April . . . Month in Review

With our lack of a yard to play in, I have been trying to get to the park at least once a week (especially while the weather is nice). He loves to swing!

We went strawberry-picking with a bunch of friends from church. What you can't tell from this picture is how messy he is - strawberry juice and dirt all over him. I even caught him eating a handful of sand at one point. Well worth it though - I am going to make strawberry cake this afternoon.

I found this awesome tent at Ikea the other day - super fun!

His newly-found climbing skills scare the heck out of me . . . I guess that's part of having a boy!

Parental Supervision Required

Last night during the 30 seconds I was looking away to send a text, Caleb somehow managed to put one of Cameron's t-shirts over his head. I looked up just as he ran smack into the front door with the t-shirt covering his face. Hilarious . . . except for all of the tears on his part! :) Just a typical Tuesday at our place, I guess.

15 months

Caleb is 15 months today. We just got back from his well-baby visit. He wasn't very cooperative with the nurse today! We had to do the method where I stood on the scale holding him, etc. to determine his weight (on the upside . . . their scale seemed very forgiving, I weighed less than I thought I did - when does that ever happen? ha!).
The Stats:
22 lbs.
29 1/2 in.
3 shots
seasonal allergies (he is taking Zyrtec - which creates awesomely long naps!)

Easter Weekend

Easter service at Crossbridge

Caleb got a kite, pajamas, eggs filled with Cheerios, and a ball (he loved the ball!) in his basket

We had lots of fun having dinner with the Wallaces, this is the bunny cake we brought for dessert. It turned out pretty cute. :)

Crossbridge helped sponsor an Easter egg hunt at an assisted living center down the street from church. Here are Caleb, Hazel, and Evelyn before the big event. Caleb was more interested in shaking the eggs (they made a fun sound) than putting them in the basket.

March . . . Month in Review

Here are some of the highlights of the month of March:
-a much-needed break from school (for both Cameron and I) allowed us to travel to see Rachel and Amanda in Dallas and then up to Nashville to meet up with Cameron's parents for a couple of days. It was a fun and refreshing break, but we were exhausted after our 15+ hour trip home! Low point of the trip -- discovering that we have a CD stuck in the CD player in our car and no idea how to get it out (but, on the positive side, we listened to lots of NPR!).

-making a decision about housing . . . we have been going back and forth for several months and not feeling a lot of direction about what do for our living situation. We met with a realtor to look at some rental houses last weekend (she was great!), but we were kind of bummed out by the type of house we could afford. So, we decided to sign a six-month lease at our apt. complex and we will see what happens from there. We felt a lot of peace by just being able to make one decision about our lives right now! :)

-Caleb has hit a lot of developmental mile stones all of a sudden! He has gone from crawling to mostly walking (kind of looks like Frankenstein), has several words that he uses consistently ('da da', 'baby', and 'see'), and points at things to let us know what he sees or needs. He continues to use the sign for 'more' to let us know what he wants. I feel like he is developing a sense of humor as certain things seem to completely crack him up.

-we all survived Caleb's first ear infection and fever -- we made it to 14 mo. with only doing one round of antibiotics - awesome!

-Caleb is sporting a new haircut -- he screamed and screamed as he was getting it cut, but I am loving the results! In the picture below, he was pointing at the babies in the book and saying 'baby'! So smart! :) (also -- I am loving his cutie-patootie pajamas -- organic cotton and only $5.00 at Walmart!)

What?!!

A couple of random things from the last two days, which are making me smile on a dreary Monday morning:
1. Yesterday we put Caleb down for a short "nap" before church . . . I think he really just played the whole time. When Cameron went in to get him, he yelled to me, "Get in here, quick!" I ran around the corner of his room to find Cameron laughing and Caleb standing in his crib wearing only his shirt and diaper. He had somehow managed to take his pants off. What?!! My immediate thought was, 'wow, I am really glad he hasn't figured out how to take off his diaper!'
2. This morning I was really excited about wearing this new oh-so-soft grey t-shirt that I just got a couple of weeks ago. When I put it on and looked in the mirror the center of the lotus flower fell in a very conspicuous place on my chest. Cameron also confirmed what I was thinking. :) It was very akin to Charlize Theron's Oscar dress last night. Needless to say, my $5.00 t-shirt went into the Goodwill donation pile we started over the weekend!

Happy Monday!

Early Literacy

I just read a great article in Parenting magazine last night about childhood literacy. It contained some pretty crazy statistics that encouraged me in the reading that we do with Caleb. Even though Caleb would rather eat the books or tear the pages right now rather than listen to the story or look at the pictures, I am hopefully taking a few (albeit small) steps in the right direction.
Check this out:
-"many children who enter kindergarten without pre-reading skills in place will never catch up . . . by second grade we can predict who will go on to higher education and who will not based on their literacy skills." (Parenting, pg. 111, March 2010)
This piece of information was down-right depressing:
-"having reading difficulties also increases the odds that a child will drop out of school and have a criminal record. States like California and Indiana have even factored in the number of third-graders who are not reading at grade level when planning future jail construction." (Parenting, pg. 112, March 2010)
The article goes on to mention the hugely disparate numbers of books and reading opportunities available to kids from lower income homes and middle income homes (1 book per 300 kids vs. access to at least 13 books at any time) and several volunteer-based free programs that are out to change that.
We have access to a great library system here in Sugar Land and an awesome weekly Toddler Time . . . though Caleb has no idea what is going on yet, I think he likes watching the other kids dance and sing. Yay for free stuff!
What are some favorite books currently at your house? Do you have any good recommendations?