11 months

Caleb,

Somehow you have grown up an extraordinary amount this month. You no longer seem like my little 'baby' - when I could just hold you and you'd lay still, content in my arms. Now you are always on the go, wanting to crawl or cruise around all the time. You do not sit still nor is just sitting in momma's lap fun enough for you anymore. I'm coming to the sad realization that you are becoming a toddler. An independent, want to do things your way by yourself, curious, but cute as a button little boy.

You have a total of 5 teeth now, with the 6th one coming in on the top. You can give high fives, say 'da-da' and 'ma-ma', dance, and can make the Indian noise. When asked 'where's your ball' you look all around the room until you find it and crawl to go get it. You also go to the front door when I ask if daddy is coming home or if a dog is outside. It's amazing to see you understand my words and actually do things I ask you to do.

Let me just say you are such a ham around the ladies. If it's possible for an 11-month old to flirt, you absolutely do it. You also love being around a crowd. We went to brunch with several of our friends recently where you honestly had the entire restaurant ohhing and ahhing over you. I don't know if it was the way you were dancing in your chair or your irresistible smile with those chubby cheeks, big blue eyes, and long blond hair. I've honestly received multiple comments that you should be in commercials or that I need to put you in the cutest baby contest. No joke.

You are our sleeping machine. Not only do you continue to sleep 12 consecutive hours during the night, you also take about a 2 hour nap in the morning and another 2 hour nap in the afternoon. You get so excited when you're about to go to bed - you squeal and do a little dance on the changing table as we put your pj's on.

I made the mistake one time of forgetting Blue when we spent the afternoon at your Mimi and Pop's. You could not sleep without him. Thankfully you only want Blue when you're sleeping, but I'm wondering if the day will ever come when you want to take Blue with you everywhere you go. You absolutely love that stuffed animal and I think it's the cutest thing in the world when your thumb automatically goes in your mouth as soon as you see or touch him.

Caleb, you are so fun to be around. Your daddy and I just love seeing more and more of your personality coming out and are so blessed to have such a happy, laid back, charming little boy.

progress

My sewing work station is slowly, but surely coming together. I still have to find a storage solution for all my fabric, batting, and other bigger sewing tools. But here's what's been done thus far:

The first project was to turn our $20 beat-up kitchen table from craigslist into a work table. Steve, with the help of a friend, cut the table in half so that it's more narrow and looks more like a desk than a kitchen table. Then he sanded the top and put polyurethane on it to make it look better. Lastly, I painted the legs and underneath the top an off-white. I wish I had a before picture of the table - you wouldn't even know it's the same table anymore!

I found the chair at a local antique store for $10. I still need to make a cushion for it, as the seat isn't that comfortable after sitting in it a while.

My next find was the pinkish jewelry box on etsy that I'll use to store all my needles, thimbles, and other small sewing tools.

The mason jar shelf that I found on the internet is also coming together. My dad had some molding left over, which I painted the same off-white color from the table. After gathering some old mason jars and miniature milk bottles at various antique stores, we screwed them on the molding using hose clamps. Now all that's left is to find one more mason jar for the other one I'm making and then hang them both up on the wall! I'll use these to store scissors, pens/pencils, ribbon, measuring tap, rulers, etc.