Dear 20s,

Dear 20s,

Tomorrow I will be leaving you behind and joining a new decade.  I am not sad to turn 30, but I do thank you for all of the fun times being in my 20s provided.  The wrinkles on my face cannot be blamed on turning 30.  I am happy to be able to blame them on the fun times on the beach (where I didn't put on enough sunscreen....opps), on the hilarious events that kept me laughing for hours and sometimes days, and even on my frustration working with students (which turned into smile lines once they figured it out!).   Realizing that when I am turning 40, I will not enjoy those wrinkles nearly as much, right now, I wouldn't trade those days on the beach or those happy times for anything. 


After watching the wonder that is The Bachelor Pad last night, I looked at Eddie and said, "I may be turning 30, but at least I am happy with my life right now.  I could be 30 and a contestant on the Bachelor Pad participating in a kissing contest....".  A little perspective, no?


I love you 20s, but it's time to say goodbye!  I have got to rock this next decade :)

So we think he can dance

Cal and I love to play together.  We get down on the ground and roll around and crack each other up (okay, he cracks me up.  I just make him stare.).  Yesterday, we rolled over a toy and it started making some noise and Cal started dancing to it.  Over and over again!  He loves to push the button and then dance! 
(sorry to repost, the first one didn't load the entire video)

MILF's Retreat

Yes, the title of this blog is gross.  We don't care.

This past weekend I headed to the beach with some girlfriends, a big bunch of mommas, for a little girl bonding freedom :)  We thought the title of our weekend was fitting!  Everyone left Friday afternoon and since I was gone all last week, I left Saturday morning and only went for one night.  It was so funny-- by Sunday morning, we were all up and at 'um ready to get back to our babies!
We spent quality time on the beach and in the ocean, went for a booze cruise and had a fabulous dinner out at a great restaurant.  We all enjoyed just being girls!

Here are some pics from the weekend....

This about sums it up.....

Scrub Island

What a week!  We had a wonderful time enjoying each other's company.  Leaving on Tuesday morning was a bit tough.  Our flight was early so both of my parents came over early and my dad took us while my mom stayed and waited for Cal to wake up.  I cried on the way to the airport (I know-- SUCH a wuss), but then sucked it up and was great for the rest of the trip!  My mom would send us updates throughout the day with everything they were doing and it helped me so much.  That way, I wouldn't be sitting there wondering what they were doing.  Cal had a big time at Grandma's house, and I think they both really had fun together.  I do think, however, that they were both ready for us to get home!  I think Cal's business might have worn out my mom just a tad :)  We came home to him walking all over the place (for longer distances), and he looked like he had grown 4 inches!  We were amazed!

Anyway....the trip really was special and made us realize how much the time together was  needed.  Here are a few of the TONS of pictures we took.  The resort was the nicest resort I have ever seen.  We lucked out and got a corner suite and it was INCREDIBLE!  I couldn't believe our luck!  It was a smaller group, which proved to be a blast.  Everyone knew everyone by the end and it was one big party every night.  I could party it up too, because I didn't have to get up and take care of a baby the next day!

Enjoying the Wine Pairings Dinner

We did a lot of sitting in the water with a beverage

Sitting in the water with a beverage!

Going to dinner one night

Our bathroom.  The tub was HUGE!  And it had a TV too!  I was in heaven (the tv didn't work so I wasn't watching it!)

On an all day island hopping trip.  We snorkeled and then went to a few bars on different islands: so fun!

On our way to the next island!!!

Again, we had a wonderful trip, but we are both glad to be home with our little guy.  We woke him up (sorta) when we got home last night and he looked at us like he had no idea who we were!  We had a ton of fun playing today....and I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off playing catch up!  There are more pictures here if you are bored and want to see more!

11 Months Old!

I can not believe my little guy is 11 months old already!  He is going to be a year before we know it! Time is flying by and I swear to you, every month I think it can't get much better, but it soooo does.  Cal is getting more and more fun and we fall more and more in love with him every single day.  We are so blessed to have this little man in our lives.

Here are some updates at 11 months:

Height: I have no idea (we will get measured next month at our 1 year check up)

Weight: I would guess around 21-22 pounds.  He is slimming down now that he's so active

Eating: EVERYTHING!  He loves rotisserie chicken, ground beef, ground turkey, etc... he still loves cheese and cheesy toast.  He also likes spaghetti and his all time favorite food for right now is graham crackers.  He can't get enough!

Bottles: Coming from the kid who wouldn't take a bottle, he is LOVING his milk!  I stopped nursing on August 1st.  I was planning on finishing on the 2nd (just to have one more day of it), but that was the day that Grandpa passed away and I couldn't get home to nurse anyway, so it worked out well.  Cal hasn't looked back once.  He loves his bottle and the milk and I am sure would take 10 bottles a day, if we let him.   (side note: I thought I had completely....dried up....a few days after we stopped, but then a week to the day, I had these HUGE lumps form and they were SO SO painful....after I got through those, I was dried up :)  tmi..???)

Walking: Cal has walked, as I posted in the video, but he still prefers to crawl.  He will walk to one of us, and is walking more and more on his own.  It is so fun to watch him venture out on his own and walk away from whatever it is he is using as support.  Crawling is still faster, but I would imagine by next month, he'll be walking everywhere....YIKES!

Talking: We have a little chatterbox on our hands!  He doesn't say a lot, but he is passionate about whatever it is he's trying to get out.  It looks like he's preaching because his hands are waving and his face is real serious.  He will say dogdog while pointing at Hank, he says lighhhht, Mommmm and Daddad.  He says a few other things that we think are words, but we might be giving him a tab more credit because we are bias :) 

Tomorrow, Eddie and I are leaving for a vacation...just the two of us!  We are leaving Cal with my parents.  They are going to be FINE.  They are going to have such a great time together.  It's not them I am worried about!  Eddie had a golf trip this past weekend and he came home and said, "you are going to have a really hard time leaving him next week."  That is NOT what I need to hear!  We had a little *chat* after that about encouraging words vs. words that make me want to cry.  We both agreed to be positive about it all :)  It is going to be wonderful for us to have some alone time too.  I am taking 5 books.  As Zac Brown band says, I am going to have "my toes in the water, ass in the sand," and I am going to be loving it!

xoxox,

um, do I have anything on my face?

Bibs do not work anymore with Cal. At all. We have resorted to naked feedings. (I love this kid!)

Football predictions

Football season is right around the corner and Cal is making some predictions for his TCU Horned Frogs:

Balloooooons!

 

Cal is OBSESSED with balloons now, and loves getting one at Harris Teeter while we grocery shop.  I took him yesterday and skipped by the free balloons because I honestly wasn't thinking about them, and started shopping.  We got to the card aisle where they have the really nice balloons and Cal LOST it.  He was pointing and shouting/screaming something that sounded like BAHHHHHH!  (he wasn't crying or throwing a fit, he just got SO SO SO excited by the balloons there).  We pointed at the balloons and ohhh and ahhhed over them and then went to the next aisle.  Cal would not stop pointing and screaming BAHHHH, so I went to the front of the store where they have the free ones and tied one on to the cart.  He was in heaven! Two women came up to me and said they've never seen a baby get that excited about a balloon before... It was really hard to get a picture of this because he was waving it back and forth non-stop.... here ya go:

Pictures!

What a crazy few weeks we've had!  There have definitely been some blah moments around here lately, but you would never know it watching Cal.  That's the great thing about a baby, especially this baby-- he's always happy!  I could be having a down moment thinking about Aunt Liz or my Grandpa, and Cal would come in and do something so stinkin' cute, I couldn't help but smile.  After all of the sadness, it just feels so good to laugh with Cal, and he is getting funnier and funnier, and I fall more and more in love with him every day.  It's like I can't kiss him enough...you know?
Anyway, here are some pictures that have made me smile lately.  Hope they do the same for you :)

Bird Watching out on the boat!

Riding the boat with cousin Jackson

Pushing around the house (love his face in this one!)

Cal with his new favorite toy: a spatula!

Do you see me, mom?  Do I have any carrots on my face??

Climbing Mt. Hank, spatula still in hand (that is such a good dog....)

YAY!  I made it over the mountain!

hahahaha.....I am sooooooo funny! (and messy!)

Walking...?

Could it be? Do we really have a walker on our hands???  After the service today, Cal and I were playing like we usually do, and lately, Cal has been taking 1-2 steps towards me, but usually falls down.  This afternoon, he was standing for a really long period, so I thought I would try to see how far he could go.  I held out my hands, and then kept backing up and backing up.  Cal kept walking to me and walking to me.  He made it all the way across the room (about 15 steps!) so I decided to grab the camera.  It was wayyyy hard to film it on my own, but I had to try.  When Eddie got home, he sat on one side of the room and I sat on the other with the camera.  Cal was pretty proud of himself!

Here is a link to the video.  Once again, please ignore my voice (sigh), but this time, also ignore Eddie in his boxers in the background....HA!!!

This happiness was like a little gift from above after the sadness of this morning.

What do you think?  Will he be full on walking soon??

God's Work

I try to not be overly religious on my blog because I know not all readers share the same religious values that I do/my family does.  There is nothing wrong with that at all.  Everyone is different, obviously! After reading my last post, I realized I came across as MEGA Debby Downer and that wasn't the purpose.  Sometimes I write just to get feelings out and then go back later and realize how dramatic I sound. I wasn't trying to sound like I was some great person...it was just a way of expressing my emotions for all that had happened in the past few days......

This morning was my grandfather's memorial service.  We had it in the chapel of Croasdaile Village, where my grandparents are living.  It was so special-- Grandpa would have loved it.   My wonderful friend, Andrea, showed up.  She has known Grandpa for a loooooong time and grandpa would always ask about her. I was thrilled to see her there.  It meant so much.  A lot of grandpa's buddies showed up too, which is just so great to see. 

My mom got up in front and read a poem by Henry Van Dyke called "A Parable of Immortality."  Grandpa loved the water and being on the water in a sailboat, so this poem was especially fitting.  You can look it up if you want to read it (I would recommend it-- it's beautiful), but my favorite lines are as follows (her meaning the ship):

Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment
when someone at my side says, " There she goes! "
there are other eyes watching her coming . . .
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout . . .

" Here she comes! "

Grandpa used to always look around at the family when we were all together and say, "Isn't this a great family?" or "Is this family great or what?"  I could feel him there today with us smiling down thinking just that: what a GREAT family we have. 

my sweet sweet grandpa

here goes....

At 2:00 on Monday morning, I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. There was a pit in my stomach and I couldn't figure out why. After tossing and turning for a while, the phone rang at 3:00. Thinking it was a wrong number, I hit the silence button so it wouldn't wake up Eddie. I listened to the voicemail and the woman said there was an emergency at Croasdaile, where my grandparents live (it's an assisted living community). I called back immediately, but it was busy since she was trying to call me. I was shaking pretty badly at this point. Eddie was up and pacing beside me.

When I got in touch with the woman, she told me I needed to get there immediately--my grandfather had passed away. I was out the door 3 minutes later.

This is my mom's dad. I did a post a while back about my family tree and how it grows together (Grandpa is married to my dad's mom). ANYWAY-- unfortunately, my mom and dad were out of the country when this happened.

On my way to the hospital, I called my aunt first and told her and then I took a deep breath to call my mom and tell her the new that her father had passed away. Gulp. My dad has an international plan on his cell phone in case of emergencies, like this one (when he answered, he thought I was up with Cal and bored in the middle of the night and felt like calling him...uhhhh, not so much).

I got to grandma's and there were 2 police officers, 2 security officers, and one nurse and grandma sitting in the corner by herself. The door to the bedroom was closed. Grandpa was still in there.

He had gotten up in the night to go to the bathroom and fell to the ground on his way back. Grandma tried to get him up, but couldn't so she called security. They called me.  It is policy for a doctor to sign the death certificate before contacting the funeral home to remove the body. The doctor that was on call was not responding.  We were not able to contact the funeral home until several hours after I got there. It made for a very emotional morning.   

My Granpa was 92 (almost 93) and was an extraordinary man. He was always happy and laughed at everything. He was a solid rock in our family.

My parents tried as hard as they could to get a flight back here, but the soonest one they could get was Wednesday. Plans had to be made before then, and it was up to me to make them. It has been a crazy few days. I feel like all I have been doing is "figuring stuff out": who is staying with grandma? what am i going to do with cal when i go to the funeral home? will i be there in time to give grandma lunch? can her friend get her to her room while i go to the clinic to get her meds? can i find a sitter to keep cal while i keep grandma?..... it goes on and on and it is exhausting. Grandma can't be left alone, and I thought I could handle Cal and grandma at the same time and I couldn't. It was too much. Grandma is too needy and Cal is too...wild.  My aunt has been really helpful, but she had to go back to work today. She spent the night there Monday and Tuesday and we have been tag-teaming to help out as much as possible.

Grandpa's passing was a blessing. Or at least that's what we keep telling ourselves. He lived a great life and we are thrilled that he didn't suffer at all. He brought a smile to all that were in contact with him.  I ADORE this man and I am going to miss him so much.  I hope he knows how much be meant to all of us...and that we will never ever forget him.