Caleb's Story: Field Trip to the Aquarium, 2 Front Teeth and Fun Weekend with Family

Well, as I was going through my pictures for this week, I realized I don't have a lot of great ones, so this will probably be a shorter post than usual. Last Friday both Steve and I were off so we took advantage of Black Friday, individually. Steve got up and went out shopping around 6:30 while I fed and took care of Caleb. Steve got back around 9:30 just as Caleb was going down for his nap and then I went out shopping by myself. I went to Old Navy and Kohls and then I met Steve and Caleb at Toys R Us where we got some good deals on diapers and toys.

The "classic" baby car - on sale on Black Friday and purchased with gift cards for Caleb's birthday

We were back from our shopping by lunchtime and then we had a normal afternoon. Caleb napped and I got some things done. Shortly after sundown we went over to my parents' house for supper and to visit with my grandparents. The Walls (both sets) were there for supper as well and Aunt Toni and Uncle Terry and Lenora came down for the weekend but got there late so we only got to say hi for a minute before heading home to get Caleb to bed. Aunt Toni and Uncle Terry stayed at our house, though, so we got to spend some time with them Sabbath morning before church. Here is a funny story. Caleb is teething, so he has had some restless nights. He woke up around 3:30 crying and I went down to his room and by the time I got there, he had stopped crying, which was good. The next morning Aunt Toni told me how she thought it was so sweet how I had been singing to Caleb over the monitor to get him to go back to sleep (the guest room is right next door to Caleb's room) - except that never happened!! She swore that she heard it and her conclusion was that it must have been an angel! Funny!

Caleb went down for his nap around 9:30 and Steve left to go help in the sound room at church and Caleb ended up sleeping until 11:00, which was very surprising, so needless to say, Caleb and I were late to church. We got to church and I was going to have Caleb in the sanctuary but he was all jacked up after his long nap, so Grammy took him out to play and I stayed and actually listened to the sermon for a change. Usually we are in the mother's room and if no one else is in there we can hear the sermon, but if there are other kids in there, forget it.

It was nice to see "Uncle" Henry at church

After church we had a nice dinner at my parents' house with the Walls, the Copseys and Jon and Holly and Aunt Betsy.

I had to put Caleb down for a nap and it took quite awhile to get him down but he finally went to sleep. While he was napping, I left to go on a walk to Craigville Beach with my parents, Rad, Jen, Toni, Terry, and Holly. It was a brisk afternoon, but we had a great walk and good company.

After our walk, we visited for a little while longer and then we left to go home and give Caleb a bath and get him ready for bed.

Sunday morning I got up and worked for a few hours and then we met my family at Olive Garden for lunch. We had a nice time and Caleb was very well behaved, as always. Then we came home and I thought everyone was going to come watch the Patriots game at my house but it ended up just being Rad and I. I had put Caleb down for a nap shortly before Rad got there and he woke up with a coughing fit after 10 minutes and would not go back to sleep, so that was a problem. I kept him awake for awhile and then nursed him, hoping he would go to sleep, but that didn't work, so I tried another nap in the crib and that didn't work, but I still left him there for awhile and then finally I tried nursing him again and this time he passed out! Poor guy was so tired!

Monday morning Caleb woke up very early at 5:00 and I was not too excited because we were going to the Boston Aquarium that day with Jen on a field trip. Since I knew he wouldn't sleep too well during the day, I decided to just get up and feed him instead of seeing if he would go back to sleep. And then I put him back to bed and he slept until 7:30, which was perfect timing for getting ready to go on our field trip. So, I felt better that he had gotten some extra sleep. On the way to Boston, I knew Caleb wouldn't go to sleep because he had just gotten up at 7:30, but all of the other kids in my car went to sleep, which is pretty funny because Caleb was the last man standing! We got to the aquarium and Jen and another car had taken a wrong turn so we had to wait a few minutes for them, but it wasn't too bad. We had a good time and I think Caleb enjoyed seeing everything, but it was kinda hard because he was in the stroller most of the time. I did keep taking him out so he could look and touch things, but I'm not sure how much he got out of it. The rest of the kids loved it, though, so that was good. We went into an IMAX movie around lunchtime and Caleb hadn't napped, so I nursed him during the movie and he did go to sleep, so that was good because I don't know what I would have done if he was awake during the movie. After the movie, we saw a couple more exhibits and went to the gift shop and then headed home.

Have I mentioned that Caleb points with his middle finger?

The magnet we got as a souvenir

On the way home, I was hoping that Caleb would take another nap and once again, he was the last man standing as everyone else fell asleep. Finally he fell asleep at the bridge, which meant he had a 20 minute nap, because he woke up as soon as we hit the church parking lot. Oh well. After we left the church we stopped at my parents' house to say goodbye to my grandparents because they were leaving Tuesday morning.

On Tuesday our big outing for the day was to play group and we were happy to go because we didn't have it last week because of Thanksgiving. So, we were excited to see all of our friends! A lot of the other babies are now on the move like Caleb is, so it has turned into a much different group than when we first started! The babies used to just sit on the floor and play pretty much in one spot and now all the moms are chasing the babies everywhere! There are a couple of younger ones that still aren't moving, but for the most part, everyone is all over the place!

Yesterday I worked and when we got to Grammy's house in the morning she had her naked Christmas tree and all her Christmas decorations out and she announced that she and Caleb were going to be very busy. I told her good luck but the tree looked great by the time we got home. They also went to the office for lunch and made a trip to Home Goods in the afternoon.