Already?!?!??!

I think Caleb was at least a year old before he started this!!! We have a genius stinker on our hands!...

So, yesterday Caleb and I were going in and out of the living room, opening and closing the gate. The next thing I know Carter is scooting to the stairs like a mad man. I yelled at Caleb thinking he left the gate open and explained to him the importance of keeping the gate closed, and so on, and so on, and so on. So I put Carter back in the living room, Caleb sat down on the couch and I go back to working on the computer when I hear the gate being opened. I look up and didn't see Caleb, but Carter prying it open with his tiny hands while laying on his belly. The little stinker. If the gate isn't completely shoved against the wall, he can figure out how to work the gate! So, Chris put a hook on that side of the wall now too so Carter can't escape! Oh, and to think that his stinker years are still plentiful! He is learning early!

Caleb loves playing with Carter and if he wasn't soooo rough with him I would love it, too. But Caleb tends to pull Carter down on the floor, roll over him, pull Carter on top of him, put him in an ankle lock, etc. Well, we try to tell Caleb to leave Carter alone, but when he plays with Carter even if he is "hurting" him when he backs off Carter smiles, lets out a shriek and goes after Caleb. So it is hard to make Caleb realize he needs to be more gentle when Carter LOVES every minute of it. We are just so afraid Caleb is really going to hurt him. It's a fine line... But, Carter gets his paybacks. Caleb will be sitting on his couch and Carter will sneak up behind him pull himself up by Caleb's hair and just hold on. If Caleb is laying on the floor Carter loves to climb all over him. It is fun to watch, but then Caleb thinks he needs to crawl all over Carter, too.

Anyway, just some more memories for later...

Big Brother

the show, not Caleb. We have been watching Big Brother this year again. It comes on on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. So, since it comes on so often and that is pretty much the only show we watch Caleb has been really into Big Brother. "It's my fave-rit" Out of the blue he will ask if Big Brother is on tonight. We will either say, yes, or nope, tomorrow. He is too funny. He didn't get a nap today so he had to go to bed before Big Brother, but he was asking about it all day.

One of our Kids Club sites didn't get the kids it needed to stay open, so we had to go clean out the room and move everything out today. The school was in Jewell, so it was quite a drive for us to go up there. But, I took the kids with me so I wouldn't have to pay day care. We went to clean and divvy up the goods. My van is currently full of games and junk. Caleb and Carter did a great job of hanging out while we did this. Carter sat in his booster seat and just watched. Caleb watched his Blue's Clues videos and played with some toys. He caused a little bit of ruckus, but not too much. But, since we were in Jewell cleaning all day Caleb didn't get a nap... So Caleb missed Big Brother tonight since he was super crabby and obviously tired.

Anyway, now that I have rambled about nothing! I will get off here... maybe I will actually get some work done. Or maybe not.

Callin' the Cops

So for that last couple of years (wow, I cannot believe this has been going on this long) there has been a group of kids that come around to our house, normally after it is dark, sometimes very late and they will knock on our door and run. Since our house is right on the edge of the street with no houses left on the one side they get away with this since it is so dark on that side of the house. Chris tracked down the culprits one time and drove over to their house and had a "chat" with them. They seemed to stop for awhile. The last couple weeks I have noticed it happen several times. Today when I got home from the softball games they did it- in broad daylight- dumb-asses! I looked out the back window and saw a group of younger kids playing in the ball field and in the dug out. 2 kids were throwing rocks at our shed in our yard. So I stepped out onto the deck and they hurried out of there on their bikes. Well, knocking I can get over, but if they are going as far as to throw rocks at our things, I am sure they would start to deface other things like Caleb's toys outside. So I thought enough is enough. It is day light, I can identify the little brats, so I called the Huxley Police. He said he would track them down, a few minutes later I got a call and he said he found several children in the dugout... I stepped out on the deck (Carter was sleeping, so I couldn't go over there) and I identified them as the one's who were throwing rocks and messing around. He talked to them for about 5 minutes. I am curious to know what he said, but I would rather it be done with than anything. I really hope that this makes them stop versus making it worse. We will see! We really want to set up a booby trap for them in the yard, but we don't even get up when they knock anymore so they don't get that satisfaction, so even if we tripped them, we wouldn't be able to see it... darn. How irritating.

Ramblings

Well, the first days of school have come and gone. It was a whirlwind of activity this week, but we have survived. Barely. Monday and Tuesday were that last 2 days of summer programming. I had to work 12 1/2 hours on Tuesday since it was back to school night. Long day, but then I had Wednesday off. We ended up going to the fair. I took as many pictures as my camera would allow. The battery died halfway through the experience. I am not sure if I even got one pic of Carter. Oh well I guess... not the end of the world. Then Thursday was the first day of school. I have 10 new Kindergartners registered, which is a lot considering last year I had 3 Kindergartners. So I have a very young bunch. It definitely keeps us on our toes and makes the day go fast!

Caleb had a pretty fun time at the fair. We had a usual corn dog that we shared, but I thought it was extra greasy and undercooked this year and was not impressed. I finally got to try Cheese on a steeek. This being almost the 4th year of me saying I was going to eat it! It was not the greatest. oh well. Caleb like the animals the most. He was pretty excited to see all of the different animals. He especially liked the petting zoo. I wasn't too keen on it when the camel tried to eat Carter though! It rained on us most of the time, so at least it wasn't super hot!

This weekend we don't have too much going on. As far as I know we only have softball on the agenda! I do enjoy laid back weekends!

Sick Baby- Again

Our babysitter took a couple days off last week so we had to send the boys to day care. 2 days Carter was at day care and he came down with a cold. Ugh. I hear that it is going around though... not necessarily through day care. The same thing happened in July when he went for a week, too. As well as his very first week at day care. Oh, well... what can you do? Pray for a quick recovery and sleep!

Carter is pretty miserable with his cold. He sneezes quite a bit and has a runny nose. Last night he cried just about every hour so Chris and I didn't get much sleep. Poor baby just doesn't feel good... :(

The Mind of a 3 Year Old!

So lately I have been noticing some pretty funny things coming out of Caleb's mouth and i need to make sure I am documenting them. Please beware, that these are for me to remember when Caleb is bigger, so some of these stories may not be funny to you, but they are to me and will be later in my life as well. :)

So first off, Caleb has been really big into imitating people lately. Since Chris has begun softball again, Caleb got to watch Daddy and "Fatty" (yes, that is what we call him, he is Chris' co-worker and I really do not know him by any other name) along with others, practicing for a game. So the next day when Caleb and I are in the yard paying our own game of baseball with his plastic bat and rubber bouncy ball he starts doing warm-up swings, because "that's what daddy does". Then he will tap his bat on the ground first, because "that's what Fatty does".

The other day at breakfast Caleb and I were sitting at the kitchen table and he looks over at me. He tilts his head down so he can look over his glasses at me. Then says "that's what pop does". HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I couldn't stop laughing!!!!!!! For those of you who have no clue why this is funny- my dad ALWAYS look over his glasses at us and cocks his eyebrow... this could mean many things- you're in trouble, you're an idiot, etc... So for Caleb to do it just cracked me up!

Reading my friends' blog reminded me of another funny story. Caleb doesn't like pop. He will try it and take sips of ours, but he does not like it. If we were to offer it to him he would say "No, I no like pop, pop yucky." So, lately at supper he has begun calling his milk pop. Just out the blue he said, "my pop", pointing to his milk cup. So when I sat down with my real pop, he called it mommy's milk. hehe! I feel less guilty already! :)

Caleb has become quite the comedian. We were at the park Wednesday night and another mom was there with her 3 year old son and 18 month old daughter. Caleb and the kids were playing on the equipment and Caleb did some type of climbing up the slide, falling down on purpose trick on the short slide and the 2 kids just cracked up. So Caleb repeated this action about 15 more times getting a laugh from these children each time. It was funny to see him acting for a laugh.

I bought Caleb a pair of Wal-Mart brand Crocs at the beginning of the summer. I loved these shoes, because he was able to get them on by himself, they dry quickly and were easily washable. A couple days ago for some reason I looked at the bottoms and realized that he had wore holes in the soles of them by his big toe! I couldn't believe I had been letting him run around with holes in his shoes! So I am starting to have him wear his "good" sandals to day care and other places. We called these shoes his "Crockies".

That's My Favorite!

Caleb has been chattering none stop lately- it is so funny. It's not that he just started to talk or anything, it is more like the things he says, not stopping talking and just simply talking to himself- constantly. Well, whenever we see something, watch a mommy/daddy tv show or anything he says- That's my favorite. It is awfully cute! He has also been saying "Woop See Daisies" when he drops something or even "Ouchy Daisies" when he or Carter gets hurt. Too funny! Caleb went to the movie Ice Age last Saturday night. It was a good movie, but towards the end he got a little bored.

Caleb has been cracking Carter up! He will put a pair of Chris' sunglasses on and just start yelling/screaming something and Carter just dies laughing!

Caleb has really been liking singing songs- especially Mr.Alligator who snaps those monkeys out the tree for teasing him... you know how it goes! Also, the monkeys jumping on the bed, head shoulders.... and so on. He has been reintroduced to the Blue's Clues videos and we got a couple from the library the other day and he has been mimicking and "replaying" the songs and some of the things that happens in the shows. In one of the episodes Steve walks like a giant trying to find clues and says "giant steps to find blues clues..." in a sort of deep "giant" voice- Caleb has been walking around the house saying that and walking like a giant...

I can't believe how grown up he is getting... he still gets in trouble none stop- but he's a boy it'll happen.

Random Pictures from the Summer

Caleb at the ICubs game. He wasn't quite sure about Cubbie! hehe!

ICubs game. Omaha Royals vs. Iowa Cubs. Every time the innings would change Caleb would ask "Game over?"

Oooo! How pretty! Mommy was doing her nails and he let me do his! He went to day care the next day like this too! Chris wasn't super stoked! hehe!

Carroll County Fair Mud Volleyball Tournament. They took 2nd place. Kelly, Karen, Chris, Jackie and Jeff.

Carter standing in his crib. He wasn't super happy.

This is what happens when you try to drink your yogurt. What a dork!

LOL!!!! No, he didn't try to drink his food, but you gotta love any type of food with tomatoes! Gotta love that face!

Caleb on his first Roller Coaster ride at Summerfest in Ankeny. This was before 4 men had to push it up the next hill!!!

Nice aim.

A face only a mother could love!! LOL!!! We were trying fruity puffs for the first time and he wasn't too keen on them, so he kept trying to spit them out!

Sleeping Baby. Look how big he is!

Carter, Pop, Alex and Caleb on the swing set at Grandma and Pop's house.

Naked Baby!!! Chunky Monkey!

Carter doing a sneak attack on Caleb's head!

At the Science Center. He looks like he is in a trance! haha!

At the Science Center!

At Caleb's Bam Bam game.

Carter Updates

Well, Carter is 8 months old! Already!!! I can't believe how fast these past few months have gone. He has been sleeping through the night, for the most part, since about 6 1/2 months. He is still eating really well. We have been giving him the fruity puffs and cheerios and he is doing really well chomping those down. He just, in the last couple days, started to pick the pieces up on his own and actually make it into his mouth. Caleb got really excited for him when he did it the first time- cheering him on! We tried giving him banana pieces the other day, too. He did pretty good. It takes a little more effort to chew, but he gets through it. Carter still has no teeth! I had to take him to the doctor last week because he was running a fever. Turns out it was supposedly something viral. He was weighed when we went and he was 19 pounds 1 ounce. What a tank!!! :) Carter is crawling around like a mad man- he still does the basic army crawl, not really getting his belly off the floor, but wow can he move fast! He can pop right up to a stand super fast too. He is cruising along all the furniture and a couple times turned to face the middle of the room and we think attempted a step because a second later he was face down on the floor. haha! He is sitting up like a champ, too. He looooooves Caleb. Whenever he comes in the room he smiles. In the car Caleb can really get him laughing! Caleb does pretty good with him, a little rough sometimes, but not intentionally. Carter loves tv. When we are trying to feed him he will sometimes get distracted by it. That is all I can think of right now to update.

Well, I found out a couple weeks ago that I am going to be the most experienced site supervisor at work. Meaning the woman that ran one of the program that had been there for a year longer than I had, quit. She is quitting to pursue a degree in education. I am very happy for her, but it also put some thoughts into my own mind. Am I going to stay with this job forever? So far I am not entirely sure what I would do if I didn't work where I did. I love the hours for the most part, they are wonderfully flexible and I get to spend pretty much all day with my boys. But, it isn't super challenging (which is nice sometimes) and I feel my brain rotting away. So, I am trying to get a game plan together about what I want to accomplish. I know that I don't want to teach, at least not right now, so I was thinking about actually opening my own day care center, somehow. I really need to research how much this will cost, how I go about it, etc. But, before I do that I think it would be smart if I took some business classes, which led me to look into the MBA program at ISU. They have a part-time program for working adults that would take 2 1/2 years to complete. I don't really know how I would swing that either, but the ideas are in my head anyway... we will see what will happen in the next couple years.