Making trains

Caleb's new obsession is to make trains.  He lines up all the cars he can find to make a train.  He usually does this on a coffee table or the couch which is just the right height for him.  Sometimes he does it on the ground and then pushes the last car to make the train move, but this is usually a frustrating process since all the cars are not the same size and are not connected thus inevitably the train is derailed or doesn't behave as he desires.  You can really see his desire to control stuff when he is putting together his train. 

This is the first attempt.  Notice the size variations, and the yellow thing with three poles is a Melissa and Doug concrete mixer but Caleb did not put the other pieces together, he just likes to play with the base and the convenient carrying poles.

Then he moved the cars to the other side.  Taking a break before he finishes moving the last two

Finishing up the train.

Where should the last car go?

I'm done but I'm not happy about it

Now I'm happy

Wait I'm not done, I forgot about this big car.

Then Daddy got home and I had to re do it all.

Just for fun here are two pictures I took yesterday of my smiling happy kid. He is enjoying an animal cracker and I think a cartoon.  His favorite is Cat and the Hat because of the song, go go go go on an adventure .....

Nursery and 39 weeks

I haven't felt like taking pictures lately thus no blogging.  Sorry there will be no pictures of Caleb today.  Well a week or two ago I finally finished painting some canvas' for Micah's room.  Since we are having another boy I am not very motivated to change the nursery and spend money on new sheets, etc so I thought I would finally hang some stuff on the wall and that would set the room apart.

 I wanted to include some scripture and some color, thus this canvas was born.

 A close up

 An alphabet mural.  I was hoping they wouldn't look so much like stickers but they do. Oh well.

 A perspective on where in the room the alphabet mural is.  Caleb pulled out the piano to play with while I was putting up the mural his morning.

This one is my favorite.  I was intending to paint the letters a color but once i got the canvas painted I loved the look of the white letters.

Well I am 39 weeks and I can definitely tell that I am in the last few days/weeks of my pregnancy.  Here are some of the fun signs that have occurred this month.  

• I had to stop wearing my wedding rings
• My ankles no longer exist (on the bright side it has only been this way for a week or so, last time my feet swelled so bad a month and a half early that you could squeeze my foot and it would leave a hand print impression from all the fluid)
• I can't sit in a regular chair for too long without excrutiating back pain.
• I look tan, but I'm pretty sure it is just the extra blood 
• low energy
• very small bladder
• I wake up every 2 hours in the middle of the night
• rolling over when trying to sleep is a big ordeal and take a minute to accomplish

Life at Home

School has been over for two weeks.  It is normal for school to end in a frantic dash to the end, finishing up last minute stuff for the admin, and students realizing they have a border line grade and begging for extra credit, parent emails for the same reason, etc . . .  It is a busy and crazy time.  So when it is all over and the last grades are entered and submitted you relish the joy of nothing to do.  This typically means a lot of watching TV and sleeping in, followed by a desire to be productive with my time.  Well with a toddler sleeping in isn't much of an option, and watching TV is not something I want him doing either so this summer has already began different from the rest.  But the real difference is that I'm not going back to work.  So this summer is not just the rest and rejuvenation that I so needed after a hectic end of the year, but the beginning of my everyday normal life (at least for another month until Micah arrives).


I kept Caleb in daycare for the first week off so that I could finish his room and get some rest.  It is still not completely done but is done enough for him to move it.  The room is lacking stuff on the walls (pictures and some adorable cars).

I am going to paint the strange corner section white.  And yes while i was taking this picture Caleb learned how to climb up on the bed by himself.  Caleb's bed is the one with the bed rail.

A little camera shy in this picture

Max didn't want to smile either. 

 Caleb has been sleeping in his room for a week now.  I have been pleasantly surprised how well he has done.  His new room connect to his old room (the nursery which is now Micah's room) through the Jack and Jill bathroom.

Caleb has become very verbal, he is still shy at first around anyone (super annoying).  Lately has been confusing a few words, these are the ones I thought of this morning while on my walk (more about that in a minute)

• Hot and Cold.  I taught him hot when I was fixing him some food and he couldn't wait to eat it, so to explain why I wasn't giving it to him I told him it was hot. So he now uses hot when it applies or when something is cold, for instance the freezer.  It makes me chuckle every time. He is so proud of his new word that he uses it often, every time I am cooking anything, when getting into the bath in reference to the water, when walking in side after being outside (he should be saying cold here).  I wonder when he will get this one right.
• Moo and Naaahhhh.  You know the sound a cow makes vs the sound a horse makes.  He will not say these animal names but he always makes the sound when he sees one, but he does not always use them correctly.  Once a Chik-fil-a cow came on tv (a sponsor of PBS kids) and Caleb pointed to the TV and said Naahhh.  So funny

After a week of feeling like a slug, taking lots of naps and always feeling tired I decided I needed to change some part of my routine.  So we are now taking a morning walk, me, Caleb and Max.  The whole family seems to love it and it gets me energized for the day.  I walk for a minimum of 20 minutes and the most I have made so far is an hour.   On Thursday it was so muggy out that I couldn't make it long and when stopped the stroller in the garage Caleb refused to get out and kept saying more.  Funny how that little phrase which was so helpful with food has now been applied to all things, great extrapolation Caleb.

Now here are some random pictures I have taken over the last three weeks.

Caleb and Chris came to help me pack up my classroom.  While Chris was loading all the heavy stuff Caleb decided to explore the empty hallway.  One day this will be for real, crazy.

He found my coffee cup and decided he needed to sit at the table to drink out of it.   The strange wall color is because I had all the whiteboards and chalk board removed from my classroom. The new teacher didn't think they were up to par and is intending on replacing them.  So strange to meet your replacement when leaving a job you love.  I immediately didn't like her just because she is taking over my space. 

Our new favorite activity is attacking Max.

Handsome little man, just like his daddy

I'm so proud to be sitting at the table, and look at my foot.  By the way, feet is one of his favorite words, along with shoes.

Do you see the cereal in his ear?  Not my best move laughing at this one.  He now tries to put all food in his ears.  Oops.

Still trying to put food in his ears, or maybe he was retrieving it to eat. 

Why are you taking pictures of me mom?  I'm just eating.  Wonder if he will still be so kind with his looks when he is a teenager.

This is Caleb kindly playing by himself for a good 20 minutes with these Melissa and Doug Cars that you can build.  I think he is making a train.  I was about to loose it this day, I was so very very thankful he played by himself.

Caught playing in the blinds.  My belly is a bit in the way.  Oops

The boys reading about Thomas the train together.  Adorable

This is me now, at 36 1/2 weeks.