I should've known that when Caleb started out the week by taking off his diaper at naptime and wetting all over his bed - we were in for quite a week. He repeated the same thing on Wednesday! In general, we kept our normal daily routine for the week. Our evenings were a little different, though. I had a Children's Museum meeting on Tuesday night and we all took Grandma out to dinner on Wednesday night. On Thursday, I got a pretty significant haircut. Friday night, we went over to Grandma's for her birthday dinner with her, Jan, Kathy, Dan and Heather.
On Saturday, we went to pick up my new car! It's a beautiful cranberry-colored GMC Acadia. I absolutely love it!!!! After that, Jan watched Caleb while Rudy and I went to a friend's wedding.
Sunday was a full day of laundry and packing for vacation. We left on Monday after I took Caleb to Gymboree. It was great to travel in the new car. We had plenty of room and the built-in DVD system was such a relief. We got to Jerry and Sherry's house in Florissant just in time for dinner. After that, we visited and got caught up on everyone's lives. Since Caleb didn't sleep at all on the way there, he all but passed out when he hit the pillow!
Tuesday morning, we got up and took Caleb to the zoo. This was the first time he was actually able to enjoy the zoo. He knows the names of a lot of the animals and loved seeing them. We went to the petting zoo, watched part of the sea lion show, rode the train and rode the carousel while we were there. The best part was seeing the brand new baby giraffe. Even Caleb got excited. He looked at her and said, "Ooh, a BABY giraffe!" It was pretty cute. We thought Caleb would love the new animatronic dinosaur exhibit at the zoo, so we shelled out $9 for tickets. He is very much into dinosaurs these days and I just knew he'd would be amazed at the exhibit. He covered his eyes as soon as he saw the first one and didn't uncover them until we were all the way through the exhibit! He was scared to pieces!
After the zoo, we went back to the house for a little while to rest and get ready for dinner. We met about 25 of our friends at our old hangout, El Nopal. It was so great to see everyone. We didn't get to visit like we wanted to, but it was just good to be in the same room with all of them. I told Rudy that it was actually a little overwhelming to me that so many people cared enough to come see us after us being gone for a year. He agreed.
On Wednesday, we met Michael for lunch b/c he couldn't come to the dinner on Tuesday night. It was so great to catch up with him. After lunch, we went to Babies R Us, since we don't have one of those here. We went back to the house for Caleb's nap and to rest a little before Rudy, Caleb, Rebecca and I picked up Jerry at work and met Sherry at Cunetto's for dinner. After a typically fantastic meal, they took Caleb home with them so that Rudy and I could go out by ourselves. What a treat!
The rest of the family came in on Thursday around lunchtime. We enjoyed seeing them and the kids immediately started playing together. Sherry prepared a wonderful lunch/dinner for us as always. Shortly after our meal, most of us got ready to go to the Cardinals game. Sherry, Sandy and Rebecca stayed home with Caleb. Rudy, Jerry, Tom, Jimmy, Larry, Ana, Mary, Alexander, Anthony and I went to the game. We had a good time, despite the rain delay and the Cardinals' loss.
On Friday, we stayed at home until it was time for us to go down to the Arch for the fireworks. We found a spot where the kids could go down to the pond and feed the ducks. It was very different this year at the Arch. Because the river is up so high, the concert was moved way off of the Arch grounds and there was no music, no vendors and no port-a-potties. I wasn't too upset about the vendors, but the lack of potties was a problem! Hopefully, things will be back to normal next year. The fireworks were spectacular as always. Caleb, on the other hand, didn't see a single one. All afternoon, he asked about the fireworks, talked about the fireworks and kept looking for the fireworks. As soon as the first one popped in the sky, he covered his eyes and didn't remove them until he thought they were all done. There was a fake finale and it was quiet for just a few moments. Caleb moved his hands away from his eyes and I asked him, "Did you like the fireworks?" He grinned and said, "Yeah!"...and then they started again and his hands flew back onto his eyes. When they stopped for the last time, he wouldn't stop talking about the fireworks. He asked, "Where fireworks go?" and said, "Sha Sha watched fireworks." We all just went along with it. No one had the heart to tell him that he missed the whole show because his hands were covering his eyes. Now, he's still talking about the fireworks that Sha Sha watched and occasionally telling us that they went BOOM BOOM! I think it's pretty funny.
I wasn't feeling too hot all day on the 4th, but managed to make it through the fireworks and the insane traffic afterwards. I held off getting really sick until we got home. It was a LONG night for me and I wasn't feeling much better the next morning either. However - it was time to make the trek home, so I sucked it up and got in the car. We managed to make it home safe and sound. Caleb was glad to get home to his toys and his bed and Rudy and I were glad to be back in our home. We enjoyed our trip tremendously and we are very grateful to Jerry, Sherry and Rebecca for their hospitality and for allowing us to live with them for a few days - but there is just something about getting home that can't be beat.
On Sunday (7/6), Rudy started his week-long stint at Jr. High band camp at the U of A. He's loving it and is planning on going back next year. I can't imagine loving being with Jr. High kids, but he's really enjoying the experience. Caleb and I spent Sunday being lazy. I still wasn't feeling well, so I napped when he napped and managed to get in a shower towards the end of the day. He was pretty tired too, so he did a lot of laying around and asked to "watch tee-wee" several times. I think that was God's way of helping me out. I'm not sure what I would've done if Caleb had been in one of his moods on Sunday! Monday wasn't much different. We were lazy in the morning and then napped after lunch. I did get a shower and go to the post office and to pick up Dewey from the kennel. Caleb was so excited about going to "get mail" and going to "see Dewey's doctor." I think he was just glad to get out of the house! Rudy brought home pizza for dinner and then I forced myself to go to the grocery store. Our cupboards were bare!
Today (7/8) was a pretty cool day for me. It was my first official day back on the SLP team at Rogers. They had an inservice day to earn the hours to be off one day in the fall. They graciously invited me to join them. It was so wonderful to see all of the girls that are still there and to meet some of the new ones who have joined the team. I know this job won't be perfect (none of them ever are), but I am looking so forward to the camaraderie that this group shares.
Stacy graciously agreed to watch Caleb for me today while I was at the meeting and Rudy was at camp. She said that he was a good boy for her and even enjoyed going to Chick-Fil-A with them. Caleb loves his Chickie Fries!
Caleb and I are leaving tomorrow morning for Sherwood and then on to Hot Springs. We're looking forward to the time with family.
Potty Training Update: Lots of people have e-mailed to ask how the potty training is going. Well...it was going great until we went on vacation. Because we were on the go so much while we were gone, we had to resort to using pull-ups a lot more than we usually do. Caleb honestly has no idea that there's any difference between a pull-up and a diaper, so he just uses them freely. That set us back what seems like lightyears. I have been really discouraged the past couple of days with the number of accidents that he's having. He always tells me that he went - right after he goes. He's pretty fond of saying things like, "Sha Sha pee pee on the chair" and "Sha Sha pee pee on the floor." So - he knows he's going - he just doesn't seem to know before he goes! Or...maybe he doesn't care. I don't know. I can't figure it out. He loves to go in the potty and loves everything about the potty. He just won't make that transition to telling me the he has to go BEFORE he wets all over himself and everything under him. I'm going to do my absolute best to keep him in the usual routine while we're in Sherwood and Hot Springs. It's a good thing Mom and Mr. L. have concrete floors. :)
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