Caleb-isms

I am so glad that Caleb is finally talking for many reasons. 1) It means he is not developmentally delayed and does not need special intervention. 2) He can finally tell me why is he crying or what is bothering him or what he wants. 3) It gets awfully boring talking to myself all day when neither child ever answers. 4) He says cute things that make great blog material.

Here are some of the funny things he has said lately -
-"Stuck in dere (there)." He says this repeatedly whenever he things something is stuck, most recently when his train was too tall to go through the tunnel and when he couldn't get his head out of his shirt.
-"Good night, train. Love you, train." His train has one track thingamajig that makes the train lie sideways. He said this whenever the train was on it's side.
-"Ball mess in dere (there)," said to Dave when the ball rolled under the back deck
-"Eat corn, carrots, green balls (peas)"
-"Alexa threw up; Alexa get it new car seat." I'm impressed that he made the connection about why she was riding in a different car seat. I washed and air dried the cover of the one she threw up in, so she was using the spare.
-Last night I put him in new pajamas that had a cow, sheep, and dog on them, and he spontaneously started singing Old MacDonald.
-He kept telling me yesterday, "Gramps go to church with you (meaning himself)." When I asked him if Grammy and Uncle Phillip (who he sat in between at church on Sunday) went to church with him, too, he said, "Grammy finish church. Uncle Phillip finish church."
-He walked around yesterday carrying a Winnie the Pooh story book with handles and kept saying, "Caleb blue purse." Dave and I both explained to him that boys don't carry purses, but he didn't seem to care.
-Yesterday, my dad walked in with a new computer CD-ROM, which basically looks like a silver metal box if you aren't paying attention. Caleb, however, was paying attention, and immediately began repeating, "Gramps get it new CD player."
-Tonight we were getting Alexa to point out eyes and noses. When we got to ears, Caleb covered Dave's ears with 2 halves of a play egg and said, "Daddy's ears all gone."

Works For Me Wednesday - Contacting Customer Service

A few weeks ago when the weather finally started to get cooler (only to quickly return to the 80's again, but that's another story), I pulled out my favorite pair of jeans. I actually have 2 of the exact same pair. I have a hard time finding jeans because I have a high waist and long legs, and I am cheap. So sometime after Alexa was born, when I found a great fitting pair of jeans on sale, I bought 2. Well, after taking off my jeans for the day, I noticed a rather large worn spot right on top of the rear end pocket. Fortunately I had been wearing my shirt untucked, so I don't think I had been showing off my undies all day. I found the other pair of jeans in my closet, and they had a hole in the exact same spot. So I got on the company website right away to leave a comment. I told them that I had been purchasing Lee jeans for years, which is true as they are the brand that seems to fit me the best. I explained that I was typically happy with their products, but that I had two identical pairs of jeans that were less than a year old and had identical holes. I received an e-mail a day or two later stating that they would send me a return label in the mail. When I received it, I just placed the jeans in a priority mail box from USPS (so no cost to me for the box) and placed the prepaid shipping label on the box. Yesterday, about a week and a half later, the UPS man arrived at my door with a box containing two brand new pairs of the exact same pairs of jeans that I had returned. Yay for new free jeans! I'm not suggesting that you contact cutsomer service just to get free items, but if you have a legitimate complaint about a company's product, it can't hurt to ask what they can do to rectify the situation. It worked for me!

FYI

Do not eat anything that Caleb has blown on to cool it off. While it is quite amusing when he does so, he slobbers a lot more than he actually blows. Yuck!

Menu Plan Monday and a Shopping Trip

I have only made an abbreviated menu plan for this week so far, since Dave may or may not be gone this weekend depending on how many kids sign up for the school trip he is supposed to chaperone. So, here is the plan for the few days that I have done.

Tonight - Homemade pizza, peaches
Tuesday - Barber chicken breasts, pasta, Caesar salad, carrots
Wednesday - Pork tenderloin, rice, veggies (bumped from last week)
Thursday - Chicken quesadillas, corn

Tonight I went shopping after the kids were in bed.

Rite Aid - I grabbed several cold medicine and 2 kinds of lip gloss that were free after rebate.

CVS - I spent $1.73 OOP and saved $40.53. I got Colgate, So Be Life Water (Thanks to D for the coupons), Swiffer products, and vitamins.

Kroger - I only saved 46% at Kroger today, but now we are stocked up on cheese for a good long time.

Publix - I saved 61% today. I was excited that the penny item at my store was pretzels, not the candy that most stores had. I also was glad to see that the Barber chicken that is BOGO is ringing up at $3.99 not $4.99 for 2. I may have to go back and get more.

Covenant Pictures

Our Day

This morning were awakened way to early by a certain little boy. After breakfast, we tried to get Alexa to nap, but it didn't work. So we hung out in the hotel until church time. We left about 50 minutes before church started, and we still were late. We turned around a few times, got lost, and then Alexa threw up everywhere. Finally, Phillip (who knew where the church was) came to rescue us, and we arrived a few minutes after church started. Alexa and I sat in the lobby in case of more sickies. Every one else sat in the overflow room upstairs and watched the service on a screen.

After church, we headed to Chattanooga. Fortunately, Alexa didn't throw up again. In fact, she slept for an hour and a half, so we just ate our sandwiches in the car instead of stopping at a rest area to avoid waking her. She woke up about 20 miles out of Chattanooga, so we pulled over at the next rest stop. She ran around outside and ate some lunch like nothing had ever happened.

We arrived at Covenant and settled in to our room. Dave wedged the pack and play in the bathroom somehow, and we tried again to get Alexa to sleep. I'm not sure if she did, but at least she was in a better mood when she got up. Meanwhile, I took the car seat apart and cleaned all the throw up off of it. Fun, fun. I also rinsed the clothes she had been wearing.

We visited Reformed Presbyterian church tonight, which is the church we attended while in college. It is always good to worship with other believers.

We headed back to the room for some dinner and very quickly put Alexa in bed. And now I need to head that way, too.

Tomorrow, we plan to tour the new buildings on campus, do some sightseeing in Chattanooga, and then head home.

Nashville Pictures:Take 2

Hanging out Saturday morning waiting for Alexa to wake up.
At the Nashville Zoo.



Caleb liked the train drink that Mommy bought him.


Splashing in the puddles of the fountain in the Opryland hotel.