Easter & Family Visit

Last weekend Steve's parents and Caroline & Corey came down. They got here around 9:00 on Friday night and we stayed up for a little while visiting and then went to bed. We had put Caleb to bed in our room so Caroline and Corey could stay in Caleb's room. I was hoping that he would sleep ok up there and luckily he did. He woke up close to 6:00 on Sabbath morning, which is about normal, so that was good. Caleb was able to show off his walking skills when everyone got up for the day and they were all impressed. We went to Sabbath School and Grandma came with us.

So cute! One of the big kids!

 

We then went to church for awhile and then I brought Caleb home for his nap, like I have been doing lately. It was good because I needed some extra time to get lunch ready because we were having lunch at our house instead of going to potluck.

 

During the welcome time, Caleb was stalking my dad and then played the piano with him for a few minutes

 

Caleb took an ok nap and we had a nice lunch with our two families. It was nice to get everyone together to visit. We were going to go on a daffodil walk with our church but it was not at a place where we could bring the dogs, so first we took a walk at home with the dogs and then went on the walk with the church.

 

 

The church was then going to go on another walk but we had to get Caleb home and ready for bed, so we didn't go on the second one. We had worship and bathtime with Caleb and then I fed him upstairs and put him to bed. I was nervous that he wouldn't go to sleep right away upstairs because it is lighter up there than in his room, but he did fine.

 

It was nice that Caroline was taking some pictures, because I am actually in them!

 

We then spent the evening talking and visiting. We just made some popcorn for supper, so that was easy. We also filled Caleb's easter eggs for the next day. I just put Goldfish and Teddy Grahams in most of them, although there were a few with chocolate (that Caleb didn't eat).

 

 

Sunday morning we had a lazy morning and didn't start our Easter egg hunt until about 10:15. Aunt Toni and Uncle Terry had come down Sabbath afternoon for a quick visit and of course they wanted to see Caleb, so they came over with my mom (Dad had to play his trumpet in an Easter service) for the Easter egg hunt. Rad and Jen came over too. I put about 50 eggs in the yard (I knew that was too many, but I did it anyway) and Caleb was excited at first, but after about 10 or so, he lost interest, so everyone else helped find them.

 

All ready to find the eggs!

How nice for my next photo book that we got pictures of both grandmothers wearing the bunny ears!

Eating one of his treasures!

Uncle Rad getting in on the action!

Aunt Toni and Grandma finding eggs too

 

After the egg hunt, we visited for awhile and then it was time for Caleb's nap. During his nap, I got lunch ready and we were mostly done eating by the time he woke up. Shortly after lunch, everyone left to go home.

 

 

The rest of the day was fairly relaxing. We went for a walk with the dogs and then just played at home until it was time to feed Caleb supper and get him ready for bed. I didn't work at all on Sunday because Monday was Patriots Day, so I got paid 8 hours for that day, so I only have to work 8 hours from home this week instead of 16. So that was nice timing that I didn't have to work while Steve's family was here.

 

On Monday we went out and did our grocery shopping at Trader Joe's. I also did laundry. Steve had set up Caleb's play house that we had gotten last year along with our swingset, so we played in that a little bit, although it was quite dirty and I needed to wash it.

 

 

On Tuesday we did some other shopping and I picked up a couple of things from people on Facebook. I got some musical instruments for $10 and a big bag of 3T clothes for $15. Then we went to Babies R Us to get diapers because I had a $10 off coupon (good for 2 boxes) and I bought a Little People nativity set on Clearance for $15 that I will give to Caleb for his 2nd birthday, since it is right before Christmas. I also bought a picture at Home Goods that says Rules for the Playroom, which I thought was nice since we will be having our new playroom soon. Tuesday afternoon we went for a walk with Jen since she is on vacation this week. It was a very nice day and we enjoyed our walk. We also went for a short walk with Steve and the dogs after Steve got home from work.

 

Caleb is learning to be gentle with the dogs and it is so sweet. He sometimes smacks them but if we tell him to be gentle, he will pet them very nicely.

This is actually a smack although it looks like she is enjoying it

 

One thing I forgot to mention last week is that Caleb knows what a star is and he is constantly noticing stars everywhere, which I think is pretty good. He doesn't say the "s" and he leaves off the "r" like a good Bostonian, so it sounds like "Tah", but we definitely know what he is talking about and I am amazed when he sees stars that I don't even notice!

 

Yesterday I worked and Dede and her girls babysat Caleb because they were all on school vacation. Unfortunately it was a little bit of a rainy day so they weren't able to play outside too much, but they had a good time and Caleb slept almost 2 hours for them. One day this week he slept 2 hours and 20 minutes for me, so that was exciting!

 

Well, that's about it. Here are a few pictures from Steve's phone from last week, but I hadn't gotten them off in time to include in last week's blog.

 

 

 







 







A New Cousin for Caleb!, Baby Shower, Church Walk & Outside Fun

So, I have to start this off by finally announcing that Rad and Jen are going to have a baby!! Of course I have known for a really long time, but they just made it known to the public last week, so I am happy that everyone knows now! Jen's due date is October 23, so the baby will be just under 2 years younger than Caleb. I am so excited that I am going to have a new niece or nephew and especially that this one will live close to me (it is sad that the others live in Thailand and we hardly ever get to see them). Jen has not had an easy pregnancy so far. She is nauseous all the time and tired a lot, but she just hit the end of her first trimester yesterday, so hopefully some of that will be subsiding soon. And I can't wait until they find out what they are having! Jen used to think that she didn't want to find out, but she couldn't wait for me to find out when I was pregnant with Caleb, so she changed her mind (thank goodness!).

So, last Friday Caleb spent the day with Grammy and then Josie and Rissa in the afternoon. My mom got a really cute picture of Rissa and Caleb filling the bird feeder.

Caleb likes raspberries but only has them at Grammy's house because they are still too expensive for Mommy to buy!

 

Ball heaven!

 

Sabbath morning we woke up to a beautiful morning!

 

Love these two!

 

We went to Sabbath School and part of church and then I brought Caleb home for a nap because I knew church was going to get out really late because it was communion Sabbath. It was so gorgeous out that I actually sat out on the back deck in my new lounge chair that I got for my birthday while Caleb napped. It was so nice and so welcome after the long winter we have had. Caleb slept for an hour and 40 minutes and then we went to my parents' house for lunch and it was perfect timing for when everyone got home from church. We had a lovely lunch that my mom made at my request for my birthday meal and we had some of our friends over for lunch as well. After lunch, we went on a really nice walk with lots of people from our church. We have so many beautiful walks on the Cape, so we go for a lot of walks in the spring and summer. This was our first one of the year and a lot of people showed up because it was so beautiful.

 



 

We had to leave the walk before everyone else did because it was getting late and we needed to get Caleb ready for bed. Having Caleb definitely changes our lifestyle, but we are usually able to still go to things, but we just leave early. After Caleb went to bed, I worked for awhile because I knew I wouldn't get too much time to work on Sunday.

 

Sunday morning I didn't work at all because we were having a baby shower for our good friend Tiffany and I had to get some things ready for it. I was in charge of the games and I also had to make some spinach balls. The shower was at 11:00, so I left Caleb at home with Steve so he could nap and so I could also enjoy myself without having to worry about Caleb! Before I left for the shower, we had some fun outside.

 

My new lounge chair

Getting around pretty good

Caleb did a good job putting the cover on the bucket

 

The baby shower was a lot of fun. As I mentioned, I was in charge of the games. The first game we did was baby food testing.

 





After that game, we opened presents. During that time, we played another game. It was really cute. Everyone has an index card and writes a question on it that a new mother would have (When will my baby sleep through the night?, etc.). Then everyone passes their card to the left so they have a new card. Then they turn it over and write the answer to their original question on the back of the new card. Then we had everyone read the combinations of questions and answers and of course the answers didn't go with the questions at all, so it was funny. Everyone really liked it. Tiffany got a lot of great gifts. They will be moving to Puerto Rico about a month after the baby is born, so that is going to be hard.

After the presents, we played one last game before eating. I had gotten different types of candy bars and melted them and put them in diapers so they looked like poop and then people had to sniff and taste them and guess what kind of candy they were. Not too many people played, but those that did had fun.

Smells better than the ones she'll be changing in about 6 months!

 

Too bad Tiffany wasn't in the picture with us! Oh well!

I stayed and helped my mom clean up after the shower and then I met Steve and Caleb at the school because the kids were having an art show and a bake sale. It was very nice and we enjoyed seeing the kids' work.

Playing in the pastor's car after the art show

I can't remember what else we did for the rest of the day. Probably nothing because it had already been a very busy day!

Monday was my mom's birthday and it was another gorgeous day! In the morning Caleb and I went out and did some grocery shopping and then went and got a birthday present for my mom and to the Centerville playground. Caleb had a fun time there, but we had to get home for his nap, so we didn't stay real long. It will be great when the weather is warmer all the time and we can stay longer because we can go earlier in the morning.

Just browsing the flyer

Monday afternoon we were going to try to take a walk with my mother for her birthday, but she ended up being too busy (which is so sad), so we just went over to my parents' house for a little while instead so we could give my mom her presents. Also, my dad had been gone for the weekend, so he really wanted to see Caleb.

On Tuesday we went to our playgroup at the library and it was very chaotic. There are new babies every week now and I think we had 12 there this week. Caleb always has a fun time there, but he is the biggest and by default, the roughest, so I have to watch him with the smaller ones. There are no pictures because I am too busy keeping an eye on him! I really can't remember what else we did on Tuesday. Probably not much.

 

I didn't work on Wednesday this week because my boss needed me to come in on Thursday for something. So, I worked Thursday and Friday (which really threw me off). So, Wednesday I was home and it was a chilly day. We took a trip to Market Basket and Carters, because I heard Carters had some good clearance deals (and they did!). That took up most of our morning until naptime. After naptime, we just got ready for company coming this weekend and cleaned the house a little and made some food. When Steve got home from work we went for a walk with the dogs.

 

So yesterday I went to work and Grammy had Caleb all day. Thursday is our other playgroup day and I didn't really want Caleb to miss it, so my mom took him. I think they had fun!

 

 

They were very busy the rest of the day as well. Grammy really keeps Caleb hopping because she is so busy and has so many things going on. I think he keeps her on her toes as well now that he is running around everywhere!

 

Today Caleb went back to Grammy's and she had him all day again because Josie and Rissa didn't come help in the afternoon. Grampy watched Caleb for awhile this morning while Grammy was at an estate sale and they had a lot of fun. Grampy said that he followed Caleb around the house for over an hour, just walking around looking (and touching, I'm sure) at things. This afternoon Caleb got another haircut from Wendy because his hair has been out of control lately. It looks so cute and he did a really good job sitting there.

 

I wish I had a comparison, but this picture looks a lot like Rad did when he was little

 

After work today we met my parents and Jen at the Thai restaurant. Rad was supposed to meet us but he went to a wake and the line was really long, so he didn't make it in time. We had a nice time. We got home later than usual but I sped up Caleb's feeding and still got him to bed at a decent time.

 

Something that Caleb learned to do this week is open and close the piano. I was proud of him that he learned it, but then he pinched a finger in there and hurt himself, so that was too bad.

 

Caleb also learned how to say "poo poo" this week and now when I ask him what is in his diaper, he will say it. I think it's pretty cute. I also have been noticing that he looks like he is getting one of his bottom molars in and tonight it looked red, so I think it is about to push through.

 

Well, I guess that's about it for now! Happy Easter!

 

He knows how to brush his hair

Checking out the computers at his future school - we had to stop there on our way home Thursday to help my mom with getting set up for a meeting