Bath vs Shower

Caleb definitely prefers baths over showers. Sometimes if we are in a hurry I have him shower with me. He doesn't mind most of the time, but tonight he was determined not to have a shower. Greg had bath duty tonight, so I said I was going to take a shower and leave him to Caleb. As I turned on my shower, Caleb very seriously said, "you take a shower? I not take shower with you, I take bath with dad. ok? I not take shower with you mommy." Very cute seeing how determined he was. And I was not disappointed because it's not relaxing to take a shower with a two year old.

Ice Storm

This is what a house looks like after 2 days trapped inside with a two year old because of bad weather. And this is just downstairs, you should see his room. I know many of you can be empathetic. Unfortunately, we also must have the house ready to be seen at any minute by potential buyers, so we are constantly picking up toys. We seem to be having tons of showings, but no offers yet. I guess it's good people are looking at least. I didn't have to go into work today because of the ice storm that blew in last night. So Caleb and I had a fun day together again. I could get used to this. For some reason Caleb thought all the pillows and couch cushions should be pulled to the floor.

Sixth Sense

I was so glad today was my day off since the weather was so nasty and cold. Caleb and I got up at our usual 7:30a.m., and snuggled up with our breakfast to watch cartoons. I didn't want to take a chance on the roads as the day went on, so we entertained ourselves with his numerous toys. He typically loses interest rather quickly with any particular toy, so we alternated many throughout the day. Our first activity required me to put together an entire race track for his cars; we bought this over the weekend and Caleb and Greg had the entire track set up. But since we must keep the house picked up for potential showings, it was any multiple pieces again. Needless to say it was very frustrating when he only found 10min worth of interest in the project after completion. Here are some pics of him and daddy this weekend playing with his new racetrack. We also had to put together his train tracks, color multiple pictures, "fix" things with his tool set, and so the day went. At least we stayed busy. At lunch I came in to find Caleb talking to his chair. When I asked him if that was the case, he said "no, I talking to the boy." When I pursued the topic, he said " the boy way up there" as he pointed to the ceiling. Now either my son has an imaginary friend or a sixth sense. Greg seems to think it's the imaginary friend, I'm worried our house is haunted! At our nightly bedtime ritual, we read 2 books, and sing 2 songs. We recently bought Caleb an Old McDonald Book that he just couldn't live without when he found it in the store. It seems to be a current favorite, though we usually always sang the song anyway. The last few nights he has preferred daddy "read" the book along with him, and when I try to join in the song, he places his fingers over my mouth and says "no singing mommy". I really didn't think I was that bad.

Sick Time

We've been battling sickness all week in our house. Caleb has had the worst of it though, likely RSV since it was going around the daycare. We kept him home most of the week doing breathing treatments every 4 hours to help with the wheezing. He has been a champ with this ritual. I have a stethoscope at home for these sick occasions so I've been listening to Caleb's lungs daily to judge progress. He really enjoys the stethoscope, after I listen, he of course needs to listen to every one's tummy and chest too. So when he wants the stethoscope he tells me "mommy, my tummy hurts, you need to listen" or "my nose hurts, you need to listen." For the most part the days were fine, it was at night when he would have a harder time breathing. We had him sleep with us all week, so Greg and I are exhausted. Today's the first day we hadn't had to use the nebulizer, so I think we are on the road to recovery. Last night my mom was gracious enough to babysit so Greg and I could go watch a movie. It was nice to be able to watch a movie that wasn't animated. This morning we resumed our weekend ritual with breakfast at IHOP. Caleb was very excited and ran to tell grandma "get ready, we're going to eat IHOP." It's amazing how much food a two year old can consume.

Fun Times with Caleb

Saturday, Caleb had a busy afternoon shoveling dirt into his new wheelbarrow. Monte acted as his advisor. It looked like very important work.Aunt Brooke, aka Hehe, came into town this weekend. Caleb was so excited Hehe was coming over to hang out. She and her boyfriend, Clay, entertained Caleb most of the evening. When they showed up, Caleb went into super-hyper mode. We all went to Babe's Chicken to eat dinner, that was entertaining. Caleb was so silly, but at least we had some extra hands to keep him busy throughout dinner. Sunday he woke with a cough, so we kept him inside all day. Last night, or rather at 4:30 this morning, Caleb woke calling for me. When I went to check on him he smiled up at me and said " I ready to get up mom." I explained it was still night time, then he said " I think my bed wet". I don't think his bed was wet but I changed him and let him come to bed with us. He kept pulling me to face him, then wanted to "hold my fingers"....., eventually he went back to sleep. Unfortunately I had to get up shortly thereafter. This afternoon Greg had to go pick up Caleb from daycare because he was running a fever, and his cough was worsening. Tis the season! By the time I got home, Caleb was wheezing. Thankfully our neighbor Donna came through again. She let us borrow her nebulizer so we could start breathing treatments. Of course if it wasn't for his constant runny nose, hoarse voice, and wheeze, you wouldn't know he was sick. He has been laughing and running around all evening, the breathing tx just made the hyperactivity worse. Caleb was been talking about porcupines every evening recently. Tonight I asked him where he saw a porcupine. He said "he went bye, bye" , I asked where he went, "he went to school", oh what did he do at school, "he play with aiden and claire!" I still don't know where the porcupine came from.

Batter, Batter, Swing!

This week we brought out yet another of Caleb's Christmas gifts from his grandpa. It's a automatic batting machine. He loved it! And daddy fielded for him. We finally had to pull him away after almost an hour.

My mom came to help me out this week while Greg was in Chicago. Caleb and she were inseparable. We had a great time on my day off; going out for lunch, doing some light shopping, and entertaining Caleb. We were sad when she went back home. Greg made it home safe and sound late Tuesday, but I had to be at work early the next a.m., so we didn't see each other. Then as soon as he got home last night, I had a dinner to get to. We finally caught up tonight on our week, and his trip. Apparently there was a blizzard in Chicago, but Greg did enjoy seeing all the snow. Tonight at dinner Caleb requested to drink his milk with a straw. I was clearing away the plates, when I came back to check on Caleb he said "I didn't spill my milk". He had milk all over his chin and upper lip, then down the front of his shirt. Silly boy!

Camp In

Caleb got some awesome camping gear for Christmas, so Greg decided to have a "camp in" last night. Caleb was pretty excited about the idea of sleeping in a tent, even if it was just in our living room. They put up his tent together, then prepared the sleeping bags. There was a lot of laughing going on during the process. Caleb continued to go in and out of his tent all evening, gathering more supplies each time. First he needed his flashlight, then water, then "i need raisins"; and so it continued. They finally fell asleep watching Kung Fu Panda, another Christmas present. Today we had 3 showings on our house, so we had to clean up quickly and find other diversions for Caleb. We returned to Bonkers since it was too cold to go to the park. Caleb had no objections, " i go all the way to the top at Bonkers". We did get to sneak home between showings for his nap, then off again to run needless errands. We were exhausted by late afternoon, at least Greg and I were. Caleb doesn't ever seem to run out of energy. Tonight for dinner I tried a new recipe utilizing spaghetti and some of Caleb's other favorites. Caleb, like always, was wearing most of the spaghetti before dinner was over. He had a slice of bread that he would place a single noodle upon, then slurp up the noodle. I asked him if he was going to eat his dinner one noodle at a time, he replied "yes". It was a lengthy dinner.

Day off with Caleb

It's nice to get back to a normal schedule after the holiday chaos. Tuesday's and Wednesday afternoons are my days off now. This past Tuesday we had lots of fun. First we went by my old office to drop off my keys and pick up my mail. It was nice to see everyone again, though Caleb was being a terror while we were there. He was running all over the place and almost broke several things in Julie's office. Next we burned some of that energy at Bonkers. He looked sleepy on the way there so I thought we'd pick up lunch and skip Bonkers. Caleb protested saying "I not tired, I go to Bonkers!" Since I had already built it up, I felt I couldn't let him down. He did seem to get his second wind once we started through the maze of Bonkers. It is such a huge inside playground with slides, ladders, and multiple devices to swing and hang on; I ran out of energy fast. We decided to eat lunch over at aunt Shae Shae's with Dakota and Trae. The boys had a good time playing together, with a few arguments in between. Poor Dakota got trampled a few times by Caleb, but other than that it was a successful morning. After a lengthy nap, Caleb and I got some batting practice in. Daddy bought him a new baseball bat that according to Caleb is "too heavy". So he resorted to using it for golf instead. "I play golf mommy". Eventually he got distracted with the leaves taking over the front yard.Needless to say we both slept good that night.

More Family Fun!

We had another round of presents to open at Mom's on New Year's Day. I was a little concerned on how we were going to get all our presents and luggage back to Carrollton. We really enjoyed prolonging this time of year. The boys had so much fun all weekend. They kept going nonstop inside, outside, and no telling where else. I was just excited there were no broken bones or major injuries. At least not for the little boys. Greg on the other hand injured his knee while playing basketball over the weekend. He somehow twisted it when he fell while trying to save the ball from going out of bounds. (Greg prefers the statement "while saving the ball", but I guess we'll never know the outcome.) Since then he's been limping, favoring that knee. I see an MRI in our future. We continued the game without Greg, and realized later we were all out of shape and not quite as flexible as we used to be. Overall we had an awesome vacation. We took turns with the guys on watching the kids, so we actually had some adult time to go to lunch and do some shopping. We also weren't done with presents. Gimme and Kinsey brought over more presents to open, and then we met Grandpa Allen and uncle JJ at the park; there he opened his last gift. At this point I had serious doubts on getting everything home. I was so glad the weather was nice so the boys could play outside most of the weekend.

We ended the weekend with a dance off in the living room. I think Dylan won! (little man in blue below.)

Caleb asked me today on the way home "are we going to grandma's?"; he was disappointed when I said no. We'll be looking forward to more family time soon.

Happy New Year!

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated our blog, but we have been out of town most of the past week. What a trip!We brought in the New Year with my family this year. I actually made it for the count down this year, usually I'm in bed by 10pm. My sisters came in with their families since we didn't get to see each other at Christmas. We played games, drank wine, and had lots of wonderful food. Caleb was sooo excited to see his cousins, Logan and Dylan. They didn't get to stay up for the count down, but they definitely enjoyed the evening up until bedtime. We roasted marshmallows, set off poppers, and we even got the sparklers out.

I'm too tired to say much more, but I wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year!