couple of pictures that make you say AWWWWW

Last swim of the summer:

Hey! what are you lookin' at?

There was a funny-sounding yell to go with this face

Rainy Day:

Looks like she's walking doesn't it? She's really just standing there.

Consignment sales are gooooood

Yesterday I went to the big semi-annual city-wide children's consignment sale at the convention center. The whole place was full of racks of kids clothes, stacks of toys, rows of gear, and bins of shoes. It was GREAT. I started in the 3T jungle and grabbed a few winter things for Caleb, including a reversible jacket from Carter's and a Reebok warm-up suit for $5. Then I headed over to the 6-12 month girls zoo. I started rifling through the racks with the help of two of my friends who were volunteering at the sale. I got a few super cute things for Carly. She really doesn't need much, except winter dresses. I got her a nice Gymbo holiday-ish dress, and two other wintery ones, a light hoodie, and some Robeez for her tiny little feet. All in all, I got 16 items for $70, an average of $4.37/item. I think that's a great deal.. Too bad they closed before I could find any more. Or maybe it was a good thing. :)

Carly has two teeth now, and is crawling. EVERYWHERE. She never stops, and is into everything. Her favorites are Caleb's hot wheels, which causes much distress to Caleb. He is really not into sharing right now. I can't leave the two of them alone together for fear that Caleb might actually try to poke Carly's eye out. Or scratch her head hard enough to draw blood. Yes, he's done both. (Revision: he has not actually poked her eye out, seeing as she still has both eyes securely attached inside her skull.)

Carly's Parent Commitment service is this Sunday and I can't wait! I want the world to know (or at least the 4000 people in attendence at the 11:15 service at Green Acres Baptist Church) that we intend to raise our child in the knowledge of, and love and respect for, God - the One we owe her very existence to. I also can't wait to show off the dress and bow that I made for her to wear! :)

Carly's tooth and other fun photos

The first documentation of the tooth. There is a glare right over the spot so it's pretty much impossible to see.

Caleb feeding sister: they both loved it!

She loooooves dem sweet taters!

This was after that big poop day. She was banned from clothes for a few hours that afternoon! Good thing it's summer!

Sibling fun:

I love the faces both are making here.

And for your comic entertainment: A variety show featuring the Great Calebino and his hilarious sidekick Carlykins!

Ah yes, Caleb's mountain:

What can you do besides laugh and take a picture...

Oh, and put the baby on top!

What? There's a ferocious wild tiger behind me? He seems pretty nice to me!

more tooth, no poop, and sleep - and that's just the baby

Carly has almost another tooth! She is doing well so far with this teething thing. Only a couple of fussy days with the first one, and now I can feel the sharpness of the second one bu can't see it yet under there.

My mom came to visit over the weekend, and left thinking I am a liar about all this poop stuff. Carly did not poop at all while she was here!! In fact, she did not poop for about 52 hours.. from 3:00pm Friday till about 7:00pm Sunday.. but poop she did on Sunday night! Fortunately, this time it stayed in her diaper. Stunk though, shooooooweeeeeeee!

Last week we finally stopped swaddling Carly at night and tried letting her cry it out to put herself back to sleep. There was no reason for her to be waking up every 2-3 hours! It was like having a newborn again for a few days. Had to come with a new plan, so I tried sticking her in a sleep sack and letting her roll around in her bed till she got comfy... bam, sleeping like an angel! She only cries a little (less than 10 minutes) now when she goes down, and sleeps through the night again! woohoo! AND we are able to put her to bed earlier too! Which means I actually have time to sew after the kids go to bed, instead of going straight to bed. Last night she went down at 8:45, and Caleb at 8:30-- however, Caleb was still singing/talking/playing at 10:15... little stinky!

Speaking of the C-man, he's up to a lot these days. Talking like a champion, when he wants to, this is. This morning he was singing the ABCs. That's his latest obsession. "Mommy, say ABCs!" "Daddy, say ABCs!" Once last week we drove out to Hawkins to visit a brand new baby and on the way home Mommy and Daddy were forced to sing the ABC song for about 15 minutes straight. I somehow convinced Caleb to let us listen to the radio after that but it was a close one.

Potty Training has hit a wall.. I am just not going to force him to wear pullups just so he can pee in them like diapers.. they are too expensive! When a kid is afraid to pee in anything but a diaper, I just don't see a reason to make his life harder by taking his diapers away. It might be backwards thinking, but I have a feeling that he'll let us know when he's ready.

Tried to give him a haircut Saturday morning, and he screamed like we were trying to cut his fingers off or something. So, maybe a few days to recover from that trauma, and we may take him to a kiddie cuts place and see what they can do.. If we DO pay for a haircut, it's going to get buzzed so we won't have to pay again for a while. I am cheap!

Alright, someone is throwing a fit for unknown reasons.

How could I forget?

We have a tooth! Barely, but it's there. I can see it, if I look really hard, and feel it if she bites my finger really hard. It broke though on her 7 month birthday. By this time, Caleb had three or four teeth, but he was no so petite as Little Miss C.

She's gazing sweetly at me now.....

But let's back up a few hours..

It's 11:34 am. I've changed her diaper four times already this morning. Along with clothes, sheets, blanket, toy, and changing table cover, each at least once.

7:20 am: wake up covered in #1. Change very angry hungry baby. Leave the sheet, blanket, and sleep positioner for later. Feed, dress.

9:30 am: Wake up from nap covered in #1 again. How on earth do you fill a diaper that quickly?? Change clothes again.

11:15: mom hears a rumble across the room. Jump up to change before floor gets it. Find out that #2 leaked up the back of the diaper. Change clothes again.

11:30: come back inside from taking the first #2 to the street (It's trash day). Find baby sitting on rug, in a puddle of #2. Exclamations!!!!!! Put baby in bed, which still has not been changed from this morning, and go get the Resolve for damage control. Return to change baby, give a wipee bath, change sheets, wash toys, etc.

No more clothes for today, kid, you've reached well beyond your quota. She is now playing happily, in a diaper only.

(yes, I decided after this to go up a size in diapers. It's not quite right for a 7 month old to still be in size 1-2 anyway, no matter how small her butt is!)

Some new stuff about the kiddos

This morning Carly was rolling all over the living room and wedged herself against the couch. I was going to let her work it out a while and when I went to pick her up she was on all fours and NOT happy about it! It was too funny she was up on her hands and knees and yelling the whole time. I remember that's how Caleb first did it too - when he was mad about being on the floor. She still has no teeth but we've been trying cereal again and she is liking it this time.

I bought Caleb some of those junior puzzles with 24 pieces because he had completely mastered the wood puzzles and he is having fun with those. He really likes puzzles! He can't do the big puzzles by himself yet but he asks to do them all the time. He is talking constantly now. I mean non-stop. It is GREAT!! All those people that said, "someday you'll wish he would just shut up" are all wrong. I love the banter. Beats the heck out of whining. Also easier to tune out when it gets to be too much.

Just a few new things!

I blame Huggies

for delayed potty training! Caleb loves balloons, and there are balloons on his Huggies, therefore he loves his "boon duppers." Besides the fact that he just isn't quite ready for the potty, it doesn't help that he looks forward to his next "boon dupper." Gahhhhhhh...

Carly is a wee little thing. Her six month stats are: 13 lbs 12 oz and 25 inches. Compared to 4 months, when she was 12 lbs and 24 inches, she hasn't grown much! Doc says she looks great though, so we are not worried. She is just tiny!

Carly is starting to push up on all fours. She hasn't done it yet but boy is she trying! She has her 6 month appointment this Thursday so more shots, and I'm very interested to see how much she weighs.. she is still not that interested in eating solid food and seems to be doing fine on just milk. I have tried rice cereal, peas, and banana, and she only eat a few bites of each before getting frustrated and mad at me for forcing that stuff in her mouth. I don't remember Caleb having such a hard time starting food. I thought he just started it and liked it right off. It's really amazing how much I forgot between them!!

Caleb's feet are as wide as pontoon boats lately... I ordered him his very first pair of Stride Rite shoes, because I measured his foot and he wears a size 8.5 EXTRA WIDE. I don't know of anywhere else that sells XW shoes except SR. I even checked ebay and there was only one pair and they were not very cool-looking. So $59 later...

Caleb is beckong... "Mommy paycars!!" "Mommmy!!" "PAY CARS!!!"

Go here.

What a cool thing. Listen with a musician's ear to the sounds of these kids. They really are great.

http://www.greatdanepromilitary.com/Battle%20Hymn/index.htm