Ho Ho Humbug!

So remember this post from last December?  Feel free to take in the cuteness of my once itty bitty.  It is crazy how much they change in a year.  Any way back to the story at hand.  Do you remember this amazing picture that emerged from that post? 

Yes, he is adorable I know.  He loved Ho Ho last year!! I mean loved him.  However, this year my little man was a real Scrooge when it came to dear ole Ho Ho.  I mean as we were standing in line I informed hubby and mama Taylor that I was pretty sure I would get a crying picture this year.  I mean arterial, my little man is unfortunately getting back into hard core separation anxiety, and does not like strangers to come near him at all.  Add a white beard and flashing lights to the combination and it equals a toddlers #1 nightmare. Here we are waiting in line......

I was right when it came to the picture though.....

He was not a fan of the Santa Land set up for picture taking either. 

Oh well, I wouldn't have it any other way because this pic will always help me remember just who my little man was at 16 months (broken leg and all).  Santa did not take it personally, Caleb got way more than a lump of coal for Christmas. 

Where to Begin

Hello!! We are finally back in blogging action.  I feel as though my blog has fallen off the face of the earth, and I have so much that I want to share that I do not even know where to begin.  I may be back tracking for a few weeks, and I hope you are okay with that.   I mean after all we finally got a new computer with our Christmas money and I have so many pictures to share with you all.  So basically my posts for the next few days will be catch-ups from the month of December. 

I think I am just going to start more towards the beginning of the month....

As you know we have had an interesting December with 2 broken legs in our household.  I am happy to report however, that both injured babies are now healed and doing great! Wooo Hooo! You do not know how happy this makes me. 

On December 23 we had Caleb's cast taken off.  I have to admit that not being able to go with him into the X-ray rooms is hard, but I have not experienced anything much harder than watching them remove that cast.  They use a saw tool that makes a sound like a vacuum.  Well, my child hates vacuums, and doctors, and putting them together equaled pure terror.  It broke my heart to look into his face and see the terror in his eyes, and to watch his tears drop and know there was nothing I could do for him.  I cried right along with him.  Thank God hubby was there.  After it was all said and done though Caleb is now walking all around and doing great again. 

However, as promised I had to upload the video of him walking with his cast.  Don't feel bad if you laugh, we laughed to.  It was one of those "bless his heart" kind of laughs.  We got everything from Forrest Gump to Tiny Tim.  Poor little guy.  In my opinion though he rocked the gimpy leg.  We even had a dance in our family called the "Caleb" (original I know).  You couldn't help but impersonate it. 

Nursery Possibilities

So, I realized that I really need to start thinking about getting ready for lil miss.  Our plan come Jan is to re-arrange basically our entire house.  The playroom will become mine and hubby's room, our room will become Caleb's big boy room, and his room will be bundles nursery.  As fun as decorating baby rooms is, it is not as appealing when I think about having a toddler running around in the midst of it.  Also, as soon as Caleb gets his cast off we are going to start trying to transition him to his toddler bed.  I have mixed feelings about this.  He loves his big boy bed, but it scares me, and I cry because that means he is no longer a baby. However, I want to avoid buying a new crib if at all possible.

Anyway, the point of this post is to discuss Mckinlee nursery options.  I know that I want the color to scheme to either be pink/lime green or hot pink/teal.  I have been looking high and low for bedding.  Here are some options I like so far...

Blah Day

Thankfully today was a snow day because this mama woke up feeling not so hot.  Hubster had a cold/sore throat last week, and I think that I have caught it.  As glorious as the snow day is, and the fact that I did not have to trample my 30 week sick pregnant body out this morning to go to work, but hubster plows and was gone all day (sorry for the run on).  Usually not a big deal because I am alone with Caleb all day all the time, but when you are feeling sick, it is hard to entertain a very active 16 month old.  I hate to admit it but I was the mama today who laid on the couch, with a blanket, with a messy house, and a toddler who played with toys on the floor in front of me almost all day.  Somehow I was able to pull my booty up to make him lunch, and wash our disgusting sheets.  However, the sheets have still not made it to the dryer because quite frankly I am to lazy and blah feeling.  I did however, try to address Christmas cards. I had the bright idea to give Caleb crayons and paper, and let him color while I addressed.  Yea, that worked for about 5 minutes.  That is until he realized that mama's pen looked a lot more fun than his crayons, and that my envelopes and pretty cards with the baby on them looked like fun as well.  Oh well, I tried to engage in some kind of early childhood educational activity today. 

On another note I am 30 weeks prego.  Can you believe it? I still can't.  I am only 2 months away, and little miss is still making herself known.  She woke me up last night because she was doing gymnastics all over my left side.  She is getting a little painful, and has taken up permanent residence in my ribs.  I am starting to get sciatic pain in the right side again, and sitting up for to long wears me out.  I don't have to much time to think about the pregnancy, but there are moments when it hits you.  I am also getting this awful rash on my boobs and back.  I am praying it is not the pregnancy rash that only goes away after delivery.  I start my every 2 week check ups tomorrow so this will be at the top of my list of questions for the doctor.

Unfortunately, I am not going to be able to travel this holiday season.  Every year hubby and I alternate who we spend Christmas with.  This year is with his family, but generally we go to my hometown afterward.  This will not happen this year because I will be past the cut off date of traveling more than an hour.  So, my fam is coming in town this Saturday, and I am going to cook a roast and have a little family Christmas up here. 

Sorry for the fact that there are still no pictures. We are hoping to get a new computer with Christmas money, and then rest assured you will have picture overload!

Daily Activities Blog Hop

I have come to a age with Caleb where I feel as though we need to be doing more during the day than we do.  Generally during the week I am cooped up in the nanny house with him and an 8 month old until 3 pm daily.   Quite frankly it gets kind of boring.  I am to used to running around and getting things done during the day, and staying put in one place is making all of us go stir crazy. 

Caleb is getting to the age where I feel as though he is a learning machine.  I swear he surprises me daily with what he picks up.  However, this puts pressure on me as a mama to work more with him, and help him learn.  I have a background education in Early Childhood so I know that children learn the most through play.  We play all the time don't get me wrong, but I feel as though I need to be including more learning activities in our daily play. 

I have googled ideas and come up with a few, but I have always found that you other mamas have the best advice.  With that being said I thought it would be fun if we did a blog hop that included daily activities that you do with your little one.  It will be a great way to get new ideas and help our little ones wrinkle that brain a little more.

So...if you are interested in participating just link up your Daily Activities post below.  Be sure to include the blog hop on your blog so we can get tons of ideas.  I hope this hop takes off because I am excited for some new ideas!

Meet Miss Mckinlee (Or should I say Caleb's Twin)

This weekend we traveled out of town for my sisters birthday.  While out of town we were given a presnt of having a 3D ultrasound done.  I was so excited.  We loved experiencing this with Caleb at 28 weeks and we were so excited to see Miss Mckinlee at 29 weeks. She looks just like Caleb.  It is scary how much. 

Unlike Caleb miss Mckinlee was not to enthused about participating in this ultrasound.  With Caleb he showed us literally ever part of his body and face and even his butt wrinkles.  Bundle girl however, hid her face almost the entire visit.  She kept giving us small glimpses and then she would smash it into my stomach. I had to get up and dance around a few times.  However, at the end she gave us quite a show and let us see that cute little face in the making. She did not however, allow us to confirm that she was still a girl.  She was very lady like and kept her legs crossed every time we would try to see.  So, we will just hope the 18 week ultrasound was right.  She did however, show us that she has hair!! Looking forward to the bows in the future!

Just  so you can get a glimpse of how much they look alike I am going to show you some comparisons.  First up in each comparison is lil Miss Mckinlee and then there is Mr. Caleb second. 

Comparison 2

Comparison #3

Comparison #4

Pretty crazy huh?? Yea we are definitely in trouble when this little girl grows up!



The Story Behind the Breaking News

As you may have read in my last post my little 16 month old baby has a broken left leg.  He fractured his tibia the night before Thanksgiving, and is now in a cast up to his thigh.  Here is the story behind the break...

The night before Thanksgiving hubby, Caleb, Bella and I traveled to my dads house to spend the night. We were planning on spending Thanksgiving with my family, and we wanted to stop at dads before we traveled to my hometown.  The night was spent eating dinner, and playing with Caleb.  He has a way of being the center of attention whenever we are around family.  I wonder why.  Anyway, my dads house has a lot of stairs in it.  He has a set of steps that lead upstairs, and then two sets of two stairs that lead to the lowest level of the house.  Needless to say Caleb was obsessed with going up and down these.  The only problem is he is not quite sure how to go down properly yet.  It was making me a nervous wreck, and I swore that he was going to break a bone. 

As the night went on it was well past Caleb's bedtime.  My sis (Auntie K) wanted to take Caleb upstairs and snuggle with him to get him to sleep.  Hubby and I sat in the lower level watching TV, and after a while we heard this god awful loud bang, and heard our baby SCREAM.  We both immediately jumped up and ran to other room.  There we saw my sis holding Caleb, and sitting on her butt at the bottom of the stairs.  Caleb was screaming so hard, but at the time we just thought it had scared him.  She had lost her footing and slipped down two stairs on her butt.  We laughed about how bad her butt was hurting, and hubby and I took turns calming Caleb. 

Caleb finally fell asleep, but he just kept waking up screaming.  We of course blamed teething because he was cutting two teeth at the time, and there was no outward damage to him.  No bruising, no swelling, no cuts etc. We honestly thought he was perfectly fine.  That night was awful. Caleb would not sleep unless he was on top of us, and he barely slept then.  I gave him some Motrin for what I thought was teething pain and he finally fell asleep for a few hours.

The next morning I got up with my sisters, ate breakfast, and talked with them while Caleb slept in.  We were planning to leave for my hometown for Thanksgiving dinner, but I was letting them catch up on sleep.  After they woke up Caleb ate breakfast, and then I put him down to play.  Only he would not stand at all.  He would just scream.  I at first thought he was just being clingy.  However, once I realized that he would not even chase the "kiiii" (kitty), I started watching him.  Every time I would put him down he would hold up his left leg and scream.  He would not try to crawl because of the weight that he had to put on that leg.  Hubby and I frantically watched him, and decided that we had to go to the ER to figure out what was wrong.

My dad lives in a very very small town with no hospital.  Therefore, we decided to make the hour 1/2 drive to my hometown with Caleb and go to the hospital there.  Once we arrived they took us back to a room, looked at his leg, and then had us try to get him to move around.  FAILURE.  They gave him some Tylenol and then took some x-rays.

The doctor soon came into the room and said "yea, I understand why he does not want to walk on that leg".  I immediately asked if it was broken and he shook his head yes.  He took us to see the x-rays, and then we talked about our plan on action.  They splinted and bandaged his leg there and told us to make an appointment with an orthopedic specialist in a few days to have an actual cast put on. 

I could not believe my baby had a broken leg.  I have never even broken and bone, and he is under two and already in a cast.  The rest of the day was pitiful.  Caleb cried all through dinner, and was so clingy. He was so upset because he was not able to move around, and you could just tell he was frustrated. Hubby and I both had less than one full plate for our Thanksgiving dinner. 

Caleb is now in a cast for about 2 more weeks.  He gets it off on Dec 23, and I am so excited about that. He has learned to crawl with it, pull up, and take a few steps (although this looks really awkward).  I still plan on taking a video of it.  He also uses the cast as a weapon while having his diaper changed.  Oh, and thankfully the cast is waterproof. When he had his splint we had to sponge bathe him, and that was horrible.  However, now he can still enjoy his long baths.  Thank God, because today he had a huge blow out in his diaper, and poop crusted onto his cast.  It took me a good 30 minutes of scrubbing that thing in the tub to get it cleaned. 

Oh remember how Sydney broke her leg a few months back?  Yep she is still in a cast so we now have 2 broken bones in our household. (sorry it won't let me flip this picture)



This may be a long December bloggy friends. 

16 Months

Ya'll let me just start by saying that it is driving me crazy how behind I am on blogging!! I mean like seriously crazy.  It is killing me that our computer crashed, and  I have no updated photos of Caleb to share with you.  There has been some big news in our family these last few weeks as well, and the posts deserve pictures.  I am going to my MIL tomorrow to take Christmas Card pics and I am planning on loading pics up there and making an album on fb so I will have access to them.  Then there will be quite a few posts in a row. 

Anyway, my little man turned 16 months Saturday.  That seems so old to me, and I am still taking it in.  He is just growing up way to fast. 

I am going to begin this monthly post by talking about Caleb's issue this month.  The night before Thanksgiving Caleb broke his leg.  He has a tibia fracture.  There is a post all about this to come, but right now my little man is sporting a lime green cast up to his thigh.  He will have to wear this until the 23rd of December.  He is able to crawl with up, and pull up, and love his heart he tries to walk but it is a lost cause.  I plan on taking a video of it.  It is so sad but hilarious at the same time to see him try to walk with this huge club on his foot.  Poor Baby.  I swear the cast adds 20 lbs to him, so I am basically carrying around a 44 lb toddler in my third trimester of pregnancy.  Fun.

Caleb at 16 months:

Sleeping:  Still taking 2 1 1/2-2 hour naps per day. Generally around 11 and 4.  You still sleep through the night and wake up around 7:30.  You had some trouble sleeping when you first hurt your leg, but you are good to go again.

Size:  You are 24 lbs.  Size 4 shoe.  Mostly size 18 and 24 month clothes.  The only pants that fit you right now are sweat pants and 2 pairs of not so beautiful jeans.  Your club is just to big for your nice pants to fit over.

Eating: You still eat 3 meals a day.  Generally lunch is your biggest meal.  You are obsessed with powdered donuts and goldfish.  You still hate meat.  You love all fruit and will eat peas and green beans like they are candy.  You have learned to feed yourself a whole banana all by yourself, and I have to admit you look way to grown up doing that.  You sign "more" when you are hungry, so I guess you think it means "eat".  Oh well.  You like to sit with a plate in between your legs in the morning and watch cartoons while you eat your breakfast.  You look to grown up doing this as well. You drink about 16 ounces of milk per day.  A sippy in the morning and one before bed.

Speech:  You are still not talking very much at all. I discussed this with your pediatrician and he said that you were right on track, and that I needed to stop comparing you to girl toddlers.  You can say 15-16 words, but you only say : Mama, dada, kitty, teeth, kick, woof, and get on a regular basis.  You just said Mine for the first time tonight.  You like to "uhh" and "ahhh" a lot.  I basically always know what you want when you do so. 

Exciting New Things:

• Before you hurt your leg you were learning to walk backwards and running.
• You always pull your binky out of your mouth, throw it, scream, and then hold your hands up like "where did it go?".  This is a game we play and I love it.
• You have mastered my "Your in trouble mister face".  I always make the same face when I tell you no.  You will do something you know you are not suppose to do, and then look at me with that face.  I have to admit that I have to turn my head laughing each time.  It is so funny.
• You are starting to hit mama.  I don't like this, and this is generally where the face comes out.
• You have started banging your head on the ground when you don't get your way.  Crazy. 
• You like to hit your club foot and kick it hard on the ground and laugh.
• You now despise diaper changes and they are getting harder and harder
• You are obsessed with sitting in your chair and riding your buzz lightyear.
• When you are hungry you go to the fridge and try to open it.
• When we ask you where baby sister is you will now lift up your shirt and pat your belly.
• You love to pull your piggies off.
• You love to go bye bye and get so excited when we put your coat on.  You immediately start waving.
• You are really big on being held and cuddling right now and I love this.
• You always hold game remotes and pretend like you are playing with us when we are playing a game. 
• You understand so many commands that it amazes me.
  
  I love you so much my monkey man. I am so excited to spend this Christmas with you.
  
  
  

A post from the Heart

*Note:  My computer that we thought was fixed is still going crazy.  Therefore, I am unable to load new pics at this time, and I have many posts in which I have to add new pics to write.  I promise that they will be coming as soon as we can get a functioning computer. 

I have been thinking awhile about how to write this post.  I still do not really know where or how to begin.  It is basically a post about the love of a family.  However, I want to be able to find the right words to describe the love/thankfulness that I feel, but I do not know if the right words will ever really be there.  So,  I am just going to start typing and see where this ends up.

Since becoming a mother I have experienced a whole new type of love.  A love that literally hurts.  A love that makes you want to hang onto every moment, and never let a second pass without kissing your baby, or telling them how much you care for them.  A love that is literally the best feeling and scariest feeling in the world all at the same time.  However, it has also made me gain a love so much deeper for my husband.  A love of respect, of thankfulness, a love that makes me realize how blessed I really am. 

I do not know about you all but some of my favorite times are early in the morning.  We always bring Caleb into bed with us to drink his milk in the morning, and on days that I do not have to work, I lay with him and hubby and cuddle.  Generally hubby is asleep at this point with Caleb laying on his arm drinking away.  However, I always just lay there and look at them.  I watch my sweet little innocent baby sip away without a worry in the world.  All he knows is that he is loved and feels safe in his dadas arms.  I watch my hubby sleep, and I thank God for the man and the father that he is.  Sometimes when we are laying there I am just so overcome with emotion that it scares me.  There is so much love in that bed.  My heart is literally laying there with me, and that scares me to death.  I pray at those moments that I will always have my two men to love.  I pray that I will take in each moment that I have with them and never take any moment for granted.  I then pray for safety (because quite frankly the world is a scary place). 

Hubby has really been melting my heart lately.  It is so amazing to watch the man you love with your child.  I am so thankful for the husband and father that he is.  He is so kind to me.  He listens to my little complaints, loves me on my worst days, is such a huge helper with Caleb, and works so hard to take care of us.  Since day one he has been an upfront dad. He has never been a dad who acts as though all the responsibility of taking care of a child is on the mother just because he works.  He understands that this is a 50/50 deal, and he is happy to participate.  He has always been there to help with Caleb.

He held Caleb through the night at the hospital when he would not sleep, and I was so tired that my body literally ached.

He will get up with him if  I need him to.  He is willing to change dirty diapers and bathe Caleb to give me my break time.  He will get up with me if Caleb is sick and we will talk out the situation together. He worries about him as much as I do, and is willing to just sit there with me and watch him breathe to make sure he is okay. 

  He is always willing to take Caleb for the day so I can go out and get things done.  He doesn't complain. 

He loves to come through the door and immediately start a game of chase with Caleb through the house.  I am so thankful for this. He is willing to go on a 3 hour photo shoot with us just to get the perfect picture of our little man.  He is willing to go to any and all activities that I think will be fun for the family, and is excited during the process. 

 He understands how precious this time is with our little man and he takes in every moment.

My husband literally melted my heart the other day when he walked up to Caleb, grabbed him in his arms, kissed his head, and said "You know you are my world right?"  That is a moment of true love.  A moment to be frozen in time in the memory of our family forever. 

I am so blessed to have the husband that I do, and the son who melts our hearts each day.  My love is so full right now, and I feel as though my heart may burst with love once miss Mckinlee arrives.

 Thank you babe for being such a wonderful dad, husband, and role model. 

Adventures in Nannywood!!

So yesterday I felt exactly like Alexander.  You know the Alexander with the NO GOOD, HORRIBLE, VERY BAD DAY??? Yea, we I might as well have been him.  Let me just start at the beginning. 

So yesterday morning started off a little bit harder than most work mornings.  Unfortunately, due to a recent accident (post to come) Caleb has not been sleeping.  I mean not at all.  In fact he has spent the last few nights sleeping on top of my husband all while crying throughout the night.  So yesterday morning both hubby and I were EXHAUSTED, to say the least.  I unfortunately had to pull my big self up at the butt crack of dawn, and awaken my now sleeping baby to head to the wonderful world of nannywood (note the sarcasm).   Once there I was actually able to get the baby I nanny down for a nap (which is generally impossible), and Caleb and I enjoyed some snuggles on the couch.  When both babies were up and ready for lunch I realized that Caleb's booster seat that he eats his lunch out of was still in my car from our Thanksgiving break.  I decided to run out and get it and then start their lunch. 

I placed the little girl in the jumparoo, and placed Caleb in the floor with some toys and propped the baby gate up. I did not lock the baby gate because their gate is ghetto and does not work.  Fortunately Caleb has not realized this yet.  Anyway I grab my keys and run out into a rain storm to the end of the driveway to grab Caleb's seat out of the car.  This is the seat in case anyone is confused...

I then proceed to step in a puddle and think "GREAT now the bottom of my pants is going to be soaked the rest of the day!"  Little did I know that was the least of my worries.  I run up to the door, open the glass door, and proceed to open the front door when I realize "OMG IT LOCKED BEHIND ME!!".  First of all let me just note that I never locked this door, nor do I even remember shutting it.  Apparently it is a magic door that just always automatically locks when it is closed.  So here I am outside, holding Caleb's seat, in a rainstorm, and I can not get into the house where two babies are all alone!!! IMAGINE MY EMOTIONS AT THAT MOMENT!!! MY BABY WAS INSIDE ALONE!!! I immediately start panicking and trying to open every window in the house.  None will open past an inch due to a burglary safe mechanism.  ONCE AGAIN I PANIC!!!

I then decide to run around the house and try all the doors, and windows in the back.  All the doors were locked and none of the windows would open.  I frantically ran around the house screaming and crying in a rainstorm, hoping and praying that I would see someone who could help me.  Oh did I mention that I left my phone inside!! YEP.  So here I am no phone, no key, in the rain, 28 weeks pregnant, with 2 babies inside alone.  My mind immediately went the the broken baby gate...

"OMG what if Caleb pushes it down and crawls into the living room"

"OMG the basement door is open for the cat and he could fall down the stairs to his death". 

At that moment my mind was made up! I was getting into this house one way or another.  I ran to the neighbors garden, grabbed a rock, went down to the basement entrance, and threw the rock through the window. 

 I was then able to open the door and run in. 

I was drenched from head to toe as I ran up the stairs to check on the babies.  The little girl was just bouncing away, and Caleb was sitting on the floor playing with toys.  Both smiled at me, and their innocence melted my heart.  Once I saw they were okay my mind immediately went to the broken window.  I was thinking "OMG I just broke a window in my bosses house!".  I was freaking out so I immediately called my very handy contractor husband and our conversation started like this

"Babe I have an emergency".  (Note this was probably not the best thing to say since I am pregnant, and he thought I was going into pre term labor).  Needless to say after I explained what had happened to him, and he made fun of me a bit he said he would come over that afternoon and fix it. 

When I called my boss she assured me she would have done the same thing and not to worry about it.  So, needless to say that was not a great event in my day. 

Yesterday I also, banged my knee so hard on a table edge that I thought I was going to die.  (Did I mention I have a knee phobia).  I then spilled my one coke (my only source of caffeine for the day) all over their carpet, and I had to sit in soaking wet clothes for the rest of the day. A few more things happened that I do not feel like mentioning. 

Needless to say it was a no good horrible very bad day and you might as well call me Alexander.