Life as a Leach

I liked this one. Thanks for sharing it, GR! :)

Caleb has always gotten up early, because I get up at 6 to go to work. Lately, though, he has started waking up even earlier...like at 5:30! My internal alarm clock severely fights this and is not happy! He has also gotten into the habit of calling out, "Mommy? Mommy! Mommy, where ARRRRRRRRRRE you?" repeatedly until I come get him. I guess he's on to the old shut-the-door-and-sleep-a-bit-longer trick we used to do! Also, Caleb has learned to say that Jesus is in his heart because He loves him...but when Matt first taught him, he pointed to Caleb's heart and Caleb (with a shocked look) asked, "In my pajamas???" and then looked down his pajamas! It was quite funny...I don't think he has the whole concept down yet, but we're working on it!

So, last night, Matt and I went out for a delayed Valentine's Day date (I was sick the weekend of Valentine's Day). It was a lovely and much-needed evening. Anyway, that has nothing to do with the title of this post! We let Becky stay downstairs last night to get some water and eat, since she'd been crated all evening. Normally, we shut the baby gate and make her stay upstairs, which is really the only reason that we still have the baby gate up to begin with. Now, fast-forward to this afternoon when Matt sat down to watch a little TV. After turning the TV on, the remote stopped working. Thinking that it needed new batteries, he opened up the casing and went to put some new ones in. Nothing changed. Matt then began to notice this putrid odor wafting (yes, wafting!) from the remote...cue the title! I quickly went over to the couch and gave it a good sniff. Sure enough, it smelled like pee! This is not the first time that this has happened, but the other times were w...

There are two learning sites that Caleb absolutely loves. He actually begs to go on the computer and play some of the games. They are both completely free and you don't have to register or anything. This program has activities for each letter. Your child can do all of the letters, play matching games, read stories online (they can listen to them too), build their own snowman, turkey, pumpkin, and gingerbread man....there's so much to do and I love how much language Caleb is exposed to! He is getting really good at his letters now, thanks to Starfall! I'm a big fan of it! If your child loves learning songs, he or she will love this site! There are tons of great songs on here. The writers/singers are British, so some of them are a little different than the songs you are used to! (The ABC Song is totally different!) There are also a bunch of great stories that are read to the children as well. I am well aware that kids can learn in other ways, but I am all about usi...

Check this out. Most of these seem pretty gross to me, since I'm a vegetarian, but the Tootsie Roll sounds interesting! :)

My grandmother was taking care of Caleb again today because my sister's son was sick and we didn't want Caleb to be exposed to anymore germs. Apparently, Mommom wasn't getting the toy Caleb wanted quickly enough, because he was forced to warn, "Don't make me tell you again!" in the same voice that we use when he is not obeying us....*sigh!* My sweet boy is learning the art of talking back, and I'm not overly crazy about it...although this particular instance was kind of funny!

I have been dying for some Chinese food, so we hit up the local Hong Kong V today. (Unfortunately, I ordered the wrong thing and was rather disappointed!) Anyway, we were eating and the woman working at the front counter was talking to the other workers in Chinese (I'm not a speaker, so it could be Mandarin...I don't know!) Caleb watched her very intently, even tilting his head at one point in curiousity. Then, he suddenly broke out in a bit of, "Eeeeee---chaw, haw, naw, waw!" quite loudly! We quickly shushed him but not before he asked what she was doing. Thankfully, either the woman didn't hear him or chose to cast him off as a curious little boy. I quietly explained that she was speaking a different language. Caleb, satisfied with this answer, then decided that it would be important to announce to the crowd that he had pooped! Ahhhh, two year olds!!! PS: Caleb and I have both been sick--Caleb with a virus and me with bronchitis. He seems to be fine n...

It is incredibly difficult to work full time (plus a few part time jobs!), be an attentive mom, and a wife all at the same time. So I'm a bit sensitive when people make comments or assumptions about my house, the way our home is run, or how I balance it all. I want to be at home. That's just not possible, so I'm making the best of it and hopefully things will be a little bit different next year...if all goes as planned! Anyway, it irks me to no end when people make comments about a speck of dust on a coffee table, or insinuate that I'm not doing "my job" because I don't cook dinner every night. I work really hard at all of my jobs...I get to school incredibly early so that I don't have to take any work home. I stay late on Tuesdays and Thursdays so that I can get all of my lesson plans done before the weekend. I check timecards for Stacked Systems after Caleb goes to bed. I tutor on Mondays and have managed to turn it into family time where we g...

I got an email from my sister today to call my grandmother (who was watching Caleb today) because Caleb was sick. My grandmother had already called Matt, but wanted me to know as well. She thought he had a fever and was rather lethargic. She said she would keep him and I told her to call Matt to pick him up if he got worse. I stay late Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I got home around 6 to find all of the lights out and Matt holding a very pitiful Caleb. It turns out that he threw up twice at Mommom's house...all over himself and her! Matt, of course, didn't call or email me to tell me all of this (I would never have stayed after school if I'd known!) We got him to eat just 1/2 a piece of toast before he threw that up. Thank goodness he had a bib on and was sitting at the table. We thought giving him a little carbonation might help, so Caleb had his first (tiny) taste of Sierra Mist. Shortly after, he barfed that up as well...right on the couch! Lovely...poor guy! We put...