Viruses how I loathe thee

Last time I posted Caleb had a stomach virus.  Then I caught it on Friday night, and of course Chris caught it on Sunday night.  The only upside to catching the virus was that it was short lived, and I managed to get sick on the weekend so I didn't have to miss work and Chris could entertain Caleb.  It was a short lived virus that took you out of commission for a day.  No fun.

What is fun is going to the beach. Which is what we are doing next week.  I have spring break and Chris is taking off work, or maybe he is planning on working from the beach  not sure about that one.  It looked like our plans were going to be canceled there for a few days due to lack of follow through on our part to reserve the condo. We forgot that someone else my try to rent it when we want to use it.  But  Chris' parents kindly helped make it available for us.  And it turns our some good friends are going to meet us there.   I have not had the delight of meeting their sweet son (who is almost a year now) yet so I am so very very excited to go to the beach with good friends.

Here are a few pictures I took on Sunday.

All the boys on the little couch.  Max desperately needs a hair cut.

I told Caleb to smile and this is what he did.  

Don't worry he was thoroughly supervised while playing with the blinds.  He gets a kick out of pulling them.

A close up

I had more fun things to blog about but I forgot to take pictures of them. I made red velvet whoopie pies.  They were easy and pretty tasty.  Which has caused me to eat far too many sweets over the last few days.  I made them for a co-workers surprise baby shower.  She is the easiest person to surprise because she didn't expect anything and she isn't observant.  She is due at the end of April.

  There are currently five pregnant teachers at my school, due in two weeks, beginning of May, end of May, Me in July and one at the beginning of October.  Four out of the five of the teachers are all on the same hallway (three of us are all in a row and all teach Math).  The joke is don't drink the water on the 100 hall.  A bunch of the kids I teach now I also taught their freshman year.  Last year there was another math teacher that had a baby, so many of my students have had a pregnant math teacher for the last three years.  Which is just crazy.  A few of the kids are wondering "who am I going to have next year, because they have to get pregnant."  This makes me laugh, especially because they could have a male teacher or a teacher that now has grand kids.

Two new things I learned today

1.  I learned that my child loves to sleep.  This means that in the middle of the night when you hear this sad quite wimper and discover that he has thrown up all over the bed (and himself), he wants to be clean, and dry but not held.  He just wanted to be asleep.   Chris was at a meeting at church so I laid  a fresh blanket on the ground and he curled up there watching as I changed his linens.  I so wanted to hold him and make sure he was okay but he kept trying to get out of my arms and into the crib, not kidding the boy would climb in there himself if he could.  Unfortunately this routine occurred another three more times during the night (more times then crib sheets we own, but we made do).

2.  When Caleb is sick (most of time excluding a fever sick) he shows no signs what so ever.  This morning he was happy and cheerful banging on the side of the crib asking to get out.  He is always hungry when he wakes up, the really grouchy hungry so I have discovered (after much prompting from Chris who is more annoyed by the early morning cries of hunger than I am - since he is still sleeping) that Caleb is best in the mornings when you wake him up with food.  This means I have to have something that is not too messy and doesn't require a high chair (since that is down stairs in the kitchen not his bedroom).  So it is usually a nutrigrain bar or muffin.  Well this morning the little man seemed in good spirits and begging for food, so we started the morning with our usual breakfast as I am wondering if I made a huge mistake putting in for sub lasting (I'm not missing any crucial lesson today but I was supposed to administer the graduation test, which must be done by a certified and trained teacher not a substitute so it is a big deal to find a last minute replacement).  Caleb is chowing down on his first breakfast and hydrating like a champ when he tells me he is done, a very rare and strange occurence.  Two seconds later he burps and throws up everything he had just ate.  Which made me feel better about making the correct decision to stay home with my son, but super worried again.  The thing I learned from all this, is he still shows no signs of being sick.  Little man is still hungry (now only eating saltines and drinking G2, he hates pedialyte such a waste of money), still running around playing, being chased by the dog Max and smiling and laughing.  So very decieving but I'm happy he isn't miserable.



Just so that this post isn't all words below is a picture from Caleb and I's adventure this morning to get some more G2.  Chris and I have been debating the merit of keeping little man rear facing or moving him to forward facing.  My mirror broke a while back so selfishly I wanted him forward facing so that I could see him. We have had to switch the car seat from car to car lately so I got my wish and little man was looking forward (which was not Chris' preference but he obliged) until the recent news stories and articles about car seats.  "They" (I can't remember which consumer advocacy group it is) are now saying that guidelines have always been that it is safer for a child to be rear-facing for as long as possible and that the earliest a child could be forward facing is a year, not that this is the optimal time to switch them.  They recommend children rear facing for two years or until the child out grows the weight/height requirement for rear facing. Our car seat says a child can be rear facing for about 40 pounds, since Caleb is only 22 pounds now I don't think he will out grow it any time soon. 

Yep he still sucks his thumbs and his legs must be spread wide or folded in order to fit.  But I don't think he minds, he actually enjoyed kicking his feet on the back seat. Notice the sippy cup, he enjoys holding on to his sippy cup while running around the house, or climbing stairs.

Baby #2, Cake and Fun in the sun

So I finally felt like blogging again.  Baby Mardis #2 is going to be a boy.  We are so very excited (even if our family isn't, the resounding response was, I was hoping for a girl).  People we are not done with two, we want a big family and by the way I so very much enjoy having a rambunctious active boy. 

Here are the ultra sound pics of Baby #2 (yet to be named).

Just in case you are curious, I am definately very pregnant.  In fact a bunch of people (mostly strangers but some I know) have been saying to me, "wow you are going to have your hands full very soon", or "you look like you are ready to pop".  I am not due for another three months.  Not exactly the comments you want to hear.  I haven't wanted my picture take due to all of these not so kind comments, but I finally let Chris take a pictures.  So just for comparison below is me now (at 24 weeks) and me pregnant with Caleb at 27 weeks.  Which belly do you think looks bigger?  I guess I can't blame them for thinking I look very pregnant, but these comments are coming from women, I assume they forgot what it feels like to be much larger than normal.

So you may be wondering what is up with all those cake pans.  I made a 14 layer cake for my mother in laws birthday.  Below is the finished project.  I got the idea from Bakerella and it was quite tasty.  Very rich but also very pretty.  I will definitely make this one again. 

Look at that goodness (and no I don't know how to cut in a straight line)

Cake glorious cake,  Why have two layers when you can have 14?

So here are some recent pics of Caleb.  Mostly Caleb playing with his daddy and enjoying running around.

An Action picture of Caleb jumping off the ottoman into Daddy's arms, this is hours of entertainment (okay more like a few minutes worth)

I love this game

Chris is teaching Caleb how to hit a tennis ball with a stick.  The ball is Max's which means you never have to go and retrieve the ball, Max does it for you.  The best game ever.

Yay, he hit the ball.  Note Chris has to show Caleb how to do things using his right hand ( a challenge for a left handed Daddy)

Swinging in the big boy swing. He was watching the other kids and wanted to join in on the fun.

He's learning how to make the swing move, a bit scary for his parents but thrilling for him.

Practicing his swing, but this time with a pitcher and some help from Uncle Ryan

Check out my awesome shirt.  A fabulous consignment find.

Grandpa is cleaning out the attic and found all of Chris' old stuffed animals and such.  Caleb has decided he likes the really big stuff.  So we now have a large bear and tennis ball.  Where do I put these things.  On a side note this is the first tennis ball that Caleb can play with that Max is not interested in. 

This is Caleb watching some cartoons one lazy Saturday morning.  I was so shocked he was actually watching the TV that I had to take a picture.  And now that i realize he knows what the TV is I watch far less TV around him.