Just the Two of Us

This past Saturday, Jes left for a long business trip to South Carolina. That left just Caleb and I to fend for ourselves. Even though we have missed him a lot, life went on and we had quite the busy week without Daddy.
Saturday we threw our close friends, Randy and Rae Koonce, a baby shower. This is their 3rd baby and their 2nd boy, Levi Craig (don't you love that name!!!). I just love baby showers and we had a great time! Caleb came along and so did Randy and Rae's son Cobi and daughter Lexi. We had a great time and they got lots of nice things!















Here's a picture of Lexi and Caleb at the shower. As it goes with pictures of these two, Lexi is very serious and Caleb is a goofball!
















At baby showers for parents with more than one kiddo, it is customary to buy a gift for the older kids too. We got this xylophone for Cobi and Caleb took it over. Cobi being the great big brother that he is, let Caleb play with it most of the time he had it!
















On Sunday, Caleb and I went to church. I just thought he looked so handsome that I had to put a picture of him in his "church" clothes!
















A friend of ours gave Caleb this tool bench and he plays with it non-stop. If you also notice, Caleb is in shorts here. Yes folks, it was 80 degrees most of this week. No more than 2 weeks ago it was snowing!!! It's mind boggling!
















Sometime ago, we decided to convert Caleb's crib to a full size bed. As some of you know, we have had great difficulty getting him to sleep in a bed without us. It just came down to him either sleeping in our bed with us until he was 18 or converting his bed into this big bed. We chose the latter. He has been doing beautifully here and sleeps most of the time here just fine! Thank goodness!!!
Jes will be home later on today (Saturday) and we will be so happy to have him! He won't have to go back for a couple of weeks or so, so we'll just enjoy the time he's home now!

Caleb, lately...

I feel like such a bad mommy because I haven't updated this page in such a long time, plus all the pictures that you see here are about the only ones I've taken in the past couple of weeks. I have always said that our next child will have some kind of complex because of the many (and I do mean many) photo albums full we have for Caleb! I guess I'm just slowing down a bit! If you're keeping count, Caleb is almost 23 months old. We are getting dangerously close to that 2 year old mark and boy can we see it!















Caleb used to be so easy going and happy go lucky. He would let me do anything to him, but lately he has developed a will of his own. Here is a picture of him in his winter hat. He tries to pull this off in 20 degree weather, but sure has a great time putting it on and walking around the house saying "hat!".




















One day Caleb was wandering around the house while I was doing laundry and he found one of his Daddy's work shirts. I came around the corner and he had it on just like this. I still can't figure out how he got it on so well, but he looked awfully cute and proud of himself! He's truely a little Jes!















If you haven't been around Caleb much in the past few months, you wouldn't know that he has an undying obsession with Bob the Builder. If you reference my Halloween postings you will see that he was Bob for the holiday. He has received a few hard hats since then for gifts, but loves this original Bob the Builder hat. We have a great time playing where's Caleb when he has the hat on. He'll pull it off real fast, we'll say "there he is", and he just laughs and laughs!





















This one is for our family out west. For those of you who say it doesn't snow in Texas, here's proof. A week or two before this picture, it snowed quite a bit, but it was really windy and a little deep to take Caleb out in it. We were actually going somewhere here and Caleb had the best time running around in the yard saying "now", his pronunciation for snow! It was just beautiful!

He's Been Healed!

Today I took Caleb for yet another swallow study, but this time we went to a different hospital, the one he was born in, as his new pulmonologist is there. I just knew that it was going to be like all the others and I was going to leave there discouraged, so I drug him in there (he was literally kicking and screaming) with the negative attitude that this would not change anytime soon. He was very defiant at first and refused to drink the conconction the nice therapist made until we put it in a syringe and told him it was medicine. Then he was on a roll! The radiologist was a very nice man and watched carefully and told me that he saw nothing abnormal about the way Caleb was handling all thickness of liquids or solid foods. I nearly hugged him! After all the bad news and negative outlooks that we have been given about this issue with Caleb and his future, to hear this news was overwhelming. I have to say that I actually cried! A huge feat for me! Anyway, Caleb is now to be treated as a normal boy, as far as his nutrition goes. This is going to take some getting used to, but things are looking up and our baby is healthy! Praise God! Thank you to all of you who have prayed for him and us.

Jes's Surprise Party

It seems like it's been forever since I posted anything, but in reality it's just been about 10 days. In that time, a lot has happened. First, is Jes's surprise birthday party. It was his 30th birthday, so I thought that a party was in order. We had a small affair at our house with close friends and family.

I found this great local bakery who delivers and doesn't charge an arm and a leg who made this great cake. They helped me come up with the design and did a great job!

We planned the party for late in the day, so Caleb and I had a great time running around getting things ready. I had to go to great lengths to hide the stuff from Jes. I even hid all the non-refrigerated food in Caleb's closet. It worked out great as he never found anything and had no idea!

Caleb's friends the Dixon quads got to come to the party. He was so excited to see them and their brother Logan. Left to right they are Samantha, Madison, Candice and Hudson. Hudson and my dad bonded over football and high fives! It was so cute!

Our good friends Luke and Melissa were in on this party the whole time and Luke kept Jes out of the house the whole day! Thank you so much to Luke for giving up his whole day and running Jes all around creation and making up stories along the way!

Even though Jes is threatening to do something worse for my 30th later this year, I think he secretly loved this!

Luke's wife Melissa and myself. She and I had been talking about this since August! Thanks to Melissa for giving up her husband for a whole day, as well as adding to the stories that kept the guys out and running!

After Jes's party was over and we recovered, I dragged this table out that Caleb got from his Mawmaw and Pawpaw for Christmas and put it together. I was so proud of the fact that I actually put something together right! Many of you don't realize that I have book case in my house that I put together with a shelf that is in the wrong way. Needless to say, I'm not mechanically inclined. Anyway, Caleb loves the table and has a great time sitting at it!

For Christmas from my grandmother, Caleb got the Tickle Me Elmo chair. He has a great time sitting in it and watching poobaa (football) with his Daddy!

Caleb was supposed to have another swallow study today, but there is a couple of inches of ice and snow on the roads, so we are rescheduling. I will update you as soon as we have it!

Caleb's Surgery

I know that most of you know that Caleb had to have a surgical procedure today, so I thought this was the best way to update you on his progress. Caleb had what is called a frenulectomy. Basically, it is just the removal of the lingual frenulum, the piece of membrane that ties your tongue to the floor of your mouth. Caleb's has been tight from birth and his pulmonologist recommended we do this to possibly help with his aspiration issues.
We had the procedure done at the Pediatric Surgery Center in Plano with Dr. Kevin Kadesky. He was highly recommended and I can say from our family now too. He was very open and honest and caring and we'll use him again, if needed. When we got to the surgery center, they showed us to a little room where Caleb got to watch Dora and Bob the Builder. He was instantly the nurses favorite as I haven't met anyone who can resist his cute little face! Shortly before going into surgery, the nurse gave him some Versed, a drug to make him a little loopy, and boy did it work. There have been very few times that Caleb has been like this, but it was hilarious. He would stretch his arm way up in the air to give someone a high five and then forget what he was doing and just puddle into laughter. He was so silly!
Dr. Kadesky told me that it would be a 5 minute procedure and he was right. I didn't even sit in the waiting room. The nurse just took me to a consultation room where I waited for the doctor to come give me a report. I think he was in the OR a grand total of 15 minutes, and 10 of those was getting him to sleep and prepped.
Sitting in this consultation room made me realize why God never gave me the desire to work with kids. When I was in school, it did briefly cross my mind that I might want to work in pediatrics, but I quickly decided against it. People do strange things when they are coming out from under anesthesia. The difference between kids and adults is that most adults will control their outbursts if they have their wits about them. Kids do not. I sat in that consultation room listening to kids screaming. It made my mommy skin crawl to hear that. I could not do the job that those nurses and doctors do. Anyway, Caleb woke up beautifully and besides trying to pull his IV out and the pulse oximeter off, he didn't give anyone any trouble. We were out of there in a flash. He's doing really well now and crashed around 7pm, way before bedtime. It was a hard day, but he's my little trooper and is doing well. Thank you to all who were praying for us today. We could tell!

Our Big Adventure

We just got back from Oregon a few days ago, so this is the first chance I had to post. We had a really good time at Jes's parent's house, but we were also ready to come home when we did. It ended up being all of us, including Jes's 2 sisters and their families, at his parent's house. It was so much fun and Caleb discovered his cousins are fun to play with and run around with!

















Caleb and Jes on the airplane. We took a flight from Dallas to Portland, Oregon (4 hours) and then another from Portland to Medford (1 hour) and Caleb was a little angel. As you can tell from this picture, we had all been up for awhile and were pretty tired!












We finally made it and Caleb was really excited to see his Nana. This was one of our many trips to WalMart!












On Saturday, we went to a tree farm in Glendale to cut down a Christmas tree. The only problem was the people were not there, so we couldn't do it.












We got this cute picture of Caleb and his cousin Carver, even though we didn't get a tree.

We all wanted to have Christmas together, so we waited until Tuesday, after Josh, Sarah, Katie, and Hailey, flew in from California. This picture is Caleb's cousin Carver passing out gifts. I tried to get a picture of Katie, but she was just too fast!













Hailey sitting on her gifts. She had that smile that could charm her way out of any situation!













Caleb sitting with his Papa while he took pictures.













Sarah helping Hailey open presents. We open gifts in reverse birth order at the Mathis house during Christmas. The older kids were very good at waiting and being patient!












Finally it was Caleb's turn and he really raked it in!!!












Caleb loved to play in his Nana and Papa's play farm house while he waited for everyone else to finish opening their gifts.












Caleb with Uncle Josh looking at his fancy camera.












After all the madness...












The next day, we all went to Sears and had our picture made and then made a trip to the mall to cash in Aunt Sarah's gift for the kids. She got them all Build a Bear certificates. Caleb chose a black puppy.













Caleb's puppy being filled. We asked him what he wanted to name it and he said puppy, so puppy it is.












Caleb and his new puppy. He drags it around the house saying puppy constantly! Hopefully, this will hold him over from wanting the real thing for a little longer!
All in all, we had a great time! Hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

The Christmas Season

I was just telling someone the other day that it seems like all year we never have anything going on on the weekends until the holidays, specifically Christmas, rolls around. This year is no different. We have had some type of Christmas related activity every weekend in the month of December. This post is dedicated to those fun filled, sugar driven weekends!!
My mom decided earlier in the year to take myself, Caleb, my sister Michelle, and her daughter Dixie to A Very Veggie Christmas Live. We had a great time and Caleb got to really cement in his mind just exactly who Bob and Larry are. The genius that he is, :), he differentiates beautifully between the all obsessive Bob the Builder that he loves so dearly and Bob the Tomato. We're so proud...













Caleb was so excited to get the show started! The only issue he had was there was a back story written in where Pa was working on some secret project. This project kept going awry and there were lots of bangs, booms, and flashing lights. Everytime this happened during the show, Caleb had a meltdown. Maybe we should skip the 4th of July this year too... :)













I just wanted to include a few shots of the actors as well as the veggies. It was so very cute and Caleb and his cousin Dixie had a great time!













Thanks for the show MawMaw!
The very next weekend was my parent's annual Christmas get together for my dad's kids and their kids. This includes 2 of my brothers, one of which is married with 2 girls, Tristen and Madisen, the other brought his girlfriend Lisa and her twin nieces, and my sister and her daughter Dixie and son Matt. Needless to say it was a full house!













We had a great time and Caleb got this dump truck from his MawMaw and PawPaw. As you can tell, he didn't quite understand at the time what it was meant to do.













I tried to get a happy picture of Caleb under my parent's tree, as we didn't put one up this year. This was the best he could do. After a hard, long day he still looks pretty happy. He's our precious little gift!













The next weekend, my parent's church was putting on their nativity scene production. Mama and Daddy took to calling it the "drive-by" nativity scene as their church is not in the best neighborhood anymore. A great ministry opportunity, but it can make for some interesting outdoor evening activities. My mom was the angel and my dad was a shepherd. Caleb got the biggest kick out of his Mawmaw and her wings and halo!
Since we are going to Jes's parents house this Christmas, we opted out of all the decorations and didn't buy Caleb many gifts (as if he really needed anymore toys!). The one thing we did purchase for him was a broom and dust pan. Caleb's good friend KJ had a broom and dust pan at his house and Caleb spotted it durng their last play session. After that, he was constantly trying to get the broom from me when I swept the floors. Now he has his own!














He hasn't quite gotten the hang of it, but he tries really hard. Maybe we'll work on getting that coordination down so he can sweep instead of me sometime!

As I mentioned before, we are spending Christmas at Jes's parent's house with his two younger sisters and their 4 kids (2 apiece). We are so excited about going and leave tomorrow (Friday) morning. Please keep us in your prayers as travel with a toddler can be a harrowing experience. We are most concerned about the 4 hour plane trip and then another 1 hour plane ride after that. Even though Caleb is our little angel, he can try our patience. Just keep us in your prayers going and coming and we'll update you on all the fun we had in Oregon at Nana and Papa's house after the first of the year! We love you all and hope you have a great Christmas!

Doctors, Turkeys, French Fries, and a Jolly Bearded Man

Ok, so I know that it's been almost a month since I posted and now I have so much to say because so much has happened! I guess I'll start with the new doctor that we have. Our old pulmonologist, Dr. Mondujano, doesn't take our insurance anymore, so we had to switch. After much shopping around we decided to go see Dr. Peter Schochet (sounds like shock-it). He is a great doctor and is very friendly and Caleb loved him. While we were there, Dr. Schochet did full evaluation (he used to be just a pediatrician before he specialized) and he realized that his frenulum (the membrane that ties his tongue to the floor of his mouth) is really tight. He thinks that that could be what is causing him to aspirate fluids, as he is a little old to still have that problem. To make a long story short, we see a surgeon next week to talk about having it clipped. I have to say I was quite frustrated with the situation as I asked his ENT to do it when he 3 days old and he said they didn't do it anymore. By the time we left the doctor's office, I was ready to wring someone's neck!
















Caleb and his dad love to play Xbox together. Sometimes Jes even plugs in the controller for Caleb and they crash motorcycles together!
During my hiatus from our blog we had Thanksgiving. We all had a great time at my parents house with the whole family coming out. In all it was my mom and dad, my brother, his girlfriend, my sister, her 2 kids, my aunt Jan, cousin Keri, cousin Tara, all my grandparents, the car and the dog. Needless to say, my parent's house became quite the busy place!
















Caleb had a great time playing with an old mailbox with his cousin Dixie (my sister's daughter). They kept playing mailman. Maybe it is a look into the future as my grandfather is a retired mail carrier.















Caleb and Dixie sitting on the bench. I love this picture of the two of them. They look so happy!
















The Xbox obssession continues at my parent's house too. They have a wireless controller, so we don't have to contend with the long cord following him throughout the house!
















Caleb found these glasses at my mom and dad's house. I had to have a picture because he never would wear glasses in the past for even a moment! He was walking around with these on looking so cute!















Caleb loves sitting in this chair watching Dora. He's dancing to the Dora music in the picture. This chair is special, as it was mine when I was little. It's amazing that it actually held up because I can remember sitting in it for hours at a time when I was small!
















Ok, ok so I said I would never be one of those parents, but yes my son is eating a french fry. Caleb had bronchitis since we last posted and he would not eat anything else. This was the first thing that he had reached for and tried to eat for a few days at least, so I let him. Believe me, I wasn't happy, but at least he was eating! I think he liked it because he wouldn't eat anything else after this one! :)
















Lastly, we had Caleb's annual picture with Santa. Last year Caleb and I stood in line for 2 hours at the mall to have a picture of his scared face on the lap of a man who didn't really even resemble Santa. This picture was taken at Home Depot (a plus) and for FREE!!! Jes got to sit in the picture and we even had a jolly Mrs. Claus. We just happened to be in Home Depot the day they were doing these. We were actually heading to the mall after this to stand in line and pay an enormous amount for a terrible picture, but were pleasantly surprised! We were so happy and Caleb was too, he got candy when it was over! Happy baby + happy parents = good time by all!