Summer!

It's summertime! Today was definitely summer. Not exactly sure where the 93 degrees came from today! Yikes! Caleb, Eric, and I enjoyed the new kiddie pool in the driveway and are looking forward to many more days to come in it out in the sun.

It's been so long since we've posted! It's been a very busy few months for us... probably the busiest of our lives. Eric's been trucking along with his master's degree and research work, along with having a lot demanded of him at work. My work has been pretty busy with project installations, requiring much more than the 3-day schedule that I am supposed to be working. It got even busier when my coworker left the company suddenly for a job closer to family. Caleb has been at a new daycare since the middle of April, and that has also had it's fair share of adjustments.

We are so thankful for summer! Eric isn't taking any classes this summer and his work has been a bit less demanding of overtime. My job has finally slipped back into the 3-day schedule it's supposed to be, and things are starting to look a lot better with Caleb's childcare situation. We have found ourselves breathing a lot easier in the last two weeks and are so thankful! We even had time for a date a couple of days ago with Caleb's first official 13-year-old babysitter. He did great and so did she!

Caleb started crawling on April 2, and is really close to walking now. He pulls up on anything and turns everything into a push toy - chairs, the stroller, Grandma Sally's walker, a box sitting on the floor, etc. He's started to say some words - he will say "mo, mo" while making the sign language for "more." He says "Mama" and "DaDa" as well as "Papa" and it seems like he might be saying "ball" and "doggie" sometimes, but those aren't very consistent. He is starting to be really fun - waving to say hello and goodbye, claps when he is excited, and is generally quite a flirt.

Caleb's baptism was May 22, the same day Nadia & Ramona Swanson were dedicated. We were incredibly blessed by the experience. The image of Caleb being marked and brought into the kingdom of God like that is really neat. We talked later about the idea of Jewish 8 day old circumcision and how it's similar to our infant baptism... marking the child for God before he has the opportunity to make a decision for himself. It puts new weight on our responsibility as parents to continue to make those decisions for him while he is still too young to decide for himself, and then to lead him to make those decisions on his own when he is old enough to. We really appreciate our parents more and more as we go through this parenting experience.

We've done some traveling recently. We went to Florida to visit Eric's aunt and uncle in April and had a great time. Caleb was a hit. We also went to a Golding family reunion over Memorial Day. Minus us getting sick on the trip, we had a great time traveling with Amanda & Spencer & William (4 months old). Caleb really enjoyed company also. Again, Caleb was a hit with the family. The same was true this weekend at Eric's cousin's graduation party, especially with his 5-year old second cousin. :)

Here's more pictures!

March to June

And more...

Caleb

Love you all,

Steph, Eric, and Caleb

Spring is here... kindof.

Sorry it's been so long since posting, the last 2 months have been unprecedented craziness for us. Between Eric's work picking up to overtime every week, my work requiring a LOT more time during some pretty difficult projects, and Eric's master's degree work, we've found ourselves in way over our heads. Thankfully, I am getting some time off this week and really enjoying it. Caleb is changing literally every day and we both eat up every minute we get to spend with him.

Caleb is hitting that point when his development is getting a lot more obvious - making the leap from figuring out that he has limbs to using them to do whatever he wants. It's so much fun to watch! He's not quite crawling, but right on the brink. He scoots backwards, sits up, lunges, and kicks a lot. And yet somehow he always ends up with Mina's bones in his hand heading for his mouth or using the computer cord as a whip/lasso.

Speaking of Mina, Caleb and Mina are becoming very good friends. We think he ends up with her bones when we're not looking because she gives them to him. :) She puts up with his grabbing at her paws and using her belly as a drum... and even volunteers for cleaning up after mealtime both under his chair and the leftovers on his cheeks when I'm not looking.

Just this week he has started giggling at seemingly everything - the book I am reading him, pictures of cousins, grandparents, aunts, and uncles on facebook, and even the trees he sees out the window in the car. He's pretty easily entertained and we are thankful for that. His smile is contagious, but it's often hiding behind his very serious demeanor which makes it even more special.

Now that the weather is warming up, we are going on walks outside pretty often and even taking out the jogging stroller occasionally. He is getting so big it's hard to keep him in the carrier, so the stroller is getting a bunch more use! His latest checkup put him at 22lbs 11oz, which is about 94th % Not sure if he's going to stay a giant, but he's sure keeping up for now!

Here's more pictures!

December to March

Almost 6 months

The holidays came and went, and now it's GiGi's 2nd birthday already! Wow. We went to visit Tim & Chandra (Stephanie's brother in Houston) when GiGi was born right after we moved to Kansas City. So much changes in two years!

Here's a picture of Caleb and Mina playing on the floor. They have really started to take a liking to each other!

The holidays were great to see family, but unfortunately we were all sick for most of it. Caleb has been fighting off a cold/cough for a couple of weeks, so we went to the doctor and got some antibiotics to fight it - apparently it's a sinus infection, and potentially even some bronchitis. He's not quite been himself, but thankfully he's a really happy baby, so his upset isn't too bad.

If you didn't get a Christmas letter from us and would like one, send me your contact info. We've had some mishaps with our list, so we know we've missed a few...

Amanda (Stephanie's sister) is due with her baby in just a couple of weeks. So exciting!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season!