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.