Picture Time

While Matt and I went to see the musical production of White Christmas, Caleb had fun with his Grandma and Grandpa Call and two of his cousins. Grandpa loves to take pictures. Here are a few from the afternoon (unfortunately Caleb had just woken up from a nap and was not happy...hence the pacifier):

Grandpa and his three grandsons:

Caleb, Hunter, and David Earl
Caleb and Grandma

Caleb driving an airplane

Caleb loves being outside!

Santa

My parents took Caleb to their church Christmas party while Matt and I went to his work party. Here are a few pictures from the night:

Caleb's first time on Santa's lap

Grandpa and Caleb

Caleb is really into toys that make sounds right now. He just barely figured out how to press the 'on' button to get them to work. Grandma's house has LOTS of Christmas decorations that play music. Caleb loves this one particularly because it plays music AND there is a train that goes round and round. He gets so excited when the train comes back out of the tree. This is a picture of him looking for the train.

Snow in Houston?

The last time Houston has seen snow is December of 2004, so this was so fun for us!

Caleb dancing in the snow. He thought it was so fun! He woke up with a runny nose this morning though.

Our little snowman on the back of Matt's car.

A Day in the Life of Caleb

So this post has been a long time in the making simply because I had to remember to have a camera near me during all our activities. It has been so fun taking pictures of everything Caleb does during a typical day. So here goes:

A Day in the Life of Caleb...

Caleb wakes up around 6:30 to 7 am. One of the first things we do after he wakes up is eat breakfast. Bananas are what he usually prefers, but he'll also eat adult oatmeal (as opposed to the baby cereal), yogurt, or some Cheerios.
Then we get ready for Mommy's morning jogs where I meet my running partners at 8 am. We'll still run if it's in the upper 50s and higher, but lately in the morning it is a lot colder than that, so we have started doing workout videos inside. Since my running buddies each have one kid, all the kids love playing together, but it makes for constant stops during our workout. This picture is of Caleb decked out on a colder day. You can see his enthusiasm clearly on his face.

Once a week, Caleb, Aunt Ariane, and Cousin Dallin and I all go to the library for Mother Goose storytime. We sing songs and say rhymes. "Mother Goose" tells a story. There are bubbles and other fun things like jingle bells. Caleb typically is pretty shy and stays close to Mommy, but a few times he has ventured out in the middle of the circle of mommies and babies and done his little dance. Caleb's little dance involves putting his right hand up in the air and running in place. It's adorable.

Mid-morning, we'll usually go out in the backyard while Mommy waters flowers or weeds. Caleb loves playing on his Little Tykes play gym.

Around noon is lunch time--either a peanut butter sandwich, grilled cheese, or a quesadilla and fruit--and by 1:00 Caleb is napping. He has finally taken to a "comfort item," this little bear, which has made nap time and bed time at night SOOO much easier! He wakes up less often now and needs Mommy less. His naps are usually 2 hours if I'm lucky. On the rare occasion he will sleep closer to 3. On those days I'm in a really good mood because I had more time to be productive!

From the hours of about 4:00 pm on, Caleb is extremely fussy. (This is doubly difficult when I try to start preparing dinner by 5:30.) We go to the park at least 3 times a week during this time because Caleb loves to go outside so much! Here are a few pictures of what he loves to do at the park.

Lately it's been too cold and windy for the park outside, so we'll take a trip to The Woodlands' Mall and I'll let Caleb play at 'The Tree'. He loves it, and there are lots of kids to interact with.

On the days when we don't go to the park, a sure trick during Caleb's fussy time (where nothing makes him happy inside!) is pushing the lawn mower outside. We probably look pretty silly pushing that lawn mower up and down the sidewalk, but Caleb is happy :o) He is so good at pushing it by himself except when it gets stuck in the grass.

A few times a week, Caleb and I will take a walk to get the mail.

The best time, for Mommy and Caleb, is when Daddy gets home from work. Daddy does cool stuff like throw me up in the air...

and read me stories.

We eat dinner around 6:30. Caleb will eat with us, whatever we're having, although sometimes he can't wait that long and I'll feed him earlier. After dinner, Caleb loves to help Mommy and Daddy do the dishes!

Once a day, we practice going potty. It's usually before his bath, but sometimes I'll do it around the times he usually has a BM. We've been successful going potty in the toilet maybe once a week, but I always make a big deal about it whenever he does. I think he's started associating the potty with storytime, because while we "wait" I'll read him several stories. It has become his "learning time" too because we'll practice pointing to facial features and his belly button (which he's really good at) as well as me just singing learning songs to him. He doesn't quite get what the potty is for yet, but hopefully it will come with time because I'm tired of the expense of diapers and just diapers in general! Caleb is really good at flushing the toilet afterwards though.

Lastly in our day, Caleb takes a bath. His bedtime is 8:00.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving day started bright and early waking up at 6:20 am...not to start making food, but rather to go run 5 miles in The Woodlands Turkey Trot. (Notice the short sleeves and shorts. It was 67 degrees that morning.) My goal was to finish between 45-50 minutes, preferably closer to 45 min. The first two miles felt great, and I was right on track to finish around 46 min. But as I pushed on from mile 2, my body stopped cooperating with me and we'll just say that I was in pain, not because I was pushing myself too hard or anything like that. Needless to say, it was all I could do to finish the race. The mantra that I kept thinking over and over in my head was, "Just keep going. Don't stop. Just keep going." I actually still met my goal and finished in 49 minutes, which I was proud of considering the circumstances, and as soon as I crossed the finish line, I made a beeline to the bathroom to take care of some "issues."

Race day

Being Thanksgiving, I would like to share a few things here that I am grateful for, although my other journal will contain a more adequate list.

The first thing would have to be my sweet husband. He is one of the most amazing men I know as well as the most patient! He never raises his voice at me or says hurtful things to me ever. He is so positive and teaches me so much about service and charity. I have to say that I am so thankful and in awe of his handy-man abilities. He can fix just about everything whether it be cars or things around the house. It is a huge money-saver. (In fact he worked on a project all morning today that would have cost $600 to pay someone else to do it.) He is such a hardworker around the house, in his callings, and in his job. He is such a good daddy too. I love to watch Caleb and Matt play together. Caleb loves attention from his dad more than me, I think, because Daddy is just so fun! I'm so grateful to have Matt in my life and grateful that he is mine forever!

Another thing I am grateful for is Matt's job and how it allows me to stay at home with our little boy. Caleb adds such purpose to my life. I love his little quirks, and I love seeing more and more of his personality come out. He definitely has had his moments where he makes life difficult, but the good always outweighs the bad. He is such a joy in our lives. Who can't help but love this kid?

Camping Trip

We decided to take a family vacation with my sister and her husband as well as our best friends, Jeff and Tahlia. We left Friday afternoon, set up camp, started cooking dinner, ate, put the kids to bed, and then played games. It got pretty chilly that night for Houston--in the 40's--so we all bundled up in our sleeping bags for the night. Caleb slept really well and since we were so worried about the cold, we had Caleb sleep between us. Caleb loves any chance to sleep with us. He is the best cuddler and I love it! Saturday we woke up at 7 am, started breakfast, then took a nature hike. We played some outdoor games, packed up camp, and headed home. It was a very short vacation, but a lot of fun. The hardest part was having to be the "mom" and worry about not forgetting anything and all the ingredients for the meals etc. In my past camping days, I just go along for the ride and worry about myself. Those days are over! Here are some pictures:

Daddy and Caleb looking in the woods for more firewood.

"The Cooks" for breakfast: scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, hashbrowns, and pancakes...yum!

Caleb's very own camping chair

Caleb playing football with Daddy
Caleb and Dallin playing in "the cage" as my family calls it.

Our nature hike

Caleb and Dallin both fell asleep on the hike.

National Adoption Month

November is National Adoption month. As many of you know, this has become personal to our family since my adorable nephew is adopted. Here is my sister's story. Every time I hear about the brave birth mom's out there who love their child enough to give him/her a better life, I can't help but be touched.

24-Hour Bug

While running with my friend Tahlia on Saturday morning, we were talking about getting sick since her family had been sick a few days earlier. I bragged about my amazing immune system and how I never get sick. I'll get the occasional cold here and there, but never anything that wipes me out. Famous last words.

We get home from church around noon on Sunday and my stomach is just gurgling. I rarely eat breakfast on Sunday mornings because it's such a hassle getting us all to church by 8 am so I can have one last practice for the hymns I'm playing and start prelude music on the organ. I always run out of time for breakfast no matter what time I wake up. So even though my stomach seems a bit upset when I get home from church, I just attribute that to the fact that I haven't eaten yet that day. It was a bad idea to eat lunch because for the next 8 hours I was running to the bathroom every 10 minutes (or less) with the runs. 4 hours into that, I threw-up whatever else remained in my stomach (which I couldn't believe anything was left!). Throwing-up is one of those things that terrifies me. I threw-up once during my pregnancy, but before that, the last time I threw-up was when I was 8 years old. I spent from about 5 pm on in bed and left Caleb and dinner to Matt's care. Unfortunately Caleb was having a rough night (teething) so I felt really bad, but every time I thought I was feeling well enough to get out of bed and go help, I quickly discovered that I wasn't. I also wanted to quarantine myself as much as possible from passing it on to Caleb and Matt. On the bright side, I finished the last 200 pages of a book. The stomach bug only lasted 24 hours, so I was feeling better the next day and finally had an appetite. Unfortunately for Matt, his spell with the bug started at around 8 pm after he put Caleb to bed. That meant that he was up and down all night running to the bathroom. Not fun. It looks like it passed Caleb by, which we are so grateful for! I now know that my immune system is not invincible even though throughout all my teaching (and being surrounded by all those germs), I never got sick.

Matt went to the doctor yesterday, not for the stomach bug, but because he has had a severe pain in his left shoulder/left chest area that started after playing "touch football" on a Saturday morning. (I don't see how it's touch football if Matt keeps winding up with injuries from playing every Saturday morning.) The pain has just gotten worse over the last two weeks and started to spread. The doctor told Matt that he thought it might be heart-related and sent Matt to the Emergency Room where they could do some tests and x-rays. After 4 hours of the ER and several blood samples and x-rays later, the doctor told Matt his collarbone is bruised really bad and there is some fluid leaking between his chest cavity and lungs which is making the pain spread. Hopefully the meds prescribed will help because Matt's had a rough couple of weeks!

Hopefully this covers sicknesses and "owwies" for the next few months!

Painting Frenzy

Painting the downstairs was on the 'to-do' list before December, so Matt took two days off work (he had to use up the last of his vacation days before they expired), and we started painting! Here are some pics:

Before
After

Kitchen
It's amazing the difference a little paint can make! We love it and can't wait to tackle the piano room next! We did the majority of it by ourselves, but Friday night Ariane and our friends Tahlia and Jeff came over to help. It was very much appreciated.

Halloween

Halloween 2007
Halloween 2008--Same angry face
(Apparently Halloween is not a happy occasion for this kid.)
Caleb the Dinosaur meets his cousin, Dallin the Frog.
Mommy with her sweet Dinosaur
Family picture for Halloween.
I'm not big on dressing up, but my cousin made this cute shirt I'm wearing.

We went to our church 'Trunk or Treat' where they block off the church parking lot so that it is more of a safer environment for the kids. The kids trick or treat from car trunk to car trunk. I stayed behind and passed out candy in our decorated trunk of our van. (You can't see the spiders hanging from the ceiling because it's dark, but I thought our trunk looked pretty good). Matt took Caleb around and they both had a really good time.

Running Update: I ran 7 miles this morning! :o)

Voting Time

Caleb and I got out and voted today. The lines have been horrendous from mid-morning on, so we went bright and early this morning and got in and out really quick. Unfortunately for this election, I felt I was voting for the lesser of two evils. It doesn't look too promising for McCain, however.