Our Retreat

More catch-up: this time we are flashing back to Labour Day Weekend....

The Wednesday prior to the long weekend I sent out a prayer request for our poor dude suffering from the effects of a cast. My Mother-in-Law almost immediately responded with an incredably encouraging phonecall and an offer to retreat to their home in Houston for the weekend. An invitation that we quickly took them up on. It was the best decision we could have made, especially considering that we had previously thought a quiet weekend at home was what we needed!
So we packed our car and headed off. They wouldn't hardly let us lift a finger, we got the sleep we had been deprived of for a few too many weeks and just had a really good time. The day after we got to Houston, Brian's Mom took us to the Johnson Space Center. Caleb had a great time exploring NASA but NOTHING compares to his reaction when we went into the building housing the Saturn V rocket. He just stopped in his tracks. He has a space room and space books, but nothing prepared him for just how big spaceships really are.
Thank you so much Grandmom and Grandad. We went home in better spirits, more relaxed and with loads of fabulous memories. Caleb saw a waffle maker the other day and stated that we needed to go to Grandmom and Grandad's house to make some (he has completely forgotten that we make them too). He talks about the trip a lot. It has made a lasting impression on all of us. We love you!

Astronaut Caleb reporting for duty.

Ready for it...he is touching an ACTUAL moon rock!

Buttons!

Grandmom with her boys.

About to check out the space shuttle. Super excited little dude.

Caleb was most excited about the space potty inside...

Don't look now Caleb. But there is a really big astronaut behind you.

These look like toys compared to what was inside the building. I love this picture.

This picture now ranks amongst my faves. Love it!

My my. What big F-1 engines you have!

So tall.

The infamous waffles!

Spidey-Caleb couldn't wait for Grandmom to come make muffins with him for breakfast.

Another fave!

Caleb with his Grandmom and Grandad. So very sweet.

Fort Worth Children's Museum

For the summer's last Mom2Mom playdate, we headed to the Fort Worth Children's Museum for some big fun. We carpooled with Caleb's best buds Trevor and Tatum, which always adds more fun and a bit of crazy to the day!

This was our first time to visit the museum and it was worth the drive and the traffic (of course, I wasn't driving, so Heather may or may not agree...). The children's museum is inside of the Nature and Science museum, so there was no end to the activities and exhibits for the kiddos. I think that I will let the pictures speak for themselves...mostly. =) If you haven't gone and you don't live in another state or country...then you have to take your children!

Running...with sling...Mommy held her breath and managed to get a pic even though she was afraid to look...

Industrious builder.

Sitting in a dino-sized footprint. Our big dino-dude!

Heaven for little boys that LOVE big trucks.

Precious smiles and giggles. Love!

Watching his paper cup creation soar!

Caleb's dream come true. He would have stayed there all day but other little dudes wanted their moments too.

Update Much?

Okay. I am totally busted. My Dad and brother had a conversation about "those bloggers that don't update their blogs" with me sitting right beside them. Okay! I get the hint!

I have not updated and I apologize. It has been a rough six weeks! Since our last update, we actually ended up taking Caleb in to see his pediatrician. He wasn't adjusting to his cast, was not acting like himself and was too tired all the time. It ends up that he was depressed. This makes sense given how incredably active and independent he is, and how much that was affected by his break. It rocked his whole world. But in the past week, he has made a big turn-around. The better he gets at using his left hand, the happier he gets. My Aunt Lorrie suggested we play up the Super Caleb aspect of using his left arm, and that has worked like a charm! So while he still has his moments, we are mostly dealing with a little 'tude compliments of being almost four....but we don't need to get into that.

We have tried to keep our dude busy the past few weeks. We had an Uncle Matt playdate, another playdate at the Fort Worth Children's Museum, and a long-weekend reprieve in Houston with Brian's parents that he still talks about! My parents, and Chai, finally came home this past Friday and Caleb was very happy to see them. I will post a number of updates with pictures from these events, so keep checking back! 

We love you all! 

Already? Really?

Let me set the stage for a shocking and funny moment compliments of our dude.

Tatum was jumping on the trampoline, quite happy and with no intention of stopping yet. Caleb was standing beside the trampoline doing his best to convince her that it was his turn. She wasn't having it. Caleb was told to be patient and wait his turn. He chose instead to do what he does best...reason with her.

The result (as heard by Tatum's daddy, Nathan):

"Tatum. Do you see that sign right there. It says, No Girls Allowed."

It didn't work. Nice try dude. Where in the world did you get that?

Life With A Cast

Thank You.

Thank you for your prayers and cards and encouragment and care packages. Thank you for loving our dude and wanting to help him feel better.

Thank You.

Because life with a cast sucks.

We are so incredably sad for our dude. Because he is sad. When he goes to give me a hug and whacks me with his cast by accident, he gets really sad. Just puts his head in my neck and holds on tight and just feels sad. When he couldn't play his computer game because he couldn't manipulate the mouse with his cast, he got sad. Bathtime was horrid, because there is no way the plastic bag is comfortable and it doesn't allow for fun bath-play. He got really sad. The weight of the cast and how it is rubbing his upper arm...sad.

We wish we could make it go away, but we can't. I can't make this better. Brian can't make this better. And five weeks seems like an eternity for our precious dude. All he has wanted to do all summer was go to Hawaiin Falls. We were supposed to take him this weekend. Now he can't swim and that is all he wants to do. If he tries to do normal Caleb things (like rough-house with Trevor, jump off furniture or twirl around like a little madman) he only hears, "be careful" or "Caleb you can't do that."

But there were so many things to make him smile this week and we are so grateful for every single one of them. For Grandmom coming to spend a few nights, for McKenna's little playdate and the new game she brought with her, for the card from Celina and the care package from the Brodies. For Trevor playing with Caleb like nothing had changed, for Uncle Matt's daylong playdate and for lego sent by Grammy and Pop. Thank you all. Every bit helps. Truly.

This really is hard. Noone wants to see their little blessing hurting and sad. We think that he is okay and coping, but in the unguarded moments we glimpse just how aware he is of his predicament and just how much he is hurting.  I am comforted knowing that Caleb is God's child more than ours; that He is wrapping His loving arms around our dude.

From Caleb. We told him the letters. He wrote them. He also reads now. Seriously. Words like enter, fresh, water...

Grammy and Pop sent Uncle Matt on a mission for them (they are in Canada). To the Lego store. The three of them spent the better part of an hour assembling Caleb's new treasure. Precious moment!

The masterpiece!

Boys and their toys.

Thank you for the smiles Uncle Matt!

Playing his favourite game...hide and seek!

I hid in the shower and got this jewel of a picture when he found me. Totally worth it.

Buckle Fracture

   Our precious dude is hurt and we can't stand it! He has a broken arm! I want to be very careful not to sound mellow-dramatic because I am fully aware of how many very sick children there are around the world. But I am aching for my dude and his fracture will heal in a few weeks. The worst part is, that Caleb actually broke his arm last Wednesday but we thought that it was only a sprain. However, a fall on his sore hand today made it clear to us that this was not a normal injury.   
   We took him to Acute Kids Urgent Care (which rocks y'all) and he charmed the pants off of the entire staff. He made his doctor chuckle and earned the nickname Cutie-Pie; he answered all the doctor's questions and pointed out exactly where it hurt. He sat very still for the x-ray and loved to see the pictures. He wants to get a copy of it so that he can show his friends the picture of his bones. His nurse was an off-duty fireman (that Brian knows from his days at the Fire Station) which did not hurt matters in the least and our dude got to choose a yellow cast (his favourite colour).
   All was well until it was time for bed and he discovered that we couldn't take the cast off. Poor Caleb can not understand that the cast is not what is making his arm hurt and that he really does need it. I absolutely resorted to bribery. My grandparents sent me a care package when I broke my leg at Caleb's age, and it was full of little somethings to open each day. I did not hestitate to tell our dude that every day he didn't mess with the cast or throw fits about wearing it, he would get a little surprise...but now that I think about it, he will probably get a little surprise anyway..we need to make a trip to the Target dollar spot, dollar store, craft store...

You will have to take our word for it, but the fracture is there. It showed up very clearly when magnified, but the good news it that the fracture is small! Is it just me, or does it look like Caleb is flipping us off?

Since this is a temporary cast, we used some white ace-bandage tape to cover the rough edges...hence the nice look. The next sequence of pictures show a dude excited about his cast....

...then he found out that we couldn't take it off....

Mmmm Mmmm Good

So you know how I recently stated that I like to see things in magazines and pretend that I can make something as yummy and pretty but really can't. I might retract that statement tonight. Last night I was perusing a favourite blog, Confessions of a Pioneer Woman (YOU HAVE TO CHECK IT OUT IF YOU NEVER HAVE!-super recipes, homeschooling advice and great humour!), when I saw a post about Peanut Butter Stuffed Hot Fudge Cupcakes (sorry Cara-Lee). It caught my attention. I wanted some. But Brian and I don't eat a lot of baking and it usually just sits around and gets stale. Then it hit me. I had a LifeTalk meeting tonight where we are supposed to bring snacks! HUZZAH!

This afternoon I determined to make the beauties and incorporated the activity into our playdate with the Dennises. It was so much fun baking these scrump-dilly-icious goodies with Caleb and Leah. There are a lot of steps but it was totally worth it in the end. It was great knowing that we would enjoy the one each that we prefer and that the rest of the batch would not be wasted. They were a HUGE hit at the meeting and I highly recommend them to everyone. I personally believe that they are the best dessert I have ever made, at the very least, the best cupcake. You must try them! You have to try them. I even have two left in my fridge and if you call dibs you just might get one!

I usually subsitute out a lot of things (applesauce for oil, greek yogurt for sour cream, agave syrup for sugar etc etc) but I felt the need to leave these as is. So they are not waist-friendly, but they made us smile and how bad can it be if you only eat one?

Love to you all! GO GET THE RECIPE (the link to Confessions of a Pioneer Woman is on my sidebar!)!!!!

And these pictures were too adorable to leave out of the post:

Precious!

Caleb still envisions a future as Buzz Lightyear.