A Pat on the Back

My sister and I are still running in this beastly weather right now, and I got my FASTEST time ever this morning! We run/walk a 4 mile stretch every day, but only time ourselves for 1 mile of it since the mile is actually marked out in a forest in her neighborhood. This morning I ran it in 6:24!

I also had my best couponing grocery trip ever yesterday. I spent $35 and saved $47. For the experienced couponers out there, this is probably not a big deal, but this is the first time I saved over 50%. Wahoo!

Finally a Video!

Figuring out how to use our video camera to upload videos to our computer has been a work-in-progress. The video always turned out jumpy. Now the videos just look blurry. Any advice from you tech. genius' out there? Despite being blurry, I'm going to post anyway because I'm excited to actually show Caleb's personality instead of just telling about it. So here is Caleb in our most recent video at 22 months.

(saying "bless you", "thank you", and counting...he can say "1, 2, 3, 5, and 10" although in the video he just says 5 and 10)

Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk

Caleb has recently learned to open the fridge. My first thought is that this new skill is going to be absolutely disastrous. To my surprise, 2 weeks went by without any mishaps. Caleb's newfound ability actually makes things easier for me because Caleb was going to the fridge several times a day asking for milk. It got very tedious. Now he is able to get his milk when he wants it and put it away when he's done. No more worries for me about trying to remember where his milk ended up so I can put it in the refrigerator. Caleb is very observant and wants to be very helpful. When his milk sippy cup needs to be refilled, he will pull out the carton of milk, set it on the floor, and take the lid off of the carton...all ready for me to do the rest. Unfortunately this one time, and hopefully the last, he got a little anxious and decided to try it all by himself.

Scenario: I'm busily making dinner and rolling out rolls. My back is to Caleb as I'm working, but I am aware that he has gone to the fridge for his milk. He must have drunk all his milk and needed more. Instead of waiting for Mommy's help, he decided to be a big boy and pour his milk into his "big boy" cup (his sippy cup was in the dishwasher) all by himself. Recognizing when to stop pouring is not an easy task, however. As soon as I hear his adorable "Uh Oh," I knew things were not going to be pretty:

I'm so happy I caught this smile!

Messes are for playing in!

One of my lesser qualities that I am working on is that I anger easily. With several tasks to do before people arrive over at my house for dinner in 30 minutes, the last thing I have time for is cleaning up Caleb's messes! Instead of letting those feelings of frustration rise to the surface, I ran to get the camera. Caleb has taught me so much about patience and controlling my temper. Messes come with the territory of motherhood, and I wouldn't trade it for anything!

One Shoe Wonder

Caleb has the neatest magic trick! He is able to make his right shoe disappear! **Notice that in every picture, his right shoe is missing. Why is this the case? I'd like to know too. He is constantly sliding off his right shoe (no matter what type of shoes he wears), and I feel like I'm constantly looking for two matching shoes so we can go out in public! Interestingly enough, he doesn't mind walking around sort of lopsided with one shoe on, but being a paranoid mother (I don't want this to somehow mess up the length of his legs), I'll either keep putting the shoe back on him or just take the other one off.

Lesson Learned

Let me start this story by explaining how Caleb has always been fascinated by chewing gum. If Caleb doesn't nap well, there is a lot of time that needs to be filled up for the afternoon. When Caleb was around a year old, we had a package of Bubble Yum given to us, and I would sometimes entertain Caleb by blowing big bubbles for him to pop with his finger. I think this is where the gum obsession started. He knows right where I keep my gum in my purse, and if I ever leave my purse in a place where he can get to it, the gum is the first thing he goes for. (He has become quite persistent too, where he'll push up chairs and try to climb to whatever high spot I've "hidden" my purse.) I stopped carrying gum in my purse for about 3 months, but always got frustrated when I needed gum and it wasn't there. Recently I've started carrying it again thinking that it has been long enough that perhaps he's forgotten this obsession. I soon learned that this was a big NO when in a moment that he and his cousin, Dallin, were playing a little too quietly together. After investigation, I discovered that Caleb had gotten a hold of my purse, pulled out the gum, shoved TWO whole pieces of gum in his mouth (wrapper and all) and was offering Dallin the opportunity to partake as well. Dallin had gotten one piece in his mouth by the time I could reach them.

Last night Caleb, Matt, and I went to an Astros game with some friends. As one might guess, Caleb's attention span doesn't last all that long even though there is a ball involved (which keeps his attention longer than it otherwise would). Minute Maid Park has a kids' area with a jungle gym and other fun things. Parents aren't allowed in the gym, so I sent Caleb up by himself and followed him around from the outside. (Most of you will see quickly where this story is leading.) Caleb was at the second level of the play gym trying to climb up a slide (with me down below telling him not to), when I see his attention focused on something at the bottom of the slide. I couldn't see what he was concentrating so hard on from my angle, but after about a minute I see his proud, little face showing me what he found...a used, nasty, big wad of gum! He then proceeds to put the wad in his mouth! Of course he wasn't able to to get the gum entirely off of wherever it had been on the slide, so there are gum strings everywhere as he's pulling it and creating a huge mess. I am down on the ground trying to convince Caleb that the gum is yucky and to give it to Mommy. Parents on the ground around me are laughing at the little spectacle that is my son. After a few minutes, Caleb tired of the sticky mess (and maybe the gum didn't taste good?) and proceeds to try to shove the sticky mess through the mesh wall down to me like an obedient little child. Once I finally convinced Caleb to come out of the jungle gym, I had quite the time getting the sticky gum off of his clothes, face, hands, hair.... Lesson learned.

How to Survive Houston Summers

Question: What do you do to survive the summers in Houston?

Answer: Don't go outside!!! It is imperative to remain indoors at all times if you want to stay dry! If you do need to go outside for a little boy that constantly says "outside?", then be sure that water is involved. You're either going to be soaked with sweat or water...your pick.

Caleb enjoying the fountains at Market Street

Always more fun with friends (cousin Dallin and Drew)

Trying to look as cool as Drew does in his sunglasses

If you must do an activity outside and you can't involve water, be sure to keep the activity to a maximum of 15 minutes to try to avoid red faces and sweaty clothes.

Our 30-minute outing with the ducks, which was about 25 minutes too long for the heat. This picture demonstrates Caleb's definition of feeding the ducks, "one for me and one for you."


And lastly, to survive Houston summers, definitely DO NOT, under any circumstances, exercise outside.

I need to do better at heeding that advice. My sister and I are still running together every day, and I'm still doing some longer runs on Saturdays. Matt and I have also started playing Ultimate Frisbee again on Tuesday nights. This picture was taken right after a weekday run. I was hoping the camera would capture my soaked clothes and sweat dripping down my forehead and nose. Apparently my camera is not that hi-tech. If this picture would have been taken on a Saturday after my run or after Ultimate Frisbee, it would look like a bucket of water had been dumped on me. I can wring out my clothes when I'm finished. Pretty gross and pretty dumb :o).

The three-digit temperatures in combination with no rain for about 3 weeks has been a killer! Our water bill is going to skyrocket this month (in order to keep the grass green), and the electricity bill will inevitably go up as well. Hopefully not that much as I keep our house really warm during the day to try to save on cost. It's amazing how your body can acclimate to 80 degree temperatures full time inside when it's over 100 degrees outside!

Cute Caleb

Well, he's not always so cute, but his sweet moments make you forget all the bad stuff, at least for a while. It's been some time since I've posted Caleb's progress, so here are some new things since my last Caleb post, which was when Caleb was 16 months old.

By 16 months, Caleb had learned all his main facial parts as well as some of the tricky ones like teeth and tongue. He's progressed to knowing all of his body parts including neck, hands, fingers, feet, toes, shoulders, knees, elbows, butt, and armpit (thanks Lindsey!).

We started reading scriptures to him around 15-16 months (which we wish we would have started sooner), and by 19 months he enjoyed reading them by himself, i.e. flipping through the book and pointing to stuff and occasionally talking gibberish to himself as if he's reading.

By 18 months he could drink from a big boy cup without spilling. We still had the occasional accidents, but now he's a pro.

He could fold his arms at 18 1/2 months as well as blow kisses.

At 19 months he could say Grandpa, 'Ba pa', which just melted my dad's heart!

Prayers were more fun once he could say 'amen' at 19 1/2 months.

At 20 months his molars started coming in. He now has 4 molars, 4 upper front teeth, and 4 lower front teeth. In general, his teeth have come in later than most kids his age.

When he was 21 months, he learned how to open doors, which has made things a bit trickier. Luckily he can't open the front or back door yet because they stick a bit more.

Caleb is almost 22 months old now and within the last few weeks he has learned to say 'bless you' after someone sneezes. We thought this was super adorable because we never taught him this; he just picked it up on his own.

My sister and I also started teaching pre-school using this curriculum from a free website. According to this curriculum, you're supposed to start at 12 months. It's pretty much the same thing as the library story time they were going to once a week, but the story time isn't offered during the summer so we started doing this "preschool". We just do 1 lesson per week on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. The boys love it!

Caleb still loves being outside, although it is hotter than Hades right now. His favorite things to do inside include playing with cars/trains, and singing and dancing. He's just figuring out how to do the actions to some of the songs and do his definition of singing along. It's so cute.

A defiance streak is definitely coming out. He will look at me with a look that says 'so what are you going to do about it Mom?' before he does something he's not supposed to. He doesn't sit alone during time-outs, so it involves me strapping his arms down as I sit him on my lap.

Potty-training is coming along. He will usually go #1 in the potty before bath time each night. Other than that it's just hit and miss. He is starting to recognize when he's poopy, so that's a start. Caleb loves to flush the toilet and say 'potty'. In my wishful thinking, I wanted him potty-trained by 2. We still have 2 more months.... :o)

Caleb is also getting really close to counting! He can say 3, 4, 5, 9, and 10 without prompting.

He's still my loveable baby boy, and we're so glad he's apart of our family!

Posing for the camera

Still completely a Daddy's boy

Getting into mischief..he got the fork from the drawer by himself (which he can reach now if he stands on his tip toes) and pulled these from their hiding spot in the fridge. Luckily he couldn't figure out how to open them, and then I found a new hiding spot for them.

Showing off some of his personality