Avocado

Caleb loves avocado. It was his first food after rice cereal. He probably has an avocado once a week. At the grocery store earlier today, I grabbed one and gave it to him because he was so excited and kept saying avocado avocado. The next thing I know, I see him chewing on something. I took the avocado out of his hand and see that he's bitten the skin off of it. I had to scoop the avocado peel? skin? rind? out of his mouth and take the avocado away from him. This whole thing made me laugh.

Caleb and Ally

Caleb and his older cousin Allyson are 8 months apart. Both my sister and I think it's great that they're pretty close in age and they'll have a cousin to grow up with. When these two get together it is LOUD. They run around the house screaming, chasing each other, and follow what the other is doing, good AND bad. Ally has this DJ music toy. It's fun to see them dance to the music.

Double Stroller

While pregnant, I didn't really put much thought into getting a double stroller. I figured I would wait and see if I needed one. I also didn't really have much time to research or shop and those things can cost a pretty penny. That all changed when my mother-in-law offered to buy one for us.

One of the strollers we already have is a City Mini that I love. It has a great canopy, sturdy wheels, and folds up super easy. A friend of mine (Thanks Joyce!) has one too and she forwarded me a link to the new City Select double stroller. On paper, it looked awesome. The seats are tandem which I preferred and the big marketing ploy is that it has 16 configurations. The one con I found is that I need to remove the seat to unfold it. It isn't hard it's just an extra step.

So back in April when my mother-in-law was in town we drove up to Lullaby Lane to check it out. Unfortunately the store did not have the car seat adaptor and so I couldn't see how that whole thing worked. But I did get to push the actual stroller and see how to fold/unfold. I was assured that it was easy to put the adapter. I also tested out a Phil & Ted's and one other one that I can't remember but all the different configurations really sold me on the City Select. My mother-in-law and I decided to place the order but were a little disappointed that it was back ordered until JULY! ugh!

Lullaby Lane called last month to tell me that the stroller and second toddler seat arrived but the car seat adapter won't arrive until mid or late July. eek! I was hoping it would come in early because we plan on going to Disneyland at the end of July and the double stroller would really come in handy. I was in luck..on Friday the car seat adapter package arrived on my doorstep.

Now here's where the adventure begins. I think I'm a smart enough person to read instructions and put things together that don't require power tools. I opened up the boxes on Saturday and read the instructions. Simple enough. My first attempt involved putting the car seat adapter in, put the car seat on top and got stuck when I tried to put in the toddler seat. I turned around the adapter and tried again. No luck. I threw caution to the wind and thought maybe the adapter was labeled wrong and switched things up again. No luck. Was hot and sweaty by this time and the baby was crying. Step away from it to clear my head.

Second attempt : Looked online for better instructions. No luck. Kept staring at the configuration picture to see if the light bulb in my head would turn on. No luck. Cursed the instructions. Doubted my intelligence and so I called Jamie in for reinforcements. To my relief, he was dumbfounded too. We kept switching things up. We did have a breakthrough and was able to have the toddler seat and car seat both facing me. But the configuration I wanted was car seat facing me and toddler seat facing out.

Third attempt: This morning I looked online and watched a demo video. aha! I get it now! Followed what the video did but still was not able to get the car seat to face me. We had both the toddler seat and car seat facing out. FINALLY, Jamie had an idea while playing around with the car seat adapter. It worked!

So after 3 attempts and two nights of sleeping on it, we assembled the double stroller with the configuration that I want.

Voila!


Now, I hope it lives up to my expectations once both kids are in it and I actually use it!

Caleb's 2nd birthday party

Being that we just had Lucas and our house is under construction, we decided to have Caleb's birthday where it'd be short, fun, and no clean-up on our part. We chose U-Me, a playspace in Menlo Park.

If you know Caleb he absolutely loves balls so of course it had to be a ball themed party. U-Me did a fantastic job of decorating the party space with balloons, banner, and got some sport ball themed table decorations. The staff took care of setting up all the food, cake, and best of all clean up!

Here are a few pictures:

Blowing out his candle


The trampoline


The slide


Caleb and Ally

Caleb's in love...

I would say Caleb leans toward being shy than outgoing. A couple of weeks ago I popped in at the end of his art class. When everyone was leaving, he was intent on giving this one little girl a hug.

Today the same little girl was at Linden Tree bookstore for music in the courtyard. He noticed her right away. He kept saying "girl, girl". He had some stickers in his hand and I asked if he wanted to give her one. He said "yes". I said, "go over there and give it to her" And he did! At the end of the concert, I went up to the mom and asked her what was the little girl's name. It's Camilla.

Later that day, I retold the story to Jamie. Jamie asked Caleb about the girl and I think he actually blushed!

But you ask him who his girlfriend is, a lot of times he mentions his friend, R.

Go Away Mommy...

In a previous post I talked about Caleb asking me to lie down next to him when he falls asleep. It's kind of a pain because I never know how long I'll have to lie down. And I tend to think about the never ending to-do list. Tonight, I was putting Lucas to bed while Jamie read Caleb some books. When I went into Caleb's room, he said "Go away Mommy". So I did and figured he'd ask for me after Jamie finished reading books. NOPE! Didn't happen like I expected. And yes I'm sad about it.

Caleb - 2 year stats

Caleb had his 2 year pediatrician appointment today. Up until today, he was weighed in one of those bucket looking weighing scales. Today he stood on the scale. It seems silly even to mention this but it's just one of those things that reminds you that he's growing up.

He weighed 29 pounds (60%) and is 36.5 inches tall (93%).

Just today while I was getting him ready for bed, we had a conversation about something that I can't even remember (and it was only 2 hours ago!) but it made me think that he's such a little person now. He can be fiercely independent and at times insists on doing something himself. I was putting on a pair of pants on him once and he wanted to do it himself. It was taking a long time so I just did it but he got upset and whined until I gave in and pulled the pants back down. aahh the joys of the terrible twos!

2 years old!

Caleb turned two today and I can't believe it. He's turning out to be a sweet, kind, and smart little boy. He is also shy and needs time to warm up to new situations and new people. He can play by himself and loves to sit and read books. Every morning when I walk into his room I find him on the bed with a book on his lap turning the pages. I say "Good Morning Caleb" and he replies "Good Morning Mommy" with a big smile. It makes it easier to get up in the morning knowing I have that smile and greeting to look forward to.

He is also beginning to show a preference in the clothes he wears and foods he eats. He used to love mac and cheese but now won't eat it. If he doesn't like something he will let me know and will wait for me to put my hand out so he can spit it out. He's developed a sweet tooth and likes cookies.

I could go on and on about Caleb about all the wonderful, funny and amazing things he does. I'm trying to keep track of it all but find it hard to remember at the end of the day. Here's an example from today. All day long I said to Caleb "Happy Birthday Caleb" He replied, "Happy Birthday Mommy". Cracked me up all day long. I tried to tell him to reply "Thank you"

Happy 2nd Birthday Caleb! I am so lucky to be your mom and love you so much!

Current favorites:
Food: waffles and avocado - but still loves fruit and yogurt
Activities: throwing balls, picking up rocks and throwing them in the creek at Shoup Park, dancing and singing. He also loves to looks at pictures and videos on my iPhone
TV show: Jack's Big Music Show
Books: Moongame, Knuffle Bunny Too, and Don't Let the Pigeon Stay up Late
Toys: Golf set
Shoes: Crocs
Clothes: the Jamie/Caleb matching pajama set. He would wear that every night if I would let him. I need to hurry and find another matching pajama set for Jamie and Caleb because BOTH of them have outgrown it.

Good Job Mommy 2

Caleb is so encouraging. Lately I've been suggesting to Caleb that we sing songs to Lucas. This morning he suggested we sing "Wheels on the Bus" but didn't participate. I sang the song to Lucas by myself but then was rewarded with a "Good Job Mommy" from Caleb. The first time I thought it was cute. This time it was even cuter!

Diaper Days

Jamie and I are fans of Pixar movies so we really wanted to go see Toy Story 3 in the theater. But with 2 kids we didn't think it was possible. Luckily there is Diaper Days. A chance to go see a movie in the theater with your babies and young kids without having to stress about keeping them quiet. Kids aren't running around screaming during the movie but there is a level of noise that is tolerated.

So the plan was for the four of us to go the scheduled "Diaper Days" showing. Well, Jamie didn't realize that it was at the same time as the World Cup semi-final match between Germany and Spain. He really got into watching this tournament even waking up early at 7am to watch matches! (My reaction to this is a WHOLE other blog post). So he wanted to stay home to watch the match and I wanted to still go watch the movie but didn't think I could handle both kids. I decided that I would take Lucas today and Jamie could take Caleb to the Diaper Date Night showing at 6:30pm next week.

This was my first time going to Diaper Days and I have to say I was amused by it all.

1. There were the regulars - moms who brought blankets to spread out on the floor in the space reserved for wheelchairs.
2. Another use for a boppy - an oversized neck pillow
3. I actually liked the lower volume
   
4. I didn't know movie theaters carry booster seats for kids
5. You know how you look up at the seats to scout out where you want to sit? Well I was heading up the stairs thinking, there's lots of room but when I took a closer look, those seats were occupied by little toddlers. You can't see their heads until you reach the row.
   

I anticipated the worse and sat on an aisle seat so 1) I could get up and rock Lucas if/when he got fussy and 2) make a quick exit if need be without disturbing anyone. Well, to my surprise Lucas was great! He was sleeping when we arrived and stayed asleep in his car seat for a while(yipee!). He woke up hungry and I was prepared with a bottle of breastmilk. After guzzling that down he snoozed for a bit again in my arms. He fussed for a little when he woke up so I rocked him a bit in the aisle. I missed about 5 minutes of the movie because I had to change his diaper. But overall it was fun. I enjoyed the movie a lot and did tear up a bit. I would totally do it again and would even entertain the thought of bringing both kids by myself.

I may even go with Jamie and Caleb next week since it would be Caleb's first time at the movie theater and I want to see that first hand. I didn't think about that when I suggested it to Jamie.

Watch what you say...

Now that Caleb is almost 2 years old, his language skills and vocabulary are developing rapidly. Everyone says you need to watch what you say around them because even when you don't think they're listening they are.

I'll be the first to admit that it's tough having a newborn and a toddler. It seems that both kids will want something at the exact same moment. One moment it's calm and the next Lucas is crying and Caleb is saying "I want.." And having a newborn who only cries to communicate can get frustrating.

It may sound like I'm rambling but I had one of these moments this morning. Caleb accidentally woke up Lucas from a nap so he was a bit grumpy (as was I). We were trying to get it together to go have breakfast. I was putting a crying Lucas in the car seat so I said, "Lucas, chill..." And before I finished my sentenced Caleb said "out!"

Oh goodness! It made me realize I must say "chill out" to Lucas when he's crying a bit too much if Caleb already picked up on it. Jamie witnessed the whole thing and chuckled.

I love you Mommy

This morning Caleb said, "I love you Mommy" completely out of the blue. I almost couldn't believe it. Usually we have to say "I love you Caleb" before we get an "I love you" back. Every time I think about it I get teary eyed. It's absolutely hands down the best thing in the world to hear those words from your child.