Future gymnast?

Caleb had his first taste of gymnastics today at a birthday party for his good friend, Rachel. He had a total blast. I wish we could get him in for lessons to burn some energy, but they aren't cheap! He loved the rope swing and the big foam blocks. He said he did the balance beam, but I never saw.

From valentine

From valentine

From valentine

From valentine

Bouncing is what my boys do best!

I took Caleb (and Levi) to the Bounce house place in the mall today to meet with some friends. Even though it is loud in there because of all the blowing air, it is SO great. They can just run from place to place without being told to slow down, watch out, be careful, etc. Although we do have to remind not to punch, which it difficult when there is a boxing inflatable. Caleb ran and jumped for about an hour, downed 11 chicken nuggets, some fries, and a lemonade, and was good to go for another hour. He will probably start growing feathers soon. They were all so cute walking from the inflatables to the food court. A long line of boys + Emmy holding hands. So cute that I was busy taking pictures and not realizing I was following them right into the boys bathroom. Oops! Luckily, my friend caught me right before I stepped in and I got the boys to come with me to the girls bathroom, where it was a race to see who could get finished going to the bathroom and washing hands the fastest. And then the blow dryer fun. How boys can make anything and everything a competition and a form of entertainment is beyond me! Caleb already has a big day planned for us tomorrow. He told Joe and I that we needed to get ready, because #14 (a car he has) told him tomorrow it's "going to be the big race" before Rachel's Birthday party. And if we want to watch from the couch we can, or if we want to watch from the chair, we can. Thanks for the permission. Where does he get his administrative genes???

From valentine

From valentine

Game time

I am proud to say that Caleb FINALLY learned to play a game. By the rules. And not just any game like Candyland or Barnyard Bingo, which of course he could play, but just wouldn't agree to take turns, count correctly, leave other people's tokens alone, etc. So today we broke out the Skip-Bo Junior and he was patient enough for me to teach the game, and we played 3 hands in a row before he wanted to move on to something else. And another thing... he actually agreed that I won a hand (gasp!). I pretty much nearly fainted.
Talking with him today, we discussed that it was his friend Rachel's 4th birthday. He said, "Great! Now she can be on my team!" Apparently, he has "teams" for everything and nothing at all. I have no idea where he gets this competitive nature from ;-/
Oh, one other small milestone. I let Levi have short halves of green beans tonight, and he was finally quiet for most of the meal. Not totally sure that is appropriate for an 8 month old, but I watched him closely for signs of aspiration and didn't see any. He is getting pretty good at using the pincher grip to get food off the tray. He is such a momma's boy. Any time I get him he stops fussing and starts sucking his thumb. Caleb was always content as long as someone had him, but not this guy. He wants ME...ditto.

Finally, a day without snow

Caleb was pretty surprised it all melted today, except for our snowman. I told him the little guy must like us a lot to stick around after all the other snow was gone. All of a sudden he had a much greater affinity for him. We got out around lunch time today and ran a couple errands, mostly looking for Caleb some new jeans, since he still wears holes in the right knee. Yup, only the right knee. That is the one he "scoots" on while he plays cars and trains. Caleb informed us at Chick-Fil-A that he didn't want to play in the playplace because it was too loud (huh??), but he was more than happy to sit and eat his ice cream (in place of a toy --love that!)... for 20 minutes. Sheesh. We had time to run in Ross and I found 3 pairs of jeans for $5.50 and $6.50 each! I guess it was a successful mission. I ran to make a couple visits while the boys had quiet time. When I got home, I threw together some delicious (if not loaded with sodium) chicken and rice soup. Well, Joe and I thought it was delicious. Caleb spent an entire hour trying to figure out exactly how much of the bowl he had to eat to earn his dessert. He did eventually eat most of the bowl, even though it was stone cold. Now, off to bed to read a little and be excited for worship with my family tomorrow!

SNOW!!

So after breakfast, we played trains and went "camping" again. The kid can't WAIT until our Spring camping trip with the church! After lunch, I did a little laundry and cleaned up a bit, then we went outside and enjoyed the snow!!! It was snowing off and on all morning but by afternoon it was gorgeous. I really wanted to make a snowman, which I always forget is much harder than it looks. Joe called him "mini-me". Caleb reluctantly helped decorate him, but he was much more interested in pelting us with snowballs as we attempted our masterpiece.
Eventually, Joe gave up for awhile and hauled his huge piece around as if he was going to chunk it at Caleb.
Our finished product. Levi was wondering what all the fuss was about. I let him hold some snow, and he didn't even try to eat it. Weird, since Caleb couldn't stop licking it! The album has pics of Levi in the snow. Caleb did try driving his jeep through the snow, which worked for a little while. Eventually, we came in and Joe made homemade hot chocolate. Like Polar Express hot chocolate. Caleb and I then made homemade chocolate chip cookies. I was so proud I let him help with every step and we were both still alive afterward. Then we ate pizza, watched Fly Me to the Moon, and ate WAY too many cookies with milk. Yum. A pretty spectacular day, I'll say.
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snow

Winter weather day #3

We braved the potentially icy roads to drive about 1 mile to our friend Amber's house. We had Joe drive us because I was afraid it would be Caleb played with his friends, Emmy, Amiya and Bubba. Pretty much all he did the entire day was ride on Emmy's indoor ATV, which he was completely thrilled with. Levi also had a blast watching kids run through the living room and back again. Amber and I had a great time using up all our 25,000 words for the day, and our husbands were pleasantly surprised that we didn't have much to say to them for the rest of the night! I even had time to cook a chicken pot pie for dinner. Roads are supposed to be icy still on Friday. Seriously?!?! We didn't have this much of a problem with weather in North Dakota after a blizzard!! Apparently, Texas are against using salt to melt ice. I just feel bad for all the Packers/Steelers fans who came all this way to sit in their hotel rooms. Bummer...

More winter weather days...

Another day of creative fun at home!! We spent the morning going camping by the fireplace. While we were gathering our camp food, Caleb announced that his fish must have leprosy, because it had a gold coin in its mouth.... at least the fish did have spots?!?

From train books of bible

Second half of the morning we spent redesigning the train track, which would be much easier if Caleb didn't think it was a contest to see who could get the most pieces put down as quickly as possible. But at least he has a good time. Levi has a great time supervising all the chaos.

From train books of bible

Caleb was invited over to the neighbor's house this afternoon and had a great time. Of all the days, today he wanted ice cream for dessert... on the coldest day of the year. And when he came home today, he requested a snowflake cookie for dessert, as if we have those lying around. Luckily, I had some break and bake sugar cookies, so I made a snowflake out of two cookies and he got to ice and sprinkle it, which was again his favorite thing of the day!
Tonight we had our own little devotional since worship was canceled at the building. We sang all his favorites, read a Bible story, and said prayers. Caleb keeps praying for the ice to get cleaned up so Mommy can go back to work and make money so we can buy the things we need. By "need", he means his most recent requests: a toy from Cracker Barrel and two lizards from the zoo, which he reminded me that Santa and Granna neglected to bring him. Guess we need to keep working on being grateful instead of greedy

Winter Storm day

We had a winter storm hit on Monday night. So I knew I would have to think of something fun to do with preschool canceled. So we had some neighbor friends come play (inside!) for the entire afternoon. We made sugar cookies complete with icing and sprinkles, which Caleb later said was the best part of the day. We had a great time, but there is a reason I will have no more than 4 kids (on purpose)!! We took Levi outside for just a minute to say he his first "snow" experience. He was slightly less than thrilled.

General Motors Plant Tour

Caleb, Levi and I met my mom, my friend Angela, her son and mother at the General Motors Plant in Arlington for a tour of the factory. They said Levi was the youngest one they had, so far! The workers were so friendly and happy to have us. We waited about 2 hours to ride the tram tour, but I had to leave for work before we got to ride. Luckily, Mom was able to continue with Caleb. They rode the tram 2x (since the workers were on break the first time around), drove radio controlled race cars, test drove a Chevy Camaro and Chevy Equinox, and sat in a real race car! He was pretty psyched about it all!!
I thought we might all go again later (they are only doing it this week due to the Superbowl), but with the ice storm, it's been impossible.

Sick day

Caleb had a fever today. That slowed him down for about 2 hours this morning, until the Tylenol kicked in. At lunch, which he ate around 3pm, I thought again (for about the 100th time) about how boys are so different than girls. When I was little, mom said "don't play with your food", which usually meant "don't mess around and actually eat the food on your plate". But for boys, at least my son, that saying REALLY means "don't use your food as a plaything". This would include bridges, airplanes, trains, cars, weapons of any type, etc. And yet, for some unexplainable reason, he always thinks I will be amazed by whatever new trick he has thought of to do with his food and/or utensils. Of course, this pretty much applies to any new trick he has uncovered, not just at the dinner table. At the moment, most of them have to do with jumping. "Look how high I can jump today", "Look how I can jump from the couch to the ottoman", "Look how far I can jump over these tiles in the kitchen"... now, if only he can use those jumping skills into the pool this summer instead of just stepping off the side. Seriously though, he has learned to say "Mom, watch this!", instead of naming the specific feat he is about to accomplish for fear that I will nix the idea before he can complete it. Sneaky. Now I find myself holding my breath every time I hear that phrase! Oh, besides jumping, it is often some new way of balancing his dinner objects on the way to the sink. So he has now also mastered how to use the dustbuster. I could tell he was feeling better when the usual question popped up again..."Mommy, will you play with me?"

Our Family

The first picture Caleb drew about 2 weeks ago. He was supposed to draw a picture of our family. He says Daddy is the one in blue. I asked where I was and he replied, "Hmmm. I don't know. You can be the heart." I guess that is probably exactly what I want to be.

So tonight, I had him draw another picture of our family. I just had to help him with the order. Ex. Draw a circle, now two legs, now two arms, etc. I would always say eyes, nose, mouth, in that order. On mine, after I said nose, he said, "and then the sharp teeth, right?" Guess I must have lost my position as the heart if I now have fangs. In case you are wondering, Joe is in the middle, then me on the left, Levi on the right, and Caleb at the bottom. There is another circle at the very bottom (no, I'm not pregnant, unless he knows something I don't)... Caleb just said it was "too wow" (too low).

Birthday Fun.. someone is 2!!

Sat we went to the mall for my niece Mia's 2nd birthday. It was SO fun. Both of the boys rode the carousel. Afterward, my sister, her boyfriend, and my parents came back to our house to "play" (really, we all took about 2 hour naps!). Caleb fif coerece Jonathan, Beth's bf, to play air hockey with him, cars/trains, and showed off his SUV driving skills. That afternoon we went to my brother's house to celebrate his 29th birthday. We gave Mia a shopping cart for her birthday, and not to be outdone, Caleb wanted to bring his to the party, too. I'm sure if hed' known she was getting a guitar, he would have wanted his as well. We will have lots of great "concerts" to post here soon, I'm sure. Oh, I added the pic here because I am beginning to see a lot of my dad in Levi. Lindsay, my sister-in-law, saw it first and commented when he was a few days old that she thought he looked like my dad.

Levi's 8 month album

Random Thursday

I desperately need more "blue". (Blue is the "color" on the personality scale for compassion, sympathy, etc.) Yesterday, Joe pulled a muscle in his back. He thinks it was from carrying Levi funny in his car seat. I think it was from weight-lifting and then he tweaked it with the car seat. I wasn't trying to be uncaring or suspicious of his injury, but I know I was not conveying a deep concern. Last night, it finally occurred to me to see if I could do something to help him, but I guess my attempts were so awkward that I ended up making it worse by causing him to laugh too hard.

Caleb informed me yesterday in the car that his favorite song is "The Battle Belongs to the Lord", with "I'm in the Lord's Army". Such a boy... Oh, #3 favorite is "Heaven is a Wonderful Place", the way Mr. Parker at church leads it. I forgot, his other all-time favorite is "Our God is an Awesome God" (and yes, he knows all the verses, even though I'm quite sure he is not sure what he is always singing since he asked me what "the Ritz" is, and I'm pretty sure we haven't covered Sodom in Toddler bible class).

Today we had a little friend come over after school, and he and Caleb played SO hard. He has quite the agenda: air hockey, riding in his Jeep , "camping" in his Thomas tent, dinosaur hunting, flying airplanes, racing cars, and playing trains. Wait, that about sums up every day, with a little "Dino Dan" thrown in.

Oh, I nearly hyperventilated earlier. I decided to use Picassa for my photos and I did my first download from my camera. I told it to only delete pics that were copied, but after it was through, I looked at my camera and it was black... no pictures. I had a bunch of ADORABLE ones I will post soon of Levi with some blocks and a wagon. I kept turning it on/off... really, quite disturbed (crying, etc.). Only to realize that the batteries were low and when I unplugged it from the cord, they came up. Whew. Disaster averted for one day. And if you have ever tried taking good pics of your kids, you know what I mean.

Levi's pics from 2010

Obviously, these are pretty old, but I wanted them on here for my sake. In case anything happens to my files. And to remember how tiny he was not that long ago. I am pretty proud of these shots. Oh, I just want to squeeze him!

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Levi's Christmas pics with the Polar Express bell

So, I tried my hand at doing my own Christmas shots. I started with some other originally, which I may go back on and post, even though they are old. I think they turned out really well, for my second time. He kept rolling over or falling over, so it was harder than it seems!

Christmas pics

Merry Christmas to all, just a little late...

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