Okay, so I know that I have been M.I.A on my blog for a good while, and I have received some complaints. I have been checking in on things and keeping up with what everyone else is doing, I just haven't made the time to update our blog. So here goes my attempt to get everyone caught up with the happenings from the past few months. In this post, I will be filling you in on our adventures from July and August...
JULY
We began our first real attempt at potty training, so Caleb got a potty seat, you know the one that sings and talks to you (I know he didn't need the potty seat that has all the bells and whistles, but it sure is fun!) As far as the potty training goes, he is currently in that experimental stage and has been there for a several months. He has very good days where he will stay dry almost all of the day and then we have the days where he will refuse to sit on the potty altogether. We are just letting him take things at the pace that he wants; I am sure that it will help when we (Stephen and I) make the decision to be more consistent in reminding him to go too!
Caleb helping getting out his potty!
He's thinking about trying it out!
One step closer to big boy undies!
Josh (my baby brother, who is not so much a baby anymore) was gone all summer long doing an internship that he got through A&M with some of our wonderful Texas cotton gins. For the first half of the summer he was in the Lubbock area, and the second half was spent down around the Corpus Christi area. Caleb is CRAZY about his Uncle Josh and Josh is CRAZY about his nephew, so this summer was very hard for the both of them. Caleb would pretend to talk to Josh on the phone when we couldn't talk to him for real. He would search the house thinking that just maybe Uncle Josh was playing hide and seek, and sometimes he would just stand at the door, waiting and hoping that Uncle Josh would pull into the driveway, it was just so sad! The 4th of July weekend Caleb got the best surprise ever, his Uncle Josh came home! We were on our way to the swimming pool with Caleb when I got a phone call from Josh's girlfriend, Jenna, she asked if she could come visit us because she was feeling kind of down since Josh was out of town (she sooo fibbed). So, we made plans that she would just meet us at the pool. We had been there for a little while when she arrived...yes, she had my 6'4", blonde haired brother in tow. You should have heard the squeals that came from my child. The life guards thought that something was wrong at first, until they saw the excitement that was on Caleb's face! After we left the pool, we came home, grilled steaks, bakes brownies, and let Josh and Caleb have some much deserved play time!!!
Uncle Josh pushing Caleb down the "clam" slide at the pool.
Mixing up brownies with Jenna!
Brownie kisses!
Brownie face!!!
All smiles with a "Joshyback" ride!
Whew! Mr. Stinky pants!
After a diaper change, they did some kung fu fighting!
AUGUST
August was a pretty busy month. Stephen's parents came in for a visit and Stephen and his dad built a "Fuzz Box" (some kind of a petal for Stephen's guitar) they really enjoyed working on the project and it looked really neat when Stephen finished it up.
Caleb trying to help out with the "fuzz" box.
A really good friend of mine, Wendee and her husband Brian, had their baby girl on the 8th. They named her Berklee Anne. Berklee came into this world very early (15 weeks early) and truly is a miracle baby. She was born at 8:50 a.m. (10 minutes before Wendee's graduation ceremony began at A&M) and weighed in at a whopping 1 lb. 12.2 ozs. and was 12.5 inches long. You can read more about Berklee at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/berkleebinford
Jenna, my brother's girlfriend, graduated from A&M on the 8th, she was in the same ceremony that Wendee would have been in. We celebrated with Jenna and her family at her graduation party after the official ceremony.
Josh and Jenna
Stephen turned 32 on the 9th! Since, mom and dad were in town for Jenna's graduation they watched Caleb so that Stephen and I could have a baby free dinner and enjoy a night out on the town. It was wonderful to be able to enjoy dinner and not have the munchkin pulling on our arms and squealing for more food! Caleb is a precious little boy and we love him so much, but it is nice to have a break from time to time. :-)
Happy Birthday Daddy!
(Caleb and Stephen playing before we went out to eat.)
Papaw was coaxed into playing, too! They really had to twist his arm (Haha)!!!
This is how we got to slip out for Stephen's birthday dinner...with no tears! (Caleb had a wonderful afternoon playing with Stephen, Papaw, and Josh; he was completely worn out. So, it didn't take Mamaw long to get Caleb down for a long afternoon nap!)
The week after Stephen's birthday, he took his annual vacation. We had planned to make a trip to the beach this summer during his time off, but the various different hurricanes put a kink in our plans this year. So, we took a couple of days to rest and relax, and then we took a few short day trips. One day, we stayed in the B/CS area; we had lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Papa Perez, and then we took Caleb to the Children's Museum in downtown Bryan. Then one day, we went to the Houston Zoo and did alittle shopping while we were there.
The Music Room at the Children's Museum
The boys at the "Legos" building table in the Children's Museum
Caleb is fascinated with fish (one of his favorite movies this summer was Finding Nemo), so we took him to an aquarium to see all the different kinds of fish. He loved it!
Caleb and I at the entrance of the Houston Zoo!
(As you can see, he was still pretty kicked back at this point...it sure didn't stay that way, he loved seeing all the animals and we couldn't get to the next animal fast enough sometimes.)
Stephen and Caleb at the zoo!
Out and about at the zoo!
Exhausted from the zoo!
(This picture was taken before we ever left the parking lot)
After we returned home from our adventures at the zoo, we decided to have a family picnic in the living room! It was so much fun!
One of our other big adventures in August, while Stephen was on vacation was weaning Caleb from his pacifier. We initially started out a few months earlier just limiting the usage for naps and bedtime only. However, he got a summer cold and we let him have his "passy" for comfort, therefore, he started trying to use it all the time again. So, we decided to go cold turkey this time...and it worked! He asked for it some, but we had a book that we read, Pacifiers are not Forever, and we used lots of distractions. The Little Tikes bubble machine was one of the distractions that we used and it worked wonders! Caleb loved it! Every time he would start to whine or ask about his passy, we would pull out the bubble machine, and that would be the end of it (at least for a little while). We had a couple of very interesting days, but all said and done it was pretty painless. I might not have said this at the time, but looking back on it I think that Caleb did really well!
Bubbles...bubbles, bubbles, bubbles!!!
On the 30th, I had my business debut as a Mary Kay Beauty Consultant and hosted a grand opening event at the house. So far, things have been going well. I get to do some girly stuff that is just for me, I get to do girly stuff with my friends and other ladies too, I get all my products half off and I am making alittle bit of extra money doing it! How much fun is that!?!
The Mary Kay box reads, "Discover your DREAMS inside!"
Looks to me like my dreams have already been discovered!!!
My handsome boys!
So, if you throw in the normal everyday activities and the occasional extras like playdates, birthday parties, dinner with friends, and wedding showers, you can see that August was quite busy. I've started work on the next update for September and October, hopefully I will get it posted soon!
