Blowing Bubbles and Helping do Laundry

Aug 12-18, 2012

After a week of people to talk to and be with, Caleb and I went through some withdrawals coming back to Texas and being home alone all day with just each other.

Let's see... this week Caleb:
-ate a pine cone (well, he chewed on it until I took it away, so technically he did not eat it)

-he figured out how to flush the toilet (a nice change for me from his unwinding the roll of toilet paper) it scared him but he kept flushing it anyway.

-pulls the our dirty clothes out of hamper and onto the floor and then into bathtub

He also helps me do the laundry... while I work on getting stains out of clothes, he pulls the rest back out of the washing machine. 

-at the pool he put his face in the water and blew bubbles a couple of times

-for a couple nights he wanted to be put in crib while awake at night instead of held to sleep

-for the first time, when I passed his sippy cup back to him in his car seat he chugged the whole thing instead of dumping it out everywhere

He loves playing with Dad, especially going for horsie rides.

-we finally got a high chair (it's a nice one but we got it for $20 from Woodlands Online). Caleb doesn't try to get out of it like he used to with his Bumbo but he doesn't eat much because he throws everything off of it. He likes to watch it hit the ground.

He looks so little in his big high chair!

-loves to swing at the park and wants to do slide alone. We have to go before 8:30 am for the slide not to be too hot. 

-doesn't like when mom showers. I usually shower while he naps bur when he's awake he feels left out so he tears our bathroom apart while yell-crying. 

On this particular day, he took a very long bath. We were ready for him to be done but he wasn't done. We thought we would help him be ready to be done with his bath so we let all the water out... he was still happy as could be to just sit in the empty bathtub naked, with all the shampoo bottles and toys.

-bit me in anger for the first time. I took my iPod away so he bit my leg, it's so hard to keep from laughing to try to discipline!

Mom and Dad this week:
-Allen worked...
-I took care of Caleb...
-we've been in Texas over a year so I had to do emissions/safety done on the civic. I thought I'd give a new car place a try since I had a coupon to Driver's Auto. It took over an hour and only one other person was there before me. I don't think they even started on my car until I asked if my car had been started on because I was ready to just take it somewhere else after an hour of entertaining my 10 month old in their waiting room. They gave me an extra $10 off but I won't be going back because they were so slow even when I had called ahead to make an appointment and they said it'd only be thirty minutes. I was going to get my oil changed there too... No thanks. 

-we finished season three of Downton Abbey... (Or was it season 2? Whatever the most recent one is)

-I helped put on our Activity Days' fashion show this week. The previous week we talked about modesty (before back-to-school shopping) and then we had them model a couple of modest outfits for their parents. 

Wedding Week

Warning: text is boring and just a grocery list of what happened during the week in more detail than anyone wants to read, I'm sure. I didn't take any pictures while we were in Utah but you can skip to the end for adorable pictures of Caleb.

Awww....

August 6-11, 2012

Monday morning Allen dropped Caleb and I off at the airport before work. We had an okay flight to Dallas but during our layover we got to the right gate that was at a weird part of the airport and waited. About five minutes before our flight was supposed to board there was still no plane and nobody at the desk . . . I double-checked the screen and our gate had been changed!

We hurried to the elevator to take the train to another terminal and got to take a detour down to the tarmac! Apparently I got in before looking to see if the light was showing up or down, so down we went. It was kinda cool to see all of that stuff for a minute while some guys loaded into the elevator.

We got to our gate just as they were starting to board and had an okay flight to Salt Lake. Caleb slept for one hour of the two flights. Jeremy picked us up from the airport and we headed back to the house, where we played with Jeremy and Ben for a little while before Caleb and I drove down to Orem.

We met some of the Adams' fam at Mama Chu's (it's a Mexican restaurant, even though it has a Chinese name) and then we went and saw Uncle Dan at the eye doctor. Grandma, Mike and I all had eye doctor appointments around the same time. Grandpa came along to keep us company. We ended up being there for close to three hours. Caleb entertained himself for a while by throwing things around the waiting room and chasing after them, he read a book on Grandpa's lap and went outside to play with the grass and flowers and things.

Then we drove back up to Holladay to see the other Grandpa. This was the night Jenni was getting home from her mission and Grammy and Lizzi had gone to Portugal to get her. After getting Caleb to bed, I made posters while we watched the Olympics. I stayed home with Caleb when everyone else went to get Jenni at the airport.

Tuesday Jenni was released, we went to the grocery store, played in the pool and started to get ready to leave for California. Wednesday we worked in the yard and finished getting ready to leave. We ended up leaving at 9:15 pm. We drove through the night because we had to make sure we got to California in time to watch the US women's soccer team play in the gold medal match the next morning. It also made for an easier drive with Caleb sleeping off-and-on during the drive, much more than he would have slept if we drove during the day.

We had an exciting night... a semi rolled over minutes before we passed, the dust was still settling. Shortly after that (about 4 am) a drunk driver was flying down the wrong side of the freeway right at us! Mom was driving and didn't know which way he was going to swerve next but was able to avoid a collision by slamming on the brakes as she moved us over to the right side. As my heart beat slowed down I said a prayer of gratitude for our safety.

We stopped at 7 am for breakfast at Denny's and we weren't far from our hotel. Unfortunately we couldn't check in until noon. So we found a park to hang out at until almost 11 am. Caleb and I got wet in the spray park, played on the swing and slide and tried to nap on a blanket in the grass. When we got to our hotel, they didn't have the soccer game so we sped to the closest Chili's. Caleb fell asleep in the car on the way there so I slept in the car with him. We made it in for the last twenty minutes of the game and a cold, but yummy lunch. I hadn't seen any of the US women's soccer team this Olympics but I wasn't too impressed with how they were playing so I wasn't sad that I had missed the first 70 minutes of the game.

After the game and showers at the hotel we met Amy's family at Fenton's for dinner. It's the place where they get ice cream in the movie Up! It was yummy! Allen flew in late Thursday night... due to delays he almost didn't make it to the wedding but was able to switch flights and get in only an hour or so after he originally was supposed to.

Friday was the big day: Derek and Amy's wedding! Funny story in the morning. Caleb was hanging out in the girls' room while Allen and I were getting ready. After my mom got out of the shower she had one towel wrapped around her body and one around her hair. Caleb has never seen anyone look like that before, other than me, so he got really excited and crawled over to her. He started crying when he realized it wasn't his mom. It was pretty funny!

My dad performed the sealing in the Oakland temple and it was beautiful. There was a delicious little lunch prepared for us while we were there taking pictures. Everything was amazing... even the M&Ms had their pictures on them. We ended up being at the temple much longer than we expected so we got stuck in bad weekend traffic out to Stockton. As a result, we only made it to the reception about half an hour before it was supposed to start, instead of a couple of hours early to help set up. It was beautiful and everything worked out. Caleb and I slept in the van during the clean up (I don't think we left to go back to the hotel until close to 1 am).

Lizzi and Ben babysat Caleb while we were in the temple. He fell asleep on Lizzi after crying for a while.

Trying to keep Caleb asleep while changing his diaper and clothes (no one was peed on in the taking of this picture)

Matching Daddy!

Oakland

Oakland Temple

With Uncle Ben!

With Aunt Jenni

With Aunt Lizzi

"Walking" with Mom 

Pretending to be shy (doing the koala bear)

Family picture (all 3.25 of us)

Excited Caleb with Grammy and Grandpa

Four generations

Caleb HATED the long sleeves so in between pictures we took his shirt off. 

The happy couple with their niece and nephews

Grammy feeding Caleb

Kisses for Daddy

They turned into wuzzles on his cheek! Look at all the slobber.

Sisters relaxing

 Saturday was a blast! We went to Great America (an amusement park). Allen and I got to go on rides with everyone and Grammy got good Caleb time. As long as Caleb didn't see Allen or I, he was happy being held/played with by anyone else. We went on ride after ride until we were tired. We had been hot during the day but as evening came we rode on the ride that gets you wettest... not a good choice. Then it was cold and we were ready to leave. We changed clothes the parking lot into whatever dry clothes we could find in the van (some of us going commando) and went to Fresh Choice for dinner.

Allen loved when Caleb got excited and pulled his hair

This may have been Caleb's favorite part of the whole day: sharing Mom's chocolate ice cream cone.

Napping on/with Grandpa for the last couple rides of the day.

 Sunday we went to the church my dad attended when he was little and drove around the town, stopping at his old house and driving past the park he used to play at and his aunt/uncle's old house. After the trip down memory lane, we checked out of the hotel and the fam dropped Allen, Caleb and I off at the airport. There were all sorts of delays, complications and long lines but we made it home sometime after 1 am... I'm not really clear on the details because I slept the whole drive home.

In the church parking lot, I like our shadows

She was Dad's primary teacher when he lived there!

Dad's old house

Little kid area at the airport

Caleb liked spinning fast!

PREGNANT!

July 30-August 5, 2012

Sometimes he chases his soccer ball under the chairs and gets stuck. I think it's funny.

I found out on Monday that I am pregnant! This is my excuse for being so far behind in blogging . . . first trimester exhaustion + nursing + baby who doesn't sleep through the night = tired mom who does not want to use precious time/energy to blog.

Sometime in May or June, I can't remember when (I even think I put it in one of my blog posts), I thought I was pregnant. I took a pregnancy test: negative. Over the next few weeks I was very noshy (nauseous), exhausted (I started napping when Caleb did, which I had stopped doing a few months ago), had a stuffy nose all the time (had to start breathing through my mouth at night . . . yuck), craved salty foods (especially in the morning), insomnia, constant hunger/eating, couldn't stand the smell of Caleb's formula, weight gain, bloating, frequent peeing (including at night), . . . you get the picture. I had lots of symptoms of being pregnant.

Fast forward to this week: Monday morning I was especially noshy (nauseous) and decided to take a pregnancy test . . . I had thought about taking it during the weekend but I didn't want Allen to tease me if it was negative again. I got Caleb down for a nap and with butterflies in my stomach, grabbed the test, peed on the stick and waited.

Two lines!

Shaking with excitement and the feeling of "oh crap, can I really take care of two babies," I took a picture of the test with my phone, texted it to Allen and called his work phone. He answered the phone and I told him to look at the picture I just sent. Pause. "Is this for reals?" And then the excitement hit him!

At this point I wasn't sure how far along I was because I hadn't had a period since before I got pregnant with Caleb. My guess for a due date was the beginning/middle of April. If you don't already know when my due date is you'll have to wait until I get a little more caught up. :)

Caleb this week:

I mentioned this in last week's post: he waits by the stroller if he wants to go on a walk.

Or he goes to the piano if that's what he wants to do. And then he goes, "uh uh uh uh!" until you do what he wants.

-Loves to chase mom and dad and loves being chased

-Pushes the exercise ball around the house with his head while crawling

-Has been waking up at night hungry. I go up to nurse him at (he won't take a bottle or sippy cup yet) but I'm not producing enough milk to keep him full for the rest of the night so he keeps waking up.
-Throughout the week his sleeping got better as I got him to eat and drink better during the day. He is just so excited about everything going on that I have a hard time getting him to focus long enough to eat.

He tried pizza for the first time and loved it! Yummy Dominos. I didn't think I was going to be in the picture.

-He loves to take things out of their containers. He especially loves taking things out of the dishwasher.

He also loves banging on everything, including our windowsills.

-Loves to dump out puzzles and take them apart piece by piece.

Sink baths and Blow pops

July 23rd-29th, 2012

Yummy string cheese

Whenever Caleb wants to go outside, he goes and stands by the door and looks out the the little window next to the door. Then looks and me and grunts. He does the same thing with the vacuum . . . he crawls up the vacuum and pulls himself to a stand holding onto it and grunts, begging me to come vacuum. He only knocked it over once but managed to not hurt himself.

He did have his hardest fall yet on Friday, when he was drumming on the toilet lid and decided to try walking on his own to me, outside the bathroom. He hit the corner of the wall and then the floor, both of which left pretty good marks on the side of his face.

This week Caleb tried climbing the stairs and succeeded on his first try... Uh oh . . .

He's willing to try more foods and loves fish with rice-a-roni, blackened chicken, grapes and yogurt, but surprisingly does not like baked potatoes. He likes feeding himself, which is very messy so he is still taking a sink bath at least once a day, except this week he climbed out of it. I've been trying to make sure he gets more fruits and veggies, which means Allen and I are eating more of them too.

He loves sink baths!

Anything left in the other sink or nearby on the counter are quickly grabbed to be used as bath toys.

One day this week he figured out how to use the sprayer. He got himself right in the face the first time he did it. It was hilarious!

The doctor said to not give Caleb straight apple juice since he needs the calories/nutrients in formula or breast milk. But he won't take either. So, I've started mixing apple juice with formula. It smells and looks disgusting since something in the apple juice separates the formula and it just looks like apple juice with tons of floaties. He'll drink a little bit of it though.

One night his week it was a little cooler so we went running with dad after work. While we were getting dressed, Caleb found a blow pop from his friend Luke's first birthday party. We let him play/suck on it with the wrapper on and after we were outside I just helped him pull the wrapper down since he was working so hard to get it off.

By the time we got home from our run, he was all the way down to the gum. No more hard candy left on that blow pop!

We've still been going to the swimming pool every afternoon. Caleb loves when there are lots of kids there, he likes to follow them around and watch them. One day this week he was following these 9-11 year-old girls around the spray park part of our pool. Whenever they would look his way, he would give them a huge smile.

A couple of days later, they were at the pool again. One of them swam by us and Caleb again started smiling at her. She quickly yelled to her sister, "Hey! Come over here! It's the cute little boy that was flirting with us last time!" 

Caleb likes to play with his floatie more outside of the pool than in it. 

One day I was going swimming with my friend Cathryn and her baby Luke. They were coming to pick us up and I got Caleb changed into swim diaper. Rather than putting him into a disposable swim diaper, I put him in his reusable one . . . that one isn't very absorbent and I put him into it too soon.

Caleb was looking out of the window to go outside and pretty soon he slipped. I couldn't figure out how the puddle of water was there, and then it hit me . . . it was not water. He had peed and he slipped in his puddle of pee on our tile floor.

He's teething again, which means mouth rubbing and ear pulling.

While on Skype with my family Caleb started to blow raspberries on our ottoman. He did on accident the first time and then thought it was funny. So did I. So he kept doing it and laughing afterward.

Caleb still loves to play the piano.

One night Caleb slept from 7:45-5:15! 9 1/2 hrs straight! I should have gone to bed when he did.

Another night I had a lot of tummy pains. Allen was so nice, he bathed caleb, put his pjs on and did almost all the dinner cleanup!

We had a lazy Saturday but they weren't really showing any good Olympic stuff on TV so we finished watching season two of Downton Abbey.