My Little Stud

Posing for the photo shoot

Caleb is 18 months old today! Although it's a little dry for other people to read, for my own purposes I have to post another 'Caleb Update', especially for my siblings that don't get to see him very often. At his check-up this past Friday, Caleb weighed a little over 25 lbs (44%) and was 32" tall (43%). His growth is steady and average. I tend to think of Caleb as 'small' because his cousin 6 months younger than him weighs the same as Caleb! If he's not already, he's very close to being taller than Caleb as well.

New words Caleb has added to his vocabulary: up, ball, cat (dat), and doggy. Going on walks in our wagon is so fun because we are constantly looking for cats and dogs. He gets so excited when he sees one and says the words 'cat' and 'doggy' over and over and over again. From our walks, he is starting to recognize airplanes and helicopters (we've only seen one) as well. Caleb is also becoming very good at doing puzzles. We have a shape toy where you drop the shapes through the correct hole. He has mastered those shapes (circle, square, triangle, cross, and star). We have 3 different puzzles that we work on daily...one is types of vehicles (ambulance, train, motorcycle, etc.), numbers, and sea animals. He really does learn by miles everyday, and I love that I'm a stay-at-home mommy so that I can work on all these things with him. Alphabet will be next.

As far as nursery goes, he's improved a lot. It really takes some adjustment and learning. We play with playdough almost daily so that we can work on not eating it when we're at nursery. It's definitely still a work-in-progress. He's so good at holding onto the rope when we're taking a walk around the church building. Caleb is improving each day about drinking from a cup too. He can now throw his trash away all by himself after eating a snack, and although there's still more work to do, he'll sit on his carpet square for a little bit during the lesson and songs. Matt subbed in nursery with me today, so he got a taste of what the last two hours of church are like for me each week! It can be exhausting and frustrating, but there are so many sweet moments when you see a kid learning or singing with you or excited to see you that make it fun.

Rub a Dub Dub 3 Boys in the Tub

I know it won't be this way forever, but right now my older siblings and I love living so close to each other. We've begun rotating dinners 3 times a week, which means two less nights to cook a meal! With both Ariane and Kari's husbands tied up at work due to busy season, I know they enjoy the social outlet since their husbands don't come home till late. We are putting lots of pressure on my younger siblings to jump on the bandwagon and come back to Texas after they're finished at BYU.

Our boys love playing together and will hopefully grow up to be best friends. Drew has been getting impatient waiting for Caleb and Dallin to grow up enough to play with him! Last night, we threw all the boys in the tub for a bath. Baby Samantha was happy to miss out on this party!

Two out of three smiling at the camera...not bad.
Caleb's smile and Drew's funny face.

At one point, both Drew and Dallin were scrunched up at the front of the bath trying to escape the wrath of Caleb. He would pour water on their heads (much to their dislike) and then just giggle and giggle.

Back on Track

The best part about living in Texas is the Spring and Fall weather in addition to the winter weather only lasting 2 months of the year. Houston weather is finally warming up, which means I can start running outside again! In lieu of running outside, my sister and I have been doing cardio workouts inside while our babies play together. However, it just doesn't compare to the workout we get when running outside because we have to stop every few minutes to intervene with our babies. Hopefully the weather stays warm enough for us to be able to run outside continually. (We avoid running outside in weather less than 55 degrees to try to prevent sick babies.)

I am doubly grateful to my husband who has given up his Saturday morning football, ever since we started playing Ultimate Frisbee Sat. afternoons, because now that means I can run without pushing Caleb on Saturday mornings. Caleb doesn't do well for runs lasting over 45 minutes or so, so I haven't run long distances in a while. Last weekend I got back on track for my goal to train for a half marathon. I ran 6 miles last weekend, which wasn't as tough as I thought it would be with taking a 2 month break, and yesterday I reached my new record for distance and ran 8 miles.

In addition to both of these runs, Matt and I play Ultimate in the afternoon, which is at least another couple of miles with all the running involved back and forth. We look at this as a weekly date, which is how we justify spending 2 hours on a Saturday afternoon playing when there's always much to get done! :o)

A few of my family members expressed the other day how they just don't get "the running thing." I'm looking at it as a way to get into the best shape I've ever been in and experience the satisfaction of setting a goal, working for it, and achieving it. Unfortunately, all the half marathon races this year that are close to where I live are on a Sunday. Nothing replaces being able to run the actual race, although it costs money, with all the other runners around you, but I'll continue to work up to 13 miles anyway.