces inthe process of eating his cheerios, I've gotta video it someday.
- Milestone 3: Caleb went swimming for the first time yesterday! I'll probably post another post on that later.
I think he's had quite a few other milestones, but it's been so long now. I guess I'll just post about it later :)

Anyway, today I've decided to write about Caleb's progress in the park :) Since we live really close to a park and because Caleb LOVES trees, I used to always take him to the park to walk around when he was really little. Now that he's bigger, these park trips are much more fun since he can play on the playground equipment. When we first put him on the swing (on Gabe's lap or on my lap), he threw his arms up and looked like so scared:

So actually we thought he didn't like the swing (which was weird because he used to love his cradle swing). But we found out he actually LOVES going on the swing by himself.

We also tried him on the slide (with me). He seemed to react to the slide the way he did when he went on the swing with Gabe and me. It makes me wonder if he'll be less afraid by himself, but there's no way I'm gonna let him slide down a slide alone!

Anyway, Caleb's had an exciting few weeks and he's got some adventures coming up...Vegas, Hawaii, LA (again) and several weddings. YAY! Hopefully I'll be better about updating :)

Water bottle

2007-07-23T21:51:00.001-07:00

Oh sure, Caleb has TONS of toys...toys that move, sing, make noise, have mirrors, vibrate, talk, light up, rattle, bounce, spin, etc (not to mention that his exersauser does it all). but it turns out all he really needs to be entertained is a water bottle!

baby teeth!

2007-07-23T16:59:00.001-07:00

Milestone: Caleb's got teeth!!! His center 2 bottom teeth have popped out of his gums! Although you can definitely feel them, he still looks like he's all gums since he sticks his tongue out so much anyway. :P I think he likes to lick his new teeth.

Other news: Caleb also got his first haircut! I saved 2 long locks from the sides of his head for his baby book too :) Here's an after-shot:

Also 2 new Caleb videos uploaded on his site (under the newly uploaded section). I have a few more coming, but haven't gotten around to uploading yet...probably soon :) I was going to do it now, but Caleb's up from his nap! :) YAY! time to play!

Random Tidbits...

2007-07-14T06:17:00.000-07:00

Caleb has added "YEAH!" to his list of words (which include "Hi" and "Who"). He uses "yeah!" quite often actually. He also says "Baba" and "A-ba" (which is grandma in Shanghainese). He's naturally Chinese i guess? :) We were trying to teach him "daddy" and "wai poa"/"nai nai". go figure. He's only said "mama" a few times when he's crying :( it was a "waaaaaaa-maaaaa-maaaaaaa....waaa...maaaa-maaaa...." so sad :(

Anyhow, in other Caleb milestones, he's become quite the rolly polly. He rolls all over the place all the time. It's hard to keep him contained in one area, because he always ends up rolling all over the place. He also rolls back and forth and all over the place in his sleep (like mommy :) ).

Caleb also makes all these new faces and noises. One is his "smush face" which is like when you pucker your lips and smash the rest of your features together. He also smacks his lips pretty frequently (I think it's usually when he's watching us eat or when he's hungry). He LOVES blowing raspberries and ...umm..not sure what you call it when you make horsey noises and your lips vibrate. But yeah, he's really good at that! Here's another thing he just started (I'm not sure what to call this face...):

Caleb's favorite thing...

2007-07-11T07:09:00.000-07:00

in the whole world is playing with his dady!

It's such a joy for me to see my boys together :) Caleb is always overjoyed everytime he sees his daddy! I've got LOTS of videos of my boys playing together (most still need to be uploaded :( ). But here's some from the past 2 days...

As a mommy, I want the best for my sweet baby. I'm glad he got the best daddy! :)

Funny Faces

2007-07-06T14:55:00.001-07:00

Caleb has always made lots of funny faces/expressions. He no longer makes the blue steel face that he used to make so often. Instead he has a funny spit face (which i have on video somewhere but haven't uploaded yet) and he does this mouthing sort of action. (you can see him do it about half way through this video below)

He don't do his sneeze noise as often anymore, but he still does it sometimes. But he does make a super funny yawn noise now. I haven't caught it on video yet, but I'm trying! :P

Caleb's first 4th!

2007-07-05T19:04:00.000-07:00

Caleb had lots of fun at the park!Even though he fell asleep at his usual 9ish bedtime...

he woke up in time to catch the fireworks! He was pretty shocked/afraid of it. Here's a video of him (although it's not very exciting because he's totally motionless while watching the fireworks!).

Yay for independence!

All dressed up...

2007-06-23T11:13:00.000-07:00

with lots of places to go!!

Last weekend, Caleb got to attend his Auntie Tammy & Uncle Hudson's wedding, his Wai Poa (grandma Shen)'s birthday celebration, father's day celebration (because he has the best daddy in the whole world!), more family fun & a long car ride laughing at mommy's craziness. Fun stuff :)

Thanks Great-Auntie Cindy for the baby tux!

Happy Birthday Wai Poa

2007-06-16T23:16:00.000-07:00

Caleb is super duper lucky to have the very best wai poa (grandma) in the whole world. Wai poa sacrifices so much of her time & energy to care for Caleb. He finds her absolutely hilarious. He loves to laugh with her as she plays with him. She reads to him in Chinese (well, not really reads as much as she makes up things to say about the pictures :P), sings songs, feeds him, puts him to bed, walks with him outside, bathes him, changes him, and lets him see all sorts of exciting things like the gardener doing his job (clearly I meant exciting to Caleb, not to the general population). She also lets Caleb chew on her knuckle and massages his gum. He LOVES that! So anyway, happy birthday to the best wai poa in the world. We love you!

Caleb & Taylor...

2007-06-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

sitting in a tree...k-i-s-s-i-n-g!

OK, Caleb didn't sit in a tree, but he did get kissed! The first few times Caleb kissed him, he arched his back and looked scared/not so pleased.

But later he warmed up to it :)

Haha. Anyway, Caleb had much fun with his friend (yes, he's way to young to have a "friend")Taylor. It was way fun to see them play together. Taylor patted Caleb on the head a few times. She also picked up his rings and handed it to him for him to chew. :) Way cute.

Happy Birthday Uncle Victor!

2007-06-06T10:07:00.001-07:00

Caleb's First Hike!

2007-06-03T07:42:00.000-07:00

Caleb went on his first hike yesterday. We knew he'd love it since trees are his absolute favorite thing. Here's some pics from our journey...
Yes, I look weird in that one because I was trying to make Caleb smile :P

Caleb also took his first picture! Sure Gabe helped by holding up the camera, but pressing the button was all Caleb. Check out his first photographic endeavor.

But still...after all that walking, Caleb fell asleep at the lookout point! (probably bored because there were no more trees)

Rolling Over!

2007-05-29T19:47:00.000-07:00

Milestone report: Caleb rolled over today! Well, he's been rolling over half way for quite a while now, but he's only rolled over once with a little help ;). But today, he rolled over by himself. He was going crazy on tummy time, and then was streaching to see what his grandma was eating and then rolled over. I think he was shocked by the transition, he kinda just laid there wide eyed for a moment before he returned to his frantic kicking :)

Anyway, here's a question for you guys...Can you still do this?

I can, Gabe can't (but then again, Gabe can't sit indian style either). But even though I can do it, I can't say that I enjoy it as much as Caleb does :)

6 Months!

2007-05-28T17:57:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, we took Caleb to the doctor again for his 6 month checkup. Here's how he measured up:
So yeah, he's getting longer & longer compared to the national average & is relatively normal in weight & head size (boy do babies have big heads! :P).

Anyway, its hard to believe my little Caleb is 6 mos now. I used to roll my eyes (at least mentally behind a polite smile :) ) when people used to say things like "it seems like just yesterday you were a little girl/baby only this big!" But that's totally how I feel! And yet at the same time, I feel like Caleb has been in our life much longer than a mere half year.

It's amazing how parenthood changes you. For one, I've gotten much physically stronger; the fact that my weak arms can actually carry a 17+lb baby is a miracle in itself. But much more than that, I experience deeper love & joy than ever before. I think of Caleb every second I'm awake and the things that used to make me happy pale in comparison to the things that I think might make Caleb happy. Even at my busiest moments, I hear his laughter and see his sweet smile in my head. This truly is the best time in my life. I've been sooooo richly blessed that God has entrusted me with such a precious life.

Here's another random video of Caleb throwing the ball around:

Solids!

2007-05-19T22:07:00.000-07:00

Caleb started solids today! Well, the rice cereal wasn't realy "solid," so i guess I should say Caleb had his first non-milk meal :) I really expected Caleb to love eating since he is mesmerized by us eating and he mouths like he's chewing and tries to grab our food! But I think he was pretty surprised by the taste & made lots of disgusted faces:

But after a few minutes of shock/disgust, he started to like it a bit more :)
Although he was happiest when the meal was over

If you're interested in seeing his very first spoonfulls (and his disgusted look :P), its uploaded here.

Mother's day

2007-05-13T22:19:00.000-07:00

Milestone: Caleb rolled over yesterday! Yay, it's been a long time coming. He usually rolls onto his side, but doesn't quite make it all the way over. he celebrated his accomplishment with a shocked look & a little laugh :)

Other stuff: Happy mother's day! I must say, being a mommy is awesome; Caleb is such a HUGE blessing & joy. (thats why everday is Caleb day to me! :) ) But as a mommy, I've come to totally appreciate my mommy all the more. I'm super fortunate to have my mommy here. She's seriously amazing. She's the best mommy & grandma ever!

Random Video: One of the perks of mommyhood is being able to zebet some jello bellies :)

I miss Caleb :(

2007-05-07T13:28:00.000-07:00

Yep, the dreaded day has come - it's my first day at work. It was sooooo hard to get in my car and leave my little boy at home. Work is good (cool friends, good free food), but boy do i miss my little Caleb! I wanna go home and hear him laughing and see his little dimples and chubby feet. :) I'm super thankful for my mom, who is staying with us and taking care of Caleb. Caleb is definitely in good hands!

Oooh, I meant to blog about this last Friday. Caleb said a whole bunch of "hi"s! We had a "hi" conversation...it went something like this:
Me: Hi Caleb!
Caleb: Hi
me: *surprised* Hi!!!!
Caleb: Hi
Me: Hello!
Caleb: Hi
Me: Hi!!!!
Caleb: *smile* (He was probably thinking..."OK mom, I've said 'Hi' enough already...leave me alone!")

Here's a newly-uploaded (but slightly old) video for your enjoyment. I think i'll go hide in the mother's room and watch some Caleb videos. :P

Discoveries

2007-04-30T09:38:00.000-07:00

This weekend, Caleb discovered his feet! Now he's always grabbing them. If my feet were so cute, I'd grab them too! :)

We discovered something that makes Caleb laugh! Its the word "Poop," especially when repeated. Now it makes much more sense why he always cracks up on the changing table! (because I say things like "Ewwww, stinky poop!" as I change him :P). Here's a little video series about Caleb's happy poop:

In his car seat - Caleb is finishing up his poop..and laughing about it!

Gabe & I experimenting with Caleb - we wanted to see if it really is the words "Poop poop poop" that make Caleb laugh.

Caleb laughing at "poop poop poop"

Normally, I find poop VERY gross (and I can't believe I wrote so much about it in a post), but at least it makes my baby happy! :)

Walking Buddies

2007-04-25T15:05:00.000-07:00

Caleb & I love our daily walks (especially when daddy can join). Caleb loves looking around at the trees, sky, etc. and I love holding his hands and looking at him in his hat. :P

While we're on our short daily walk (which by the way, is just 2 blocks from our house to the park, through the park, to the library across the street and back), we encounter lots of strangers who always strike up a conversation with me. Here's some tidbits of the types of people I encounter and the things they say to me:

The little kids. These guys are my favorite. There was once a little girl riding her bike on the street. She saw Caleb, immediately stopped, threw her bike down, ran up to me and said "Awwwwww..." She gave us a big smile and jumped back onto her bike and left. Haha. Little kids often like looking at Caleb (a few of them yell "BABY BABY BABY!" and run towards us).
The old ladies. There's lots of grandmothers walking around. They usually speak Chinese to me and try to give me advise. Sometimes they're sensible (like "Try to sleep as much as possible."), but usually they're very weird. For instance, here's some things I've been told: "Pad your bones. If your bones hurt, his bones will hurt. Don't think that you should be in pain just because you're a mommy." "He's very very cute. So be careful. The girls are coming. You should think about his hair." "He can sleep standing. That means you should sit him up more." Usually I just nod my head and smile...and think "either my Chinese is THAT bad, or you're just weird."
The fellow mommies. They usually say "How old is he? .... WOW, he's very big!" and "I miss when my kids were that tiny."
The weird neighbors. There's one guy who I always see. He always says hello with a big smile, nods his head and then says "Sandra, you do good work." I'm not quite sure what he means by that, but he says it every time I see him. I guess it's a good thing. There's another Asian-visor-wearing-pregnant lady who says "He's bigger and I'm bigger" with a laugh every time I see her. I wonder what she'll say after she gives birth.

Well, there's more but this is enough blogging for me today. :) So yes, if you'd like to talk to strangers...carry a baby around. Even the firemen (there's a firehouse next to the libary) and my mean mail man now talk to me. haha.

Daily Fun...

2007-04-23T16:44:00.000-07:00

Caleb is 5 months old as of Sunday! I already had to retire quite a few of his outfits because they're too short (all 6 month old outfits...so he's moving on to 9 month and 12 month clothes!). Caleb dressed up for his infant dedication on Sunday in this 12 month outfit :)

Anyhow, people often ask me what Caleb & I do all day. And no, I don't just roar at him all day ;) (Although that would be fun!). Here's a glimpse into our daily activities:

PLAY!
This is a majority of our time. Caleb plays with his toys & many stuffed animals (usually for Caleb, "Play" = "Grab & stick in my mouth"). He especially LOVES his play mat, walker, swing, turtle, softball, finger puppets, lumpy, monkey, hippo, etc. (Thanks to all the aunties & uncles who gave them to us!)
We also play some games like peek-a-boo and patty cake & sing songs like "If you're happy & you know it." Oooh, and Caleb LOVES massages (just like Mommy :) ).
Lunch visits
We also get a few lunch visitors who come to break bread with me & play w/ Caleb. Also we try to meet up w/ friends & Gabe for lunch too. Anyone wanna have lunch with us before I go back to work in 2 weeks? :)
Eating
Caleb still nurses about 5 times day...plus he LOVES to watch me eat. Actually I feel kind of bad that he's not eating solids yet. He stares, salivates, licks his lips & mouths along as I eat. Poor baby!
Taking a walk
Or, I guess being carried on a walk for Caleb :) I usually take a stroll to the park and library (very close to our house) with Caleb in a baby bjorn. Caleb LOVES looking at trees (and usually ignores the dogs and cats we pass by on the way). Also, when I'm with Caleb, TONS of strangers will strike up conversations with me, so it makes for an interesting daily journey.
Reading books
Yeah, obviously Caleb doesn't read. But he sits on my lap and tries to grab and eat the pages as I read to him. :) We have LOTS of pop-up books and interactive books that make lots of noises thanks to my the grandparents and aunties & uncles :)
Diaper changes
This is another 5x a day activity (along with the occasional bath). But this is MUCH quicker than a feeding time :P Plus Caleb LOVES diaper changes. He smiles and laughs non-stop (just like right after he poops ;) )
Exercise
This is clearly a Caleb activity, mommy is lazy! :) His exercise is tummy time. He usually does this while grabbing for toys and I root him on, or he watches some Baby Einstein DVD.
Sleeeeeep
This happens much too little in our day :) Caleb takes 1-2 naps if we're lucky. And when Caleb naps, mommy gets to nap :)

We'll also, of course, go out and run errands occasionally. It's all fun stuff, I think we should all have babies so that Caleb can have more fiends to play with...uh, or stare at...

Movin' to the Crib...

2007-04-18T07:59:00.000-07:00

Since Caleb was born, we've had him sleep in a mini co-sleeper next to our bed. (It's like a cradle that attaches to your bed). It was definitely nice during the early days filled with mid-night feedings. And even though the midnight feedings stopped, it was still nice to be able to lean my head over and see my baby boy sound asleep. We originally decided to get the mini co-sleeper instead of the full size because we figured we'd move Caleb to his crib when he was around 3 months. Well, he started outgrowing the co-sleeper about a month ago, but it was too hard for me to part with Caleb for the night, so we kept him next to us a while longer (even though his arms would hit the sides when he flailed them about). But alas, I've had to face my night-time separation anxiety and Caleb's moved into his crib in his own room a little over a week ago.

I must say, it's hard to sleep without Caleb next to me (even though he's in the bedroom right next to mine and I can hear his breathing through the monitor). I can't imagine how hard it's going to be when I go back to work next month! :(

Hairstyles of the cute & chubby

2007-04-16T13:41:00.000-07:00

We haven't cut Caleb's hair yet...and it's definitely getting long. I actually wanted to cut off a lock to save it in his baby book before he looses his baby hair, but I'm afraid that cutting off a lock will make him look funny. Raymond suggested that we shave Caleb's head. I guess I can support the "Bald is Beautiful" concept, but not on my little boy. :) So what hairstyle do you think we should do on Caleb?

This is his current hairstyle:

Here's Caleb sporting a faux mohawk :)

And here's a side part (Gabe hates his hair this way, he thinks he looks like he's from the 50's :) )

Sorry, no pics of him bald :). I would have liked to try him out with a spikey do, but his hair is pretty thin so it doesn't quite work. So what do you think is Caleb's best look?

Sitting Up!

2007-04-13T10:52:00.000-07:00

YAY! Caleb can officially sit up now!

I have been occasionally checking to see if he can sit up, but usually he does a pseudo-sit up position (which is really like he's doing yoga, legs crossed and body bent over). Babies are really amazingly flexible :)

But YAY, this morning when I tried he did an excellent job sitting up for quite a while! Whooo-hooo! I'm looking forward to him being able to use high chairs (so I don't have to lug in the stroller or car seat when going out) and the kitchen sink as a tub. haha.

LOL

2007-04-12T10:44:00.000-07:00

Caleb is a mystery. He smiles a whole lot, and usually when we try to make him laugh, he smiles back at us. But now, he laughs pretty frequently too. But most of the time, we have no idea what makes him laugh. Or if we do know what makes him laugh, we have no idea why he finds it funny. Sometimes he laughs when we're interacting with him, but we're not doing anything funny or different than usual. Here are some other random things that have made him laugh in the past: Gabe's coughing, diaper changes, stuffed animals at Raymond & Sandra's place, and the wine bottles/wine rack in our house, and of course, his reflection. It's kind of funny though because when he finds an object he finds funny, he doesn't actually keep looking at it. He'll look at it, laugh, look away...somehow glance back, laugh...look away, etc etc.

This morning though, I discovered that he finds my scary "ROAR" funny. OK, maybe it's not so scary...but anyway, here's a clip of little Caleb laughing at it. He actually laughs more later in the clip...

Infant Dedication

2007-04-11T09:23:00.000-07:00

We'll be dedicating Caleb at the 11am GrX service next Sunday (April 22). Yay!

Videos

2007-04-10T17:28:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to uploading some older videos of a 2 month old Caleb that needed a bit of compression. Here they are:
Deep thoughts: This is around the time Caleb first started making lots of noise. Of course, now he makes a ruckus quite frequently.
Early Conversations: Along a similar note, we try to have "conversations" with Caleb. Of course, even now his replies are still his random "eh eh" "whoooo" and "cooooo" noises.
Bobblehead: Yep, Caleb does an excellent impression of one of those bobbleheads. His neck is much stronger now, but he still bobbles occasionally (but definiltey not this much!)

There's also a few newly uploaded (and not so old videos) on the video page. More to come later today if I'm not too lazy...

What's in a name?

2007-04-03T08:31:00.000-07:00

"Caleb" has been in the top 50 most common names since 1997 and in the top 100s for the rest of the 90s. (By the way, check out this site to see the popularity trends of your name!) But in our experience, so many people have had difficulty pronouncing Caleb's name!

I understand that Caleb is not spelled the way it sounds (which is pronounced [Key-luh b] according to the pronunciation key, or practically like "K"-lub). Some people, like Gabe's mom, pronounce it like it's spelled, "Kay-Leb." That's more understandable, but his name has gotten seriously butchered in the pronunciation department by so many people. The first time we took him to the doctor, the nurse came out and said "Suh-leeeeebeh." We didn't respond, so she tried again "Kal-leebeth." We also didn't respond, so finally she said Caleb's middle name "Tyler." Then we looked at each other and said "ooooh, she's trying to call Caleb."

Actually, my mom and uncle often confuse the name "Caleb" with "Gabriel." It's pretty funny. My mom will say "Gabriel is the most important now. Everyone comes to see Gabriel, he's always the center of attention!" and "I saw the new Gabriel videos" etc. They both say that it's difficult because Caleb and Gabriel sound so alike. I find it funny, but I can't say that I agree. :) Thankfully, they're both getting much better at it (although my uncle still slips sometimes and calls him Galeb). Before Caleb was born, a large family dinner and the family spent the whole dinner learning to pronounce Caleb (and asked us why we picked such a strange name).

I know I should have expected it since before we named him Caleb, my coworker told me a story about how she was on a conference call with a Caleb, and asked the question "Is that correct Celeb (like celebrity)?" And he replied "uh, yes, but my name is Caleb." haha. It's just that I always hated when people pronounced my name "Sondra" so I was hoping that Caleb wouldn't run into such issues.

Here's why we named him Caleb - Caleb means Faithful and Bold. In Numbers, Caleb followed the Lord wholeheartedly and stood up in faith. So despite all this, I think it's an excellent name :)

Checkup Stats

2007-03-26T20:28:00.000-07:00

Last week, we went to the doctor's for Caleb's 4 month check up. Here's how he measured up in all his previous visits...

This all seems expected to me except for the head circumference percentile statistic. Personally, I think Caleb has a HUGE head (see pic below).

Granted it's not huge compared to an adult head (after looking at Caleb all day, gabe's head looks gigantic), but definitley compared to his little body. Aparently babies' heads are suppsed to be 1/3 of their body (I'm not sure if that's in size or in weight). Anyhow, that's all good and stuff, but seriously, if Caleb's head size is truly less than 30th percentile and he's about average in weight and length, there are some kids out there with ginormous heads! They've got to be like 1/2 head or somthing! That's just scary.

Inherited traits?

2007-03-20T16:16:00.000-07:00

Usually people either think Caleb looks a lot like me or a lot like Gabe. There's rarely someone who thinks that he looks like both of us. How is that possible? When he was first born, more people thought he looked like Gabe than like me, now it seems more people think he looks like me. I've heard that by nature, babies look more like their fathers when they're born so that fathers can sort of bond with the new baby and be assured that the baby is theirs - then later on the child comes to resemble the mother later. I'm not sure how true that is or if it's relevant in this case - I actually just think people thought Caleb looked more like Gabe when he was skinny and now that he's chubby (and has chubby cheeks!) he looks more like me. Who knows...

But that brings to question...what else does Caleb inherit that's like us?

His dimples. Neither of us have dimples, but Caleb has 3 dimples (2 on his right side, 1 on his left). Is that stuff hereditary?
His sneeze noise. Caleb makes an "awww" after many of his sneezes (and sometimes before). Apparently, I used to do that when i was a baby too (according to my mom). Do things like that get passed down?
His "blue steel" face. Is this a baby thing? I don't think that's from either of us.
His blonde eyebrows & lovely tan. Caleb was born with blond eyebrows (we're VERY happy they now look more normal). He also had a very nice darker complexion when he was born so we got lots of comments like "hmmm...Gabe, are you sure he's yours? He’s awfully tan...and blonde. *wink* *wink*"
His sleepy feet movements. He moves his feet in his sleep, just like Gabe! both my boys have their feet constantly moving in their sleep. i always thought that was weird when Gabe did it, and now Caleb does it too!
His "body builder" type body is clearly from me. :P Yes, people have commented that he looks like a body builder. It’s actually just that his fat is pretty defined so he looks muscular. If only we can all be so lucky :)
His affinity for playing with this tongue. Seriously, he's always sticking his tongue out or making some weird face with his tongue. I don't really think that's from either of us.
His laziness. That's clearly from Gabe. :)
Caleb says "uh oh!" when he poops. We didn't teach him that, in fact, we've never even taught him to say "uh oh"...he just does it (and he says it rather loudly :) )
His personality. Caleb's a really good baby. He's rarely fussy and doesn’t complain very much. This is clearly not from me (I was a very whiney baby...and kid...and adult...) I'm so glad he's more like Gabe in this area. Although I like to think he's fun because of me. :P

Growing boy...

2007-03-14T10:38:00.000-07:00

12/6/06

2/22/06

Say Cheese..

2007-03-13T20:30:00.000-07:00

Caleb's definitely not Camera shy...but apparently he thinks his concerned face is his best look. Usually he'll be doing something funny or cute, I'll whip out the camera and once he sees it he freezes like a deer in headlights, staring straight into the lens with a furrowed brow. So catching Caleb in his natural state is a rare occurrence.

Yesterday, Caleb was sitting on my lap totally laughing at Gabe - I mean very hearty, happy, loud and super smiley laughter. My camera happened to be next to me and since Caleb was looking at Gabe and not me, I was able to film him doing his laugh for like 2 straight minutes (with no furrowed brow!). I was so happy about this rare opportunity, but I was SO bummed when I realized that I didn't actually click the button all the way to start with so I actually didn't film anything. Booo. Anyway, he laughed again today, and I did catch that on video. But Caleb notices the camera so he stops and looks at the camera very concerned a few times in the middle of his laugh. Actually, I think he seems to be more humoring me with some laughing noises rather than laughing in this one. Well, at least he knows how to make mommy happy :P

On another note, I'm so thankful for digital cameras :) There's no way I'd be able to store this much film or develop this many pictures.

New Discovery...

2007-03-07T08:25:00.000-08:00

hGabe discovered that when you squeeze Caleb's chubby cheeks together, he sticks his tounge out! What a strange little person :)

Posted by: mommy
(daddy claims he's going to post too, but since he hasn't yet, it makes these little "posted by" notes pretty pointless :P)

Nursery Rhymes

2007-03-01T17:56:00.000-08:00

So...how well do you know your nursery rhymes? i always laugh at Gabe because he doesn't remember the lyrics to the most common nursery rhymes (like twinkle twinkle little star, itsy bitsy spider, etc). Gabe used to sing different songs to Caleb while he was still in the womb...but whenever he tried to sing a kiddy song, he'd need a lot of help on the lyrics from me or from google. :) once when i started singing baa baa black sheep he said "what the heck? baa baa black sheep? don't make stuff up! why don't i sing moo moo brown cow." what a silly hubby.

anyway, the other day Gabe was trying to sing BINGO to Caleb. so he started singing (to the tune of Old McDonald)..."Old McDonald had a dog..." I quickly interrupted him and said "Old McDonald had a FARM..." Gabe paused, and replied "See, that's what i thought, but the farm's name is Bingo? Old McDonald had a farm and Bingo was his name-o. B-I-N-G-O..."

That actually left me stumped. I couldn't remember the tune to Bingo and I couldn't think of the regular words to Old McDonald had a farm...and why the heck would his farm be named Bingo anyway? :) Anyhow, I actually had to do a quick search to remember Old McDonald had a farm...e-i-e-i-o (what the heck does e-i-e-i-o mean anyway?) and to remember that the farmer had the dog named Bingo. Maybe in a few years, Caleb will be correcting my nursery rhyme lyrics...so sad, so sad...

posted by: mommy

Tummy Time

2007-02-26T11:21:00.000-08:00

So in order to encourage muscle development and other good stuff, you're supposed to give babies some time on their tummies throughout the day. When put on their tummy, babies are supposed to try to hold up their heads (to strengthen their neck) and eventually try to push up with their arms and legs to work up to crawling.

Caleb is very active when he's on his back; he's always kicking his legs, waving his arms, and moving his head. But most of the time, once we put him on his stomach he does his awesome impression of a beached whale. That or he just starts eating his fist or something. As he's gotten older, he's definitely put a little more effort into holding up that big head of his (relative to the rest of his body). Here's 2 videos of his tummy time attempts, so you can see when he's not very successful (but happy!), and when he's slightly more successful at holding his head up ;)

Now that he's moved on from his trademark beached whale tummy time move, he's developed a new tummy time activity that's really kind of gross (but Gabe finds it awfully funny ;) ). For the past few days, after a good 10 minutes of tummy time, Caleb lifts his head up, spits up, and then plummets his face into his spit up. It's like a face plant straight into a puddle of spit up milk. GROSS. No videos of that ;) phew.

posted by: mommy

long overdue post...

2007-02-22T11:04:00.000-08:00

Yay! Little Caleb is 3 months old as of the day before yesterday. We've been meaning to start a blog about Caleb & his adventures, developments, mishaps, and discoveries for some time but never quite got around to it until today. There's so much we would have written about in these first 3 months, but hey, better late than never! Here's a few random thoughts from the first three months, more to be added later...

Birth: I still can't believe this precious little boy used to live in my belly. I also can't believe that things like fingers, toes, noses etc can come in such a small size :). Caleb was very smiley right from the start and definitely a very good boy. not much crying (even when taking shots!).

Diaper Adventures: While we hoped our first kid would be a boy, we learned that there are some things you need to be prepared for when you have a baby boy. Caleb was surprisingly good at aiming that Golden shower at his loving diaper changers (especially at Gabe!). It wasn't just the golden shower though...there are other things that can travel great distances in it's liquid state (since he only drinks milk right now). :P After a few weeks of great messes, we've learned how to shield ourselves and take precautions. But yes, there are many many joys of parenthood. For me, this wasn't one of them :)

Noises: I must say, Caleb makes the cutest noises. His first noise (other than the crying wimpers) was "awwww" which he would say after every sneeze (check out video examples of this during Caleb's first week and just last week). It's really funny especially when he has multiple sneezes and multiple "awww"s, which unfortunately is difficult to catch on video. Despite what it seems like, I don't film him every second of the day ;) Last month, he started making all sorts of other noises, mostly "eh"s, "ah"s, and "coo"s, but also "whooooo" and the very rare "hiiiiiiii" (which also is sometimes just "eyeeee"). He's also said "uh oh" a few times after he relieves himself :) I guess he'll work up to mama ;)

Caleb's favorite things: Caleb is a very lucky boy. He's got lots of toys, stuffed animals, activity centers, etc. But I must say, Caleb's all time favorite thing to look at is Ceilings. He can stare at ceilings for hours and hours and be very amused. Second to ceilings is lights...or best yet, ceiling lights. Although I must say, Caleb recently discovered how yummy his fingers are just a few weeks ago...he seems to LOVE that perhaps even more than ceilings. (here's a video that shows just how delicious his little fingers are)

Hmm...this is getting long...so, here's where i stop. To be continued...

Posted by: mommy