Grand Slam Birthday Party!

Before we went to Caleb’s birthday party, Mom, Mr. L., Jan and Bill came to the house to give him their gifts.  (We asked for no gifts at the party.)  Caleb was thrilled to get a new “big boy” bike from LaLa and Pops.  He also loved the bow/arrow set, water gun and bug vacuum that he got from Grandma and Bill.  (Yes, he usually has to wear a helmet on the bike!)

We hosted Caleb’s 5th birthday party at the NWA Naturals Game on Friday, May 6th.  We invited 3 friends and his cousin, Gabe to join us.  We let Caleb choose his guests and he chose 2 boys from his class and his t-ball team (Michael and Conner) as well as his daycare teacher and her son (Kaleb).  We weren’t about to try to take all of those boys without an adult, so we paid for a parent to come with them.  The kids got a ticket to the game, a wristband for the kids’ zone, a hot dog/chips combo and an ice cream.  We were even able to use the ice cream as the birthday dessert and didn’t have to mess with a cake or cupcakes.  At the end of the night, the boys got to be on the scoreboard screen, which they loved.  The kids had a fabulous time and the adults were completely worn out when it was over.  I’m not sure any of us actually saw any of the game, but the entertainment was the 5 little boys running like banshees all over the place, having the times of their lives!  Here are a few pictures from the party.  (The rest are on Shutterfly…)

Kaleb, Conner, Michael, Caleb & Gabe

Playing in the kids’ zone:

Hanging out with Strike!

On the big screen:

My birthday boy and me!

Caleb’s 5th Birthday

As hard as it is for me to fathom, my sweet Caleb turned 5 on May 2nd.  I am so proud of the little boy that he has become and I am so very grateful to have to opportunity to walk beside him as he learns about life. 

We celebrated Caleb’s official birthday by sending cookies for snack at his school. 

We also had one of his favorite meals – spaghetti – for supper and then topped the day off with chocolate cake for dessert.

 

Rudy and I gave him a Razor scooter for his birthday, because he had outgrown his Radio Flyer one.  We also got him a new bug box with a magnifying glass and a DVD of Charlotte’s Web.

Would somebody please tell me when he got big enough to ride something like this?!?

Stuff We Did in May

That’s right - I went another month without blogging.  Here’s the synopsis…
May 1 ~ Usually, we would’ve gone out for our annual BBQ dinner on May 1st, but we decided to go a little early this year and went over the weekend.  That evening, I was a little sentimental about my sweet boy turning 5 the next day and made this collage to celebrate him.
May 2 ~ Caleb’s 5th birthday!  Of course, this warrants its very own post.  We took cookies to daycare to celebrate and then had a spaghetti supper and chocolate cake at home.  We gave Caleb a Razor scooter for his birthday and he loved it!

May 4 ~ Nola spent her morning catching up on current events while the rest of us got ready to go to school:

May 6 ~ I got these beautiful flowers at school with a sweet note from Rudy telling me what a wonderful mother I am.  I loved them!

That evening, we celebrated Caleb’s birthday in style at the Naturals baseball game.  We took 5 boys, 2 toddlers and 12 adults to the game and had a blast!

May 7 ~ Mom and Mr. L went to Caleb’s T-Ball game and spent the day/night with us.
 
May 8 ~ Mother’s Day.  I spent the day quietly being lazy and enjoying it to the fullest!  Caleb went home with Mom and Mr. L. for the week.  Rudy took Nola to convenient care because she had some congestion and her eyes were goopy.  We thought he was taking her as a preventative measure so that we would have a note for daycare saying that she didn’t have pink eye, just allergies or a cold.  Just as I sat down to blog, he called me to say that she DID have pink eye and would have to stay home.  Ugh.  We started immediately looking for someone who could watch her, since I have no sick days left and he had a concert coming up.  We couldn’t find anyone, so he stayed with her.  This whole sick day mess has been awful this year!

May 10 ~ I had a job interview for a supervisory position in my school district.  I won’t go into details, but I applied for a few jobs this spring that would give me the opportunity to use the admin degree that I worked really hard for.  Apparently, it’s not my time, because I didn’t get any of the jobs.  I’m trying to focus on the fact that God has a plan for me and maybe He knows that it will be important for me to be with Caleb for his kindergarten year.  As hard as the rejection has been, I know that my time will come.  Patience is not my strength.

May 11 ~ We went to a going away party in Fayetteville for a band staff member.  While we were there, Nola discovered a basket of Build-A-Bear clothes.  She pulled out 2 sparkly purses, put one on each arm, said “bye-bye” and walked to the door.  She is so sassy!

May 13-15 ~ We went to Hot Springs to spend the weekend.  My Memmie was in the hospital in North Little Rock and I wanted to go see her.  Rudy and I left the kids with Mom and Mr. L. and spent Saturday with Memmie, Poppie and Uncle Ron at the hospital.  It was a tough day – so hard to see someone who has been such a source of strength for me all my life struggling to be strong for herself.  It turned out that her calcium levels had gotten way too high and caused her to be confused and lethargic.  The hospital was able to get her leveled out and she’s now home, feisty as ever.  While the guys went down to get some coffee, I had a chance to just sit and hold her hand, talk and pray.

After that quick trip to the middle of the state, things got really crazy at work.  I buckled down and started cranking out reports, paperwork and billing like a mad woman.  I snapped this picture one evening as I was catching my breath at my desk, well after the kids had gone home.

As I write this, there are 2 more days of school left and I’m still cranking out paperwork. Almost done, though…

May 17 ~ We may need to put a lock on the pantry door:

May 18 ~ The Villines kids had a rough week at daycare.  When Rudy picked Nola up on Tuesday, he was given an incident report to sign.  Apparently, another child tried to take a toy from Nola and she bit him.  While it just horrified me to think that she had bitten another child and we were going to be “those parents” with “that kid” in the class, I had to laugh at the fact that the incident report said that the workers had disciplined her by telling her to “use her words.”  She only has two words – mama and cracker.  Which one of those would have been most appropriate in that situation?  As if that weren’t enough, when Rudy picked Caleb up on Wednesday, Caleb only had 2 of his 5 behavior sticks left in his cup.  Caleb almost always has all 5 and has never had less than 4.  Rudy gave him the what-for about it at school and I made him sit down with me after dinner and help write an apology letter to his teacher…

May 19 (and every day since then) ~ Caleb had 5 sticks in his cup.

May 21 ~ Caleb’s t-ball game was cancelled due to the fields being wet from all of the rain we’ve had.  We had a good family Saturday and had some guests over for dinner.  One of Rudy’s co-workers, Chris, and his family came over.  Rudy grilled an amazing dinner for us.  Chris has a daughter who is just a little bit younger than Nola.  It was fun to watch the two of them play around each other.  Caleb was enamored with little Sara Kate and she thought he was pretty funny too. 
Also – here is a picture of Nola’s new shoes.  They are Tiny TOMS and they are ridiculously cute.  I love my TOMS and I love their “one-for-one” giving.  But, mostly, these are just plain adorable…
May 22 ~ HAPPY 12TH ANNIVERSARY TO RUDY AND ME!  This day honestly deserves its very own post.  It was quite eventful.  Until I get that post written, I’ll just say it started out great and ended up very eventful.  It involved friends, a trip to Fayetteville, a surprise date, tornadic weather and a dead rabbit.  If that’s not a teaser, I don’t know what is!

May 24 ~ Was supposed to be my last day of school.  But, does anyone remember Snowpocalypse 2011?  And, so we added 10 days to the end of the year.  It was a bummer to not be getting out of school, but these two went to daycare looking awfully cute anyway:

Throughout the day, we kept hearing reports that the weather was going to get bad that night.  We were told to prepare for the worst storms we’d seen this year with a high likelihood of tornadoes.  I’m not typically scared of bad weather.  I've always had a healthy respect for the power of weather, but I know that we have a solid home and have always felt pretty comfortable in the safety of that shelter.  The weather reports that day were enough to truly scare me.  Rudy and I waivered back and forth about going to a friend’s house with a basement.  I have friends who got hotel rooms in a place with a storm shelter.  Many, many people in our area left their homes and went somewhere with a basement.  After a lot of thought and debate, we decided to ride out the storm at home.  I kicked into high gear and prepared our laundry room to be the safest place in our house.  I was nervous all night as we watched the storms roll in on the weather reports.  Miraculously, we were spared.  The storms did produce tornadoes in Oklahoma and south of us in Arkansas, but our area only had severe thunderstorms.   Our friend Chad was in town and spent the night with us.  I’m sure he thought I was crazy because I was so nervous, but I was being a protective mother bear and I don’t apologize for that one bit.

May 26 ~ I drove to Hot Springs for another interview.  It was oddly quiet in my car as I drove those 3 1/2 hours by myself for the first time in a very long time.

May 27 ~ I had my interview in the morning and drove home in the afternoon.  I was passing through Fayetteville when Rudy called and said that Nola needed to be picked up from daycare because she had a fever.  Ugh.  More about that in a separate post.

May 29 ~ Nola figured out how to answer the question, “Where’s your bellybutton?”

 

Whew – no wonder I’m tired!!!  Just reading through all of that made me need a nap!

Birthday Babies

I just realized that I haven’t posted my favorite picture of Nola from her birthday.    
And just for good measure, let’s see how sweet her brother was on his first birthday too…

Nola’s Birthday Party

We celebrated Nola’s first birthday with a small party at our house on January 29th.  Mom and Mr. L. were already here after taking care of Nola while she was sick.  We were joined by Jan & Bill, Nana and Aunt Kathy.  We decided not to try to do anything really fancy this year, since Nola isn’t really a social butterfly at age 1.  We don’t have any close friends who have toddlers, so it seemed like a family party would be just the right thing.  Rudy and Mr. L. smoked a ham that morning and we served that with rolls, fruit, veggies and chips.  Of course, we had to have cake!  I decided we’d celebrate our little girl with little cakes, so I ordered petit fours with “N” and “1” on them in colors to match the plates and napkins that I found.  We were pleasantly surprised that it was sunny and warm enough for us to have lunch outside.  Here are some photos of Nola’s big event (scroll over for description):

Nola’s First Birthday

I can’t believe Baby Girl is one.  This year has absolutely flown by in a blur of milestones and co-pays.  Yet, here we are in 2011 and she’s one year old.  Ridiculous, I tell you.

Since Nola’s birthday fell on a weekday this year, we had her party on the 29th.  That doesn’t mean that we let the actual day go by unnoticed, though.  The days building up to the 27th were another string of sick days for Nola.  She had fever and congestion and general sickness on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of that week.  Just when we would think she was getting better, we’d find out that she had fever again.  After a couple of days of Rudy staying home with her, we decided to call for back up.  My mom and Mr. L. came up on Wednesday and spent the night with us.  They were here to watch Nola on Thursday and Friday so that she didn’t have to go to daycare.  They got to spend the whole day with her on her birthday. 

When Rudy and I got home from work on Thursday, we got cleaned up and ready to go out to dinner.  We all went to Carrabba’s, which is where we had dinner the night before Nola was born.  When we got home, we let Nola have her very own birthday cake.  I put a plastic tablecloth on the floor and put the cake in front of her.  She wasn’t so sure what to think at first, but once she got a taste of the icing, she was a little more convinced that it was okay.  She actually didn’t end up eating much of it at all, but made a royal mess anyway.

Here’s the basic sequence of events:

And a couple of other shots that I just think are too funny not to post:

Finally, Lala put her in the tub and tried to get all of that frosting out of her hair since Pops thought it would be funny to try to get her to play peek-a-boo while she was covered in frosting.  And, of course – she doesn’t cover her eyes when she plays peek-a-boo…she puts her hands on the sides of her head.

Birthday Friday and an emotional loss

As I said in my last post, I turned 32 on Friday. If you've read that post, you'll know that it caused some introspection and gratitude to come from my heart and mind right through my blogging fingers. It has been an interesting weekend, to say the least.

Friday started with one of the most uncomfortable IEP meetings I've ever been a part of. I won't even go into details, because those of you who don't live in the world of special education would be bored to tears. Suffice it to say, this wasn't a good one. The rest of the day went reasonably well. I did my usual work with kids and paper shuffling. I even stayed after school for about an hour to tie up some loose ends. Rudy took Caleb to meet Jan in Alma, because he was staying with her all weekend. She and my mom share taking care of Caleb on Razorback game weekends and she had volunteered for this one. To keep her from having to pack up and leave her house for the weekend like she usually does, she kept Caleb in Ft. Smith. From what I understand, they both had a blast.

When Rudy got home, he took me to dinner at one of our favorite indulgent restaurants, Cafe Rue Orleans. We came home stuffed to the gills, but managed to have a little birthday cake that he had kindly gotten for me. Around 9:00, Chad and Ronni Fellers got to our house to spend the night. They were in town for the Razorbacks/Ole Miss game on Saturday and spent Friday night with us.

The guys got up early on Saturday morning and played golf. Ronni and I slept in! It was a real treat for 2 moms. After the guys got home, Ronni and I went to the Promenade to do some shopping and then came home. We all got ready to go to the game and said our goodbyes. Rudy and I went to the Wilhelms' tailgate party and then walked up to the Alumni house for dinner before the game. We headed over to the stadium in time to witness the bizarre goings-on. It was Coach Nutt's first game back at Arkansas since leaving to coach at Ole Miss. The Arkansas fans were brutal to him. The boos were louder than any I had ever heard. Initially, I clapped for him - giving him the benefit of the doubt and showing some gratitude for the improvements that he brought to our University while he was here. My mind quickly changed, though. When he brought his team back out after warm-up to start the game, he held them back until our team came on the field. This classless act caused our team to enter the field to a chorus of boos, rather than the cheers that we always greet them with. His players proved to be as classless now as he allowed them to be when he was at Arkansas. I hated the thug behavior when it was our guys and I hate to see it from other teams. Now we have a coach who doesn't stand for that and I am glad. We ended up losing the game following a completely bogus offensive pass interference call that brought our fans out of their seats in disgust and anger. Then, Nutt proceeded to stay on the field long after the game was over. He was surrounded by cameras and milked it for all it was worth. By the time he finally left the field, most of the crowd was gone, his players and some assistant coaches had taunted our fans in the stands and he had officially lost any and all respect I ever had for him. I was standing outside after the game when 2 of the Ole Miss staff members walked by. One of them said, "I just love the looks on the faces as we pass by." As Rudy and I got to the elevator, I realized that we were going to have to get on with them and we decided to take the stairs. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to hold my tongue after a comment like that. We left the stadium disappointed and disheartened. The only good thing about the night was that the Wisemans and their friends invited us up to watch the game with them in their luxury box. At least we weren't freezing and packed in our seats like sardines.

We got home and it didn't take me long to crash in the bed. Rudy stayed up for a while, trying to avoid the Razorback message boards and playing video poker. After a celebratory Friday, it was a miserable Saturday night.

32.

I have been telling people that today is the 3rd anniversary of my 29th birthday. Yikes. 32. Thirty-two. 32. Thirty-two. No matter how many times I repeat it, I am thirty-something.

On the other hand...
I have an amazing husband who loves me like I could never imagine anyone would. He absorbs my faults and celebrates my successes. And he got me a cake - chocolate with buttercreme icing, which is my favorite. The fact that he knows (and remembers) that is pretty cool. Oh...and he got me a gold and silver Razorback watch. He loves me. He really loves me. Not that I ever doubted it...or needed gifts to prove it. He loves me.

I have a son who surprises me every day with his ability to make me laugh, cry, feel and tolerate things that I never thought I could. He is a blessing and a joy and the only miracle I can ever remember being a part of.

I have parents who think I'm special and tell me so and are my greatest cheerleaders, no matter how insignificant the cause.

I have 3 living grandparents who have been a blessing all of my life. They show me things and teach me things that only grandparents can teach. I am so grateful.

I have an unbelievable extended family whose journeys make me believe that everything is possible with God. I know that as long as I hold His hand, I am connected with them, no matter what.

I have friends that support me, carry me and comfort me. I have friends that laugh with me, celebrate with me, love me and know that they can count on me even when the world is spinning too quickly to hold on. They are the family that extends beyond family.

I have a career that keeps me stimulated and I know that because of it, we can pay the bills and I can touch the lives of children in a good way, which many of them need so desparately.

And most of all, I have the blessings of God that give me all of these things and more. What else do I need?

The Bad and the Good of Late October

There is nothing on this planet that makes me cringe as much as a whiny child. Guess what...I now have one. Since Caleb's surgery on the 10th, he has whined like there is no tomorrow. It makes me crazy!!! Let me back up a little and please excuse me if I whine.

The last time I posted, we had had "A Strange Day." That was the start of what turned out to be a nasty bout with bronchitis for me. It's now 11 days later and I'm still coughing. We were supposed to go to the Pumpkin Patch with friends on Sunday (10/12), but I spent the day in bed with fever. I spent the nights of the 13th and 14th laying awake and coughing. I actually went to the guest room so that Rudy could sleep. On Wednesday, the 15th, I went to the doctor and ended up with a ZPac, which helped but didn't knock it out totally. I also got some fabulous nighttime cough medicine. If hydrocodone had a fan club, I'd be a member. It turned out to be the only way I could stop coughing long enough to sleep. Caleb has also had a cough for quite a while. We thought the antibiotics after his surgery would solve the problem, but he's still coughing and now his nose is running too. Aaaggh! Silver lining: he doesn't have a ear infection! Rudy was a super-dad during all of this. He took full responsibility for Caleb while I had fever and continued to take care of him most of the week since I was feeling so crummy.

I had the day off on Friday, the 17th and it was a busy day! I took Caleb to school and came home to do laundry and pack for our trip to Hot Springs. We also had the carpets and living room furniture cleaned to rid ourselves of the remants of having an indoor dog and potty-training a toddler. Yeah!!!! After the Sears guy left, I called Stacy and met her for a quick trip to the Hammonds center craft fair and lunch. We went to get Caleb at school and came home to meet Rudy. Not long after he got home, we hit the road for Hot Springs. We made it there without any trouble. It was one of Caleb's easiest trips in a while! Hallelujah!

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Hot Springs. Mr. L was at deer camp, but came home on Sunday morning before we left. Rudy played golf at Hot Springs Village with Chad on Saturday morning and Mom played with Caleb while I slept in. Unfortunately, Caleb hasn't taken too well to sleeping in the "big bed" with siderails at Lala's and one of us ends up having to sleep with him. Again...thank goodness for hydrocodone. :) Shortly after I got up, Aunt Harolyn came by to see us and then Pepapa and Anna Joyce came over. Caleb and Mom spent some time outside collecting acorns for Pops to feed the deer. I went shopping while Caleb napped and got an outfit to wear Saturday night. When I got home, Rudy was there and got ready to go over to Little Rock. We went to dinner and then to UALR for the Air Force Band Concert. Our friend, Chris was playing a trumpet solo, and it was our first time to see him play professionally. I think the last time I saw Chris play was at our wedding 10 years ago! After the concert, we all went over to Chad & Ronni's house for a little bit and then Rudy and I drove back to Hot Springs. When we got home, Caleb was sound asleep in Lala's bed. I'm not sure which one of them enjoyed that snuggle more.

On Sunday, Mom treated me to a special birthday lunch! She made my favorites: crawfish ettoufee and chocolate pie! Yum! After our early lunch, we hit the road for home. We made a short stop in Ft. Smith to see Jan and her friend Sue, then came home.

Of course, in our family, it seems that someone always has to be sick. Rudy woke up during the night Sunday with a stomach bug. He went to work on Monday, but came home early after a trip to the doctor. He was officially quarantined to the bedroom until this morning.

Sunday night, I went to bed at 9:30, thinking I would get a good night's sleep to prepare for a busy week. No such luck. Caleb woke up at 12:00, crying. I put him in the guest bed with me and we both went back to sleep. He woke up at 2:00 and whined/cried until I had to get up at 5:45 to get ready for work. I put him back in his bed at some point during all of that and he cried so hard, I thought he was going to be sick. So, I started the week on minimal sleep. This week is parent-teacher conference week for me, so I knew it would be busy. I left school at 4:30 on Monday and picked up Caleb. We went to the grocery store and then came home for dinner, bath, play and bedtime. I admit...I bought him a new movie at the store so we could have a low-key night. It worked. I put him to bed at his regular time and then had some work to do. It was midnight before I could get to bed. Of course, Caleb woke up at 12:30 screaming. I thought I was going to cry, but my Mom abilities kicked in and I sucked it up. He kept saying that his ears hurt. I gave him some pain medicine from his surgery and he went right back to sleep. Again...I love hydrocodone. We both slept most of the night and made it to school on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday was a LONG day for me. After school, I had parent-teacher conferences until 6:45. On Monday night, I had called our fabulous superhero babysitter, Kelly and worked out a way for her to take care of Caleb for me on Tuesday night. She came by my school and got my carseat, then went to Caleb's school to get him. They went to an early dinner at McDonald's and then came home to play. Rudy was still quarantined. When I got home, Caleb and Kelly were playing happily. Caleb told me he had to go potty, so I took him. My heart sank when I realized that he had diarrhea. I just knew that he had gotten Rudy's virus and we were in for another few days of misery. After a few more trips to the bathroom, I finally got him to bed. I called my principal and told her I wouldn't be at work on Wednesday and settled in for another long night. I got to bed at about 10:15 and, as expected, Caleb woke up at 2:00. Again, he told me his ears hurt. I gave him more pain medicine, took him to the bathroom (no diarrhea!) and we climbed in the bed. The pain medicine wasn't as effective this time. He fussed and cried and whined for over an hour while laying in the bed with me. He finally fell asleep around 4:00. We got up at 8:00 this morning and he played and watched TV while I dozed on the couch and counted down the time until his nap. After lunch, I finally got him in HIS bed for a nap and started some laundry. Then I hit the bed and slept like a rock until Rudy got home. Rudy woke up Caleb and took him to his follow-up appointment at the ENT. I went to school to get some work to bring home. I'm not sure why - it's not like I've even looked at it tonight! I guess I just needed to get out of the house and that made me feel productive. When I got home, Caleb was playing and Rudy had dinner almost ready. It has been a pretty good night. Rudy has felt so much better and enjoyed playing with Caleb tonight. He put him to bed not long ago and we've agreed to let him cry a little longer tonight before going to rescue him.

Everyone is going to school tomorrow. Rudy and I both have parent-teacher conferences and I have someone coming to my school to watch Caleb and another teacher's child. Good heavens, I hope it's a better day.

Now...for the update from the ENT. Nothing. He told Rudy absolutely nothing. He said that Caleb's ears looked fine. He wasn't worried about anything. He suggested a steroid for the inflammation that may be causing the ear pain, but Rudy turned it down. Caleb doesn't handle steroids well. We'll just keep giving him Tylenol and Motrin. Rudy said that Dr. Lee considered another round of antibiotics, but decided against it. I guess we're just going to have to ride this storm out with a test of patience.

Caleb's whining is ridiculous, but I don't know how much of it is because he doesn't feel good and how much is him being a pain. He will throw a holy fit and whine and cry, then look at me and say, "Mama, I not crying anymore." Usually, when he whines, I ignore him or tell him that I can't hear his words when he's whining. When it's the middle of the night, I tend to cave a little quicker. I'm just too tired to deal with it at 2:00 in the morning. I know I shouldn't get him out of his bed and sleep with him in the guest bed. I know that goes against every logical parenting rule. But...usually that cycles through about 2 or 3 nights every month or so. Not a big deal. Now, this has been going on for almost 2 weeks. It's not just getting old - it's old already.

I know I've written a lot of negativity in this post, so let me finish with some positives.

• Caleb has learned some pretty amazing things the past few weeks at school. He's starting to pretend a lot and his language has exploded once again.
• There is a child in his class that likes to try to scare the other kids by talking about ghosts and monsters. With Halloween coming soon, we've been tying to tell him that ghosts and monsters are pretend. When he starts talking about them at night when he goes to bed, I spray some air freshener that we call "monster spray" and he seems okay.
• As usual, he sings a lot. The new favorites are "Where is Thumbkin" and "Old MacDonald."
• Yesterday, Caleb walked into the living room with his blanket wrapped around his shoulders and told me that he was a princess. I thought that was pretty funny.
• Last Monday, he told me that it wasn't raining, it was just sprinkling.
• With all of the fall decorations out right now, he likes to point out all of the "squarecrows."
• When he is in the car with Rudy, Caleb likes to "help Daddy drive" by pretending that he is holding a steering wheel. He actually turns it the right way most of the time.
• He also likes to tell everything "Happy Birthday" - especially Taco Bell and the cows that we pass on the way home. That's a game that he and his Daddy made up one day and he's holding on to it.
• Caleb has started playing with his toys by "making them talk." He'll hold an Elmo figurine and say, "Hi, Elmo" then, "Hi, Caleb."
• Caleb's sense of direction seems pretty impressive to Rudy and me. He knows which way we turn to get places and if we don't go that way, he gets upset. He can also guess where we're going based on which way we're going.
• And, to make things truly positive...I would venture to say that Caleb is now fully potty-trained. He goes days between accidents. When we were in Hot Springs, I asked him if he needed to go potty and he said no. He then went into the bedroom, closed the door and wet his pants. I asked him why he did that. He said he "want to play, not sit on the potty." That's a pretty good sign to me that he can control his bladder. He's just being two.

Pepapa's Birthday Party

We went to Hot Springs on Friday for Pepapa's 70th birthday party at Mom and Mr. L's house! We got there Friday night and let Caleb play for a while before trying to put him to bed. We weren't sure how bedtime would go, though. For the first time, we were trying to get him to sleep in a "big bed" with rails on the side, instead of in the pack & play. He has really gotten too big for the P&P and we all decided it was time for another solution. Caleb was having none of that. He cried and asked me to stay with him. He's started telling me that he's scared a lot lately. He knows it gets me every time! Rudy insisted on sleeping with him Friday night.

We spent most of Saturday getting ready for the big party! We slowed down long enough to visit with Jimmy and Kim for a while. At 2:30, we all paused just long enough to watch the beginning of the Hogs' game against Texas. It was a completely nauseating experience. The Hogs are just so bad this year and Texas beat the living daylights out of us. We were glad when the guests started arriving for the party and we could put that behind us and have fun.

The party was a complete success! There were over 50 people there, including Pepapa's family and friends. Everyone had a great time and the food was delicious. Rudy treated us all to the Arkansas fight song and then played Happy Birthday on his trumpet. Pepapa seemed to really enjoy the party and that was the most important part!

After the party, we cleaned up a little and then headed for bed. We were all exhausted! I slept with Caleb in his big bed and for once, we both actually slept. We were both so tired, there was no way we could avoid it!

We headed for home yesterday, loaded down with leftovers from the party and exhausted from all the fun. We stumbled through the evening and put Caleb to bed a little early before falling onto our pillows. The family fun was well worth the exhaustion, but we're sure glad we aren't doing it all again next weekend! :)