Here a few new pictures that are not Christmas related. Caleb has not been very photogenic lately. Everytime he sees the camera he either sticks his fingers in his nose or mouth, and pulls on his face to make a really ugly face. Many times he refuses to even look. So what you get here is the best of not much.. We have to settle for the action shots.

This is a triumph! Caleb has always been terrified of the vacuum. Then he figured out if he is behind it and has control of it, it's not so scary. He still stutter steps when I turn it toward him though.. but he's come a loooooooong way. (And yes, our bed is unmade, and my sweatshirt is strewn haphazardly across the foot of the bed. I'm not too worried about it!)

Here are a few that show Carly's blooming personality. She is hilarious!!

Busy Busy. "Please, no more pictures, I am destroying things, thankyouverymuch!"

Step into my office!

Riding the motorcycle

Standing on the motorcycle (this baby doesn't even walk yet!)

ummmmmm, howling at the moon? This is classic Carly!

And a bonus sneak peek at the tutu! Just trying it on today, but the face is priceless!

Sick baby

We've all been passing around the crud for the last few weeks. I know this happens to just about everyone on Planet Earth, but we've managed to avoid constant crud until this year. We've had out share of winter stomach viruses (not this year, knock on wood!!) and I am not sure which is worse.

Anyway, Carly now has a bad ear infection, we just found out this morning. She was acting pretty miserable the last couple of days, so now we know why. Poor baby, she is snotty and miserable, and her ear must hurt too. Anyway, antibiotics for her now too. Caleb is still working on his second round (it was a borderline EI, and a sinus infection too that came right back after round one.) Greg is taking his for a sinus infection, and I took a leftover prescription (bad bad bad I know) and it helped (until I ran out two days ago and now my throat is itching again grrrr). So, like my Facebook status says, I REALLY hope we all get well before January1, becuase the insurance deductible starts over, and this is the first year we've had a deductible plan. It seems very scary.

Back to the kids, Carly is a very good cougher. If that makes any sense. Caleb is more of a sniffer, I guess he wants the mucus to go down, and he rarely coughs. But man oh man, Carly is a cougher!! She hacks and hacks like a little old man with emphysema trying to get that crud out of there. It's kinda scary sounding to hear her coughing like that, but it must work for her. Once she gets it all loose she goes about her business. Let's just hope the antibiotics kill the EI the first time. We have a follow up appointment on Christmas Eve morning, so pray for a healthy baby! I am thankful we aren't traveling anywhere this Christmas, because that would be miserable.

Santa is coming to our house this year!

Speaking of, Caleb really understands the concept of Christmas. I know I already wrote about this, but since then he's become even more aware of it. We are loving being able to use the old "Santa only visits good little boys and girls" threat. Today I even told him I was going to call Santa and tell him to take all his presents back. I LOVE this! I remember being terrified that Santa would not bring me anything if I was bad. So being able to dish out the threats this year is so much fun! I'm such a mean mom! Really though, Caleb is a very good kid in general, and he is so stinkin' smart that we are constantly having to come up with something new to convince him to do the right thing. I am reading a book called How am I Smart? right now and it is about the 8 intelligences that we all have. I flipped right to the chapter I thought Caleb was, which is Self-smart. This means he is a highly reflective kid. I haven't gotten to read the rest yet, so I'll write more about that another day. But it is amazing to read and find ways that our children are different, and how to nurture those intelligences.

It's time for a Carly story now. She loves the Christmas tree. She knows that we do not touch it, it's one of those "Big No-No"s as Caleb says. However, the temptatiobn often overtakes her and we catch her with her hand on a branch. "No no Carly!" we say. She jerks her hand away and with her sassiest monosyllable, looks straight at me and says, "Baah!" THE CHILD IS ALREADY TALKING BACK!!!! She is SOOOOOOO sassy already at 11 months. I'm not too sure what we are in for with this one!

Merrrrrrrrry Christmas to all! And let's not forget about Jesus in all the hubbub. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!!

"Christmas is coming... but not today"

Ahhh, it's December already! The title up there is what Caleb says at least once every day. He's beginning to understand Christmas, Santa, presents, and all that. We have explained it all to him, and he has said he wants a hat and a train from Santa. "Santa" has already taken care of the train part, but now must find a kid-size baseball hat that won't be too expensive, since I'm about 90% sure he won't actually wear a hat. Hoping for the 10% though. He does surprise us occasionally. It's going to be so fun this year!

Caleb is currently fighting off a sinus infection. He was doing better, and when the antibiotics stopped it came roaring back. He's in his room snoring right now. We got him a vaporizer and I think it is helping loosen the stuff and may help him breathe better. Friday he had a 102.3 fever, and was not himself at all. He rarely has fever so 102 seemed very high to us! The doctor guessed it was the sinus nfection and maybe some virus on top of it. Now it's Sunday and he is acting better, and has eaten a little, even if he still sounds so stuffy it makes my eyes water. Thanking the Lord for Amoxicillan!!

Carly is oblivious to it all. Although she really likes the tree, and the presents underneath it. She is a sneaky little thing too. She crawls over, reaches out slowly, barely touches a branch and then turns to see if anyone is watching. When she sees me looking at her and I either shake my head, or say no, she squeals her displeasure at being told no. Sassy! She has already perfected the board-stiff fit too. If she gets into something she needs not be in, and I physically move her, she straightens and stiffens herself and tries to slide out of my grip. Even when I put her back onto the floor she gets laid on her back because she won't bend at the waist. Silly girl!

Carly has not started walking yet, but I think she may take a step by Christmas. I said the same thing about Caleb, but this time I know better. Carly stands on her own for several seconds at a time. She hasn't quite found her balance yet so it is funny to see her doing knee bends (up and down, up and down) trying not to fall. She's very good at lowering herself down from standing. When she walks behing her push toy she is still very stiff-legged, and leans heavily on it. So I can tell she's not quite ready to do it on purpose yet. She might accidently take a step very soon though, because she gets focused on getting something just beyond her reach and doesn't pay much attention to how she gets there.

Guess Who?

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Carly is 9 months old and Caleb poops!

Caleb is now officially a big boy.. he pooped on the potty yesterday for the first time! Read here for the complete story.

Carly went for her 9 month checkup this week, and is now 17 pounds. That's about 20%, a vast improvement from three months ago when she was just 13 lbs, 12 oz, and 4%. Both kids got flu shots, as well as Greg and me, and everyone is feeling good. Here are a few pictures.

Carly's face thing.

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see how it stops at the midline on her nose? weird.

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Caleb in his "unnerwear"

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Caleb's poop reward

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Carly walking behind her push toy. Caleb is talking in the back ground about his pajamas and underwear.

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Another walking video. The commentray is not as good in this one.

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Update on the skin weirdness

Today was a pretty normal day. Carly's face did that same thing once in the afternoon, after she's been crawling around on the floor, then had a poop and got changed.. she is currently in the hate part of the love/hate with the changing table, so she was pretty worked up. I'm thinking now maybe it's sleep/stress related. But thank goodness each one has been very short-lived. This evening Greg noticed her little nipple on her left side was swollen a bit bigger than the other one... related or not, we do not know. I'll check her again in the morning, and then probably call and ask if we should be concerned. I now little girls have hormone surges, but I thought it was only at birth. And one-sided? Weird again.

Nerves and Faces

Carly's face broke out into a really weird rash this afternoon, only on the left side of her face, stopping at the midline, and her eye got swollen and weepy, so I called the doctor, and at first he prescribed something and told me to bring her in first thing in the morning. I drove up to CVS to get the prescription he was going to call in. They didn't have anything, so I picked up some Motrin and came back home. In the meantime, while I was at CVS Greg took the kids outside for a walk, and Carly fell asleep sitting on his arm. That is not normal for her, although she did have a short-ish nap today. Just after I got home the doctor called back and said he'd talked to an associate in infectious diseases and he decided he wanted to see her right away. This was at 6pm! Gotta love the small town family doctor! So I ran her up there and (of course) by the time I got there the rash had almost gone away, but he could see where it had been and her eye was still swollen. He wasn't sure what it was/is, but wanted to rule out some things. His best guess is that her fifth cranial nerve got irritated somehow and caused the left side of her face to get red and blotchy. The strangest thing is he showed me in his anatomy book where the cranial nerve runs, and those were the exact spots her face was red. SO WEIRD. She also has a mild ear infection, which he said possibly irritated it, but long story short -- we have no idea. Her face blotched up for about an hour and a half, then went away. My family is always having some kind of skin/face issues it seems.

Seriously!!

I am feeling really beat down today. We started trying potty training today in full force. No more diapers. My stubborn kid refuses to pee on the potty. He can control himself, so well, in fact, that he can hold it for HOURS to avoid peeing on the potty. Around naptime he had drunk a full sippy of juice and needed to pee so bad he was crying that his stomach hurt. So I figured it was his bladder about to burst, so I put him back on the potty, and he trickled a little, for the first time EVER, then did it two more times. I put a pullup on him for nap time, then he started freaking out again saying he needed to potty. By this time he was hysterical and standing in the bathroom and squirting every time he let his breath out. He just couldn't hold it anymore. So back in the pullup he went and I closed him in his room, about to cry myself with frustration. (This was the after fifth pair of underwear in one morning). Minutes later he came to his door and his pullup was FULL. I mean the guy held in a whole bucket of pee for about two hours.

Anyone have any advice on how I can get him to just let go and pee on the freakin potty!? I don't understand why he won't do it. When he did pee, his little potty makes cool noises and he got about 100 hugs from me, stickers, AND goldfish. With all that good loot, why won't he do it again? Someone who has done this before help me out! I am at my wit's end, and it's only been 12 hours.

I am right now listening to a repeat performance at bedtime. He's already 30 minutes past bedtime, and hasn't peed in almost 5 hours!

Up to no good.

Draw your own conclusions.....

Ok, so they weren't really up to anything, just playing together. But aren't they so stinky cute!

A couple more:
Goofy face:

Carly's favorite place:

"Hmmmmmm, maybe I'm stuck. It's kinda hard to move with my cheeks weighing me down."

Carly's second favorite place:

I love this

And then, the East Texas State Fair:
Caleb petting a goat:

Caleb petting a goat's butt:

Carly thinking how lame the ducks were.

Jumper

Today was my first MOPs playdate, and I met my new friend Leslie and her two kiddos at the park, then headed to Chick-fil-a for some lunch. I rarely take both kids by myself out to a restaraunt, but since there were two of us adults, it seemed easier, even though there were four kids. We took turns ordering food while the other watched the kiddos. I was on my way back to the table when I heard Carly screaming that frantic "I just pinched my finger" scream. Looked, and saw Leslie picking her up off the FLOOR, still attached to the floppy seat she was strapped to. Apparently, she pulled her foot into the high chair, and then pushed down and arched her back and went over the side, taking the whole floppy seat with her. Luckily, she somehow landed ON the floppy seat, thus breaking her fall, so other than the trauma of seeing the floor flying toward her face, she came out of it completely unscathed. Not even a scratch. You should have seen all the women jumping and reaching arms out when they saw the baby falling. It was almost comical how many people reacted, but since it is my baby, I am not laughing, only breathing thanks to God for protecting her. I put the food down on the table and grabbed her up and snuzzled and cuddled a minute then gave her a bottle, and she just went about her business. By the time she finished her bottle she was smiling and happy again.

So if we count the instances, this is the second time Carly has fallen from at least three feet up and not been hurt. This baby's guardian angel is definitely working overtime! I'll be putting in a good word for a raise when I say my prayers tonight!

Lesson learned here: Strap the stinkin' floppy seat to the stinkin' high chair!!!