Tonight before dinner, Caleb said the following prayer:

"Dear God,
Thank you for the food.
Thank you that Daddy went on a trip.
Thank you for Mommy.
Thank you that Levi cries.
Amen"

I'm glad he's thankful for Levi when he cries!!! I am thankful for Levi, not the crying. And apparently he's glad that Scott is gone on a business trip. :( I am not. Perhaps I need to learn from Caleb to be more thankful for things.

Labels: Caleb

This is what happens when my boys play together:

Labels: Caleb, Levi

I took Levi to the doctor this week so that he is registered with a local pediatrician. (This will prevent me from having to drive an hour and a half to my sister's clinic, as I did when he had thrush, to have him checked out. Traveling far with a sick baby is a less than pleasant experience.) Anyhow, Levi weighed in at 11 lbs, 8 oz - an almost 3 pound weight gain since birth. According to the chart we were given when Caleb was a baby, Levi is in the 50th percentile for weight. He has also grown 3 inches, however, placing him in the 98th percentile for length. These statistics are pretty on par with how Caleb measured most of his first year (when we were charting it). I suppose I have another kid who will probably outgrow me by middle school!

I was also told that Levi still had a bit of thrush, so we were given a second round of the antibiotic (which I'm told is very normal, but I'm still not a fan of TWO rounds of antibiotics before he's two months old!). He's eating much better these days, though, with only the occasional screaming like he's in pain (it's so sad!).

In light of the fact that Levi is seven weeks old, here are seven things you probably didn't know about Levi:
1. When he cries... I mean REALLY CRIES... his bottom lip and jaw seem to vibrate at the speed of light. I really have no clue how he gets it to move so quickly. I have tried and can't even come close to mimicking him.

2. He loves his pacifier, but if he can't find it he will eventually appease himself by sucking on all four of his fingers / his fist.

3. He is smiley, smiley, smiley right after he eats. But really, he eats right after he wakes up so at that point he has a full tummy and is well rested - life is pretty good for a 7 week old at that point.

4. He LOVES Caleb. If Caleb is around, he can't seem to take his eyes off of him. It's really very cute.

5. He prefers his tummy to his back. He loves tummy time, and when he gets tired he'll just lay his head down and go to sleep. He tends to sleep on his side or tummy most of the time (though when he's REALLY out of it at night, he doesn't really care how he's laying).

6. He has crazy strong legs and loves to exercise them by standing in your lap when you're holding him. It's often preferred to just sitting (which seems to take much less effort).

7. He still loves to sleep. He typically only stays awake for an hour and a half at a time (occasionally 2 hours). It is a RARE occasion if he makes it longer than that before going back to sleep (for another hour and a half to 2 hours). At night, Levi sleeps from about 10:30p.m. until 7:00a.m. Definitely not too shabby for me!

Caleb has continued to do really well with Levi. I have no doubt that he's anxious for Levi to get big enough to play with him. This morning as I was getting ready, Caleb was sitting on my bed with Levi, trying to teach him how to play Uno. Caleb had given Levi cards and was also playing the cards for him. It was too cute! Caleb continues to love to help out with Levi's diaper changes and baths. He also enjoys trying to make Levi smile, always makes sure that Levi has a blanket covering him when he's asleep, puts the pacifier in Levi's mouth when he's crying, and hits the toys on the bouncy chair to make the music play when it stops. He's an excellent big brother.

Caleb will be three in less than a month and that absolutely blows my mind. He has recently become OBSESSED with playing games (mainly Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, and Uno) and he's a wonderful sport when other people win. He also loves playing Wii Sports (and is ridiculously good at tennis and boxing). He can search for just about anything on the computer, knows how to initiate iChat conversations (including video), and can type (including changing font size and color) in Microsoft Word. He has recently received a 46 piece floor puzzle from his Aunt Sandra, Uncle Pat, and cousin Tyler and he LOVES it. He had never really done puzzles other than the baby/toddler ones, but it doesn't seem to phase him at all. The kid has a crazy attention to detail in the puzzle to know exactly what piece to look for. It's so fun to watch him grow and learn how to do all these things!

Labels: Caleb, Levi

So several blogs I read frequently and not-so-frequently have a Thankful Thursday post which is nice to reflect on our lives and see how truly blessed we are. So without further ado...

I am thankful that God is good! I am thankful that God is who He is and is same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He has always taken such care of my family and during the past several months done it in immeasurable ways.

I am thankful that I GOT A JOB OFFER!!!! I had a second interview on Wednesday morning and was offered the job in the afternoon. It is with a large, very well-known company and I am excited about being with this company for a long time.

I am thankful for my super-awesome, can't-even-say-enough, wife Cheryl! She is always the best wife and best friend and especially during these trying months she has been so supportive and encouraging to me even through her very rough pregnancy. She also did such an amazing job of tightening our spending belts on our essential grocery shopping cutting our weekly spending by at least 50% through research and couponing and just being a rock star. I love you honey and I don't show it enough.

I am thankful for my little boy! Caleb is such a joy to be around and I love that I have been able to spend so much time with him before Levi arrives. He loves to learn and play and just have fun with Mommy & Daddy. And lately he has been very excited about being a big brother for Levi...I hope and pray this continues once Levi is born. Here is a little part of an exchange in the car with Caleb and Cheryl on Wednesday.

Cheryl: "Caleb, are you a copycat?"
Caleb: "No". I'm a (pause) copydog!"

HILARIOUS!!

I am thankful for your dear readers. For my family and friends and strangers that were and are praying for me and my family. God is awesome and prayer is such a powerful thing. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your support over the past several months.

In unrelated news: we are some pics I took a couple of weeks ago at the playground in our neighborhood.


Okay this first one is before we went to the park..but he looks SO old it kinda freaks me out.




He climbed this all by himself with verbal guidance only.

Labels: Caleb, Cheryl, Faith, Pics, Thankful Thursday

The video's short and a little rough, but hopefully the message comes through!


Caleb will become a big brother around June 10, 2009!

Labels: Announcements, Baby, Caleb, Family

So our niece Lily was born in the middle of August and we decided it was finally time for the 3 of us to meet her. We took a couple of days off work and headed up to Little Rock for an extended weekend. We also spent several hours in Searcy on Saturday visiting our friend Charlie (who officiated our wedding) and Alex.

Here are a few pictures from our weekend.

Playing with trains at Midnight Oil


Bubbles with Nana


Nana and the grandkids


Lily smiling for her Daddy


Getting a kiss from cousin Caleb


Just chillin' (Caleb found his pockets this weekend)

Labels: Caleb, Cousins, Family, Good times, Weekend

Mommy & Daddy love you very much!

Labels: Caleb, Milestones

So its been a couple of weeks which means its about time for our usual catch up post. Unfortunately, we do not any pictures to share because quite honestly, we haven't taken very many since we returned from Chicago. Here are just some of the highlights of the past weeks, mainly the past few days.

Caleb can say all sorts of things now. For a while now he's been able to put two words together (or attempt anyway). It seems he's been holding out on us. Whenver he sees pictures of people he knows, mostly Mommy and Daddy, he says each name separately. This morning while looking at the computer desktop we asked who he saw "Mommy and Daddy". It was so clear I was shocked.

We have also added singing a few songs as part of his nightly bedtime routine. This includes such hits as "This Little Light of Mine", "Jesus Loves Me", "Blue Skies and Rainbow", "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", and "Alphabet Song"just to name a few. The first one is from the Veggies Tales played in his room basically everyday and he loves to hide the light "under a bushel. NO!" He will also sing a few words with us, "light" and "shine" primarily. Tonight while singing "Alphabet Song' with Mommy, Caleb just finished the last part "W, X, Y, and Z" with ease. Of course when she tried to get him to do it again he just had a big grin on his face.

Caleb has also completed 3 full days at his new daycare. He transitioned so well. I figured it would take about this whole week for him to get used to things, but he has done exceptionally well even since day 2.

I passed Part IV of my Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) Exam. I know, could I be any cooler. Now I have to retake Part III which I did not pass the first time back in May. I will probably take the exam after Labor Day since we have birthdays coming up in late August.

Oh and Cheryl is going to Ecuador in exactly 3 weeks.

Later.

Labels: Caleb, Family, News, Tests, Trips

We have been having such great time the past couple of weekends its been hard to take time away and post. Cheryl has been extremely busy during the last part of April and the first half of May, so we have been soaking in all the time we can get with all 3 of us.

We had a great weekend. It started out at the Chapmans' house on Friday night with the Richards for dinner and all the kiddos playing. Saturday we went out for a little shopping so Cheryl could get some new Reefs since Gizmo destroyed them when he was here. (If you don't have a pair, get a pair).

Sunday evening we met with our church Home Team at a neighborhood pool for food & fun! Unfortunately we forgot the camera at home, but let me tell you, Caleb LOVED being in the water. It took him a few minutes to get used to it, but then he had a great time! I was done after dinner, but Caleb was really ready to get back in. After dinner he just hung out with me in the pool and sometimes he wanted to go to the kiddie pool to walk around. We are definitely going to make more attempts to take him to our pool in the complex.

We went to the zoo yesterday morning just for a couple of hours and while we were there Caleb had a major milestone breakthrough:

Background: When Caleb was about 6 months old, we would put him on the toilet before his bath and he would use it every time. This quickly became a daily routine. When we moved back, we intended to keep it up and see if Caleb was ready, but after a while we stopped being diligent about asking him to go potty. A few weeks ago, Cheryl bought a toddler seat to put on our real toilet and once again we would take him before baths and before bedtime.

A couple of weeks ago he had a diaper explosion incident at daycare (a major care issue that forced us to immediately remove him from his current class to the other one in his age group) and it appears to have set off a light bulb in his head that he's ready to be potty trained.

So after telling us a few times, mainly in the morning or after dinner, that he needed to go poo-poo, we got him some Pull-Ups and some big boy underwear for around the house. It took a few days for him to understand/see himself peeing before he realized what was going on, but he is such a big boy.

All weekend he would tell us when he need to pee-pee or poo-poo and most times he would catch it before or just after he started and then he would finish in the potty. He is now in Pull-Ups all the time now.

Back to the zoo...we weren't going to push him since we were planning on being away from home for several hours and we've only just begun the potty training phase. However, about 45 minutes after being at the zoo, Caleb told Cheryl he needed to go pee-pee. Of course, we were in front of the lions and there was no restroom in sight. It took about 15 minutes until we got to a bathroom. Cheryl came out with a look of amazement on her face.

Caleb kept himself dry and waited until he sat on the potty before he peed!!!! He kept this up all day, even during lunch at Chili's and at home!!! He is such a big boy and we are so proud of him! Grandma has purchased a seat for Caleb to use while we are in Chicago for the next week so he can continue in this huge achievement!!

Its a little crazy to handle how big our Caleb is, but it's so much fun!! Here are some recent pictures, mostly from the weekend.

It starts with a video of riding the train within the Ft. Worth Zoo



Fun in Mama's papasan chair.


Believe it or not, but Caleb is dancing here.


Caleb has flip-flop/sandals too!


First try with Mama's sunglasses...


Got it!!


The boys at the zoo.


See the elephants!

Labels: Caleb, Family, First Experiences, Fun, Milestones, Weekend

Labels: Caleb

So I love my wife and my son. I just love being with them! We had a great day yesterday just spending the day together. We ran a few errands and after talking about it for weeks, we finally got Caleb a real haircut. He was born with a decent amount of hair and I think we gave him his first trim in June 2007 which was a pretty interesting affair.

Since then we would just trim the front primarily so his hair wasn't over his eyes. He really just got a nice, professional trim since we think that Caleb would just look funny with short hair. We love the shag and it works for him. Anyway, he did a really good job and was mellow the whole time. Here are a couple of pictures.

Before...


After...


While at Target I pointed out some animal bathroom things to Cheryl and we got a whole new set for Caleb's bathroom. Its great and now he keeps looking around saying "Lion", "Roaarrr", "Monkey", "Ooo Ooo Aah aah" over and over again. Its so adorable!

Labels: Caleb, Fun, Good times

Scotty's back.
Tell a friend.

If you are reading this post then you are a very committed blog checker (or you have this blog set on your RSS) and I appreciate your dedication to checking in on us since we have been so incredibly delinquent in posting the last several months. Once again, I will attempt to make attempts in posting a more frequently, even if its not to describe the going-ons here in Ft. Worth.

Also an Editor's Note: This will be our blog for the most foreseeable future. My efforts to switch to Wordpress were an attempt to change things up and blog more regularly...we all know how that worked out.

Well, during the past month, we took a quick trip to Washington, D.C. seeing the sights and met up with Jeff & Laurie for dinner. It was great to catch up with them. We also went to the Holocaust Museum and the International Spy Museum among stopping by the Capitol, Lincoln Memorial, and Vietnam Wall. We tried to go to the White House Monday morning, but apparently it was the day of the Annual Easter Egg Roll which is the Monday after Easter Sunday. We almost snuck in without a ticket.

Oh, and on that trip Caleb got sick on the plane ride there, I got sick at Starbucks, and Cheryl got sick once we returned home. Fun how sickness just works its way around the family.

Most recently (as in last weekend), we went up to Little Rock to visit Amy & Barrett and my parents (also in town for a visit). As some of you know, Amy is pregnant with their first kiddo and we found out that we are getting a....niece! That makes the count Nephews - 5 (oh, yeah Julie my sis-in-law had her third boy almost 2 weeks ago), Nieces - 1. Leave it to my family to start balancing things out.

We got totally addicted to Guitar Hero on Amy's Wii (Guitar Hero actually belongs to her brother-in-law) and we played it pretty much incessantly. We did play a few other games and Caleb was especially helpful in cheering me and my mom on when we were bowling. He actually may have been trying to knock down the pins himself and even picked up a remote control to assist. There is a great video.



We did manage to make it to a park near A&B's house Saturday afternoon for a some fun! Here are some great pics!






A pic with Nana & Papaw (which Caleb can say)

Labels: Caleb, Cousins, Family, Fun

2 posts in one day! That's unbelievable!

Labels: Caleb, Fun, Video

So I guess we need to post some pictures of our little boy for the masses.

Sunday a week ago, we used some Toys R Us money Caleb had from left over from Christmas and bought him something that was sold out right before Christmas.

He loves playing on his slide! At first he preferred to climb up the slide and then come back down, but then he figured out how to climb up from the back. We've had great weather on the weekends for Caleb and Gizmo to play outside together. Its great!






On Friday, we finally took Caleb to see an ENT that also is an allergist. Caleb has mild eczema (as my nephew Noah and bro-in-law Barrett are my barometers for severity of eczema), but it would flare up randomly at daycare and just be so rough on him. The doctor thinks he may be allergic to milk, and after the weekend we think he's right. Caleb has been drinking soy milk since we moved to Texas to help him as he's been battling ear infections regularly, but we had to take away cheese, yogurt, goldfish cracker, macaroni and cheese, some of his favorite foods. We went to Sprouts after church to buy some "Caleb-safe" foods. We got some soy yogurts, which he loves and some vegan cheese which confuses him I think.

So far his skin is looking and feeling much better. Thanks to uncle Barrett for recommending Cetaphill lotion. Its the best thing we've used so far and it works really well. So now we are working with Caleb's daycare on removing all milk products from his diet which is challenging since different people at his daycare can't agree on whether or not they will be able to work around his needs or let us bring food (which they better give us a discount on tuition).

Caleb is also scheduled to get tubes next Tuesday, 2/19 so please be praying for that. I know its a very simple procedure (I had tubes growing up) but its still weird for your little boy to be anisthitized in a hospital. Also, Caleb and I are home today as he has a fever, possibly an ear infection which may delay his procedure. I am going to try to get him an appointment this morning to see what is going on.

Hopefully soon I will have a quick video posted for everyone.

Labels: Caleb

Well, we had a great weekend! To cap off a great, relaxing weekend (including an early birthday celebration for me with the Chapmans and the Felkers with no little ones at La Hacienda Ranch on Friday night), we went to our local park for a little while.

Here are some good pics. Caleb loved the fast slide, unfortunately I couldn't take any pictures because I had to catch him as he hit the bottom.

Anyway, enjoy!

Kicking leaves with Mama.


Going down the slide


A new approach



Throwing Leaves

Labels: Caleb, Family, Fun

We hope everyone had a great, Merry, or as they say in England, Happy Christmas! We had a fantastic Christmas! Caleb's first Christmas in America!!

Here are a few photos from our day.

Caleb running around the corner after waking up this morning to start Christmas!!! A man with a mission.

This is Caleb's new kitchen that he was heading for in the first picture.

More excitement from Caleb!

Reading a new book with Mama.

Trying to get Caleb to smile for the Wright (Tranyham, Fromm, McFaddin) Family Grandsons Picture. He also does this when singing "If You're Happy And You Know It".

****************
This last one isn't from today, but I just love it. When we give Caleb two thumbs up, he responds by putting his index fingers up. Its so funny.

Labels: Caleb, Christmas, Family

I've already told about my love for vacuuming. Caleb, too, has always been attached to the vacuum cleaner. Anytime I turn it on, he comes running and wants to help. So, for his birthday Aunt Amy and Uncle Barrett got him his own vacuum cleaner. Up until recently, it was still just a little too big for Caleb since he was not so steady in the walking category. (Though his cousins have all had a blast "vacuuming" my home repeatedly.) He has, however, always loved spinning the part that plays songs and music and has been totally content to do that and dance. Now that he's mobile on his feet, he has begun his love of vacuuming as well. And he seems to get so much joy out of it! Just thought you might like to see my little guy helping out around the house. (Though, to be fair, I think his FAVORITE chore right now is "helping" "fold" the clean clothes. And by "fold," I mean jump in the giant pile of warm clothes straight out of the dryer and scatter them all over the room while laughing and squealing.)


*NOTE: For those of you who have been all to eager in the critiquing of my spelling since I have returned from England, please note the American spelling of "favorite" in this post. It took A LOT of effort on my part, but I am slowly trying to readapt the more acceptable form of spelling in this country.

Labels: Caleb

On Friday we took Caleb to his first baseball game ever. He loved it! Our first game was actually supposed to be today (Sunday), but we scored FREE tickets (right behind home plate), FREE parking, FREE access to a box, a FREE program, and FREE food (I even had both peanuts AND cracker jacks!) courtesy of our good friends the Chapmans. Really, folks, you can't do much better than that. We have pictures with them as well but they have not yet been e-mailed to us (our cameraS are both on the fritz so we were only able to get a handful while it was still really bright outside). In any case, Caleb seemed to love the atmosphere of the game and was completely enthralled with the crowds and what was going on down on the field before the game started (we got there really early). He was clapping with everybody else and dancing with any music. He was so excited!
We actually spent no time in our seats after the game started because we then headed up to the box that we had access to. I'd never been in a box at a baseball game, so this was uber exciting for me. Caleb befriended all of the people in the box next to us and even managed to take off and get two boxes over before I was able to catch up with him! (The kid is a little speed demon these days!)
Unfortunately, we were only able to stay for about an hour of the game because both Caleb and Little David were getting very sleepy, as the game started when they normally go to bed. Still, the weather was perfect, the company was awesome, and it was all around good American fun!

Labels: Baseball, Caleb, First Experiences