3 videos to send us off

Well, it's about that time... we are leaving tomorrow morning for San Diego for the Poinsettia Bowl. Our flight leaves at 6 am.  We need to be at the airport by 5:00, which makes us leave the house around 4:30.  In order to allow enough time to shower, get dressed, wake, dress and feed the boys, I have just set our alarm for 3:15AM.  Think it will be a long day?  I am just wondering how many Diet Cokes I will drink...

I finished the shopping, wrapped the last of the gifts and packed the suitcases...and I am SPENT. Looking forward to a nice, relaxing flight to the west coast--hahahahahahahaha-- YEAH RIGHT!  I got a few new movies for the iPad; fingers are crossed Cal will enjoy them.  Fingers are also crossed that Andy will just pass out and sleep away the flight.  We are flying through Atlanta, so the first flight will be easy (well, sorta), but the second flight is going to be long. 

Oh-- did I mention both boys are fighting colds?  Neither one is bad, but they both have runny noses.  I am praying that flying doesn't hurt their ears. 

I really need to go finish packing my carry on bag, but I wanted to update the blog with these three videos...

Cal is obsessed with the iPad and was "showing" Andy his Mickey Mouse show the other morning.  It was too sweet!  He kept saying: "See, Andy?  See Mickey?"  My heart was literally aching it was so sweet. 

I took the boys to the park yesterday morning to burn off some energy.  Cal was running around at full speed so I put Andy in the swing-- his first time in the swing at the park.  He thought it was great!  I am in love with his laugh.

The other day Andy woke up from his nap in the best mood (he usually is in a pretty darn good mood).  He was cracking up at everything so I filmed it.  I just want to hang on to these moments for ever and ever and ever!

Triangle Performance

Cal's preschool had their holiday program this morning.  My mom and Eddie came to watch.  The bigger kids did a little "play" while the younger kids joined in for two songs at the end.  Eddie filmed it and it cracks me up.  Cal isn't in class with Brad (Brad goes MWF), but they combined classes for today.  The boys sat next to each other and are too funny... Cal did not see us until the first song started.  Then he saw me and waved, then he saw my mom and said "there's Gramma!" haha too funny... this makes me smile.

Christmas Card

I LOVE this time of year for so many reasons.  I love the meaning behind the reason for Christmas, I love the decorations, I love the holiday music, I love making Christmas cookies, etc etc etc.  I could go on and on...

One of my favorite things about Christmas time is the holiday cards!  I look forward to going to my mailbox every day to see the cards.  It has become quite the battle to capture a good holiday card for us to send out...
here are some out takes:

get. off. of. me.

hank wanted in...

not sure andy can breathe...

umm...andy? are you there?

no one was feeling this one

I'll take that!

if he was an only child, this might be the card...

 And, here was our final card...

front

back

Wish I could send ALL of you cards! I would like to wish you all a very happy holiday season though!

ABCs

I have posted previously about Cal working on his ABCs... he loves to sing them, well, sing anything really.  He has started to get much better at them-- last night he was reciting them and I filmed one of the times...

(please ignore Eddie in the background in his boxers...he forbid me from putting this video on Facebook-hahhahaha)

Holiday Express

On Sunday, we drove to Raleigh to visit Pullen Park and the Holiday Express.  This is a great park and this event is a neat little thing to do for Christmas so we were really excited!  There were Christmas lights every where, a HUGE carausal to ride, a train going around and Santa was there too! 

A few families from the play group were there, but everyone was kind of running around at their own pace so we hung out with Brad's family (Hi, Sally!), which suited the boys (and parents!) just fine! 

The park does not offer a lot of parking near the park, so we had to park at a remote lot down the road and a bus picked us up and transported us over.

It was C-O-L-D outside!  The event started at 4 and we didn't get there until around 5, so the temperature was dropping as the sun went down.  I wasn't really worried about Cal getting cold because he was going to be running around with Brad.  Andy, on the other hand, was going to be hanging out in the stroller for the evening.  We bundled everyone up tight and they were both happy as could be!  Andy did not make one peep the entire time we were there-- just sat in the stroller all wrapped up smiling at everyone. 

When we first arrived, Cal could hear the train blowing its horn and it was almost more than he could take.  I tried to film his reaction to the horn, but he started saying this:

Before we left the house, I asked Eddie if he saw Cal's hat in the car.  He said yes, we we left.  Well, there is a little lesson in communication there-- I mean his tobogon (dear lord, how do you spell that??) hat and Eddie thought I meant baseball hat.  We panicked since it was so cold out, so we put Andy's hat on Cal and improvised for Andy's head:

Turns out I had Cal's hat hidden in the bottom of the stroller, so he was happy and Andy didn't have to have a blanket wrapped around his noggin!

waiting for the bus to pick us up!

I'm in love

he did this the whole night

 Once we ran in to Brad and his family, the boys took off running...and didn't stop the entire time we were there-- they were so cute together in their red jackets!

 There was a little band playing Christmas music so the boys sat (for all of 3 seconds) to watch:

After running around, we headed over to visit with Santa.  The boys took a picture together, which I think it sooooooo sweet- love it! And then they did individual pictures.  A mother in front of us in line asked if they were twins... they really looked alike in their red coats and hats!

don't they just look like trouble? also- I think Cal is holding Santa's thumb- so cute!

 Cal was in mid-visit with Santa, telling him what he wanted for Christmas, when the train blew its horn.  Cal screamed CHOO CHOO! while sitting there- hahaha

We had a great time and enjoyed the evening out with the fam and friends.  It was a great way to get us in the holiday spirit!

Happenings lately

Sorry for neglecting the blog lately... I am a bit of a hot mess on wheels, but I wanted to take a minute to document everything that's been going on around this crazy place!

I wrote about the little bug that Cal had-- after 8 (EIGHT) days of the nastiness (that would be 8 days of changing crib sheets, etc...!), he woke up clean on Saturday morning.  Phew!  I called the doctor to make sure he was not contagious and we went to a birthday party Saturday morning.  It was my good friend's daughter's 4th birthday and she had a reindeer themed party.  It was super cute and Cal had fun making the crafts and eating a doughnut.

Sunday, we had another busy day, but we kept our eyes on ESPN for most of the day.  Due to a crazy turn of events, there was a chance TCU was going to be invited to play in the Sugar Bowl.  They had to be ranked 16th in the BCS poll to get the bid.  Two other polls came out and we were ranked 15th and 16th, so our fingers were crossed... unfortunately, we were a little short of 16th, but we were invited to the Poinsettia Bowl out in San Diego.
I didn't think we would be making the trek across country to attend this bowl game, but Eddie really wanted the whole family to go, so we will be jingling all the way there next week!  ha!  I have been feeling a little bit of a time crunch since we will be gone the week before Christmas...all of my gifts have to be ordered/assembled/wrapped and ready to go for Christmas....yikes!  I am going to head out tonight when the kids are in bed and just knock out the rest of my list...well, that's the hope at least!
ANYWAY-- we are getting really excited to go to the bowl.  I wish we could just snap our fingers and be there (skip the flight all together)!  We are going to go to Sea World and the San Diego Zoo.  We went to the bowl there the year before Cal was born and had a lot of fun.
Now, I am focusing my thoughts on car seats, strollers, packing, etc....ack!!! Soooo much to think about with two bambinos...! It was much easier the last time we went there! haha

Eddie and the boys on Sunday before Eddie went to play golf

Knowing that I have lots to get done, I have been kicking it into high gear like no other.

Monday, Cal had a case of the terrible twos like nothing I've ever seen.  HAHA!  He had about 7 meltdowns before 8:00.  I really wanted to take a class at the gym, so we loaded up the car to get there by 8:30.  He fell apart when I was trying to get him in the car "no gym. no gym no gym!!!" We got to the gym and he refused to get out of the car.  I carried him in and he started crying when he walked into the play room.  The "teacher" there said she had never seen him cry before... I think she felt bad for him!  Well, he stopped immediately and was totally fine.  After the class, I went in to pick him up and as we were leaving, we were right in front of all of the cardio equipment and he decided he didn't want to leave.  Homie THREW himself on the floor in front of everyone and started kicking his feet and flailing his arms like a wild man.  Add his scream into the mix and you have quite the scene.  The girls at the front desk didn't even know what to say as I walked by with Cal (still in mid-fit) thrown over my shoulder while attempting to push Andy in the stroller out of the heavy-as-hell door.  Oh, and the class I took totally kicked my rear so my muscles were shot and were shaking before adding Cal.
We left the gym and went to the grocery store where yet another meltdown occurred (are you noticing a trend?).  By this point, Andy was a little over Cal, so he was getting upset every time Cal would get upset.  We then went to the park so he could burn off his energy and he had the BEST time running wild!  He was SO happy to be running around...like a wild horse, that one is. :)

Tuesday, Cal had school in the morning-- woooohoooo!  First time back since the Tuesday before Thanksgiving...it was TIME! He was happy to go back too.  I know he loves it and really does miss it.  As soon as I dropped him off, I had to run and pick up Hank's records from our old vet since we were transferring to a new vet.  Andy and I took Hank to the new vet (have you ever tried to take your large dog to the vet while also taking a baby?  It's hard.).  Hank was excited to smell all of the new scents and was trying his hardest to drag me and Andy all over the place.  After his weigh in (95 pounds!), it was determined that he needs to shed about 20 pounds-- you and me both, buddy. 
After the vet, I took Andy to get his passport picture taken.  We are taking both kids to Mexico in March and I needed to get Andy's process started since it can take a while to get it back. 
I wrote before that Andy sucks his fingers.  He does it all the time.  It is super sweet, but unfortunately, this will not pass for a passport picture:

Although, technically, it should count because, chances are, he will have his fingers in his mouth when we go through customs anyway...hahaha!

Wednesday was CRAZY busy-- running around like crazy.  I took a friend dinner so I had to get it cooking while the boys napped.  I also had a girls' night dinner that night with the girls in Cal's play group.  I LOVE these girls.  I feel so lucky to have these people in my life and even luckier that they all have kids who are the same age as mine.  We had a blast out sans kiddos.  Makes me want to do it all the time!

such a blurry picture...one of the girls sent it and I tried to download it, but it came out not very clear

 Thursday, Andy had a play group with his buddies.  We missed out on the last one so we were excited to get back with everyone!  We were celebrating Presley's first birthday at this playdate.  I just love all of these sweet kids!

Andy, Charlie, Lee, Ann Carter, Alston, Presley, Eliza

My sweet mom offered to pick up Cal from school on Thursday since I've been feeling slightly overwhelmed. He was SO excited to see her!!!  They came home and Cal immediately went down for a nap.  When he woke up, he started asking "is gramma here?" over and over and over again.  Literally.  It was non-stop.  I even took a video of him having a meltdown once he realized she was gone:

I felt like I was on Hidden Video last night.  Eddie had a late appointment so it was just me and the boys in the kitchen.  We have had to cut back on Hank's food (see above re: 95 pounds), so he has become ravenous any time food is present.  I was cleaning up from dinner and had Andy laying on the floor on his play mate and Cal was still in the high chair.  I was loading the dishwasher and Hank started doing the "pre-wash" by licking all of the plates on the bottom shelf.  Well, his collar got hooked on the shelf and scared him, so he jumped back and pulled out the entire bottom shelf.. he tried running from it, dragging it behind him.  It startled Cal, who immediately asked: "wha happened??" then I told him it was okay, but I think it scared him too badly so he started sobbing.  Not screaming, but sobbing.  That got Andy upset, so he started screaming crying.  Just so you can keep track-- that would be one 95 pound dog stuck to the dishwasher, one 2 year old hysterical, and one 6 month hold screaming his head off.  I just had to laugh...and look for that damn hidden camera....

Some other thoughts from the week.....

Mr. Andy is now sitting up for longer stretches!  He was doing great for about 15 seconds at a time, but now can hold it for a while.  He likes to sit up and watch what's going on, but he will topple over and roll to the action. 

working on sitting... the boppy was there as a *just in case*, but he never needed it... so I knew he was ready to do it on his own!

 Oh, also, I lowered Andy's crib last night to the lowest setting.  He isn't standing up, obviously, but he was rolling over to the side and picking his head way up high, which just made me nervous, so we lowered it last night. 

he is such a ham

 My two little schemers... I am soooo in trouble!

We adopted a needy family in the community and went shopping for them today.  It felt so great to help someone else have a great Christmas.  When we were given the with list, the little boy in the family really wanted "Cars" underwear.  Now, that will melt your heart right there. 

Another long post!  I have to knock them out while I can... Hope y'all are having great weeks!!

Cal said whaaa? 2

Cal: "Oh, football on? Okay. GOOOOO!  Run run run! Go NOW! (screaming) Oh, man! Try again! Try again!" (then he walked into the kitchen to get his drink and sigh.)

Getting his haircut this past week, we were telling him what a great job he was doing sitting still like a big boy, etc... Donna, the hair lady, and I said repeatedly "we are sooo proud of you, great job..."

After the haircut, she was brushing off his neck and Cal said "I get pop pop now?" and Donna took him to get a pop pop while I paid.  I told Cal to go tell Donna thank you and he walked over to her and said "thank you, Donna.  I soooo proud of you."  The whole place started cracking up!

We left the haircut place and got in the car.  Cal immediately said "McQueen Mater not working!" so I reached back to turn the screen on and Cal said "there you go, Momma! Great job! There you go!"

The bug that won't leave

I can honestly say I am ready for this week to be OVER!

Thanksgiving week, Cal decided to go number two on the potty-- woohoo!  He was going to the potty every single time he had to go- it was AWESOME.  He was still peeing in his diaper, but he was getting to the bathroom for the other stuff, so we were thrilled.

On Friday after Thanksgiving, he ran to the bathroom to go potty and had pretty bad diarrhea.  My niece and nephew had a stomach bug the week before Thanksgiving so I was praying that wasn't what Cal got... well, the next day, he woke up with a bed FULL of... 'ria.  (ugh, I know).

I will spare you the details, but I will say that today is day 7 of this "Bug" and I am OVER IT.  I am giving Cal around 3 baths a day (it is so bad that it goes allll over his body every time) and changing his sheets every day (i have even had to scrub the carpeting from the time it happened in the playroom and he came waddling down the hall to the bedroom to tell me about it...little poopy footprints all down the hall...).  My washing machine is getting a full workout this week.  The kicker is, he has one massive blowout in the morning, and then is fine pretty much the rest of the day.  He seems to feel fine, has no fever, and his energy levels are still the same...but the messes he has in his diaper are UNBELIEVABLE.  So, no school for Mr. Cal this week and no gym for momma since I can't put him in the play room there.  We are both crawling the walls. 

I mentioned at the start of this post about the potty because he was really being good about going on the potty for "that stuff" and I think this just sneaks up on him before he knows it.  After he goes and I am changing him in the bathtub with plastic bags everywhere, he always goes "aww, man. I poopied in my pants. Aw man."  I think he really doesn't like to go in his pants-- can you blame him??

Since Cal didn't go to school on Tuesday, I had both boys with me at my appointment to get my stitches out-- far from ideal, but it went really well.  The nurse sat down to remove the stitches and Cal came over and put his little hand on my leg while watching her.  Before she cut the first stitch, she looked up at him and Cal said, "Careful! That's Momma's boo boo."  It was the sweetest thing ever and melted my heart.  He didn't take his hand off of my leg until she was done.  Now that's some sweetness!

Andy is still spitting up a lot...that has remained pretty constant no matter what I eat/don't eat.  The other day, I was holding Andy and he spit up ALL over me, and as I was trying to wipe myself off, Cal had his explosion.  It was one of those days where you just wonder why you even bother to get dressed. Pretty positive I cried this day... yup... pretty sure of it...

I had a million errands to run this week, but they are difficult to accomplish with both kids in tow (especially when one is two with an *opinion* about things!). 

Now, with all of the above said, my sister-in-law posted last night about a friend of her's from Savannah who lost their son at 14 days old.  I read the girl's blog last night and she wrote a post about how happy she was to be "allowed" to change his diaper in the hospital.  She would probably KILL to have a healthy two year old with strong opinions and nasty diapers and a baby spitting up all over her.  How dare I complain?  I read the blog last night as I was rocking Andy-- he fell sound asleep long before I was ready to put him down.  I held him tightly in my arms and cried at how lucky I am. 

Here are some picture from the phone of what we have done this week...

right before getting the stitches out

little nugget striking a pose in his sleep

Andy is a rolling machine!  he can travel the length of the room now- watch out!

we were playing over at grandma's house to get out a little bit- Andy wanted to ride McQueen too

sweet boy getting a haircut!

Hope this bug avoids your house...!

xoxo,

Grandma's Turkeys

My mom, AKA Martha, made each of her grandbabies (as she calls them) a little turkey shirt for Thanksgiving.  Actually, it's pretty funny... I showed her a shirt that I found online with a little turkey applique on it and she immediately said "well, I can make that!" and literally that day she was off to the craft store to make these shirts... she is amazing, seriously. 

Here are Grandma's turkeys after eating Thanksgiving dinner-- they are wild and messy and couldn't be happier!

pretty sure Cal was trying to count the turkeys...

I know these cousins are very THANKFUL to have each other all living so close.  They love being around each other and really have a blast together. 

I am so thankful.