The neighbors would laugh...

This week (May 14-20) I had several moments when I thought, "if my neighbors were watching me, they would think I'm crazy!" Then today I found out in a conversation with one of them that they do watch me! Here are some of those laughable moments when I literally laughed at myself too:

• On Tuesday, I decided it was time to trim some of our tree branches that are too low above our driveway. We didn't own a ladder until Saturday so to reach the branches, I had the clippers extended as far as they would go and then would jump and snap them shut. I was only successful on about 4 of the 20 jumps but then I got a leaf stuck in my eye and gave up. 
• On my run I was pushing Caleb in the stroller with one hand, and had a two foot long stick in the other hand. My neighbors weren't aware that a woman in my ward was attacked by a pit bull that day on the same path I jog on. They just saw me running carrying a stick.
• Since the tree trimming went so well, I decided I should weed on Wednesday. After my run, Caleb was still happy and so I started weeding and then he started fussing. To try to keep him from fussing, I started singing "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly..." and kept singing funnier and louder to compete with his fussing. I gave up before I finished weeding, but only after realizing that Caleb was no longer just fussing, but crying and I was singing very loudly (and probably off-key).
• Stepping off of our driveway to begin our morning run, I gasped and jumped as I almost rolled the stroller over a dead squirrel. I'm not sure how he died since he wasn't squished at all but his eyes were open and I was scared he was going to wake up and jump on Caleb or I. 
• Lastly, my neighbors weren't in the dressing room at any of the places I tried swimsuits on... but I'm sure everyone in the changing room thought I was crazy as I was in the stall trying to bargain with a 7 month old, "Just two more minutes, this is the last swimsuit I'm going to try on!" And then proceeded to attempt to use singing to distract him. Any time I change clothes he thinks it's time for him to eat, even if he just ate. (Shopping for swimming suits, what a frustrating experience. I've gone four times and I can't find anything modest that fits. I can't find anything online either.)

 It seems like Caleb grew up a lot this week!

Hi Mom! 

Oh, you're taking a picture?!

Can I play with the camera too? (in Caleb terms play = eat and he always wants the camera)

When he eats, he opens his mouth wide and says, "Haah." Then while he's swallowing he says, "Mmmm." That made me realize that I do both of those almost every time I feed him and he's imitating me!

Caleb eating an apple slice

He flipped himself out of the bumbo and onto the table in the three seconds after I took the tray off and was wiping it off. That scared him a little. And scared me a lot.

Sometimes we just have a nice afternoon sink bath. It makes Caleb so happy!

When we're done washing Caleb in the bath and Allen grabs Caleb's towel, Caleb drops his toys and puts his arms out to be picked up. It's so cute!

Sorry, don't know how to rotate the picture once it's on the blog and I forgot to do it before I uploaded it.

He has been taking longer naps and at first I thought it was because he wasn't feeling well still but it may just be a new trend! He's started taking three naps and the middle one is close to 2 hours sometimes! Long naps are a gift from heaven. I can get so much done!

He just reaches up in his sleep and continues sleeping while holding on.

Caleb anticipates things very well, for example: he cringes and laughs when he realizes Dad is about to kiss/wuzzle his neck. He also gets mad when I take away the things that he wants. On two different occasions I took a pen away from him and he began crying and kicking his legs furiously. Here is a video of him kicking his legs, but it's not because he's mad... he's just running.

This was a few minutes before I decided it wasn't smart for me to let him play with the pen.

Caleb started army crawling! Wednesday night we were babysitting for some friends and after the kids were in bed Allen helped Caleb practice moving his legs. Thursday he would crawl to get Allen's phone, my phone or the iPod. None of his toys were interesting enough to crawl for.

Eating his book... check out those big feet!

Also on Thursday Caleb said his first word that he's attached meaning to: Mama!!!! A few days before that he started making an mmm noise when he was tired or hungry or wanted to be held. Then he began saying mmmmaa and I have witnesses (my mom on Skype and Allen in person) that he has been referring to me as mma or ama or mama. The m is just always drawn out extra long. And it is only when he's upset. I guess all of my brainwashing is paying off! If you add up all of the times I point to him and say, "Caleb" and then to myself and say, "Mama," it is probably close to an hour a day. We'll start on dada now. :)

You can kind of see the white creases between his little ankle rolls. He has gotten so tan already!

Other things that happened this week:

Tuesday night I taught part of a relief society meeting. It was about being Healthy, Holy and Happy. There were three workshops that the women rotated around to, I taught a twelve minute workout that can be done without any equipment. It includes a warm-up, a little cardio, leg strengthening, arms, core, stomach and then stretches.

Thursday night we had a "tea party" for the 8-9 year-old activity day girls and their moms. It was fun!

Saturday we went on a run, cleaned out the garage, washed the cars, parked Allen's car in the garage to be worked on (this is significant because almost no one in Houston parks in their garage), drove to Harbor Freight to buy tools, he started fixing his car, I cleaned, we went to the pool, we went to Home Depot... and then I think we watched a movie. To be honest, I can't really remember. I just know it was a full, busy and fun day that we got to spend together.

When Allen isn't preparing for an exam, we get to spend the whole Saturday together! And we get to spend weeknight evenings together too! I'm grateful he chose a career that will continue to challenge him and am grateful he is a hard worker. It has made me that much more grateful when we do have more time together.