Hey - new videos!

Well, we've been away from the blog for a long time, but I figured it's time to get some new videos of the two little guys up here...  So following are some video excerpts from life over the last few months.  Enjoy!


First is a sweet video of Caleb and Micah playing together.  These boys sure do love each other!  Caleb has taken on the role of "Big Brother" very well, and always helps point things out or demonstrate things for Micah.



Next comes Micah's first swim.  We went over to hang out with some friends Brendan and Joanna and play in the pool at their complex.  Micah loved it!  We're sure he'll be a little water lover like his big brother.



Next, a little from daily life: Micah gives Sierra some loving.  Micah enjoys petting Sierra and grabbing her collar.  Sierra is incredibly patient and often purposely sits down next to Micah.



During our second week of summer break we enjoyed a week at a beach house near Santa Barbara with Julie's parents.  It was a wonderful, relaxing, beach-filled week.  Here's Micah playing a new game with Mommy and showing off his famous huge four-toothed grin.



One day we went to the Santa Barbara Zoo and Caleb got to feed a giraffe.  He's fearless!



So this one's a few weeks old now and Micah is completely crawling now, but this video shows Micah practicing his crawling - and Caleb helping with some demonstration.



A couple weeks ago Caleb got a bit of a bug that gave him seemingly endless congestion.  It's the kind of yuck that can really be hard on a little guy, and this morning in particular he was taking it pretty hard.  Julie was trying to feed him breakfast and felt sad for Caleb, but after 15 or 20 minutes him of acting like this and telling her to "Just wash dishes"  she just had to record his pitiful cries.  I'm sure all you parents out there can empathize.



Caleb is normally a huge eater, but we don't give him many sweets - only on special occasions.  As a result, he gets positively giddy when he gets candy or a cookie.  Below was his reaction while eating a chocolate chip cookie.



Hope everybody out there is doing well, and greetings from Brian, Julie, Caleb, Micah, & Sierra!

Dancing seems to be a theme here

So, the latest batch of videos from the O'Neill household seems to have a high proportion of videos of Caleb dancing. He's got the music deep inside. If you watch just one video from this whole upload, watch the "Scout" video (the third one)... it's probably the cutest thing you've seen all week.  In chronological order (dating back to July 18th):

First is a scene from daily life...  Caleb DJ'ing our kitchen clean-up time.  Of course there's dancing.  Also includes an animal recognition game and a near disaster with the dishwasher rack.  This one's nearly 3 minutes long, so only watch this if you're a relative.  Otherwise, go ahead and skip on to the next couple videos.



Next we've got Caleb enjoying another of his favorite hobbies - tormenting Sierra.  This one was especially fun with a special dog-bothering toy that squeaks like a duck when it rolls.  You'll notice Julie's parents' dog Watson got in on the excitement a little bit too.  This is notable as the only video that does not feature dancing.



Way back in December, Caleb got a whole bunch of toys for his birthday and Christmas.  Being the resourceful parents that we are, we decided to put some of them away so he'd have new toys throughout the year.  One of the toys that just got put into rotation was "My Pay Scout" from Kristen and Dom - it's a green stuffed dog that talks, sings, and knows Caleb's name!  He's been LOVING this toy and even takes it to bed with him.  So here's a super cute video of Caleb enjoying some of Scout's songs.



Last week Julie and Caleb went to the brand-new music play time at Orange Public Library.  Caleb loves music and starts dancing any time he hears a beat.  If he hears drumming, he'll stop what he's doing and start drumming on his belly.  So we knew it would be a good time.  To start things off, they put out a bunch of drums and mallets.  Caleb scoped the scene and quickly made his decision - to the Big Drum.  He started dancing when the music came on and forgot to actually start drumming for a bit, but with a little reminder he started laying down some of his own beats.

After drum time was up and drums and mallets were cleaned up (not without protestation), it was rhythmic gymnastics time.  Caleb was surprised to see that none of the other kids figured out you could grab more than one scarf! After hoarding multiple scarves and throwing them in the air, he quickly succumbed to the beat when the music came on. The only thing that broke the spell was when Caleb spotted the stack of drums that had been put away.  

Thanks for watching, and we send greetings and blessings from all of us!  Drop us a line on facebook or email!

New videos - 18 months

Well, we've been busy this summer, moving to our brand new old house in Fullerton not even a month ago. The projects just don't seem to end, but through it all Caleb keeps sneaking up on us and getting bigger and cuter every day. Here are a couple highlight videos from the last few weeks.

Overdue for a nap:
 With Caleb outgrowing clothes and toys seemingly every day, we decided it was also time for him to outgrow the pacifier. The first night he went down to sleep without even a peep. We secretly congratulated ourselves on being such good parents and wondered why other kids have so much trouble breaking the habit. Day 2 we became a little concerned when he cried a little at nap time. By Day 3 nap time was a complete thirty-minute scream-fest. This video was taken around 5 PM after three failed nap attempts throughout the day.
 

Building a tower:
Caleb is really into organizing and stacking. One day he surprised us by breaking into the canned food cabinet (that part was not surprising) and building some impressive towers.

 

 First haircut:
Well, we put it off long enough, but eventually Caleb's long surfer locks had to go... Especially since the back was starting to look more like a bad comb-over. Julie took him to a special kids' hairdresser, and you can see they had quite the setup. After he came home I couldn't believe how much more grown-up it makes him look, what with all his 2T clothes and such...

 

 Hope you enjoy these videos! We'll post some pictures of the ongoing house projects one of these days, so stay tuned on facebook.

Springtime videos

Well it's been a long time since we've updated but lots is going on at the O'Neill household. First, a video from a trip to Huntington Beach with Caleb back in March. Caleb is our little surfer dude-in-training and loves all things water. At the beach he cannot be kept out of the water! He just walks out into the water until he gets deep enough that we lift him out. Rinse and repeat.

 

 One of our new favorite activities at home is dancing - Caleb loves music and when he hears the right song, he starts to move with the music. A couple of his favorite dance moves are the Clap, the Bob, the Spin, and Raise the Roof. Here's a video of him dancing with Grandpa Griffis - this was the debut of his signature Spin Move.

 

 Here's a cute little video of Caleb playing with one of his favorite toys. Thanks, Aunt Christy and family! This video is a nearly two months old, and now Caleb roars loudly along with Rex.



And last but not least, Caleb's first Easter Egg hunt! Grandma and Grandpa O'Neill were here for Easter and we set up a little hunt in the front yard. Caleb was pretty quick in figuring out how to open up the plastic eggs and loved the goldfish inside - and some had M&M's!

 

Caleb's dragon encounter

Today we went to Chinatown to celebrate the Lunar New Year and experience the Golden Dragon Parade. It was Caleb's first parade, and also his first dragon encounter - and boy did he encounter one! Fortunately he's a brave happy soul, and he just waved hi!

Reading his new favorite book

This video is especially dedicated to Caleb's Great Grandma McClure who bought him a very special book for his first birthday. The book is called Moo. Sometimes when he sees the book he says the title, which kind of sounds like "MMMMMMmmmmm." He also says this when we get to the cow page, though of course not here when being video-taped.
As you will see in the following video, he also enjoys the yellow squeaky duck on the duck page.



Thanks Great Grandma!

Caleb's Walking!

While visiting Grandma and Grandpa O'Neill in Michigan, Caleb took some of his first steps that we could catch on camera! He has taken a few before, but this is some of his best walking we've seen. He is just three days shy of his first birthday.