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.

Feeding the Ducks

We found a park nearby that has ducks, so we have become quite good friends with these 6 ducks this past week!

Caleb chasing the ducks.
This duck lets you get really close to it...I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing!

My handsome boy

Aunt Ariane and cousin Dallin came with us one day to feed the ducks.

Baby Tag

I love reading about other's pregnancy and birth experiences, so fill out the tag if you're interested!

1- Where were you when you first found out you were pregnant? At our apartment
2- Who was with you? My hubby
3- How did you find out that you were pregnant? pregnancy test
4- What was your first reaction to finding out you were pregnant? It's a toss up between relief and excitement
5- Who was the first person you told? Matt
6-Did you plan to get pregnant? Yes
7- Did you tell everyone else right away? We waited 9 weeks before we told anyone in case I lost the baby for any reason.
8-Was everybody happy for you? Yes
9- Did you go out and celebrate? Not that I remember
10- Did you want to find out the sex? Yes, I like to plan ahead
11- What was the sex? Boy (although I found out at my next dr.’s appointment that the ultrasound technician wrote down that they weren’t positive it was a boy—so I made my doctor do an ultrasound too!)
12-Did anyone throw you a baby shower? yes
13- If yes, who? My sister and sister-in-law (my mom did a lot too!)
14- Did you get any outfits at the baby shower that you just knew you weren't going to put on your baby? No, we used it all.
15- How much weight did you gain? 30 pounds exactly
16- Did you lose all of the weight that you gained? Yes within the next 4 weeks simply due to nursing (an additional 10 came off within the next 12 weeks as well!)
17- Did you get a lot of stretch marks? A few on my tummy right at the end. They’re not there now, but I’m sure they’ll reappear for subsequent babies.
18- What did you crave the most? Sweets, but that’s no different from what I crave now!
19- Did you crave anything crazy? no
20- Who or what got on your nerves the most? Not being able to sleep on my stomach at night. That’s how I fall asleep every night, so after around 4 months, I couldn’t do it anymore; it made falling asleep more difficult.
21- Were you married at the time you got pregnant? Yes
22- Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? I had a weird rash on my stomach. It happened right at the start of my 3rd trimester and after doing some research found that it was called a PUPPS rash which usually happens only in the first pregnancy and lasts the final 3 months of the pregnancy. Once I’d suffered a day of endless itching without scratching (while teaching all day), I just came home from work and cried. I told my family I was like Job from the bible. I would toss and turn all night without getting any sleep; I took baking soda baths and used all kinds of anti-itching cream. Nothing worked! Luckily it only lasted 4 days instead of the rest of my pregnancy. I think I would have died! Obviously looking back it was a small price to pay and the rest of my pregnancy was so easy that I really have no room to complain!
23- Where were you when you went into labor? Trying to go to sleep. After an hour of really bad cramps that started coming 5 minutes apart towards the end, Matt said we were going to the hospital.
24- Did your water break? No and it didn’t break for another 6 hours or so after I’d already been drugged up.
25- Who drove you to the hospital? Matt
26- Did you go early or late? I was 3 days past my due date
27- Who was in the room with you when you gave birth? Doctor, nurses, and Matt
28- How long were you in labor for? From the time I got to the hospital and the time Caleb was born, it was 12 hours, but the actual pushing/labor part was less than an hour.
29- Did you have any drugs for the pain? Yes, after feeling those contractions, I think any woman is INSANE not to get drugs! Why would you suffer through the pain if you don’t have to? What is there to prove?
30-Did you go Natural or have a c-section? Natural
31- What was your first reaction after giving birth? There was about to be some serious bawling--I was just so overcome with emotion and that this little boy was mine and I was going to be a mom and I was so scared!--but Matt cracked some sort of joke that made me laugh instead.
32- How big was the baby(s)? 7lbs 11ozs and 20.5 inches long
33- Did your Husband cry? Nope, he was cracking jokes. I’ve seen Matt cry maybe once in our entire dating/marriage.
34- What did you name the baby(s)? Caleb Michael Call
35- Does his name have any significant meaning? Nope
36- Did you have any visitors? Yes. My family (including my brother who had just got back from his mission—he wasn’t even released yet!), Matt’s family including aunts and uncles, my friend Stacie (who brought me a razzleberry pie—my favorite!), Jan Chappell, and my next-door-neighbor Jacque who worked at the hospital. It was so nice of everyone to come!
37- Did the baby(s) have any complications? Nope, which I was very grateful for! He was so alert for the first 4 hours of his life…eyes wide open, hands grabbing at everything.
38- How old is your baby today? 17 months
39- When is the next one(s) coming? Hopefully sometime this year
40- If you could, would you do it all over again? Of course!

Wishes Granted

So Matt and I have been counting down the weeks before Caleb can attend the church nursery (he has to be 18 months old). We're tired of taking him to every class and trying to keep him entertained, quiet, and still...three very tough feats. Imagine our excitement when Caleb got invited to attend nursery for the first time last week, which would be 6 weeks early! He did pretty well, despite the fact that he tried to eat the play dough, refused to sit on his carpet square for the lesson, and dumped water all over himself during the snack (he's pretty good about drinking from a cup until he's all done and decides to dump the rest out...I've learned to only give him very small amounts of water in a cup). What did Caleb do well? He was fabulous at playing with the toys!

Our nurseries in our ward are organized heterogeneously, meaning all the age groups are mixed together and there are 3 classes of nursery. So there are some experienced nursery-goers in Caleb's class. The reasoning behind this decision was so that the older students could set an example for the new nursery comers and help them know what to do. At first I thought it was a great idea until I started thinking back to all my elementary ed classes and my teaching career. I am a huge supporter of homogenous grouping. I don't feel that the 'smarter' students are stretched as well if we're always 'dumbing down' the lessons. Last week in nursery, there was one student who knew all the words to 'I Am a Child of God' and all the answers to the questions in the lesson. It was all too easy for him; he needed to be stretched and asked harder questions and maybe learn the second verse to the song. Because there were other children who were completely clueless and had less of an attention span, we moved on. Maybe I'll be able to share my own opinions on the matter in time to come.

So why is Caleb able to attend nursery 6 weeks early, officially on the rolls and everything? If you haven't guessed it already, I was given a calling to work as a nursery leader. When I got a call to come meet with a member of the bishopric, I knew of two callings available (unless they were going to reorganize something): RS teacher and nursery. It has always been my secret longing to be a RS teacher. I would love it! Maybe not always, but being a teacher forces you to know the material really well and study it in depth. I do prepare myself for the lessons each week, but obviously not as well as if I were presenting the lesson. Plus I love to teach, and I miss teaching so much! I am excited to be in the nursery though and still have an opportunity to teach, although at a very basic level. It will be fun to be in there with Caleb too. He wasn't clingy at all last week like I thought he might be. I don't know if they will have him move classes in the near future so he's not with me, but I love seeing him interact with other children. It helps me to better know the things I need to work with him on (like sharing), and seeing the material in the nursery manual will help me know what we need to be teaching Caleb for Family Home Evening lessons.

My Sweet Hubby

Thanks to some gift cards from Matt's co-worker, Matt and I were able to have a ritzy night out at the Taste of Texas. This restaurant is usually too rich for our blood as the steaks average around $40 a plate. It was a very fun experience as you get to select the actual steak that you will be eating that night (pre-cooked obviously) then head off to the salad bar. The salad bar was AMAZING with lots of different options for dressings and toppings and some yummy homemade bread. The steaks were probably the best I've ever had...so tender. The whole evening was fabulous...any date that involves delicious food wins my vote as a favorite! The only downfall was that there was an hour plus wait at the restaurant, but that was understandable as soon as we knew how good the food was! They also gave away free popcorn, chips 'n salsa, and soft drinks while you waited, so that was a nice bonus.

Matt also stayed busy this weekend working on the brakes of our van. Our brakes starting squealing a few months ago, so I took it into a car shop just to see what was wrong and see the cost etc. We needed new back brake pads and rotors, which they were going to charge around $500 for parts and labor. With my nagging, Matt finally got to fixing it this weekend (weekends tend to get busy so quickly and Matt needed to set aside a good 4 hours to do it). He did it much quicker than that and the brakes work fabulously, and he saved us a ton of money! I love being married to a handy-man! No one likes to quit in the middle of a project, but an hour into the job, he got a call to come help someone move. Matt says it was the worst move he's ever done because there was so much...so 4 1/2 hour later, he comes home sweaty and tired and drained and still finished the van. (I think he was worried about his wife's wrath if he didn't finish!) He had such a long day yesterday, and I just want him to know how much I appreciate his willingness to serve and how he takes care of our family. I love him so much!