Golf Day

Between church and LifeGroup yesterday, we decided to satisfy Jadie's itch to play some golf.  Although he has several friends whom he golfs with, no one was available to play yesterday.  So, Caleb and I accompanied Jadie to the course for the afternoon.

Yes, Caleb wanted to get down every time the golf cart came to a stop.  Yes, he threw the golf balls just so he could chase them down.  Yes, he wanted to be like his daddy and try to putt his golf ball into the hole.  Yes, these things were a bit of a hassle.  And yes, each hassle was worth it.  Just seeing the smile on Caleb's face made Jadie and I both well up with joy.  

No, Jadie didn't really hit his A-game yesterday, but we had fun being with him while he tried!

Valentine's Day 2009

I began creating Jadie's Valentine's present on Tuesday evening.  It would be a decadent chocolate silk pie with cool whip and chocolate shavings.  Yummmmy!  I only read the ingredients list before starting, not the instructions.  To my dismay, I realized that the last step of the recipe was to add 4 eggs, beating the batter 5 minutes between each egg addition.  Then I was to refrigerate the pie for 2 hours.  Notice that there would be no baking of the eggs.  Poor me, I would not be able to devour half of Jadie's chocolate silk pie.  Raw eggs=not a good idea for pregnant women, elderly women, or children under three.  I did take a little nibble and rest assured that I will be making this goody again in about 6 months!

On Friday, we made our way to Wimberley for our church Marriage Retreat.  We stopped at Golfsmith on the way down so that Jadie could try out a golf club he's been eyeing.  We made it Wimberley in time for BBQ dinner catered by Salt Lick BBQ.  Delicious.  

We had our own cabin; it was nice to be alone in he evenings even though we were surrounded by other couples from our church during the day.  

Ironic tidbit: This is the second time we've stayed at a Bed & Breakfast where we had access to a hot tub (this time it was ours exclusively, on our back porch).  And this is the second time I've been pregnant while having access to said hot tubs.  Relaxing in the hot tub is a no-no when you're expecting since it can raise your body temperature for a prolonged period of time and can put the baby in danger.  So for the second time, I watched Jadie oooooh and aaaaah while I sat on the side with my feet in.

The weekend was relaxing in that we were "away from it all" and beneficial in that we were really able to spend some time focusing on our marriage.

Nice Big Belly Laugh

I was showing Caleb some pictures of the developing fetus.  We were looking at the month-by-month pictures on WebMD, specifically week 20.  You can see the umbilical cord in the picture.  Caleb's response led me into an immediate deep belly laugh!

P.S. We are not at 20 weeks, only 13.  But I was showing Caleb the entire progression.

Here's the photo:

Caleb:  "Oh my gosh! That's a dog!" 

Lauren: "No, honey, that's a baby."

Caleb: "Oh my gosh!  That baby has a tail!"

Lauren: "No, honey, that's the umbilical cord.  It's how the baby gets food from the mommy."

Potty Training Update

Doesn't this make give you a warm, fuzzy feeling about wanting to potty train your child?

I'm feeling pretty dense right about my potty training situation with Caleb.  Why didn't I change my strategy sooner?  Honestly, I think it was laziness.  But my recent success has motivated me to make a better effort.

I finally decided to put Caleb in cloth training pants instead of expecting him to want to use the potty while still wearing disposable diapers.  

It seems that there is little motivation to use the potty when using the diaper is so easy and comfortable for Caleb.  The diaper absorbs quite well and keeps the moisture off of his skin.  Not much chance for discomfort.  As you may have read, we have already taught Caleb how to use the potty and we've used a potty chart to motivate him to do so.  This was helpful, but didn't really do the trick.

Cloth training pants will absorb some, but if Caleb decides to really go for it, he's got quite an uncomfortable mess on his hands.  This seems to be a much more realistic motivator for him.  We've been sporting the Gerber cotton training pants since last Wednesday and I think he's doing pretty well with his potty training now.  At least I feel that there's some real progress.  Wednesday afternoon he had about four changes of clothes, but Thursday and Friday were much better with only one accident each day.  Saturday was flawless as was Sunday.  He even did well during church and my BSF leader's meeting this morning.  

We are still putting him in a diaper/pull up for bedtime.  I'm not sure yet how to tackle this next challenge, but you can know that I won't be tackling it for a while.  I want Caleb to be truly comfortable with going potty before I try to instruct him on how to handle bathroom trips in the middle of the night.  And I don't even know if he wakes up in the middle of the night.  Or does he sleep right through because of the diaper?  Perhaps when the time comes, we'll just put him in cloth underwear and let him wet the bed a few times so he can experience the sensation and begin to know when he needs to get out of bed to go the the potty.  

February Has Begun!

Woah, a whole week of February is behind us!  What have we been up to?

1. Baby Freeman has been growing!  I am down to being able to wear only one pair of non-maternity jeans and one pair of non-maternity khakis.  Side note:  It's a good thing I'm not too dramatic.  I tried to wear one of my maternity skirts this morning...one that I wore many times when I was pregnant with Caleb.  Let's just say the view from behind was not pleasant.  Apparently my backside is significantly larger than it was 3 1/2 years ago.  I'll blame that on Caleb...altough I'm not sure that's logical since I've had 3 years to burn off that booty!

2. Caleb and I spent a day in Keller (Friday afternoon-Saturday afternoon).  My good friend from high school was having a birthday party for her oldest, who turned five this week.  That was the reason for going, but we enjoyed every moment of being there.  On Friday, we met my mom (Caleb's Granana) for lunch.  She navigated us to a tiny airport where we could enjoy an incredible hamburger and watch the planes take off and land on the landing strip.  Unfortunately, it was pretty doggone windy, so we only saw one plane in the air while we were there.  But that hamburger sure lived up to mom's praises.

3. Sunday we all went to Temple for a birthday party for the son of one of Jadie's work friends.  We all had a good time.  It's fun to watch Caleb get excited as someone opens the present from him.

This coming Valentine's weekend, we are looking forward to our church Marriage Retreat.  We will be departing Friday around noon for Wimberley, Texas where we will enjoy our bed & breakfast cabin and the fellowship of other couples.  We'll take part in discussion and teaching sessions throughout the day on Saturday.  Mom will be here taking care of Caleb and hopefully enjoying a little time with Kristin!