Acorn eater and mirror kisser

Sept 25-30, 2012

Caleb likes to just walk in circles around our house yell-talking. He carries things all over the house and loves putting things inside of other things. Toys in the trashcan. Clothes in the bathtub. Garlic salt in the toy bin. Phone in the washing machine. Sippy cup lid in the toaster (we keep the toaster in the cupboard below the counter, so no, he cannot climb on the counter yet). He is now also fascinated with our cupboards and everything in them. 

He's so fascinated with our cupboards that he likes to climb in them.

Our neighbors have a cat that they don't take care of, the only reason I know it is theirs is because they asked me once if I knew who shot it with a BB gun. If I had a BB gun, I probably would have by now. It always comes around our house begging for food and it always poops in our yard. I try to scare it away but it isn't scared of me. I have learned that it is scared of Caleb. He gets so excited and walks toward it, waving his arms with excitement and starts yelling and the cat sprints away as quickly as it can.

He helps me move the clothes from the washer to the laundry basket so I can put them in the dryer.

Some clothes make it to the floor instead of the laundry basket.

But he is very proud of himself for helping.

I had a doctor's appointment this week that I was dreading taking Caleb to because I knew I'd have to just strap him into his stroller for part of it, which would be sure to make him scream. My friend Michelle came to the rescue and watched him for me. It was an uneventful visit (just the way I want them to be) but I had to wait for a long time to see the doctor so I was very glad to not have to try to entertain Caleb for an hour at the non-kid-friendly doctor's office.

Speaking of Michelle, she and her husband just moved down the street from us about a month ago (?). She is expecting her first baby in December so we go on pregnant lady walks together. She is one of the very few people that Caleb will go to on his own. He will just let her hold him, which is very unusual for him. Anyway, they have a big full-length mirror in their entryway. Every time we are over there, he runs up to the mirror and kisses himself repeatedly. 

Lazy mom tip #1: when trying to change a diaper (particularly a poopy one), turn Baby Einstein on your iPod and let him watch. This eliminates his desire to roll over and run away, which also eliminates poop on the floor and walls.

We have been going to the mall play area a lot and while we're there he picks up other kids shoes and carries them around. Sometimes he tries to chew on them too. I keep an eye out for the moms asking their kids where they left their shoes so I can return them because they are no longer where they left them. Most of the kids there are bigger than Caleb but he's has yet to cry when he gets run over and knocked down.

Caleb is getting to be very difficult to take shopping. He stands up on the seat so I put him in the cart. He's happy standing in the cart and pretends to run while I'm pushing him around (it reminds me of Dumb & Dumber, "it feels like I'm running at an incredible rate"). Then he cries until I let him help me push the cart. Then he lets go of the cart and runs away through the store. 

Saturday we went to Lowe's to buy baby-proofing supplies and Caleb thought it was fun to both crawl and run all over the store.

In case you were wondering, Lowe's does not mop very frequently. Caleb helped remove some of the dust.

Here's a picture without the flash because I can't tell which picture shows all of the dust/dirt best.

Caleb's friend Luke came over to play this week. It was cute because they actually played together instead of just playing in the same room as one another. Caleb took the toy Luke had been playing with and when Luke crawled after him to get it back, Caleb dropped it and ran away as fast as he could while laughing. He thought they were playing chase. When Luke stopped and picked up the phone, Caleb started crawling after him to chase him. Eventually Luke ended up chasing Caleb up the stairs with Caleb laughing hysterically the whole way up!

I had a pregnancy brain moment this week. I thought I'd surprise Allen by mowing the lawn. It had been a couple of weeks and it really needed it but he's been busy with work and now studying for the MLC exam again. I got Caleb to take a nap and ran outside and started mowing. I was excited when I finished and Caleb hadn't woken up yet so I could go jump in the shower . . . well, fast foward to later in the afternoon, when Caleb and I were coming home from the mall, we pulled into the driveway and . . . lo and behold, I forgot to mow about one quarter of the lawn. I mowed along two sides of the area but somehow forgot to finish the middle part. 

Caleb loves to play outside and I love to be outside. But sometimes his "playing" is boring and it doesn't involve me. So I pull weeds, which also gives him something new to play with.

One day when Allen came home from work, we went to get the mail as a family. After getting the mail Allen and I were sitting on the driveway as Caleb walked around talking to himself. Apparently we weren't paying enough attention so Caleb went and sat on the Harbor Freight ads Allen was looking at. Then, we still weren't paying enough attention, so he went a few feet away from us, picked up an acorn, made sure were watching and stuck it in his mouth. And then started laughing and ran away as we asked him to spit it out.

Deep cleaning day on Saturday. It was much easier for Allen to clean the fan this time since we have a ladder. See some previous post  (that I'm too lazy to look up) about the last time we tried to clean this fan)

He still loves the vacuum.

Saturday night was the Relief Society broadcast that I watched at the church with a couple of my friends and then a big group of us went to get Red Mango. I got a lot out of a couple of the talks, especially President Eyring's. It was fun to have a night out with friends and I liked getting to just sit and talk with other women without having to chase after our children while trying to carry on a conversation. And my frozen yogurt was delicious!