Fall is here!

I am so far behind...... my house is not decorated "fall-like", my closets have not been switched over, and I have not bought a pumpkin yet. AND, I have not blogged in a while.

From this past Saturday until this Saturday, I was "kidsitting" two kids from DA.  She is a 7th grader and he is a 9th grader.  They live in the MOST amazing house ever and the kids are awesome.  Hank, unfortunately, did not go with us since they have 2 cats and 2 dogs (Boston Terriers), so that was a little stressful for me and Eddie-- one of us had to go over there at night to let him out before bed.  I would be up with the kids in the morning, so Eddie would run home to let him out.  About half way through the week, I just told Eddie to stay at home.  It was just too hard on him.
So, Cal and I got to hang out in this amazing house all week!

Sweetpea and Hobo loving on Cal.  And he loved that they were his size!

During the week, we went back to the museum again, and this time, we were able to spend some time outside since the weather had cooled off so much (finally!).  There are some great animals there and Cal LOVED them!  He would gasp over and over and over again every time he saw something new....actually, he would gasp when he saw something for the second or third time.  He was just flat out excited!

 Cal and his buddy Wyatt at the museum.  The boys loved the animals!

 I love Cal's hand in this one-- he was waving it at the animals over and over again. 

These pictures were taken today.  I just loved his little outfit (thank you, Target for the $6 sweatshirt!).  Cal was in kind of a funk and was having a total meltdown in between pictures.  As you can see in the second picture, he reached his limit.  I am not sure what his deal was today, but he was SUPER fussy.  He tried every last one of my nerves today!  Every time Eddie called me, Cal was screaming in the background.  He knew it had been a rough day! 

It actually got so humorous, I broke out the video camera to film his meltdowns!  (okay, before you give me the award for the worst mother of the year, just wait.....)  Cal was melting down over NOTHING.  He would press his favorite button on a toy that plays music and it cycles through 2 different songs.  He loves one and likes the other one (they really aren't that different).  He pressed the button today and the song he likes came on and he just fell to the ground screaming and crying.  Then, I would press the button and the song he loves would come on and he'd pop up and start dancing.  This little routine was on repeat for about 15 minutes until I just took the toy away....which caused him to have another fit!  Then, he was opening and slamming cabinets in the kitchen and if they didn't make a loud enough noise, he would drop to the ground screaming (at least, I am guessing that is what caused him to drop.  Really, there is no telling.  He wouldn't scream if it made a loud bang, but he would if it was quiet.....sigh).

He didn't take a morning nap today, but he did take an afternoon nap, so who knows what his problem was today.  I am sure he will be fine tomorrow and it's probably teeth or something upsetting him.

Ahhhh, the joys of parenting!
:)

Best Buddies

I write a lot of posts about how much Cal loves his dogdog, Hank. Well, Hank is pretty fond of Cal too. I shot this video of the two of them playing...Cal loves to go get Hank's toys and bring them to him. We have more of Hank's toys laying around the house than Cal's: go figure!
Here is the video:

The Birthday Party

The invite

Sunday was a beautiful day: hotter than get out, but still pretty and sunny! We had been planning for Cal's big party for a few weeks now and the Friday before the party, Eddie asked me to make him a list of everything I would need him to do before the party. I made the (pretty long) list and handed it to him and he decided he would get up on Sunday morning and complete the list. I swore I wouldn't be stressed out with his list because I had a list of my own to tend to.


We woke up Sunday morning with Eddie running to the bathroom to puke. Are you kidding me?? Bless his heart, he was SO ill the whole day. Thank goodness his sister was in town to take care of Cal while I ran like a wild woman to get everything set up and take care of his list as well as mine! My parents stepped it up too, thankfully and we pulled off a great party! I was sad Eddie wasn't able to come, but I know all of those parents were glad he wasn't there spreading the germs around.




Here are some pictures from the football themed party:

Grandma and Momma as the Refs

The jump house

So excited about the jump house

He sees the balloons and can't believe it!

The favors

With the birthday boy

The food spread on the "football field" table cloth

The birthday boy!

Checking it all out

The grandparents with their grandchildren

The tables and chairs

The cake-- a football field with a C in the middle

Cal with his "smash cake": in the shape of a football

taking a swing of his water while smashing the cake (missing a shoe)

half way through

m.e.s.s.

stylin' his hair with some cake

ahhhhh....water

after a bath in his new t-shirt!  (LOVE IT, Danita!!!)

waking up the next morning

After the party, I opened all of Cal's presents after putting him to bed and then took them all out of their boxes/wrappings so they were ready to play with.  I had them all lined up in the family room so when Cal came downstairs the next morning they would all be out on "display" and ready to play with!  He was in heaven!

Cal did some serious damage on his smash cake.  I took a video of the whole party so that Eddie could see it all.... here is a link to it: http://gallery.mac.com/cewilliamson#100655

I think Cal had a wonderful first birthday party and he loved just walking around the field visiting with everyone!

ONE YEAR OLD!

How can it be???  I swear, I was just on here writing about his first month....it is so cliche to say, but time is flying! 

On September 16th, Cal turning 1 year old.  We had his one year check up today so I thought I'd do his updates from that and then do a post about his party....

Weight: 22 pounds, 11 ounces: 50th percentile
Height: (can't remember the number): 25-50th percentile
Head: 95th percentile!  ACK!  For all of those brains!

Cal put on QUITE a show for Dr. Kathy.  We love her.  We were in the large examination room and Cal was stripped down to a diaper and strutting around the room.  When she walked in, he gasped and ran over to her.  She dropped down to the ground and he gave her a huge hug then burst out laughing.  It was to die for. 

Dr. Kathy was impressed with all of his "tricks" and he was chatting up a storm while we were there.  Bless Cal's heart, they had to draw blood to see if he is anemic.  THAT is a process with a squirmy one year old!  He was trying his best to get away while the nurse was squeezing his little finger to fill a vial with his blood.  She couldn't get enough from one finger so she had to prick another one.  He didn't care a thing about the prick, but the holding still part was no fun for him!

After the finger pricks, it was time for his shots.  I think he got 4.  I had to hold the top half of him down while the nurse got the bottom half.  It was TOUGH!  Poor little guy...it broke my heart to see him scream like that!  As soon as I picked him up, he put his head on my shoulder and let out the biggest sigh.  It was SO SWEET.  It just took it out of him!

Other updates:

Sleeping:
Cal is sleeping every night from 7:00 until 8:00 in the morning.  I hope this trend continues because it's awesome!

His naps are a little different.....when we were in TX, he took some KILLER naps.  Now, he will go down about an hour and a half after he wakes up.  If he sleeps, he will sleep for about 1.5 hours.  Sometimes, he just sits in there and plays a little bit and has some quiet time.  He will take a great afternoon nap though, especially if he missed his morning nap.  I am about ready for him to drop that nap so we can get out and do more in the mornings. 

Eating:

Cal is quite the eater!  He will pretty much eat whatever I give him.  He has started not liking to be spoon fed so much....he prefers to do it on his own. SOOoooooo messy!  He loves chicken nuggets, and sometimes I will go to Chik-fil-a and get the one strip kids meal-- he looooves that!  I did that today after the shots :)  He also loves ground beef, spaghetti, cheesy bread, apple sauce, etc, etc....really, the kid loves everything!  I haven't started any allergy conscious foods yet.  I think he would love some peanut butter, and I know he would love some scrambled eggs...maybe that will be this week!

Moving all around:
Cal never crawls any more.  The kid is a walker through and through!  He gets himself going and will be running like crazy. It's adorable to watch him walk all over the place.  He is obsessed with the stairs.  He currently have two large baskets blocking the stairs (it's time to get baby gates.  We know.). 

Words:

He will carry on a conversation with himself in baby babble-- and I LOVE it.  He says Mom, Dadda, dogggyyyy, bahhh (bird), and he understands a lot of words.  If I ask him if he is ready for his bottle before bed/nap time, he will walk to the kitchen and stand next to the fridge waiting for me. 

I can NOT believe a whole year has gone by.  I am so crazy in love with my little man and I know the love will only continue to grow and grow as the years pass. 

Here are a few of the thousand things I love about Cal right now.....

I love when he's tired, he will come over and wrap his arms around my legs and bury his head in my knees.
I love when he sees something new: he gasps!
I love right after his bath when he smells amazing.
I love tickling right behind his leg and making him squeal.
I love his curiosity.
I love when he thinks something is funny and he can't stop laughing.
I love how he loves Hank.
I love when he wraps his arms around my neck and squeezes like his life depends on it.
I love his little full belly after he eats.
I love when he wants to look at something so he squats down to see it.
I love how he says "ahhhhhh" after every single time he drinks from his sippy cup.
I love watching him play independently. 
I love when his bottom lip comes out (I hate when he's upset, but the lip is so darn cute).

okay, I could go on and on, but this is part of the list for now......

Happy Birthday to the sweetest little guy I could ever ask for...love you!

Texas and Tahoe!

What a busy week!  Last week was wild...I am still playing catch up :)

On August 31st, I had my 30th birthday party, on September 1st, I turned 30 (!), on the 2nd, Eddie flew to TX and on the 3rd, Cal and I hopped on a plane to join the Williamson family for Labor Day weekend and the season opener in Cowboys Stadium.  Cal and I stayed out there for the week so he could get some good Grammy/Poppy time.  After Texas, Cal and I flew up to Lake Tahoe for my cousin's wedding....

Here are some pictures documenting our journey....

At RDU airport trying to wave at the planes.  This was before the WORST flight of my life :) Cal never slept and was WILD throughout the 3 hours it took to get there.  We were in a window seat with two other people next to us.  He flung milk every where and had graham crackers all over the woman next to us.  I had the shakes for 2 hours after we landed.  It was ROUGH. 

After we landed in DFW, we strapped him into the car and he was out like a light-- of course! 

Grammy had balloons in the house since we all know what a fan Cal is... he carried them around the WHOLE week-- those balloons would not die!  He was given golf clubs as a birthday gift and would swing them at the balloons :)  Also, his aunts were there acting as paparazzi...

Cal sitting in Poppy's chair playing with his golf clubs that were an early birthday gift from Grammy and Poppy.  They gave him a gift every few hours while we were there!  He loved the clubs and carried them EVERYWHERE we went while we were out in TX!  Actually, they went to Tahoe too! haha

Game Day! The bottom two pictures were from the grocery store in Fort Worth!  I was AMAZED by them!  The first one is boxes of Diet Coke with purple Fanta spelling out TCU. The second one is Fanta and Diet Dr. Pepper with Dr. Pepper making the football.  We walked into the store and I could not get over the amount of time that must have taken a grocery store employee!  (it's the little things, right??) 

The top two pictures are riding the family bus to the game and the bottom pictures are from the game.  Cecilia, the adorable little girl hugging Cal is the daughter of one of the football coaches.  We spent some time with Cecilia and her mommy, Jenny, while we were out in Fort Worth.  Cecilia is SO FREAKING SMART!  Her mom is doing something right.  That child is 2 1/2 and can count (really high) can say her ABCs, can point to a letter and tell you what it is (she's about ready to start reading), and thanks to Dora, the girl can count to 5 in SPANISH!!!  And she's TWO!  Isn't that impressive?  (okay, I just went off on a tangent there...)

This was a highlight of the game.  Mr. Cal Boy made it up on the Jumotron at the game!  The crazy thing about this picture is it was taken by some random girl who was just trying to take a picture of the field and who didn't even know Cal.  A friend of my sister-in-law's saw it on this girl's facebook page and took a picture of it and sent it to Tricia.  Small world, right?

Poppy's "shrine" of Cal pictures.  I try to send Patty and Big Ed a picture a day, and Big Ed will print out his favorites and put them up on the board.  He can't bring himself to throw any away.  When the pushpin will not hold any more, he will remove a few and put them in a folder on the side of his desk marked CAL.  That folder is about to need a backup--it's overflowing. 

This picture just cracks me up.  Getting in the tub with his TCU shirt on (and his little cheeks hanging out--haha)

We took Cal to the mall one day to look for some new shoes.  We pulled into the parking lot only to discover we left his stroller in the garage back at the house...opps!  So, we rented one of these little creations.  It was interesting, to say the least!  Cal had his first and only melt down the entire week at this mall.  And it was a DOOZIE!  You would think it was his terrible twos from the way he threw a fit.  Lord, help me when the terrible twos really do hit! A few graham crackers and he was good to go with some new shoes too!

We celebrated Cal's first birthday with the Williamson's while we were out there.  He LOVED the cake and had a blast eating/smashing it.  haha-- SUCH a mess!

Fort Worth has a wonderful children's museum that we visited one day.  Cal had a great time pushing the shopping cart around and he was obsessed with the bubble tunnels. 

Visiting Poppy at TCU's practice

swinging on some swings at the CUTEST park that Jenny and Cecilia took us to

We made it to Tahoe! The weather was much cooler--it was wonderful! Cal was wild on the flight again, but this time, my dad bumped Cal and I up to first class so he was wild with more room :)  Tahoe was GORGEOUS and we had a great time exploring.

At the rehearsal dinner out on the beach-- beautiful setting!

love some of these from the rehearsal dinner

At the wedding on top of Heavenly Mountain.  And it was just that: Heavenly!

Molly's little girl, Sydney, and Cal

Playing with Grandpa at the wedding-- it was too cute watching him!

Mom and Dad- good lookin' couple!

Cousins!  love love love her :)

Love these of Cal taking grandpa for a walk.  He was pointing at all of the birds and talking baby blabber up a

My cousins: Patrick and Molly on the wedding day-- LOVE them!

It was a great 10 days, but I was SOOOOO ready to get home!  Cal was a trooper the whole time.  In TX, he slept until 8:30 every day (9:30 EST) and took two naps a day, each over 2 hours!  He is super backwards now that we are home.  He is sleeping late, but his naps are all screwed up.  We will get back on track soon, I swear!