Uncle Jon meet Caleb- the grouchy, overmedicated zombie boy

This picture makes me smile. Last week, we had the privilege of my brother Jonathan coming to visit us. Jon had never gotten to meet his nephew Caleb, and we were so excited for them to meet. Jon booked his ticket months ago. We set up his bed in the extra bedroom. We cleaned the house top to bottom. We were very excited! I told Caleb all about how cool his Uncle Jon is and how much fun they would have together. Jonathan is the oldest of my three younger siblings. We were best buds growing up, and I still consider him a close friend. He lives in Colorado, so I don't get to see him often. I couldn't wait!

Sunday night came, the night before we would pick up Jon from the airport, and of course.....Caleb got sick. He had a high fever, congestion, and a terrible cough. He couldn't eat, drink or sleep. He woke up every hour and even vomited because he could not stop coughing. Poor Caleb. Immediately Monday morning, I called the doctor's office. I was so thankful they had an early morning appointment, so I threw on some clothes, snapped Caleb in the car and sped my way to his appointment. I just knew he had some terrible disease. I was picturing my phone conversation with Jonathan, telling him that I couldn't pick up up from the airport because I had to rush Caleb to the nearest hospital. (I can be a little bit of a drama queen occasionally.) Dr. McGuire checked Caleb out and declared it was only the croup, which is not really very serious but pretty miserable. The doctor prescribed some great meds to get Little Man feeling better as soon as possible.

After a quick trip to the pharmacy for medication and the grocery store for popsicles, we were off to the airport. Somewhere along the way, Caleb's meds began to kick in. The lessening cough was a welcome relief to my ears as he slept soundly in the back seat. Unfortunately, as I soon found out, drug-induced sleep is not all it's cracked up to be, with or without coughing. (Do you remember at the beginning of this post I told you how excited I was for Caleb to meet his uncle? Well, let me explain that I was not really excited, I was ecstatic! I kept picturing scenes in my imagination of uncle and nephew first setting eyes on each other and becoming instant, life-long friends. I imagined Jon tossing Caleb into the air with soft motivational music playing in the background, and Caleb falling into his uncle's strong hands in fits of laughter.)

So, here's how the introduction went: "Caleb, this is your Uncle Jon." (blank stare) "Caleb do you want to go play with your Uncle Jon?" (blank stare) "Uncle Jon flew all the way from Colorado to meet you." (blank stare) "Do you want to show Uncle Jon your toys?" (blank stare) "Okay Caleb, I'm going to put you down so you can play with Uncle Jon." (WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!) So, the introduction didn't go quite like I had planned.

Well, days passed. Medication continued to do it's job, along with turning my happy baby boy into a groggy, grouchy, whiny little zombie. Poor kid couldn't even walk straight. (A few days into it we noticed a teensy-tiny label on one of the medications that stated: May cause drowsiness and slight dizziness. Slight? Ha. The kid couldn't even walk straight!) Somewhere about day four or five of Jon's visit, Little Man began to come out of his zombie-like state. After two crazy days at the beach with a sick kid, we decided to spend the rest of the visit at home to let Caleb catch up on his rest. That ended up being a good strategy because a couple of days before Jon's departure Little Man was back to his normal self. Getting into everything! We played in the backyard and went to the park. Jon put up Caleb's tepee tent, and Caleb spent an entire afternoon peeking in and out of the tent's windows and doors. Before we knew it, it was time for Uncle Jon to go back home.

The morning of Jon's departure, I left Caleb in the living room watching the Sprout channel while Jon was checking his email nearby. After a quick change of clothes and brushing my teeth, I returned to the living room to see the sweetest picture: There was sweet, smiling Caleb sitting snugly in Uncle Jon's lap listening to his favorite book.

I guess our visit started off pretty rough but ended up being a total success as Caleb waved bye-bye to Uncle Jon as he headed off to catch his plane.

I Have the Best Job in the World

At least, it's the best job in the world for me....I am a Stay-At-Home-Mommy. When I decided to become a SAHM, it was a tough decision. I was looking at cutting our family income in half, going from good state insurance to awful seminary student insurance, and missing out on a fun job as a teacher. I realized that I would no longer have daily adult interaction. I wouldn't have praise and encouragement from coworkers and administrators any longer. (Who tells a SAHM how fantastically she is folding her husband's socks?) And I would miss out on the great joy of teaching a child how to read. I was worried about all of that. I talked to countless friends, asking for direction and advice. I planned. I created spreadsheets. I made pros and cons lists. I prayed. I cried. I worried. And I prayed some more. I finally made my choice. This is how:

I knew I was faced with three jobs: A teacher. A mom. And a minister's wife. I knew myself pretty well. I knew that I could not do all three jobs well. I was afraid that I would focus too much energy and time on being a teacher and mom that I would neglect my husband and our ministry, or maybe I would spend so much time being a mom and wife that I would slack as a teacher. So, I decided to pick two. Two jobs. I knew I could handle that. I chose the most important jobs. A mom and a wife. Looking back on the last year, I know that if I had to do all three, I would have made it. But to me, just making it is not enough. First Corinthians 10:31 says "...whatever you do, do it for the glory of God." How could I do everything for the glory of God if I over committed myself and stressed myself out? There are some very amazing women in this world. They can work, be an awesome mom, be a loving wife, and do it all amazingly. They can multitask like nobody's business. I can't. I can't even walk and chew gum at the same time! I respect those women a lot. But, since I am not one of those women, I decided to be a stay-at-home mommy.

It didn't make sense financially. One time, I had a lady say to me "Oh honey, it's nice to stay home-for those of you who can afford it." Well, mam, let me tell you. We couldn't afford it. But....God has provided. We don't have a lot. We don't have much extra. But we are richly blessed. Because God's will for my life was to stay home with Caleb, He made a way. I am so glad He did.

Today, was a great day. Not every day is like today. I don't want you to get the idea that being a SAHM is a piece of cake. It's not. It's hard work. However, today didn't feel so much like work. It was fun. This morning I woke up, got ready for the day, and had breakfast with my family. I rolled a ball around the living room and stacked toys with my son. I did dishes, laundry (of course), and cleaned the bathroom. I ran a couple errands and had a shopping spree at The Salvation Army. (Got three men's dress shirts, a tie, and a pair of baby shoes for 9 bucks!) Then, I got to have lunch at Gulf Coast Community College in Lucedale with Lance and some cool college kids. This afternoon, I sorted out the laundry/storage room (AKA junk room) and played outside with Caleb. I sat in the sun and watched him toddle his little self all over the backyard. Then my husband came home, and we got to sit and talk for a few minutes before he had to go back to church. Next, I got little man up from his nap, and we got to go to church where I get to sing in the choir and go to youth group. Today was a good day. Not every day is as easy as today, of course. You have the long days and even longer nights with a grouchy teething baby. You get tired of the huge lack of adult communication, and you start referring to the restroom as "the potty." And your Ipod is set to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Hokey Pokey! Nevertheless, all in all being a Stay-At-Home Mom is a wonderful job. It is definitely rewarding. I promised myself to stick this out for a year. I thought, "I can do anything for a year, and if I hate it...it's only a year." Fortunately, I love it. Here I go on year number two!

Seasons!

When I taught first grade, one of my favorite science units was Seasons. We read fantastic weather books like The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. We would do fun crafts such as cutting snowflakes from extra copy paper that I snagged from the copy machine or crayon leaf rubbings from leaves we collected on the playground. I told my students that there are four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. However, because my students were six, and six year olds have a tough time grasping sarcasm and exaggeration, I didn't completely explain all that I know about these so-called 4 seasons of the year. Luckily for you, since you are not six (I assume) I feel it is necessary to explain a little more into detail about seasons, both here in Mississippi and in Alaska.

First off, Alaska. Alaska does not have four seasons. It has five. I know my Alaskan readers are very aware of this, so if you would like, you may skip this paragraph and move on. As for the rest of you... Alaska has five seasons. First, we have Spring, which doesn't really start in March and finish by the end of May like my first graders were led to believe. In Alaska, we were lucky to see Spring around late-April. Spring weather continues throughout the entire summer, except for the occasional lucky weekend in maybe July or August where the temps might reach the whopping high temps of 70-75 degrees! Yes, in Alaska, 70 is seriously hot. We stripped down to our shorts and tank tops, pulled out the sprinklers, and danced through the water across the lawn to get some relief. (Sometimes looking back on my life in AK, I wonder to myself why in the world did I bother buying shorts?) So anyway, after that lucky occasional summer weekend, we move on to Fall. Fall begins around September 1st and ends.... oh-somewhere-around September 3rd.... Nah, j/k. Fall in Alaska is pretty short but not quite that short. So after a couple weeks of Fall, we enter into freezing cold Winter. It doesn't start snowing till after Halloween, but pretty much after Labor Day you might as well kiss your shorts and sprinklers goodbye. The season of Winter lasts and lasts and lasts. Don't get me wrong. I love Alaska. I love Winter. I love snow. I love sledding and hot chocolate and snow angels. But only in small quantities. Snow on the ground for five months out of the year is a bit much for me. Finally, we get to the fifth season: Break-up. That is when the snow "breaks-up." Genius name isn't it? Me and Break-up, we have a love/hate relationship. During the day, all the snow and ice that has been accumulating for the past 5 months melts. And then during night, it freezes all over again. This causes dirty brown slush by day and dirty brown ice by night. I'm not crazy about that whole process, but I can't help but love the fact that Break-up brings Spring. And I think I'd rather be in Alaska during the Spring more than any other place in any other season of the year. It is beautiful. Nothing is more beautiful than tiny light-green leaves budding on hundreds of white birch trees with a backdrop of snow capped mountains.

Now, on to Mississippi seasons. I would say that Mississippi has four seasons, but I would change the names of a couple of seasons. Season 1: Summer. Season 2: Fall. Season 3: Winter-ish 4. Wummer. Yes, I did say Wummer. That is not a typo. Right now, we are in the season of Wummer. This word is not necessarily one you would find in the dictionary. See, when Webster wrote his dictionary, for some reason he didn't contact me about my made up words and phrases, so that is why this perfectly legit word Wummer doesn't show up. The word is sorta like brunch....a mixture of breakfast and lunch. Or at the Banks' household we liked to have Bupper or Binner. I always liked the name Bupper better than Binner. It sorta rolls off the tongue better. Anyway..back to Wummer. Wummer is summer and winter all mixed into one. It is when the atmosphere gets confused and can't decide whether to get cold or hot and just kinda goes nuts for a couple months. We will have an entire week of 70 degree temps, and then the very next week we'll have to pull back out the mittens and wool socks. Good grief! It's craziness! I used to have two different closets with two sets of clothes: summer and winter clothes. When summer came, I'd pull all my tank tops and shorts from the extra bedroom's closet, and I'd switch them out with my winter clothes in my bedroom closet. Well, what ended up happening is that I would experience one of those fake-out weeks of warm weather, and I would switch my clothes, only to discover that we still had 3 more weeks of winter! Then I was stuck to going to the extra bedroom to get dressed every morning, which kinda gets old after a while. So, I've just kinda given up on that idea. So, that is Wummer. Next time you see good ole' Webster, let him know he's missing a very useful word in his dictionary for me, will ya? I'd appreciate it.

Well, now you know all about the seasons. I hope you learned a lot. Sorry it has been forever since my last post. I've been out enjoying this nice Wummer weather!

Caleb's First Year

I've heard the saying time flies when you are having fun. This year I have found out, that saying is very true. I can't believe that tomorrow will mark one year since my sweet baby was born. To celebrate Caleb's first birthday, I thought I would share a few memories of our year with our little munchkin man.

Caleb Joel Sudduth 7 lbs, 6 ozs

March 2, 2010

At 4 weeks old, Caleb was always alert and taking everything in.

Happy little 4 month old starts to show his personality and smiles!

And there's some 7 month old personality! Into everything!

Haha! Almost a year. All boy.

Lance and I are so thankful for our adorable baby boy. We are blessed that God has trusted us with such a precious gift. Happy Birthday Caleb!