Pool Hair

We ventured out to the pool again today. Mostly because I was already in the mood to be outside and the baby already had sunscreen on, but the bubble toy I bought him to play with out on the patio wasn't working. So we switched clothes and moved our party to the pool instead.

The water is still way too freezing to go in. Caleb was really good and didn't wander too far, which meant that I actually got to lay out a little, instead of following after him. It's one of my goals to be tan by the end of the summer.

Don't you just love this cute spiky hair? I have to make sure to put sunscreen on his head since he doesn't have enough hair to protect it otherwise. And his hat is too small. I tried buying him a new one the other day, but every one we tried on, he immediately took back off. Yet he loves to wear the one he has right now, even though it doesn't fit. And when he's not wearing it, he'll just carry it around with him. Sometimes he'll even bring it to me when we're inside so I can put in on for him. (He also likes to bring me his shoes. And my keys. Maybe he's trying to tell me something...)

Some other kids showed up at the pool after a little while and Caleb was mesmerized. Which meant that I could relax even more since Caleb is shy around new people and while he loves to watch, he needs to have me right next to him.

Eventually, we got up and dipped our feet in the pool. Caleb thought that was fun and kicked and kicked in the water. But it was freezing. So we took a spin around the spa for a few minutes before finally heading home again. Hopefully the pool will warm up soon so we can play all day in it!

Back Seat Driver

This post is mostly for my mom, so sorry to anyone else...it could be boring. But my mother insists that watching a video of her grandkid sleeping is beyond fascinating to her.

Well, this isn't a video of Caleb sleeping, but I don't know that it's any more interesting than if it was.

The other day, I looked up to see Caleb sitting in the back of his dump truck. I have no idea how he climbed up there, especially since the next day, when I saw him trying to get in it again, he couldn't figure out how to get in.

Toddlerhood

Brandon's first "official" day of work was yesterday. Which meant that Caleb was a terror. I don't know if he's still adjusting to the move, or if he's simply a toddler now. Yesterday we took turns yelling at each other and making each other cry. Not to mention all the million other things that went wrong simply because we were already having a horrible, rotten, no good day.

Today was better. Caleb got in two naps, which makes both of us a lot more pleasant to be around. Plus, we got to go visit Shannon in between those naps. And even though it was more a visit for me (since her oldest son was sleeping and Caleb had no one to play with), simply being out of our house and around other people seems to really lift Caleb's spirits.

Even still, with all those things working to our advantage, Caleb was either laughing or crying all day. There wasn't much content time. It's weird to me, because he hardly ever cried as a baby -- only when he absolutely had a reason to. And now he cries at the littlest things, although it's usually because we took something away from him that he thought should be his, but we disagreed. He did spend more time laughing than crying today, fortunately. He just thinks everything is funny now (except when I take things from him). Whether it's him running away from me, or me telling him no, our life is just a barrel of laughs. Hysterical laughing. Sometimes, he'll just look over at me and I'll start laughing, which makes him start laughing.

Caleb created his first art masterpiece today. I'm actually quite proud of him. I've tried a couple times to teach him to draw (or rather, scribble nonsense on a paper), but he's shown no interest. Mostly he just likes to take his markers out of the box and put them back in again. He's also a huge fan of pulling the lids off and on (although he needs help to get it off the first time). But today, out of nowhere, he suddenly grasped the concept of putting the marker on the paper and watching the colors appear. I didn't have to help him at all. And look what he ended up with!

Getting Settled

We've been busy this week trying to get settled into our new apartment. Besides the fact that milk is ridiculously expensive here, all is going well.

Caleb and I have made our first trip to the pool (although it was too cold to even attempt a brief swim, so we hung out in the spa for a little bit instead). We've also had our first visitors (Shannon brought her two adorable boys over for us to meet and play with -- it was so much fun). Sadly, neither of these first were captured on camera, so you'll have to wait for our second attempts to see all the fun we're having. Hopefully our seconds will be super soon!

Anyway, here's a little video of Caleb at the store. Isn't he just such a good helper?

We Survived!

After an extremely boring, sleep-inducing drive through Nevada, followed by a treacherous, heart-stopping drive through the mountains of California (in a blizzard at four in the morning), we've safely arrived at our new summer home!

Sadly, the sun wasn't shining much today. Hopefully, Utah's bad weather didn't follow us here.

Don't Forget Yertle!

About two months ago, I bought Caleb this stuffed animal at Kohls. It's Yertle the Turtle from the Dr. Seuss story. Since Caleb's our little turtle, I thought he needed it. I also bought him the book and gave it to him for his birthday, but the turtle I let him have right away.

We'd been wanting something to attach Caleb to, like a security blanket. Or in this case, a security Yertle. "They" say it's good for kids. Caleb didn't have anything he really loved like that, so after we got Yertle, we worked really hard at attaching the two of them.

It was a pretty easy task actually. Caleb LOVES Yertle. It still surprises me how much he loves him. In the mornings, when I go to get Caleb out of his crib, he'll start to climb up, then stop, grab Yertle and hand him to me first. Then, after I have Yertle, Caleb will stand up and hold his arms out...not to me, but to Yertle. As soon as I pick him up, he hugs Yertle so tight, leaving me to wonder what happened to the days that my baby used to hug me in the morning.

I think one of the reasons Caleb loves Yertle so much is that he's easy to grab onto (or strangle to death, if needs be).

He also makes a great bat, when you need one in each hand but only have one actual bat.

And he's great to wrestle with, since Caleb always wins.

Plus, Yertle is super tasty and so much fun to eat! (Note: Below, you will not find any pictures of Caleb eating Yertle's bald little head. That's because, Caleb's already eaten most of Yertle's hair. Caleb's friend, Naomi, also got a Yertle, and I'm always surprised to see how nice her Yertle's hair is.)





This is one toy that we better not forget to pack!

Daddy's Little Helper

We're busy trying to get ready for California. And by busy, I mean I have two whole bags packed now (and we're supposed to leave tomorrow). I really should be cleaning my house, but I wanted to post these cute pictures.

Brandon's been trying to fix our sprinklers and put them on an automatic timer so that we don't have to worry about watering our grass while we're gone. He started working on it Saturday, not sure what the problem was exactly -- the sprinklers flooded in one huge gusher instead of sprinkling across the entire lawn.

Of course, all that upturned dirt sounded like a fun place to play for Caleb. And I'm sure Brandon really needed the help.

Which such a great helper, the boys were able to get the sprinklers working on Saturday. But they still needed to set it up to sprinkle automatically.

Caleb was quite eager to help his daddy again today.






After a while, Caleb decided Daddy had it under control and took off after the neighbor's tricycle. I mean, she obviously wanted him to go for a ride, or she wouldn't have left it out front, right?

Don't be surprised if you see one of these under the Christmas tree soon. Caleb loved riding it (or rather, being pushed around on it).