Another Blizzard/Power Loss, New Car Seat, and Play Group Birthday Party

Well, this wasn't a very exciting week compared to writing about our cruise! We finally got Caleb a new car seat. He had grown out of his Keyfit (we actually should have gotten a new seat awhile ago, but I didn't realize he had outgrown it), so we needed to get a convertible seat. Babies R Us was doing their Trade-in event where if you bring in an old piece of baby equipment you can get 25% off a new piece, so we had an old seat that we had bought online just to get the base, so we brought that in. Babies R Us also does price matching, so we had found that Target had the same seat (Chicco Nextfit) on sale for $224.00, so we were going to do the price match and then get the 25% off to make it a pretty good deal. Steve's cousin had done the same thing, so we didn't think we would have any trouble. Well, Steve went to do that and they gave him a really hard time and wouldn't do the 25% off the price match because they said their policy was to only do the 25% off full price items. So, he opened a credit card and got 15% off instead, so we paid about $25 more than we would have, which wasn't too bad. Incidentally, Steve's cousin sent us her receipt and we took it in because we were going to get a second seat and they did price match that, so we did get the good price on the second seat. So, all's well that ends well. Anyway, the new seat is working out well. It seems pretty comfy and it is nice to not have to carry it in and out of the car, although it is a little more challenging getting Caleb ready to go, because I would always put him in his seat in the kitchen and then put his shoes and hat on while he was already in it. Here are a few pictures in the new seat.

First time in it - driving to Grammy's on Friday

Doesn't look quite as comfortable, but he is in a suit, so come on!

Friday was a normal day. My mom watched Caleb in the morning and Rad and Jen watched him in the afternoon. I don't remember anything in particular that happened, although Rad and Jen noted that he was very clingy and wanted to be picked up a lot. He has been like that with me a lot lately too, so I don't know what that's about. Jen also did get him to take an afternoon nap, which I was happy about, because he hadn't been doing too well for her lately. It was only 30 minutes, but just getting him to sleep is a victory!

On Sabbath we made it to Sabbath School at a decent time, and there were quite a few kids there, which was nice. Caleb wore his suit that he had worn on the cruise, and of course we got a lot of comments about how cute he was and how grown-up he looked! He would look more grown-up if he was actually walking, but that is another subject!

During church, Caleb was getting a little antsy, but we usually like to try to keep him in there until the sermon starts and then we go into the mother's room to play. He went up to children's story, but there were so many kids I couldn't sit there with him. Luckily there are many girls who are happy to hold him instead!

Another cute thing that happened during church was when my mom was standing up holding him in the back and she was standing next to Melbourne, our head deacon (and unofficial great-grandfather to Caleb), and Caleb lunged toward Melbourne to have him hold him. Melbourne was surprised but delighted, I think.

Caleb does that a lot where someone is holding him and he lunges toward someone else and then a few seconds later will either go back to the first person or to another new person. He especially seems to do that when he is tired, but will do it other times as well.

After church, we had potluck, and then I had a brief social committee meeting before we took Caleb home for a nap. It had started snowing while we were in church and we knew we were supposed to get a pretty big storm that night, so that was just the beginning. My parents came over so we could swap pictures from the cruise and Caleb woke up from his nap while they were here. I mentioned to Steve that he should probably bring some wood in in case we lost our power and so he did and he actually started a fire before we went to bed, so it got warmer in our room than usual. Another thing that happened that night is a tree came down in our backyard and came close to hitting the house. It wasn't a massive tree or anything, but it was still pretty good-sized. The dogs were outside when it happened, so thankfully they didn't get hit by it.

We woke up around 11:15 when our power went off. We knew it wouldn't be back on for awhile because no one would be going out in the storm to fix it and it wasn't supposed to stop snowing until the morning. The biggest concern is Caleb when we lose our power. #1, his room is downstairs and ours is upstairs, so we can't hear him without the monitor and obviously that didn't work. #2, we were worried about him getting cold in his room. Anyway, Steve was able to hook a couple of things up to the car battery so we could plug in Caleb's camera and sound machine and I used up the battery on the monitor. So, we left Caleb in his room until about 3:15 when we woke up again. It had gone down several degrees in his room and my monitor battery was almost out, so we decided to bring him into bed with us. Well, he stayed asleep during the transition, but Steve was working on the fire and when he came back to bed, Caleb woke up and then wouldn't settle back down. Since the fire had warmed up our room a few degrees, we moved Caleb to the pack and play in our room and for some reason, it took him another hour or so to fall back asleep, so he finally fell asleep around 5:30 and slept until 6:45. So, we were tired that morning. Luckily, our power came back on around 9:30, so it could have been worse (like last year, when we lost it for 3 days and Caleb was 9 weeks old!).

I am not sure how much snow we got. Probably close to a foot, but it is hard to tell because of all the drifts. All I know is that after Steve shoveled, we had huge piles of snow on the side of our driveway. This has been a brutal winter! I am so ready for it to be spring, but I still wouldn't trade it to live somewhere warm all the time. I do enjoy the seasons and some snow!

Late Sunday afternoon after Caleb's nap and all the snow was cleared up, we went out and got the new car seat at Babies R Us (the second one) and got a couple of things at the dollar store and Trader Joe's and then we met Rad and Jen at the Thai restaurant for an early supper. That was nice, because we hadn't been out in awhile with them.

On Monday we didn't do too much, although we did make a trip to the grocery store. Steve was home because it was President's Day, but he spent most of the day working on the play room in the basement, which of course I was happy about. He is making some good progress on the framing, but it makes a lot of noise! It will be nice when he is past the noisy part, so maybe he can work while Caleb is napping and sleeping at night. One thing we started doing this week is having me nurse Caleb before bed upstairs and then actually put him in the pack and play upstairs until Steve is done working and then we are moving him to his crib. It has worked out well so far, so we'll probably keep doing that for awhile so Steve can spend more time in the basement working.

 



One thing we have been working on this week is getting Caleb to drink more. He has had a hard time using a sippy cup because he likes to just bang it on his high chair tray and spill it. So, we have been giving him sips from a regular cup, which works ok, but I really want to find something that he can do on his own. I have also started using a sport top water bottle and he is doing well with that, but I still have to give it to him, so at least he is getting some liquid, but he is not doing it independently, which is what I want. It honestly amazes me how often we are doing new things and having to learn new skills. So often I think about how much easier it will be when Caleb does this or Caleb does that, but then there is something else to worry about, so it is a never-ending learning experience. It is a joy to see him learning every day, though, even if he doesn't pick up on things as quickly as I would like sometimes.

Trying to pick out a new sippy cup at Babies R Us

 



On Tuesday, we didn't have our normal play group because of school vacation week, but we did it at someone's house instead. We wanted to make sure we did it this week because 2 of the babies had a birthday this week (and one next week) and one of the birthday babies is moving away next week as well. So, we wanted to have a birthday/going away party. The mom's house we had it at is only about a mile from our house, so that was nice. We had a great time and it is nice to socialize with other moms. We have a group of 7 (soon to be 6, because of the one moving away), and I think that is a good size to bond and make friends.

Not a great picture, but all 7 babies are actually in the picture

 

Yesterday I worked and since it was school vacation week, Dede and the girls (Caleb's babysitters) were on vacation and they wanted to babysit Caleb, so they gave my mom a break and they babysat him all day. They had a great time and I am sure he did too. They give him so much attention, so he must just eat it up! He took 2 1-hour naps for them, although it did take him awhile to fall asleep in the morning. They are also going to watch him on Friday afternoon to give my mom another break! and Josie is taking an all day babysitting class on Friday (that we are paying for) to set herself up to watch Caleb by herself (or with her sister) in the future. She is excited about that.

 

 

Well, that's about it for this week. Here are a few more pictures from this week.

 

Peekaboo!

Enjoying a quesadilla