Santa Baby

While we were in St. George, Caleb got to meet Santa. He was so good about it and didn't cry at all. In fact, he was just in awe by the white bearded man. The hardest part about it was to get him to look at the camera instead of at Santa. But since Santa refused to smile, I think having them looking at each other turned out the cutest.

Jubilee

While we were in St. George, we went to this Christmas thing the city was putting on. There were tons of trees decorated in all kinds of crazy ways (like a Harry Potter tree, a Christmas Story tree, a picture frame tree, etc.). Caleb got to meet his first Santa, and his mommy got to take lots and lots of pictures of her cute baby. Good times had by all.

Anyway, here are a bunch of pictures from that night.

Bulking up

We figured out a way to make our baby not so little anymore. In fact, I think he might have doubled his weight once we got him in his snow suit. When it comes to my baby, I tend to be a little overprotective. Last night, we went shopping for a Christmas tree (and ended up with the most beautiful tree I've ever had in my entire life). Since we were going to be outside, Caleb had to be all super bundled up. Man, was he heavy!

Brandon thought that he looked like the younger boy from A Christmas Story (whose name is currently escaping me...I want to say Randy, but I can't remember) all bundled up in his snow clothes so that he couldn't even put his arms down.

The snow is starting to melt, but we were able to capture a few pictures while it was still here:

The view from my front door.

The tree in our front yard.

Looking down the street.

Shrinking

We took Caleb to the doctor today because he still hasn't gotten over his cold and it's been almost two weeks. Mostly we were worried that he had something worse than a cold since this morning, when I went to get him after his nap, he was pulling on his ear. But the doctor checked him out and said his ears are fine, his throat is fine, his lungs are fine. He has a couple of lymph nodes, so he's probably fighting off some sort of little infection, but nothing to worry about.

The depressing part of the visit, however, is that Caleb weighed in at 16 pounds 13 ounces. Sadly, this now puts him in the 7th percentile for weight. When he went in around five and a half months, he was in the 25th percentile. I'm pretty sure he'd been measuring in the 25th percentile for a while before that too.

The doctor didn't seem too worried. He thinks that Caleb's probably just not too interested in food because of this little infection that he's fighting. But, Caleb eats as much as he always eats. He hasn't shown any decline in eating. Maybe we're supposed to be feeding him more, and instead of wanting more, he's just stayed the same.

We'll see how he measures later this month when we go back for his 9 month check up. Part of me worries that he's not getting enough to eat. Part of me wonders if he just really loves being an only child and figures that if he stays little than Mommy won't need another baby anytime soon. If that's the case, it's really smart thinking on his part because it's totally working.

About Brandon

Jocelyn tagged me with this one. I think it's a cute little tag. Why? Because it's all about BRANDON!!

How long have you been married? 2 years and almost 9 months.

How long did you date? From the time we first met in May and started dating, we didn't get married till March. How long is that? Less than a year.

How old is he? 25. Two years younger than I am.

Who eats more? I guess Brandon does, though I can definitely hold my own. When we were first married I had to teach him how to stop eating when you were full. He's much better at showing restraint now, even if there's still food on the table.

Who said I love you first? Neither of us remember, but it was probably Brandon. What I do remember, is having this dream where I told him that I loved him and he responded by saying "I know" as in "I know that's what's happening with us and I feel the same." The next day I told him about the dream. When he left me that night, he looked deep into my eyes and whispered, "I know." Usually I count that as the first time he told me he loved me.

Who is taller? Brandon is. By a good nine inches or so.

Who sings better? Definitely Brandon. I love to hear him sing. Sometimes, when I'm all worked up and can't fall asleep because my brain just won't turn off, he'll sing to me. It always calms me down.

Who is smarter? I think I'm probably smarter in the traditional sense of the word, but there are a million things that I don't know that Brandon does know. Especially when it comes to things like computers and cars. Or stereos. Or fixing houses. Sometimes when he talks, I try to make appropriate responses, but I have no idea what he's talking about.

Whose temper is worse? Probably Brandon's. Although he claims the reason he has more road rage is because I never drive anymore.

Who does the laundry? Usually I do. I like doing laundry. I like the fulfillment that comes from seeing a large pile and watching it dwindle in size. Much better than cleaning a bathroom. Although, now that our washer and dryer are in the basement, I usually make him carry the clothes up and down the stairs for me. (I have this fear of falling down the stairs. Carrying things just makes it worse.)

Who does the dishes? Typically Brandon. We have a rule that if one person cooks, the other person cleans (though we often help each other out with both), and since I cook more, he washes more dishes.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? It depends on where the bed is in relation to the door and the windows. I sleep on the less scary side, typically. That way, if someone broke into our house, they'd get Brandon first. Our house here is the only one that I've ever slept closer to the door, since it's more convenient for getting up in the morning to get the baby.

Who pays the bills? Hmmm...I suppose someone should pay those. I use to be the bill payer. Then I got pregnant and pretty much stopped doing everything. Some things I've take responsibility for again now that the baby is here, but bill paying isn't one of those. So sometimes Brandon pays them and sometimes I pay them and sometimes we forget to pay them until we get angry letters in the mail. (Okay, we don't get that many angry letters.)

Who mows the lawn? We pay a guy to do that, since we don't live here during the summer. Brandon does take responsibility for the outside, but I try to pitch in. Especially with the never ending amount of leaves we've had to rake up this fall.

Who cooks dinner? This one is usually me. Although we've started a new thing where Thursday is Brandon's night to cook dinner. And not just heat up something frozen or reheat leftovers, but to actually cook. We only had one Thursday though, and then it was my mom's birthday, Thanksgiving, and we were still out of town this past Thursday (though he did make me spaghetti down in St. George that night). If you couldn't guess, Thursday is my favorite night of the week, especially since my favorite TV show is on that night too.

Who drives when you are together? Brandon always does. When we were first married I tried really hard to not always tell him where to go. Now, he just expects it and doesn't bother listening to directions. I don't know how he gets anywhere when I'm not in the car with him.

Who is more stubborn? I think Brandon is. He thinks I am. I'm sure we're both stubborn enough that we'll never come to an agreement on this one.

Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Typically Brandon. But only because he's usually wrong. (I don't know why Brandon thinks I'm the stubborn one.)

Whose parents do you see the most? My mom.

Who proposed? Brandon did. Then I did. Then he did, but before I said yes I snuck in my own second proposal which he said yes to before I said yes to his. Then Brandon again.

Who has more friends? Brandon thinks I'm better at making friends than he is, but most of our friends are our friends.

Who has more siblings? Brandon. Bar none.

Who wears the pants in the family? Brandon says that I do. Though we like to think of it as that old saying...He wears the pants, I just tell him which pair.

I tag Shannon, Jaymie and Laura -- in order to encourage you to actually write on your blog. :)

Payback

I've been dying to post these pictures, but there's a lot of them and we didn't have that great of internet while we were out of town.

This happened the Sunday before Thanksgiving, after opening presents.

Caleb wasn't very mobile still. He wanted his new toy and was trying really hard to reach it.

Sara, being extremely mobile, didn't have a problem getting to it at all.

Then, she rubbed it in his face a little that she was eating his toy.

Caleb didn't like that at all.

He worked really hard to get over to her and his beloved new toy.

With his trusty block in hand, he took his first swing, but he was still too far away to reach her.

So instead, he watched in vain, as Sara played with his toy, and tried to come up with a new plan.

That's when Nana intervened, giving Sara a cracker. Caleb waited for his, but since he was only barely starting to eat real food at that point, he didn't get one.

Perhaps Sara gloated too much that she had a cracker and Caleb didn't.

Because Caleb decided to try a second attack.

Sara didn't notice.

But she did drop part of her cracker.

Caleb grabbed it as fast as he could before anyone could take it away from him. Especially Sara.

Yummy cracker.

I don't think Sara minded at all. It just meant that she got to go back to eating Caleb's toys. :)

Thanksgiving Christmas

I've been waiting till it was officially December to post the over abundance of Christmas pictures I already have of Caleb, in order to somewhat mask my obsession with the holiday (and with taking pictures of my baby). Not only is it finally December, but we woke up (finally back in Provo) to a winter wonderland. That's right, everything is covered in snow. And since we broke out the Christmas decorations last night before going to bed, it's totally Christmas time here.

While we were in St. George, Caleb got to have his first taste of Christmas. Technically, he got his first Christmas before his first Thanksgiving, since we had Thanksgiving with my family the Sunday before Thanksgiving. The plan was to open presents after dinner (giving the holidays some semblance of traditional order), but the turkey wasn't done and Caleb's bedtime was rapidly approaching. So he got to have Christmas first. (And then didn't get his Thanksgiving till actual Thanksgiving day.)


The best part of this Christmas, to me, was that Nora is now old enough that she got to be Santa. For years and years, that's been my job. It was so nice to just sit there and hold my cute baby and not have to do any of the "work." I didn't even have to take the pictures (although I don't consider that work); Brandon and my mom covered that for me.


Caleb did as well as can be expected for an eight month old at opening his presents. Although, after one was opened, he didn't understand why he had to open another one instead of getting to play with the one he just opened.

And, as should be expected, eating the paper was more fun than ripping it off the package.

Although, I think he liked the ribbon even more than he liked the paper.

We've decided, for his actual Christmas, that we'll just wrap up empty boxes and put lots of ribbon on them, since that's what he seemed to like best. (And maybe I'll sneak in one or two presents at least. After all, it's Christmas.)