Rocking Horse

Caleb's been really into calling things horses and sitting on them so I thought it was time to get him a rocking horse. His friend, Jasper, has a wooden one at his house and Caleb loved it. I was happy to find two that were almost exactly alike on craigslist for 8 and 10 dollars. Since I got ahold of the 10 dollar one first we bought that one. I told Caleb we were going to go buy a rocking horse and he totally knew what was going on. About five minutes before we reached the house he fell asleep. Even though he missed the actual purchase, he still points to the horse and says, "buy." He merrily rode the horse most of the day but by the time I took a video of it, he wasn't in the mood to ride and wanted to see the camera. I kept thinking I'd get another video but since I haven't yet, I'll just post these. (I bought the horse about 2 weeks ago.)

First Snowman

Caleb was soooo excited about the snowman after we'd (I'd) made him. During the making of the snowman Caleb was more interested in hitting and kicking the snow and brushing the snow off the nearby bushes. However, he proudly and happily showed Andy when he got home from work and told his Dad about the eyes, arms, etc. of the snowman. He still will say, "make snowman" from time to time. I wasn't able to get it on video but Caleb will squat down next to the snowman and say, "hi!" to him. It's so cute.

Playing

I decided to take some videos of Caleb playing. These are from a couple weeks ago.

Nice Doggy

Caleb loves animals. However, he often loves them too much and likes to see them react so he starts hitting, kicking, or otherwise tormenting the animals without understanding what he's doing. We tried to work on it with him when we were at my parents' and when we visit those with pets. On his own he started petting his stuffed animals and saying, "nice, nice." Hopefully, it will continue with the real thing.

I love how much Caleb talks now. It's still all one or two word phrases, but it's so fun! Today I was working on David (his cousin's) Christmas present (that, sadly, Alisa, I don't know if I'm going to get done in time...) and I thought I'd try to sew with Caleb in the room. He was fascinated with the sewing machine and watched saying, "Up, down, up down, up, down." When I would stop he would ask me to make it go up and down more. :) It was so funny.

He also has started saying "skateboard" all the time. He leaves off the 's' in the front and board is more or less board and he can say the whole thing. He finds things for his animals to skateboard on as well as things for himself. It is so funny!!

Another funny one is Boise State. He knows Boise State. I really don't know how he knows and I guess I can chalk it up to how excited Andy acts around Caleb when he's talking about Boise State football or something. But he knows!! It's uncanny to me, a person who barely could identify Micheal Jordan and is really not at all interested in things like that. He knows their logo, their colors, the blue football field. When he sees any of them he says, "Boise State" pretty darn clearly. Everyone says your kids turn out different than you... :)

He always talks about Dad and work. Either Dad is at work or Dad is working out or anything to do with Dad and work, like the clothes he wears the car he drives, etc. He says, "Dad's work" so many times throughout the day! (I should keep track sometime--it would be interesting.)

He's also learning new words so quickly! I'll show him something and tell him the name and if he's interested he's learned it! I couldn't do that on my mission and I think it's amazing!

Putting up the Christmas Tree

We put up our tree Saturday after Thanksgiving. Mike, Evie, and Daniel had left in the morning and that evening we went downtown to see the tree lighting in the Grove then came home and set up our own tree. Caleb loved helping Dad set up the tree and played with all the ornaments and the nativity my Grammy made for all the grandkids. As you can see Caleb knew this was very serious business. I didn't get a very good picture of the tree all put up. I'll try to take another one and post it.

Milking it

Recently Caleb has started fake falling or he hits his hand on the table then gets this hurt look on his face and says, "kiss" as he holds out his hand. It's really pretty funny. Then during lunch today he started hitting his elbow on the table and saying, "elbow." I didn't even know he knew that body part. Then after a while of hitting he asked for a kiss. Funny kid.

Glasses

So a while ago I was putting dishes away and Caleb was sitting at the table. I was talking to him and in the course of the conversation (monologue, I suppose) I mentioned the word "glasses" in references to cups made of glass. As I said this I wondered if it would cause confusion since Caleb has known the word "glasses" for eye glasses for some time. I told him it was funny and that glasses meant two different things. I tried my best to explain to him and I guess it worked because ever since when he sees glasses on the table he points to them and says, "glass(es)," and then to my glasses and says, "glasses." It's really cute--but can be a distraction from eating. :)

A Wonderful Thanksgiving Week

This past week Mike, Evie and Daniel were in town (Andy's parents and younger brother). We've been talking to Caleb for over a week before their visit asking him if he was excited to see Grandpa Mike and Grandma Evie. Mike is already a word in Caleb's vocabulary indicating both microwave and microscope (thanks to a picture book). (Actually, I'm sure there are slight intonation differences and it's not just "Mike," but it's close enough for Mike to be an easy word to say.) So Caleb started saying Mike before they even got here. Then on Monday I kept telling him Grandma Evie, Grandpa Mike and Uncle Daniel were coming. They got here during his after nap snack so he was rested and fed and SUPER happy to see them. He hopped on his little scooter car and showed them the toys in his room. I really wish I would've taken videos (or even pictures!) that day, but alas, I was very bad with the camera all week. However, if you can imagine Caleb playing so happily with all of them and showing them his toys, you may be able to picture it. Andy had lots of work to do so Monday night we all had dinner at our house and crowded into our already cramped dining area on our wobbly chairs and ate chicken pot pie and quiche. Daniel even tried the quiche and liked it until he knew it had spinach then it was a mental block and he just stirred it around on his plate.

We had a great week although we really didn't do anything that exciting. Tuesday morning Evie and I went shopping and looked for toys at Toys R Us--Caleb's first experience in the store. He was pretty good. We also ran a couple other errands and Caleb was pretty tired and hungry by the time we were done. We all went home to rest up. Caleb actually woke up but I was so tired I laid down on my bed and he was playing and I woke up! Luckily nothing happened while I was asleep. Tuesday night we headed over to Nampa and ate out at a Mexican resturaunt. Most all Mexican resturant food makes me sick but I was really hungry so I decided to give it a try and ordered one tamale (usually I order a plain quesedilla or a side of something that's not heavy) and then I ate a ton of chips with bean dip. I think it was probably the chips and dip that did me in. I woke up at 3:00 am with indegestion and couldn't sleep the rest of the night. Luckily it went away and all was well, but I need to remember no Mexican for me! Andy's Grandma thinks I'm unamerican and all of Andy's family loves Mexican food so it's really pretty ironic. The tamale was good though. I should learn to make tamales. I can eat Mexican food made at home--just not out to eat.

Wednesday we were going to head over to Nampa and help out but didn't get there till sometime in the afternoon. I'm not sure what we did in the morning...

Janell doesn't get to see many movies so she told Daniel that while he was here they were going to see movies. I think they saw three. On Friday they took Grandma (and Mike) to see Australia and Grandma loved it. I'm glad they could get out and do something fun and memorable. They also watched Caleb that night so Andy and I could see the movie as well. Caleb was a good kid for them and we enjoyed the movie.

Thursday was a great sucess, despite all of Janell's worrying. We at over in Nampa (obviously not enough room in our apt). Evie and I got there in the late morning and Andy and Mike went on a bike ride. Both of them have this habit (Andy has ever so many of his Dad's mannerisms) of stopping be it hiking, walking, biking, etc., to tell you whatever it is they want to say. When Andy and I are hiking together I always want to keep walking and he wonders if I'm listening to him and I think, "Can't he walk and talk at the same time?" Anyway, Andy and Mike had a great bike ride and some wonderful conversations which made it so they didn't get back until after 4:00. We had planned to be sitting down eating then and Evie was worried they were stranded with broken legs on the mountainside (no cell phone reception). However, it all worked out and they arrived with a great appitite and we all enjoyed a wonderful dinner. Oh, and while we were waiting we broke out Cosco's chocolate cream pie that was to die for. Caleb had some of everyone's and didn't eat any Thanksgiving dinner... Andy just couldn't say enough about how good everything was and how much he enjoyed Thanksgiving this year. I think it helped to be around his family, go on a bike ride with his dad, talk law with his dad, and get some work in over the week as well.

On Friday while the rest of the clan went to the movie Andy, Evie and I went on a hike up by Bogus Basin. It was really pretty.

That's about all I can think of. We didn't get the basement organized or anything done for Janell and Grandma, but we all had a fun time. Sorry I was so bad about pictures...

Spirit of Christmas

Last night Caleb and I went to visit some people in our ward and we spent quite a while at one house where I visited with the mom and Caleb played with her five-year-old boy. They had lots of cars and trucks and Caleb LOVED it! In fact he cried like crazy when I really thought we'd stayed quite long enough. The little boy gave Caleb a cardboard box to take home and Caleb stopped crying and happily carried his box to the car. Then as I was putting him in the car seat the little boy came running out and gave Caleb one of his matchbox cars. I told him that Caleb would bring it back next time we came to visit and Elijah said that he didn't want it back but that he wanted Caleb to keep it. This family doesn't have a lot of material things and I was so touched by Elijah's generosity and I want to remember that moment.

Survey

Having been a grad student and knowing what a pain collecting data can be and how helpful large responses are in your study I'm cutting and pasting an email on here from a friend (who got it from a friend) and encourage any of you who blog to take a few minutes and answer the questions on the survey to help a BYU student with their studies.

Thanks again for your willingness to participate in our study. We are a research team from Brigham Young University's Communications Department studying blogging and mothers and would appreciate your involvement. The study and survey have both been approved by BYU's Institutional Review Board.

All your participation requires is the completion of a short online survey. Those who choose to participate will have the option to be entered into a drawing to receive one of five $100 gift cards to Target. The drawing and distribution of gift cards to the winners will take place by early December, in time for Christmas shopping.

To participate, click on the following link: https://byu.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_9yi8C8VkcG7rgNu&SVID=Prod

Thank you for your participation. We know your time is valuable, and we appreciate your help.

The BYU Communications Research Team

Thanks again,

Anesha

Nascar

While I was still in the hospital after having Caleb I was going stir crazy and my mom and I went for a walk outside. Andy stayed with Caleb and when we got back they were on the bed together watching Nascar racing. I don't think Andy ever really followed or even liked Nascar racing, but ever since he has decided Nascar is cool. Caleb was probably not affected by the car race watching in the first two days of his life, but he has been very interested in cars, trucks and all things that go and have engines. Tonight we went to Walmart as a family to get a few things I needed for my craft day at church tomorrow. While we were there Andy and Caleb looked at matchbox cars and found one that looked similar to the car Andy always drives to work. They also found an IMAX Nascar documentary in the movie bin and Andy got so excited to buy it and watch it with Caleb. Right now Andy is watching the documentary and Caleb is driving his new car around and will look up when the cars race. After they quit showing the racing Caleb gets sad and says, "more, more." Caleb loves racing.

Big step

Well, Caleb can now step up on a curb while maintaining an upright position. I think it's a pretty good accomplishment. :)

Pig Puppets

Caleb and I were invited to a birthday party for a little girl in our ward at church. The party was supposed to be the day before Halloween but was switched last minute because of a bought of stomach flu. I made these puppets wanting to do something creative and inexpensive. It took me quite a while to draw a pig I liked and figure out how I wanted to make them. But once I decided how to do it, it didn't take too much longer. It was fun to make and here are some pictures.

Visit to Grammy and Grandad's

Caleb and I flew to SLC on Thrusday, November 6th and we had a wonderful week in Ephraim. The flight went really well. I came prepared with all sorts of snacks and things to do on the plane and hardly used any of them on the flight--but better safe than sorry. :) Our flight was delayed but since we had a great view of planes and all that goes on with them Caleb was quite content to watch out the big windows and snack on crackers. Here's his first view of the planes out the window. This isn't quite to our gate and it was tough to convince him to keep walking. :)

The flight was completely booked so Caleb sat on my lap and we sat next to a nice retired couple that wanted to play with Caleb. We also got to sit next to the window. It happened to be over the wing which I found nice because I could point to the wing and tell Caleb we were in the airplane and that was the wing. He was pretty fascinated. I thought he'd like to see out the window but the most interesting thing about the window was the little shade that went up and down. We made sure it worked and didn't break. For all reading, you can count on the durability of Southwest's window shades. :)

Needless to say my parents were really happy to see us and Caleb slept most of the way to Ephraim.

In Ephraim there were many high lights. Probably at the top of the list is the pets. My parents have two dogs and four cats. None of which are very good with kids. They have an old little dog who is mostly deaf and blind and wasn't good with kids to begin with. Since she can't see or hear she wasn't too much of a problem as long as Caleb didn't get really close. One time he walked too close to her on his way to get me and she lit into him, but thankfully, no harm done. Our other dog is scared of everything and would growl at Caleb if he got too friendly. But if my dad was there she would play. Caleb got to throw sticks and toys for her when Grandad was around and he loved that. Most of the cats just tried to stay away. Maggie, one of the cats was very patient and Caleb would chase her every chance he got. He loved to see her jump off of things and would stand in front of her as she rested on the arm of the couch and yell, "Jump! Jump!" Then if she would finally comply, he wanted her to get back up and do it again. :) For the most part she was very tolerant and let him pet her and command her to do what she had no intention of doing. At the very end of our stay, Orleans, the youngest cat warmed up and nozzled Caleb. I wasn't there but Grammy said it was really cute. I suppose it goes without saying that the Gardner pets are resting easier and do not miss a certain little boy.

Other high lights inculded throwing stick and leaves off the bridge into the water and generally playing outside. There is a stream that flows through my parent's back yard and Caleb loves to go out on the bridge and throw things into the water. These are pictures from our last day here of Caleb and Grammy throwing leaves and sticks into the water.

Here comes Grandad!

It wasn't the best outside weather for most of the week, but on Saturday Grandad, Caleb and I went for a walk. According to Grandad's GPS we walked a whopping 1/3 mile and then turned around and walked back. Caleb loves to dig in the dirt and he had a grand old time. We also picked dried grass and made a boquette for Grammy, threw rocks into a puddle, threw sticks for Sunny (the dog), and did lots of running and a bit of jumping. He is currently obsesed with jumping. On Sunday my mom and I were walking home with Caleb and my dad had ridden his bike home. Caleb kept wanting to jump (have us swing him in the air) which is not safe unless you hold them at the shoulders--and doing that hurts my back for some reason. So we told him that when we got home Grandad would jump with him. As soon as he got to the house, Grandad opened the do0r and Caleb shouted "Jump!" Here's a video of Caleb playing with Grandad on a different day, but you can see that they had a lot of fun.

Grandad bought Caleb a book and they read it together for bedtime. At the end of the video Caleb was pushing Grandad because he wanted him to lay down. Caleb and Grandad would "go boom" by falling down on the bed and I guess Caleb decided they needed to read the story laying down, only I stopped recording since I didn't know what was going on.

I realize there are a lot of videos of my dad with Caleb. He d id have a wonderful time with everyone. I think when my mom was playing with him, I was busy doing other things and my dad played with him in the evening after dinner when we were all just sitting around. Here is one evening when they were playing with this game that we grew up with. My Grammy is amazing with wood and carved all the pieces and made up the game. We loved playing it and Caleb loves putting all the trees in the holes.

We also can't forget a wonderful visit from one of Caleb's favorite entertainers. Aunt Katie, my sister, has been able to entertain Caleb and make him happy from the first few days of his life. I think they have a special bond. Unfortunately I was not very good at taking pictures. Here's a picture of them paying with some of the dishes from our childhood. My parents have a cupboard and chairs that go back at least 4 generations and Caleb loved playing with the dishes, taking them in and out of the cupboard, stirring, pouring, and lots of pretending.

My grandparents live a few blocks from my parents so we got to spend a little time with them too. Here's Caleb walking with Great-Grammy in their back yard. We also had a great time playing in the leaves.

My grandparent's dog, Toke, stole Caleb's stick and he was very upset about it.

My mom accompanied me to the gate. Caleb had fallen asleep and she carried him while I pushed the stroller with the car seat.

Growl Daddy!

This was actually taken a few weeks ago. Caleb is telling Andy to growl and we finally figure out what he's saying. This is typical play and excitement when Daddy comes home from work.

Happy Halloween

I made this paper mache head in arts and crafts in 7th grade and have toted it around with me ever since. I guess I was so proud that it actually looked interesting. :) I kept thinking I could put it on a porch as part of a Halloween decoration, but since I have yet to do it, I think it's time to throw out the head and when our kids are interested enough in having such decorations we can all make new ones. So here it is recorded so as not to forget my artistic abilities in paper mache as a 7th grader. :)


Caleb and I hit Harrison Street this Halloween for trick-or-treating. Harrison Street is this old historic street in Boise that is restored and pretty any time of year. Andy said he read that 2000 kids passed through Harrison Street Halloween night. I can't imagine what people have to spend in candy, but it sure was fun. We got a late start because I was waiting for Andy who ended up working late that night. I finally called him and he said to just go ahead. Caleb liked looking at all the other kids and got lots of compliments on his mouse costume. Everyone looked down and said, "oh, how cute," or, "Look at the cute little mouse!" I was amazed at how quickly Caleb caught on to going up to different houses to get candy! He would say "house!" and get excited to go to the next one. However, he kept wanting to eat his candy instead of saving it in his jack-o-lantern. I took it slowly and at one point we dumped the whole thing in a pile of leaves and kids were rushing by us (it was on the walkway to someone's house) and they didn't stop to let us find the candy. At the end of the night we only had a half full jack-o-lantern, which was fine with me. I'm glad we had the cultural experience of trick-or-treating on Harrison Blvd. Oh, and people went all out decorating their houses but I didn't think to take pictures until it was dark and then none of them turned out.

The Power of the Pig Puppet

A few weeks ago (I've been slacking on blogging) Andy discovered the power of the pig puppet. Caleb eats about about 5 foods and it's difficult to introduce anything to him. One day Andy was taking care of Caleb and got him to eat a whole bowl of jambalaya having the pig puppet feed him. He also was better about brushing his teeth, changing his diaper, clothes, etc. Some of the effects have since worn off and I can't use it all the time, but he does definitely react better to the puppets than to mom and dad. :)

Beautiful Autumns

Last year I took pictures of Caleb in the leaves and Friday was such a beautiful day I wanted to get some good pictures of Caleb with the colorful leaves. I had a hard time just catching cute looks since he was so busy playing, but that's okay, that's what toddler hood is all about, right?

We found a cat while wandering around the apartments. It was a somewhat friendly cat and I got it to come to me and let me pet it. Caleb wanted the cat to come back and we couldn't get it to come so I showed him how to wiggle a stick and get the cat to chase it. When I let him have the stick he didn't quite get it and held the stick over his head and ran after the cat. His intentions were good, but much to his dismay, and no one else's surprise, the cat didn't come after the stick. He really loves animals but runs to love them and can't understand why they run away.

Needless to say, the cat ran away.

Linder Farms

On Friday we took a trip to Linder Farms with the Boise Mom's club. The weather, as you can guess from the pictures, was fantastic. First we had a hay ride pulled by a tractor. Caleb seemed to really enjoy it and we sat so we could see the tractor. Not a very attractive picture of me, but that's okay. We also passed some animals that are sometimes available to pet--but not that day.


After the hay ride the kids got to run though a hay maze. It was mostly a track because there were only two dead ends and the kids loved it!! It was so funny and surprising to me. Caleb just took off running and followed the kids. It was so cute. I would never have guessed how much little kids would love running through hay tunnels.


Then we tooled around and Caleb saw tables and people eating at them so he climbed up on a chair with a family and decided it was time to eat and he wanted to eat with them. They were very nice and let us have a snack there. (They probably thought it a bit odd, but that's okay. :)) We also wandered through the corn and pumpkins and got to take a pumpkin home. Caleb would've stayed all day playing in the dirt, but we did have to go.

We went with our new friends Kaedra (Kay-dra) and Jasper. For the most part Jasper and Caleb got along great but near the end Caleb was getting tired and Jasper wanted to lead him around. Caleb wouldn't let him. Kaedra and I met at the park about a month ago but our schedules (which are usually very free) haven't worked out. We finally got together and really enjoyed it. She is due on November 9th with number 2 and is from Boston MA (moved here about the same time we did). I think we were both looking for friends so we exchanged numbers and I kept telling Andy about my friend I met at the park. :)

Halloween Preview

Yesterday we got a package containing the Halloween costume my mom made for Caleb this year. We tried it on and Caleb loved it! He also insisted in taking the pictures in a box. Maybe the mouse needed a home. The hat is a little small but if you tuck the flaps in it works great. (Caleb has a head circumference that is much higher on the charts than his weight or height.) Thanks Mom (Grammy), we love it!!

There are a lot of pictures so my mom can see them.




Looking for the tail:
Found it!