I know I've been terrible with keeping this blog updated lately. I just had my dear friend Jeny B call me last weekend (she lives in Texas) just to make sure I was still alive and doing alright. She said, "I haven't heard from you in a while" and "you haven't updated your blog in a while either". Why does life get so crazy busy sometimes that we don't even have time to keep in touch with our friends? Just sad!!! I tell ya what, I thought my life before this little guy was busy and I now realize I had all the time in the world and now have a much better understanding what "busy" really means. How do you parents out there with more than one do it?

The pictures I've posted are Calebs 9 month pictures we just had taken a couple weeks ago. We were originally suppose to get them taken right when he turned 9 months but then due to him and I being sick I rescheduled them and now he's already going to be 10 months old next week. Unbelievable!!! He just amazing me more and more everyday and has us laughing all the time. He has finally started to say a few words and now that he realizes he can do that he's constantly talking. He says Mama, Dada, Hey, and on occasion, Ty Ty (Tyson is our white kitty that's pictured with Caleb on the previous post). He's getting more teeth and has been grinding them none stop lately. I just hate that sound. He's been much more interested in "real people" food lately rather than his homemade baby food. So we've been experimenting a little more with different foods. He's tried both spaghetti and mac n cheese and loved both. I think I've got a pasta boy on my hands.

I just adore these pictures of him in the tub. At first the pictures weren't going so good cuz he just wanted to get into everything but then we put him in the little bathtub and gave him some things to play with and that's all it took to get some laughter and big smiles out of the kid, so that part was fun. He just thought the rubber ducky, sponge and brush
were the coolest things ever. That's pretty much what he looks like when he takes a bath at home too. He just loves bathtime and we finally got rid of the "baby" tub so now he sits in the big tub and he loves to sit in there while the tub is filling and play under the running water. Fun times!!!

I had him in a little over a week ago now for his 9 month check up with the doctor. He is doing well growing in the hieght and head category but still not so good in the weight section. He did end up having another ear infection so we had to treat for that and then they repeated some more bloodwork to look at his calcium levels. Last time they came back high so they wanted to check on that again. Apparently high calcium levels can indicate some issue going on with the endocrine system which could also explain why he isn't gaining weight like he should be. So we finally just got those results back and they weren't at all what the doctor expected. They are now below the normal range so I think the doc is pretty much stumped right now as he tried to explain to me that he doesn't know of anything that causes the calcium levels to fluctuate like that. So now I'm just left kind of clueless I guess as to what we should do next. Part of me wants to just assume everything is just fine and go on and just let him be the little happy baby that he is but then deep inside I know that the doctor has been concerned enough about it to start looking at reasons why he's so little so then I think I should be doing more. ARGH!!! I'm not a doctor...........I just want somebody to make these decisions for me. For now his doctor has opted to keep monitoring him and see how he does. We don't have anymore appointments scheduled until his 1 year check up. That seems so far away but I know it's really not.

That's it for now. It's time for me to go pick my sunshine up from daycare. It's so fun now cuz he just smiles and crawls right to me now when he sees me. So rewarding.

I'll leave you all with one last picture of him. This is one of my favorites. He just looks so precious!!!

Take care, Erin

Oooooh.........Tractors

Once again, it's been a while since my last update. I think I may have forgotten all that has taken place since then as the days just seem to fly right on by. I had to put this picture of Caleb and his furry brother Tyson on here. The both of them just adore one another. Tyson will come looking for Caleb and vise versa. Caleb is so rough with him, jumping on him, pulling his hair and swatting at his face and Ty will just lay there and take it all and most of the time just purrs right on through it all. What a good sport. I must say I was a bit worried about having a baby around our 2 cats as they have been my babies until Caleb came along but everything has worked out just fine and we are one big happy family. We have been keeping busy as the summer is fading away and fall creeps up on us. I love the fall, it's my favorite time of year. Sweatshirt and jeans and some nice crisp air but still not too cold. Gotta love it!!!

This picture was taken at the great Minnesota get together. Yep, I'm talking about the State Fair. Another one of my favorite times of the year. I've always loved the Fair and I can remember growing up and going with my family, we would get there bright and early in the morning and stay all day long until everything was shut down. The days never seemed long either as I could just sit and people watch all day long and never get bored. My parents use to drop me off at the KDWB booth and come back later to get me. Last year I almost missed it for the first time ever. I was put on bed rest with this little bug right before the fair started and I just remember being so upset that I was not going to be able to go to the fair as I had never missed a year. I even had friends offer to take me and push me around in a wheel chair but I refused to go that way. Luckily I got put on modified bed rest the week that it opened and got the ok from my doctor to go. So this year we took the little guy and he amazingly made it almost 8 hours. I must say it wasn't quite the same as we didn't go into many of the buildings we usually do as it's just too much to push a stroller through all those people and it was the earliest that I've ever left the fair. It was still light out when we were leaving. That made me kinda sad as I love the fair at night but our little guy had enough and we needed to get him home. His favorite thing about the entire day was looking at lawn mowers with dad. The picture above is Caleb sitting on his daddy's dream mower. Maybe some year for fathers day. HEE HEE!!!

We finally got a new family vehicle. We bought a Chevy Equinox which is a midsize SUV and I love it. We just needed something a little bigger. Jamming the stroller into the trunk of a car is not much fun especially when you have other things to put in there and then there's no more room cuz the stroller takes up the entire trunk. My favorite feature about the new vehicle is the tinted windows. I don't have to listen to Caleb scream anymore because the sun is in his eyes. And I guess the heated seats is another. I've always wanted a vehicle with heated seats. No more frozen butts in the winter. Another plus is I might be able to get out of my driveway now when it snows. My little car never made it very far. So I guess we made ourselves a good purchase.

We headed to Alabama last week for the National softball tournament but Josh's team didn't play very well so that was a bummer. They lost their first game, won their second and lost their third. They were outta the tournament on Saturday and we weren't suppose to come home until Monday afternoon but my parents had Caleb and they both ended up getting sick so Josh and I changed our flight and came home on Sunday. It was actually nice because I was missing the little guy terribly and he hasn't been eating really well so I was worried about that and then I felt awful that both my mom and dad ended up getting sick while they had him to worry about. That's no fun to be sick and have to deal with a baby. Plus we got Labor Day to hang out and get a few things done around the house.

This past week all 3 of us have been fighting colds and feeling miserable so I can't wait till this is over with. I was suppose to have my nephew overnight last night and was so excited but that didn't happen because my cold worsened over the weekend and now has moved into my chest and I've been having trouble breathing and have had a nasty dry cough. I went to urgent care yesterday morning and got some meds and an inhaler which are helping. Josh took Caleb to his parents for the day yesterday so I could just get some rest. I still feel pretty cruddy today but I've got tomorrow off work and I'm going to send Caleb to daycare to hopefully get some more rest and fight this nasty bug off. Josh is feeling better and Caleb's nose just continues to drain but he's happy as ever. We've been cotinuing to get more landscaping done around the house and Caleb enjoys hanging around outside in the yard playing with the tractor sprinkler. The thing is almost as big as he is. He is getting more teeth and is becoming more darring each day. He's a climber and wants to climb on everything. He's pretty steady on his feet and I just have this feeling he's going to be an early walker.

Until next time, take care - Erin