Caleb at 14 Months

Caleb started taking steps (6-8 at a time) right after he turned 13 months.  He still usually crawls when he wants to get somewhere, but he can walk and will walk unprovoked when he is in the mood.  He learned to stand up (without holding onto anything) before he learned to walk, which surprised me because Eliza did the opposite (she was walking for a while before she could just stand up on her own).

Caleb loves pressing buttons and flipping switches.  He lunges to close the garage door every time we get home.  He climbs onto the changing table (which we use as a shelf in the kids' room) and turns the CD player on.  He also loves to talk on cell phones.

I can't count the number of time I have to remove Caleb from the table or the piano or the computer desk each day.  This kid loves to climb!  When we were picking apples, Caleb climbed all the way up the ladder.  I think one of us saw him when he was only half way up, but decided to see how far up he could/would go.  Fortunately he has a pretty innate sense of gravity.  He hasn't had to learn about it the hard way as much as you'd think for someone who climbs as much as he does.

Caleb says quite a few syllables and most of them have multiple meanings.  For example, "ba" can mean "bye" or "bite" or "bike."  "Da" can mean "dog" or "door" or "that" or "dad" (dadada).  I think his first (and maybe only) word with multiple, different syllables is "Eliza."  At first it sounded like "Ziza," but now sounds a little more like the real thing.

Caleb has been working on his molars this month, which wasn't super fun, but he survived.  Eliza had 14 teeth by 14 months.  Caleb only has 9 at 14 months, but it looks like there are 5 more the will be breaking through any day now.  His swollen, sensitive gums have made him a little pickier than usual about the food he'll eat.  Applesauce seems to be a soothing favorite.

I think I have mentioned before that I love seeing Caleb's boy instincts.  Anything (and everything) can become a car to push around.  He often uses my mixer (sans beaters) to zoom around (Eliza, on the other hand, pretends it's a dog and walks it by the cord).

 Caleb loves to play peek-a-boo and initiates it himself every time he helps me fold laundry.

 Caleb had loads of fun with his little walker (that also converts into a bike) this month.  We brought it along with us whenever we visited Mike for dinner at the law school.  He loves to push it around the patio area.

 Caleb got his first (I think) black eye this month.  We're not quite sure how it happen, but it involved falling off a chair in the kitchen.  It's pretty much healed here (his right eye, which is on the left of the picture), but it's the only picture we of it we have.

 It's rare that Caleb sits on the bench of the picnic table.

Usually he enjoys his lunch sitting on the table.

 I'm always afraid of kids choking on apples (choking is one of my mommy paranoias), so I rarely feed my kids apples in the solid form.  We eat lots of homemade applesauce.  When we picked apples Eliza and Caleb ate apples like they were candy (and no one even choked!).

 I love his big blue eyes!

My littlest helper!