Catching up from November, Gearing up for December

I just realized that it's been a while since I've posted anything on my blog, so I figured I'd better add a few updates. We decided to decorate for Christmas a little early this year, since we would be gone at Thanksgiving. We dutifully hauled out the Christmas tree and "unbreakable" (er, plastic) ornaments and attempted to decorate it before the kids woke up from naps. NOT. Libby informed us that she had taken a LONG nap (5 minutes) and was "all wested". So, since she was all rested, we let her come down and help decko-wate the kissen tee! Caleb got to come down a little early as well and also helped us. Photos of the decorating processThe two foster kittens thought they would help by running around the lower branches of the Christmas tree and chewing on the cords for the lights. We now have a half un-decorated tree with no working lights on the lowest ring of branches. Hmmm. Kittens and Christmas trees don't mix well.

We drove out to Maine for Thanksgiving this year, since we haven't been home for the holidays in several years. We had a car full! Mom and Dad Rohrer graciously loaned us their Durango for the trip, since Mandie the dog came along with us and so did Arnold, a cat that we brought with us from Ohio for Matt and Libby. We got to meet little Aedon finally and celebrated his first birthday a few weeks early. He loved his cake and went in with both hands and his whole face. He had blue frosting up his nose for a few days afterwards. We visited Nana and Papa McLeod and Libby enjoyed playing with their cat, "Miss Kitty". We also got to meet "Stewie", Aunt Margaret's adorable new little puppy. While we were visiting Aunt Cindy, the kids were really excited to see a large flock of about 12 turkeys eating seeds under the bird feeder. The kids all stood up on the couch and looked out the window. When we left Aunt Cindy's house, we got to chase the turkeys and see them fly away. Eric and Erin and Adeline came for Thanksgiving, and Libby and Adeline hit it off. They played together and got in trouble together. Libby still calls Adeline, "My Best Friend". They were really funny together, and they looked so much alike! Valerie couldn't make it for Thanksgiving dinner, but she came a few days later and we enjoyed visiting with her, Hillary, Kalynda, and Logan. We also made the hour drive to Matt and Libby's house with Desi and Aedon, and met the ferrets, Midge and Cosmo. Libby was so excited watching them play! They were pretty mischievious, which is why she liked them so much. Pictures from Thanksgiving At last it was time to come home. We left a day earlier than we had planned to avoid some bad storms that were blowing in. When we left at 4 AM, it was raining and about 32 degrees. That meant that we ended up driving on black ice for a good part of the first 2 hours we were on the road. It was very scary and we were so happy to finally make it back to the highway - already an hour behind schedule due to the treacherous roads. The rest of the day was dreary and ended with more freezing rain in Ohio. We were so glad to finally get home and relax!


The weekend after we arrived home, we took Libby to see The Nutcracker at the Akron Civic Theatre. It was awesome! I really enjoyed it and so did Libby. Nathan - not so much. Libby has been telling us ever since that she wants to be a ballerina (ballaweena) and insisting on wearing her little dance outfit and tutu. Pictures at the Nutcracker

This past weekend, we made the hair-raising trip to Columbus for Samuel's first birthday party! I can't believe he is one already and crawling now. He was so pleased with his Baby Einsteins caterpillar cake. He didn't make it to open presents as he was exhausted and had to take a nap. After a few hours of celebrations and visiting with family and friends, we headed back home. The highways had not been plowed and the roads were in bad condition. I have never seen so many cars off the road in my life! It had snowed on the trip down, but it was raining at 28 degrees and freezing to whatever it touched. The highways were nothing more then tire tracks through the slush. It was hard to tell where the lanes were, and cars were in the ditches on both sides of the highway. In addition to the dangerous roads, Caleb and Libby were sleep deprived and managed to scream, yell, pull hair, throw teddy grahams, whine, holler, laugh, giggle, pinch, hit, and shriek all the way home. I have never been so grateful to put them to bed and listen to silence as I was that night. Whew!

Now we're gearing up for Christmas. The latest December pictures Libby is really getting excited this year. We have been reading a pop-out advent Nativity book to her each night, and she has almost memorized it. Each night we pop out another character and set it up on her dresser. Only a few more figures to go until we get to baby Jesus in the manger! She's so excited. We'll be opening presents at home this year early in the morning when the kids wake up, and then we'll be driving down mid-morning to see Mom and Dad Rohrer and the rest of the family for the family Christmas. If the weather is too bad, we'll just spend the night on Christmas eve and be there with everyone else on Christmas morning. We're really looking forward to everyone's company and all the food. The little cousins are starting to interact and they are so cute together. We're excited to see what they will do next. Merry Christmas!

Busy October

Well, it's been a month since I've posted anything, so I guess I'm a little over-due. Libby had her 3rd birthday and Nathan celebrated his 29th at Grandma and Papa's house last weekend. We had a great time with everyone, including Great Papa Rohr from Atlanta and also Dan, Joy and Samuel who were all able to come up from Columbus for the weekend. It was a lot of fun to get everyone together and enjoy the party. Libby's biggest excitement from the weekend came from her gazillion balloons that Grandma purchased for her. She and Samuel had a little photo shoot in the leaves while Caleb napped in the house. We did eventually wake him up to join in the fun.

Most recently, we took Caleb and Libby to the Akron Zoo on Saturday afternoon to attend "Boo at the Zoo" where all the kids dress up and trick-or-treat at the zoo. Caleb was dressed as a scarecrow and Libby was of course, princess Cinderella. There was a misting rain and it was quite chilly, but we all enjoyed our time there. Then on Sunday afternoon (after watching the Browns defeat the Rams!!!) we took the kids out trick-or-treating at Grandma and Papa's neighborhood. They really enjoyed this one even more than the zoo trip. Caleb was all too happy to grab fistfuls of candy from the candy bowls, and he really squawked when it was time to put the candy in his bucket; he wanted to eat it all right then and there. Libby was very shy at first, but soon got the hang of saying "trick or treat" and "thank you" and was revelling in collecting her candy. That is until she got cold and didn't want to do it anymore; she hadn't even made it half way around the block. Oh well. They are going out one more time on Halloween with us and some of our friends and their two kids. This one will be in the dark and should be more fun, providing the weather holds up.

Nathan is still searching for a new job, but there have been no leads yet. He has had several interviews that we are waiting to hear about from the interviewers, but nothing concrete yet. We are keeping our fingers crossed that he can find something soon so I can stay home with the kids full-time.

We are getting ready for Christmas in a few months, and also for Thanksgiving in Maine this year. I'm really starting to get excited about the trip - all 13 hours of it. Mandie will be going with us again so the back seat will be very full with two kids in car seats and a 70 lb dog. It'll be tight, but this is the stuff that memories are made of! We'll be posting pictures from our trip before we know it. Here's a link for the most recent pictures from October.

The Newest Kitten and the Ice Cream Truck

Just a quick update on the Rohrer household: Our bipolar foster cat, Princess Cupcake, found a new home on Friday with one of my clients at the Hudson Veterinary Hospital. I think she's going to be very happy there. About 2 hours after she left the office with her new mom, another client brought in a tiny orphaned kitten in need of a foster family. Of course, I felt sorry for him and took him home with me to bottle feed for a few weeks. His name is "McGriff" after the man who found him. The kitten is a buff, puffy haired, little guy with a lot of attitude and loads of personality. He's already been a lot of fun. I sat him in Caleb's dump truck to show how tiny he really is for his photos. Kensey, our one-eyed foster kitten, thinks McGriff is a great little toy and pounces on him and bats at him every chance she gets.

This evening, Nathan took Caleb and Libby with him to walk Mandie around the block. Just as they strolled back into the driveway, the ice cream truck pulled up at the end of the street with his music blaring. Libby has been all excited about the ice cream truck all summer, but because she thinks you ride around in it. So, Nathan decided to do a little Daddy splurge and walked them down the street to show them what the ice cream truck is really for. Libby was so excited, that she could barely contain herself. She went skipping down the sidewalk with her hand in Nathan's shouting, "We going to the ice cream truck! Yay! Yay!" Nathan bought them a fudgesicle and a giant patriotic pop. Caleb and Libby enjoyed them to the fullest, and did they ever make a mess! While she was eating her popsicle, Libby kept shouting, "Thank you, Ice Cream Truck!" We are hoping that the ice cream truck is done with visits to our neighborhood for the summer now that Libby knows what it's really for!

Click here for more pictures!

Caleb's 1st Birthday!

Caleb turned one year old on Friday, September 14th. We had a little party in his honor on Saturday afternoon. Nana and Grampy Tardif drove all the way from Maine on Friday to spend the day with us. Grandma and Papa Rohrer, Aunt JoyC and Uncle Danny, Cousin Sam-Sam, Uncle Josh, and Karrie, Clay, Reed and Kenna Sackett all came to celebrate with us. We all had a great time.Caleb loved all of the hub-bub. He had pepperoni pizza for dinner and then was all excited to dig into his cake. He was even more excited to grab the brightly burning candle on his cake. I turned away from him for just a second to have little Libby show him how to blow out the candle, and he extinguished it himself by sticking his fingers right over the flame. He cried for just a second until he discovered the frosting on his own personal little "smash" cake. He stuck his burned little fingers into the frosting, tasted them, and then dove in, face first. We got a few good pictures of the event. The official birthday cake was a really cute Sesame Street cake with Big Bird and Elmo toys on the top. After cake, Caleb started opening presents. Libby ended up doing most of the opening for him, as Caleb was more interested in eating the tissue paper and crawling out on the front porch. He got a lot of Fisher Price Little People toys that he and Libby have really been enjoying playing with in our new playroom in the basement.

The weekend before Caleb's birthday, we tore out the old orange and brown 70's carpet, put down new baseboards and cleaned up. On Tuesday the new carpet arrived and voila! We have a new play room! On the day of Caleb's party, Nathan and my Dad worked on building some shelves in the old fireplace area to allow lots of toy storage. Libby was on hand to supervise them. Then she discovered that she could watch herself chewing gum in a mirror that we took down for the shelves to go in. I love the new space for them! Not only do they have their very own space to play and mess up, but I get the living room back to normalcy - no more toy invasion! Hooray!

Here's more pictures of the weekend.

Adoption

The Lord has laid a burden on our hearts for a long time now, and we thought it was time to share it with everyone. Nathan and I are seriously looking into our options with adoption at this time. We have been praying and thinking about this idea for several years now. We both long to adopt a baby (or babies) that needs a mom and dad to love him or her and to raise this baby in a way that would please the Lord.


At this point, we are still in the research stages. We want to learn about all of our options and pray about everything before we make any decisions. We know that this decision will impact not only our lives, but the life of the new baby, the lives of our other children, our family and our friends around us. For a while we were looking only at international adoption, but we are now also considering domestic adoption. We have talked to several social workers, friends, and family members who have experiences with adoption - both good and bad.


We have several reasons for adopting that we want to share. The first is that we have an overwhelming sense of responsibility to help a little one in need and make a positive difference in a little life. All children need a family that will offer them hope, love, and a chance at a good life. It breaks my heart to think about Caleb or Libby being abandoned, orphaned, or abused and without someone to love and comfort them. I would hope that someone would reach out to them and take care of them if I was not able to.


The second reason is the Biblical mandate to look after orphans and widows and those who cannot help themselves. In a spiritual sense, all those who are a part of God's family were adopted into His family, and given the same rights of natural sons - heirs together with Jesus Christ! If God adopts all of us and looks past the ugliness of our sin, than earthly adoption is a picture of His matchless love for us.


Our third reason for adoption is a little more sentimental and silly - we love having little people! For various personal reasons, we are not pursuing more biological children for a while. What a great way to add to our family and what better time to adopt our next little one than now!


It is our prayer that the Lord will clearly show us His will in this matter. We believe that He does want us to adopt, but we are not sure about the timing and the details. There are several things standing in the way right now. I am currently unable to stay home with our kids full-time due to finances, so Nathan is looking for another job that would allow me to stay home. Another hurdle is that we just recently paid off my car. If we add more children to our brood (whether through adoption or not), we will need to consider a larger vehicle, which means another car payment. We may not have a "lot" compared to others, but we have what God has chosen to bless us with at this time. We want to share these blessings that he has given us with children who are not as fortunate.


Please pray that we will follow God's will for our family and that He will work everything out for us in His perfect timing. It could happen very soon or not for many years. We are just excited to see how all of the pieces will fit together. And we can't wait to look into the eyes of our new little son or daughter some day and tell them the story of how God brought them into our family.

Trip to Maine and Back

Well, we're back from our trip to Maine already. It seems like we were looking forward to going for so long, and now it's over already. The kids were so good in the car. I'm not dreading the long drive back to Maine for Thanksgiving so much now that I know how well they did.

We had a wonderful time. Libby and Caleb had several firsts on this trip: first trip to play in the ocean, first boat ride, first time picking blueberries, first time eating blueberry pie, first time seeing wild turkeys, first time seeing a porcupine, first time seeing a fox, first time smelling a skunk, and lots more firsts.

On a whim, we decided to drive through the night on the way to Maine. We left our house around 8:30 Friday night and arrived in Denmark around 10:00 the next morning. It was a long drive, and Libby did her best to keep Daddy and Mommy awake during the night by singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" for over an hour in the middle of the night. She made some of the classic kid comments for the first time as well, which included, "Caleb's touching me!", "Are we there yet", and "I have to go peepee!" Mandie the dog went with us also, so the car was a little tight. Mandie was the best passenger of all. She didn't complain once, obeyed perfectly, and, most importantly, she didn't jabber when she was supposed to be sleeping.

On Saturday night, Matt and Libby came over and we had a little camp fire and roasted marshmallows. Little Libby managed to stick around for a while, but the long day had been too much for her and she was sent to bed. She was put back to bed several times before she actually stayed there, however. It was a theme that lasted for the entire week. I guess she figured that she didn't need to be in bed if we weren't in bed. Little stinker. And if we were in bed, she thought that she should be right in the middle of the bed with us.

We spent a very enjoyable extended week. Dad was off the first Monday and Tuesday, so we went out on the boat on Long Lake with the kids on Monday. Caleb's life jacket was so big that he was miserable if he wasn't standing up on your lap. He loved going fast with the wind in his face. The faster Grampy drove, the more Caleb and Libby liked it. When we had to slow down to go under the draw bridge in Naples, Libby kept demanding, "Go faster, Grampy!" Caleb fell asleep in my arms on the way back across the lake and we got him safely stowed back to his car seat just as a thunder cloud broke over us and it started pouring outside.

On Tuesday we took the kids to the ocean. They were both scared of the crashing waves at first. The tide was coming in and the waves were a little loud. We got a short video of Libby screaming while Nathan was holding her. Eventually, they both relaxed and enjoyed playing in the sand. Caleb sampled some of the sand and rubbed it in his eyes, which made him cry. Grampy had to take him for a long walk down the beach to calm him. We went home for a late lunch and nap and that was the end of Tuesday. We stayed close to home for the rest of the week due to crummy weather. It was pretty cool (low 60's) and overcast, although it never did rain much. The kids did go to the playground a few times, but it was too cold to take them swimming at the local pond for the rest of the week. Mom beat me at Scrabble daily; I'm not sure why I kept trying to beat her. She always wins at all games.

Thursday afternoon, I cut Nathan's hair and Mom put on the finishing touches. Then we decided to trim Caleb's hair. I held him down, or at least attempted to, while Mom used the clippers on him. That was nearly impossible! He kept turning his head to see what we were doing and wouldn't keep his hands off his face. We worked up a sweat, but we got him done! We picked blueberries at dusk that evening. Little Libby helped us the whole time. Mom's blueberry bushes were absolutely loaded with berries that we needed to pick before the turkeys got to them first. We must have picked for about an hour before we were finally finished. Sadly for Mandie, the turkeys didn't bother coming back after she chased them away twice. She kept looking for them, but they must have been eating someone else's garden.

On Friday morning, Mom and I made the 45 minute drive to Windham where I got my hair cut at the same salon that did our hair for Libby's wedding last October. I got it cut quite short - shorter than I've ever had it. I still try to take out my pony tail every night before bed before I realize it's all gone. Duh. That same afternoon, Mom and I went to the hospital for her to have her drug test for the Post Office. She only works about one week per year when Aunt Margaret goes on vacation, but she had to be tested. We signed in and waited. Eventually, they told us that they didn't have the right form faxed over, and that Mom would have to come back later. We went out to the car and called Aunt Margaret. Then Uncle Don called the hospital and set them straight; Mom could take the test and did not need the special form. So, we trouped in again to talk to the same incompetent nurse. They made Mom sign in again and we waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally, about an hour later, another nurse came out and told us that the tests they had in stock were expired and Mom should come back next Tuesday after they had got in more tests. That was pretty frustrating. I'm so glad we didn't have any medical emergencies while we were there! What a messed up hospital.

On Saturday, we had a lobster feast. Val, Hillary, Kalynda, Logan, Matt, and Libby all joined us. Only Dad, Nathan, Libby and I actually ate lobster. The rest of the family had corn on the cob, and chicken that Matt cooked on the grill. Logan wanted to poke out the Lobster's eyes, but Grampy wouldn't let him. And Little Libby was grumpy after her nap and refused to try any of my lobster. She finally went in and sat with Nana and filled up on corn on the cob. She told us it was "De-licious Licious, Licious!" I'm glad she liked it. After dinner, she played outside with Aunt Libby, Uncle Matt, Daddy, and her cousin Logan. Then the rest of the family came over and ate our blueberry pies for dessert. Nana, Papa, Aunt Margaret, Uncle Don, Aunt Cindy, and Uncle Dick came over. We had coffee, blueberry pie and ice cream until we couldn't eat any more. Whew! I thought I had over done it, but it turned out OK.

Sunday morning was clear and cool. Val and her family packed up and left around 9 AM. Nathan and I also left to meet Matt and Libby at their church in Windham. We left Libby and Caleb at home with Nana and Grampy. After the service, we went back to Matt and Libby's apartment to change and to meet their ferrets, Cosmo and Midge (very cute). Then we headed down to the ocean for lunch. We all had haddock and fries which was delicious! Climbing around on the rocks sounded like fun, so we walked and climbed (and fell - Nathan) around on the rocks and took some more pictures. Then we went to the Old Port in Portland and got some ice cream at the Cold Stone Creamery. We sat on park benches and watched hobos sleep on benches, young guys fly up and down the street like maniacs on skateboards, and we even saw a couple of drug deals. How fun! After all that entertainment, we went to the Maine Mall to do some early Christmas shopping. Unfortunately, the mall closed for the evening at 6:00, so we only got in 15 minutes of shopping. However, it was just long enough for me to get a blister on my foot from my flip flops. Nathan had cut one of his toes on a rock at the ocean and wasn't up for much shopping either. Finally, after a short detour at Target, we made it back to the apartment, where we dropped off Matt and Libby and headed home. When we got back to Mom and Dad's, Caleb was already down for the night and Libby was fast headed in the same direction.

On Monday morning, we dragged Nana and Papa to the town hall to witness and sign our wills, as in "Last Will and Testament". We decided we had better make something legal since we have little dependants now. Mom had a little laundry to do, so she threw in Bun-bun for good measure. Libby was SO upset when she saw her bunny hanging by his ears, crucified on the clothes line. She was absolutely beside herself. We ended up taking him down before he was dry to pacify her.

Directly after lunch, we noticed that the juvenile porcupine who had been frequenting the yard all week was back again. So mom and I did what any normal person with a porcupine in their yard does. We trapped him! We shooed him into an old cat carrier with some boards from the barn. Then we trudged on down to the neighbor's farm. They use the old farm for a summer vacation home, and no one was home. So we hiked way out through the fields and released the little fellow in the pine trees at the edge of the field. He was so cute! Too bad they have needles - they'd make cute pets (when they're babies anyway). That done, we lounged around until late afternoon when we started packing like mad fiends. Matt and Libby came over again to say good bye. After they left, we packed the kids off to bed and then went to bed ourselves.

We left at 2:30 in the morning on Tuesday to come back home. It was so early, that the man in the toll booth to get on I95 was sleeping on his chair. We weren't sure what to do, so Nathan honked the horn. The guy kept on sleeping. We sat there and sat there. Finally, Nathan got out of the car and knocked on the window of the booth. He had to knock a few times before the guy startled awake and took the money so we could get on the highway and start our trip. We had a good laugh about that one!

We drove through a cloud front in western Massachusetts around 5:30 in the morning. The clouds were so pretty with the sunrise behind us shining on them, that I took a picture of them.

Around 10 o'clock in the morning, we got a call from Mom saying that she had called the hospital to verify her drug test was in stock this time, and they said they had been trying to contact her. Apparently, the nurse on duty had gone home on a family emergency and there was no one to administer the test that day. Mom had to reschedule AGAIN. It also turns out that the test Aunt Margaret and Uncle Don had taken the previous week was also outdated and they all had to get re-tested. What a joke of a hospital!

A little later on in the morning, we received a call from Nathan's family telling us that his Grandma in Atlanta had passed away. We began making plans for the funeral. After the cloud bank in Massachusetts, the rest of the day was very overcast. We did go through some rain in New York and a little in Ohio as well, but not for more than an hour. It was a long ride and we were so happy to finally make it home.Dad, Zack, and Josh met us when we got home and we discussed our plans. We decided that Nathan should go to the funeral and I would stay home with the kids.

So, that's where we're at now. Saturday morning, we took Nathan to the airport and he flew to Atlanta. Now I'm the old spinster at home with the kids. I'm actually doing better than I thought I would on my own. Maybe it's because I know I don't have anyone to back me up, so I'd better get it right the first time! Libby has been a perfect little one and Caleb has been a lot of fun as well. We did have some tears last night when Libby was calling and calling for Daddy after she went to bed, "Daaaaaaaaaady, where you at?" Where you at, Daddy? Daaaaaaaaaady???" She settled down, though and went to sleep.

A few funny things from Libby before I finish my post:

The other day she was sitting on her bed playing with a new toy that had small parts. We told her to keep it away from Caleb, so she was determined that he should not even be in the same room with her precious toy. He was crawling around in my room and went past the door. She saw him and started yelling, "No, Cae-Cae. NO!" Of course, this drew his attention, and he cantered right in to her room. I followed to grab him and just overheard her tell him, "No, you leave me some privacy!" This from the child who would sit on your lap on the toilet if you'd let her. Privacy, indeed!

And Saturday morning, she climbed in bed with me and was exploring her belly button. She pulled up my shirt and looked at my belly button. Then she said, "Your belly button is like a hole. It's like a hole that bugs go in." I cracked up laughing. Where did we get this little girl, anyway!

If you're still awake after reading all of this, you can check out the tons of pictures on our photo site.

Baldy Butternut

Butternut had a date with the groomer today. I am so tired of trying to comb the knots out of his little armpits and chasing him around to clean the litter box indiscretions from his back side. He hates to be combed and runs away from me the second he sees the comb coming. So, he got an official lion cut, under sedation of course. He is 14.3 lbs and has quite the poochy belly. I'd leave it to your imagination, but he's so funny looking that I had to post some pictures of him.

Pre-Lion Cut

Post-Lion Cut

Enduring Teasing from the Other Cats

More Photos of Butternut's New Hair

Cruising, Standing Alone, First Step!

Caleb has been a bit of an overachiever this week. He's been crawling quite well for a few months now, and pulling up on furniture for a month or so, as well. A few weeks ago, Caleb moved up to the next best thing - cruising. Cruising, of course, is walking while holding onto furniture to steady yourself. He got pretty good at the cruising, so he advanced again - this time to standing alone! He first stood all by himself on Tuesday afternoon. He was leaning on the couch, when he suddenly pushed off a little and stood there with his hands in the air. "Look, Mom! No hands!" I thought it was a fluke, but he seemed to get a kick out of standing all by himself and has done it every chance he's had since Tuesday. He also took his very first, teeny, tiny, hesitant, little baby step to Mommy on Tuesday evening. He went from Daddy's arms to Mommy's all by himself. He is very unsteady still, but we are sure that he will be running around getting into full blown trouble in no time.

In the not-so-fun Caleb news, he's been teething like a madman, or rather a "madbaby". He cut his fifth tooth this week, and judging by the chewing, drooling, crabbiness, and almost constant low fever, he's got more in the works. He and I will both be so happy when he is finally done teething!

I posted a bunch of new pictures from today of Caleb and Libby playing, wrecking the house, and making general nuisances of themselves.

Busy Babies

This past week has been a week of "firsts" for our little ones. Libby learned how to pedal her tricycle all by herself on Sunday. She proudly cruised up and down the driveway for almost an hour - all on her own steam! She has been completely diaper free for two weeks now with no accidents - day or night! We're so proud of her! Libby spends her days asking for snacks and mothering Caleb. Her favorite game is to take something that Caleb is interested in and run with it so he crawls after her. She screams and runs away and he, of course, follows after her. This goes on until Caleb loses interest or until I have to divide and conquer them.

Caleb stood alone today for just a few seconds. He's well on his way to learning how to walk. He's also finally starting to figure out that one should put on the brakes when coming to the top of stairs instead of barreling full steam ahead over the edge. He knows that NO means STOP NOW, and he even said his first official word a few days ago. It was "bye-bye" and he waved at the same time. He has said it several times since then, but he does not like to perform on cue when Grandma is here. Oh well. :) He also sampled brownie batter for the first time, courtesy of Libby. Click here for more pictures.

On a side note, Static had a first this week also. He decided to rip a cat-sized hole in the screen and let himself out for a night time romp through the neighborhood. The fact that he let himself out is not new, but staying out all night is new. I noticed he was gone on Monday night when I was going to bed around 11 PM and he wasn't around to pester me. Nathan searched the house and then we headed outside to look for him. He was no where to be found, so we went to bed. Nathan checked for him around midnight. Then I woke up at 4 and went out looking for him again. I went back to bed and stared at the ceiling until I finally heard the little stinker's bell jingling on his collar at 4:49 AM. I went down and let him in and he slept the whole day. I wish I could have done that as well after staying up late looking for him and worrying about him all night instead of sleeping. Rotten cat.

Nathan and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary on Friday. Well, we didn't really celebrate, but we sort of observed it. Sort of. We both forgot to buy the other a card. Then we got Wendy's take out for dinner on Friday night. Caleb ruined dinner by crabbing for french fries and trying to tip over every one's drinks the whole time. Then on Saturday, we tried again and got TGI Friday's take out. Caleb was in bed for this one, but Libby was not, and she managed to spill Jack Daniel's sauce all over the coffee table and carpet. She also refused to eat her own dinner and begged for ours. Maybe we can have a QUIET dinner with no children around next year. I think I'm going to write babysitting on Mom & Dad's calendar for our sixth anniversary so they can't plan to leave the state again next year!

July 4th Week

What a busy holiday week this has been. Everything has been a little off-schedule and topsy turvy, but it's been a lot of fun. We went the Blossom Music center on Tuesday night to enjoy some patriotic music from the Cleveland orchestra and fireworks after the concert. It's an outdoor affair with thousands of people picnicking together while listening to the music. We went with Nathan's parents, Josh and, of course, Libby and Caleb. Both kids behaved surprisingly well, since the whole thing started just around bed time for them. Libby enjoyed using Papa's binoculars to see the orchestra, clapping along to the music, and playing musical laps with all of us, while Caleb preferred to crawl around, eat macaroni salad and yell whenever he felt lead. Caleb finally fell asleep in his stroller around 9 PM with his little ears corked with foam ear plugs to help drown out the racket that was to follow. Libby LOVED the fireworks. She enjoyed the brilliant colors and the earth shaking explosions so much that she hasn't stopped talking about them since. She keeps telling us that she wants to go for a ride and see the "fiderwooks" again. Caleb miraculously slept the entire time. We saw his little feet twitch a few times under the blanket that covered his stroller during the grand finale, but other than that, there were no complaints from him. He did stay awake for the ride home, though. We live maybe a 15 minute drive from Blossom in normal traffic, but it took almost an hour and a half to get home just after midnight. What a traffic snarl! About 5 minutes into the ride home, Libby announced that she needed to go potty. She managed to hold it all the way home! What a big girl! On a side note, she is managing to stay dry for almost all of her naps and for most of her nights, as well. We are very proud of her!
Josh came home with us Tuesday night and spent the day with us on Wednesday. He and Nathan played Xbox games almost all day. Then Thursday, it was back to work. Nathan worked all day while I did a little tiny bit of cleaning and worked on a few projects. Then when he got home, I went to my house cleaning job. I had a lot of work to do at her house, so I didn't make it home until 11 PM that night. Friday was a long day at work for both of us. We had a quick dinner and then went to bed to get ready for Saturday. I worked on Saturday morning while Nathan cleaned up and packed to go to his parents' home for the afternoon. As soon as I arrived home, we jumped in the car and headed down to Canton.
When we arrived in Canton, on Saturday afternoon, Mom, Dad, Zack, Josh, Dan, Joy, and Samuel were all in the pool. We put on our swim suits and joined them in the pool. Caleb enjoyed his first dip ever. He squawked at first, but then seemed to get a kick out of it. We got a few pictures of him sharing the float with his cousin Samuel. Libby swam around until we made her get out for her nap and then went in again later in the evening. On Sunday, we drove down again and enjoyed another relaxing day with everyone by the pool. It was swelteringly hot, and the pool was so refreshing - even with the water at 88 degrees!
We had a great weekend (Click here for pictures), but we are looking forward to settling back into somewhat of a routine. This Friday (July 13th) will be our 5th wedding anniversary! We are planning to enjoy a nice quiet weekend at home with Caleb and Libby to celebrate with us. Maybe we'll even splurge and go out to Wendy's to commemorate our first meal together after we got engaged.