Granny and Granddaddy

Granny and Granddaddy came to visit this weekend. Caleb grabbed Granny by the hand and led her straight to his room to play. We tried to give Granny a few breaks, but the second he realized she had left the room, he would come looking for her. He would grab her hand and lead her right back to playing with him. Poor Granny.

Caleb showed off his batting skills to Granddaddy. He is really good at Tball....and so is Caleb (bwah ha ha ha I'm so funny). He loved playing ball with Granddaddy and loved showing off his batting swing to him.

Then Monday rolled around and Granny and Granddaddy had gone home and "post traumatic where are my Granny and Granddaddy and all the attention I loved" followed. I plan nothing on those days because I know that's what will get done.

Ok, well, I'm getting pushed away from the computer hearing "Momma! Momma!". Then he remembers his secret weapon...."hugs, momma?".

HUGS!!!

"Hugs, momma!"

Caleb reaches up to me and shouts, "hugs, momma, hugs". How can you not reach down and hug a little cutie pie when he does that? Even when he does it over and over and over.......ahhh, cuteness!

Of course, he does this when I'm trying to update my blog, fix dinner, put him in time out....hmmmm....yep, still cute and hard to resist. He has found my weak spot. I think I hate time-out more than him.

Today he took every sippy cup out of the drawer and lined them on the shelf. When he saw the drawer was empty, he threw his hands out and declared "ALL DONE!". Ok, then....what's next? Oh boy.

Zoo day out

We went to the zoo today with our friends Jennifer and Kim. Or I guess I should say Caleb and I ran through the zoo. He is interested in the animals for, oh, let's say 3 seconds....then he's off. I think the most exciting part for him was when we all stopped for snacks and he got to push Ms. Kim's stroller around. It's pretty exhausting going to the zoo. You might think he would be worn out, ready to take a nap when he got home. Nope. He fell asleep for 10 minutes in the car and was fully refreshed, ready to go again. Me? Not so much. How can someone have sooooo much energy???

Mr. Sarge and his stunt double

I had to get my oil changed today. I was quoted an hour. It took over 2. Shouldn't they have bumped me to the front of the line the first time they saw me chasing Caleb out of their offices? No? Ok, well, no complaining about a 2 year old shrieking with delight as his mom chases him around your work space.

****Excuse me. This post was just interrupted by a need for my child to dance with me and then play a little game of hide and seek....a game where he tells me exactly where to hide and, without him even moving an inch away from that space, "finds" me. Ok, back to my last thought......****

Thankfully, I had taken lots of treats and toys to the car dealership with me. I even took the stroller in with me...not that Caleb was ever going to sit in it, but at least I didn't have to carry all the "please be good treats". I did manage to pin him down long enough to strap him in and walk over to the mall for a few minutes. He was not happy about that either. He was ready to get back to the car dealership and run around. I figured once we got back from the mall, my car would be closer to being ready. Nope. In fact, it was still in the holding area. Aargh!!

I literally chased Caleb around the whole dealership, pushing my stroller everywhere we went. He stopped to say "Hiiiiii" to everyone he saw and if they spoke back he talked to them even more. I wasn't sure what he said most of the time. He really wanted to go outside really bad and when he saw an opening, he ran for it. Only it wasn't an opening....it was a glass window and he ran smack into it. Poor thing wasn't sure what to think. He hugged me tightly and never cried. I think he was a little stunned. He had a big red mark on his forehead, but after a minute, he was back to running around. He loved looking at the cars and we even got in a few and I let him play with the steering wheel. He hasn't discovered the horn yet, thank goodness. That could have been amusing. ***oops, another dance break**** I got a ball out for him to play with and of course, he threw it at the cars. Thank goodness it was a soft, squishy ball.

There is an older, black man that drives the courtesy shuttle that works there named Mr. Sarge. He is a very sweet man that I have known for about 5 years. He always comes up to talk to me and comments about how big Caleb has gotten (he only sees him every 3 months or 3000 miles). We were in the lounge area and Caleb had already found a younger guy to throw the ball to him--poor guy just watching tv minding his own business gets stuck in a game of catch. Caleb misses the ball and Mr. Sarge picked it up and threw it to him. So now Mr. Sarge is stuck playing ball as well. Mr. Sarge tried to walk away but Caleb caught him and went over to him and grabbed his hand and pulled him back to play. This happened a couple of times and Mr. Sarge got sneaky and left when Caleb wasn't looking. Caleb turned around and said "where'd he go? where'd he go?". Then he went around the corner and found him, grabbed his hand, and made him come back to play ball. Only this time it wasn't Mr. Sarge. It was a different older, black man in the same uniform. Caleb never knew the difference. He thought he was still playing with Mr. Sarge.

Case of the mystery waffles

I've been searching for Caleb's breakfast the last 3 days. I give him a cut up waffle and some milk for breakfast and sit it on his little table. He plays a little, eats a bite, plays a little, etc. I noticed the other day he still had quite a bit left on his plate so I told him to go eat his breakfast. A couple of minutes later, he brings an empty plate to me. I'm thinking he dumped them out some where, and I'm sure he did because there is no way he ate it that quick (I mean he is Jason's son....). Problem is, I've yet to find the waffle. Jason said the same thing happened to him the next day. I'm sure he has a hidden stash somewhere and we will probably find it as soon as we have some company over. I'm sure we will have an army of ants leading our unsuspecting guests right to the moldy, sticky waffles. Nice, huh?

On another note, we are having Caleb's birthday party on Saturday, September 27, here at our house so mark your calendars. Whoever finds the missing waffles, gets a prize.

Green peas

Green peas used to be one of Caleb's favorite foods. He would have a mouth full and say "more, more!". Lately though, he refuses to eat them. I still put them on his plate, though, hoping his taste for them will return. As of today, that taste has not returned. I heard him saying "Oh, no! Oh, no! No! No! No!". By now I've learned to not take those words for granted so I come over to him to see what kind of mess he has made. Peas were all over the floor. No big deal, yet, since he notified me before squishing them all into the carpet. I explain to him that if he doesn't want something to just leave it on his plate, not to dump them on the floor. Then I told him to help me pick them up. He looked at me like I had two heads. So I brought him over to the peas and proceeded to pick them up and told him to do the same. He wouldn't. I told him to either help me or go to time out. He picked one up, stumbled over my foot, and decided time out was the better end of the deal. He walked over and sat in his time out chair without me even reminding him of it.

So I put a few more peas on his plate. Same thing happened. "No! No! No!". I walked over, looked at the mess and this time Caleb immediately walked over to his time out chair and sat down without me saying a word. He is quite smart. Let's see, "dump my peas out because there is no way my germaphobe mom is gonna make me eat them off the floor, and immediately go to time out so I don't even have to clean the mess up." Little stinker already has me figured out. I keep telling myself...I AM SMARTER THAN A TWO YEAR OLD....I AM SMARTER THAN A TWO YEAR OLD.

Vroom! Vroom!

Caleb really just started playing with cars recently. I'm not sure where he learned to say "vroom...vroom" as he pushes them along, but it just made me realize how fast he is growing up. The other day I looked at him and he was pushing his little car along the bathtub and he looked like a little boy....not a baby, not a toddler...but he just looked so big to me all of a sudden. Who gave him permission to do that???

We went to Andrew's birthday party tonight at Incredible Pizza and he had such a great time riding in the little cars and on the carosel. Olivia rode with him in the car and they looked so precious. I'll post pictures or video later. It was hard to get him to eat once he saw all the pretty lights on the other side of the building. When kept having to run, and I do mean run, after him to bring him back to the eating area. He would dart toward the lights shouting Go! Go! Go!. That little stinker is fast! When he was finally allowed to actually go in there, he was so excited.

Caleb naps in the late afternoon so I had to wake him to get him ready for the party. I guess he isn't used to seeing me with my hair fixed and makeup on because when I went to get him up, he looked at me and said "Mama, you ra-ree (ready)?". Oh, he is so funny.

Knocks, Mama!

This is what Caleb says when he wants to knock his fist against mine. He is so serious when he does it too. It's random times that he comes to me, offering his fist and says "knocks, mama...knocks". I was running the other day, pushing him in the jogging stroller, and he turned around to knock my fists about 10 times. It was so cute but not necessarily good timing for me. I'm huffing and puffing up the hill, wondering why I torture myself and how I got blessed with the genes that mandate regular exercise and my little cutie pie turns around and requests I knock his knuckles...again and again. I'm tired just typing about it.

Night night

Just suffering from a little Nannie/Pawpaw and Granny/Grandaddy withdrawals today. Someone thinks Mama needs to spend every minute of the day with him.

Every night before Caleb goes to sleep he says "Cookies?". He is asking if Cookie Monster has gone night-night. I respond "Yes, cookie monster has gone night-night." Then he asks Groggers? Again, "Yes, grover has gone night-night". Then it's Babby (Abby). Elmo. Big Bird. Scoscar. Nernie. Bert. Sazzie. Da-did. (The last two are Sally and David, our next door neighbors.) Nannie. Pawpaw. Granny. Grandaddy. Some other names I can't figure out so I just say "they have gone night night too". After our trip home, he has added more. Me-ma-me (Melanie)? Baby (Addison)? Adam...Shh (Michelle)...then come more names I can't quite make out. Yes, they've all gone night-night. He also prays like this. He starts off praying for all the Sesame Street characters. Then proceeds to everyone he knows and moves back to the Sesame Street characters again. He really loves them.

Nannie and Pawpaw

After Granny and Grandaddy's house, we went to visit Nannie and Pawpaw. Caleb stayed up late putting on a show for his Nannie and Pawpaw and once bedtime came around, he was too exhausted to fall asleep. Yikes, that's never good. It started with him being so excited to be in bed with mom and dad, jumping and turning flips. Then he accidently knocked his head on the footboard and it was all downhill from there. I hugged and rocked him and he settled down but as soon as I tried to put him down, he threw a huge fit. He was only happy if he was laying on top of me. That would have been fine if he would eventually fall asleep good enough for me to transfer him either to the crib or in between Jason and I. Everytime I tried the transfer, he would wake up and throw the biggest fit. Now, I sure can't fall asleep like that so I kept trying to move him when I felt like he was "good and asleep". I think it was around 2 or 3 that I was finally able to lay him down and fall asleep myself.

We went to visit Aunt Tracy and Uncle Jeff at Tracy's store and Caleb got to play a little with his cousins. Then we went back to Nannie and Pawpaw's house where we inflated a swimming pool for Caleb to play in. Nannie babysat while Jason and I did a little shopping. I believe he spent most of his time in the pool. There was no time for nap time with all the fun they were having, so Caleb fell asleep while I was hugging on him when we returned. Aunt Chelle and Uncle Troy and their girls came over and we had a big family dinner. Caleb loved all of the attention from the girls and even had time to get back in the pool a little while. It was so much fun getting everyone together for a family dinner. I sure miss that!! We had such a great time talking and laughing. I wished we could do it more often.

We decided to go ahead and come home Saturday night because I was supposed to work Sunday evening and I was pretty sure I wasn't going to get any sleep away from home. So we packed up and left really late and got home around 2 am. Caleb slept pretty much the whole way except the last 15 minutes or so. He didn't give us any trouble getting to bed once we got home.

Yeah, then on Sunday I got cancelled because the hospital census was low and they had too many nurses. Aargh!

Visiting Granny and Grandaddy

We made a trip to Granny and Grandaddy's house this weekend. On the way there, we told Caleb he was going to see Granny and Grandaddy. He replied "and Me-ma-mee?" (Melanie). Yes, he is a genious. He was excited to see everyone and was especially excited to see the "ba-bee" or "Sa-su-sin" (Addison). He didn't even seem upset when his mama or daddy was holding Addison and even gave her some hugs and kisses. Oh, my goodness, has that little cutie pie grown!! She is so cute! She has the sweetest little smile and most precious little laugh. And she was a trooper to put up with Caleb!

Our bedtime routine normally consists of reading a book, a little rocking, and then to bed. Sometimes he falls asleep with the rocking and I'm able to put him to bed without him waking up and sometimes he wakes up and throws a fit before laying down and going to sleep. Either way, he usually goes to sleep after a few minutes and bedtime is really no big deal. Until we travel.....then he acts like he has never slept on his own. He did fine the first night. No problems. Of course, it was super late and he only napped about 45 minutes on the car ride to Big Rock so he was really tired. However, the next day at naptime was different. I followed routine and when it came time to put him down, he cried and reached for me. Nothing new. I kissed him, told him night-night, turned around and headed for the door. In a split second, I turned around again and he was on the floor lying on his back. I didn't even hear a thump. I was shocked. I guess he leaned over the rail and fell out because he couldn't have climbed that quick. I felt so bad and sick about it at the same time but after I came to my senses I could tell he was fine so I put him in the bed with me and we both took a nap together.

Don't worry, Aunt Shhh, his crib rails at home are taller so he can't fall out of it and he hasn't tried to climb out of it since the last time. When he does it again, though, we will transition him to a big boy bed.

Oh, and the nap in the car would have been longer but Caleb fell asleep with his shoes on and Jason thought we should take them off so he would be comfortable. I told him Caleb was fine but he insisted that Caleb would be more comfortable with them off. So I took them off and of course Caleb woke up before I could even get the first one off. I guess he was afraid we would take his shoes again if he fell back asleep because even though it was nap time, he wouldn't fall back asleep. That made for an interesting trip. He finally fell asleep again a couple of hours later.

Poot! Giggle.

While I was rocking Caleb to sleep, he said "bop, mama." (Bop is his word for poop.) I could smell something so I checked his diaper. He was clean and dry so I told him "no, you didn't poop, you just pooted". Caleb: Giggle. Me: Do you think it's funny to say poot? Caleb: Giggle harder. Me: Poot Caleb: More loud giggles. Me: Poot Poot Poot. Caleb: Laughs as though that's the funnist thing he has ever heard. Me: How do you know it's even funny to say Poot? Caleb: Giggle.

I guess it's just supposed to be funny.