When the Mom's Away, The Boys Will Play... and it's soooo messy!

While I was recovering from my cold yesterday, this happened:In keeping with the tradition that while I'm distracted Josh gives Caleb new and dangerous foods, yesterday while I was supposed to be napping to try and remedy my cold, Josh gave Caleb his first sucker.
And boy was Caleb happy about it.

Josh wanted me to emphasize just how drooly this whole sucker party was, so here are the close ups:I love my boys, I'd go through anything for them, but these pics even make me want to barf. That's some nasty drool.

In a related story, I think that Caleb might be getting some molars on the top, but it's hard to tell from the little flashes that I've been seeing. Caleb is very tight mouthed, especially when it comes to his top teeth - I have to brush his teeth with his mouth closed (and his lips very tight I might add, not easy).

This weekend we had the happy treat of having my cousin Tamara and her family come down from Austin for a quick visit. They are our only family in the state, so it was pretty special to have them come and for Caleb to spend some time with his second cousins.

While they were here we popped down to the Alamo and the Riverwalk so that they could see a few sights and have dinner. We went to the Rain Forrest Cafe - Caleb was scared during one of their thunder storms so I held onto him to keep him calm and check out the cool fish tank near our table. I suppose I underestimated how scared he was (and how full his diaper was) because when the storm cleared, he had peed his pants... and my shirt.

You know you're a mom when you wear someone else's tinkle in public and aren't even phased by it.

It was a sad changing experience for Caleb, let me tell ya, but once the french fries came he perked right back up.

I didn't take a lot of pics, since we were trying to play hosts in our new town (and trying to keep Caleb happy and safe in the crowds), but I did get a couple of cute ones of Ellie on one of the Alamo cannons:Thanks for coming! Can't wait to see you again!

Cleaning Help for Mute Momma

I can't talk. It is awful. I heard on the radio this week that clearing your throat can damage your vocal chords, so instead you should sip water or swallow.

I laughed at the advice, I thought that the suggestions were ineffective and ridiculous. I guess I should have paid attention, because after a few days of throat clearing, I'm now speechless.

Last night though I got a little help from an unexpected helper. My parents sent a package to us this week filled with packing peanuts. Needless to say they went everywhere when I opened the box, and as they can mean death for guys like our Bug, I tried to get them cleaned up. Caleb was on the floor with me, so I pointed to the wrappings that I was using as a container, then pointed to the peanuts, and put one into the wrappings.

That was it - message delivered and the game began. Caleb picked up all of the peanuts and put them in the wrappings for me. He even got up and shuffled the ones that he was sitting on out and away so that he could get them.

It was his first time intentionally helping. Of course once they were all collected he wanted to spill them out and start again, but I stood up too quick for him to catch me and I threw them away.

I would have liked to have told him thank you and that he was a good boy, but I just had to smile and clap.

Yesterday I also wrote a little article as a response to the question, Are stay at home moms lazy? I was pretty happy with how it turned out. You can click here to see it.

Fall Fashion Tips From Caleb and Party Time at Dave and Buster's

For two days in a row Caleb has made a VERY firm fashion statement for the Fall: Hehehehe, his toe looks silly... No, no, I mean one sock on and one sock off. I get him all dressed up for the day, he plays for awhile, but then pauses, thinks, yanks off one sock, then continues playing.

Just one sock, hmm. The removed sock generally gets eaten throughout the day too.Now, in an unrelated topic switcheroo, yesterday Josh had a work party for new USAA hires and the whole fam was invited! The group rented a room at Dave and Buster's (it's like Chuck E Cheese for adults) with all you can eat dinner and free game passes with over 100 token credits each!Josh won 100 tickets on Deal or No Deal! It's one of my favorites to play and that was the biggest jackpot I've ever seen anyone win (I only won like 7 on my turn).Caleb wanted to help play skeeball, but really just got in the way. He ended up taking that ball and making a break for it, but we got it back.

We played a long time, but still had even more tokens to burn! I had to leave to get to Activity Days at church, so we're planning to go back another night to finish up.

Wordless Wednesday (this week)

Yesterday I posted the back story to this week's Wordless Wednesday.Click HERE to head over and name the pic (and since you know the back story you get an added advantage).

Out and About

The weather is so pleasant here, that it's hard to stay cooped up in the apt. But on the other hand, going outside means trying to keep Caleb out of streets, parking lots, and a drainage ditch.

We're all really looking forward to the day that we have a yard.

Still, Caleb and I venture out most days to get some fresh air and see what there is to see....

The door to the apt offices - I swear I heard him say "Ding Dong" when he ran up to grab the door knob. (He's also extra enthusiastic because he knows that there's usually cookies right inside that door, but we didn't pop in today.)
Rock Climbing, sort of...As we walked, Caleb found many extra special leaves. He'd hold one in each hand, then run and give them to me. I carried them around with us, so he'd know that I thought they were special too. I'm glad I did because he came back to check if I had them later. He also found this guy:

What a sweet and timid dog this was! We were walking past this porch, when suddenly Caleb veered off behind the AC unit. I saw the wire and thought, "Huh, it's like Caleb can see a dog in there, but I don't here the usual yippity-yap chihuahua sounds, I wonder what he's looking at." (Almost every dog in our complex is a chihuahua, and the owners put up this extra wire to keep the dogs safe as many a yippity-yap has fallen to its doom around here.)

I come up behind Caleb, who's squealing happily and see this dog just barely peeking out the door at us. Caleb squealed and pointed and said, "Da da," like he was trying to say to me, "See Mom, there is a dog in there."

I didn't want to be caught hiding out behind unknown neighbor's AC units, so I grabbed Caleb to take him back to the main path, and to where he could have a better view of the doggie. Boy was he mad! He didn't want to be moved from that spot for anything, but once I got him around to the front, he saw that the dog was lined up even better for him to gawk at and he settled right back down.

This kid loves dogs. Thank goodness I live in a walk by doggie zoo and don't have to get one of our own (yet).

A Raisin Puke Story and the Weekend Adventures

Caleb has been seriously miserable today.The time change hit him hard, but then tonight something else seemed to be bothering him. He was irritable, he was clingy, he was whinny, he just wasn't himself and we were worried.

We took his temp - no fever.

We fed him extra food - not hungry.

We got him ready for bed hoping that it was just him being over tired and over stimulated from all of the week's adventures. He got in his jammies, he drank his milk, Josh picked him up and SPLAT! His first real, grown boy puke everywhere! Josh took care of the people clean up, and I took care of the mess. It seemed that the culprit was a single raisin that didn't agree with our boy.

The happy new is that after this little episode Caleb was right back to his cheerful self. We even let him stay up an extra half hour because he was such a delight after the misery we'd gone through all evening.

Glad to have you back Bug.

Speaking of being grateful - the new Mommy Goal of the Month is over on justamomha.com. I'm pretty excited about this one, click HERE for the details.

The sad pic from above was when Josh tried to dress Caleb up as Daddy this afternoon. If you've seen Josh, you've seen this look for sure:That belly, the belt, the khaki pants, the phone attached...

The finger sucking...

That smooth-guy stare...

Well, maybe not those last two. He he he...

This weekend was packed with adventures for us! Not only was it Halloween, but our friends Stuart and Rachel came to visit all the way from Houston. We ate some great meals, stayed up way too late playing games, saw some of the historical missions, went downtown for the Day of the Dead festivities, and got to reconnect after a long time apart. Thanks for the visit guys!

Trunk or Treat Premier

Last night was Caleb's big debut as a trunk or treater. He dressed up for Halloween last year, but this time he hit the pavement.

At home, practicing the candy carry:Making the rounds in the costume parade:
"Mom, help, what is all of this?""Wow, never mind what I said before - this is great! And glow sticks are RAD!""Hey, down here! Trick or Treat!"
Then Josh and I went for our own grown up treat, the Chocolate Volcano at Rain Forrest Cafe:The USAA recruits were in town, including one of Josh's buds from his days at Seven Peaks. We met up with a couple of the guys downtown for dessert and to chat about all of the best parts of living in SA and working for USAA. Good luck guys!

Oh, I also wanted to quickly share this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coef8G5ax6E

It a beautiful message from past and present leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints about the role of Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world. It will fill you with warm fuzzies.