PeeWee School

Caleb had his first day of school today!

I'm now teaching PeeWee School at our church two days a week and Caleb is in the "tiny neighbors" class, a room for teachers' kids that aren't old enough to be in a typical class. I'm super excited to be doing some teaching again and I'm glad Caleb will get the chance to be with kids his age for a few hours each week. I think it's a great balance between the side of me that wants to stay home and the side of me that loves teaching.

I've had a few teacher inservice days, but today was the first day for kids to be there. I had a wonderful day with my class and my two co-teachers and Caleb's teachers shared that he had a good day as well! I'm so glad the school year has begun well and I hope that continues! So from now on, Tuesday and Thursday we'll be busy at school!

I took a few pictures of Caleb before school this morning... his first day at school! Of course, he wouldn't look at the camera, but his backpack sure was interesting : )

The high chair belongs....

In the living room of course!

Oh wait...




It was on the wrong side!

Silly boy : )

Our Busy Week

I've recently begun to realize our little boy is almost 1, meaning he'll no longer be a "baby". Of course, he'll always be my baby, but it's so hard to believe he's becoming a little boy. I took a few pictures and videos this week that really show how even playtime has become different.

In the video, I was just amazed at how much control he had over the spoon and that he was really interacting with the cat rather than accidently "playing" with him!



Playing with his truck...





Reaching for toys under the tv (or anywhere else they may be hiding)...



Sitting still to play with one toy (in this case opening and closing a toy cell phone)...



I never believed he would grow up so quickly! Before too long he'll be toddling all over the house.... wow, not sure I'm ready for that yet! : )

Somebody tell him to stop growing!

Just a few pictures we took yesterday ... does Caleb suddenly seem bigger to you? Sigh....

Open...Close...Open...Close...

What can a 10 month old open and close over and over again??? Any door in your house of course!

Caleb has been fascinated with opening and closing doors throughout our house lately. It really amazes me how much he studies the process and how he's learned how to move out of the way for it to move and if he pushes the door it goes farther. I can see those precious little wheels turning as he's figuring out how doors work!

Here, you can see for yourself!

Iowa Came to Town! - Finale!

It's taken me a while to sit down to finish sharing about the end of the week of family fun. We haven't even been all that busy, but the days seem to fly by anyways! So here it goes!

Thursday was quite possibly the busiest of the week, but one of my favorites! Mal joined the usual daytime group (Roger, Jill, Juliana, Sarah, Lana, Caleb and me) to go to the Children's Museum in Houston. Caleb and I had been once before with our playgroup, but he wasn't crawling at the time so it was a bit boring. I've been wanting to take him ever since, but hadn't found the time. So, needless to say, I was very excited to see how he would do now that he's moving around.

When we first got to the museum we all headed up to the "tot spot" together. It's meant for children ages 6 months to 36 months, so Juliana was a little older than the targeted age group. She seemed to be ok playing for a little while, but after a short while Jill, Roger and Mal went with her to the older kid area while Sarah and I stayed with the little ones. Caleb had a great time moving from one area to another crawling, creeping, playing with toys and seeing other people. Lana was much more relaxed in her playing, I think she had a good time, but she was very content staying in one area the whole time! Again, it was amazing to see how different two kids can be!

After playing I took Caleb down to the eating area to have a bottle and after a while the rest of the family joined us for lunch. We stayed there for a while and then decided to follow Juliana outside to the water area. We did take a quick detour to see a puppet show starring Juliana and Roger (which I didn't get any pictures of) before we made it to the water. We played out there for a few minutes before heading back inside for Caleb and Lana to get a little more playtime in before heading home for the afternoon.







We got home from the Children's Museum in time to get a little snack and hang out at home for a short while before heading over to Grandpa Ron & Dao's house for dinner. We had a great time letting the kids play together one more time before Roger and his family left the next morning. Below are some pictures of our fun together. Of course, we waited til the end of the evening again to get a picture of all the cousins together, so they look tired again! I guess the pictures just show how busy the week was and how much fun all the kids had as each evening they look more and more tired!










We are so glad Roger, Jill and Juliana came to visit last week! I hope Caleb gets to grow up close to all of his cousins, I think we're definitely off to a great start! : )

Iowa Came to Town! - Part 2

Part 2 of 3... that explains how busy our week was! So after our fun day at the zoo on Monday, we decided to brave the heat for another day in the sun at Palm Beach! Caleb and I have been there several times this summer, but hadn't had the chance in a few weeks so we were excited to go again!

We met as Palm Beach opened on Tuesday morning and quickly claimed several chairs and umbrellas near the water. The kids started playing in the sand, so we let them play for a little while before getting into the water.




Once in the "pool" I could really see three different personalities coming through! Lana is definitely the laid back one of the group. She just kind of hung out with whoever was holding her. Juliana was going from one person to another; jumping, kicking and splashing as she went. Caleb was content being held by anyone, but wanted to splash and kick the entire time! I couldn't keep the water out of my face with all the splashing.





We let the kids play in the pool for a while, then went to the slides and splash pad. They all played very well and seemed to have a good time. We left at lunch time as it was getting too hot to be out, even in the water. Caleb and I went straight home so we could get ready to have everyone over for dinner.

Jonathan got home from work as they all arrived. We spent the evening eating and laughing together. It's so nice to be able to relax with family after a long day! Juliana was a ball of energy, so she and Jonathan went out in the backyard with a ball to play for a while. They came back in after the ball went in our neighbor's yard... we haven't gotten it back yet, hope it isn't gone forever!



These are some of my favorite pictures... in the first you can see that Juliana was apparently too close to Caleb! Hand to the face! And check out her expression : )


Next Lana apparently did something to bother him... no, he didn't hit her, just looks like he's about to.


And here's the best pic we got! I think it was past bedtime!



Wednesday was a more relaxed day. We met at noon at Sears for the kids to take a "cousins" picture. That was quite an experience. After over half an hour of fussing, crawling away, and a few tears we finally got a good picture of the three together. I do not plan to go through that again any time soon! I'll share the one good picture we got as soon as we get them. She also managed to get a really good shot of Caleb so I ordered one of those as well. After pictures, Roger, Jill, and Juliana joined Caleb and I at the Kemah Boardwalk for pizza and some play time in the fountain. We didn't stay long, but enjoyed watching Juliana slowly warm up to the unpredictable fountain!

The three of us decided to take a break from family Wednesday evening and go to church instead. Everyone else got together at Sarah's for dinner, sounds like we missed some good chicken! Thursday was another fun-filled day, but I think I'll share about those adventures another time! This has turned into another long post!

Iowa Came to Town!

We have been super busy here in the Lutz household for the past week as Uncle Roger, Aunt Jill and Juliana have been in town! They arrived from Iowa late on Saturday evening and we've been going non-stop ever since!

On Sunday afternoon, some of the Lutz kids (Roger, Jonathan and Laura) got together to clean out upstairs at the house they grew up in. There were toys, extra furniture, and random things upstairs that needed to be dealt with. They got a good portion of the mess cleaned up before everyone else arrived for dinner. We let the kids play together for a while before we ate. They were so cute! We hadn't seen Juliana since Caleb was around a month old, so all they really got to do was look at him then! It was fun to see them interact more this visit. One of the toys they found upstairs was an old McDonald's playset. Juliana had fun taking our orders and paying us for our food (yes, I said that right!). Caleb and Lana also had a good time playing at Mal's house and watching Juliana. We had a great lasagna meal before heading home to get plenty of rest for Monday's activities.


Juliana and Caleb.











Grandma and 3 kiddos!










Grandma Mal with all 4 of her kids, their spouses and the grand kids!






On Monday, Caleb and I met up with Aunt Sarah, Lana, Uncle Roger, Aunt Jill and Juliana and we all headed up to the Houston Zoo. We arrived at the zoo soon after they opened and had a chance to walk around most of the exhibits through the morning. It was fun to watch Juliana get excited about some animals and get a little scared of others. I look forward to Caleb being old enough to really get excited about things like that. I think the favorites of the group turned out to be the elephants (there was an adorable baby elephant out), some of the playful monkeys, and the sea lions. It was rather hot that day, so many of the animals seemed to be trying to stay cool, but it was still nice to get out and enjoy them. We all packed picnic lunches and ate at the zoo so that we could see a bit more. Around 1 we finally agreed that it was getting too hot and returned to our cars to go home. My car registered 103 degrees... it was definitely hot!


Caleb watching one of the monkeys.









Juliana in the fish tank (not really.. there was a cool see- through tunnel to crawl through!)






Cute Lana - I love that little grin!








Watching the baby elephant.









3 kids in strollers.










Watching the sea lions!










This is turning into a pretty long post, so I'll wrap up for now and share more about the rest of the week later! I'll end by letting you know that we took a day to rest after our busy week and Caleb clearly needed it! He napped for 2 1/2 hours this morning and another 2 hours this afternoon! Sweet boy was worn out!

"No Mom, I can do it...."

While he can't say those words quite yet, I know that's what Caleb has been thinking!

Our little man has always been a GREAT eater. Not very picky, eats at a pretty good pace, loves being in his highchair...so when he suddenly started getting fussy during his meals last week, Jonathan and I had to think hard to figure out what was wrong. We went through several days of fussiness at every meal. It didn't matter what we offered him, he was happy in his chair until that first spoonful came his way and then he was arching his back and squirming all over the place (not to mention the crying and fussing). Well, after a few days we have figured it out... he wants to do it himself! Wow, I didn't expect such an independent spirit to begin emerging at not quite 10 months old! Yesterday at lunch we started giving him food cut up in TINY pieces for lunch and he loves it!

Yesterday afternoon we decided to try out his new found independence at Chick-Fil-A for dinner. It was amazing, Jonathan and I ate while Caleb did, as opposed to one of us feeding him while our food got cold. He ate 2 of my chicken nuggets, some carrots from the chicken noodle soup and several french fries from Jonathan's meal. Of course, it took a little time to cut and tear each of those into little pieces, but it was so nice that all three of us ate at the same time! And I didn't have to bring something from home for him!

Now if only I could teach him how to not make a mess while eating.... Ha ha, we still have a while to go before then! Guess I'll stock up on wipes until then!