16 month update

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!

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!

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

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

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!

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...

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

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...

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

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!