First bloody lip (twice in one day)

November 5-11, 2012

Every day we dance to the piano's demo songs. It is one of Caleb's favorite things to do. 

Tuesday Allen had his exam in the morning and while he was gone Caleb and I were playing outside, when Caleb tripped and hit the curb hard with his face. He skinned up his nose and got a bloody lip. In an effort to stop the swelling, we came in and had some ice cream. I didn't have any Popsicles.

When Allen got back, we went to vote and then stopped at the park. Caleb was playing with Dad and was trying to push him down the slide, when he slipped off a step and bashed his face again. This time the bloody lip was on the left side and started to swell immediately. After crying for a minute or two, he wanted to go down the slide. He also went on the big kid swing by himself for the first time.

One of his favorite things at the park is a bridge that he runs back and forth over and over again. He also loves to climb up the tube slide.

You can see his scraped nose a little bit and the beginning of his fat lip. 

He loves driving his cars on the tile.

Fat lip

Caleb likes to imitate Dad and plug cords into the computer to try to watch TV. 

My friend Michelle is having a baby boy in December so we had a baby shower for her. While I was trying to get pictures of everyone, someone told me I should come get a picture of Caleb. . . this is what I saw when I found him:

He had taken the bag full of extra chips and dumped it on the floor. 

And then started to smash them and spread them everywhere. Awesome. 

Caleb loves to carry bags around. Whether it's my bag or Allen's, it doesn't matter. 

Saturday I went with the Primary kids to the temple to walk on the grounds and meet with the temple president while Allen stayed home with napping Caleb and Sunday I taught sharing time for the first time!

Happy Halloween and Caleb says Daddy!

October 29-November 4, 2012

This week Caleb said Daddy for the first time! And hasn't stopped saying it since. It melts Allen's heart every time. On Saturday Allen was sleeping in and Caleb wanted him to get up and play, so he grabbed Allen's shoes and brought them to him while he was in bed.

Caleb loves helping Allen get dressed for work in the morning. He really loves when Allen holds him while brushing his teeth and shaving!

This is Caleb's post-injury face. He's walking over to Mom for some love. This time was a bloody elbow.

It didn't take long before he was back to throwing the ball down the street and chasing after it.

I made this pumpkin outfit for Caleb while I was pregnant with him. He wore it his first Halloween and again this year. This is his "I'm so excited that Mom said we're going outside" face.

He has recently stopped smiling for the camera and is uninterested when I want to take pictures.

Stop taking pictures and put me down!

We only went to four houses, only one of which answered because we went trick-or-treating a little early. We started sleep training on Oct 16/17th and have been trying to be consistent with getting him to sleep on-time.

He loved the piece of candy he got: starbursts!

One of my friends just found out she's having a boy and asked if I wanted all of her little girl clothes... of course! So while I in between passing out Halloween candy I organized all of the clothes into sizes. I loved it! Allen was up studying for his exam.

After taking all of the clothes out of the washing machine he got distracted by the door stop. (Squirrel! He takes after his dad)

He loves the present Grandma and Grandpa Adams sent him for his birthday! His favorite part is the noise that it makes and he pushes the button over and over again. 

Reading with Dad

Other than the usual stuff during the week I went to the cannery, got called to the Primary Presidency, started doing rehab a couple of times a week with a kid who is recovering from a sprained ankle and went to an awesome flea market. Allen has been studying like crazy in preparation for his exam next week. And Caleb has been growing and learning like crazy.

IT'S A GIRL!

October 22-28, 2012
 This week we've been trying to have a more predictable sleep schedule with at least one nap every day. It has sort of been working . . . Caleb has at least spent some time in his crib every day, regardless of if he napped during it.

I love you! (I'll pretend he's doing it on purpose)

This is week 20, marking halfway through the pregnancy! It also means we got to have our anatomy ultrasound. I love watching each part of the baby move, from the cute little hands and feet to each valve of the heart. It is amazing how developed and beautiful the tiny baby is already. As we were watching the screen on the ultrasound machine, as the tech was checking different measurements and looking at different body parts, there were a few times I thought I could tell that we were not having a boy. Sure enough, after a few minutes she announced that we are having a girl!

I was excited but Allen was VERY excited! He is looking forward to having a little girl to hold and cuddle and love. I'm sure he would have been happy to have another boy, but I know he was really wanting a little "daddy's girl".

Another special part of this ultrasound, was that my mom got to come! She and my dad were in Houston for a church assignment and stayed with us for a few days. Ultrasounds have come a long way since she had babies, so I think it was fun for her to see our little girl moving around too! After we came home and put Caleb down for a nap, Allen and my dad kept working while my mom and I went to JoAnn's to buy fabric for our baby girl's quilt!

Playing blocks with Grammy

This is after we found out we were having a girl. I can't remember why Caleb has his shoes on but no clothes...

I know Grandpa doesn't like how he looks in these pictures but I think they're adorable!

Playing with Grandpa

What's Grandpa working on?

Friday night we had our church Trunk-or-Treat. We went as the classy family we are: trailer trash. It took people a while to recognize Allen and couldn't look at him the same way at church the next day.

Caleb was scared of Allen with his wig and hair on. I can't say that I'm surprised.

As part of the Trunk or Treat, there was a chili cook-off. We tried lots of chili and cornbread. When we'd gone back for seconds (or thirds) I gave Caleb some of my cornbread before I tried it. He kind of started fussing and sticking his tongue out. I gave him a drink and then fed him some more cornbread. He fussed a little bit again before having another drink. When I ate some of the cornbread, I figured out why he was fussing: the cornbread was full of jalapenos! 

My pregnant belly (with one child on the hip) adds to the effect. 

Saturday night we went to another Halloween party. It was at our neighbor's house and we didn't want to give them any wrong ideas about us, so we just dressed up as soccer players. Not worth taking a picture of.

Building and knocking down blocks

Cuddling with Dad

Dancing with Grammy to the piano's demo songs. 

Dancing with Grandpa

It was so fun to have my parents stay with us for the weekend, even if they were busy with their meetings for a lot of it.

Sleep Training Begins

October 15-21, 2012

After a year of Caleb still not sleeping through the night and the past 2-3 months of him getting up 1-2 times a night and waking up for the day at 4 am and no consistent naps, I decided it was sleep training time. I was given "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby" (or something like that) at a baby shower and it was recommended to me by lots of people. I had read it and used some of the things in it before, but this week we stepped it up and really began sleep training. We are both ready for it.

This whole week was rough on Caleb and I as we tried to break him of bad habits and get him to not be so over-tired all of the time. It was also hard for me to not hold him until he fell asleep... that's the only time he'd cuddle with me since we stopped nursing.

Caleb loves sweeping and mopping. 

We rarely make it through breakfast without him pointing to the mop and broom, begging to play with them.

We don't watch TV or movies much but he's already figured out where DVDs go... luckily he doesn't know how to open the Blu-ray player yet.

Off-roading

Got hit by an acorn... those squirrels are dangerous.

There was a truck coming down the street with music playing loudly so Caleb had to stop pushing the trike to watch the truck and dance along to the music.

Dancing

He danced a little too hard and fell.

Saturday morning with Dad

Watching Baby Einstein with Dad

Different angle to prove that Allen was actually watching with him and not sleeping. :) 

This week I started doing rehab on the ankle of someone in our ward who was supposed to be out on his mission already but had hurt his ankle badly. I also had an activity days' Halloween party and on Saturday we had a baptism of another child in our Primary class. Allen has been working hard and studying hard for his upcoming actuarial exam. He has also started getting up early to run in the morning before going to work (4:45 am).