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!

Two years ago today....

Two summers ago, I found a lump in my breast (what a way to start a blog entry, right??).  I had my annual obgyn appointment the week after I found it so I had the doctor check it out.  Breast cancer runs in my family so I was a little unnerved by the whole thing.  The doc checked it and wanted me to get an ultrasound on it just to make sure all was okay and to put me at ease.  I had my appointment for the end of August to get the ultrasound (they said I was too young to do a mammogram).

My mom went with me to the appointment and we were sure it was absolutely nothing, and everyone was just being overly cautious. 

The technician started the ultrasound and I noticed a frown on her face and I got a huge pit in my stomach.  She left the room and brought back a doctor with her.  He looked at the screen and said he thought I should get a biopsy on the lump.  uhhhh..... that was NOT what we thought he was going to say. 

I walked back to the waiting room where mom was and didn't say a word.  We went to the car and I just lost it.  I was terrified.  I didn't want to get Eddie worked up, since he can't handle me crying so I pulled it together to call him to fill him in on the outcome of the appointment.  Halfway through the call, I started crying (of course).  My mom took me back to school where I told the school secretary I was going to take the afternoon off to process all of this. 

Playing the "what if" game doesn't do a bit of good, but you really can't help it.  I kept thinking what if this is cancer?  What if I have to start chemo? What if what if what if......so morbid!

I had to call the cancer center to schedule the biopsy and it was a while before they could fit me in, so I had to sit and play the what if game for a couple of weeks.  It made for a quiet birthday celebration, that is for sure!  My whole family had it on their minds, but no one wanted to talk about the what ifs. 

On September 2nd, I went in to the cancer center and had my biopsy...had NO idea how much that one hurt!  Apparently, when you are young and your boobs are perkier and firmer it's harder to maneuver the needle around in there, as opposed to an older woman who has some sag going on (note: this was pre-baby.  I have plenty of sag now...). 

Anyway, to make a long story LONG, we left there and went to the Breast Clinic where I met a doctor who felt my lump and said right away, "that isn't cancer."  Uhhh....couldn't we have seen her first and had her tell us this??  She said she couldn't be certain, but that it didn't "feel" cancerous. 

She was the one who received the biopsy results and called me later that same day to tell me that yes, there was a lump, but that it was not cancerous.  yeeeehaw!  I called everyone in my family and we all cried the happiest tears.

Moral of the story......check your boobies, girls!  And don't take life for granted.   And don't freak out until you have to!

Birthday Fiesta!

It was SUCH a fun birthday party!  We had close to 60 people show up and I loved seeing everyone together.  Here are some pics from the party!  Can't believe I am 30!!!  (I am leaving tomorrow for 11 days in Texas and Tahoe so I don't have time to write too much, plus I have another blog entry to do later today.....)

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.....