Snowstorm & First Sledding, Bowling for Rad & David's Birthday, & Getting Into Mischief

Last Thursday into Friday we had our first major snowstorm of the winter and since it was still snowing on Friday morning, work was canceled for both Steve and I, which was a nice surprise. I was hoping it would mean that Steve would be able to help out with Caleb some, but he spent most of the day clearing the snow in our driveway as well as helping some of our neighbors. So, it was pretty much a normal day for Caleb and I, only we were stuck inside all day instead of being able to go out. Oh well. At least it was a day off from work, although that was the only day I was supposed to go to work last week, so it means I didn't go to work at all last week.

Keeping busy during the snowstorm

 

Friday evening we did venture out of the house and went to some friends' house for supper. The rest of my family was there too and we had a very nice time, but of course we had to leave well before everyone else to get Caleb home to bed. Oh well!

On Sabbath we went to church and the roads were still surprisingly bad. Caleb has been doing pretty good lately about being quiet in church up until the sermon and then I take him into the mother's room for the sermon so he can get some energy out.

 



After church we had potluck and we stayed longer than we should have and Caleb was very tired by the time we got home. So tired that he was asleep within about 2 minutes of me putting him down for his nap. He took a good nap and then we wanted to go out into the snow so we got Caleb all bundled up and took the dogs for a walk and Caleb for a ride in his sled. The roads were still covered with snow, so we were able to just pull him down the street, which was nice. I think he had a good time!

 

On Sunday I worked for a few hours in the morning but then we left to go bowling for a late celebration of Rad and David's birthday back in December. We went to a new bowling alley that has a bistro in it and although we didn't eat there, it was definitely a much nicer atmosphere than a normal bowling alley. My dad couldn't bowl because his shoulder was bothering him, so he was in charge of watching Caleb, which was a nice break.

 



After bowling, we went out to lunch at an Italian restaurant close to the bowling alley. Caleb was fairly well behaved in the restaurant, although at the end he was getting very tired. We had a nice lunch and then headed home to get Caleb to take a nap. Again, he was very tired so he went to sleep quickly, which was great. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful and I was able to get a couple more hours of work in, which was helpful.

On Monday I went to work, even though that's not my normal schedule. I felt bad that I hadn't been to work since the day after Christmas because of the snowstorm on Friday, so I wanted to go to work earlier than Wednesday. This was the first time my mom had babysat Caleb in awhile because of the holidays and I think she noticed a change in him now that he is so much more mobile. He also didn't do too well with his naps. He took awhile to go to sleep for his morning nap and then slept about 40 minutes and then in the afternoon, this is what happened instead of napping!

 

My mom said that it was quiet in there for awhile, so she thought maybe he had slept for a little while, but later that night when I started to nurse him, he fell asleep almost instantly, so that tells me that he didn't sleep at all in the afternoon. Oh well. At least he stayed happy despite a lack of sleep. Here are a couple more pictures from Grammy.

New drum from Grammy for Christmas that she just gave him - he loves it and carries one of the sticks everywhere he goes!

Tuesday we went to our playgroup for the first time in a few weeks because of the holidays. It was good to see everyone, although 3 moms and babies weren't there for various reasons, so we definitely missed them! That was our big outing for the day and the rest of the day we just stayed at home.

 

Even though it was very cold on Tuesday, Steve had gotten home a little earlier than normal, so we bundled Caleb up and took a walk with the dogs. Because Caleb was so bundled, I couldn't buckle the straps on his stroller so he kept sliding down, but we made it and survived the cold!

 



Today Caleb had a great nap day! He usually has one nap longer than an hour and one nap shorter than an hour but today both naps were about an hour and a half, so that was great. However, it took him longer to go to sleep tonight, so I guess that it the tradeoff. I really think that Caleb doesn't need as much sleep as other babies, so I just have to deal with it! Our big outing today was to BJ's and Babies R Us and other than that, we spent time at home. Caleb is getting to be more of an adventurer now that he is pulling up on everything, so here is an example of what he gets into now.

Carrying that drumstick around to hit everything (with his left hand, of course)

 

I guess there wasn't much exciting to report this week. Next week Caleb and I are headed to Florida with my parents for a few days, so we will have a more exciting week I am sure. We will miss Daddy though! Here is one more picture of my little troublemaker with the wild hat hair!! Have a good week!

 



Conrad Family Christmas in Vermont, Saying New Words, & Pulling Up on Everything!

First of all, Happy New Year! I, of course, did not stay up until midnight and was asleep in bed at 9:30, but it is still exciting to be in a new year.

Last Friday I stayed home because I had worked on Thursday instead. I mostly spent the day getting ready to go to Vermont for the weekend, but I did a little bit of shopping as well. I wanted to get some wrapping paper for next year and I had to make one return and buy one more gift as well. Unfortunately, Caleb didn't nap well on Friday, so that made it is a little difficult to get everything done that I needed to, but we made it work. We also met my mother at the hospital to visit a church member who was there with a broken hip and then we went to the Thai restaurant for lunch afterwards.

In the elevator at the hospital

Looking out the window in the hospital room

Crazy hair at the Thai restaurant

The keeper of the wrapping paper

 

On Friday night, my parents stopped by to see us for a few minutes because they wouldn't see us for a few days since we were going to Vermont. Other than that, it was a quiet evening and after Caleb went to bed, Steve and I did a lot of packing.

 

On Sabbath morning, we were trying to leave around 8:00 to make it to church on time, but we had so much last minute packing to do that we didn't leave until 8:30, but that wasn't too bad considering everything we had to do.

 

Showing off his new boots from Grammy

Talking on his cell phone - he actually puts it up to his ear on his own!

 

We got to church around 11:30 and then spent the rest of the time in the mother's room, as usual! After church we took a family picture with everyone, because it was a good opportunity.

 

 

After church, we went home for lunch and I fed Caleb first while everyone else was getting the rest of lunch ready and then I put Caleb down for a nap. It only ended up being a 45 minute nap, but at least it took the edge off. The rest of the afternoon we just spent visiting with family and then we had the Christmas party and opened the gifts.

 

Love this picture!

With cousin Bethany's brand new fiancé Darren

 







I left the party to put Caleb to bed and then after that, we played some Apples to Apples, which was a lot of fun.

On Sunday we had our family Christmas, but it took awhile for us to get our act together, so we had it in a couple parts. We didn't get started until almost 1:30 and then Caleb needed a nap around 2:30, so we took a break and ate a meal and then resumed around 5:30 or 6:00 and then we were almost done when I had to get Caleb ready for bed, so we missed out on the last little bit, but it was ok.

I love Caleb's arms in this picture

 

Sunday night we had a snowstorm and it was beautiful. I have never seen such big flakes! The only bad part was we ended up losing power for a few hours from around 8:30 or 9:00 until 1:00 in the morning. Since we couldn't use the monitor without the power on, I ended up going to bed early so I could be in the room to hear Caleb.

 

On Monday, we didn't do much all day except hang around the house. I wanted to get a few hours of work done, so Steve spent some time with Caleb. He took him out in the snow for a little while.

 

Checking out the snowman his cousins built

 

On Tuesday, we left around 1:00 to come home, so we spent the morning pretty much getting ready to go and just hanging out with everyone. It was hard to say goodbye to the Whitsetts, but we are happy we will see them again this summer instead of having to wait a year and a half like last time.

 

Steve's mom broke her leg several weeks ago so was pretty immobile

Caleb playing with Grandma's walker





We had a relatively good trip home, although we weren't really thinking about the fact that we would be going through Boston during rush hour, so we did hit some traffic, but it could definitely have been a lot worse. We got home and unpacked the car and fed Caleb supper and then put him to bed and then we went to bed early instead of staying up until midnight. I am definitely not a night person, so it doesn't make any sense to stay up just because!

Today was a catch-up day. I did laundry, unpacked our Christmas gifts, cleaned out my closet, and did a few hours of work. Steve took Caleb out shopping for a couple of hours, which was a nice break for me. We had Rad and Jen and my parents over for supper since we hadn't seen Rad and Jen in almost 2 weeks. It was nice to get together and we got to show them Caleb's new tricks. While we were in Vermont, he really started pulling up on everything. We used his pack and play a little bit as a playpen in the mornings because Caleb was up much earlier than the rest of the house, and he loved pulling up to stand in the pack and play and then he would throw his toys out. This morning at home, I went on my treadmill for 45 minutes and when I came upstairs, Steve told me that Caleb had been walking his activity table across the room, which he has never done before. He also started saying "bye bye", which was very exciting. Recently he has been saying "ball" constantly, because he has a lot of balls, so his vocabulary is expanding! It is so neat to see him learning and doing new things!

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

Pulling himself up at the changing table and throwing all the diapers on the floor!

Last night right before we took the Christmas tree down