I can taste spring

Last week was my Spring Break. I was supposed to have Thursday and Friday off for the break, but a snow "storm" came in on Tuesday and ever so nicely extended my Spring Break to almost an entire week! It was so nice! Caleb and I stayed in on Tuesday and had lunch with Stephen since he was sent home early due to the snow. We had lunch at one of our favorite places, Frontera, and then spent the rest of the day inside and warm. Wednesday, all the snow had melted, so Caleb and I ventured out to Discover Mills to see the "fishies" and just had a nice day together. I had planned on taking Caleb to daycare on Thursday and Friday so I could stay home and do some spring cleaning...which is exactly what I did. It was nice to be able to spend some of my break with the boy and then let him go play with his friends while I got to clean the house. On Thursday and Friday, I made sure to have a nice meal ready for the boys when they got home and even had a fresh drink waiting on Stephen when he got home...you know, so Stephen would know what it would be like if I were a Stay at Home Mom. :)

The weekend was just beautiful, so Caleb and I spent some time at the park and had lots of outside play! He even helped Daddy out in the yard some. So nice to breathe some fresh air!

Of course, most of this week it has rained and been cool....but I really enjoyed being able to have a taste of spring last weekend. It will get me through until April or whenever our last frost hits...Stephen says it will be April 15....which is over a month away. I hope not! I am ready for warm weather!

Updates

I am so bad about blogging. Thank goodness for Lunch Breaks that I don't have to work through, so that I can update all my loyal readers (hello?!?! Are there any out there?) on what has been going on in our lives. Really, besides work we are keeping busy with Little Man. I have been busy with Church and spend most of my Sunday's there until about 3:30! We are working on this year's Musical, which I am choreographing again and having a blast getting to dance and move around again! (My how I have lost flexibility since having Caleb!)

We got some great news about a week ago with Caleb! He went for his 6 month check up at the allergist and he tested NEGATIVE to a peanut allergy! The doctor told us there was about a 20% chance he would outgrow it, and an 80% chance he would outgrow his other allergies (milk, egg, cat and sweet potato). Well, he still tests positive (Very severe for milk!) to his other allergies, but we are so thankful his peanut allergy seems to have gone away! I spent many nights praying that Caleb would be in that 20% and it is looking like he is! In 6 more months, we will re-test and if it is negative, we will do a food challenge. Now, I pray that his other allergies go down. I used to want them to totally go away, and I would still love that....BUT I just want them to be less severe now. I can handle a runny nose if he were to come into contact with an allergen, but anaphylactic reactions scare the crap out of me! I never want Caleb to have to experience that! He also tested negative again to shrimp and fish, so the doctor told us we can slowly introduce it to him....and BOY did Caleb enjoy his first bite of shrimp! (with NO reactions!) It is nice to be able to start giving him some other options to eat!

I have become quite obsessed with baking. I can't get enough. Who knew that baking could be relaxing? Thanks to Food Allergy Mama, I can bake yummy treats for my boy to eat safely and they taste great! (trust me, there are plenty of allergen free recipes out there that taste like cardboard....) IF any of you need some good recipes, food allergies or not, take a look here: www.foodallergymama.com YUMMY!

I guess I will just end this post with a funny conversation from the car this morning. As you can see, Caleb is talking more and more and entering the questioning phase! This conversation took place on our ride to work....about 30 minutes, and YES, it lasted about the entire trip:


Caleb (after watching the garbage truck pass by our house): Where did trash man go?
Me: He went to the neighbor's house to get more trash.
Caleb: More trash?
Me: Yep! More trash.

(then we get in the car, turn on Mickey Mouse and go about our ride)

Caleb: Where trash man go?
Me: To get more trash
Caleb: More trash?
Me: Yep. More trash.
REPEAT AT LEAST 30 times.
Caleb: Where trash man go?
Me: To the North Pole to see Santa Claus
Caleb, looking confused and shaking his head: THAT'S not right!!!
Me: Its not right? Then, where did he go?
Caleb: To get more trash! SILLY!


I love that kid!

Snow Day!

We finally had a decent amount of snow! Caleb absolutly loved it! We had 4 inches of the white stuff by the time the snow stopped falling! We attempted to sled out back on a trashcan lid, but couldn't get too far because the powder was too thick. Saturday morning, when we went out to play for round two, we decided to try the recycling bin down the driveway. That was the key! Caleb LOVED it. We wore ourselves out walking up and down that driveway pulling Caleb in the recycling bin! He stayed out in it most of the morning and then came inside to get some milk and watch the Olympics...ok, so the Olympics were my idea! :) Here are just a few of our pictures from all the snow!

Big Boy

In the past month, Caleb has really turned in to such a big boy. Time seems to have doubled this month. He is now in a big boy bed, no paci, got his hair cut at a big boy barber shop (and finally liked it. I think the children's place was overwhelming for him with all the distractions!), he is talking better, and we bought him some big boy underwear.

Saturday when we were at Target, I decided to pick up a pair to let him work towards it. Well, he kept talking about it, so last night I let him wear them for a little over an hour. He did great and stayed dry! He even went pee pee on the potty right after he took them off. The first words out of his mouth this morning when he woke up were "UNDERWEAR! UNDERWEAR!" I felt bad because I had to tell him no since he was going to daycare...I am sure they appreciated the fact that I didn't make his first full day in underwear when he was on their watch! I did let him pack a pair, so maybe he will get to wear them a little today....we will see. If not, he can try again tonight. I really don't think I am ready!!! Caleb has literally grown up in just one month with all these new things. It is so sweet to watch him grow. He amazes me with the new things he ASKS to do. I always heard it was hard to change to a big bed and I thought going #2 in the potty was torture for toddlers!?! My toddler, I mean big boy, disagrees! Way to go, Master Caleb!

Snow Day

Well, Caleb had his first snow day where school was cancelled! We got out a little early on Thursday and had all of Friday off. When I found out Brenau would be closed, I immediatly began envisioning showing Caleb how to make a snow angel and making a little snow man for Caleb, since he loves snow men! Only, our "snow day" was not like that. In fact, we hardly had any snow! We mainly got ice. Caleb did love the snow this year. We went out and played in it a little before it started to stick. By Friday morning, the ground was white, but had ice over it and we had single digit wind chills all day long with heavy winds. Not much fun to play in. Instead, we made a big pot of Chili, which Caleb is a fan of, and watched lots of TV, played inside and stayed warm. It was nice to have a long weekend after we had so much time off at Christmas...it helped break us in the the whole working and school thing a little easier.

Looks like this will be a full week of work...BUT...another perk of working for a University is that I have next Monday off for MLK day!

I'm baaaccckkk!

I am a horrible blogger! Before I started my blog, I would randomly think of great blog posts and tell myself to start a blog. Now that I have one...I have bloggers block!

Here is a recap of the past 3 weeks....
Caleb's last week of school and my last week of work were spent at home. Poor little man had a minor case of pneumonia, wheezing, a double ear infection and a high fever. The doctors tested him for the flu, which came back negative, but they treated him for it just in case. Lots of medicines and breathing treatments later, he is much better and was healthy in time for Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas...we had a wonderful one. It was so fun this year with Caleb. He had an Elf visit us every night starting on Thanksgiving. We named him Buddy. Every morning Caleb would look around for Buddy...I think Caleb's favorite spot that Buddy hid was around his soap bottle in the bathroom. Santa was very good to Caleb this year. He brought him a train table and wooden train set! http://www.facebook.com/TamiWLee?v=app_2392950137&ref=nf#/video/video.php?v=513337142475 try this link...it may not work.
This was Caleb's reaction to seeing his train table for the first time. I would say he was a tad bit excited!

Caleb also decided that 2010 would be the year for the Big Boy Bed! We converted his crib on New Year's Eve and haven't looked back. He really amazes me at how he adapts to change. He did great without a paci and hasnt once cried, gotten out of bed when he wasn't supposed to or fallen out of the bed! (Ok, so the last one is sure to happen at some point...what kid DOESN'T fall out of bed?) I am so very proud of him for being such a big boy. I guess we will tackle potty training before too long, but I will said that I haven't had to change a dirty diaper in over three weeks because he has only gone #2 on the potty!! YAY for Caleb!

I started back to work yesterday after three weeks off. I was thankful to not be too far behind and back in a routine...but I missed being home something terrible! I missed being able to straighten up the house a little each day so I dont have a messy house...and have to spend this weekend cleaning. Boo for that! We also STILL have to take Christmas down...which we will tackle slowly this week and finish this weekend...I hope!

I hope that you will all have a Happy 2010!! I will TRY to be a little better about blogging....but, don't hold me to it! :)

Farewell, Da!

The beginning of a beautiful baby and paci relationship...

Last picture of Caleb and his "Da!"

5 easy steps for a toddler to give up the paci...

Step One: Go to build-a-bear and pick out a teddy bear. Give mom a thumbs up that he is ready to become a big boy!

Step Two: Step on peddle to stuff bear.

Step Three: Gently place paci inside...

Step Four: Take bear to the tub for his first bath. This is serious work...all bears must pass strict inspection before going home!

Step Five: Give bear his first nice brushing...make sure not to leave out a single strand of teddy bear fur!

ALL DONE! Mission complete.

We took Caleb to make his "Da Bear" last Friday, December 4. He hasn't looked back since. Every now and then, I will catch Caleb out of the corner of my eye squeezing his bear's tummy just to make sure that his paci is still inside! This transition has been so much easier than I anticipated. I am so proud of my big boy! He amazes me every day! Congratulations on being such a big boy now, Mr. Caleb!