I Don't Get It

I really don't get it.

I have all these theories when it comes to parenting. Some work. A lot don't.

When I put Caleb to bed, I give him a bath, help him brush his teeth, and have a vitamin. I help him put on pajamas, read soothing books, sing a couple soothing songs, and tuck the cute boy in with lots of kisses. I leave his room and then lately, the fun starts. The Battle of Bedtime, if you will. Last night he was up until midnight messing around.

Now there is Chris. When Chris puts Caleb to bed, he gives him a bath, helps him brush his teeth and have a vitamin. That's where our similarities end. He chases Caleb all around, wrestles him while putting his pajamas on, reads the craziest loudest books he can find, sings the least soothing and most ruckus causing songs and the room just resounds with giggles and hyperness. Chris puts Caleb in bed with lots of kisses and friendly banter and leaves the room.

Now in the meantime, I am thinking to myself, that kid is never going to go to sleep now. I prepare to give Chris my motivational speech, (I don't like to consider it nagging, right Cindy?) about how Caleb needs to calm down before going to bed. I hold my tongue and save it for when I first hear that little puff of air when Caleb is opening his door to start the Battle of Bedtime. Just so I have evidence on my side, right?!? But you know what?!? That puff of air doesn't ever come. The kid lays in his bed and goes to sleep. The first time...I thought...hmmm...he's lucky tonight. Second time...what a fluke. After lots of times, well...I'm at a loss.

Can anyone explain this to me? Again...I just don't get it. I can't bring myself to use the same method at night either.

New theory: Chris should just put Caleb to bed every night.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! A little late!!

Chris, the good man that he is, did most of the cooking Thursday morning. We did the brining of the turkey thing this year and used a roaster oven. Both different than we had done before. Turned out really good! However, I ended up being nauseous and had a hard time keeping food down Wednesday night and Thursday. (Ok, actually quite a bit this week. You'd think at 30+ weeks along this would be a thing of the past!!) So I think I ate about two bites of the big meal. Caleb was acting strange all morning--just kind of laying around not wanting to do anything. He even grabbed the phone book and used it as a pillow. He took an early and long nap and didn't eat any of the big meal. Poor Chris, as it turned out, got to eat his a bit cold. So all in all, not exactly as planned, but what can you do?!?! It makes for good memories.

By that night, Caleb was feeling a little bit better. We decided to break out all our Christmas stuff and set up our tree and put up our lights. To be honest, we had hard time this year waiting until Thanksgiving! We were all excited to decorate!!

Caleb helping Chris put up the tree:



Here is Caleb helping with the decorating of the tree...we later redistributed everything, but he had a good old time hanging everything.



Caleb giddy to be putting the lights up outside:



What a big helper. The boy loves to climb:




Friday, Chris ended up having to work most of the day, even though it was supposed to be a day off. But that night we went downtown to the river parade. They have a big parade where all the boats are made into floats with Christmas lights and decorations and everyone in costumes and music etc. They also turn on all the lights along the Riverwalk which are really pretty! The night was made even better by getting to ride the BUS!! We decided we would ride the bus for the added adventure of it all. Caleb was just giddy to ride the bus and to see the boats and all the lights on the Riverwalk. We had a good time!

Chris and Caleb at the bus stop:



Krista and Caleb at the parade:



Not the best, picture...it was too dark to get good pictures! But this is one of the floats, and you can sort of see the lights hanging on the Riverwalk too.




Saturday we decided to hit Sea World. The weather was perfect!!!! All summer long Caleb begged to ride the Shamu rollercoaster, but he was just not quite tall enough. Well, since he's grown about 8 feet in the last couple months, he was finally tall enough! Ok, well he was more than tall enough, so technically he probably could have ridden it a little while ago. But he finally got to ride it! And Texas Splashdown, the log flume type ride that I didn't know he could have ridden a long time ago!! I was really surprised they let little kids ride that! The hill at the end is pretty big! Quite a few kids were crying by the end. Caleb was crying...because he didn't want to get off! He wanted more more!! He keeps talking about wanting to go back! I hope he is a roller coaster junkie like us!!!

Chris and Caleb waving on the log flume ride:



Waiting in line for the Shamu rollercoaster:



A bad picture of Chris and Caleb (but the only one my bad reflexes could get) on the rollercoaster:



Hangin with Shamu:



As always at holidays, we missed our families and friends that are far away, but did manage to have some fun being together here.

p.s. Do you think that if you drink a bunch of eggnog and then throw it up that you still get as many calories and fat from it?!? :)

Pictionary

Backstory: (Note: As you read this post, remember we love each other more than can be undone by any furry creature of the forest.)

Krista and I are somewhat competitive when it comes to just about everything. We used to see who could push the other person into parked cars, light poles, and other objects, all in the name of sport. We kept tally, usually measured by who last succeeded in carrying out the dastardly deed. (We were certain that we were the subject of other people's Sunday School lessons..."I saw some guy push a girl into a parked car...I don't think it's ever appropriate to treat women like that!")

Games are always competitive and can become heated. It's usually a good sort of competition until we are fighting to help each other win at the same time. A classic example of this is Pictionary (which we no longer play together). During one game, Krista drew a couple of circles and a couple of lines and became excitable when I could not tell what the figure was. "Shapes!" I yelled. "Swirly pogo bounce staff thingies," a likely guess. She stopped "drawing" and kept tapping the paper with her pencil as though the drawing were obvious and I just didn't see it. "Donuts around toothpicks?" The pencil pounding increased.

When time ran out, she exclaimed (as though it were a photograph) "It's a SQUIRREL!" Competition gave way to sheer frustration. Two circles + two lines = one squirrel? Oye!

While the squirrel story has been re-told many times over the years, our days of playing Pictionary died with the squirrel. That was the last time we played Pictionary*.

Story: Caleb and Krista were making use of Caleb's Aquadoodle and Krista tried to get Caleb to practice his letters. She drew a "C" for "Caleb" and asked him what it was and continued on with other letters. She suggested he try drawing his own letters too. A couple of scribbles into it, he says, "What this is, mom?" "A?" came the reply. "No..." "B?" "No," he said, "it's my bed."

I said, "sounds like he plays Pictionary like his mom," to which Krista replied (very sarcastically, yet slightly lovingly), "shut uuuup."

Krista then drew (I'm laughing while typing this) a picture she thought Caleb would like, but he wanted a bus. "Draw a bus, mom." "It is a bus," she solemnly stated.

I broke out in laughter and tears. "I rest my case."

*We have played Pictionary a single time since then, against my better judgement. It was with Kip and Bridget. Remind me, who won that game?

Hodge Podge

This is kind of a random hodge podge update. But things I want to remember later....

BABY UPDATE:
I went for a follow up ultrasound and the baby's kidneys are still just as bad. Dang it! I was hoping I'd go and they'd tell me it has all cleared up! Oh well. We'll follow up in a few weeks again. I can't believe it's already time to start going every two weeks to doctor appointments!

It was so fun to do another ultrasound though. She pointed out so many more things this time. And according to the technician, it looks like we are definitely going to have another totally bald baby like Caleb.

Unfortunately, I still get sick a couple times a week. I think I have traumatized Caleb. He walks by the toilets and turns his head and makes a puking noise. Kind of sad that he thinks that's what they're for. He is so cute though. He used to get really upset when I was throwing up, but Chris has taught him to rub my back and say, "We're here for you mom." So now every time I'm sick I have my 2 year old compassionate paramedic there helping me out. "We're here for you mom! What do you need mom?"


POTTY TRAINING!
Caleb is doing awesome with the potty training thing! Whoohooo! He's been going potty for almost a year now anytime we ask him. We finally got our lazy selves motivated to ask him to go consistently. Now he will even go without being asked. I feel like we totally lucked out on yet another stage I have been dreading. It's going to be hard if our next kid isn't quite so easy going with all these fun stages. We might actually have to do some parenting or something. :) Here is his little motivator:

Every time we would go to Walmart, Caleb would beg to see the fish. But not just any of the fish. He would quickly pass all the others by until he found the Betta Fish. So Chris came up with the brilliant plan to use the fish as a motivator for potty training. Works great!!


CHOCOLATE MILK:
Just in case you are wondering.... For those times when Caleb wants chocolate milk but his bike is in the garage...he will just improvise. Still no need to take two trips. This time he used a kitchen chair to push it all the way down the entry way and into the living room complete with milk, chocolate powder, spoon, and cup. I would love to be inside his head sometimes and sneak a peak at his thought process. :)



AUSTIN FUN:
This weekend we were able to go up to Austin. Chris's grandma was visiting (from California) and staying with his uncle and family that live up there. So we headed up there and had so much fun!




Great weather and great hospitality! Always so much fun when we head up there! Thanks for everything, guys!

Air Show

Last weekend we headed out to the air show at Lackland Airforce Base. Chris's dad used to take him to air shows when he was younger and he absolutely loved them! He has lots of good memories from the shows. Caleb and I had not been to one before, so we thought we better check one out!

One of the best parts was getting to take a bus from the parking lot to the show! :) Caleb was just giddy.



Caleb got to sit in some of the airplanes and check them out by himself:







And check some out with his dad:











Chris was most excited to see the Blue Angels perform. He has very fond memories of seeing them when he was younger. They were very fun to watch and did some amazing stuff!!







On our way out, this guy was just walking by and stopped Caleb and said hello. He was so nice!! He let Caleb wear his hat and made his day!!





Caleb was most disappointed that he didn't actually get to fly in any airplanes. He did however love how loud the airplanes were and keeps talking about it still. We had a great time and will definitely have to check out another air show sometime!

Halloween Fun

Here is our cute little dog:

The last couple years we chose costumes for Caleb that we thought were just adorable. This year, we decided that we were going to let Caleb choose his costume. So we went to the store and showed him Lightning McQueen and Thomas the Train and some others I was sure he would jump all over. Instead, he finds this dog costume and would not be swayed. Never mind that all the others were nice and light and cool costumes for the hot Texas climate. Nope, we needed the big hot stuffy cute dog costume. But he loved it so much and looked so cute, it all worked out. And the weather was even a bit cooler and made it ok.

We made lots of Halloween cookies, but didn't take pictures. Caleb loves to help roll out the dough, use the cookie cutters, and help decorate the cookies.

We did get pictures of the pumpkins we carved though. Here is Caleb wielding his weapon of choice:


Caleb was way excited to get to choose the ghost this time. He also has our patterns planned out for "next time" a.k.a. next year, I guess. Here are the finished products:







At church we had a Halloween party that included a trunk-or-treat, a carnival for the kids, a dessert contest, and a costume contests. Lots of fun! Here is Chris as one of the judges with his always present helper, Caleb.



Here is Caleb ready to trick-or-treat:



At the first door it took him a couple minutes to get up the nerve to knock. But after that, he was sprinting from door to door and had the drill down. He was so cute. He would go to the door by himself, knock, say "trick-or-treat" then "thank you!" and he was off and running. I felt a little sad that he didn't need our help at all. But I guess that's a good thing.


I love holidays with our cute kid!!!!!!!

I Don't Want To Be Takin' Two Trips...

Caleb is quite independent. When Caleb wants milk he goes and gets me his cup and the milk and brings them to me wherever I am in the house. Then after I pour it for him, he returns the gallon of milk to the fridge. I think he figures--why not cut out the middle man as much as possible? Just bring it to mom and then I don't have to wait forever for her to get it for me.

When Caleb wants chocolate milk, he goes and gets his cup, the milk, a spoon, and Nestle powder from the pantry. Of course, it takes two trips to carry everything.

Today I think he decided to cut the chocolate milk process down even further. Just load it all on my bike and push it to mom so I don't have to be making two trips.

Here we have the milk riding shotgun, his cup and spoon riding in the trunk, with the Nesquik holding on for dear life in the back.

For all you Brian Regan fans out there...kind of reminds me of "I don't want to be opening two jars!" Except for Caleb..."I don't want to be making who knows how many trips!"

Lovin' 3 Day Weekends!

Wow! I just noticed the previous post! I didn't know Chris knew we even had a blog--let alone how to post to it! :)

Chris reminded us last Friday that he had a three day weekend because of the Monday holiday! Yahoo! I had totally forgotten that he gets this holiday now!

Of course there is always some time for R&R



Friday night Chris and Caleb decided to camp out in our living room. So they set up the tent and had a good ol' time.




No girls allowed this time. Much to my disappointment since I oh so love camping of any variety. Please note the sarcasm. This video is dedicated to my brother Kerry--Caleb misses shaking his booty with you in your driveway. :)



Saturday we did some shopping and then went bowling and out to dinner with the Cheneys. I haven't been bowling in forever! It was so much fun! Thanks guys!

Caleb let us help him the first round or two and then Mr. Independent insisted on doing it himself. EVERYTHING these days is "Me do! Me do!" I was actually very surprised he could hold the ball, let alone roll it down the alley. It rolled agonizingly slow most of the time, but it never got stuck!

I've decided that I love to bowl with Caleb. Whether I knock down zero pins or all ten he is eagerly awaiting me with a high five and a "Good job mom!!"

Chris and I got to speak in church on Sunday. Always fun. :) That night the Weatherholtz came over to play games. It's always a good time when we get to spend time with them!!

Monday we went out to Love Creek Orchard's pumpkin patch with the Richards. Here is our little pumpkin climber:



Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate and they didn't have their rides, storytellers, live music, animals, etc going. We'll have to go back sometime because it looks like lots of fun! But Caleb thoroughly enjoyed playing the with Richards' kids in the pumpkin maze:

I was tired just watching them sprint it over and over!


And of course we had to stop at good ol' Bobby J's for a huge greasy hamburger on the way back. The hour plus drive each way is really pretty too. Although it did remind me of our crazy fun times when I went to girl's camp a couple years ago out there and had to drive up and back every day--one way in the dark with lots of deer on the roadsides that scared me to death! Good times, huh Rachel?!?

Anyway, we ended our weekend with friends coming over for FHE and watching some good ol' Brian Regan.

I love 3 day weekends.

His Little Prayer

I anticipated that becoming a dad would afford some tender and life changing moments as our young ones learn and grow. Some of those events have taken place, such as the first step, the first word, and the first NBA basketball game. Some of these events are yet to come – Baptism, receiving the Priesthood, and seeing the Cubs win the World Series (sorry, bud – not this year).

For a dad who is eager to see his little buddy grow strong in his testimony of his Divine nature, one of these moments occurred this afternoon. After saying a prayer and while eating lunch, Caleb spontaneously bowed his head, closed his eyes, folded his little hands and offered another prayer, including the proper address, content, and closing. My heart leapt, and we again realized why we are so grateful for such an amazing little man and for his example.

Love you, Caleb!

Dad

Nature and Nurture

If you're an insect advocate...you can skip this post. :)

As I've said before...I hate all things creepy, crawly, etc.... So one of my proudest moments as a mom is when I see Caleb grab a shoe and go after a spider or bug that has found it's way into our house. :) Maybe I've gone a little too far though...since I also find him on the front porch and on the back deck with a shoe. I just don't want them in the house!

So anyway...last night I decided that maybe I should try a little harder to help Caleb appreciate nature. Here's why: We were driving home from a high school football game (gotta love Texas for that reason!), there was a nice sunset and suddenly there were tons of birds flying around. I said to Caleb, "Oh look! Do you see all those birds?!?" To which Caleb responds, "Gonna poop on our car!" Hmmm.....

As for nurture, well, I just have to say that Chris is such a good dad. Every day when he comes home from work Caleb is just ecstatic and does a happy dance! Since Chris finished school, they always spend the first 20-30 minutes after Chris gets home doing something together. Like kicking a ball, throwing a ball, playing basketball, reading books...it's their time together. The other day Chris remembered something fun his mom did for them when he was little. He cut a big whole in the side of an empty milk jug and grabbed a big paint brush we used to paint the house. He filled it full of water and took Caleb outside to show him how to "paint" with it. Caleb LOVES it! He has spent hours painting our front porch, sidewalks, driveway, and the whole outside of the house. It's great because as soon as the water dries, it is ready for a new "coat". And I'm up for it for hours too since the weather here is so nice finally! I had not seen this activity before, but I highly recommend it! Here are some pictures of their fun: