18 Months!

Kaleb recently hit the big 18 month mark, which means we've had 18 months full of sweet moments and lots of laughs due to his delightful little personality.  It also means that Jonny and I now have about 4 months (until little Henrietta comes) to be able to pay attention for 2 hours of church while Kaleb is soooo happy in nursery :)  Since 18 months is kind of a big deal I decided it would be fun to write down 18 fun facts about our boy.  He is at such a fun age, and I want to remember details from this stage in his life.

1) I would say Kaleb's absolute favorite thing is water, especially playing in it.  He is happy with just a small cup of it that he can take sips of and splash his fingers in, and he loves the frequent activity of setting two large bowls on a towel on the kitchen floor with enough water in them to keep him happy for an hour, sometimes even more.

2)  Every morning Kaleb and I watch a fun kid show together, which is usually either Mickey Mouse ClubHouse or Sesame Street.  Kaleb loves Elmo and Mickey Mouse and gets so excited any time he sees a picture or toy related to those shows.

3)  Kaleb is so excited for Christmas!  He has really caught on to the idea of Santa Claus and says "Ho, ho, ho," anytime we refer to Christmas in any way and anytime he sees a picture of Santa.  He loves Rudolph and Frosty the Snowman and he was so tickled last night when we set up our tree and wrapped a couple presents to put under the tree.

4)  One of Kaleb's favorite snacks is fruit snacks.  He almost always has at least one pack per day.

5)  Kaleb loves to help mom in the kitchen.  Whenever I begin making something for dinner or a treat, he wants to be involved.  I'm grateful for his willingness to help even though it often means a few extra messes :)

6)  A little while ago Kaleb learned how to blow, so now he loves to blow on things...such as his food to cool it down and candles whether they are lit or not.  He often blows on his drinks even when they are cold, not sure where he picked that one up.

7)  Kaleb loves to do things that make him seem big.  He is tickled when he is given the chance to eat something without any help or help with something Mommy and Daddy are doing.  He is especially helpful when I do laundry.  I always set a basket of his wet clothes where he can reach and he hangs a bunch of them on the line.  He also loves to help me fold towels and things, so I assign him the wash cloths.

8)  For a long time Jonny and I were so bummed because Kaleb refused to wear hats.  They made him so angry!  He still isn't great about keeping them on for very long, but he likes to put them on especially when he sees others with them (like Daddy and his baseball team).

9)  Kaleb loves to be wrapped up in really cozy blankets.  He will often take a fuzzy blanket and bury his face in it, so excited to be cuddled.  I'm grateful he loves cuddle time because I love it too!

10)  One of his favorite activities is reading books with Mommy or Daddy.  He is so good at understanding simple commands we give like "Point to the boy with the red hat, or where is the zebra?"  It has been so much fun to watch him grow and learn so many new things.

11)  Everyday when Jonny gets home from class he and Kaleb have a little time to eat lunch and play and then it is nap time.  Jonny turns off the lights, turns on ESPN and just holds Kaleb until he dozes off.  I'm grateful my two favorite boys have this sweet time together :)

12)  Kaleb gives the sweetest hugs and kisses, he is (usually) such a sweet, loving little boy.  Hopefully he'll be that way with his little sister!

13)  After spending a lot of time in my office, Kaleb has become fascinated with computers and always wants to push the buttons.  He will sit at a keyboard and pretend to type like Mom and Dad.  We pulled out an old laptop that had pretty much reached the end of its life and gave it to him.  Let's just say the very end of its life came very quickly!

14)  During Kaleb's first nursery visit he pulled a little baby doll out of one of the toy baskets and was so sweet with it.  He wrapped a blanket around it and gave it a big hug and gave it a drink from a bottle.  This was the first time he'd ever played with a baby doll, but he'll be getting one of his own for Christmas so he can learn what to do and what not to do when he becomes a big brother.

15)  When we moved to our new apartment in June we were so bummed because there are only showers, no bath tubs.  Kaleb loved bath time, but he has since developed quite a fondness for shower time!  His showers often last close to an hour and he just plays in the water, splashing and transferring water from one bowl to another over and over and over....

16)  Kaleb loves animals.  He loves cats and dogs and horses and cows and ducks and fish, etc.  Whenever we drive out to Grammy's or Nonna's we look for horses and cows on the way.  He has learned and can make the sounds that ducks, lions and tigers, pigs, fish, and monkeys make really well.

17)  Even though it seems he is taking a longer time than others to talk he has recently started using quite a few more words.  He says yes, no, mommy, daddy, horsey, more bubbles, again, all gone, don't touch that...lol those are the ones I can think of now.  He is so fun :)

18)  Kaleb absolutely loves sports.  He loves to swing the bat, play catch both with football and baseball, kick balls, shoot basketballs, and run around (really fast!) with his chubby little legs.  He is so observant of older people and how they play and tries to apply them in how he does things.  He loves to play the piano and do the drums (really loudly).  And yes I just combined 2 in one since I am on my last number.

I could go on and on, but I said I'd stop at 18 so I'll stick with that.  To sum up I'll just emphasize once again how much we love our adorable, chubby little munchkin who has so much energy and excitement for life and who makes our lives so much fun.  He is such a good, sweet little boy who is learning and growing and who is going to be the best big brother.  We feel so forever blessed to have him in our family and we look forward to every delightful day ahead of us.

2 Month Catch Up

Most of the time there really isn't much to share from the happenings of our lives, but October and November were actually really exciting months for us.  Through most of October we excitedly looked forward to Halloween, as this was the day we'd decided to announce to our families the exciting news of our sweet little one on the way.  We were also super excited for Halloween to share the holiday with Kaleb and see how he liked the festivities.  Kaleb dressed up as a mummy, I was a witch, and Jonny was a gym teacher in really tight polyester pants.  We celebrated by going trunk or treating with the Parkinson's and then having dinner with the Schleg's.  We celebrated on Saturday night, but Sunday was technically Halloween so we decided to make our announcement that day.  We dressed Kaleb up in his "Big Brother" jammies and went to the Parkinson's for dinner.  Right as we walked through the door Uncle Sammy read Kaleb's shirt out loud and I looked up at my mom and started crying.  I wasn't expecting to be so emotional about it!  I cried again when we shared the news with the Schlegs.  It has been so nice to have everyone in on the secret and be able to talk openly about things.  

Another exciting event from November was finding out that we are having a little girl!  Both Jonny and I really thought we'd be having a boy so the ultrasound was quite a shock.  It took me a while to adjust to the idea, simply because I've done the boy thing before...it seems so different to have a girl.  We are so excited though, and I am really looking forward to having to shop for her :)  The challenge now is going to be figuring out a name.  We had talked about the names Halli Anne and Rosalyn Mallory, but now that we know we're having a girl I don't know if they will be right for her.  It is so difficult to choose a name that will be hers her entire life!  Some other names we've talked about are Aliyah, Nora, Allison, and Lynnea.  We'll see what we decide on over the next few months!  

Moving Along...Slowly!

I am now 12 weeks along, and hopefully moving out of the first trimester yuckiness pretty soon.  Still haven't told family, although I think some of them may be catching on!  My mom asked me last night if I was expecting and I lied :| I just straight up said "No, but hopefully soon."  Hopefully she won't be too mad when we actually share the news :)  As I mentioned in the title of this post, time is going by so slowly...but I am actually ok with that.  I want to savor every day I have with Kaleb until this next little one arrives because I know my attention will be split between the two.  I love every minute I get with Kaleb.  He is such a sweet, good kid and such a goof!  Although it may seem impossible, I'm pretty sure he spends more time thinking about sports than Jonny does.  Kaleb is really into football right now.  He gets into position and when one of us says, "Ready, set go!" he runs as fast as he can.  We're pretty sure he picked this up at his Uncle Sammy's football game, it is crazy how perceptive he is!  So his favorite seems to be football right now, but he won't turn down playing with a baseball, basketball, tennis ball, soccer ball, etc.  He is defintely "all boy," and loves sports and being active.
Just a little update on the semester for Jonny and me:  Jonny is busy with school, work, watching Kaleb during my office hours, and playing baseball.  We were nervous about how this semester would go, but things are working out.  It is such a blessing that Jonny is able to watch Kaleb during my office hours so that he is always with one of us, and I think it has been really fun for them to have one-on-one time.  They have such a sweet relationship, it tickles me to watch them wrestle and play (and have cuddle time too).  Jonny and James are playing baseball together again, which is exciting and so fun for them.  James is coaching their team and it seems they could have an awesome team this semester!  They won their first game 17-4 (I think), so we'll see if it continues through their next games.  As for my schedule, I just have my scheduled office hours everyday from 1 to 5 and spend the rest of the day enjoying my boys.  Life is wonderful, and we are so blessed!

Kaleb is going to be a Big Brother

We are so excited to announce that we have another little one on the way!  The due date is April 15th, so I'm about 10 weeks along right now.  In other words, I'm exhausted and miserably sick...but hopefully only for a few more weeks :)  We haven't announced this to anyone yet, and since nobody really knows of this blog we thought it would be safe to put up a post just for fun.  Long before we knew we were expecting we decided we would wait as long as possible to announce it to our families and friends, hoping that would help the pregnancy go by faster.  At this point I'm not sure if I like this method, since it is a bit of a challenge to hide how sick I am, but it is fun the let the anticipation of making the announcement build up.  We bought a paid of pajamas for Kaleb that say Big Brother on them, so we'll have him wear those to announce the exciting news.
Even though we still have about 10 weeks before we find out boy or girl, I'm pretty sure we're having another boy.  It may just be because we've done the boy thing already...but I can't get myself to think in terms of having a girl.  Either way, boy or girl, I will be so excited.  Kaleb is going to be an awesome big brother!  He is such a good kid, and so delightful.  He is almost 16 months old now, and I must say I absolutely love the stage he is in.  He has Jonny and I laughing so often, he is such a little nut :)  He still loves having cuddle time, but is also really independent and loves to explore and play...especially outside.
This is a really busy, crazy semester for our family but we can't complain.  Life is wonderful!

So their names are Mallory and Jonny Schlegelmilch. They have a little boy named Kaleb, but sometimes they call him Kullobius, Cal, KJ, and occasionally Jonny will even affectionately call him Chublub...Mallory is quick to correct him and say, "you mean Cute-lub". Kaleb's a tank. He started out real skinny, but he likes food (just like his dad). Jonny is going to school at BYUI. His major is political science. He plans to go to law school afterwards and from that point it's still up in the air. He works approximately fifteen hours a week doing early morning custodial. Mallory is a beautiful mother who works part time as an apartment manager for Rexburg Housing. They live on the property that Mallory manages; as a result they get free rent and some other financial benefits. That is some basic information on the Schleg family. If you feel like it, stay tuned for updates on their lives