Weekend Fun

Caleb has fun at the splash park at Aiden's birthday party.

Abby and Mommy have fun dressing Abby up in her new outfit for church!

Isn't she cute!

Despite the heat, we had to take a few pictures of the family outside tonight. We had just returned from taking our family pictures at church for the church directory. It seems that every picture I have of Caleb is strange. He is just a very hard subject to capture!

Abigail at 5 months

Here is our baby girl at 5 months old. She is starting to become a bit more adjusted to life: taking good naps, playing and entertaining herself some, and not getting upset as much. She is still waking up some at night, but she eats and goes right back to sleep very easily. I am hoping to avoid the whole crying it out stage; I am not ready to commit to it right now. But, I would like her to sleep through the night! We will see what the next month holds. Abby is able to sit in the Jumperoo and play as long as Caleb doesn't come to help. He ends up pushing her around in it, and I get very nervous! Abby sucks her thumb and likes to have something soft to hold on to when she goes to sleep. During the day she listens to "womb sounds" to help her go to sleep. This routine seems to be working for naps. Abby has one tooth about to push through on the bottom, and I suspect the other one is coming too. Surprisingly, she doesn't seem too bothered by it. She is eating rice cereal or oatmeal cereal twice a day and is starting to take in more than she spits out! Abby loves her dad and just lights up when she sees him. She is also entertained by Caleb. We are excited to look forward to all of the accomplishments that the next few months will entail. This is a very fun age!

Firsts

Abby started on rice cereal this week. The verdict: she likes it but is still trying to figure out how to swallow more than she spits out! The other verdict: the rice cereal has not made her sleep any longer at night. She has been waking up 2 or 3 times each night! She is teething and has been sick with a cold, so I am hoping we can go back to sleeping 6-7 hours at night soon. If not, we will be starting some serious sleep training! Hopefully Aunt Katie has been taking good notes on it as she has been working with Merek on sleeping through the night. Look for a more detailed Abby update soon. This week she will turn 5 months old!

New Braunfels

We enjoyed a trip down to New Braunfels with Gpa and Gege this past week. We shopped, ate, and swam everyday and had a great time! Jon and I got up and tubed the river one of the mornings and then we headed to the outlet mall the next morning. Isn't that the perfect picture of compromise in marriage? Actually we both enjoyed each other's activity. Caleb's favorite part of the trip (besides constant grandparent attention) was getting to swim in the river and the pool everyday. He just kept a huge smile on his face the whole time he was in the water. Abby enjoyed the pool as well.

Caleb is decked out to go down and play on the river.

Gege and Abby sit in the shade while Jon and Caleb play.

Caleb checks out the rock, and Jon pulls him through the water.

Hot, hot, hot!

Jon's car's thermometer read 111 degrees at 5pm last night. Yes, you read that correctly: ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN degrees! It wasn't really that hot, but it was up there. Several days ago weather.com said it was 106 here in Woodway. It is HOT! So we got out the baby pool and had a family swim session. Abby got to wear her adorable suit, and Caleb got to splash his mom and little sister. Now that is a dream come true for a little boy!

Here Caleb enjoys the "crazy daisy".

More splashing- you get the idea! But, at least we cooled off for a little while!

Abby Girl

Isn't she a sweet thang!

Sunday Fun

Oh Happy Day!

Can any human being possibly open their mouth any wider? These smiles just make my day!

And look who found her feet. She is grabbing onto them constantly and finds them quite entertaining!

Friends and Craig's List

This is our new stroller! We bought it on Craig's List and got a real bargain (it was like 1/4 the price of a new one). It is a little faded but works perfectly. With our hilly neighborhood, a jogging stroller is almost a necessity. I have been carrying Abby in the Baby Bjorn and pushing Caleb in a single jogger (borrowed from a friend for the past two years- thanks Durands!). But, Abby is getting quite big, and as much as I need the workout, that system wasn't going to work much longer. This stroller is great for two; we'll see if Heidi gets to come along when it is only me. Jon googled the stroller before we went to look at it, saw that they sell them at REI, and was sold on it! We took our first walk with it this morning.

Here is a picture of Caleb and his buddy Jackson playing with trains. Aren't they cute?

Caleb 2 1/4 years old

Caleb is 27 months old today, and he is 100% a two-year old! I won't go too much into all of the completely irrational battle of wills that we have day in and day out, but I will just say he has a real opinion about what he wants and he voices that opinion! He has been climbing out of his bed a lot during naptime and bedtime and receiving spankings until he obeys. Last night he got out of bed once, I warned him, and then he got out again. He saw my face, instantly grabbed my hand, and walked me back into his room so he could receive his spanking. He returned to bed, and we didn't hear from him again all night. It is almost like the spanking has become a part of his bedtime routine, and he can't sleep without it!
Caleb's language development over the past couple of months has been amazing and really fun to watch. The other day he told me "Kitty cat is sleepin' in Grandpa's closet." He speaks in complete sentences like that all of the time now. I love the sweet voice of young children. Jon always brings his change home from trips and lets Caleb put it in his piggy bank. Jon has starting making Caleb repeat the names of the states on the quarters while putting the money in the bank. We both think it sounds so cute, so now we frequently go through state names and have him repeat them to us. There is just something precious about hearing a two year old say "Connecticut"! Caleb still loves to act silly and dance to music. He has been at VBS this week and has learned several new songs including "Deep and Wide" and a song about cleaning up. I just heard him singing them yesterday without prompting. He also loves to sing "Jesus Loves Me". Caleb is still obsessed with trains and talks about them constantly. Yesterday I heard him saying, "Thomas, Percy, trains, baby Jesus, trains...". They must have been talking about baby Jesus at VBS as well. It is amazing how fast kids learn things at this age!
We are working on potty training. I figure I might as well address that one since I have posted pictures of Caleb in his undies. He is not potty trained yet, but he is wearing undies at home during the day. It is definitely still very parent-directed at this point.
Caleb is liking his sister more and more. The other day she was in her carseat asleep in her room, and I was trying to find Caleb. I had been looking everywhere, and then I walked by Abby's room and heard him talking. The door was shut, and when I opened it I saw Caleb laying on the ground in front of the carrier showing Abby all of his plastic animals and naming them. She wasn't sleeping anymore! I know that these two will have plenty of arguments in the future, but what a joy it is to see them playing "together" for the first time. We love this boy a whole lot and are working hard to make our way through the terrific and terrible twos!

Brother and Sister!

I had to bribe Caleb to hold Abby for this picture. I should have taken a picture of his face after he ate the four chocolate chips! This is only the second time Caleb has ever let me put Abby next to him (without an adult right there), and of course the battery on my new camera went dead the exact second I was about to take the picture. But, I used my other camera, and here they are... enjoy!

The Races

Caleb loves to race up and down the driveway. Here are some action shots. I still need to work on how to take these type of pictures on my camera- perhaps when it isn't nearly dark! But, you can get the idea that he is having a great time running with daddy!

Abigail 4 Months Old

Our sweet Abby is 4 months old! She had her doctor's appointment on Wednesday and was 24 1/2 inches long and weighed 13.1 lbs. She was about average compared to other babies this age. Abby is starting to interact more and more with us. She is a child who makes herself known, which is probably a good thing since she is the second born! If she is even slightly upset about something she cries quite loudly until I can come figure out what might be the problem. We have experienced quite a few all-out-screaming and gasping for air meltdowns while driving in the car. Abby wants to be held ALL of the time, so life has been a little crazy around here. She has a knack for crying especially hard right when I sit down to eat. She ends up sitting on my lap during most meals. She is starting to look very intently at our food as we eat it. I am going to wait a bit longer to start her on solids, although we got the go ahead from our doctor. I want to make sure she is definitely ready and going a little longer between nursings before starting. Abby's little personality is becoming apparent in other more fun ways too. She loves to open her mouth as wide as possible when she smiles. I think this one is going to love putting everything in her mouth for awhile. We were lucky with Caleb that he wasn't too into putting things in his mouth. Abby is starting to laugh too. Her first true laughs were at Daddy making funny noises and faces. She also thought I was just hilarious the other night while Caleb and I were singing and dancing. Everyone else probably would have found it hilarious too! Right now Abby is sleeping about 7-8 hours most nights, sometimes more and sometimes less. She has a serious bald spot on head from all that flat on back time, and I think she will eventually lose most of her dark hair. I see some light hair coming in slowly. Abby has rolled over several times from her back to her stomach and loves to sort of scoot around in a circle when she is on her back. Often times she is facing a different direction in her crib in the mornings than the direction where I had layed her the night before. Abby is already 1/3 of a year old. Looking forward to the rest of the year is an exciting thing. She is a gift (which I remind myself amid all of the crying!), and we are thankful for our little peach!