PeePee News

I told myself I have to be better at blogging about Caleb this year. So even if my entries are short, I'm going to try to update you on how much he is changing and growing!!

Saturday, January 9th Caleb peed in the potty for the first time. I was totally taken off guard because we were not planning on potty training this early. I'd rather potty train in 3-4 days and be done with it, and I hear you have better chances when they are closer to 2.5 or 3 years old. Anyway its a milestone I guess so here's what went down :) For some odd reason I decided to ask him if he had to go peepee, and he said yes. Just this alone was unbelievable. A few months ago he went through a phase of liking his potty (never actually going though) but then he decided he didn't like it anymore and it was a hassle. Anyway I guess on Saturday he wanted to go. I took off his diaper and it was dry. So he sat down on the potty and just went! We made a huge deal of it, and I gave him a toy (a small one that I had set aside for his birthday). He was so excited and proud of himself. For the rest of the weekend every 45 minutes he wanted to sit on the potty.

Also lately Caleb has started singing. He's always been a hummer but now he is actually singing words. We always sing him the ABC's before bed, as a new mom I didn't know many lullabys off the top of my head so from the day we brought him home from the hospital the ABC's has always been sung to him. We now he is singing it. He sings it with us and he actually can sing it alone, up to the letter G, its quite amazing and he has a beautiful voice!!

Ok now for a picture!! Even though we cut his hair recently its still long and I like it that way :) We did a soap mohawk in the bath tub. It was fun!

Holiday Break for the A's

Tony and I took this past week and a half off from work, it was great to just get things done around the house and spend some extra time with Caleb. We had a blast did a lot of things and accomplished much. Before I forget everything we did I just wanted to recap to save the memories forever :)

Well on the 23rd we let Caleb open his first Christmas present, you can see that here. On Christmas Eve we went over to Grandma and Papa's (Tony's parents). He got lots of great toys, a few of them being, a tent, a table, craft stuff, a wooden M&D train, tools, shopping cart, and Diego toys.

Christmas morning was a blast, Caleb really loved opening presents and was getting use to all these new toys! Of course after he would open 1 gift he would want it out of the box immediately. One of the bigger gifts from mommy and daddy was his play kitchen. He loves it so much and likes to cook up a storm. We also got him some play M&D food, a holiday elmo, a bunch of books and other little stuff.

After spending time at home we went to Grandma and Granddad's (my parents). He got to see all his aunts and uncles and got even more stuff! Another tent (starwars), a couple Mr. Potato Heads, some clothes, some play food, a soccer ball and goal, a bowling set, and other stuff that I'm sure I'm forgetting. We then went to my Grandpa's house and got to see some more relatives. Then we finally made it home to relax (and put caleb to bed).

The 26th was also a great day! I got to take down the Christmas Decorations and we just spent time playing with Caleb and all his new toys and getting them organized. The 27th Caleb and I went to lunch with some of my friends, one girl was in town from Delaware for the holidays and we always try to have a girls lunch or dinner whiles she's around. Caleb was a good little boy and sat and colored while we all talked and caught up. When we got home we found that Tony had managed to pull up the carpet in the dining room to get ready for Monday.

It snowed all night long so in the morning on the 28th Caleb and I went out and played in the snow, while Tony was getting ready to get to work on the new dining room floor. My sister and her husband came over and the guys got to work while we played with Caleb, it was a nice day in.

On Tuesday the 29th Tony and I took Caleb to our friends house for a play date. Another family joined us and we had 5 little boys running (or crawling) around. Caleb was right in the middle age wise and he had a blast following the older (3 yr olds) around hunting for monsters and dragons.

Wednesday the 30th, we had my Brother and his wife over for a couple hours. I took their son's 3 month pictures and my SIL cut our hair (ok my and Caleb's hair, tony doesn't have any).

While I had my seamless up I also got a couple more formal ones of Caleb in one of his Christmas outfits. These 2 were the best of the bunch, he just wasn't in a picture mood that day.

Later that evening we went over to our friends house for another mini-playdate. Caleb enjoyed playing with their zhu zhu pet collection of toys and all the other fun stuff they had.

Thursday the 31st we went out shopping to pick up groceries and then went to Osaka's for dinner. Caleb loved seeing the "dragon" fire (see playdate above - everything is dragon or monster right now). We had a nice dinner with our friends as we showed them what it was like having a toddler in a loud and busy restaurant (they are expecting their first in April).

After we went back to our house and a couple other people came over to celebrate the new year with us. Caleb tried to stay up late, but that was a bad idea! At about 8:45 he started to turn into a very tired and grumpy toddler. He really didn't want to go to bed though and miss out on all the fun we adults were going to have. Tony and I had bought a ton of stuff to make a bunch of different virgin fru fru drinks and put out a big spread of fruit, veggies, dips, crackers, chips & breads. They were yummy, its too bad I was over-filled from dinner!

Friday the 1st we finished cleaning up around the house and went out running errands to Lowes (future project in mind) and to Tony's brother's house. Caleb got yet another toy, a hand me down, shake and crash - cars and track. Then we went to have dinner at his parents house.

Saturday the 2nd, Tony went to see Avatar (again) with a couple friends, and then we went out shopping for some sweaters for me and some craft supplies for Caleb. Ever since he got his table he wants to do everything on it and that means a lot more craft time. He loves playdoh, paint, and crayons.

Sunday the 3rd (and last day of our vacation) we went to my parents house for lunch/dinner. Caleb was pretty wiped out from this vacation so he went to bed early. Not sure how he's going to feel about going back to school tomorrow, only time will tell.

Snow Play with Caleb

I am so glad we decided to take this week off of work and really spend more family time together. Caleb and I got all bundled up and headed out to the backyard for a little play time in the snow. He got the boots new for Christmas and surprisingly he put them on. See Caleb has a little issue with change to his footwear or his coats. He likes his tennis shoes and his old coat from last year. I was able to get the boots on but his new coat that we've had in the closet for months, yeah not quite. O'well I think his coat from last year still sort of fits him.

Well on to the pictures! There are quite a few of them, its rare that I get this many decent photos of Caleb during a 15 minute time frame.

Christmas Eve - Eve

Before all the holiday craziness begins tomorrow, Tony and I wanted to let Caleb open just one present. It was so much fun to watch him, he finally understands what a present is and how to actually open it. The next couple days are going to be a blast!!

This is his new "I'm kinda posing for you mom" pose!

At this point he figured it out what it was and got really excited.

He spent the next hour vacuuming the house. LOL he even got the hand tools out and did the furniture just like mommy!

He was absolutely distraught when bedtime came but he was just soo tired we had to tear it out of his hand to put him to bed.

Halloween!

I just realized I haven't done a blog post about our halloween yet. We had fun, a nice quite evening at home. Passed out candy, and went trick or treating. Caleb had a blast and was just so excited every time a piece of candy dropped in his bag. He also learned how to say 'trick or treat' over the 30-45 minutes he was out going door to door.

Anyway here's my little pirate!
This is before the festivities when he was coloring, I just love the pure joy on his face!






and here is how he got around for the evening:

Loss

I debated if I wanted to share this with the world or not, but I think it might help me cope and begin to move on. I actually wrote this post almost a month ago, I really wasn't sure if I was actually going to post it or not but here goes:


Not to many people knew this but I was pregnant. September 23rd, the day my beautiful healthy nephew was born, I found out that I had lost my precious baby. Even though I should have been 12 weeks along and past the scary part, my poor baby stopped growing at only 8 weeks. They call it a missed miscarriage. I've been walking around with my baby not growing, not living for almost 4 weeks now. I don't know when I'll actually have the miscarriage, and its scary. I really don't want to have the D&C procedure, I want to go natural as much as possible but how long can I do this for? Just waiting, waiting to get closure, waiting to be done, waiting. Everything about this pregnancy was just too perfect. Perfect timing, little to no symptoms, I knew in my heart it was a little girl.


One of the hardest parts of all this is that I was sooo happy for my brother and his wife after bringing their first child into this world. but to go from my appointment to the hospital and be 'happy' is so incredibly hard. He is such a perfect little baby boy, how could I not think of my little one who wasn't with me anymore. And as another reminder a friend of ours is also expecting her first one, her due date - a few days before mine should have been.


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Fast forward to today, 20 Oct 2009. A lot more has happened since my missed miscarriage. Apparently after you mentally know about the missed m/c your body does one of two things, nothing, or starts to actually have the miscarriage. My body did the latter, a couple days later I began having contractions and losing the baby. It was suppose to be just a heavy period. That Sunday I thought after losing 5 huge clots and lots of bleeding I was done, so I went to work the next day, monday, really really bad move. To not get into the details, I ended up being rushed to the hospital. I started to lose to much blood, way more than what a normal miscarriage should be. I ended up having to have an emergency D/C, after losing my baby it was nothing. It didn't hurt and physical recovery was much easier than I thought it would be. I am still recovering mentally and I think that is why I am finishing this post.


I never knew what it was like for other people to have a m/c, I thought being that early is it really a big deal? are you really that 'attached'? I mean at 12 weeks I barely even felt pregnant, how could I be sooo upset. Well it is a big deal, I really truly feel like I lost a child. I ended up deciding to share my story to maybe give other people an insite into what a woman feels after she has a miscarriage. I could never begin to tell you all the feelings I'm having and had, but just a glimpse is still a powerful story and maybe help others with empathy towards this very common occurance.


Good news is I have almost fully physically recovered. My doctor said everything looks normal, I am just slightly anemic still because of how much blood I lost. My body will be fine, its my heart that still hurts. We will be able to have more children, I hope, I guess I will always be questioning until it finally happens again. One thing that did help is Caleb learned something awesome the week everything was happening, he learned to say, "I luv momma", he didn't know what I was going through, just that I needed lots of hugs and kisses and he was there for me, as well as Tony, he was and is really a great husband.

Now I look back at this picture and just think, this is how I was going to tell everyone I was pregnant, it would have been my first belly pic at 11.5 weeks, just days before we got the bad news. I love this picture.

Cider Mill

We just love going to the cider mill and today was the perfect day for it. Mid-60s so long-sleeve shirt weather. Got some apples and raspberries, and had some donuts and cider for lunch (yeah we're bad I know). I also got a couple pictures of Caleb actually looking at the camera!! Unfortunately they moved the tractor so I couldn't re-create the picture from last year but lets check out the flash back anyway!

October 4, 2008


September 27, 2009


October 4, 2008


September 27, 2009

Our Family Photoshoot

Yesterday after being lazy in the morning and an unplanned (but short) trip to the ER. We met up with fellow photographer Sarah from Pazy's Portraits. We did a photo shoot swap and really just hung out and had fun. Our boys got along very well (both the little ones and the bigger ones). We spent the evening downtown Mt. Clemens walking around and shooting each other. Then had a nice dinner at Bath City Bistro. Then they came over our house to finish the night off. Caleb was so sad when his new friend had to leave, it was so cute!

Here's one of their family.

And a snap I got of the boys together.


And heres a couple that Sarah got of us.

Grand Rapids mini vaca

Took a short trip out to Grand Rapids last weekend. Had fun despite the chilly weather. Got to see my Aunt, Uncle, Cousins and their kids. Super cute kids! We did a little bowling at my Uncle's Bowling Alley, then went to the cottage to relax and on Sunday we went to the Frederick Meijer Gardens. Sunday was the nicest day of the weekend so it worked out. The gardens were beautiful and we will definitely be going back. There is just soo much to see there and not enough time with a toddler to do it all at once.

I was determined to do some 18 month pictures of Caleb during our trip. BUT he just wasn't having it. That combined with the chilly rainy weather left me not taking to many pictures. I did manage to get this one, I just wish he was looking at the camera more, but this is Very Typical of him!

Lovin' this age...

Wow Caleb's age right now is soo much fun (almost 18 months). He has begun doing the shadow thing. Everything I do, he wants to do. I carry a purse to work, he wants to carry a bag or purse (so funny cause he found this green polka dot purse I use to use and he loves carrying it around). I dip my fries in ranch, he wants to dip his stuff in ranch. I was eating chips with humus today, he wanted to eat the chips in humus. It was pretty funny when he actually tasted the humus but I think he likes it b/c he kept on doing it.

I guess we are at the age where we have to be super careful of what we do when these little eyes are watching (and ears listening).

Next Monday, Caleb graduates into the next age daycare room. I'm kinda nervous about the change so we'll see how it goes! Luckily he is moving over with a friend so hopefully that will help.