Back to blogging

Wow, it's been a year since I've posted anything. That makes my heart sink. I can't believe I haven't kept up. So much has happened this year. I got a full time job - hence not being able to keep up with my blog. Around this time last year Caleb had his tonsils & adenoids removed and PET in. That was quite stressful! I actually did journal about that on paper and when I find it, I'll add it. Caleb started back at Trafalger when I went full time.

My work is a little less crazy now. I'm only working 3 days/week, still full time, but at least I have a few days off. I started out working 5 nights/week and it about killed me.

Caleb is growing so fast and he is just so precious to me. He says the funniest things. He is learning to read and write. He knows most of his books in the Old Testament (he knows them better than I do!), he can recite the Pledge of Allegiance. I hear him reciting bible versus sometimes too and it just makes me smile. He has learned a lot in his class this year.

Caleb and Jason spend Saturdays and Sundays together while I work from home. They often go to Costco or (Caleb's favorite) Target. It's nice that I can still see him while I'm working although Caleb hates it when I can't play and have to work.

Caleb tells me all the time that he misses his cousins and he asks if Granny and Grandaddy and Nannie & PawPaw live too far away. He said to me the other day, "Mommy, I want a big family....I want a baby sister". Bless his heart, I could just squeeze him. He has several little friends at school with a baby sister. I'm sure that's why he says that.

Jason has been taking Caleb to swim lessons on Saturdays. I wish I could go, but I'm glad they have something fun to do together. We've been to the zoo and children's museum a lot this year. We are keeping busy!

Hopefully, I'll get better about updating......

Racecar crash!!!!

Jason bought Caleb some "Cars" Valentine's cards to give away at school. They came with little rub-on tattoos. I let Caleb sample one and put "Mater" on his hand. He thought it was really cool until he tried to take it off and it was "stuck". He said "it's a mess! it's a mess!" as he tried to pinch the tattoo off his skin. After realizing it wasn't coming off, he decided he wanted "race car" on the other hand. I put it on too and he was very pleased.

And then came bath time....

I was right outside the bathroom door while he was in the tub and I heard him scream, "Ahhhhh! Where'd it go? Ahhhhh! Race car crash! Race car crash!". I peeked in and saw that he was searching the front and back of his hands and one small spot was all that was left of the tattoos.

Ice Cream Cone

I took Caleb for ice cream after school today. My favorite place for ice cream is a place called Sheridans. They have the most wonderful Snickers concrete that I really didn't need. They also give free kids cones to kids under 3.

I got our ice cream and started helping Caleb with his ice cream cone. It was the first time he has ever had one. I tried to get him to wear a bib but he promptly took it off. I decided we would just sit in the parking lot and eat it. As I rolled the windows down to enjoy the nice breeze and sunshine while enjoying a moment eating ice cream with my son, I was approached by a man giving some sob story about needing gas money. Aaaarghhhh! Not that I mind helping anyone out, but he was trying a little too hard to act desperate. I didn't believe his story but gave him a dollar and some change anyway, rolled up the windows, locked the doors, and got out of there.

So now I have a little boy in his car seat with his first ice cream cone and no bib. I think you know how this is gonna go. The cone is only about 4 inches tall with a little baby scoop of ice cream....but that little scoop still made a huge mess. All the way home, Caleb was screaming "I made a mess!!" because the ice cream was melting faster than he could eat it. It was dripping down his hands then on to his clothes and the car seat. He kept tipping it over so it dripped even more....while still shouting "I made a mess!!". I kept telling him to eat it so it wouldn't melt. He would lick some off, tilt it over, scream "I made a mess!! Ahhhh! I made a mess!! I sorry! I made a mess!!". I was giggling so hard. I got some of it on video and I'll try to get it on here later.

Sick days are no fun

Poor Caleb.....

While we were running yesterday, we heard a very loud motor coming our way. "What's that?" Caleb asked. "I think it's a motorcycle," I responded. Wrong. It was an oil dripping, air polluting, noise machine headed toward us (don't worry...we were on the sidewalk). I stopped for a minute, thinking the car would pass on by and we wouldn't have to breathe the fumes or hear the blast of loud, obnoxious engine for too long. Guess what the driver did.....he pulled over to the side of the road to get his mail out of the mailbox. So there we were right behind the nasty fumes with his stupid car idling (my irritation with him is increasing as I write this). Then he pauses to look at me like "why are you standing in front of MY house?" before he finally pulls around into his driveway finally giving us some relief from his lung irritating, eardrum busting stupid car. There we were left in a cloud of fumes...both from the car and from me....and Caleb was yelling, "yuuuuuck....cough...ewwww....blahhhhhhh....cough". You get the point, right? He did it so loudly that another man out for a walk down the street from us gave me the look. You know, the one like, is your child ok and what is he doing? I explained to him that my child didn't like the car.

After surviving the atomic car, we passed by a house with a burned yard. I thought it was dirt at first so I didn't think twice about passing it. But as we got closer, we could smell the charred grass. "Yuuuuuck....cough...ewwww....blahhhhhhh....cough..what is it?," questions Caleb. At this point, I'm wanting to get away from the smell ASAP so I'm running as hard as we can....of course it would be going up a hill...at the end of my run when I'm good and tired.....with Caleb going crazy trying to figure out why the air around him is so unpleasant today.

So last night he couldn't sleep for coughing so much. I did my whole respiratory therapy/nurse assessment on him, decided he wasn't wheezing and gave him some all-natural, homeopathic cough medicine. Didn't work. He kept coughing. Jason went to check on him around midnight and found that--------stop reading paragraph here if you have a weak stomach, proceed immediately to the next paragraph--------Caleb had coughed so much that he vomited all over himself. So it's midnight and I have to give Caleb a bath and now scrub his clothes. Ewwwww! I'm so proud of Jason for not gagging, vomiting, or passing out. He actually helped me. Of course, he wasn't the one that had a vomit soaked Caleb asking for "hugs, Mama, hugs". That's ok, though. That's what moms do, right? We hug our little babies when they need hugs no matter what (although I did wipe as much off as I could as he was lunging towards me and quickly pulled a towel up between us to shield my clothing from his). Caleb said to me "it's ax-si-dent mama". Oh, I just wanted to scoop him up and hold him all night. I didn't care how tired I was or how dirty he was.

I gave him some more medicine...not the crappy stuff I gave before, but some stuff that really worked and turned on his humidifier and after a few more coughing episodes, he finally went to sleep. Jason stayed home with him today and worked from home while I went to work. I hated leaving him here. I just have to keep reminding myself that once the initial training is over, it will be worth it. I do still really, really love my job...I just hate leaving my baby, especially when he is sick! He is asleep right now and I so badly want to go pick him up and cuddle with him, but I won't because he is finally getting some much needed sleep.

Poor Caleb. I actually got him to eat spinach, carrots, tomatoes, broccoli and strawberries for dinner....ahhhh why couldn't this happen on a day when he eats a bunch of junk?

Park

We had such a fun time in the park today with our friends Jan, Caleb, Emily, Ellie, and Ensley. I'm so mad at myself for not taking pictures. It was a beautiful day and it was so fun to just play. Caleb had a great time running around at the playground while we played football, which, apparently I'm no good at. Oh well.

We went home after church to change and grab some lunch and the whole time Caleb kept asking for Emmie (Emily). He was in heaven getting to play outside AND with some of his favorite people. When we were leaving from the park he kept saying "more Jan, more Emmie, more Caleb, more Ellie, more Ensley". He sure loves them!

I scaaaaaared!

Jason was make a left turn at a green light and traffic in the lane he was entering was backed up so far that the tail of the car was blocking the intersection. At first he didn't realize he was going to have to stop because the turn lane to the right of us was flowing just fine. I calmly said "whoa, Jason, you gotta stop". Ok, maybe I said it more like "WHOA JASON!! STOP!". Caleb yelled out "I scaaaarrrred!".

I didn't even know he knew that word, much less what it meant, but it cracked me up. Now instead of shouting out "whoa!" or "aaahhhhh!", I'm gonna yell "I scared!".