Innocent Comment?

Caleb is something... There are times that I literally just can't believe the stuff that comes out of his mouth, and this definitely falls into that category....

Today Katherine had her new student/parent orientation and meet the teacher thing at school. As we were pulling into the parking lot, a car pulls into next to us. Now, this is not just any car ... Oh no, it's a boat.... A huge, rusted out, bumper falling off, circa 1970, whale of car. Quite frankly, I'm surprised the thing even made it to the school... As soon as Caleb sees the car, his eyes light up -- literally, for whatever reason, he was giddy.

So, I get him out of the car, and he stands beside me so that I can gather Katherine's school supplies. At this point, the driver of the circa 1970 boat gets out and starts walking toward Caleb. All of a sudden, Caleb says "Hi!" and waves to the driver. The driver smiles and says "hi" back to my little man. (*So far, so good....). HOWEVER, all of a sudden Caleb decides to pipe up and say, "You drive a Limo? I just yyyoooove Limos". Let's just say, he left the driver absolutely speechless.

Are you kidding me? This poor guy is driving a car that barely runs, and Caleb accuses him of driving a limo. UUUUUGH. There was nothing I could say or do.... It never ends.

Just because....

.....they are gorgeous beyond words and I haven't uploaded and edited pictures recently, I thought I'd post these.

My two little ones.....

Bad Blogger...

Honestly, I'm not trying to be a bad (or non-existent) blogger, it's just that life is getting in the way, and the last thing I'm doing right now, is spending time on the computer...

In three short days, Katherine will start Kindergarten, and our lives will forever change. I am taking every opportunity to spend every possible second with her and make wonderful memories before we make this enormous transition. Each day while Caleb is napping, we do something special together, which means that I'm not blogging...

Every day for the last week and a half, we've been trying to fit in every possible activity under the sun, and I have a million pictures to upload and edit. I'll post them soon, but won't spend the time until she's in school... Today we went to Adventureland with my mom, brother, and niece (Morgan). The kids love going with Isaac as he takes them on all the "cool" rides that their ever expanding mom can't.... Little Katherine funny for you --- She really wanted me to go on the bumper cars with them today, but obviously I couldn't.... So she says to me, "Mommy, please come on the bumper cars with me. I'd love for you to come". When I explain to her that I can't because of the pregnancy and the bumps my belly would endure.... She then says, "Oh come on Mommy. You take your belly every where else, why can't it go on the bumper cars"? AAAAHHH, I just had to laugh... She's so cute, and really, in her mind my belly has taken on a life of it's own!

Speaking of which, she now has a new nickname for me. Oh, and how wonderful it is.... About two weeks ago, I was walking out of my scrapbook room and she says to me, "Come on, Big Tummy, let's go scrapbook together". It totally cracked me up, and now she calls me that all day long. Big Tummy. That's what I am in her mind. She loves sitting around wondering what her little brother will look like and feeling him kick, but me.... I'm just Big Tummy to her! LOL.

Tomorrow we are heading up to Ankeny with some of our neighbors to hit the splash park which the kids LOVE. It's this great little water park with water EVERYWHERE! I'll post pictures soon, as it will truly be our "last day of summer". Wednesday we'll probably go to either the zoo or Science Center, but need to be home early as Katherine has a "meet the teacher" type thing at school that afternoon.

AAAHHHH, how I'll miss her.

I'll leave it at that.... I'll miss her. Everything about her. I'll miss her laughter, her energy, her tender heart and strong spirit. I'll miss our conversations, our inside jokes, our incredible bond. I'll miss her. Everything about her. And quite honestly, I don't want to share her with "strangers" that many hours out of our day. I don't want our life to change. I don't want to face the inevitable......

In a nut shell, that's the main reason I've been avoiding this blog lately. I really haven't been able to think about it, much less write about it. It's incredibly difficult for me. It's so hard knowing that she's starting this journey without me. Knowing that there will be difficult times ahead of her, and I won't be able to protect her. And, on top of being a difficult situation in the first place, I'm sure my pregnancy hormones are getting the best of me...

Oh, totally random, and basically just something for me to rant and rave about... I decided that at least for some days, she can ride the bus with the neighbor kids, as Caleb will be napping and I'll have a new baby to contend with. (I won't go into my long-winded, over-protective, and OCD tirade I have with the bus -- no seat belts, she'll be riding with much older kids, etc...). However, when I got the bus schedule today I nearly passed out. We live about a mile from the school and it will take OVER 30 MINUTES for her to get home. That's. Not. Cool. With. Me.... especially when our neighbors in the backyard get home 20 minutes before that... So, since it's one thing I can control, I'm calling the school and "requesting" (in the typical way I request something that is non-negotiable) that her bus route be changed. So that's on my "must do" list for tomorrow...... I'll report back, but really, we all know how this one will end up....

Please tell me this is just a phase....

because if it's not, I'm going to either be gray or bald in the next couple of years. Caleb is giving me a run for my money, and something has to change before the baby comes along, because if it doesn't, I'll lose my mind for sure.

Remember when Caleb kept getting out of his crib, climbing onto his changing table and then jumping onto the floor? Well, after the whole "helmet" discussion, he's modified his behavior -- just enough...

Today I put him down for a nap and then went to try and take a short nap myself. I had just fallen asleep, when I heard him calling my name. I looked at the clock, and he'd only been in there for 45 minutes -- definitely not long enough for a nap...

I walk toward his room and opened the door... As soon as I open the door, I find him sitting on his changing table, and he excitedly says, "Hi Mommy!". I walked a few steps closer to him, and about lost my breath. All I could do is yell for Matt to come up and help me out. For whatever reason, he took the opportunity during nap time to completely cover himself, the wall and his changing table with a mixture of lotion and diaper cream. The little stinker used three full tubes of the stuff. His arms and legs were white, he finger painted the wall, and let's just say that his changing pad was immediately tossed in the garbage. Sometimes, things just aren't worth the hassle of cleaning.

I immediately threw him in the tub and Matt started to tear his room apart... it's now completely rearranged. Now we either need to take his crib apart and give him a big boy bed or put him in some kind of jail contraption to he has to stay in bed at nap time.

I swear, this kid is going to give me a heart attack....

The Gong keeps on a ringin'....

I'm not sure what's up with Caleb, but each day since he's been sick, he's gotten up earlier and earlier. Usually, he's an 8:30 or 9 am kind of guy (yea, I know how unbelievable that is....) but today he got up at 6:30. In case you're mathematically challenged, that's 2 hours earlier than normal. UUUUGH! Guess what time Katherine woke up over at my mom's house.... 10:15 am! How crazy is that?

Anyway, since I had a 9:45 OB appointment and Katherine was still sleeping, I decided to bring Caleb with me. Really, why couldn't I bring him in for a quick check-up???? What could possibly go wrong? How much chaos could really follow him?? Well, let me tell ya....

This particular office has valet parking, and when we got there, several people were waiting outside for their cars or to be picked up by family members. The parking lot was relatively full, so I had to park off to one side. I got Caleb out of his car seat and we held hands until we reached the sidewalk (which was out of view from the front door). As soon as he saw the door, he took off running as fast as his little legs would carry him, and I started running after him. After all, I couldn't let him take off running and NOT follow him.... All of a sudden, he started yelling at the top of his lungs, "DON'T BEAT ME MOMMY! MOMMY, PLEASE DON'T BEAT ME! I DON'T WANT YOU TO BEAT ME!". Oh. My. Heavens. You wouldn't believe the looks I got from the people waiting by the door. I'm sure they were about to call DHS and then immediately nominate me for mother of the year. LOL!

We went up to the waiting room, and Caleb was his usual "helpful" self. He loved pushing the buttons on the automatic check-in computer, and then begged to jump off the waiting room tables. I'm not sure what it is with this kid, but oh, how he loooooves to jump!

Finally, we got called back to the exam room and Caleb decides to strike up a conversation with the nurse. He wants to know all about the blood pressure cuff, and then wonders if they are going to give me my pee back. (I had already given a urine sample). I'm not sure what on earth he thinks I'd do with it, but for some reason, he wants it back.

After the nurse leaves, I tell him exactly what the doctor is going to do -- measure my tummy and listen to the baby's heartbeat. I explain in detail everything that will happen, and he's sooo excited to watch.

When the doctor comes in, Caleb immediately strikes up a conversation with him --

Caleb: I like Dr. Jon's office much better than this one.

Dr. Oh, really? Who is Dr. Jon?

Caleb: He's my doctor. He has lots of big boy toys for me to play 'wif'. This office doesn't have any toys or books for big boys. This office is just for my Mommy 'cause she has a baby in her tummy. My Mommy's tummy is really gettin' big!

** OK, thanks for clearing that up Buddy!

Dr: Do you want to hear the baby's heartbeat?

Caleb: I sure do!

Dr: What do you think it's going to sound like?

Caleb: Really loud... like a dinosaur.

After the doctor was finished measuring my belly, he got out the doppler so that he could listen for the heartbeat. All of a sudden, Caleb pipes up....

Caleb: Are you going to look at my mommy's buttons?

Me: Yep, Caleb. He's going to listen for your baby brother's heartbeat right around my belly button.

Caleb: No, silly.... Is he going to look at your buttons right above your tummy?

Oh. My. God. The doctor immediately turns away and tries to hold back the laughter. I just want to die... But come on... Where does he come up with this stuff? It's just unbelievable to me!

Gong show...

My life is turning into a gong show, and I'm living with the chief gong himself. That's right... My life has been totally taken over by an almost three year old who has more energy and finds more mischief than I could have ever imagined three years ago...

Oh, let's see.... How'd my day end??? My mom called and asked if Katherine could spend the night, so Matt ran her over their house, while I cuddled with Caleb and started the bedtime routine. When he got home, we were reading stories, and shortly thereafter I put him to bed. That's usually how the day ends, but tonight.... not so much... After I put him to bed, I went downstairs and started to clean up the living room. All of a sudden, I hear footsteps and see Caleb rounding the corner yelling "SURPRISE MOMMY!!!". (As a little background, he still sleeps in a crib because I like the containment factor, but after tonight, that's really not an issue!).

He's never climbed out of his crib before, so I was totally dumbfounded and asked him how and why he got out of bed. He started laughing, slapped his knee, and said, "Mommy, I just climbed onto my changin' table and jumped off it. I turned on the light and opened the door, and then ran downstairs to play "wif" you". Oh great Buddy! I'm glad you cleared that up for me! LOL.

So after "the talk" about not climbing out of his crib, I went into my bedroom and within 60 seconds, I hear the doorknob again. You. Have. Got. To. Be. Freaking. Kidding. Me!! Not only is it pitch dark in there, but he's climbing out of his crib and onto his changing table and then jumping to the floor. HELLO... IT'S DANGEROUS (and dark and 3.5 feet high and just wrong on soooo many levels)! So I told him that he could ONLY do this little stunt with a helmet on, and guess what??? It worked! GREAT! We'll still be rearranging his room and doing away with the crib, but for tonight, if he thinks he has to be wearing a helmet to furniture hop, than that's fine with me. LOL!!

Oh, what else.... Tonight at gymnastics, he was on fire. Literally, he was jumping from the benches, high-five-ing anyone he could find, running his trucks into the wall, kissing me as loudly as possible, and begging for me to "open my shirt" so he could see the baby. Oh yea... he was quite the little attention grabber, and all the laughter, only egged on more of this ridiculous behavior. So about half way through the chaos, he sees a man walk into the gym and starts yelling at him to stop smoking. He is just going bananas, freaking out about some man smoking, and going on and on and on about how he stinks and how he's going to die. Oh. My. Goodness. If I could have crawled into a crack in the floor, I totally would have jumped at the chance. But really... I have NO CLUE what he's talking about or see anyone with a smoky treat in their mouth ... lit or unlit. Finally, out of frustration, he yells at me, "See Mommy... That man over there in the white shirt with a mustache like Pop-pop's". At this point, I'm praying for the floor to open up and swallow me! This poor man was simply eating a sucker, but nooooo, Caleb was SURE he was smoking, and not about to let him get away with it. Literally, I could have died. LOL!

Oh, and the day got started off with a little deja vu.... We had planned to go to Adventureland with Danyel, and since Katherine had a slumber party with Grammy last night too, Caleb and I were on our way out the door to pick her up. When we got out the car, I notice Caleb's door cracked ... which means ..... MY BATTERY IS DEAD YET AGAIN.... which will be the second time in about a month that this happened. UUUUUUGH! So, there we sit, waiting (yet again) for my dad to come over and jump the Sequoia. I never thought I needed to own jumper cables, but I'm seriously rethinking that....

Needless to say, I'm exhausted and ready for bed! Tomorrow I have an OB appointment at 9:45, and then Caleb and I are going to pick up Katherine and head to Adventureland. Tomorrow night, I have a girls night out, which I'm READY for (especially after today)!! It should be a fun day! I have a bazillion pictures to edit and upload, which I'll get to soon. Stay tuned!!

It's been quite the day....

This morning when we woke up, Caleb was still burning up. His fever hadn't come down at all, and he was really lethargic and super cuddly. He just laid around and moaned in pain. So, off to Dr. Jon's we went.

Caleb kept telling me that "I don't feel good Mommy", but each time I asked him what hurt ,(ears, throat, etc...) he kept telling me that nothing hurt. Yea right, buddy.... In a nutshell, even with the Tylenol and Motrin, his fever was still 101.4. His ear and throat are infected and full of puss. Not fun. He's on an antibiotic, and until about 20 minutes ago, he hadn't eaten all day.... Thankfully, I finally got him to eat yogurt stick and drink a little Gatorade.

After I got his prescription filled, I picked up my mom and Katherine and off we went to register for fall gymnastics. As luck would have it, Chow's opened two more classes this morning, otherwise the gym was totally full. The timing worked out perfectly. While I was in the process of registering Katherine, and filling out a little paperwork, she stood in the lobby and stared into the gym. She would have given ANYTHING to start today! She's soooo excited. I've got to say, this definitely falls into the "everything happens for a reason" category. If it wasn't for Tarry's call last night, I wouldn't have enrolled her this year at all. I would have waited another year. However, everything seemed to fall into place ... I get the call that he's no longer working at Urbandale hours before Chow's opens two more classes. Oh, and the girl working the desk told me that she expected both classes to be full before the end of the day. Everything just fell together.

J -- if you're reading, thanks for the input. I really appreciate it. I know we'll love it, and can't wait to get started. Oh, and I'm sure that I'll feel the same way you do 4 years from now, it's just making the change and starting over that seems so daunting. Hopefully, we'll be able to connect at some point in the future! A

I almost forgot....

Actually, I didn't forget about it, just failed to blog about it.....

Caleb is perhaps the sweetest, funniest, and most sensitive 2.5 year old I know. Truly, he is. Not to say he doesn't have his moments, because believe me, he's got plenty of them, but for the most part, he's a bundle of sweet energy that I could just eat up!

Anyway, tonight I wasn't watching what I was doing and totally banged my knee into the bathroom cabinet, and took off a layer of skin. It was really pretty let me assure you! A little while later, I went downstairs to play cars with Caleb. When he saw my knee, we had this conversation:

C: What happened Mommy? Your knee has an owie...

Me: Yea, sweetie. I just bumped into the cupboard.

C: Does it hurt you?

Me: It did, but it's better now.

C: I kiss it for you mommy... (He bends down and gives me the loudest kiss ever).

Me: AAAWWW... Thanks honey.

C: It feels better now?

Me: It sure does.

C: That's why I wanted to kiss it for you. My owies feel better when you kiss them for me. I love that.

OH, my goodness! How could you not just eat him up??? Could he be any sweeter? Any more wonderful?? NOPE!

Oh, and the poor little guy. I can't get his fever to break. He's just burning up and achy all over. He wanted me to rub his legs, but then told me to stop because his skin hurt too much. So, tomorrow morning, I'm probably going to take him to the doctor. Katherine will stay with my mom (love that she's so close!) so I don't have to haul a healthy child into a germ infested office...

UUUUUUGH.....

I was just checking out the fall list of classes for Chow's.

For anyone who hasn't figured it out yet, I have a little girl who eats, breathes, and dreams of gymnastics. Literally, she can't get enough. It consumes her. She's constantly practicing in the living room, the mall, different play areas, really... pretty much anywhere we go. I kid you not, there isn't an hour that passes that she doesn't do a cartwheel, round off, handstand, bridge, you get the idea.... She'd be in the gym every single day if I'd allow it. As it stands right now, she goes Tuesday and Thursday for a hour each time plus a private lesson with Tarry for either 30 or 60 minutes. Still, she wants more... She begs for more...

With the shake up from my call with Tarry earlier tonight, I decided to check out Chow's website and see what their fall class list looked like. The good news is they have a million different choices of class times for girls Katherine's age. The bad news is that all of them are only once a week for 45 minutes. So if I decide to move her over to Chow's, her "gym time" will be cut in about a third. I'm not sure that's the solution either.... Guess I'll have to call them in the morning and find out when they start the competitive program, and thus more gym time. Why can't this be easy????

Gymnastics dilemma

Saturday night Katherine was supposed to have a gymnastics party for all the competitive girls at the gym. The the team coaches had organized an open gym and pizza party, and then for all girls level 5 and above, a slumber party. Katherine was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, I got a call around noon stating that due to an emergency it had to be cancelled. Strange, huh???

Anyway, tonight I got a call from Mr. Tarry. When we talk on the phone, it's to discuss gymnastics, set up her next private lesson, etc... and never is it on a Sunday. When I listened to his message, it was very cryptic to say the least -- he needed to talk to me, and it sounded relatively urgent. Again, strange.... Right before I called him back I was talking to Matt and told him that I just had a gut feeling that he was "the emergency" from the day before, and was no longer working there. UUUUUUGH, it was even worse than that...

We talked for about 30 minutes -- Katherine's team coach (who we also love) is Miss Rachel, and she and Tarry were the ones who organized the party on Saturday night. Anyway, Rachel sent an email to the owner giving suggestions for improvements to the gym etc... and they fired her. Apparently she's no longer welcome at the gym. On top of that, they cancelled the kids' gymnastics party. Pretty classy, huh???

So, Tarry and I discussed Katherine's options, and to be honest, he's the main reason we've been at this gym for as long as we have. He used to coach at Gage Gymnastics and while he worked there (last Olympic cycle) they sent two girls to the Olympics. He's a fabulous coach and beyond wonderful with the kids. He's done more for Katherine's confidence and increased skill level than anyone else... For sure, he'll be missed in her young life, and I feel incredibly blessed to have had him coach Katherine for as long as he did.

Since he's leaving along with Miss Rachel (they carpool from Ames together), we'll be looking for a new gym. There is NO WAY I am going to let the owner coach her.... He's incredibly negative, not very approachable, doesn't relate to the kids, and oh... most importantly, he doesn't have a gymnastics background. This gym just isn't a good fit for us anymore, so I'll be looking at Chow's this week and making the move as soon as possible. I was really hoping to keep her with Tarry for the next year, but sometimes things just don't work out the way you want.

UUUUUGH! Why did the status quo have to seem so comfortable? Why is making the change to Chow's so daunting? All I want is what's best for my baby girl, and right now, I have no idea what that is....

My poor baby....

We are under a heat advisory, and let me tell you, if there's two words in the English language I hate, they are 'heat' and 'advisory' used together. UUUUUGH! It's oppressive, and tomorrow is supposed to be worse. GREAT! Sooooo looking forward to it.

Anyway, I had to make a Costco run, and was going to stop in Archivers on the way home. On the way there, we made a pit stop at my parent's house to drop some stuff off, and Caleb started acting really strange. He wasn't his usual chipper self. He wasn't jumping all over my dad and asking him to do puzzles or play blocks. In fact, when my dad talked to him, he just looked down and walked away. It must be the heat, I thought....

Katherine wanted to hang with her Grammy and Pop-pops, so we left her there and took off for Costco. Typically, Caleb LOVES going to Costco -- throwing stuff in the cart, sitting tall on boxes, sampling any and all food he can get in his little hands. Today, not so much. He sat in the back of the cart and stared off into outer space. He barely talked. When it was time to check out, he didn't help throw stuff onto the conveyor belt (which is typically "my job").

I picked him up and quickly realized he was running a fever. When I asked him how he felt, he sad "BAD, MOMMY.... REALLY BAD. MY WHOLE BODY HURTS". The entire drive home Matt and I tried to talk to him, but all he'd do is nod and look out the window... My poor little man really isn't feeling well.

Needless to say, going to Archivers was out of the question. Maybe I'll go later tonight, or early this week. Getting there just doesn't seem as urgent as did earlier this morning...

So I got him home and was going to change his clothes. He almost always wears a shirt with a collar, so I dug something else out, and he requested his jammies. So right now, he's laying in bed beside me, moaning. We're cuddling, and he's burning up. I hate it when either one of my babies is sick. There's nothing worse than seeing someone you love so much in pain, and unfortunately right now, my little man is miserable....

Anniversary....

Wow... It's been 10 years. A whole decade. Yesterday Matt and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary, and it's amazing to look back and see how much our lives have changed during this time. He's been through 5 jobs plus a self imposed unemployment stint, three homes, two kids and one more on the way, a dog, multiple cars, trips, and tons of laughter and tears along the way. It's been a great 10 years, and we have a lot to celebrate.

A decade ago, we honestly thought we'd be celebrating our 10 year anniversary with a two week trip in either in Europe or Hawaii, but instead I'm 8 months pregnant and a trip like that is totally out of the question. Besides who knew then that I'd be days away from sending my first born off on a new adventure. She'll be starting Kindergarten, and I'd never leave her during our last few days together before she starts school.

So, last night we got a babysitter, and went out to dinner. Since my parent's weren't around, we had Holly (who was their second EVER babysitter) watch them. She's taken Katherine's pictures since she was a new baby, and used to nanny triplets, so I thought it'd be fine, and thankfully it was. Woo-Hoo!! Matt made reservations at a restaurant that we used to go to back in the day. When we got there at 6:15 on Friday night, we quickly realized that it was only us and one other party... The place was dead and the menu wasn't great anymore either. So Matt left some money on the table and told the waitress that the menu wasn't exactly what we'd hoped and that we were leaving....

We ended up going to one of our fave places and having a super yummy dinner. I have to say, it was so nice being husband and wife for a couple hours rather than mommy and daddy. Inevitably, the conversation turned back to the kids, but it was nice to get out for a while. I was soooo looking forward to dessert, but since I couldn't even eat a third of my entree, we decided to head over to the mall as I had to run a quick errand. I went nuts at Gymboree for Katherine earlier that day, but they didn't have the jeans I wanted to get her in a size 4, so we had to hit another mall. On the way out, we stopped at Cheesecake Factory and picked up a piece of cheesecake to go. I was still to full to eat it last night, but man.... it made for a super yummy treat today! LOL.

Today we just hung out as a family. Matt filled up the pool and put out the slip and slide for the kids. We had lunch on the patio, and had a great morning and afternoon. After naps today, we went out to dinner with my parents. Nothing too exciting to report. Just a great relaxing weekend.