June pictures

Caleb's eyes seem to be getting better. He woke up this morning with a little bit of crusties but hasn't had a problem with any eye boogers all day. Crossing my fingers that his tear ducts are no longer clogged!

I haven't posted many pictures lately so I thought I'd catch up by putting up some pics from the month of June. Can you believe that tomorrow will already be JULY?? Where does the time go?

This stroller was a hand-me-down from a friend at the park and it has been a huge hit from the first day Caleb got it. He puts everything in it from sippy cups to dinosaurs, balls, cars, and bananas -- basically anything he wants! Here he is acting all tough strollin' his ball around the house. So cute.

I just love it when he wears his helmet without a fuss. I think it is sooooo cute. He got a scooter and I'm trying to teach him that he has to wear the helmet when he rides it outside. He's warming up to it slowly.

He got an orange fauxhawk at cousin Leia's birthday party! Such a stud.

Peek-a-boo! He likes putting buckets on his head. I have a 4 1/2 minute video of him walking through the house with this lego bucket on his head. Of course, he was crashing into everything!

Caleb with his bubbles and his shadow (Lilo) following closely behind. Notice the runny nose? This was taken during the week he was sick so we did a lot of playing in the backyard.

Lilo was more than happy to help out with that runny nose.... gross!

Caleb and cousin Justice playing together. What kid doesn't love Elmo?

This is Caleb petting a goat at the Del Mar Fair. He loved the animals! He was mooing at all of them (especially the cows)!

What is it with ducks? Caleb loves ducks. He was so mad when we pulled him away from this game.

Vroom! Vroom! He makes car noises all the time so I thought he'd love this ride. He did at first but after a few laps he was ready to get off. Me too!

Caleb, mommy and great grandma thought that the carosel was a much smoother ride. We'll stick to these kind of rides for a while! :)

Bye bye, June! Summer is definitely here. It is H-O-T outside!!!!

Clogged Tear Ducts

Caleb is finally over his cold but I took him back to the doctor because his eyes are goopy and he has been waking up for the last few days with his lashes stuck together. It turns out that Caleb probably never had pink eye after all. The crusties/goop in his eyes is due to clogged tear ducts. They are so clogged that the tears/goop have no where to go so it all gets backed up and is causing the puffiness around his eyes too. In the morning it's really bad that I have to use a warm washcloth to soften his crusties so he can open his eyes. He hates it! I hate it too because he thinks I'm being mean and I'm just trying to help. So now what? The doctor said I need to massage his tear ducts several times a day and use the warm compress often. It's not easy when he doesn't want to cooperate. If it continues and doesn't seem to get better then they may want to operate to open his ducts. Oh, brother. I'm just wrapping my brain around the idea that he has to have surgery on his ears - please, not his eyes too! John's dad says he used to have the same problem when he was a kid and he grew out of it. Let's hope Caleb is the same as his Papa Bear. Once when Caleb was a little baby he had a clogged tear duct but it didn't last long at all. Hopefully it will go away on it's own again.

Caleb has had a hard couple of weeks! What's next?

Tubes

We took Caleb to the doctor again this week and we got in to see the ENT (Ear Nose and Throat) doctor. Last time we took him to the ENT was 3 months ago and the doctor said his ears were perfectly normal and that nothing needed to be done. This time was different. Caleb definitely has another ear infection. He has at least one a month and sometimes more than that! The ENT suggested that we get him scheduled for tubes. Gulp. I am semi relieved because I know that the tubes will help him and it will be best for him. I am also semi panicked because I hate the idea of my baby being under anesthesia and going into surgery. It will be sometime this summer. The main thing is that he needs to be 100% healthy - meaning no cough, no runny nose, no nothing - before going into surgery. He still has a cough and a little runny nose so that all has to be completely gone before he can be put on the schedule. He's teething pretty bad right now (3 molars and 2 incisors) so the runny nose may continue for a while.

Happy Father's Day 2009!

My two favorite guys! I love them both with all of my heart! This is Caleb sporting his "My Dad is Awesome" shirt. :)

Happy Daddy's Day!! Caleb has the best daddy in the world. John woke up this morning with a really sore throat so we spent most of the day at home watching the Nin.ja War.rior marathon. Caleb took a 3 hour nap (yay!) so we got to be lazy and do nothing. It was an uneventful day but it was great. We spent the day together as a family. What could be better?

Caleb is back to his normal self again! He still has a runny nose but he is acting like Caleb - not like the whiny, impossible-to-make-happy little boy that has been living in my house for the last few days. I love this kid so much.... If I ask him if he'll share his food with me he will usually give me a bite with no objection at all. But if it's something that he really likes (i.e., ice cream sandwich) he will shake his head and tell me "no" in the sweetest little voice. If I take a bite anyway (how mean, huh?) he will scream, throw his head back and stomp his feet. Can't say I blame him.... The cutest word that he says right now is "up". He says it with such a pronounced "P" and it so cute.... The way he says "wow!" makes me laugh because he says it with feeling! My mom bought him a set of books that are in the shape of cars and when he realized they were books he said "wow!" over and over like 15 times. So cute.

I am so blessed to be John's wife and Caleb's mommy. So, so very blessed.

The ER

Last night while Caleb was taking a bath (a normal bath like he gets all the time) he got really cold and started shivering really bad (the same thing happened during his bath on Wednesday night). It took us a long time to get him warmed up. A little while later he started getting a fever so I gave him Motrin and he went to bed. Then at 10:00 I checked on him and he was burning up! His fever went up to 103.9. I gave him Tylenol and we took him to the ER. I told the ER doc how I had just taken him to the doctor that morning (he didn't see his normal pediatrician) and that his ears looked normal. The ER doc said that Caleb has too much wax buildup to get a good look at his ears so it could be an ear infection but they're not able to see it because of the wax. Then why didn't the doctor tell me that this morning?!?!?! Instead of saying that his ears are fine and normal, why didn't he tell me the truth that he couldn't tell if he had an infection or not? The ER doc tried to get the wax out while Caleb screamed bloody murder but the wax wouldn't budge. I felt really uncomfortable about having to restrain my baby while someone is sticking an instrument down his ear canal and digging around. It was horrible. His ears probably hurt in the first place and I'm sure having them poked and pulled and dug in was probably excrutiating. Plus it was like 1am and we were all exhausted, Caleb was scared and clingy and the doctor was not very kid friendly. He gave us a prescription for ear drops to loosen the wax and relieve pain, and a prescription for antibiotics to kill the infection. So, now Caleb is on eye drops 4x/day, ear drops every six hours and antibiotics 2x/day. The ear drops are a joke to try to get them in. He's supposed to stay on his side for 5 minutes to let them do their full effect. He won't stay for 5 seconds let alone 5 minutes! arrrrrgh.

All this started with a BATH! What's the deal? John and I are ready to never give him a bath again if this is how it's going to go!

Upper Respiratory Infection

Ok, so now the pink eye is all better (he still has to have eyedrops 4x/day until next Tuesday -- so fun) but now he has a cold. He was running a fever last night of 102.4 so I thought for sure that he had an ear infection. I took him to the doctor today and he's ears are clear, thank God! He does have an Upper Respiratory Infection; basically, the common cold. He is so tired of being cooped up in the house. I took him to the grocery store today and it was so sad. Every kid he saw, whether the kid saw him or not, Caleb waved and waved at him/her. He is so desperate to have some kid interaction! My poor boy. Maybe if he's feeling better by tomorrow we can go to the park. We are both getting restless! And thanks to this restless little boy, the "B" on my keyboard is stuck! It's driving me crazy. I have to press it extra hard to get the B to show up. arrrgh....

Pink Eye

Last night Caleb's right eye started looking a little pink. This morning he woke up with lots of crusties and his lashes were glued shut. Poor baby. He looked at me with his open eye and a confused look on his face. I took a warm wash cloth and softened the crusties until his lashes would open. His doctor prescribed some antibiotic eye drops (which are soooo hard to get in his eye) so he should be all better soon. He will be contagious for 24 hours from the start of medication so that means around 10am tomorrow. So we've been cooped up in the house today (except for going to pick up his meds) and he is being such a good sport about it. Where did he get it? Who knows? Maybe on the playground or at church or who knows where else. He seems too young to have pink eye already!! The nurse said that I need to watch out for an ear infection because sometimes kids that are prone to getting them will develop one when they have pink eye. Great, just what he needs! Poor kid. He's still cute though, even with his pink little eye. :) See his right eye? This was taken at breakfast. Caleb loves bananas!

There's that smile!

Here he is after lunch with a mouthful of cookies!! Get better soon, my love!

I'm an Iron Girl!

I participated in the Iron Girl 5K in Del Mar yesterday! It was so much fun. I did it in 34 minutes, 11 seconds and finished in 537th place. I'm pretty proud of myself considering that if you had asked me 5 years ago if I'd thought I'd be running in any race of any kind I would have laughed in your face! I got a finisher medal and I love it! look at my medal.. it's so purdy.

My friend Lisa and her daughter Alexis did it with me so we are all Iron Girls! This was us before the race. Feeling a little nervous but excited too.

This was sometime during mile 2. I took this picture of myself when I needed a walking break. I really, really needed that break as you can tell by the look on my face.

This is me and Lisa showing off our medals! Woo hoo!

Lisa and Alexis (aka Lucky) after the race. They both did really good. Lucky did it in 27 minutes and Lisa did it in 37. Great job, girls!

Next year I'm going to actually train and try to beat my time. I didn't do any training for this race (other than Stroller Strides) so next year.. WATCH OUT Iron Girls! I'll be back!

Hangin' at the pool

This picture was taken a few weeks ago when we went swimming at our friends' (the Olsons) house. I thought Caleb would love the water since he LOVES baths but no, not so much. He screamed. He cried. He hated it. I'm taking him to swim lessons in a few weeks. Crossing my fingers that it goes well!

MOM!

Caleb has started calling me "mom" and I hate it. I am "Mama" or "Mommy" -- not "mom". He has his whole life to call me Mom and I am not ready for him to skip over the cuteness of saying mama already. He says mom all the time (except for when he's crying and then he'll call me mama). I correct him every time he says it. Today is the first day in almost a week that he has called me mama and it made me very happy. That baby. I could eat him up.

My mom taught him to smell flowers. It is so stinkin' cute. I don't think he's actually smelling them, he just sticks his nose in the flower and then smiles. I am trying to get a picture of it but so far I haven't been successful. He's too quick for my camera.