Cold Days...Busy Days...

Bitter cold but busy as ever…

We have been spending these very cold days climbing steps, making playdough flowers (see picture), starting swimming lessons (more about that some other day) with Jeb, swimming for fun with Caleb, tearing apart the playroom (more about that another day), and painting Cars pictures! Caleb has been found up on a shelf, eating paper (see picture—he is salivating over that magazine), eating firewood particles, getting in the dog bed, and various other predicaments. Jeb is constantly screaming my name to get him when I am not already there bailing him out. Sometimes it feels like I have an indoor goat!

When Jeb leaves the middle of his racetrack these days Caleb crawls in there (see pic) and chews on things. He doesn’t know what to do or how to run a race, but he know that that circle is THE place to be—so funny!

Despite the fact that Caleb will eat anything that is NOT food, he will not eat many foods. He loves fruit and yogurt—just like his brother. He enjoys sweet potatoes and corn and that is about it when it comes to veggies (if you think corn is a veggie). He does not like any meat but ham in baby food jars…if you feed him anything else –WATCH OUT. He will gag himself. If he does not gag himself he will cough until he makes himself throw up. If there is one particle of something in his food, he will find it and regurgitate it along with any other stomach contents! If he doesn’t throw up in his high chair, you are not out of the woods yet. Too much activity, like playing chase with brother around the upstairs after bath, also makes him throw up. Each night I wash a load of throw up clothes—it is almost a full load considering that it usually hits someone else too and then there is the clean up rags, etc…it is really a job getting him to eat and then cleaning up all the food when it comes back out! What a shame. See him in the sink picture? He is sometimes so nasty he can't go upstairs. He may be eating solid food by 2. Enough about throw up…

We had a fun time doing music at church last week. Jeb struggles with me as the teacher, I think? I don’t know why he won’t participate that much…I suppose he doesn’t think it’s that special since we do it at home OR he just does not like me giving other kids attention OR he doesn’t like that I can be 100% devoted to him—probably a combo of all 3?? Still, the kids seem to smile a lot and it’s a good time for moms to have fun singing and dancing and playing instruments with their kids!

We did have one pretty day recently and I spent the entire afternoon outside. I did some "sun therapy" while the kids slept. FLASHBACK: When I went to The University of Missouri it seemed like the sun was never out! I would leave class some winter days at 4:30 and it was DARK AND COLD. YUCK. So, when I would come home on breaks my family would find me out in the middle of the yard on a beach towel IN WINTER, fully-clothed, shades and all, soaking up the sun that I could find here. They thought I was crazy. So, on Sat, I took my lounge chair out of the garage, got my devo materials and "laid out" on the back porch for a while. It was refreshing and fun to get so much Vitamin D--the all natural way!