Our BYU Football Player

Big day in the Waite house today!  Our sweet little Caleb got his helmet today!  He was diagnosed with plagiocephaly (an asymmetrical head) 2 months ago and we're FINALLY getting things rolling.  Today's the day I've been dreading for weeks (I've heard HORROR stories of kids not adjusting very well)-- but I should have known better.  Can you get a more angelic child than this kid?  He only had to wear the helmet for 3 hours today, but did we hear a peep from him??  Nope.  He took it like a champ and is still as happy as a clam.... just more accessorized :)  Here's our documentation from the momentous occasion!

Our happy boy this morning.  Our "Before" shot!

LOVE that I got this face recorded.  He likes to suck on his bottom lip and this is the face we get when he does.  Cracks me up EVERYTIME.

Brotherly Love.  Michael is getting his own "magic hat" tonight-- he wanted one of his own, so we got him his own BYU hat.

Here he is!!  Ok, it might just be motherly pride-- but I think he looks so stinking adorable-- even with the massive piece of plastic on his head.

See, told you!!  Happy as a clam...

I know it's blurry, but I almost die every time I look at this picture.  He is so funny!

Here's to a happy time, helmet and all :)


So, there you have it.  We sure love this kid.  I cringe to think about how things would have been different if it had been Michael that needed to get the helmet-- this would have been a MUCH different blog post.  So, we're thanking our lucky stars and are SO grateful to have such a chill, wonderful kid!!

The Poo Poo Party!



 I know, I know... with a title like this, how can you NOT read it?  Life has been pretty exciting here in the Waite household the past couple of weeks.  We have entered the world of POTTY TRAINING!!  Words that used to bring terror to my soul have actually turned out a lot better than I expected.  But before we get to the Poo Poo Party... here are some cute pics from the past couple of weeks:

Daddy reading to the boys-- you can tell Mo was totally into the book :)  Oh!  6 month stats: 20.2 lbs (90%) and 29 3/4 inches (WAY off the charts!)  Caleb is the same size as Michael was at 9 months.  He is one tall kid-- basketball scholarship, anyone??

This was Michael's "church" outift last week.  I was getting ready for church and he came in dressed like this and said, "Ok, Mama, I'm ready to go to church!!"  My favorite part is the sweat bands used as socks.  We sure know what dressing in your Sunday Best means :)

One last shot... he makes me laugh... so hard.

So-- the poo poo party.  Potty training had been going well, except for one thing.  Going poo poo in the potty.  Michael was TERRIFIED for some reason to go, even on his Elmo potty.  So, to give him some incentive, we told him he could get a special present each time he went poo poo on the potty.  Well, that plan TOTALLY backfired on us when he started to poop SIX times a day.  The dang kid figured out that if he just went in tiny amounts several times a day, he could get more presents!  So, we had to re-do said incentive and said that he could have a huge party after he filled up a sticker chart.  Since it was a party for going poo poo, we decided everything had to be brown.  He wanted brown balloons, brown cookies, brown cupcakes, and brown ice cream.  Deal.  So, in record time he filled in his sticker chart and yesterday we had his poo poo party!

Being the genius I am, when I was in the store, I saw these Winnie-the- POOh hats and thought it would be hysetrical to even be wearing "Pooh" on our heads.  Haha.  I would like to point out that most of the planning for this party came from Brett.  It's been the highlight of being a father for him-- planning a party all about poop.  Oh, boys...

Here are some of the best pics from the special day!

It's hard to see, but there's a Winnie-the-Pooh banner that says, "Hip Hip Hooray!!"

The tasty brown treats :) 

Michael's excited about his Poo Poo Party!  Let the fun begin!

DIG IN!

Oh man, chocolate overload!

BEST PARTY EVER!

Celebrating poo is every boy's dream :)

HOORAY!!  I'm potty trained!

I declare him potty trained! 

I'm BACK!!!!

You know you haven't blogged in awhile when you log in and don't even recognize how to do things anymore... when did Blogger make all of these changes??  I mean, I like it, it just took me a minute to get my bearings :)

So, I know I'm always doing recap posts and there's a lot that I can recap, but we'll just focus on the last two months:

June

* Our month of travel!  We left on June 1st and flew to SLC to go up to Idaho.

*Highlights of the Idaho trip:

- Seeing Tia Lou and Aunt Kelli

-Going up to Sun Valley and skating on the same rink that Scott Hamilton, Kristi Yamaguchi, and about any other famous skater you can think of skated.  It was Michael's first time and he was not a huge fan.  I was in rental skates, which I was not a huge fan of... but it was a BLAST.

-Going up to Red Fish Lake.

-Going kayaking with my FIL and then dumping him in the lake (on ACCIDENT!)

-Watching Michael wading waist deep into FREEZING cold lake water and LOVING it.

-Having Michael wake up at 3AM screaming because he was scared of my FIL's snoring and thought a bear was in our hotel room.

-Dying of heat all night long in our hotel room and then waking up to snow....

*We then drove to Provo to visit BYU and Aunt Sara and Uncle Javvy (Brett left to go back to AZ):

-Going to BYU and seeing the BYU cougar (ROAR!!!)

-Michael's amazing tantrum skills coming out in full force when his Mama went on a walk to talk to Daddy and didn't take him with her.

-Sara and Javvy freaking out about Mo's spitting up.... 

-Javvy asking, "Do you just get used to all of the liquid that comes out of him???"

-Getting Bubs his "cool dude" glasses and going on a walk to the park.

  The Boys, Nana and I road tripped back to Fort Collins:

-The eventful stop at Little America.  Mass hysteria and craziness from Michael made it a stop to remember.  (Don't forget about the bison!!)

-Having Michael hear Brian Regan and laugh HYSTERICALLY.  Boxen!  Moosen!

-Smelling smoke everyday from the High Park fire... the whole state was up in flames while we were there.  So scary!

-Getting Michael ADDICTED to Chugginton and getting the dang theme song stuck in our heads every day.

-Getting Michael addicted to the Smash soundtrack.  Can your 2 year old sing, "I never met a wolf who didn't like to howl?"  or  "The 20th Century Fox Mambo?"  (Do you want your 2 year old to be able to do that?? :) )

-Watching Mo trying to figure out how to blow raspberries... SO FUNNY.

-Having the most relaxing 2 1/2 weeks EVER.

-Eating "Magic Cookies" like there was NO tomorrow.

-Seeing the Seegmiller's and celebrating the Turner's 50th Anniversary!

-Trying to get 2 kids, 3 suitcases, and 2 car seats to the terminal at DIA.  THANK YOU to the

Good Samaritans that helped us, or we would STILL be standing in the parking garage.

-Taking FOREVER to get through security and getting to our gate as the plane was boarding.  (If you know me at ALL, you will know that I was having a serious panic attack when I saw that the plane was already boarding by the time we got there... I'm usually at the gate with about 2 hours to spare....)

-Surviving a flight with just me and the boys.  Thank goodness they both fell asleep!

July

*Now that we're all home, not much has happened :)

*I've been having to adjust back to the heat... YUCK.  It's the time of year when I despise Arizona and want to die before going outside...

*I got a gym membership and have started training for my next Tri in December.

* I got called as the 1st counselor in the Primary and just finished writing the Primary Program... YAY!!!

*Found out that Caleb has Plagiocephaly (which basically means a deformed head because he sleeps on the same side every night so he can suck his thumb) and has to get a Cranial Band (aka: a helmet).  We had our first measuring this week, and if the insurance gets on board, we'll have the helmet in a couple of weeks.

*Michael's still our crazy 2 1/2 year old.  We've started potty training and it's going surprisingly well.  We had an accident free day today, and hope it wasn't just a fluke!

*Caleb continues to be our angel baby.  He is SO happy ALL of the time and is SO patient with his crazy big brother who is practically smothering him all the time.  We're hoping the helmet doesn't turn him to the dark side.

*Brett continues to work and work and work and work... and we get to see him sometimes!

All in all, we're busy, but life is good and we are happy!

Here are some pics to prove it :)

This was when Little Bitty was 3 months...

He LOVES the Bumbo and only likes to be in the sitting up position now.

Brotherly love!  Michael is obsessed with "his" baby.  He would give Mo loves and kisses ALL day if I let him!

Oh, man... I have two great kids!

My favorite pic of the two of them.  It's the only picture I've been able to capture Michael smiling in...

Typical Michael... trying to get up to see his picture before I've even taken it.

Little Bitty's not so little anymore!  Happy 6 months!  I'll get his stats up after his appointment next week.  

He's a BIG boy :)

My two crazy boys :)

It actually rained in Gilbert!  So, we HAD to go outside to play in it!  This was on the 4th of July.

Happy Birthday, America!  And happy cool weather to us!

Michael's really in to making different emotion faces.  Here's his "Happy Face"

His "Confused Face"

This was supposed to be a "Surprised Face", but I think it looks more like a "Goofy Face."  He makes me laugh.

Thanks to Stace and my mom for encouraging me back to the blog world.... we'll be back for another post in about six months :)

Time for an Update, no??

You know it's time to update the blog when even your own mother yells at you about it! Ok, so I haven't posted in a long time... I have a good excuse, promise! *Just letting you know this will be a REALLY long post. And here he is...

Meet Caleb Duke Waite!!

Born on Friday, January 20, 2012 at 11:43am

8lbs. 15 oz. and 22 inches long

Birth Story for those of you who care....

So, on the Sunday before Caleb was born, I had a little bit of a spill. I was squatting down so that Michael could talk to his Nana on the phone. Not realizing how fast he was running at me, I didn't prepare for the collision, and he knocked me flat on my back. This event led to excruciating amounts of pain... to the point where I couldn't walk. (Kind of a problem when you have a crazy 2 year old running around the house...) Luckily, my awesome friends in Glendale came down and took care of me on Monday and Tuesday. Brett had Wednesday off, and my mom was flying in on Friday (the 20th). So, of course, I knew that the baby was going to come on Thursday because it was the ONLY day that week that I was going to be all by myself. It turns out that I was ALMOST right :) I had contractions all day Thursday, but nothing that was consistent enough to be real labor. Brett got home from work, we went to bed, and that's when the fun began!

By about 1am, I was having pretty powerful contractions... hard enough that I wasn't able to sleep. However, I didn't know what "normal" labor felt like because I had been induced with Michael, and I didn't want to go to the hospital too soon, so I just popped in some Burn Notice and tried to ignore the pain. By 3:30, I was really feeling it, and decided we should probably head to the hospital. We dropped off the Bubs at my friend, Tiffany's house (bless her heart for helping us out at 4 am) and then headed to the hospital. We got checked in, discovered that I was at a 6 and 100% and got taken to my L&D room. I immediately asked for my epidural and about a 1/2 hour later was in complete bliss. The nurse said that I would have the baby by about 9:30, but when they came to check on me at around 9, I hadn't progressed AT ALL. So, they got my doctor, broke my water, and said that should jump start things. WRONG. They came back about an hour and a half later and still NOTHING. This happened with Michael too, as soon as I got my epidural all contractions stopped... So, enter the Pitocin.

My mom was flying in that morning and landed around 11. So, we called her when she got to Az, to let her know that it was going to be a while before the baby came, so she could just go to our house and get Michael. Well, once the Pitocin was introduced, things got moving again, and QUICKLY. The nurse came back to check me after a 1/2 hour and Caleb was THERE, ready to go. I had to sit waiting for about 20 minutes before I could start pushing for my doctor. During this time, I was looking at a lunch menu, ordering my lunch for after the delivery... happy as a clam. The Dr. got there, I pushed 3 times through 1 contraction, and our sweet (and quite big) baby boy arrived! Shortly thereafter, I got the chicken nuggets I ordered...

The Fantastic FOUR!
The Bubs checking out his little bro.

Sweet, sweet Caleb

Nana and Little Bitty Mo

We call Caleb, Little Bitty Mo. This picture is the reason the nickname came to be. He choked A LOT whenever he was eating in the beginning and this pose was very common. We thought he looked like a little monkey in this position, and that morphed in to Little Bitty Mo...

Blessing Day!

Mama Rae and Papi with Little Bitty

Nana and Grandpa with Mo

Aunt Sara and Uncle Javvy made the trip down just for the blessing! So fun to see them! We hope to do the same for them when Sara has her baby in September...

One month! Decked out in his best outfit! Go Avs!

He occasionally will find his thumb... it's SOOOOO sweet!

TWO MONTHS! (Yep, because he's already that old!)

He's just started smiling and cooing. Finally getting some personality :)

He is SUCH a good baby. I'm SO grateful for that! He takes 4 two hour naps a day and has been sleeping through the night consistently for about a week now. Although, he's been sleeping until 3:30 or 4am for about a month now. He's just awesome! He's happy, he's chubby, and he's just ADORABLE! We are so happy that he's in our fam!

Michael's doing pretty well with adjusting to not being the only person in my universe. He has days of total terror, but on the whole REALLY loves his baby brother (almost too much sometimes.) He WILL NOT go down for his nap unless he gets to kiss Caleb, and has to "see him" every time Caleb gets up from his naps. It's really sweet.

Other than our sweet boy, not much new here :) Brett works, I try to keep sane, and we see each other every once in a while! Life with two kids is keeping us pretty busy! Welp, that's about it. Congrats if you've made it to the end of this post (you never thought you would get to the end, did you??)