Family

Christmas is so much more fun with all the family around. Clayton and his wife, Kara, just flew in to spend Christmas here, which means we'll have all my family home for Christmas. My grandma is visiting as well. We'll have our big get-together Christmas Eve with all our fun traditions (white elephant, chimes, acting out the Nativity story now that there are some kids, present exchanges, food and games). Can't wait!

Here are the latest family pictures taken by Matt's dad:

And my handsome boys. Caleb is so excited for Santa this year!

Half Marathon #2

Saturday, November 20th, I ran my second half marathon. It was a year and a half after the first and one baby later. My goal was to beat my time from last year, which was 1:58:45, or slightly over a 9-minute-mile pace. I was able to keep a steady 8:45 pace for the first 5 miles, and even ran an 8:30 on one of those miles. At mile 6, a side cramp hit me, and I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep up this pace for the rest of the race. I ended up finishing in 1:57:47. I was actually disappointed when I crossed the finish line because I remembered my time wrong from last year's race and thought that I hadn't beat it. I was still hoping to shave off more time, but it does feel good to have beat my time, even if it was just a minute. I finished 16 out of 122 in my class (Females ages 25-29) with 8:59-minute-miles.

It was interesting to compare last year's race and this year's. Last year I trained completely on my own and did a little reading up on taking care of my body as I trained, but not much. Fellow runners don't believe me when I say this, but I did all my training, including the actual race, without drinking water as I ran. I would drink some water before and after. I've learned since that you should be drinking water at least every 15 minutes while you run. I also didn't eat before my runs during my training. I heard late in my training that eating a banana before you run is supposed to help with energy, so I started doing that a couple of weeks before my race, including race day. During my actual race last year, every time someone I ran with stopped for water, I would think in my head "sucker, I'm going to pass you up." I've also learned about some energy gels that most runners take while running since my first race. I didn't do any of that last year. Interestingly enough, I had energy throughout the whole run, and I felt great and rejuvenated after I finished the race.

This year I am training with a group where they have seminars every other week with running tips etc. So being wiser, this time I stopped at all of the water/gatorade stations except 2 (spaced out every 1.5 miles). I switched off between drinking water and gatorade. I felt like all the water stations actually slowed me down, so my next competitive race I'll probably carry water on me. I still didn't use any energy gels, but I will for my marathon. After I finished this race, I felt like I was going to puke, and I wanted to just lie down and die. And I only beat last year's time by a minute. Hmmmm. Maybe the experts don't know what they're talking about. :o)

After I finished, I couldn't even imagine running an additional 13 miles on top of what I just did. I began to have thoughts of giving up on my marathon goal. After some more time, I decided that running a marathon is doable, just not at the pace that I ran my half. My full marathon is 4 weeks away. I have the dreaded 21 mile run next Saturday, which hopefully will be more enjoyable as I listen to a book on tape. My main goal for my full marathon is to finish. I'm going to have no time expectations whatsoever. I also want to run the entire thing, but I never know how my body will be feeling and a walking break or two may be needed.

At the start of the race, Caleb and Matt looking on as I took off.

Carter, still in his p.j.s, watching from his stroller.

This is about mile 9. I had just seen Matt and the kids, which gave me a boost of energy. The race was along the Galveston Sea Wall, which was great scenery.

To pass the time, Caleb, Matt and Carter played on the beach chasing birds.

We went to Galveston with some friends, Jacob and Kim. Jacob ran the race as well. Here is Caleb about to give Jacob a high 5.

Afte the race. (I was feeling much better by this point.)

Me and Jacob before the race. We had to carry our bib numbers because they ran out of safety pins! Lame. Even though I had registered early, they ran out of the t-shirt size I requested (Medium) as well. All they had left were XS, which I won't fit into until I lose 10 lbs. (highly unlikely). Double Lame.

After the race with our medals.

Roughing It

Weather was looking good prior to Thanksgiving, since on Thanksgiving day a cold front was coming through. So the day after Lindsey got home, we headed out camping. We went to a new campsite that was free, but it was definitely roughing it from what we were used to. No water and pit toilets. It was a good thing we just stayed one night. After the kids went to bed, the adults stayed up late playing games, and then woke up early with kids the next morning. We cleaned up and left around 10 am so we could get back in time to get the turkey in the oven!

Carter in the tent
Aunt Lindsey and Carter--love his smile
Me and Gavin after breakfast--his hair is starting to curl :o)
In the empty campsite right next to ours, a tall tree just randomly fell. It was a bit scary because the kids had been playing over in the general area earlier with Aunt Lindsey. The tree rotted from the inside. After it was down though, of course it made for great playing.
Uncle Matt and Dallin
Caleb and Daddy

Lindsey's Home!

Lindsey came home Tuesday 11/23 from her mission in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Spanish-speaking

Waiting at the airport for Lindsey to get off her plane.

She came running when she saw us all waiting.

Greeting the kids.

Cheerful and tearful reunion:

Hugging Mom

Hugging Dad
It was so fun to have her home in time for Thanksgiving. Her one request was camping, so we planned that for Wednesday night. She looks great, and we're enjoying the time we have with her home before she heads back to college.

Sleeping

I'm so behind on blogging, and I'm going to attempt to catch up this week. So look for several posts this week including my half marathon race, Lindsey coming home from her mission, and another family camping trip.

For now, I thought I would record some of my favorite things about Caleb's sleeping so that I won't forget them! Caleb is a really good kid, but he is not a good sleeper. He has the capability to go on less-than-average sleep and still be happy and pleasant all day. It was so hard to train him to fall asleep on his own as a baby. We got lots of advice about letting him cry himself to sleep. It would take around an hour for him to cry himself to sleep, and it was torture for me to listen to him. When he was old enough to stand, he would cry himself to sleep in a standing position with his head and arms resting on the top of the crib.

When we transitioned him to the "big boy bed," that created more issues with him getting out of bed. The bottom line about his sleep issues is that he's scared--of what exactly we're not sure. If he could have his way, he would have someone sleep with him all night. We've tried night lights, leaving his light on all night, hall lights, a picture of Jesus, and we've had several conversations about monsters, shadows, noises outside, etc. and how the Holy Ghost will protect him when he gets scared. We've also done motivational steps like earning toys and getting to make cookies with Mommy the next day when he sleeps all night. We've had weeks and maybe even a month where we felt like we were finally making progress, but at 3 years old, Caleb is still waking up most every night in the middle of the night. In the beginning, he would just wake up and then come sleep on the floor outside our door where we would find him the next morning. He's since learned to crawl into bed with Mommy and Daddy, and then the battle of taking him back to bed begins. We've now bumped the incentive up to getting an ice cream cone at McDonalds whenever he sleeps all night. Matt and I have been stumped about what to do, because he is genuinely scared at night. Caleb doesn't take naps anymore, and we've discovered that if we keep Caleb up later, then he tends to sleep harder at night and doesn't wake up. That's not a solution we necessarily like though, so we're pretty much just holding out for when we feel Carter is old enough to move into Caleb's room. We're crossing our fingers that this will solve Caleb's waking-up issues at night.

A few weeks ago, my parents babysat so Matt and I could attend a church function at night. They did the bedtime routine, kissed Caleb goodnight, then came downstairs. An hour later they started up the stairs to check on the kids, and this is what they saw. He just needed to be close to them (without them knowing because he didn't want to get in trouble), so this is where he ended up. I love this little boy.

Camping, Oct. 2010

We thought that Caleb's face-swelling would mess up our weekend plans to go camping, but we got the okay from the doctor and headed out for a family camping trip over Halloween weekend with some good friends. We left Friday afternoon and returned Saturday afternoon, so it was a very short trip, but still required lots of packing and planning ahead.

Friday night we ate dinner and s'mores, put the kids to bed, then sat around the campfire talking. It was too cold to venture too far away from the fire! Friday night's low was 30 degrees. Matt and I were so worried about our boys that we slept with them sandwiched in between us. It was a pretty miserable night for me. Whichever boy was sleeping next to Matt (and we rotated throughout the night) ended up sweating next to him. Matt has the warmest body temperature! He quite enjoyed the cold weather and happily wore shorts the next morning.

We ate breakfast huddled around the fire and sipped on our hot chocolate. Once the sun came out, it warmed up quickly. We played Ladder Golf, played card games during Carter's nap, and went to see the baby alligator show that the Park put on. Caleb loved touching a baby alligator! After lunch, we started packing up. We got home in time to unpack quickly, then get ready for the Halloween party that night.

Thanks to our friends for coming with us! We had a great time.

(Poor Caleb has a swollen cheek in all these pictures!)

Explain This

We have learned a lot over the years of how to treat the weird reactions Caleb has to certain things. Ant bites--start the Benadryl immediately or else the area will puff up like a balloon. And prepare yourself mentally for a very long night to follow. Any sort of bug bite--start the bleach baths, ointment on the area, and nasal swabs to prevent staph infections. The poor kid has had 4 staph infections in 3 years.

Last Wednesday, I noticed Caleb's left cheek/neck was swelling a bit. I had my sister-in-law look at it that night when we went over to her house for dinner. (She used to be a nurse before she stayed home to be a mommy.) She had no explanation as it was too high to be a swollen lymph node. Caleb was acting completely normal, and it wasn't bothering him, so I didn't worry. When Matt got home from work, he didn't think that the swelling was very noticeable, so we put him to bed without a second thought.

Caleb woke up screaming at 10:30 pm. The swelling had doubled in size! While Matt was consoling Caleb, I called the nurse hotline. He did not have a fever. There was nothing unusual inside his mouth; he had just had a dentist appt. 6 weeks earlier. The area that was swollen was not hot, or red, or hard. The nurse suggested giving him some Ibuprofen, and because the swelling was getting bigger, to go to the emergency room. Matt and a close friend gave Caleb a priesthood blessing. We felt like everything was going to be okay, but that we should go to the ER to figure out what was going on. Caleb, who is usually fearful of going to the doctor, was such a good boy! He let them look in his mouth and touch the area, etc. The nurse who took all of Caleb's vitals had no idea what caused the swelling. Three doctors looked at it and drew the conclusion that his parotid gland swelled. They said that something he ate that day that was sour caused it. (He had not eaten anything sour though!) They gave him some medicine (clindamycin), waited until it took effect (the swelling wasn't getting any worse), then sent him home.

Caleb acted fine the next morning, which was a preschool day, and said he wanted to go to preschool (preschool is at our house). All during preschool he was mostly fine. He did ask for some Tylenol about halfway through. The funny thing is not one of the kids at preschool noticed this huge lump on the side of Caleb's neck. When Dallin arrived, Caleb's cousin, I told him to look at Caleb's owwie on his face. Dallin looked all over Caleb's face and said, "where?"

By the end of preschool, I thought the swelling looked worse though. I wasn't really satisfied with the doctor's conclusions from the ER the previous night after doing a lot of research about the parotid gland on the Internet. What I read didn't seem to match up with what was going on with Caleb. Matt and I decided it would be best to talk the situation over with Caleb's pediatrician. So that afternoon Caleb, Carter, and I headed to the doctor. By this point, there was a harder area in the middle of the swelling that was also red. Still no fever, still nothing abnormal inside his mouth. The pediatrician thought it was a swollen lymph node that possibly got infected with staph which caused the swelling to intensify. She drew a circle around the harder spot so we could gauge if the swelling was getting worse or better. She gave him a shot of clindamycin to jumpstart the medicine, and Caleb didn't even cry!!! (because he wasn't expecting it).

The swelling finally went down slowly over the course of 4 days with taking clindamycin 3x per day. I don't feel that any of the doctor's conclusions were right. When Caleb gets a staph infection, he is in a lot of pain. For example, when Caleb had staph on his thigh, he limped around and at one point could not even put pressure on that leg. So I don't think it was a staph infection. The doctors at the ER didn't think it was a lymph node, and the research I did on the parotid gland didn't seem to match up either. The funny thing is that Caleb acted completely normal through it all, except for that first night when he woke up screaming in pain. I would ask him if his face hurt during the day, and he would say, "No, it's getting better." I also asked him why his face had an owwie, and he said it was because of his lion costume. I'm completely stumped by it all.

Here's a picture of the poor boy. This was pretty close to the biggest it got. I think the swelling is at least the size of a pool ball.

Halloween 2010

Cousin Sammy, Caleb, Cousin Drew, and Carter

Caleb insisted on being a lion because his favorite Primary song right now is "Follow the Prophet," specifically the verse about Daniel and the lion's den. (We have listened to this song non-stop in the car for about 3 months, and he's still not sick of it.) Carter was a dinosaur. He's 7 months old now and the costume is 18 months size. :o)

We actually spent Halloween weekend camping (I'll post that soon). After we got home Saturday night, we went to my parent's ward party so Caleb could participate in their "trunk or treat" since we had missed our ward party. I'm envious of Utah celebrating Halloween on Saturday. Caleb was sad that he didn't get to go trick-or-treating to all our neighbors.

Caleb the Firefighter

Caleb went on a field trip to a fire station a few weeks ago with his preschool. Prior to heading out, all the kids got to dress up as a firefighter. We then talked about some safety tips, calling 911, and "stop, drop, and roll."

At the fire station, the kids got their very own fire hat, they got to climb in a fire truck, and even hold the water hose as it sprayed water!

They got to see a real firefighter dressed up and ready to fight a fire.

And finally they got to try on a real fireman's jacket. They all had a great time!

Caleb's Room

Caleb's room has been a work-in-progress for some time now because we couldn't find a Cars border that we liked. In the end we painted a road instead, but I like the way it turned out. I love the red, black and white combo. We'll see what if we can find some peel and stick cars to put on the road. My mom did the bed skirt, quilt, and valence over the window for Caleb's birthday.

Bored

Carter was looking like this...
While Caleb was doing all this...

Life just isn't fair sometimes.

Comparing

I love comparing my two boys' stats. Carter had his 6 month check-up today. He was 20 1/2 lbs. (90th percentile) and 27 inches (68th percentile). Caleb was almost 18 lbs (50th percentile) and 26 inches tall (30th percentile). Carter definitely favors me with his paler skin and blue eyes. Caleb favors his dad with tanner skin and brown eyes. Carter looks like he'll have a bigger build (from me) and Caleb will probably be on the smaller end like his dad. Carter also had his first two teeth pop in within the last 3 days. Caleb didn't have his first tooth until he was 9 months old.

Carter

Caleb at 6 months

Preschool

I've been missing in action from the blogging world for some time now. Between teaching preschool, a new church calling, and my running (plus all my daily "Mommy-duties"), I've had to cut some things from my life in order to stay sane! It's amazing how much more time I had in my day/night when I cut T.V., reading, and blogging. I'm feeling that things are getting more manageable now and that I can find a good balance.

Just under a year ago, my sister and I started toying with the idea of teaching a preschool class instead of doing a rotating preschool like we had been doing. A few mothers had approached Ariane with interest, and with time, Ariane convinced me to jump on board. For the past 8 months or so before we started teaching, we have worked feverishly to put together a curriculum and do as much as the planning/preparations as we could so that this new adventure wouldn't take too much time away from our families. We are almost one month into teaching, and I am loving it! Including our boys, we have 9 children that we teach for 6 hours a week. This first month has been a lot of trial and error, but I think we are smoothing out all the wrinkles now and really enjoying it. We have also perfected the art of multi-tasking as we have our two babies' schedules that we work around as well. We rotate teaching the different sections (i.e. circle time, centers, music time, art) while the other person is on baby duty and setting up the next activity. My main motivation for doing this is to provide a quality learning experience for my son where he can also socialize with peers his age. What wouldn't I do for this little boy? I love him so much!

Even though it's not the middle school-age that I was teaching a few years ago, it is so fun to be teaching again!

Bath Time

Carter's first bath with Caleb without his baby bath about 2 weeks ago.

Random

Mr. Chunkers at 5 months

He's a pro at sitting up now, so we figured it's about time we start feeding him in his high chair. In the high chair for the first time. (The Cheerios were more of a way to distract him while I was trying to feed him. He's not quite ready for those yet.)

Such a big boy. He had to go potty during quiet time, so he went by himself and then got dressed again afterwards too. Finding the right holes to put your legs in is tricky though. (Both legs are in one of the leg holes.) You can't tell in the picture, but his pants are on backwards as well. I have no idea how that was comfortable, let alone how he managed to fall asleep.

Caleb loves blueberries, especially if they're frozen. He would eat them all day long if he could. He quickly ate me out of stock of the blueberries that we picked at the Blueberry Farm (I went twice and picked a lot!). I'm afraid his cuticles and skin around the nails are going to permanently be dyed purple!

And finally I feel like I'm back up to speed with my running abilities prior to baby Carter. I ran 9 miles yesterday at a 9-min. mile pace. I have a half marathon in Nov. and my goal is to beat my time of my last race in April of '09. I'm experiencing lots of knee popping this time around as well as the arch of my right foot constantly sore. It feels good to be back in shape again though.

Again?

Caleb has another staph infection. We had to go to the doctor, drain the wound (nightmare), and now we're doing the oral antibiotic, Mupirocin ointment, and bleach baths. He hates the bleach baths, but is doing better about the oral medicine than last time. We already know that Caleb is prone to these (4 of them in 3 years), so the doctor gave us some tips so that we never have to go back in again for this problem (thank you!). Staph lives in your armpits & nose, so if Caleb touches those areas and then touches any wound on his body (like a bug bite), it has the potential to turn into a staph infection. The doctor said as soon as we see any sore on Caleb's body, to automatically start bleach baths to try to nip it in the bud. Cross our fingers that we're done with this problem!

Exploring

Carter is very much into exploring right now. He is at the fun stage where he can focus in on an object and grasp it.

The other day, he was exploring his cousin Gavin.

All babies know the best way to explore is to put the object in your mouth. Gavin wouldn't quite fit! Actually Carter is just loving on Gavin and giving him a big smooch.

And the newest babies on my side of the family all within 5 months. Alexa arrived on 8/9/10.

Carter almost 5 months, Gavin 2 months, and Alex 2 weeks

We Survived!

Caleb had his doctor's appointment this morning. At first, I didn't think it could go any worse. From the moment they called us to the back, Caleb starting kicking and screaming and trying to run away while screaming, "I don't want to!" I'm so glad Matt was there because there was no way I could have handled it on my own while holding Carter. No amount of bribery was working (we had gummy bears with us and the promise of ice cream afterwards). Finally we had the bright idea to have Panda Bear (who was with us) go first in everything so Caleb could see it wasn't scary. That did the trick! Luckily the nurse and doctor were very nice about it. Caleb cried for about a minute after the shot and is limping around the house, but other than that he survived!

Still has a smile for the camera.

Both Caleb and Panda Bear got a sticker and a cool band-aid for being such a great patient (sort of). Caleb was able to help the doctor look in Panda's ears, mouth, nose, and eyes as well as listen to his heart beat.

I'm a Big Boy!

Carter has no interest in rolling over, but he definitely is interested in sitting up. He's not incredibly stable right now, so I have to constantly be next to him in case he falls over, but he's catching on really fast.

And of course if I'm taking pictures of Carter, Caleb has to be in one too!

Caleb is a great big brother. When we practice tummy time so Carter can learn to roll over, Caleb is quick to show him how it's done. "See Carter, like this." Carter can roll onto his side, but I think that he can't get enough momentum to roll all the way over due to his weight! :o) Caleb sat up before rolling over as well.