New Teeth

Here's a few pics of Cael eating (slobbering?) a cracker I made earlier today. Here's the recipe...they're dang good!

Well, squishy is getting his two top teeth at the same time and is cranky as hell. He doesn't like the plastic teething ring we got him so I'm goofing off on Amazon to see what I can find. There are some great wooden baby toys/teethers from a German company called Haba . They've got great reviews, and are non toxic. A tad pricey, but they may be worth it. One lady commented that in this day and age of recalls it's good to know that there are safe toys for your kids to play with. I agree! Sheesh, half the crap from China is laced with lead and God knows what else.
Anyway, there's also this thing called a razberry teether and a teething necklace (for me) that's pretty nifty. I think I'm going to get the razberry and one of the wooden teethers as well.
It's a shame you can't get cool stuff like this around here.

Smarter Than the Average Bear

We had some visitors the other day, Momma and baby raided the neighbors garage and took of with a bag of hot dog buns.

The End of June

Here it is, the end of June.
Squish is in his crib, NOT taking his nap which I set him down for half an hour ago. So, here I am in my workout clothes, waiting for him to go to sleep already! That's the only time I have to workout and Cael is being stubborn. Argh! I know if I start anyway, he'll slip or something and break his little head.
He did that just last week; standing up in his crib he slipped and fell. By the time I got up there he had stopped crying, but he had a bloody mouth and a cut right where one of his top front teeth are coming in.....ouch!
Friday was crazy! As I was driving to take Cael to his sitter's house, a freak storm came up. At first it was just the wind, it was blowing so hard I kept looking around for a tornado! I got to the sitters' house just as a huge tree branch in their back yard broke and fell into their yard.

I managed to get Cael out of the car without anyone seeing my underwear (I can't believe that was the day I decided to wear a skirt) and knocked on the door for 5 minutes. There was no answer, and oh shit, I had to start work in 20 minutes. I went back home and stuck Cael in his crib with a bottle and logged into my computer. I didn't know what the hell I was going to do since I was out of sick time and they weren't approving any PTO.

Maybe Alex could come home, so I sent him some frantic emails and then my work phone went down. I called the help desk and the guy said all of Colorado was down and he'd call me when it was back up. Hallelujah! Thank you God!!!! I called my supervisor in Miami and she said the Colorado office was in total darkness, the electricity had gone out and the back up generators were out too.
Sweet! So I hung out with squishy until the phones got fixed at about 5. I knew Shaun would be home at about 5:30, so I stuck Cael back in his crib with another bottle and left Shaun a note. Shaun didn't' get home till about 6, (he almost didn't come home at all since he was going to a bday party) but Cael just hung out in his crib and played happily until Shaun got home.
There were a lot of Thank You God's that day.......

It turns out that the sitter was home, she was just in the basement trying to find something to cover her kitchen window. That tree branch that fell in her backyard went right through the window and made a huge mess. So I was out there knocking and she just didn't hear me. I had left my cell phone at home so I couldn't even call her. What a weird day.

I bought Cael a stroller finally, just a cheap $20 umbrella stroller. It works great and Cael loves it. He just kicks back and swings his little fat legs as happy as he can be.

Squish still is loving his natural turkey bacon and egg yolk. He'll still only eat it if he thinks it's coming off your plate. lol, he won't let me use his spoon either, he wants to eat the spoon in between bites of food. He loves sitting in his highchair, eating his spoon and using his sippy cup to give himself a shower. He also loves when you clean him up. I'll use a soft rag with warm water and he'll giggle when I start scrubbing his hands and around his mouth. It's so funny.

We went to Wal-Mart yesterday to buy a new cast iron pan since I ruined mine.
Hmm.
How do you ruin a cast iron pan you may ask...
Well, I was cooking up some salmon cakes and the pan was smoking so I stuck the pan outside on top of Alex's charcoal grill. I forgot about the pan and the next morning I went to retrieve it, but I couldn't. It was stuck to the grill. I pulled, and pulled and finally it came off. Whadda ya know, I had stuck that hot pan right on top of the plastic handle of the grill's air vent. Damn! That pan was perfectly seasoned too. : (
If I only had a blow torch I could've just melted the plastic right off the bottom, but alas, I do not have one, nor do I know anyone who has such a nifty thingy.

Ah ha! Squishy is asleep at last....it only took 45 minutes, little punk.

Crawling and Bathtime

Cael can officially crawl now, but he still would rather stand and have all the adult slaves walk him around the house. lol, what a pest.I saw the most hilarious thing ever today. I was coming down the stairs, Alex had been swinging Cael in the air and had set him down. Alex was standing a few feet away from Cael and talking to him when Willa made an appearance and sat down next to Al. Cael growled, 'aaahhhhhhh' , got on his hands and knees and started crawling towards Willa growling the whole way. He got right in her face and I was worried that she would scratch him, but she looked at him like, eeeew, what the heck are you? and moved away. Then he chased her out from under his bouncy. I wish I had gotten that on video, it was so funny! Here's a few random pics/vids....sorry, I didn't bother messing with the sound as I am too lazy. : )

tantrums

About a week ago Cael discovered the art of manipulation. He knew that if he had a crying fit, someone would come and pick him up and when I set him down to change his diaper. Well, it got so bad last week we had to do something! So, we let him cry. It was awful the first day, he cried himself to sleep in the morning and the afternoon my nerves were strectched so tight I was ready to scream! As for the diaper changes, before he starts to fuss I start playing 'This Little Piggy' or sing the 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' and then he's all smiles.

Day 2 was better, but we still had some crying. He was standing up using the coffee table for support, crying his little head off, banging on the table with his hands and 'bouncing' up and down. It was hard not to laugh at that one. Then he was sitting on the floor with a new toy and he decided he wanted to walk, but I was disinclined to assist him as we had already walked all over the dang house, so he started crying and hit his toy a few times in frustration. I had a good laugh in the kitchen on that one.

He loves to cry and then he'll pause to see if you're looking. If you happen to glance his way he'll start crying again. If you aren't paying attention he'll whine for a bit and then find something to do. Sometimes he'll do this off and on, just to test us. : ) He can pull himself to standing most of the time, and he can inch along in his crib, the coffee table and his toybox. He likes to pretend he's stuck, but he can sit down, roll over and crawl (or creep) to get where he needs to be. He's a lazy bum however and prefers for me to do it, and naturally lets me know what a rotten mother I am when I don't help. He cries when he crawls, he'll crawl a little bit, but then he'll push up onto his toes because he's trying to stand and starts fussing and crying. *lol*

There are no more screaming fits really, mostly he's down to fussing. Today is the 4th day of teaching Cael that we're in charge! *lol* He learned pretty dang fast!

He was a fussy butt as soon as he was up this morning so he got his milk and went right back to bed! We trained him early on going to bed, so he hardly ever cries anymore when it's bedtime. He'll talk to himself and blow raspberries and finally fall asleep.

He got up about an hour later and had bacon and eggs with us (egg yolk only and organic, additive free turkey bacon--yumm!). We got him a high chair at long last, I sat him in it this morning and he had a good time playing with his spoon and plastic bowls while I cooked breakfast.

I've got a few picures here of Cael in the Library with the books. He loves to walk in there and play with his Pat the Bunny book, mostly he just eats the mini stuffed bunny.... poor Pat.

Good Morning

A few months ago Cael would go to bed at 9ish and wake up at 9ish. Then Cael would go to bed at the same time and wake up at 7:30ish. Now, the last week Cael is up at 6 friggin 30 every damn morning. That is too damn early.
Since we decided to have Cael, I knew my night owl days were over....but seriously, 6:30 in the morning? He's been a grumpy little bugger ever since he started getting up this early! Last night we drove to Denver to pick up Julie & Joe from their cruise and didn't get that boy to be till after 11....guess what? He slept in till 6:45.
wtf?!

Happy Memorial Day!

Yesterday we went to Grandma & Grandpa's house which is about 2 hours from Colorado Springs. Cael was an adorable little angel the whole time (hmm..does this mean he'll end up a monster toddler or excessively hormonal teenager?) and he got to meet Uncle Joe for the first time too. Basically, they just stared at each other.
Oh, he may have been an angel yesterday, but he's a cranky little guy today! Sheesh, maybe he's got some more chompers coming in or something. Thank god the babysitter will be here in an hour, then she can deal with it while I go out and have fun with JuJu.
Anyhoo, Cael has started clapping whenever he sees something he likes and the other day Al and I saw him pull himself up to standing using his toybox so he could look inside. Super cute!
Here's a few pics of our little wild man of Borneo playing with his pet tiger:

And a few of Cael enjoying egg yolk and standing up in his crib.