Elio

My sweet nephew, Eliot, who turned one just over a week ago. I love you Eliot! You are such a precious boy!

Disjointed Facts About Caleb

Lately, Caleb thinks he is a frog. He loves to hop around. Sometimes if I can't get him to walk (and he insists on being carried), I can convince him to hop like a frog. I have no idea where it came from, but it's funny.

Last Saturday, I was getting ready to go out and Caleb came into the bathroom and said, "Look at me." He placed his hands on his hips, then with his back to me, he shook his bum from side to side and said, "Looks good?" I swear I don't do this.

Caleb's favorite movie is Cars. He can watch it over and over and over again. However, he'll only watch it if I watch it with him. The other day he was begging to watch it, so I turned it on for him, then left the room. He didn't last two minutes before he decided he'd rather sit on Mommy's lap than watch his movie. Sometimes I try to get him to watch something else so that I don't go crazy. One of our favorite shows to watch together is Hannah Montana. It cracked me up yesterday morning when the first thing he asked for after waking up was to watch Hannah Montana.

Our favorite sport to play right now is baseball. Caleb doesn't believe in hitting the ball off the tee and insists that we pitch to him. He's really good at hitting the ball though. It took a little while to figure out the right combination, but if I have him stand the right distance away from me, then give him a good pitch, he hits the ball almost every time. He's even starting to watch the ball come toward him rather than just blindly swinging.

His favorite thing to eat is peanut butter and honey sandwiches. He has several a day usually, since he refuses to eat most other things. He still eats fruit, and occasionally chicken nuggets, but for the most part he only wants sandwiches and lemonade. (And it has to be honey, jam will not be consumed at all.) If we go out to eat, all we order for him anymore is french fries because he won't eat anything else. In fact, if I tell him we're going out to eat, he gets excited and says, "french fries." He has a weird way of eating bananas. I'll peel the banana half way and hand it to him. He'll eat the unpeeled part, then when that's finished, he insists on removing the peel completely before eating the other half of the banana.

He likes to help me do everything. I rarely have even a foot of space from the kid. If I'm washing dishes or scrubbing the tub, he still wants to be in my lap helping me. When Daddy gets home from work, Caleb freaks out and will make sure he is touching every inch of me possible and then will say, "my mommy."

Rainy Day Walks

We have lots of rainy days here in Jersey. One such rainy day when we were without a car, Caleb and I went for a walk to see what we could see. Normally an event like this wouldn't merit me taking the camera with us, but since we'd recently lost six months worth of pictures, I was eager to capture every moment.








(Caleb thought it would be funny to try and hit me with the umbrella. Perhaps it was.)

Pictures from 6/12

Chattanooga Children's Museum

On Friday (6/5), the day after Danny's wedding, we spent several hours at the children's museum in Chattanooga. It was the first time Caleb had ever been to a children's museum and he had a ton of fun.

Before we'd even bought our tickets to get in, the kids were already running over to the water play area. There were waterproof smocks for the kids to put on to keep their clothes dry, but of course our kids didn't have time to wait for a smock. They needed to play.





Here's some oversized fake musical instruments that play when you push the button.




Caleb lost interest in pressing the buttons when he saw a basketball roaming free. It went to this weird contraption that used all kinds of household things to basically play basketball. In my opinion, it'd be a lot easier just to throw the ball up through the hoop.





There were also real musical instruments for the kids to play. Caleb loves music, so this was a great section for him.





A basketball hoop over an orange cone that blew air up through the cone. Needless to say, Caleb was fascinated.





An electricity ball thing.



They had a toddler play area. There was dress up, a play kitchen, a slide, and even a little baby area. Caleb and Eliot both loved playing with the trains.




There was also a little red car that you could ride in. Agnes hopped in back while Caleb pretended to drive her around (but all my pictures with her in it turned out blurry).




After the museum, we headed to the airport for the long trip home. Here's a photo of Caleb killing time waiting for our flight that was delayed. They put those carts in random places for toddlers to play with, right?


Once we got to Newark airport, Caleb finally crashed. Too bad he couldn't have done that on the airplane.



All in all, we had a great, albeit exhausting, trip. It was so worth it to be there to see my brother get married.

A Southern Wedding

June 3rd, Caleb and I flew down to Tennessee for my younger brother's wedding. Caleb did fairly well flying. He'd been potty trained for about a month now, and this was our first big outing. He did really good though. Sure, we ran back to the airplane's bathroom more times than was necessary, but I think most of that was him just wanting out of his seat. And he did really good waiting till the fasten seatbelt lights went off to use the potty, even when waiting wasn't on his agenda.

Thursday, June 4th, was the big day. Before the wedding, all of our family that came out (minus the bride and groom who had other things to do that day) met up downtown to go to lunch. First things first, we rode the bus over to my dad's hotel.


Caleb thought the pole would make a good fireman's pole and wanted to slide down it.


Caleb fell asleep in his stroller as we were walking the streets downtown trying to decide on a place to eat. Pictured here, in case you don't know my family: my dad holding Caleb's stroller, his friend David Rubinoff standing behind him (aka Uncle Chuckie), my sister Laura with her son Eliot on her shoulders, and my older brother Samuel standing behind her. (Not pictured: me holding the camera, my mom, niece Agnes, and Uncle David, who were inside buying the most delicious fruit smoothies.)



At some point during lunch, Caleb woke up from his nap. My mom offered to hold him so I could finish my lunch. He fell back asleep in her lap. I don't think she ever got to eat her lunch.


We went home after lunch, took showers and got cute. Then we all headed up the mountain to Danny and Erin's wedding.

Doesn't Caleb look adorable? Laura made the suspenders and the bow tie. He and Eliot had matching outfits and looked so super cute.





At my older brother's wedding, my dad had this huge tag hanging out of his pocket that said, "Try me, I rock." It was the tag from the patio furniture we had bought my brother for his wedding present. I think he wore the tag in part because it was really funny, but also to see if the photographer would photoshop it out of the pictures. Which he didn't.

So here he is at my younger brother's wedding, doing something silly once again. Though this time, I think it was purely to be silly. Wearing Eliot's hat (I think it makes him look a little more Jewish):


Danny waiting for his bride.


Erin, being escorted by Caleb's new cousin (aka her son), Jackson.



The wedding was really sweet. It made me rather emotional to know that my little brother was getting married. I know everyone in the Church makes a big fuss over temple weddings, and I hope this doesn't come across wrong, but I thought this was a lot more touching than any temple wedding I've ever been to.


Laura also made Agnes' dress. Which Agnes didn't want to wear once it came time to put it on, but she looked so cute, and there was no back up dress, so she wore it. She matched the boys so well.



My sister and me with our kiddos:


Laura, Agnes and Eliot:


The bride and groom:



They fed each other their first bites of cake using forks. We chastised them and made them redo it using their fingers.

The kiddos were so excited to finally get to eat the cake. You'd think they'd been denied cake their whole lives. (Though in Caleb's case, that may be true as he had never been a big cake eater before this.)