Week 47- The Calm Before the Storm

This was a pretty laid back week for us. Besides Caleb still fighting off his cold/allergy thing, we've just been having fun hanging around the house. This upcoming week includes several activities like Halloween, family pictures, etc. that are only the beginning of a crazy holiday season. Looking forward to it though. I LOVE Christmas and celebrate Nov. 1st by pulling out my Christmas CDs. Plus it will be fun for Caleb to actually realize what's going on around him instead of sleeping through all the fun events. And I bet he knows the Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas Album by heart by the end of 2007!

Like I said, next Saturday are our family pictures so I have been holding off on another haircut for Caleb until Thursday or Friday. This makes for some pretty interesting hair-do's, especially in the mornings or when I try to spike it up in front.




Caleb's hair hasn't been nearly as curly lately. I don't know if it's because he hasn't been as hot and sweaty, because I've not let it get as long as last time, or because I cut off the curls and they aren't coming back. It definitely makes him look even more like a little man.

We took his high chair cover in to the dry cleaners this week (I know, I know, I should have looked at the label before buying a high chair cover that couldn't go through the washer at home) so Caleb spent several meals in his booster seat at the real table. He thought it was lots of fun. So did the dogs as the tray is narrow enough that Caleb can look over the side and see the dogs begging for food next to the chair. He's such a sweet boy that he just loves to share with them. This picture also captures the true Caleb...always willing to eat :) We had a potluck dinner with Caleb's teacher and the other parents from class this week. Each parent introduced themselves and had to give one adjective to describe their child. Many parents said things like, "happy, smiley, curious, sweet". Aaron said one word that described Caleb was "hungry". And the teacher and administrators all nodded in agreement.


Caleb continues to be a 'helper' with his Dad around the house. Aaron was installing our new cable box on Saturday so Caleb helped hold the ladder steady. He used that as practice for later when he was trying his own acrobatics on the ladder. Aaron assures me he was totally safe. I'll just say if I had been home I would have nipped that in the bud.




Here's a copy of Caleb's school photo. Isn't he a cutie?? Someone commented that this is the only age that it's cute to have fat rolls on your thighs in a picture- ha!


Caleb was featured in a Riverfield ad recently in the GTR Newspapers (BA Express, Union Boundary, Jenks Gazette, etc.) I think it will also run in the November Tulsa People so keep an eye out for it. Guess it pays to be in the marketing department :) I will try to find our copy and scan it in.

The week 47 picture features two of his new favorite things- an angel figurine from his bookshelf and a red chip clip that's always on the fridge. Who knows what about these items caught his attention but he loves them. However, nothing compares still to his very very favorite... the turtle from his collection of bath toys. He is never far away from that turtle and it brings a smile to his face even if he's screaming. Here's a shot of him telling me about his turtle. He has learned that more volume means more attention. Think a 10 month old gets the concept of "inside voice"? Not so far.


Today is my mom's birthday. She was very excited because, before Congress voted to move it back a week, it was supposed to be daylight savings so she was going to get a 25 hour birthday (and if you know my mom you'd know nothing could excite her more!). But she still had a good one. My sister came in town last night and we ventured to El Guapo's Mexican restaurant downtown. It was a fun atmosphere and had really good margaritas. Then my parents came over tonight for cake, ice cream, and presents. We thought it would be funny to have Caleb's 47 Weeks sign and Mom's 2800+ Weeks sign but she didn't seem thrilled about it.

We are headed to Asbury for Fall Festival on Wednesday. Most of our friends and their kiddos will be there so it should be fun. No telling how Caleb will react to being in his costume for an extended period of time. Really as long as we can get a few cute shots, he can take it off after that.

It was a weird weekend with no Sooners game and no Chiefs game. At least we didn't move down in the BCS.

Have a good one!!

Week 46- Preparing for Halloween

A nice boring week again, except that Caleb is once again battling a runny nose. I hear it's going to be quite awhile before he'll learn to blow his own nose. This is discouraging because he totally hates the nasal aspirator (unless you give it to him to play with and carry around the house). Guess Aaron and I will continue the two-person "restrain and suck" maneuver through several more colds.

We have been practicing wearing the headgear to Caleb's Halloween costume around the house so he gets used to it. It really just makes him fussy, but it is so cute and maybe tomorrow will be the day he doesn't mind wearing it. He actually doesn't care as long as you don't fasten it around his chin. Here are a couple of cute pictures from this weekend's "practice session".

Yep, he's going to be a turtle. I know I said I was going to try to keep his costume a secret, but I just couldn't help it. It is fitting because he loves his turtle toy and likes to say it too. I am leaning toward a turtle cake for his birthday but am more than slightly intimidated by making a cake. Think I'll call and price some cake-making places.

He is making slow progress toward walking. He will gladly walk with you hold his hands, guiding him and cruises from couch to chair to piano bench. Most recently he has started adding a bear crawl move into his regular crawling motion. It's pretty cute.

We took Caleb out to the pumpkin patch today. Well, it was actually a produce stand that had lots of pumpkins, not a patch. Caleb has shown recent fascination with pumpkins and went around pointing to all of them, saying, "ball...ball...ball". I can't wait for him to be old enough to strategically survey the pumpkins, looking for the perfect one to bring home and carve.

We've been having fun watching Caleb mimic our actions. Most recently he's taken to making a kissing noise. It kinda looks like a fish face too but I'll go with kiss since that's sweeter. This is a funny video of him in kissing action:


Aaron has been working to fix our screen door this week so we can enjoy the cooling temperatures. Caleb was very much interested in the project and Aaron was good to be as patient as he could be with his little 'helper'. It is fixed now and no longer makes a horrible screeching noise or gets off its track.

OU was once again victorious, though they dropped a spot in the silly BCS poll (forget the BCS and it's stupid computers, let's have playoffs!!) and the Chiefs won against the Raiders with Priest Holmes playing for the first time in two years. Yeah!

Busy week with lots of evening activities for us. Asbury is having a Community Emphasis Sunday next week to encourage those that aren't plugged in to find a Sunday School class. If you want to check it out, head to Asbury Room 2821 next Sunday at 9:15.

Have a great one!

Week 45 - Blissfully Boring

This week was totally uneventful and WONDERFUL! Caleb is back to his regular self. School went well Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Thursday Caleb took his first trip to the zoo with our playgroup friends. It was very fun. Caleb didn't have much of a morning nap so I ended up carrying him around a little more than I would have preferred but it was a good time and a beautiful fall day. He's still young enough that he didn't really realize that there were animals right in front of him unless they were moving and fairly close to the fence- like the goats in the petting zoo and the huge Galapagos turtles. We enjoyed a ride on the train. (Pay no attention to the goldfish crumbs stuck to his chin in the picture but feel free to note the zebras on his shirt- how perfect for the zoo!) Our friends the Walls got a family pass for their son's first birthday from his grandparents. I think that is a fun idea for Caleb's birthday, though the zoo is on the other side of the world from Jenks.

I can't remember if I posted a few weeks ago about our big vacuum purchase, the Dyson specifically created for pet hair. It is awesome and I have a new enthusiasm for vacuuming. It is great to not have to dump the chamber multiple times during a vacuum session and the cord is long enough that I only move it once through the entire house. It is amazing how filthy our house was before we got this vacuum. So I mentioned my new excitement in housekeeping to a friend but said I still hated mopping our tile surfaces. She showed me her new Lysol steam cleaning mop and said it worked great. I ordered it online from Bed Bath and Beyond and it came in on Friday. This thing is great!!! I mopped the kitchen with my old mop last Saturday morning. Here's a picture of the scrubbing cloths after I cleaned the kitchen on Friday(it comes with six of them and you just wash them so you're not having to buy new ones like you do with a swiffer). YUCK!


Saturday we dropped Caleb off at my parents' house and traveled to Norman for the OU/Mizzou game. ESPN College Game Day was there but they guys weren't on the set when we walked by. The game was very exciting and a lot of fun! We were in the end zone, which is a good angle to watch the plays unfold. And it's always good when your team wins :) After fighting through traffic, we got home a little before midnight (my parents brought Caleb to our house to put him to sleep- what great babysitters!). Caleb slept pretty soundly, but we did think it was funny that he was able to since this is how we found him as we tucked him in.

Tonight we had a Sunday School hayride and bonfire at a class member's house. It was so much fun, though it was too windy to have a fire so we just grilled out. Caleb had a good time crawling around their back porch and took his first hayride. This is not a great picture but he really did have fun.


When we were giving him his bath tonight, I noticed his waterproof patch was about halfway off. We gently tugged it the rest of the way off and Caleb's scar looks really good. Dr. Li did a great job with a neat incision. We go in this week for a post-surgery follow up visit. I think I am going to get some Mederma to make it as minimal as possible but it is in a very discreet area.

The Chiefs were victorious today!! And Tony Gonzalez now has the NFL record for most career touchdowns by a tight end. I will cling to this as my fantasy football team is stinking big time. I played a guy who had 2 players on the IR or on a bye week and I still lost. GRRR!

Another wonderfully low key week. Have a great one!

Week 44- 10 Months Old and an Outpatient Surgery

Caleb was such an easy baby for the first 9+ months of his life :) Then we had the never-ending cold, the stomach virus, the ear infection, and topped it all off with a hernia and subsequent surgery.

"WHAT?!?," you may be asking yourself. Yep, Caleb went to school last Monday (with no poopie issues, yippee!) and when I changed his diaper shortly after we got home, I saw that something was amiss in the "male anatomy" area. I called Aaron to see if guys had lymph nodes that could have become swollen due to his recent illnesses but this was way bigger (literally) than lymph nodes. When I called our pediatrician, he said to come in right away. By the time we left his office around 6:30 that evening, we had a confirmed hernia and the phone number of a pediatric surgeon to visit the next day. We visited her office at noon on Tuesday, scheduled the surgery for the next morning, were at St. Francis by 5:45 the next morning, and were home and free of hernias by 11am. It was a whirlwind few days followed by some lazy, around the house days of recovery. He is now back to about 98% and will head to school tomorrow. His incision should heal within two weeks and the steri-strips and waterproof patch will come off around the same time. Here are some pictures of our cutie patootie. He was such a trooper and really did well coming out of anesthesia. We had been warned by several friends that this might be the toughest part of the whole ordeal, but he was so sleepy he didn't put up much of a fight or freak out or anything.

He continues to get more and more curious and discovered the dishwasher this week. I am hoping he doesn't realize he could actually pull himself up onto the door of the dishwasher if he wanted to.


Caleb also has become more and more enamored with the dogs. He crawls over to the door when they are waiting to come in and starts laughing when they run around the house. This week is started burying his head into the dogs as he crawled around by them. This causes them to nuzzle up to him as well. It's pretty cute.

Well, because of Caleb's surgery, we did not make it up to Kansas City for the Chiefs/Jags game today. This is just as well because they did not play well at all - a last second touchdown was the only thing that saved us from a shutout. But in happy football news, the Sooners won the Red River Rivalry so YIPPEE!!

Here's to an uneventful week :)

Week 43

We recovered from the cold and congestion in just enough time to prepare for a stomach virus this week. Lovely! Caleb woke up around midnight Tuesday night puking and kept it up until the morning. Poor little fella was just miserable. He was feeling much better even by mid-morning but he didn't have much of an appetite and was having "loose" poops. He has kept that up pretty consistently the rest of the week- we've gone through like a pack of diapers and MANY clothes and pj changes. You can just hear his little tummy gurgling then know you need to get him to the changing table ASAP. With multiple diaper changes in the middle of the night, we just gave in and kept him with us in bed (I know, I know, we're starting bad habits...but he is in his own bed as I write).


Then I woke up Thursday feeling a little iffy but went on to work (making up time from the day before when I was home with a puny Caleb) and proceeded to throw up multiple times, including once on the side of the Creek Turnpike. I headed to my mom's house around noon to pick up Caleb but was so sick I just stayed over there and took a nap. I was rounding the bend that evening but didn't feel great until Saturday.

In the midst of all this fun, Caleb learned a great new trick or two this week. The first is too funny, though he wasn't able to use it near enough during the OU game yesterday. Yep, he's learned how to signal "touchdown" and tries to say it too. Here's a picture and a video:

The second entertaining thing is something he picked up on his own while playing in the dog toys. We bought this toy several years ago for Sam, who promptly bit the nose off and never really played with it again.

And here's what Caleb figured out to do with it. It doesn't have a squeaker in it; he just taught himself how to make music with it.

I think there's a time in parenthood when you shake your head because you spend $$ on all sorts of fancy new toys and yet your child prefers to play with something that's not even really a toy...ie a doorstop. About a month ago, I took Caleb into the laundry room with me as I folded clothes and he found the magical doorstop. Now he makes a beeline for it whenever he spies it, as was the case on Friday. And later, as quick-moving Caleb snuck past me in the bathroom and pulled up on the toilet, I heard a "plop" and, sure enough, there was the doorstop in the bottom of the bowl. Thankfully I had cleaned it recently.


Now that he's getting more and more mobile, we got out Caleb's little arm chair for him to play with. He really just wallers around in it unless you sit him in it, like I did for this picture. (As you can see, we spent a lot of time in our pjs this week). Doesn't he look so grown up?


My parents and sister came over Saturday night to have early cake and ice cream for my dad's birthday (which is really Tuesday- happy birthday, Artie Fartie!). Morgan was on her way back to OKC so her dogs hung out in the backyard. Caleb was very interested in these big doggies.


As I mentioned above, Caleb still is having trouble with the "big D" (and I don't mean Dallas) and we were worried about him getting dehydrated so we took him to the after hours clinic this afternoon. The doctor said we should try switching to a lactose free formula since diarrhea over 24 hours can give a baby temporary lactose intolerance. He also said that Caleb had an ear infection, which probably doesn't have anything to do with his tummy troubles but is obviously a problem. I thought we were going to make it to birthday #1 without taking antibiotics but oh well. He is cleared to go back to school tomorrow which is fun because it is Spirit Week and tomorrow is PJ Day. We have some cute ones picked out but given his diaper issues, I'll have to pack a few extra sets too.

Well, we just couldn't believe that the Sooners lost but at least so many others in the Top 10 did too. AND...my Chiefs pulled off a huge upset against the Chargers today which was awesome!! Makes me very very excited that we are going to the KC vs. Jacksonville game next Sunday, my first live NFL experience!

OK, way too long and I've got to get ready to head to school/work tomorrow.

Have a great one!!

Week 42- Yucky Cold Continues and Vocabulary Expands

Colds are gross and nasty things. I can't tell you how many snotty-sleeved shirts (Caleb's and mine) were in the wash this weekend. He spent much of Monday coughing then we were up for 3 hours in the middle of the night with what I guess you call "the croup". Caleb and I spent quality time in a bathroom full of steam at about 2am. It didn't do anything for his cough but did get his hair and my hair really curly :)

Because of the rough night and still feeling crummy, he stayed home from school on Tuesday, with me in the morning and with my mom in the afternoon. With his cough and constant running nose, we let him sleep with us some this week. Here's the poor sicky in the big bed. (Think it's time for those pjs to hit the outgrown clothes bin??)


Caleb has been adding more words to his vocabulary this week. So far he's mastered "ball", "duck", and "turtle". He also sometimes likes to repeat "this", like when you say, "Caleb, what's this?" to try to get him to identify what you're holding. Instead of saying "ball" (or whatever you're holding), he says, "this". Already a smart alec! Here's some video of his expanding vocab:

Now that Caleb is pulling up and cruising from one piece of furniture to another, he's renewed his interest in the piano. Because it's digital, it's not usually on and therefore doesn't play when he holds on to the keys, but when I switch it on and he gets to make "music" he thinks its too funny. I put him up on the bench but instead of sitting and playing, he immediately pulled up to stand over the keyboard. Watch out Liberace!


Last week I posted a picture of Caleb playing with his new doorway toy. We got a bag of other toys from the same people and I went through it on Thursday. There were some great puzzles and a bag of Bristle Blocks (oh the memories!) but by far the biggest hit is this crazy souped-up Subaru car. This video is hilarious. I bet I've watched it 20+ times and laugh every time.

Here's a cute shot of Caleb in one of Aaron's hats. He usually doesn't cooperate when you put anything on his head (which is why we've been doing trial runs around the house with the head covering part of his Halloween costume) but he kept this one on for several minutes.


Aaron and I went to the OU/TU game on Friday night with some friends. It was nerve wracking in the beginning but eventually the Sooners pulled away for the big victory that landed them back at #3 in the AP Poll. Caleb stayed with the family that used to watch him during the day (before he went to Riverfield) and everyone had a blast. Their 3 girls really missed him and thought he had grown so much. They were very amused by the tricks he had learned in the last month.

Saturday morning was Caleb's third haircut. Though he was more squirmy this time than he had been before, he was still well behaved, especially after Michelle gave him two combs to play with. I got my eyebrows waxed while we were there; it's amazing what a difference little things like that can make! Here's a shot of Caleb with the new big boy haircut. Michelle showed me how to give him a little faux-hock for his school pictures on Tuesday.


Of course I've been agonizing over what he will wear for the photos. It's still pretty warm to wear some of the cute longsleeved stuff he has, plus you don't want to try too hard and dress him up too much so that he looks out of place in the class picture. I've got it narrowed down to three things, so we'll see.

In excellent news, my Chiefs WON today over the Vikings. Yippee! It wasn't glorious or a landslide but it was a win :)

Think that's about it for now. Have a great week!

Week 41 - a yucky cold and a fun new toy

What started as a little runny nose at the beginning of the week has blossomed into a full blown grody (spelling?) cold. Poor Caleb snorts, sneezes, and coughs his way through the day and has a hard time staying asleep. We did take him to the doctor on Friday to make sure it wasn't a sinus infection, since several kids in his class have had one, and he said it was just a regular old cold. Nothing really gives him any relief so we are just waiting it out and going through Kleenex like crazy. He's gotten to the point where he sees a tissue coming and buries his head in your shoulder, thereby depositing the snot that was on his nose onto your shirt. It's loads of fun :)

Despite not feeling great, he had a fun week. It started with a friend giving us some toys their family had outgrown. He is loving this new doorway thing, especially the doorbell and the light switch.


Tuesday evening was pre-school parent orientation at Riverfield. On the way out, we put Caleb in one of the prop planes displayed in the school. He wasn't sure what to think about it but did his best to smile for the pictures. What a good sport!


Caleb continues to hone his crawling and pulling up skills. What we've really noticed is that he is starting to "stride out" when he's really trying to get to something. Don't worry if you're not familiar with that terminology. I wasn't until I married Aaron who's legs are much longer than mine. We would be walking somewhere he kept getting way ahead of me. When I'd call out "wait up", he'd turn back and say "stride out" which means to lengthen the steps you take. Anywho, if Caleb spots something he wants to get to, he really stretches out to get as much distance covered as possible. And he is experimenting with the various levels found in our house, like the end table, for example.


Thursday we met our playgroup from Sunday School at Whiteside Park. It will be a really fun place to go once he can walk. It was still fun to see our friends but when I set Caleb down he really just tried to eat the mulch and couldn't care less about the toys.


Grandma and GDad (my parents) were able to spend some fun time with Caleb on Friday and last night too. Caleb discovered that the downstairs of their house is just a big circle and had fun going round and round and round. He also got to know Disnie, our 17-year-old-can't-believe-she's-still-alive cat. This interaction was done through the screen door, which is plenty close for me as an overprotective mom.


We had a blast at our Sunday School game night last night. There was a great turnout with lots of pizza, laughter, and competition. Our favorite game was Catchphrase. The girls won the first round and the boys won the second. We decided to end in a draw and move on to another game, not playing boys vs. girls.

I purchased a food mill over the weekend. Aaron has a co-worker who used it as their child grew into real food and they really liked it. So I tried it out tonight as we ate spaghetti. Here's before and after photos of the spaghetti. It's just a hand cranked mill that cost around $12 so hopefully it holds up. It could end up saving us a small fortune on baby food. Yippee!!




Our week looks to be much less eventful than has become our pace lately. Aaron and I took a great marriage class at church called Dynamic Marriage. It was 8 weeks long and very very worthwhile but included about 5 hours of homework each week. Our final class was last Wednesday and it is very nice not to have homework hanging over us. I am starting a women's study with the girls in my class, studying Joyce Meyers' Battlefield of the Mind. Have heard good things about it too.



Have a good one!