What Am I Teaching?

The other day, Caleb was in his highchair eating breakfast. He finished up and said, "Mom, down please?" I told him to wait just a minute as I was in the middle of something I wanted to finish. He asked a couple times very politely and I gave him the same response. Then he said, "Hey, mom?" and when I looked at him he picked up a piece of cereal, looked directly at me to make sure I was looking, and dropped it on the floor and then did the same with another piece. And of course, I went right over to get him out before he decided to drop more. I tried not to show it, but I thought it was kind of funny. A little manipulator, huh? But later, I felt so horrible! He had asked politely a couple times and I told him to wait just a minute. Which he did. He knew (because I have taught him by my actions!) that if he dropped a piece of cereal on the floor that I would respond immediately. Isn't that exactly opposite of what I am trying to teach him? I should reward him for asking politely!! I know it's not always possible to respond right when he asks, and yet, I'm sure whatever I was doing that day could have been put off for 20 seconds to get him down when he asked politely the first, second, or third time! It definitely gave me some food for thought and made me reevaluate some things.

Then the other thing that gave me pause to think happened a couple days ago. We came home after dark and there are these flying beetle nasties that come around this time of year that are attracted to light. One of them followed us inside and I admit that I let out a few screeches. But in my defense, it was like totally dive bombing at me! I kept ducking and giving a little screech. Yes. In case you haven't figured it out from my 30 billion posts about nasty creepy crawly things...I HATE them all! Anyway, Chris caught it and threw it outside. I didn't think any more about it until a few days later when we saw one outside and Caleb did something funny. Caleb imitated Chris by pretending to throw it outside and told me how "dad throw bug" and then said, "Mom say Ahhhh!!!!" and imitated how I had screeched! And everytime we see a bug, he says, "Mom say AHHH!" I was totally laughing at his version of events. But I thought about it later--I had no idea he was watching the scene go down! Let alone that he would remember it several days later! Yikes! I wonder what else I'm doing that my little sponge named Caleb is picking up that I don't know about! I always knew he was watching, but I guess to see it illustrated so exactly was crazy! So scary! Again, it made me pause and gave me food for thought.

And this last part is totally unrelated except for the fact that I have a funny kid. Here is a fashion show he put on for me the other night. I like the poses and faces he makes:









So in case you were wondering how you could wear that blanket or cup of milk on your head...now you have some new ideas.

Night Night! and Scary Movie!

So, awhile back, Caleb figured out that if he yells "night night!" to me after I put him to bed and leave the room, that I would yell "night night!!" back. It has sort of evolved into a game where I'll put him to bed and as I'm leaving, I'll open and close his door a few times yelling "night night" in different voices and stuff. He thinks it is hilarious and is excited to go to bed so he can hear it. Hey, whatever works, right?!? Well, then Chris joined in on the fun, evolving it even more, so that now two heads are poking in and yelling "night night!" Except, of course Chris has to add all the theatrics--like hitting his head on the door and getting his arm stuck, etc., which of course Caleb thinks is even more hilarious. Well, then one night, Caleb decided to impersonate us, complete with the theatrics, and we got a good laugh out of it:

Even my poor sister, Kaylyn, had to do it when she was here visiting. So while she was here, there were three heads popping in yelling, "night night!" in lots of different voices. And yes, Kaylyn, Caleb is STILL asking for Nyn to say night night too!


As for the scary movie, well, you'll have to see for yourself. Here is Chris and Caleb's first attempt at a making a scary movie:

Ok, so actually what really happened is that we like to play with remotes. A few months ago we installed some ceiling fans in all the rooms upstairs. When we bought the fans, we didn't realize that an added perk is that they can all be run by remote too. So the remote turns the fan on several different levels and will turn the lights off too. As you can imagine, we've had hours of fun with them. But I thought the story about making a scary movie was more fun. :) And now everyone knows where Caleb gets his scream! :)

Easter Fun

We had several days of Easter fun this year.

Thursday we had an easter egg hunt at the park with the playgroup.



Caleb is hilarious because he gets an egg, cracks it open, dumps the goods into his basket, throws the egg in the basket, and runs to the next one. I tried to get him to just put it in his basket and open them later, but I guess it's just not as much fun that way. :)

Saturday was the big annual easter egg hunt at the Lunt's house. Not only did Caleb get to go hunt for more easter eggs,



"Grandpa Ned" took all the kids for rides on this



He got to ride this jeep



He also road a cool truck. Caleb got smart after awhile--he would just drive the truck to the next egg, get out, get the egg, crack it, put the candy in, put the egg in his basket, and drive to the next one. Faster and more efficient than walking from egg to egg, don't you think. :)

And funny--he would talk on his cell phone the whole time he was driving. Hmmm...wonder who would have taught him that? Not me. I never talk on my phone while I'm driving. :)


Then on Sunday, the easter bunny came and Caleb got to have yet another easter egg hunt. Spoiled boy, huh?



And here he is ready for church (minus his shirt tucked in :)

(He recently got these little golf clubs that Chris has been showing him how to use, and I think they must be super glued to his hands because he takes them everywhere! Hence why he is holding a mini golf club in this picture).

We were lucky enough to have easter dinner with the Weatherholtz whom we absolutely LOVE! And of course it was the best meal too!

Caleb has also been in the true spirit of Easter lately. A couple weeks ago we watched a "Jesus movie" together on a Monday night and ever since, Caleb has been asking to watch more "Jesus movies." It always surprises me because they are definitely not made to be kids movies, but I'm glad he likes to watch them with us!

We hope you had a great Easter!

Nyn and My Couch

We just enjoyed an awesome visit from my sister, Kaylyn, aka Nyn. Ok, and once again, I didn't take very many pictures, but we had tons of fun even if I don't have pictures to show it!

We went to Sea World





We made some treats, like fudge and too many St Patrick's Day sugar cookies. We went to Rudy's, and an awesome Thai place (Thai Lao near North Star Mall), and Martha's for yummy mexican food, and to Tony Romas (which I think is my favorite place EVER! I love everything they have...onion loaf, ribs, bread, salad...). We also introduced Kaylyn to Bobby J's--a very hole-in-the-wall, greasy hamburger place that is SO good!!



We played games, and went to the outlets, and downtown to see the river dyed green for St. Patricks Day. They had an event going on downtown so they had the Alamo all lit up in fun colors too:



Caleb has been sad since Nyn left. Every once in awhile, he'll just look at me and say in a sad voice, "Nyn bye bye?" and I have to say, "Yes, Nyn had to go bye bye."

As for the mention of my couch in the subject of this post...well, it's not really related to my sister, Nyn, but it is where you'll find me for the next couple weeks for March Madness!! I love it! So many of the games end up coming down to the wire and it is so much fun to watch! Everyone plays with so much heart and emotion in college sports! One definite perk to staying at home with Caleb is that I don't have to constantly hit refresh for the scores of the games online like I used to when I was working outside the home - I mean...not me. I heard others have done that before. (Chris says ESPN claims there are MILLIONS, if not billions, of dollars of lost revenue from the American economy every year due to March Madness!) Now I can actually watch them live. Sorry to rub it in again, Chris. :) Too bad none of my teams are even IN the tournament this year. What's up with that? They're always at least IN the tournament, if not seeded fairly high. Here's to a better year next year. :) The Final Four is actually in San Antonio this year, but when I checked on ticket prices awhile back, they were already a bit more expensive than I wanted to pay.

So anyway, if you need us, we'll be on our couch!

Brainwashing at It's Best...

...er worst!

Chris and I were both trying to convince Caleb that he wanted the other to change his dirty diaper:

Chris won this time...but only because he is louder and weirder. :)

If It's Broke...

...don't buy a new one!!

A while back, we bought Caleb this Elmo karaoke toy and he LOVED it!!

Until it broke soon after we bought it. I was thinking about buying a new one because he liked it so much. But then we decided to call the customer service number for the company that makes it and see if they had any quick tips on fixing it. They told us, "Sure! We'll send you a gift certificate so you can go buy a new one!" The gift certificate came like a week later...sweet!

Two Elmos! One broken, one works great!


And you can see that it's not just Caleb that loves that toy!

(Ok, so in his defense, he didn't know I was video taping him, but as you can see, he wasn't too worried once he realized it! :)

So the bottom line is...if it is broken...don't buy a new one. Call first and see if they'll hook you up!!

There was still a bit of money left on the gift certificate after we purchased a new Elmo, so with that and the money that Papa Rick and Grandma Sheila gave Caleb for his birthday, here is what Caleb picked out:

My favorite part is that if Caleb misses some pins, he'll knock over the rest with the ball or kick them. Hmmm..if only I could do that in real bowling! We have seriously had hours of fun with it! Who knew that our entry way could double as a race track (see earlier post) and a bowling alley! (And sorry to Papa Rick and Grandma Sheila for it taking me so long to post the bowling video!!! I know I promised it a long time ago!! Better late than never? Thanks again for thinking of Caleb on his birthday!)

When You're Really Bored

Ok, so I should probably go to bed. After all, tonight is daylight savings and we lose an hour. But who can sleep when you have important stuff to do?!? Like donating free rice and trying to type fast. So here you go! If you are ever bored, and/or feel like being charitable, donate some free rice at

http://www.freerice.com

For each word you get right, they donate 20 grains of rice to help end world hunger. So nice. It's kind of fun to watch your bowl of rice fill up and know you are helping to end world hunger by sitting on your couch clicking away. :) (Thanks for getting us hooked, Marci!!)

And, ok, so I had to try it too! Here is something else for you to try while you're bored at work or school! :) Try it out! (Especially you, Kip D. Let me know how many hundreds of words per minute you type. :)

78 words

Speed test

A Sad Day...

Today while Caleb was "taking a nap" I heard a very loud thump and then Caleb crying. I ran in there to find Caleb laying on his floor. He had fallen out of his crib. I felt so bad for him!! That was sad, but I think he's ok. But the other sad part is that I was really hoping to keep him in his crib until he turns 10. :) He sleeps so much better in a confined space! So now I'm hoping that his fall scared him enough that he won't try it again anytime soon! We shall see!

On a happier note, Caleb has come up with a new recipe for you guys to try:

Yes, that's a peanut butter and jelly and cereal sandwich!

I left the room for just a minute and came back to find him VERY proud of himself.



The results of the first taste test are in:


He even ate most of it! So for those of you with recipe blogs, I'm sure Caleb will let you add it for a small fee! :)

If Caleb Has Brain Damage...

...we will know who to blame :)

This has been a favorite past time of theirs for many moons. Caleb thinks it's hilarious and begs for more and more and more!

Besides giving our child more brain damage this weekend, we also did lots of other fun stuff.

Thursday was a sad day because the Giani Mob deserted us and moved to Vegas. What is Caleb going to do without one of his main sidekicks? I guess we will try to still have fun and try to perfect our making of meatballs without them. That night though, Caleb and I went to an awesome concert while Chris went to school. That's fair, right?!?

(Thanks for the pic, JoEllen! This is Caleb having fun with his good buds Sal and Bradley)

Friday night, Chris and I hit the Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic Theater downtown. So fun! And thanks to the Cheneys for watching Caleb for us. (We have been lucky enough to have Chris's cousin and husband and adorable 6 month old girl staying with us for the last week or so while waiting for their moving truck to arrive. We have been having so much fun and are so excited to have more family join us in San Antonio!)



Saturday, we hit Sea World on opening day with the Cheneys. The weather was SOOOO nice!! And we were even some of the first season ticket holders to go, so they gave us free souvenier cups that can be refilled for only $0.99 the whole season! Sweet!




So there you have it. The good (fast car rides, family moving closer, phantoms, dolphins and free stuff), with the bad (mob movings and brain damage). All in a weekend's work.