Better Late Than Never, Right?

Here's a quick week in review (partly because it wasn't a very exciting week and partly because I have lots to do):

Caleb had a great week at school. Their class now has class pet, a dwarf hamster. Caleb's teachers tell me that he is absolutely IN LOVE with this hamster. In the mornings, we go in and he just walks over to the hamster and blows me kisses like "bye, mom". They also experienced clay for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised when they told me that Caleb was very eager and inquisitive with the clay. Usually he is Mr. Cautious and would wait awhile to see what his friends thought of it before he tried it.

We had a fun time at home Thursday and Friday though it was so cold that all I wanted to do was stay bundled up under the covers but Caleb wasn't on board with that. It was very tough because we are still on this lemonade master cleanse, which is not too bad when you're out of the house and busy but is really not fun when you're hanging out with a 13 month old that keeps asking for food. Who knew your mouth could water over string cheese and Ritz crackers?!?

To attempt to distract Caleb, I opened up a fun present from his Aunt Elyse. He crawled back and forth and back and forth in that tunnel forever.


Then dad came home and had some fun in the tunnel too!


You'll be relieved to know that all Christmas decorations are put away and up in the attic. As part of that process, I unpacked a box that had been shipped with some after-Christmas sale items for next year. Caleb was eating lunch and was totally taken aback by the bubble wrap. Once I was finished unpacking and he was finished eating, I let him see what bubble wrap was about firsthand. The funniest part was when I started jumping on it and he tried to do the same.


Caleb is still loving books (no complaining here!) though I think sometimes he uses them as an excuse to not do something else. "Caleb, let's go to sleep"..."Book, book, book" or "Caleb, time to pick up our toys"..."Book, book, book". What? Am I not supposed to read to the kiddo?

And in a moment of bragging (so rare from parents, I know), let me say that Caleb's sign language vocabulary is coming along wonderfully. He now does "more", "please", "thank you", and "help" and is working on "apple", "water", and "hamster". I need to find out the sign for "banana" because I bet I hear that one no less than 30 times a day.


Saturday night was Miss America. I was not thrilled with the new format, mainly because I thought it was demeaning to the contestants. Not to get on a soapbox but the organization's leadership needs to figure out if a few more TV viewers and being an "It" girl are worth throwing years of tradition, poise, and elegance out the door. It is a tough call because you can't survive on TV with out people watching, but at what cost? Unfortunately, Miss OK did not make it to the Top 16 (for the first time in at least 5 years). I was pleased with the winner, though I would have preferred Miss CA or IN. The new winner has been on several TV shows and did a nice job on Regis and Kelly today. I can see how she was warm and well-spoken in interview, even though she's only 19. What the Miss America pageant really means to me is that it is time to get it in gear for the Miss OK Teen pageant in June. I love it but it is a lot of work and I have definitely enjoyed my "off season". If you want to help find scholarship donors, restaurants to contribute judges and contestants meals, make copies, etc. , let me know and I can put you to work, for sure!

It was finally going to be nice enough on Sunday that we were going to head to the zoo after church. However, plans changed when Caleb woke up with Round 2 of his pink eye. So we went to the after hours clinic yet again and, sure enough, he has pink eye and his ear infection was already back after being off antibiotics for two days. Oh, that reminds me that we visited the ENT Thursday he said Caleb needs tubes in his ears so we are doing that next week. It is a really easy and fast procedure that will hopefully keep those nasty infections away.

Big plans for the Super Bowl, anyone? We will head to a Sunday School friend's house to watch. I am rooting for the Pats because I think a perfect season would be awesome (and maybe a little because Tom Brady is hot, uh... I mean somewhat decent looking).

Have a great week!

1 year and 7 weeks- curious and personality plus

Well, after being sick the first half of the week (ear infection, cold, cough, pink eye, etc.) we are all on the mend. Aaron returned home late Wednesday night so things are feeling almost back to normal (except for the Christmas decorations that are still all piled on the kitchen table waiting to be put up).

Caleb and I spent some quality time at home together as we felt lousy this week. But once his antibiotic kicked in, he was into everything and very personable. Here are some funny pictures of him investigating an oversized gift bag and the dog food bag.

He has also been spending some time on his head. No, he hasn't been falling over but doing some sort of odd peek-a-boo yoga pose where he pushes his legs up while keeping his hands and feet on the ground. I think it's one of those things that he did once maybe on accident but it got such a good reaction from me that now he does it a lot. Or, who knows, maybe they are teaching yoga in his class.

Caleb is also gaining confidence in his walking and in his independence. Last night, we went to Wal-Mart for three or four things so we didn't get a cart to put Caleb in. Aaron carried Caleb for awhile but then set him down to see what he did. Well, off he went up and down the aisles and eventually out the front door (all supervised, I assure you). The same thing happened today at church when we let him have the run of the spacious building. He was so excited that I was afraid he was going to get too much speed and fall over. It is so fun to watch him grow physically and socially.

Speaking of growing up, it really blows my mind when I come across something in Caleb's closet that was given to him when he was a little baby for him to wear down the road. This week, it was an adorable sports-theme denim outfit from our friend Jan. She gave it to Caleb at one of his baby showers last February. I remember thinking at the time that it would take forever for him to grow into it... or 11 months. He really is feeling well in this picture, he just doesn't look like it.

Though he has always liked books, Caleb has taken a real shine to them this week. I can't count the number of times in a day that Caleb says "boo.." (for book), picks one up, and brings it to you to read. One book that we rediscovered this week (b/c I was getting a little tired of the ones we always have out) was a book about rabbits. On one page, it says something about "sniffly noses", so I made a sniff-sniff noise and wiggled my nose...once. From then on, Caleb picks up the book and immediately starts the sniff sniff. It is too funny and I was actually able to catch him mid-sniff today.

When Aaron got in the attic to get down the empty Christmas decoration boxes (see, we are at least heading in the right direction), we took the time to deconstruct and put away some of Caleb's outgrown things like his swing and bouncy seat. The biggest challenge was trying to protect the Exersaucer, it look parts of five trash bags. Of course, my little helpy helperton did not make matters any easier- ha!

This week is Miss America in Las Vegas. Make sure to tune in to Miss America: Reality Check on TLC on Friday and the Miss America Finals on TLC on Saturday. Very excited to see what happens!!

Aaron and I started this Master Cleanse diet/system cleaner today. My friend Heidi and her husband just finished it and both lost a lot of weight and feel healthier and reinvigorated. After Day 1 of 10, I do have to say that it is not the best-tasting stuff and that, even though I am not physically hungry, Caleb's little minced carrots and mac-n-cheese never looked so tasty!! I don't quit things easily but this is really no fun so I thought posting about it on here would give me some accountability. Keep your fingers crossed for us!!

Beyond not eating and (hopefully) finally getting the Christmas decorations put away, this week looks fairly calm...knock on wood.

Have a great one!!

1 year 6 weeks aka "don't you just love school germs?"

Caleb has been back at Riverfield for 3 whole days and he has a respiratory virus and another ear infection. He was perfectly healthy for 3 weeks over Christmas break. I am not really blaming Riverfield because it would be like this at any facility that is the daytime home to lots of young germ-infested children. (I did not include a picture b/c it's too yucky and too pathetic to see him all stuffed up).

Thankfully, Caleb's illness held off until Aaron returned Wednesday evening from Vegas. Caleb sure did miss his "dada", as he would call out for him when he woke up in the morning or in the evening around dinnertime. We tried letting them talk on the phone but Caleb was more interested in pushing the buttons that kept disconnecting them.


Last week was Basketball Homecoming at school, which means "Spirit Week". Tuesday was Twinkie Day so Caleb and his friend, Katy, dressed the same. Here's a cute picture of the two of them:

Caleb grows more and more confident in his walking so I let him walk himself out of the classroom at school. He ended up taking a wrong turn (or at least not the turn I was anticipating) so we could travel down the hallway to see the chinchillas and the snake. He was thrilled with the freedom then quickly aggravated when I picked him up to head to the car. He looks like such a big boy walking down the school's main hallway. sniff sniff

He also continues to be more and more curious. I moved his music table to my closet to keep him busy while I got ready last week. He had fun with that for awhile then soon realized he could use the table to push himself up onto the container of wrapping paper and gift sacks that's tucked away under a row of clothes. He was pretty proud of himself once he got up there.

Friday evening we headed to Dallas to spend a belated Christmas weekend with my mom's side of the family. It was such fun to see Caleb and Julia (just a month older than he) play together. OK, well not play "together" so much as "coexist in the same space". Caleb's cold really came on Friday afternoon and progressed to a feverish cough and matted eyes throughout the weekend. We tried our best to make sure things that Caleb touched were not used by Julia but sorry in advance if she ends up under the weather :( Here's a few shots of the cousins hanging out.

Saturday was Aaron's and my 6th anniversary. Hard to believe it has been that long. It wasn't exactly super romantic chasing Caleb around with a Kleenex and getting snotted on, but it was together time. Plus we counted our Vegas weekend as our celebration.

Aaron is out of town again this week. Mom is going to come to the rescue for part of the day tomorrow as Caleb won't be going to school but Mondays are always crazy for me so I have to be there. I can't imagine how people do it without relatives in the same town!!

Oh, several of my blogging friends have posted that they turned in pics of their kiddos for Regis and Kelly's beautiful baby contest. We submitted a photo too, though of course we waited until the last day and the site was so busy it took 2 hours of hitting refresh and resubmit before it finally went through. Seeing as though they've received thousands and thousands of entries, we obviously aren't expecting anything but, hey you never know.

Have a great week, and prayers for my cousin Cortney who is about 33 weeks along and has started having some contractions. She was hospitalized over the weekend (we kidded her that she was trying to get out of hanging out with the family but we brought the party to her rather small hospital room). She is on medication to stop the contractions for another week and then the Dr. said he'd probably let things run their course if the contractions come back after she gets off the meds.

OK, and I'm back

OK, I promise this will be brief as I have a million things to do and want to get in bed at a decent hour (which probably won't happen b/c I have about 50 pages left in the Patricia Cornwell book I'm reading and I can't wait to finish it).

We had a great trip to Vegas but, before we left, Caleb and I definitely enjoyed the last week of Christmas vacation.

Caleb turned 13 months old on Thursday. The pic at the top of this post is from that day. (Disclaimer: Aaron, King of all Red-Eye Fixing, is still out of town so you're stuck with "devil-eye Caleb this week)

We had a few friends over for New Year's Eve. It was a good time and I really went above and beyond to make sure the house was clean. OK, that's not totally truthful, but I did take off the couch covers and wash them. When I was putting them back on, Caleb figured out that the couch, sans bottom pillows, was just the right size to climb up on. What a big boy!

Caleb was 26 minutes short of making it to midnight on Monday. But he did get his fair share of confetti poppers and blow-horns the next morning :)

He has really enjoyed his zebra this week. I think it's less about riding it, because he doesn't stay on long, and more about his new-found ability to get on and off easily, even when he's naked as a jay bird, like in this picture.

Aaron and I left Caleb in the capable hands of my parents and headed to Vegas early Saturday morning. A word to the wise...make sure your driver's license is current before attempting to get on a plane. (Not that I am speaking from experience or anything. Let's just say this girl I knew might have had to smile her way through the TSA line b/c her license was expired and she didn't have any other photo ID or her SSN card on her).

The stayed at the beautiful Bellagio hotel. Here's a view from our room. Despite waking up to a giant view of Toni Braxton's inner thigh, the hotel was amazing and the night view with the fountains definitely made up for it.

Across from our hotel was the Planet Hollywood hotel and casino, which will host the Miss America pageant at the end of the month. It was SO cool to see our friend Lauren, the current Miss America on several billboards as you came down the strip, as well as on this huge video screen at the front of Planet Hollywood.

You can tell from our pictures that it was unseasonably cold in Vegas, about 20 degrees cooler than it was in Tulsa, in fact. Sunday warmed up quite a bit though.

One of the coolest places in the Bellagio was this chocolate and pastry shop that had a 7 foot chocolate fountain. It had over 500 feet of clear plastic tubing and over 2 tons of white, medium, and dark chocolate coursing through it. Pretty yummy, huh?

Saturday evening we met Aaron's sister and brother-in-law for dinner at this TOTALLY INCREDIBLE (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) restaurant called Craftsteak inside MGM Grand. Not that I am some food expert, but I swear I have never eaten food that good before. So if you're ever in Vegas and in the mood for a fabulous (and pricey) dinner, you have to go there!! After dinner, we went to see KA, which is one of the Cirque du Soleil shows. It was fantastic too, though it didn't even start until 9:30. That's 11:30 Tulsa time so Aaron and I were struggling to stay awake after eating a huge dinner and being up until 1:30 the night before to pack.

I arrived home late last night and only got one joke from my Dad about "the stitches went in fine and will be out by Thursday"...ha ha! I do have to say that Aaron and I both kept checking to make sure we didn't walk off and forget the diaper bag or pacifier or bottle or book or toy (or, or, or). I definitely was glad to see our little buddy and 36 hours was just enough time to relax without missing him too much.

Have a great week!

Delayed Blog This Week

Hello from the fabulous Bellagio Resort and Casino in Las Vegas!! The weekly write-up will be delayed as I do not return to Jenks, America until after midnight tonight. Look for something new Monday or maybe Tuesday.

Have a great week!!