For the Love of the Muppets!!

The first has become a web-craze and is really hystarical!!

The muppets doing "Bohemian Rhapsody". For any who love the muppets, it's a good laugh!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY



This next video is to help you get in the Christmas spirit:

Beeker doing "Ode to Joy". Probably one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Just remember to watch all of the different Beekers!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpcUxwpOQ_A&NR=1

Videos

Some new videos. The first is just an updated video of Kaleb sitting. He can sit all on his own, but just can't get there on his own:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYdShZ8bfQc

I've had requests for more laughing videos, so the next two have Kaleb laughing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UD63qWK-U4


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq1lqBJT5DY


This last video was taken late at night. You may need to lighten your monitor to see it in detail. Kaleb had been awake for two straight hours past his bedtime and refused to sleep, so we decided to try to make him tired. Well, he decided to play a little game with us:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v30KGSHm3Js

The Many Faces of Kaleb-5 Months

Tomorrow Kaleb will be five months old, so I am going to dedicate this post to all of his many faces. I've been getting a lot of requests for smiling pictures, but since Kaleb has many other fun expressions, I thought I should include all of them!!!

This is his, "You guys are weird, but I like it" Face

This is his classic smile... cute and coy!

Laughing smile, his cheeks are the biggest and his eyes are the smallest!!

Bubbles

What the?

Angry Smile... he's not angry, he just looks angry when he smiles

Sneaky...

His uncontrolled, super happy smile!! My favorite!

Halloween

Kaleb's first true holiday... Halloween!!! He was a white tiger, not a zebra as many people guessed. So cute!!! We were in charge of our ward Trunk-or-Treat and overall I think it was a success. Ammon really earned all the credit by monitoring the hot dog table and doing all of the PR work. I held the cuteness and gave out candy, tough stuff!

Grrrr!!

Kaleb even carried his own Treat bucket... for about five seconds!

Such a happy baby, now that Mommy is not drawing all over the face with eye-liner!

The Happy Halloween family



Jess and Chris and the munchkins joined us for our ward's Trunk or Treat. I think the adults had more fun than the kids. This picture kinda shows Christian's attitude,
"I'm only here for the food!"

Kaleb conked out really early that night. He was so well behaved the whole time. Then at about 7:30, fussy for five minutes, then asleep in Mommy's arms!!

This was our stash at the end of the night. What Kaleb collected and what we didn't get rid of.

Kaleb Newness

Some new updates on Kaleb, now 4 and 1/2 months. But first, I just want to take a quick moment to declare how lucky we are to have such a wonderful baby. He's so well behaved and almost always really happy, not to mention super-healthy so far. He's so much better behaved than I ever could have hoped for and I'm SO grateful for that. Anyway, back to the updates:

**His first tooth has emerged. Right now it's just a white little snag on his gum(s?), but it has definitely broken through. His bottom right tooth. The left is trying desperately to catch up. So exciting!!

**Recently I noticed that Kaleb likes to cross his feet a lot, something that I tend to do when I sit on the bed or on the floor when I have back support. Just one of those funny quirks that my baby has inherited.

**Kaleb is now rolling over quite easily. Below is the link to a video showing his expertise. Plus it shows how much he likes to hear my duck voice. It's almost always a guaranteed smile!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DI0NGZDyl0&feature=channel

**So now, of course, because Kaleb can roll over, he finds himself in very odd positions while he is trying to get to sleep or when he wakes up from a nap. Sometimes he rolls over and can't remember how to get back on his back, so he'll just start wailing in frustration until i come in and roll him back over. He strongly favors being on his right side and has often taken 2 hour naps completely on that side... waking up with a swollen eyelid and fuzzy red marks all over his face. Below is a video of me finding him after a nap in what seems like an awkward position:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH6yYh_nVxY&feature=channel

**And lastly, Kaleb now is getting really good use of his very large hands, from shoving them in his mouth to grabbing random toys and my hair. Now he is learning to hold his bottle on his own. The bottle in this video is small, but his hands totally engulf it. It makes me so thrilled to see these little advances in him!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyMKKVzJtA0&feature=channel

Egg Oddness

This is totally random, but below are some odd eggs we have picked up lately. Both are compared with normal "Large Garde A Eggs". The first is our freakishly tiny egg. I haven't opened it yet to see if its got a yolk yet:

The next is our freakishly larg egg, the size of a goose egg. Ended up having a double yolk. Pretty exciting for us farmer folk ;-)

"Economom"

I heard this term the other night when I was watching Dr. Phil (something I hardly ever do ironically enough). He was discussing the roles of mothers: working outside the home versus remaining at home to only raise the children. He said that because of the way things are going, there are now "economoms" who are forced to go back to work because the fathers aren't working anymore. I feel that I have always been supportive of the overall feeling "whatever is best for you and your family." I can't make a decision for other people to say they should go to work to make a better living for their family or to stay home to nurture their children. I still feel that way. However, I can see how my own personal emotions toward being a working mom has changed.

After I got laid off, I went through a depression, partially brought on by pregnancy hormones. I ALWAYS saw myself as a working mom. Part time preferably, but definitely someone with an outlet. However, I found a way to fill my time until I got so pregnant I couldn't do much anyway. Then after Kaleb was born, I realized just how much I want to be a stay-at-home mom and not work outside of the home. I basically refused all offers and opportunities for work until I went into Brilliant Sky, the toy store I now work for. Ammon and I had a great feeling about me going back to work part time. However, since I have gone back to work, I feel myself torn. I really enjoy my work and I'm good at it and I feel a renewed sense of belonging and community. BUT every time I have to say goodbye to my adorable baby, who is always in GREAT hands, I am close to tears. I miss him so much! If the store does well during the holidays, it will stay open permanently and I know my manager would keep me on if that's the case. Financially, I'm still receiving unemployment so working right now is basically just extending my unemployment, not bringing in extra money. I don't plan on quitting and overall I am comfortable with my decision, but I wanted to get everybody's input on being a working mom or stay-at-home mom and pluses or minuses or how they "deal" with it. Then maybe I won't feel like such an "economom" who is forced to work. What do you think?

So Far Away...

Now you'll have that song stuck in your head for the rest of the day... Mwahahahaha. Anyway, Ammon left this morning for the Navajo Reservation to do some concrete work. He is going to be back on Friday, then gone again on Monday for another week. I can't say that I am thrilled at the prospect of being alone for five whole days, but at least I have a ton of friends and family nearby and my cute little Kaleb to always keep me company. I'm more scared for Ammon since the reason he quit doing concrete work was because it absolutely killed his lower back. On friday, he did a job for the same company down in Tucson. They picked him up at 3am and he was back at 3pm, in bed at 6pm and didn't get back up till 8am. That's gonna give you an idea of how tough the work is. I'm so proud of him though. It's something he REALLY didn't wanna do, but because it's a bit of extra money, my sweety is making the sacrifice. Plus he has been so focused and humble in trying to find a job... any job, and being a terrific Mr. Mom while I'm off working. My husband aint perfect, but he is awesome, so I just wanted to take a moment to brag!

Da Kaleb and His Bear

I totally forgot to add the most adorable thing... we've had two little teddy bears in Kaleb's crib since he was born. More for decoration than anything, but lately we have been using one of the bears as a cuddle toy when Kaleb is put down for a nap. He has a hard time sleeping without a pacifier in his mouth and if we don't give him the bear, his hands will rip the pacifier out and he will get restless and not sleep. Anywho, so the other day, Ammon went in to get Kaleb up from his nap, and as he picked him up out of the crib, the little bear came with him. Kaleb had a vice-like grip on the little bear's arm it was dangling at his side. So SWEET!!!!

Kaleb at Four Months

We finally had another doctor's appointment to get the stats on Kaleb and... (drum roll please)... he is now 18 pounds, 14 oz. (97th percentile) and 26.5 inches (90th percentile). He is our big little boy. We are getting to the point where we are considering putting him in the "Up to 30 pounds" infant car seat since he is getting so close to his "up to 22 pounds" limit on the one we're using now. Our doctor reassures us that the more active he gets, the more his weight will stabilize, but I will believe that when I see it. Especially since neither of his parents' wieght stabilized till they were adults (HA, that's a joke, son). As it is, he is still wearing half of the clothes he was wearing at 2 months.

In fact, the picture below is at three months:

And this is him at four months:

A funny little thing about Kaleb lately is his recognition. He now knows who mommy and daddy are (or at least that we are his two peeps), and so whenever someone else holds him, and he notices Ammon and me apart from him, he starts to cry. (sorry, grammas!!) The doctor said that reaction is more normal at 6-9 months... which means it's probably gonna get worse before it gets better. OY!! In addition to that, Kaleb seems to recognize that I am a source of food and has often taken to very purposefully sucking on my face or neck or arm if it's available. Kind of funny! Thankfully I am nursing less now since I'm working and I plan to have Kaleb weaned by the end of the month so this won't get into a bad habit!

Kaleb has really blossomed this month as far as his physical abilities. He really enjoys tummy time now and has even rolled over a few times both from his back and from his tummy. Burping has become a lot more difficult since he will straighten his body in protest whenever he is still hungry. So now I tend to burp him while he is standing.

Plus, as I mentioned in my last post, Kaleb is starting to sit on his own. Below is the link to our latest video of him. He is more slouching on his own than sitting, but you gotta start somewhere. You will also notice the drool, which has doubled this month. His sleeping and napping have been pretty eratic over the last few weeks also, so I'm hoping that means a tooth will be breaking through soon... but I'm not holding my breath.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl5OiWpgOOo