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Well, old man Chris (I can say that because he is a whopping 6 months older than me!) turned the big 3-2 last week. I know. Old, huh? :) And slow. As in...I'm really slow posting about it. And we didn't even take lots of pictures. Lame.

Chris took the day off from work and we spent most of the day together shopping, eating, and playing. (Hmm...that sentence made me think of and miss the gerund fans Dip and Bibbetts a.k.a. Kip and Bridget...or is it that you don't prefer gerunds? I forget.... Either way...they remind me of you. Anyway. :) Talk about fun!! I LOVE days that we can spend all together!! The only disappointment came at Red Robin (you know we have to go get the free birthday burger--can't pass that up! Especially since we really like their food!) I've been lucky enough to be in Washington to celebrate a few of my family's birthdays at Red Robin. They always do something funny--like make them wear some crazy glasses, or stand up with a spoon in their mouth etc. while they sing the birthday song. Here, they only sang to Chris. I was all excited for them to embarrass him (not that it would work anyway--I don't think Chris gets embarrassed about anything!) But, alas, all they did was sing. It was good though.

The best part of his birthday? The long family nap.



Is there anything better in the world than taking a nap with your babies? Love it!!

I hope Chris enjoyed his birthday as much as I did!! :) We love you!!


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Well, today Carson is one month old! Where did the time go?!?! Can someone PLEASE make it slow down? Or better yet stop? I don't want my kids to grow up! Is that bad? We've adjusted pretty well to having four of us now. Except for church. Church is hard for me by myself with Chris as busy as he is. The last couple weeks have been lessons on what NOT to do. But life goes on...I'm sure we'll work out the kinks sooner or later. :) But we are absolutely loving having Carson with us! He is a sweet boy and we can't get enough of him!! He has started smiling a lot and making the cutest cooing sounds! We love our Carson!!

Negotiations with a 31-year Old

Chris may be quite the negotiator (see his last post), but Caleb won't be out done. He has learned the fine art of negotiations at an early age.

We are lucky enough to live about two miles from where Chris works. So he is able to come home for lunch quite often. But when he comes home, Caleb isn't always ready for him to go back to work!

Here is Caleb trying to convince his dad to not go back to work and instead to watch a movie with him.

Not sure what is up with the slapping of his chest. All I know is that I was dying of laughter and had to grab the camera.

So, Caleb started by piling all the shoes that were by the front door onto Chris's lap. I guess figuring that he wouldn't be able to leave with all those shoes on his lap? Then he put the crazy sombrero on his head. After all, who would leave the house with that thing on their head? Then he added a blanket on top of the shoes for good measure. He then resorted to climbing on the red bucket to plead his case, giving such excuses as, "It's too cold outside.... Stay home and sit on the couch and watch a movie. Alright?!?" (As a side note--"cold outside" is 65 degrees--Caleb definitely takes after me as far as temperatures are concerned!)

You have to give him points for creativity and effort.

So who won this negotiation?

What's that? Is that Caleb sitting on Chris's lap with a movie on in the background?!?!

How did he end up convincing him? He flipped on the movie and sat on his lap. Chris got distracted and started watching with him. Ok, so it only worked for like 10 minutes...but all his efforts still got results. :)

(This part TMI--if you're wondering why Caleb is in his birthday suit...well.... We don't usually let him run around like that. But when he needs to go #2, he strips down to absolutely nothing and then he'll go in the bathroom and do his business. Drives me nuts sometimes when I'm trying to hurry. But I guess I shouldn't complain! At least he does his business IN the potty!)

Negotiations with a 3-year Old

Caleb was lovingly smothering his brother this morning. Carson was ready to be done with the barrage of kisses and hugs (a two-week old needs his space, man!)

Dramatic reenactment of the smothering.

Krista was doing all she could to stay off the loving attacks and I was not in a position to help Caleb at the moment, so after some verbal requests to cease, I reverted to a time-out. The conversation went something like this:

"Caleb, go to your room for three minutes."

"No time-out, dad."

"If you go now and shut your door, it'll be only two minutes."

"Okay."

"Wait, come back. If you give yourself spankings, it'll only be one minute."

"Okay. Spank, spank."

(Laughter stifled) "Okay, only one minute. Go close your door."

(Sound of door closing and clicking shut.)

Dramatic reenactment of the spankings.
(This is as much spanking as happens in our home.)

I'm sure he'll think twice before being overbearing with his brother (yeah, right!)

Mr. Mom

Chris was quite the Mr. Mom last week.

Dishes
Laundry
Entertaining Caleb
Making meals
General cleaning
Running errands
Posting pictures
Homemade bread (several times!)

He made it look so easy! He really did/does an amazing job and I love him for it!!

However...a few of those tons of kudos earned last week, may have been lost last week too. I've decided that too much of a good thing may indeed be bad. I'm not sure that Chris and Caleb spending a whole week together is the best idea anymore. :) Let me explain.

You know that certain aunt or uncle that likes to teach your kids to say or do "funny" stuff that you wish they wouldn't? And you say...wait until you have kids and I'll get my revenge by teaching your kids to do that? Well...in our case...I don't think we need any aunts or uncles to carry that out. We take care of it in house.

I was watching Caleb play with his Geo Air thing (see last post). After a while, he took the pilot out of the plane, hung his arm through the window of the plane and launched the plane only to giggle with delight as the pilot tumbled to the ground when the plane went upside down. Then he put the pilot in his seat, but left the cock pit door open...only to again burst out in laughter as the pilot plummeted to the ground below. So later, mostly in joking, I asked Chris if we should worry about Caleb and described what I saw. He was like, "uh...sorry...I showed him that." Hmmm...

I've also noticed that *someone* has taught Caleb some funny phrases--things about passing gas, or quoting Bill and Ted. And *someone* showed him how funny it is to startle the stray cats passing by in the backyard.

Now, I don't want to go accusing anybody...but.... Let's just say that if you hear Caleb saying or doing some weird stuff...or if he likes to startle your cat...I'm not responsible. You'll have to take it up with Mr. Mom.

Actually...don't tell Chris and Caleb...but I love to see how much fun they have together and watch them erupt in laughter. And maybe I think some of the new phrases Caleb has learned are kind of funny.