Football Saturdays

What is our favorite part about the fall?? College Football, of course! 

We knew it would be difficult to sit through an entire game this year with a squirmy toddler, but we were excited to take Cal to tailgates and have him experience all the sights and sounds of the games. His favorite thing in the game was when the Tigers ran down the hill and all the balloons were released. He pointed nonstop at the 'balls' and watched them float away. He would do ok for about 30 minutes with us holding him in the stands. Much longer than that he began to get tired of us holding him. He would walk around our feet for a bit, play with the kids behind us, or sit on the ground and rummage through his diaper bag looking for food!

Loved the balloons ('balls')

Our season was definitely different. We only made it through one entire game, watched or listened to the end of the game at the tailgate, and even left early to go home several times. Although the games were more of a challenge to us, tailgating was still fun. Cal is a huge fan of 'tailgrazing' as we call it. He quickly learned that there were many 'nacks' (as he calls them) on the tables. You would see his little hand reaching up for the chips or crackers many times throughout the day. He would nibble on a little of this and a little of that! Unfortunately, a lot of this behavior has carried over to home and he expects a chip or cracker anytime he sees them on the counter.

Taste testing the chips before leaving for the tailgate

Helping to grill

I'll take my lunch to go...

and then wash it down with a beer

Cal also loved playing with all the big kids around us. He would run up to their football game and jump right in. He would take the ball from them and act like he was playing. The kids were so good to him, and would often stop their game to toss the ball with him. He felt like one of the big kids for sure!

We had a lot of fun this year! Cal was able to play with his buddy Wyatt at a tailgate, hang with his Uncle Scuba, and play with any tailgating game near us! He turned anything around us into a toy!

Who knew a bungee cord could be so much fun

Cal practicing his football tackle on Wyatt

Playing football with Uncle Scuba

Going for rides in the tailgate bag

Tailgating is tiring! Cal doesn't normally just pass out in the middle of all the action...but from the pics below, you can tell he just had enough of it after a while!

 

Most of all, Cal had good family time at the tailgates. Each of my siblings came to at least 2 games. He also had lots and lots of Papa time!

Silly Papa, this is your hat!

This past weekend (after the Tigers win against USC!), we took Cal onto the field for the first time. At first he was pretty overwhelmed with all the people. But as we 'ran' 100 yards from one end zone to the other, he warmed up and was eventually all over the place. He even walked up to 5 college girls and started to go through one of their bags. Next thing you know, he was getting his picture taken with one of them. This boy loves a pretty girl! We had a great time this season spending time with all our family and close friends. We aren't sure what future years will bring with going to the games and tailgating, but we do know this boy will grow up to be a Clemson fan!

Cal 'running' on the field

(I like this picture for the background!)

Howard's Rock

Enjoying a Tiger WIN!

Caesar's Head

Caesar's Head State Park has always been a favorite hiking destination for Doug and me. This is where we got engaged 6 1/2 years ago on a cold February backpacking and camping trip! Since then, we have hiked in that area a number of times, but always on the same trails. We decided about 9:00am on Sunday morning that we wanted to go for a hike to finish my week long birthday celebrations! All the places we were looking to go were over 2 hours away. Table Rock, Caesar's Head, and Paris Mountain were the obvious choices for their proximity to Greenville. We opted for Caesar's Head, but decided to head in the direction of Raven Cliff Falls. There were several really nice views into the valley of the changing colors of the leaves, but mostly we had views of bare trees and leaves on the ground. This did not bother Callen too much at all. He has come to love playing in the leaves when he and Doug blow leaves in the front yard.

We carried Cal in his pack on the way towards the falls. We had a short rest and lunch break at the area overlooking the falls. It quickly became too cold and windy for Cal to sit still. After hiking out about a mile, we stopped and took Cal out of the pack to let him run his legs and play in the leaves. He had a BLAST! He picked up every stick he could see, and even attempted to pull tree roots on the trail thinking they were sticks. He has replaced ninja sticks (cut lumber) with sticks from the ground as his new favorite toy. We constantly hear 'sti, sti' every time we walk outside and see sticks on the ground. He used his sticks to hit rocks, play in the dirt, and hit at the leaves. 

Cal felt he was going to become dehydrated on his ride in. He drank from the Camelback spout the entire time!

Raven Cliff Falls

Happy to be outside! (and playing in the leaves and with a stick)

After a little while of standing and playing, we started to hike out. We kept Cal out of the pack to see how far he would go on his own. Doug and I were impressed with him. He walked a good distance on his own and didn't fall hardly at all. He wanted to step up and over every tree root and rock on the trail. Often times he became distracted at something off to the side of the trail, so we began using his stick as a leash. He would hold the stick, and we would pull it, making him follow us. After a while, you could see Cal getting more and more tired. We strapped him back into the pack, and hiked the rest of the way out. Before too long Cal was OUT! As long as I was walking, Callen would sleep. As soon as I stopped to let someone by on the trail, he would open his eyes and look around to figure out why his sleep was being interrupted!

Guiding Cal with his stick

DONE!

It was a great day hiking with my boys! It was so awesome to see Cal finally log some miles yards in the woods. He really seems to love hiking, whether he is in his pack riding along or walking along side of us. Doug and I are thrilled about this because we enjoy a nice hike. This one was perfect...fairly flat (although I felt it was a constant uphill climb on the way out with an extra 30+ lbs on my back!) and a great view at the end. Now if we can only figure out the weather for hiking. It is either 100 deg and 95% humidity or freezing!

Happy Halloween...almost a week late!

Not sure where this week went, but I am just sitting down to post pictures from Halloween.

We have not given Callen candy yet, so we figured we didn't need to take him door to door trick-or-treating. He wasn't going to eat it, and I didn't need to eat every fun size candy bar that came into the house! We opted to walk up to the local Mexican restaurant for dinner with Cal dressed in costume. We did walk around so he could see kids dressed up, as well as see a few of our friends and their kids.

For Cal's costume, I knew he would not keep anything on his head or wear any kind of costume. We had been given a leather jacket as a hand-me-down, so I had the idea of him being an airplane pilot. We then thought to make his wagon into a B-24 bomber. Doug did some awesome work with cardboard!!

People loved his costume and all the kids were walking by saying how cool it was. Doug was so excited when one guy pointed out that it was a B-24. We hope to continue making homemade costumes for as long as possible. I know there will come a point that Cal will want one from the racks of Target, but a homemade costume is so much more fun and special.

After returning home from dinner and walking around, we had a few trick-or-treaters come to the house. Cal would go to the door with me, and then put candy in the bags of the trick-or-treaters. Thank goodness he had no idea candy was in the bags, or he would not have given them up so easily!
We hope everyone had a fun evening...and recovering from the sugar coma by this point in the week!

Staying Busy

Callen is one busy little guy! I can't turn my head for more than 30 seconds, before he has pulled out the contents of an entire kitchen drawer onto the floor, emptied a basket from under the bathroom sink, or opened the lid to the toilet seat and started playing in the water (his new favorite trick that I am not so in favor of)!! There is only so much I can keep him entertained with before he is onto something else. Notice none of the things he enjoys the most are playing with his toys! With the weather being as wonderful as it has been lately, we spend a large portion of our day outside or going to an activity for Callen.

The zoo has a story time on Wednesday afternoons that we have gone to several times. Cal doesn't do well sitting and listening to the story, but he enjoys seeing the animal the 'teacher' brings along for the kids to see and pet (if able). We have petted a duck as well as learned about and observed a tarantula. After the story time is over, we usually walk around the zoo for a while and then go play at Cleveland Park. Cal has quickly become confident in his skills on the equipment. I still follow him around (I am afraid of the large openings with a 3-4ft drop to the ground), but I don't have to jump in to rescue him as much! He loves the wide open space to run and climb. He also enjoys watching all the other kids and tries to imitate them. We also walk to Rockwood Park near our house and play there. This is nice for me as well because I have been able to meet some of the neighborhood moms and their kids. It's always nice to see familiar faces when I am walking the neighborhood.

We haven't been able to make it to story time at the downtown library as often because of Cal's nap schedule. They had a special program last Monday about fire safety. Several local firemen came and rode in their firetruck. After the story time, the kids were all invited to go outside and tour the firetruck. Cal was pretty captivated with the firemen (from a distance), but didn't want to climb into the firetruck on his own.

We tried out Acrosmith gymnastics today for the first time. They have Toddler Time several times a week. Cal loved it! He loved the freedom to run around, but it was nice for the structure and ability for him to be around other kids. He took many tumbles on the soft surfaces, but you could see the excitement and happiness in his face the entire time. We will definitely be going back. Let the boy run around for an entire hour and then pass out in the car...heck yeah!

(This video was taken after we first got there and before the class started. He had no fear and started playing immediately. I was too busy chasing him the rest of the time to take any more pics or videos)

We were able to go and visit my sister, Kim, and her class this past Monday. The kids love seeing Cal, and he loves being the center of attention. He runs the hallways, draws on the board, and tries to act like all the big kids. We found the best way to keep up with Callen in a crowded room...tie a balloon to his pants! (Can you find Callen...hint...follow the red balloon!)

We are trying to stay extra busy these days. I am wanting to get back to taking Cal swimming on a regular basis, as well as going to try a story time at 10:00. As the colder weather draws near, I am trying to find things we can do indoors and out of the house. Cal enjoys being around other kids and adults, and seems to get very cranky and bored when in the house all day. If you have any other ideas for us to do, let me know. Until it gets too cold to play outdoors, we are outside as much as possible (as in after eating lunch until Doug gets home from work!).

Hide and Seek

A few weeks ago, Doug and I started playing hide and seek with Callen. Initially one of us would hide, make lots of noise for Callen to hear us, and then the one not hiding would take Cal right to where we were so he could 'find' us. After a few times of this, Callen quickly caught on to our go to hiding spots. Doug or myself would hide and the other would tell Callen to go find mommy or go find daddy. Cal would walk run to our go to hiding spots to find us. Imagine his surprise if we decided to hide somewhere new! Each time he found us, we were greeted with the biggest grin and laugh ever. 

Once he understood the game, we began taking him to hide with us (we are still working on the being quiet part!). He got so excited when he heard one of us coming to find him...you often saw his hand or head pop out of the hiding spot before you had the chance to look for him. Still, he was so excited to be playing with us.

Not too long ago, I was getting ready one morning, and turned to check on Cal. No Cal. Where did he run off to? I didn't hear his feet pitter pattering down the hall, so I was a little confused. About the time I yelled for Cal, a little head popped out of Doug and mine's closet! He quickly went back into the closet and closed the door in order to play again. 

Here is what I captured on video that day...

Since that day when he started hiding on his own, he loves to go into the closet and sit and hide. Every once in a while you see little fingers poke out the side of the door to close it more. It is too funny to see how excited he gets over such a simple game. 

This past weekend in Charleston, Oupa took an old box and made a playhouse for Callen (cut 2 holes in it...one for a door and one for a window!). Before long, Callen was poking his head in and out of the door or window to play his favorite game.

Yard Crew

As you all know, Callen loves to be outside any chance he gets. He also loves to help Doug. Whether it is watering the plants, doing chores in the basement, or working in the yard, Cal enjoys 'working' with Doug.

Doug has wanted to aerate our yard and lay new seed in it for the last few weeks. Two weekends ago, he prepped the yard by mowing the grass short and raking up all the junk. This past weekend he rented an aerator with a buddy, and the two of them ran it in the yard. Once that was done, Doug had to lay seed and water the yard. Other than when Doug was running the aerator, Cal was right there with him the entire time. This was great for me too because Cal was outside pretty much the entire day both times, so I had the inside to myself to lounge and relax do chores!

Cal is really good when he's outside. He does love to put EVERY acorn in his mouth, but quickly spits it out when you say 'out' and place your hand under his mouth. He likes to push his swing or walk over to the water spigot and hang out there for a while. Very rarely does he beeline it to the road. If anything, he walks towards the backyard where all of his riding toys are located. Doug definitely had to keep his eye on Callen while working in the yard with him, but it was pretty easy to distract him with all the tools and 'toys' Doug was using. 

Doug made Cal his own 'rake' with some left over PVC piping from the basement. (Funny thing...Cal is so used to his own rake, that he picked up our neighbor's yesterday and started raking her newly laid mulch!) He also thinks he is big enough to use all the same tools Doug uses. It is so cute to watch the boys playing working together.

Working hard with daddy

I think Doug grabbed the wrong rake!

Done raking, now it's time to water

Finished working for the day. Time to pack it all up!

Time to lay seed

Hard worker!

I told Doug we need to take advantage of his willingness to help before he expects to get paid  for doing it!