A Week of Wonder

This has been a fun week all in all. Monday night I had a longer class than normal, but I had planned lots of fun activities, so I think the students enjoyed it. Tuesday morning was MOPS, and the speaker talked about pregnancy and loss. It was heartbreaking, but catching up with our group was fun. I just love all the moms in our group! Becca has been a fabulous friend to get to know (she even held hands and walked Joshua down to his classroom when I forgot my nametags in Caleb's room), and I just adore the gal named Margie who seems so well-spoken, so nice and so fun. Renee in our group seems like a hardworker (she's in charge of a lot of the activities for MOPS) and just bought a house near ours, and Beth seems to have the sweetest personality. We were missing Amy, Melissa and Nicki, who we just took a meal to last night because her OBGYN put her on bedrest (she is 7 months pregnant) and she has two other kids.Unfortunately, Caleb was fussy almost the entire time for the nursery workers. I absolutely LOVE the little old ladies who work in the Ladybug nursery and wish I could adopt them as grandparents. They are sooo amazing and really interact with the babies there and care for them so well. Caleb cried the second I left the room. I went back to check on him and he was still fussing. The minute I walked in the room, he smiled and laughed but as soon as I went to leave, he'd start hollering. They said that separation anxiety is normal for this age. I told the ladies I could take him with me or they could page me if he got too upset, but instead they played with him and rocked him and told me to go enjoy my morning out. I could have kissed each one! Caleb has been really going through separation anxiety lately. He cries at night until I go get him, and I feel like I can't leave him with a babysitter because I know that he'll be cranky and they'll be miserable. He's absolutely fine when I'm around, but I feel like I can't leave. When does this end? I don't really remember Joshua going through this stage this badly, and I would love to have folks watch Caleb so I could have more quality time with Joshua doing fun things. I'm sure this, too, shall pass.Then on Wednesday morning - even though we got over 12" of fluffy white snow - we headed to Melanie's house from our small group. There we saw Melanie & Abby, who are always fun to hang out with, Becca & Alayna, and Angie and Lael & Allana. It was fun catching up with everyone! I always feel like I talk too much when I get around other moms. I'm just so excited to be around adults and be out of the house! I need to work on it, though. :) Joshua did really well when we were there. I told him on the way that we were going to see his friends at Abby's house, and he looked up at me and with a straight face said "no screaming, no headbanging, no hitting, be nice and gentle." Does he know the drill or what? I said "yep, that's right!" And he was an angel. Once again, Caleb was fussy, but he had missed his morning nap and I think he was just exhausted from being up every night the past week...or the past month or two...I'm losing track as I'm losing brain cells. This morning we went to the mall with my mom to look for shoes for her and go to the playground with Joshua. Caleb did really well at the mall, but Joshua was restless. He wasn't necessarily bad, but he doesn't like to shop. He did a GREAT job at the playground, though, and we ate lunch together there. Even though we got another couple inches of snow, we didn't go outside to play today because it was so windy and the temperature with windchill was well below zero. We froze just going to and from the car.

Caleb got a new big boy carseat (thanks so much, Grandma!) since he has definitely outgrown his other one. He's also working on a top tooth. I can literally feel the tooth, but it hasn't broken through his gums yet. He's still not eating well as far as baby food, but he's very interested in table food. He had a little bite of my bread yesterday, a little bit of my fruit, and today he ate some of Grandma's rice. Is it okay to give him real people food? I'm not sure, but he's not eating otherwise and I'm desperate. He loves to feed himself, and he's been chowing down graham crackers and zwieback crackers. I think it's early to give him all these things, but it's difficult to nurse him since he's easily distracted, he turns his head and screams when I try to feed him baby food, and I just want to make sure he's healthy. He sits up well on his own now, so I'm assuming that's the major battle of giving him other types of food, so long as it's in very small pieces that he can't choke.

He's also into everything. He's not one that you can leave alone for more than a second or two or he's into something new. He already pulls on our dresser handles, reaches up for things he shouldn't have (like Joshua's crayons when the Bean is coloring anywhere close to him), and can crawl pretty quickly now. He also put his chewed-up-graham-cracker covered hands all over our dining room walls for fun! This little guy may be a challenge in other ways than the Bean - he's a lot more easygoing, but he's also more into things than snuggling and people. My boys are so different, and I love both very, very much! And I love their daddy, too!