Happy Birthday Mikey!

Today is Mike's birthday! As he stated this morning he "is a third of a century plus a day old" today. For the normal-minded people out there that translates to 33 years. If you really want to know, I think he's pulling mind tricks on us to confuse us as to his real age. Either that or he's becoming senile in his 'old' age.

Either way, we love you honey! You are a wonderful husband, father, and friend. We hope you have a wonderful day today...and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Calling Tod and Bryan...

Uncle Tod and Uncle Bryan...you are ON DECK!

Cavin has 5 uncles: Greg, Andy, Erik, Tod, and Bryan. (Not counting great-uncles or 'friend' uncles of course.) If Cavin needs his taxes done, his house remodeled, or a room at the Hilton he will know who to call. Right now he doesn't need those things. What he might need in the near future is someone who is trained in handling emergencies and injuries. Calling Uncle Tod, the firefighter, and Uncle Bryan, the police officer...you are officially on notice.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to stay home from work with a healthy Cavin. After another couple days of booger snot, coughing, fever (104.5 anyone?), and general unhappiness from my little boy I was thrilled to have my playful, smiling boy back! However, it was an unlucky day for the little guy.

In a short period of 24 hours, the following happened:

1) He hit is head against the wall while crawling down the hall (Result: lots of crying, no bruise)

2) He pinched his fingers in his dresser drawer (Result: lots of crying)

3) He pinched his fingers in his book by pushing down on the book with his other hand (Result: lots of crying)

4) As I was lying on the floor of his room, he got really excited and crawled really fast towards me, tripped, and his head fell right on my teeth (Result: lots of crying and a big swollen bruise on his head)

5) He was shaking a tambourine in music class and sliced the side of his eye with the edge of the instrument (Result: lots of crying and a swollen, red eye lid)

6) Tripped while crawling quickly across the room with a truck in his mouth (Result: lots of crying, cut his lip, and blood!!)

7) Slipped in the tub and hit his head against the side (Result: lots of crying and a red bruise that went away rather quickly) - If ANYONE can give me some points as to how to get this kid to sit down in the tub, I am all ears! Mike and I have been struggling with this for a while!!

8) Decided in the middle of the night to stand in his crib to pull a blanket down, but in his 1/2 sleep, he must of slipped b/c all I heard was a BANG! (Result: lots of crying and a big 'ole red mark on his cheek)

This morning I am happy to say that two of the bruises are gone, his eye looks clear, and his lip looks normal. He does have the red gash on his cheek still from the overnight incident.

There. Judge me as a mom. I'm okay with it. I will take the blame for a lot of these but if any of you are a parent of: 1) a boy or 2) a very energetic baby who wants nothing to do with you and everything to do with the world around him/her, you are probably empathizing with me. For every one of these occasions, I was no further than 5 feet away from him. At many times, I even had a hold of him and couldn't protect him from injuring himself!

I am home with Cavin again today so if yesterday is any indication as to how today might go, then Tod and Bryan, consider yourselves on call!

Happy 5th Birthday Jerry!

Our little bear turned 5 years old today!


Join Jer-bear in celebrating!

Happy Ten Month Birthday Cavin!

Back the truck up. 10 months???!!! Just yesterday I was bringing the little guy home from the hospital. Right?? Only two months until his first birthday by the way. Tomorrow I'm going to wake up to him doing algebra homework at the kitchen table.

This month Cavin found the Elmo sitting to be hilarious!


BWAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!!!!!!

Behind all the humor? Meet Mr. Puppy the Puppet. One of Cavin's many friends that hang out in his room with him from day to day.

Apparently, Mr. Puppy the Puppet had some pretty funny things to tell him during the Elmo photos.

This month, the "mama" and "dada" debate continues. I think we agree that we have no clue. He stopped saying "mama" entirely for over a week. Then yesterday I picked him up at daycare, grabbed him from Pari's arms, he looked at me and said "ma". My heart leaped! He hadn't used his "m" consonant in over a week! But once we got home, everything in the house was "mama". Sigh. He has started to say "da" when he sees the dogs or cat so we have added to the discussions whether or not he is attempting to say "dog"?? I'm sure these debates will continue on for months...even years! Either way, we have some pretty fun conversations.

In other news, Cavin definitely understands when we say "No" and "Where's your ball?". He also is learning to clap his hands if we get him started by showing him first, he's standing on his own more and more now, and he loves gravity. Momma's breaking her back to pick up the towel and the sippy cup and the puff and the spoon oh and now the cracker and the toy and the sippy cup again and now the towel again....you get the idea.

In the most exciting news is that he will walk towards us while holding on to our hands! We even let go of his hands and he took two VERY baby steps by himself and splat! Fell to his face. I'm sure we have a while to go before we can say we've got a walker but it is a start though!

Cavin also loves his set of blocks. This month he has been able to actually figure out where some of the block shapes fit into their respective holes on the lid. But mainly he loves ripping the lid off, throwing it on the floor, then pulling the blocks out and putting them back in then pulling them out and putting them back in then sticking them in his mouth then handing them to you then taking them back and dropping them on the floor.

Now for the stats:

Weight: (TBD as we had to reschedule his 10month appt)

Height: (TBD as we had to reschedule his 10month appt)

Head: (TBD as we had to reschedule his 10month appt)

Happy Birthday little squirt!

"Wait. So this is where you want me to sit mommy?"

MTV Cribs is calling

Whaaduup??!! Welcome to my crib yo!

He works hard for his money!

This week Cavin has been sick. We don't know what he had or where he got it but between the faucet we call his nose, the old man cough, and the 100+ degree fever we were 'forced' to stay home from work with him for a couple days this week. I was pleased with the timing considering I am having a very slow work week AND my boss is out of town so it wasn't that hard to convince me to stay home and cuddle with the little booger (literally).

By our 3rd day home, Cavin was feeling much better. So much so that I decided to put his energy to good use around the house.

He helped with the dishes.

He did some laundry.

He cleaned the coffee table.

He helped to organize is old clothes into bins.

He unloaded his diapers.

All work and no play makes Cavin a dull boy!

All in all, he was worn out by the afternoon!

Needless to say, he opted to head to day care today.

I double dog dare you...

....to say "No" to this face.

And this is why Cavin got to feed puffs to Sandy last night.