i've been busy, i promise

so, to the grandmas, nanas, and other relatives who are thinking, where are my pictures already? i am sorry, but i promise they are coming. we got a new camera and have already taken a few pictures with it, but are waiting until a particular picture (to be included with Christmas cards) has been taken to upload more on flickr.

but seriously, this is the first time i've really caught a chance to blog, and that's only cause we're working on getting caleb to bed earlier (today he was down by 815pm) and even at that, i am neglecting other, more important things to do this. last saturday our church hosted a ladies christmas tea for what i think was around 80 people, and i was basically in charge of the food, although i did have a few very wonderful, very important helpers to get us completely ready to go. it went well, and i had a blast, but it was quite an undertaking, and it is nice to have it behind me now. and just when we thought the tick saga was winding to a close... about a week ago we found one in the bed, after almost 2 weeks of not finding any at all... not even on the dog... and so moved back into the office/guest room, and had the bedroom treated again today. we haven't finished writing our christmas letter, haven't even started addressing cards, and at this point hope to just beat last year's record of april for sending out presents.

so, now for the fun part: caleb pictures! so, this is how he is when i put him down for the night:
this is how he was laying one morning when i went in to get him up:
he looks quite pleased with himself, doesn't he? he must have been awake for a while and was just happily wriggling around in his crib. luckily, he is usually in a fantastic mood first thing in the morning, and smiles like crazy at me when i come in to get him up. but i have never seen him pull off this kind of maneuver before, and he has yet to repeat it - just like rolling over onto his stomach at 5 days old. as you can see, he also managed to get his legs free from his swaddler, that kid has got some serious legs on him.

ok, one more:
so, this is him sort of smiling, it's be best picture i have gotten of one though close up, the new camera takes good pics but i have yet to really get a feel for the shutter speed, which always seems to take the picture about 2 seconds after you want it to. so about 2 seconds before this he was completely ear to ear smiley with his cute toothless little gums showing like crazy. he also seems to really be aware of the camera as a separate entity and so after about one picture i have to work to get him to ignore the camera (he just stares at it, mesmerized) and to look at me to get him grinning again.

he's being a really great baby still, still sleeping through the night ( usually i wake him up to feed him once, around 2am) and he is really starting to be more alert and reach out to play with his toys and books, and (my favorite part) he will reach out to touch our faces when we are close enough. he hates tummy time though, and so i am a little worried that he will take longer to get total head control and get crawling, but he is progressing, and it is fascinating to watch him grow.