Thanksgiving Weekend

We celebrated Thanksgiving at Mark and Mary's house. Kevin, Mary, Lily and baby Sammuel were there too.

The food was delicious!

Caleb and Lily had so much fun together. They played in this room for a long time. Caleb couldn't do as much as Lily but that didn't stop him from trying or getting our help.

Whenever Caleb sees this picture he says, "Lil Lil."

Here's the pumpkin cake I decorated for dessert:

On Friday we drove to the temple. I went in while Derrick walked around the grounds with Caleb. Caleb loved the fountain and videos in the visitor's center. Caleb could have stayed there all day. On our way back we stopped at a mall to pick up some Christmas gifts. In Sports Authority, Caleb found the row of basketballs, footballs and soccer balls. We literally had to pick him up to get him to leave, he cried the whole way back to the car.
That evening we went to Rite Aid and got a 3' fake Christmas tree and lights. I really wanted just a small tree and Derrick, after a little begging, gave his approval. Caleb loves the lights and I am so excited to have a taste of Christmas in our house.


Also, after showing Caleb one or two times the picture of our ultrasound and telling him it was his sister, he now knows it's "siseh"

It's a girl!

Well, we've done it: covered both genders with our first two babies. For all technicality reasons I wanted another boy: hand-down clothes, same toys to play with, can keep their bedroom boyish and since the b-day's will be close it would make one birthday theme easier.
BUT, I am really glad that I will have a little girl to dress up, do hair (in a few years), and sew little girl clothes. We also have a few more ideas for girl names this time--though we still don't know the final name yet. Being at 20 weeks pregnant, we still have some time to go.
About the ultrasound: she was very active--stretching all limbs and constantly turning. The pictures they got weren't as clear as the ones we had with Caleb...oh well. Derrick and I still can't believe how completely formed babies are at just 20 weeks. Everything really is there from a beating heart to 10 little toes. Caleb sat in Derrick's lap for the full 40 minutes! We couldn't believe it, he was so good and for that, we are grateful. We can't wait to meet our little girl!

Sleep

Yesterday morning Caleb was a wreck. Unless we were outside he couldn't stay calm. Around 10am I laid down with him on the living room floor, his head on my arm, and I sang to him while stroking his hair. He eventually stopped crying and his eyes started to get droopy. After 5 minutes he was out. I was able to slide my arm out from under his head and he slept like this for a half hour:


I was at the computer with my back to him and when he woke up, he sat up, I turned around and he said, "Hi" with a slightly sleepy face and a smile. He has never slept on the floor like that before.
I also wanted to get a picture of our bedtime routine. Derrick or I will sit in the rocking chair and read Caleb books, then we turn off the lights and sing him a few songs. Precious moments.

Crazy Boy

There is nothing to compare to the energy level Caleb had on Sunday evening. It was crazy even for Caleb standards. He was running around like a mad man. At one point he did this over and over again, no less than 50 times (I am not exaggerating):

As soon as he would finish he would run back again to the first sofa and climb up. At one point I sat in the spot he used to get up and he started tugging at my dress and saying, "dow, dow" for down. I moved and he proceeded.
That night after dinner he also got up on the chair at the dinner table and started spooning the juice from our green beans into his mouth. He then started eating the beans and splashing in the juice. Then he stuck his head right in the pot and tried to get the beans that way. I tried to get a video but he wants the camera too much. So here's Caleb crying for the camera but it gives you the picture of where he was when he ate the beans:

Maybe this was all because of daylight savings time. He still is not used to it and he has been sleeping less than usual. I am hoping he gets adjusted soon.

Bravo!

I've been meaning to write this story down all week: On Sunday I had the senior primary sing my song, "We Give Our Thanks" for the special musical number during sacrament meeting. We sat in the second row (no one sits in the first) so I could conduct the kids from right there. Derrick was watching Caleb during the song and he said Caleb was hooked to those kids the entire time. He loved them singing. Then as soon as the song was over and I was gesturing the kids to go back to their seats, Caleb starts clapping his hands and said, "Yay!" He had a huge smile on his face. I at least have one fan!

Halloween!

We had two Halloween parties on Friday and I am convinced that Halloween is Caleb's favorite holiday. Caleb was a scarecrow, I was a farm girl and Derrick was a stock of corn.

There was a person in a dog costume and we are certain Caleb thought it was a real dog. He was in love with this dog:


Another funny thing that happened (which I wish we had on camera) was that I saw a two or three year old dressed up in a head to toe Elmo costume--hood and all with the eyes and nose on top of the kid's head. I knelt down and told Caleb, "Look it's Elmo." The second his eyes found Elmo he went running up to the boy, whose back was to us. When Caleb gets right up to him he's practically touching the boy as he circles around him to look right into his face. Caleb thought this was the real Elmo and he was ecstatic.

There was also a bouncy house there but it was always filled with big kids so we just held Caleb while standing next to the structure and we bounced up and down. He was smiling the entire time and he really felt like he was in there too. At one point a little girl came up to him from the inside and put her hands on the netting and let Caleb tap her hands. I always love it when kids older than Caleb make an effort to play with him because it makes him so happy.

We ate popcorn while we waited in line to get balloon swords. Caleb was going around grabbing every other kid's balloon, so we had to get one too.

After the work party we went to our church party. We ate food, talked to friends and did a little trunk or treating. Caleb quickly got the hang of reaching out his hand to take the candy and put it in his sack. We only let him get like 7 pieces or so but he loved it and ate a fun size bag of m&m's on the way home.
I made some yummy pumpkin cake for the party and decorated it like this:

With the extra pumpkin puree I had left we made pumpkin pancakes the next morning and they were the most amazing pancakes I have ever had. We used this recipe, in case you ever want to try them. I will certainly be making them again!