November 27

Today we got in some quality time at the pool! We took a break from the indoor pool for a while, and now Caleb is freaked out by the noisiness and chaos of it. Once he adjusts, though, he loves to swim! He splashes his hands and kicks his legs and smiles so proudly, as if he were swimming all by himself.

Caleb was staring up at the big water slide. Someday, buddy - just not today! 

He was really tickled by the jets of water at the entrance to the pool. He's always enjoyed them, but now that he can walk under their arches, he finds them especially exciting. Right after this photo, he noticed a group of ladies who were watching him. He promptly began flirting with them.

Then my lens got foggy, but I think the effect is kind of neat!

We are definitely making the most of Chris' time off work. What a fun few days we've had!

November 26

Well, Thanksgiving is over.

We hosted the big meal for both my family and Chris' family, and when all was said and done, it felt like less than a triumph. We enjoyed everyone's company, and the food was mostly good, but my mashed potatoes were weird, I barely took any photos, and somehow the evening ended up feeling rushed and a little bit "off".

Plus, in the midst of the pre-meal chaos, I was mean to Chris in front of his family. Ugh.

So. I'm glad that's over with, and today was a much better day that involved playing with Max and Ryan, great deals on cloth diapers for NewBaby, cookies and coffee at Bread Company, a (camera-less) trip to the park, a cold run for Chris and Caleb, one of our favorite meals (salmon with ravioli, wilted spinach, and a lemon-garlic-butter sauce), and a good movie to look forward to. It was wonderful.

Here are some of the few photos from yesterday and today.

After I had scooped all of my (homemade) whipped cream into my serving bowl, I let Caleb sample the remainder. He was hooked, and couldn't get enough!

One of the few photos of Thanksgiving dinner. I'm disappointed about that. :(

Caleb bundled up for a late-afternoon run with Daddy. Chris was skeptical of my bundling abilities, until I reminded him that Sara and I spent all last winter bundling our boys as we trained for the half marathon. At the end of the run, Caleb was toasty warm!

So. What am I thankful for? A forgiving husband, a family that loves me despite the mistakes I always seem to make, a little boy who is more delightful than I deserve, the little gift wiggling in my belly, and my God who is ever faithful, always forgiving, and more loving than I deserve.

Amen.

November 23

Whoops - I took a few days off there!

But today, I was talking to my Mom, telling her about all of the funny things Caleb is saying now. Suddenly it dawned on me - the kid is speaking in rudimentary sentences! Mom quickly reminded me that I should be writing this down, so a blog post it is.

Caleb's current phrases:

Santa ho ho

Heart boom boom (accompanied by thumping his chest where his heart is)

Big truck vroom

Cat sleep (or nap) (with snoring noises)

It's especially funny, considering that today I got an email from BabyCenter about my 16-month, 3-week old toddler's development. Among the things he should be doing? Speaking as many as 7 words. Oops. He surpassed that a long time ago. I love that my little boy loves language so much!

Also? I love that he's such a cutie pie. Today he insisted that we go outside, so I insisted he wear his hat and mittens.

The mittens didn't last long. In this photo, he's running toward my potted strawberry plants. He wanted to play with the dried vines, but the mittens got in the way. Off they went!

He was happy to have found the planting tag for the strawberries.

I know - you can't see his face. But he's still adorable!

I guess "It's cold out!" is no longer a valid excuse to stay inside.

November 20

Apparently Caleb needs to play with other kids more.

Today, Sara brought Cooper and Carter over for a pancake party. The boys had so much eating pancakes and playing! See?

(Yes, it was lovely enough outside that the boys were able to play on the patio with no jackets!)

Coop was so smiley and cheerful! Isn't he a cutie?

Caleb was clearly thinking, "Maaaaa.... put the camera away! I'm trying to play with my friend!"

Sara also brought over her new baby - a big, lovely lens that I tried desperately not to drool on. She got some really cute pictures of the boys, but now Blogger is being lame and won't let me post them.

So. Fun, fun, fun.

Until naptime.

Sara and her boys and her lens left at 10, which is Caleb's normal naptime. But he must have been so excited from all of the testosterone and all of the fun that he didn't sleep. We tried for an hour - nothing. We played more, and I finally got him to sleep at 1 - for 45 minutes.  It was a challenging day, but I'm learning that if I stress over the naps, it makes everything worse. If it's not bothering him to be awake, it shouldn't bother me. So I'm getting over it.

Later, we played with trash. Because what baby needs toys, when he has trash?

Someone discovered that the squishy toy balls fit perfectly in the end of the paper towel tube.

I discovered that the apparatus could be used as a blowdart.

Fun was had by all!

And now that tired boy has been asleep for nearly 3 hours. Hopefully tomorrow is better!



November 18

Caleb and I were getting ready to go to the grocery store today when we noticed a package on the front porch. It was for Caleb, from his GREAT Aunt Maggie. Since I'm kind of impatient, we opened it right away.

(Note: I'm pretty proud of myself for actually letting Caleb open this all by himself. It was tough work to resist my desire to open it for him!)

He looks suspicious in this photo, but I think it was actually a combination of curiosity and interest in the polka-dotted tissue paper.

This was inside:

(Note: Prepare to die from cuteness overload. You may need to have someone trained in CPR nearby.)

OHMYGOSHHOWCUTEISHE????

Now, I realize he looks skeptical. And in fact, he was skeptical.

But he actually liked the hat. 

Right after this photo, I took the hat off of him and put it on my head, so that he could see how funny it is. Then, he laughed and laughed!

After we got over the hilarity of the hat, we found a great new book in the box.

One of Caleb's current favorite books is Tails, by the same author. We've had our eye on this book for a while, and Caleb loves it!

It was really hard to pull him away from the book and the hat to finally go to the grocery store. But when we got home? We read the book at least five times.

Thanks, Maggie!



November 16

Caleb and I have been ridiculously productive the past two days. I'm sure it's a spree that will end soon, but I'm pretty proud of us. (Caleb gets credit for the productivity simply for being cheerful while I was productive. If only it worked that way in real life!)

Today, in an effort to reward him for his general fantastic-ness, and in a (fruitless) effort to tire him out for an afternoon nap, I took him to the park again.

This kid is so much fun at the park!

At the foot of the slide, trying (unsuccessfully) to climb up it. I think he knew he couldn't do it. You can see it in his eyes.

Running - all over the place! The ground is a fun spongy texture, which makes running even more fun!

He ran over to the swings and said, "Shing! Shing!" He was thrilled to swing.

I only got laughs like this when I pushed him really high.

A pensive moment

How sweet is he?

 

As Caleb was climbing the steps to go down the slide (again), I found myself marveling at how much fun he is. I've discovered that I'm definitely not one of those, "Don't grow up!" mamas. When he was an infant, I thought he was delightful. But at each new milestone, I've discovered that he's even more fun!

However, I have no mental image of myself with "kids". Babies, I can picture. Kids, not so much. Will Caleb really be that much fun at 9? 13? Logic says yes, but I'm still not sure about the whole kid thing...



November 14

I feel like we did nothing today, but I think we did something. I don't know - it's all a blur.

What's not a blur is last night, when we got together with Chris' family to celebrate his Grandad's 80th birthday. It was a lovely party - so classy, and yet so fun - and so full of photo ops that my hands were itching for my DSLR. Unfortunately, the only camera I brought along was our 3-year-old point and shoot, which just doesn't do it for me anymore. At times, I found myself shaking the camera, hoping it would move faster! 

So of all of the beautiful moments, the only one I got was this:

This is Grandad with 10 of his 23 grandchildren. Yes, every member of this family is ridiculously good looking. That's one of the myriad reasons I married into the clan. What's especially crazy is that Grandad's grandchildren range in age from 33 to 5 months old. It was a really special celebration, and we were so happy to be there.

Today, we just went to church and puttered around the house. Well, I puttered (and napped). Chris was productive.

Here are my boys reading Caleb's current favorite obnoxious book:

Apparently it's a captivating read!

Tomorrow, it's back to bizness - oil change, flu shot booster, appointment making, and meeting with midwife #2. No more puttering for me!



November 13

Today Chris played with Caleb while I did some shopping. Just as I was finishing up, Chris called. He wanted to take Caleb to the park.

Even though it was 45 degrees out and windy.

So they went to the park, and I met them.

Caleb had such a great time, and I was so happy that Chris could experience how much fun the park is now that Caleb can walk.

As soon as Chris set him down, Caleb took off running, shouting, "Play! Play! Play!"

After some running, Caleb climbed the steps to the slide.

It's so tall!

And my boys went down together, many, many times.

Then it got really cold and we went home. The end.



November 10

Today was a rough one.

The child? He woke up screaming last night at 10:45, 11:20, 11:45, 12:15, and 1:30. Finally at 1:30 Chris determined that Caleb must be hungry, and fed him a midnight snack of Goldfish crackers and grapes. It worked, and Caleb went back to sleep, but he didn't have the common decency to sleep in this morning.

So. Sleep-deprived child + sleep-deprived Mommy = stressful day.

This morning, I left Caleb playing in his room so that I could take a quick restroom break. While I was in the bathroom, I heard a metallic clang coming from Caleb's bathroom. This is what I found:

My child carried an empty bottle of children's ibuprofren into the bathroom, abandoned it on the toilet, found a step stool, climbed up on it, threw his toothpaste onto the toilet, and was reaching for his toothbrush.

Apparently the kid just really likes to brush his teeth!

  

I think it's because Chris and I are such super-good parents. We've obviously instilled good dental hygiene in our child, and his desire to brush his teeth has nothing to do with the fact that the toothpaste is sweet and the toothbrush is kept out of reach.

Later, my last-ditch attempt to maintain sanity with a whiny child ended with us at the park. Since it was 75 and sunny (in November!), it was a good trip.

And the park is way more fun now that Caleb can walk!!!! 

I know this one's out of focus, but I love it so much. He was so excited to run around under the climbing apparatus!

The park has a musical theme, so these pipes made a fun noise when Caleb banged on them.

The park was win-win-win:

It distracted Caleb and kept him from fussing.

We both got a good dose of Vitamin D.

It wore him out and he took a loooong nap.

But boy, am I glad this day is over!

November 8

Two big things happened today.

#1. I felt New Baby move for the first time!

I'm 16 weeks pregnant today, and while I was still laying in bed this morning, I felt that sweet little ping-pong ball sensation of tiny little feet against my side. I realize that in 4 months, those feet will not be so tiny and the sensation not so sweet, but it's still so wonderful and delightful.

#2. Caleb attempted to say his name for the first time!

With all of the words Caleb has, I really thought he would have been saying his name for a long time. But no. Today, however, he started trying! It's pretty indecipherable - sounds something like "Tay-bah!" - but he's intentionally trying to repeat it when I say it! I don't know why it feels like such a big deal, except that it totally is.

It was 75 and sunny today, in November. We were definitely outside.

This is me with my BrownBear. I'm not wearing an evening gown - shadows are just funny.

I'm really not sure what he was doing here - I think objecting when I told him he could use the chalk on the ground, but not on the patio furniture. Regardless, it's funny.

It was a good, busy day. Now I'm going to go to bed early, and not clean.

November 7

We attempted the bubble bath again tonight.

Results were much better.

Also, Caleb is finally getting to the stage where he doesn't immediately put crayons in his mouth.

It's really fun! 



November 6

Caleb seemed fine. Really - just fine!

He made it past the 24-hour mark without any more "sick" incidents, and I thought, "Hooray! It's just a 24-hour bug, and my little bug is fine now!"

We made plans to meet his GREAT Aunt Maggie for lunch. And then? At the 48-hour mark? He puked. All over himself, again. This time, it was his high chair, instead of the car seat. I'm getting really good at scrubbing vomit out of seat straps!

And just like before, he was happy as a clam after vomiting everywhere. So. Are we done with this nonsense? I hope so, because sick baby + real estate photographer coming on Monday = chaos in my world. I have lots to do, and I really don't want to waste any more time cleaning up puke.

Oh, that and I want my poor, sweet baby to feel better. That was implied, right?

My only photo of the day (I was too busy assembling a chair, hanging artwork, replacing the bathroom mirror, and installing a new faucet, plus purchasing all of said items):

This is Caleb's first bubble bath. It was pretty unimpressive.

November 4

I didn't post yesterday because we spent most of our evening meeting with a realtor.

Yup, a realtor.

We're hoping against hope and putting our house on the market, despite the fact that the odds of us actually selling it are terrible. But we're praying, praying, PRAYING that God will send someone who will love this house as much as we do and who will be willing to pay what we need them to pay and who will be blessed by this house. Luckily, we're not in a rush, so we can afford to wait. I mean, there's that whole baby-coming-in-April thing, but, you know, whatever. Babies don't take up too much space.

So. Realtor last night. And this morning was a MOPS morning. Only Caleb woke up sick.

This is what a sick Caleb looks like.

I'm wearing him in my sling, because he was only happy if I wore him.

We had to stop by MOPS this morning because it was my turn to bring food. I say "stop by", but it's a 30-minute drive each way. Caleb was fine, though, until about ten minutes into the drive home, when he promptly vomited all over himself. I watched it happen in my baby-view mirror. Luckily, we were close to my parents house, so I was able to stop by and clean him up, instead of having to drive 20 more minutes with a vomit-covered baby.

So far, that was the only puke incident. Let's hope it's over now, and neither Chris nor I catch his yuckiness.

This evening, he was cheerful as can be! 

The only hint that he was sick was his super-cuddliness. 

And maybe Mommy's tired look... cleaning up that car seat was no easy task! 

I think I earned my hugs today.