13. Baseball
The Cardinals made it to the World Series (and will eventually be awarded the championship once David Ortiz and his nappy-bearded buddies are busted for steroid use). Caleb went to his first baseball game and developed an immediate affinity for one of life's salty, starchy snack foods: the french fry.
12. Golf
Less golf somehow translated to lower scores this year, which should make me happy but really just poses a very eerie hypothetical: Would I rather be a 15 handicap who plays at least once a week, or a 10 handicap who only plays once a month? I'll have to get back to you on my answer. It's really just picking the lesser of two evils, so I'm in no hurry.
The upside of fewer golf outings meant more time with the wife and kid, and I got Katie and Caleb to come swing the sticks with me on more than one occasion this year. So I got that going for me, which is nice.
11. A New (to us) Car!
Definitely sad to part with one of our Camrys , but it was time the rock in my life had a car dependable "like a rock" (Better be careful with the "rock" references. First it was a diamond, now it's a car, what's next?). Katie was ready for something bigger than a sedan but smaller than a minivan, and I wanted to be done with talking about getting a new car, so we signed on the dotted line, took on our first loan as a couple and found just about everything we were looking for in a Chevy Equinox. We're slowly adapting to this century's fancy car technology, (No. Seriously. How do you get the radio to turn off once you've turned the car off ?) but otherwise everything has been great (someone with actual wood furniture knock on it for us). The Equinox is decked out with a Cardinals license plate cover on the outside, stocked with emergency diapers on in the side, runs on the best grade of gas Costco offers, and it provided some much-needed extra cargo space when we loaded up the luggage this year for ......
10. St. George road trip #1
The month was June. The weather was toasty. The purpose was to party with the Danleys. The result was a huge success.
We golfed. We swam. We hiked. We got Aunt Dottie and Denise to flip plastic frogs in a relay race.
And Katie and I learned the sobering lesson that, at best, vacations with children are opportunities to clean up messes in rooms with a better view than your home.
Caleb was not at his best, the product of being yanked away from every familiar comfort and routine he depends on for normalcy, particularly his crib. On the plus side, he was a champ in the car (may have been due to the presence of a certain Aunt Michelle), he found a way to enjoy the pool (in the arms of a trusted Mommy), he sat and played on grass (more on that later) and he loved hanging out with little big cousin Molly (except for bath time)
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| in the water outside |
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| in the water inside |
9. St. George road trip No. 2!!!!
In my book, there's no such thing as too many trips to Southern Utah, so when the Jorgys proposed a Thanksgiving soiree in St. George we were all in. Eighteen-month old Caleb would be much more prepared to handle the rigors of life away from the crib than 13-month old Caleb, right? Wrong (mostly)
Bedtime troubles aside, the three of us chill-axed on our own for three days at Grandpa and Grandma Weiler's condo before the rest of the family arrived the day before the turkey feast. No golf. No hikes. No pool. Just three couch potatoes with a hankering for an Alias marathon. And french fries.
Our pre-Black Friday dinner hosts were the Petersons, long-time family friends of the Jorgys with whom they shared many a Thanksgiving meals in Louisiana (yes, Louisiana, not O'Fallon). Part of the evening included a trip down 80's and 90's Fashion Lane via family albums and VHS tapes to reminisce about Thanksgivings past, as well a reminder to those of us with "inherent natural beauty" what a blessing that is in our lives.
Not to be forgotten, the Jorgy's O'Fallon friends who have also re-located to St. George had a gathering as well so the women could watch the men watch a classic Auburn-Alabama game. Ha
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| Look familiar, Mom? |
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I've lost a month of my life (and counting) adjusting to texting on a digital keyboard, but I can take useful pictures and videos of Caleb crawling, walking, and sending birthday wishes to family members. Oh, and sorry for all the unintentional calls I've made to you all during my ongoing acclimation. I'd promise it wont continue, but that would be lying.
7. PMG- FHE
Each year Katie's parents select a gospel topic/theme to study as a family, and 2013 was a review of the Preach My Gospel missionary manual. With some help from Skype and Google we had a PMG-FHE once a month and took turns teaching lessons. As usual, the Ashton months were the highlights, incorporating movie scenes and open-at-your-own-risk plastic Easter eggs.
I'm not referring to the phones he inherited this year (though they easily had favorite toy status for a few months). I let Caleb know his first birthday would not be acknowledged until he could crawl, so he figured it out a few weeks before the deadline. By the end of the summer he had made it to his feet, a waddling wimp scared of grass and still needing all fours to navigate steps in the silliest of fashions.
5. Caleb finds his voice
Silent only in the presence of new faces, Caleb has been known to get his gab on when he's not whining about something or demanding his "Maun-ney". To say his words are English is still a bit of a stretch, but the language of Caleb is not difficult to translate. A call for "water" is actually a plea for yogurt. "Mow" is the short version of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse program. "No" means "no" when it comes from out of his mouth, but it doesn't mean a thing when said to him. "Yes" usually means yes, even when said in the tone of "no". "Fyish" can be goldfish crackers, but just about any snack food will satisfy the request. The vacuum is hyphenated and dragged out to illustrate his approval ("vac-huuummm) The man knows what he likes (car, block, ball, book, bath, Wii) and repeatedly tells you so. Aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents all have names. Just don't ask the boy to say, of all things, his OWN name.
4. Caleb the bouncer
Once walking morphed into reaching and climbing our boy made the couch his home, an oasis for his bouncing frenzies. Not that he needs a couch to whack his back. We've been woken up by the sound of the crib being slammed into the wall. The high chair has probably logged 20 miles around our kitchen and hallway being scooted backwards as Caleb flings his upper body violently against the backrest. He doesn't flinch when he thumps against the unpadded church pew during sacrament meeting. The slight shifts created from bouncing in the car seat have already torn a hole in backseat upholstery. But we march on, confident about how to explain the inevitable day when a doctor asks us why his brain looks like a bowl of oatmeal.
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| there are plenty more blurry pictures in our albums |
Stuffed animals don't make it off the toy closet often, and his handful of encounters with dogs have not gone well (though I must admit I find humor- just momentarily - seeing the immediate terror on his face at the sight of a nearby canine). We may have jumped the gun on the Zoo as a destination for a birthday party for the boy's entertainment, but everyone else had a nice time.
2. Birthday with a Celebrity
Dinner and movie would have been more than enough for a fantastic birthday gift (I think it was the third time we'd been to a movie since Caleb was born), but the presents kept coming with a child-free hotel stay and a scrumptious Belgium waffle breakfast downtown. It was while eating breakfast when we heard a voice a few tables away that sounded an awful lot like Phil Dunphy from Modern Family. Turns out, it was the Phil-osopher after all, sporting a manly cheek sweater and kindly declining photo requests, but unable to escape this paparazzo.
1. Television
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