26 Months

Holy crap! It's been two months since my little guy's 2nd birthday! How did that happen? I'm finding that time is going a lot faster now that we have seasons again. In Arizona, every day looked the same - bright and sunny - and the temperature changed so gradually that I barely noticed. By the time Thanksgiving would roll around I'd have to blare the Christmas music in my car just to remind myself it was the holiday season. This year, since we've experienced fall and are clearly headed into winter, it seems as though the time has flown right by.

So what's new with Caleb? Since I never did a post about his birthday or really about what he was up to at 25 months, I'll try to list as many of the things that he's doing now...mostly so I don't forget how awesome this time in his life is!

Vocabulary: I can't believe just how much his vocabulary is still growing and changing. He's constantly coming out with new words and phrases. I'm most impressed with how quickly he picks up on things that Andrew and I {or others} say, not just repeating, but actually using phrases appropriately. Around the time he turned 2, we were driving in the car, and stopped in traffic {this happens A LOT here}. From the back seat, Caleb yells, "GO DUDE!" Whoops! The one time I'm patiently waiting for the guy in front of me to go, Caleb chimes right up with momma's usual "road rage" phrase. I'm also amazed at how much he makes connections between different things. Often he'll see something that will remind him of something else, and then he'll be off on a tangent talking about something. He still remembers things from "Art Show" even though we haven't watched that in at least 10 months.

New skills: Within the last few months {thanks to Word World}, he's really become obsessed with letters. Anytime he sees letters, he starts naming them off. He loves to sing his ABCs even if that means skipping a few letters here and there. Also, thanks to Word World, he can spell a few words if you either as him, "how do you spell?" or "what does P-I-E spell?" He knows PIE, RADIO, DUCK, TRUCK, and possibly a few others. Obviously he is memorizing, but I'd like to think that Word World is also helping him to identify letter sounds {they work on this in the show}, so that he might be able to build upon what he's learning now in the not too distant future.

He also enjoys singing nursery rhymes. Favorites are "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "I'm A Little Teapot." We've been working really hard on numbers, but they don't seem to be of too much interest to him. He'll count to 11 - Caleb style {1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 11}. Then if we say 12, he says, 13. If we say 14 he skips 15 and says 16. And that's about as far as it goes.

Eating: We have ups and downs in this area, and I guess that's to be expected. But for the most part, I think we can say that we have an excellent eater. However, he has developed an unhealthy attachment to ketchup. There are only a few things we allow him to have ketchup for (hot dogs, hamburgers mostly). So the other night he was having a hot dog, and he decided to start dipping his green beans in the ketchup. Tonight, we had green beans again and he requested ketchup again and proceeded to dip the green beans in and eat them. At least he's eating veggies, right?


Favorites: This has really changed a lot over the last few months. He still loves trains, but has now also gotten into the movie Cars {thanks to those two sicknesses he's had}. He loves all things "Ighting Mmmmqeen" {Lightning McQueen} and Mater. He's also very recently become interested in a TV show called "The Cat in the Hat Knows a lot About That." He even asks for this before asking for Thomas most days! Andrew and I are fine with this because the show actually has a lot of educational value unlike Thomas which I think may only be useful if he grows up to work on a rail yard. And he's OBSESSED with "car carts." You know, those grocery carts that-they-really-have-everywhere-not-just-at-the-grocery-store-anymore that have plastic in the shape of a car and a steering wheel and are the devil to push through the store? Yeah, those! I swear this kid gets more excited to go with me to the grocery store than he does to go to the park.

Misc: Fortunately, he's still napping well. We had a rough week leading up to his birthday where he refused to nap and would scream bloody murder when we put him in his bed {day or night}. We have no idea where that came from, but for my sanity I can say, THANK GOD, it only lasted about four days {felt like an eternity though}.

I knew there was a reason I haven't been good with taking the "month" pictures anymore. This kid does not sit still, and just like his father, he does not like having his picture taken. I'm not kidding when I tell you that if he knows I'm trying to get one of him smiling, he'll do everything but look at the camera and smile. See what I mean...


He drank from this cup for at least 2 minutes while I snapped away {hoping that eventually he'd put the cup down and I'd get a lucky shot of his cute face}.




I did trick him into taking a quick self picture with momma. He looks cute, me, not so much!


Happy 26 months, little man! Now stop growing up so fast!

Funny Stories

At the 2nd Pumpkin Patch, Caleb pointed to an {apparently} rotten pumpkin at which point his finger punctured the pumpkin and landed in orangish/yellowish liquid. He then told me that the pumpkin peed on him. A day later while we were talking to GranB on the phone about the trip to the pumpkin patch, Caleb told her he didn't like the "pee pee pumpkin."

Andrew was playing trains with Caleb last night {surprise, surprise}, and as usual Caleb was doting on his favorite train, Toby. Andrew {acting like the 30 year old he is a 5 year old} told Caleb that Toby smelled like monkey butt. Caleb's 2 year old response..."Toby doesn't have a butt!"

Diagnosis

Double Ear Infection. No wonder he spent all day yesterday on the couch, went to bed at 6:30, slept until 7:30 this morning, and when he woke up he asked to sleep on the floor requesting that I cover him with every blanket in the living room.


But despite that, I really had no idea that this kid was in pain, just that he didn't feel well. He's still sleeping through the night, not grabbing at his years, not screaming in pain. He's been eating less and laying around the house, but otherwise he's been in such good spirits. My little boy must have an extremely high tolerance for pain.

First major sickness for my little guy at nearly 25 months. First doctor prescribed antibiotics, every kid's favorite Amoxicillin. Except, not my kid's favorite. He kicked and screamed while I tried to give it to him, all 7mL of it. We only got about 4-5mL in him this morning, and I think the next time I'm just going to mix it in with some strawberry yogurt (his favorite). We'll go back to the doc in 3 weeks to make sure that his ears are clear. Let's hope this isn't the start of a series of ear infections.

Sick Day

My baby is sick : (

We spent most of the day on the couch watching TV - Thomas, Word World, and Caleb's new favorite "Cars." Around 10am he fell asleep while we were laying on the couch together. I've been waiting for him to do this again. It's been so long since he would fall asleep in my arms. Funny how I used to wish he'd sleep in his crib and stop taking naps in my arms, and now I just want to cuddle with him!



He ended up sleeping like that until about 12:30, so that was nap for the day leading to an early bedtime at 6:30. He seemed to be doing better tonight and actually ate pretty well at dinner, so hopefully he'll be on the mend tomorrow.

Potty Training - Update

FAIL! The day after my last potty training post my sister came to visit. After nap, C woke up dry and the three of us sat in the bathroom again watching Caleb do the naked pee dance. Finally he got really upset and started asking for a diaper completely refusing to even sit on either the big potty or his little potty. So I gave up, and decided to wait a while.

Then we went to visit my parents this weekend and my aunt got Caleb some A-freaking-dorable toddler sized boxer briefs. When we got back home, I just HAD to try them on him to see how cute they looked. So we had some boxer brief time during playtime yesterday afternoon.

I decided I would just watch him like a hawk and put him on the potty at the first sign of pee. We even brought his little potty into the living room. I had to go into the kitchen for a minute, and C came running in there telling me he had to go pee. SWEET!

I sat him on the potty in the living room and he said he wanted to go to the bathroom, so off we went for the naked potty dance. He did sit on the potty (progress from before), but he refused to go, so we put the boxer briefs back on and I told him if he needed to go pee he had to tell me. Next thing I know, he runs to the kitchen (I'm in the living room). He starts crying and when I go to the kitchen I see tiny, wet footprints all over the kitchen. Yep, he peed in his undies, and he didn't like it! Since we only have 2 pairs of the undies, and since daddy was almost home from work and it was just about dinner time, we went back to a diaper.

The good news is that he'll sit on the potty now, he can hold it VERY well, and he knows exactly when he needs to go. The bad news is that he won't go on the potty. So I think that a trip to the store for more undies, lots of cleaning up accidents, and more naked/boxer brief time is in our near future.

Potty Training

Has unofficially begun. For several months now Caleb has been waking up from nap (most of the time) with a dry diaper. We tried a few times to put him on the potty to see if he would use it, but I don't think that I was patient enough. He always wanted to just hop up right away. Yesterday when he woke up dry, I decided to take his potty seat in the bathroom and close the door. He literally danced around the bathroom naked for a good 5 minutes before he finally sat down and PEED IN THE POTTY! I think he was a little freaked out because he kept trying to get up off the potty as he was going, but we just kept talking and he did great. Today after nap was more of the same. This time I sat him right on the adult toilet with his little seat attached and he did it again (after he requested I put his diaper back on about 3 times. At least I know he was able to hold it during that time instead of just peeing right in the middle of the bathroom floor)! I think it is clear from his reaction to the whole thing that it'll be a while before he's potty trained, but this is certainly a step in the right direction...getting him over his fear of the potty!

New Hair Cut

For me, not Caleb. This is the best picture that I have {taken by me while holding a squirmy toddler}. I just love Caleb's face here!

Road Trip Recap

Finally getting to sit down to recap our trip. A few weeks ago, Andrew told me that his company was having a building opening in Farmington, NM. His company had designed most of the buildings on the campus of the Navajo Prep High School, and this was the most recent one. Since neither of us had ever been there, we figured that it might be a nice little family trip over Thanksgiving weekend. As the day of leaving got closer, I got more and more stressed out. Let me tell you, it is not easy to pack up all the stuff you need for 3 days away with a toddler. I really started to appreciate what my mom did all those years when I was a kid and we would go on two week summer vacations in a car!


So, our plan was to leave around 9am on Saturday, about an hour before C would be ready for his nap, so that he'd have some time to get accustomed to the car before falling asleep. We also planned to stop about 3/4 of the way to our destination, stay overnight in Gallup, NM, and then continue on to Farmington in the morning. Come Saturday morning, we took a look at the weather report and found that snow was likely to be moving in earlier that expected along the route we were taking, so we threw things together, gassed up the car and were on the road by 7:30. After about 15 minutes in the car, I wasn't sure if we'd make it. Caleb was pretty much a mess (chalk it up to teething), so I made the decision to let him have a pacifier for the trip (he usually only gets these for naps and bedtime) since it seems to soothe his teething pains, and it worked like a charm! Caleb fought sleep until we were about an hour away from home. Our first stop of the trip wasin Flagstaff, about 2 hours from home. We stopped for some breakfast for A & I at McDonalds while we let C run around the PlayPlace. I was completely horrified that I was letting my child loose in that filthy place, but it was too cold to do anything outside, and he needed to let off some energy after sitting in the car. Next we headed to Target to pick up winter essentials that apparently aren't sold in our neck of the woods (windshield ice scrapers and gloves). And finally we were back on the road. We figured Caleb would still be tired, but darn if he didn't struggle with falling asleep until we were about 45 minutes from the next "big" town where we had planned to stop for lunch and a potty break. As soon as the car was in park, Caleb was awake.

We again stopped at McDonalds (sigh...this trip was filled with WAY too many Mc-y D's meals) where we had lunch and let Caleb run around. Here is Caleb sitting in a regular chair and eating McNuggets just like a big boy!

We again modified our orginal plan since we had gotten on the road so early in the day and because C was doing so well in the car. We had hotel reservations for a town about 3 hours away from our final destination, but decided to press all in one day. We arrived about 8.5 hours after we left home including three stops for a total of about 2.5 hours. We got checked into our hotel where Caleb promptly found the TV remote and fixated on the TV.

We ended up finding a really cute local brewery for dinner (which was pretty good) before heading back to the hotel for the evening where Caleb had a great time running around and exploring before bed. At one point, he went around the corner to where the closet, bathroom, and sink were located. We didn't think anything of it since the doors were closed and the trashcan was moved up high. After a minute or two of quiet, we decided to go check out what he was up to, and this is what we found...

...oops. I guess we forgot about the tissue dispenser!

Unfortunately, as I already mentioned in a previous post, C really struggled with falling asleep and ended up sleeping in bed with us. Thank goodness for the King sized bed!

The next day we got up and ate dinner with the locals at a little pancake joint. I've never felt so out of place in my life as I did when we walked through the doors and had all eyes on us. I just know they were all thinking, "Where did these people come from?" We managed to give Caleb some playtime before heading back to the hotel for a nap. I got him to fall asleep next to me on the bed and I was able to get up while he slept. However, A & I were stuck in the dark hotel room with nothing but my laptop and iTouch for the next 1.5 hours. Thank goodness for free WiFi!

Finally after nap we headed to Andrew's project site (the reason we had travelled all that distance) where we were given a tour of the new building and campus by A's bosses. Caleb had a great time running around outside and picking up stones from the newly landscaped buildings. I LOVED the campus and felt like I was back home on the east coast. All the buildings were brick, there were large grassy areas and big trees (albeit baren for winter, but big nonetheless). If it weren't so darn far away, I'd probably make another trip back there next fall to get my "fall colors fix."

We finally headed home around 2:30, and again had intended to spend the night about 2 hours from home to make the final part of the trip the next morning. However, I since we had left about an hour before we had planned, and since Caleb fell asleep once again about 30 minutes before we got to Flagstaff, we decided to try to keep him asleep and press on to home. He ended up waking about an hour later, but fortunately we were near another town with a McDonalds, so we stopped to change him, let him walk, and give him his nighttime milk, and he passed right out when we got back in the car. Good thing too, because by that point he REALLY hated being in the car. We made it home about 7 hours after we left thanks to shorter, less frequent stops, and we were able to get Caleb right to sleep.

Overall, I have to say that C did GREAT! I really couldn't have asked for anything more from him. Looks like he's a pretty good traveller afterall (I hope I'm not jinxing myself for our two upcoming trips). We'll definitely think about taking some shorter day/weekend trips when the weather warms a bit this spring.

We Made It!

First trip in a car with Caleb over 1.5 hours. Today we traveled 8.5 hours including about 2 hours of stops between 3 separate places. It's only 6:30pm, and we're all pretty much ready to crash. C did great on the trip though. More to come...

Could Have Fooled Me

Teething (v): the process by which children aquire teeth. Although there are only 20 "baby teeth" that need to come in, this process will last from the time a child is 4 months old until puberty. Even when there are no concrete signs of teeting (i.e. a tooth popping through the gums) you will believe that your child is getting a tooth. It can take 6 months or more for any one tooth to come in once your child starts showing "signs of teething" (excessive drool, fussiness, low grade fever, difficulty sleeping).

I'm wondering why the above definition of teething isn't what one finds when "Googling" the topic. We've been waiting and waiting and waiting for Caleb to get more teeth. His first two came around 8 months, and 1 month later he aquired four more teeth at one time. I kept thinking that he'd get the other two bottom front teeth anytime. We've been through numerous periods of crazy drooling, spurts of with middle of the night wakeups, biting on and off, and even times when I could swear that I felt a tooth popping through the gum in the front. Andrew and I had given up on it, and refused to use "teething" as an excuse for anything anymore. Yesterday I stuck my hand in C's mouth toward the back and I to my surprise I felt two teeth definitely poking through the gum. That's right, he's getting molars before the rest of his front teeth. So it official, Caleb now has 8 teeth: four on top in the front, two bottom front, one top left molar and one bottom left molar. After all of that trying to guess when he was teething, these seem to have come in with relatively little disturbance to his schedule and activities. We can only hope that the remaining teeth will come in without issue as well!

C's First Haircut - The Video

We finally caved and decided to get C a haircut. Now, if you're not around to see him in person, it probably wouldn't appear from pictures that the kid had any hair at all. However, he was really starting to develop quite the mullet. Andrew decided to go for a haircut this morning, so we just took C along and had his cut after Daddy was finished. We didn't think he had much hair on top until we cut the excess hair off the back. Now he looks like a cutie little boy!

The video is only of the first minute of the cut when C started to get fussy. The guy doing the clipping did a great job, but it did end up taking about 5-10 minutes. As you can imagine, C was no to please with him. However, you can see the worst of the fussing the video. Overall, I think he did great!

Y3W

Could it be?

Caleb said his first sentence tonight. Only two words, but two words strung together back-to-back. As we were eating dinner tonight C pointed to his cup of milk on the table and said, "More ba." Ba means any liquid that is in a cup (milk, water, juice). He never really developed a new word after "bottle." Nevertheless...he knew what it meant and so did we. We've been working on getting him to say, "Please," which he has done a few times, but never with another word. I'm hoping that his next sentence is "More ba please." I'm loving every minute with him right now. This is such an awesome age!

4:25 PM - Happy Birthday Caleb!!

Caleb Marley entered the world...all 6 lbs, 7 oz, 19.75 inches of him! The doctor turned him around and said, "What is it mom?" I said, "It's a boy!" Andrew already knew having seen as Caleb was delivered. The doctor placed him on my chest, and it was love at first sight.






Happy 1st Birthday, Cale-y Bear!

3:45 PM

I told the nurse I felt like I needed to use the bathroom and she told me I could go, but not to push too hard. So yeah, I changed my mind! Just then my doctor arrived to check my progress. I was hoping I'd be at least 6 or 7cm. She looked at me and said, "You're going to push on the next contraction." I looked right back at her and said, "I'm having the baby now?" She told me I was 9.5cm, and yes we were having this baby now! I felt so unprepared, like I had no idea what I was doing. I acted like a drunk person asking the same question over and over again, "How am I doing?" They kept telling me I was doing great, I didn't believe them because I figured it's their job to say that.

3:40 PM

FINALLY, after an hour of waiting in triage our delivery room was ready. I walked down the hall down to the delivery room. I was in so much pain, I'm pretty sure (Andrew will vouch for this) that I would have walked down the hall naked if they had let me. I had one contraction in the hallway on the way there. Then three really strong contracions right on top of each other between the time I walked in the door of the delivery room to the time I got to the bed. This was when they decided that I needed to sign all the paperwork...in case of an epidural, baby's picture on the website/in the paper. Let's just say the first paper I signed looked somewhat like my signature. The rest wasn't more than a scribble.

2:30 PM

I was right, my water broke while I was laying in the hospital bed. I told Andrew for about the 5th time that day, "My water broke." And he responded, "Are you sure you didn't pee yourself." And I said, "No, this time I'm sure it was my water." I rang my nursing station call button and after verifying that my water had indeed broken, they said I'd be admitted to the hospital and would be leaving with a baby that day (or the next day). At that point I was still in the triage area with everyone else able to hear me labor through my contractions. Nurse after nurse was coming to take more blood from me despite the fact that my BP was really no longer an issue since the baby was on his/her way. My contractions were right on top of each other, and I got some nice bruises from tensing up while the nurses were taking blood.

2:00 PM

The 1 hour of monitoring for my second dose of the gel had ended. We walked a bit, but it was hard having incredibly strong contractions in the hallway, and I was afraid that my water would break in the hallway so again I went back to bed.

1:00 PM

The second round of the gel was administered. At that point I was 4.5cm, 80% effaced. Almost as soon as I was given the dose, I started experiencing pretty strong contractions that were somewhat irregular. They were coming at least every three to five minutes, but at times they'd be right on top of one another. Andrew kept reminding me to breathe slowly, but I was definitely in quite a bit of pain. I kept telling him I didn't know if I was going to be able to do it without the epidural, but he really reassured me and reminded me why I didn't want it. I still wasn't convinced, but was willing to try to wait it out for as long as possible.

12:30 PM

Andrew arrived at the hospital!