Post-Thanksgiving!

I was supposed to post that last bit last Wednesday! I didn’t even realize it hadn’t gone! Sheesh! Anyway, Thanksgiving has come and gone ~ and BOY did we have fun!

First of all, Caleb had an AMAZING second Thanksgiving! (It’s so sad that I almost called it his first Thanksgiving – last year he was kind of boring!) He enjoyed Grandma’s frozen fruit salad and Grandpa’s smoked turkey, but most of all, he liked… DESSERT! Hey, whose kid is this?! Anyway, he sat in his highchair for dinner, but when we were eating pie, he just walked from person to person with his little mouth open. And of course, when a kid is that cute, how can you resist offering him a teeny forkful of pie? All those bites add up, though, and I think that little boy ate more pie than I did!

The most fun thing about Thanksgiving Day, other than being thankful and spending time with family, was FEEDING THE DUCKS! Whoo-hoo! I’ve been wanting to do that for as long as I can remember – but wanted to wait until he could walk so that he could appreciate it! And it was SO worth waiting for!

At first, Caleb didn’t really understand the concept. He was so happy to get a bunch of bread, because he LIKES bread! But then he started throwing it, and soon the ducks and geese surrounded him trying to get at it. He’s so brave! He just dropped it for them, and held it out a couple of times.

Okay, to be honest, as a bad mom I have to admit that I didn’t really watch him the whole time because feeding the ducks is one of my favorite things to do, and I was a little absorbed with my own bread distribution! But he had grandparents and a daddy watching his every move. We actually got GREAT photos – I hope! – that Jonny will get uploaded shortly. I also took some film pics that I need to get developed.

Speaking of pictures, his little picture album is only half full, and I need to address that. I put in all the Thanksgiving and Christmas pictures from last year, then wrote little comments in the areas next to it. I wrote the commentary directly to him, as if he’ll be reading it when he’s sixteen or something. Anyway, the beautiful thing is that he looks at that photo album almost every day! I hate to be all mushy about it, but it’s so fun to think about being able to tell him that!

On Friday, I had a mom day! Basically, Jonny took care of the bug while I went shopping, read a book and went to a movie. It was delicious, and MUCH needed. This served several purposes: I got time to re-energize, Jonathan got bonding time with the boy, AND it showed both Jonathan and I that if I get to stay home with our kids someday, he DEFINITELY won’t be jealous. The poor daddy felt frazzled! So I did the same thing for him on Saturday. He played video games with his boys.

Then on Sunday, we decorated the house for CHRISTMAS! This is the first year with a mobile baby, so our tree is safely ensconced behind a baby gate! And we had to adjust all of our knick-knack decorations to all be above arm-level. It’s tough to make a change, but it’s worth it for this little man!

More funny things that he’s doing: he’ll stand up and plop down during his bath, just to make big waves, then he’ll laugh his little head off. Also, I took him for a walk at the park in his big red car that Saleh and Marie gave him, and he decided halfway around the path that he wanted to push. So he just got out and started pushing. He probably walked a quarter mile pushing his car!

And ohmigoodness, I am getting into so much trouble because I can’t keep a straight face when he does something he shouldn’t! Not naughty, really, but like this: he’s taken to shoving fingers up both nostrils – at the same time! I had to turn around because I was laughing my bottom off! And when he lectures us about something and we have no idea what he’s talking about, I can’t keep myself from giggling, so I just pretend he’s telling a funny story. Oh, and EVERYTHING is a telephone! He’ll use his hairbrush, MY hairbrush, Jonathan’s razor, the dog toys, books, anything he can find. He actually held the toaster up to his ear the other day! It’s a RIOT!

I love, love, love being this kid’s mom! Every day he brings me new laughs and deeper understanding of love. Not just for him, either. To see Jonathan interact with him, and to see the way Jonathan looks at me when I’m with him, I think God knows what he’s doing when he set up this little family!

Pre-Thanksgiving...

Sooo much going on! I can’t believe what an incredibly long week it’s been! I had mentioned my neighbors flooding our place last Sunday. Then our p-trap pipe under the sink had a leak in it, which we knew about, so we weren’t using the sink. HOWEVER! What we didn’t know was that the dishwasher used the same pipe, so I ran it several times before I noticed that my hardwood floor was buckling. Hmm…

THEN! On Thursday, I got up super early to make chili for our chili cookoff at work ~ which I tied for first place! ~ and before I could finish, our power blew. So we went to flip the breaker like we always do, and I’ll be darned if it wouldn’t come back on. So we had to have an emergency electrician visit to replace our breaker box. Dang.

Needless to say, Amanda’s head started spinning about all the money we were spending and how absolutely everything in my life was going wrong. Then guess what? I realized that if I viewed it properly, there was quite a simple explanation. Our STUFF was being attacked! We were being tested with our pocketbooks. Seriously, nothing that happened caused anyone any harm. Everything was fixable with time and money.

Money that we didn’t have, really, but whatever.

God got through to me in a very big way that day. It was really beautiful to realize that I’m growing up a little bit and learning to trust him with everything that goes on in our lives. And as soon as I looked at it through those eyes, I was able to laugh! I was filled with a tremendous joy, and Thursday actually ended up being one of my favorite days of the year.

In Caleb news, we’ve got a TOTALLY mobile kiddo who loves to run around and act crazy! He’s taking more and more spills, though. I’m trying not to be neurotic, but when my baby has a big scab on his nose and his lip is split in three places, it’s tough to be stoic. I just want to grab him and say, “Sweetie! Don’t walk ever! It’s okay to crawl forever!”

Tells me how tough God’s job is!

Teething Tuesday...

This poor baby is having some serious pain issues. I honestly just believe it's teething, but he has a tndency to throw a temper these days like I've never seen. The mom in me calls it "willful and spirited behavior." The teensy third party in me says, 'MAN, is he being difficult!'

But my little heart just breaks to see him be so upset. You can literally see the minute that the tylenol kicks in. His features relax and he becomes my perfect little guy again! He's been waking me up a lot at night again. I don't feed him until four or four-thirty at the earliest, but sometimes I have to spend time trying to calm him down. My math is a little fuzzy in the middle of the night - NO comments about my abilities during other times of the day! - so I have to be careful that it's been four hours since his last bit of tylenol. I had sworn that if it went through last night that I was going to take him to the doc, but the kid is just a tough teether.

Our weekend was great! Saturday morning, Jonathan went to work while I just played with Caleb Z. It was so wonderful to just spend time with him without worrying about getting to work! Of course, he was a little crankbait, but I didn't care! I just loved being with him! Then Jonny came home and we traded spots so that I could go to high tea at the Brown Palace! Such an adventure.

And Sunday found us driving to Loveland to see Grandpa Gene! He'd been out of the country for a little over a month, and was JONESING to see that little punk! Plus, we celebrated his birthday. I got to go with Caleb's Grandma and GG to the Emergency Room, where GG had follow-up done on some problems she had last week. After amazing steaks cooked by the birthday boy, we just sat and chatted for a while. When the presents were opened and the cake eaten, we Fashbaughs headed home.

To be met by a frantic neighbor who flooded our house. Not kidding. Our upstairs neighbors, a fabulous couple, have been refurbishing their condo. When they removed the shower fixture for the hot water, the pipe broke and sprayed boiling hot water all over the place. (Shane has first degree burns all over his hands. It's not pretty.) Since the pipe was broken, they couldn't do anything to stop the water without turning it off at the water main. Which is under our condo. So the poor guy went down without at flashlight, soaking wet in shorts and bare feet, and just started turning valves. It took a while to find the right one.

So during that time, the water is seeping from their bathroom down through the walls into ours. Not kidding, our bathroom floor - which is carpeted, gross - was a SWAMP! And the ceiling of Caleb's bedroom, which adjoins the bathroom, has some water damage. We'll see how bad it is later, but for right now, it's just crazy.

Anyway, they lent us their bissel wet vac thing, but even after using it obsessively, our bathroom floor is disgusting. And it took a couple hours to get OUR water situation cleared back up - first all of it was off, then just the hot, then when they got the hot on, the pipe upstairs started gushing again, so they had to turn it off, etc.

Whilst this is happening, Shane says from under our floor, "Do you hear where I'm tapping?" Yes. "There's a leak here." HERE turned out to be under OUR sink, where the u-bend pipe was also broken/corroded, and probably had been for a while. Criminy grits - it turns out it was a good thing everything went crazy, or who knows how bad that leak might have gotten! Yay for crazy Sundays!

Monday was downright LOVELY compared to all that!

Weekend craziness!

I feel like I didn't get nearly enough time with my baby bug this weekend! With everything going on, I spent the equivalent of one full day away from him. As a mom who thinks every minute should be spent with him, it made it a little rough!

But there were so many one-time events that couldn't be missed! 50th Birthdays for gorgeous women in sexy red dresses, a baby shower for an as-yet-unnamed little girl, and the fanciest wedding and reception I've ever been to! I'll make up for it this next weekend...

He's such a little angel! Even when he's mad or sad he's perfect. Last night Jonathan and I had London broil for dinner, and I got Caleb some banana and cottage cheese ready since he usually doesn't like red meat. However, he proved me wrong once again, as he started scarfing little pieces of meat with an intensity that would scare the hungriest of carnivores. As a matter of fact, he made pretty dinosaur-like faces and sounds as he munched! Jonathan and I were talking through our day, and kept stopping to laugh at the munchkin's antics.

I've got London broil with peas and corn for his lunch! Plus, I finally wised up and cooked some chicken breast and cut it up so that he'd always have something quick for lunch rather than me having to process it through. The problem is that he doesn't always like the things that he likes sometimes. Case in point, even though he loved it last night, ten bucks says he won't eat his lunch today! (Which is such a waste! WE could have eaten that meat!)

Congratulations to Hilarie, who is bringing another little one into this world! Girl, get ready for the worst time of your life ~ pregnancy ~ followed by the absolute BEST anyone could ever imagine! I love you, and can't wait to share this excitement with you!

So many steps!

This little man is running around like crazy already! Jonny was watching him last night, and said, "Holy cow! He'll really be walking by the end of December!" I said, "You silly-oh! He'll be really walking by the end of next week!"

And he's so cute! We made the mistake of trying to encourage him by clapping and saying yay after he fell down ~ and then he immediately fell down the next three times and looked to us for the same reaction. Oops! We're still learning parents, dontcha know?!

He has to go to the doc this morning, both for his ear infection re-check and his one year visit. I'm so excited to talk to the doctor about what he should be eating/drinking. Mostly I'm excited to be done with formula, because the gals at school WAY over feed him. I don't know what the difference is, but on weekends, he can survive with only three bottles a day, whereas on a weekday, he gets five most of the time. No wonder he's roughly the size of a baby killer whale! Anyway, he's been eating pretty much everything we do lately, but I don't know how much to give him. I feel like getting the doc's opinion will be really helpful for me.

We gotta get going! Busy, busy weekend!

Walkabout!

We have an honest to goodness walker on our hands! Although I think he still prefers crawling, he's taken up to four steps at a time. For a long time, he's been taking one teensy step, but his other foot is firmly planted. Finally, he's figured out that his other foot can go, and he can ambulate in that manner.

It's so much fun to see him developing - more - but this has been the hardest step for me yet. Eating solids? No worries. Crawling? So cute! Cutting teeth? Terrifyingly adorable! But walking. Walking is a big boy thing. He's still my baby, and always will be, but this isn't a real baby anymore. He's a gorgeous and still unbelievably precious little boy.

One of his teachers at school said on Wednesday, "I can tell he got some new clothes for his birthday." And he did - he got many lovely outfits. But the truth is that he really only had four winter outfits and one pair of pajamas that fit him by his birthday. So I was basically just rotating them and doing laundry twice a week so that he was covered.

Crossing my fingers like CRAZY that we'll get some pics uploaded this weekend. WE need to see more updated pictures of him!