Caleb Samuel.
You're independent, funny, suffocatingly-loving, and you want to do everything the big kids are doing. You have big feelings and you're working hard to learn how to handle them, even though I know it's hard sometimes. You make up for any outbursts when you smile your big heart-in-your-eyes smile and give me your biggest hug. You are a special boy and I'm so grateful to have you as my own.
Stats: 4T or 5T clothes. Honestly, 4T clothes but he's close enough to 5T, which is the size that Austin is currently wearing. I've been basically putting them both in 5T and not worrying about trying to keep their clothes separate. It's actually really nice and I'm not planning to stop until I have to. Ha.
Some things I want to remember about these past six months:
-His speaking and thought processes have increased dramatically and sometimes I catch watching him while he is speaking, just being amazed at how clearly I can see his thinking process.
- In the morning when we go to get him out of his crib he cheerily says, "I closed my eyes two times!" Which is his way of telling me that he closed his eyes and went to sleep and he has now woken up for the morning. (Sometimes he tries to say this at night when he can't fall asleep, he says "I closed my eyes!" and it doesn't work, of course, and he's always a tiny bit relieved when I reply "Good morning! It's time to get up!"
-He's super interested in the human body and how things in the body work together and I think that's such an interesting thing for a 3 year old to be interested in.
-He wants to be just like the big kids. The three of them get along really well and when they all play together it makes my heart so happy. I'm so grateful for a Lydia and Austin who play with him and love him as much as he loves them.
-He is such a good big-brother, too. He's pretty physical and he likes to grab Lucy to help her stand up (sometimes around her neck, eek) and he rough-and-tumble plays with her - but for the most part she put up with it well and it's clear that it's all done with love. Sometimes he just doesn't know how overwhelmingly strong that love feels on the receiving end. Other times he's so incredibly tender with her. Always he loves her.
-He likes his sharp teeth and talks proudly about them when he eats crunchy food.
-He's curious and gets into lots of mischiefs during his explorations.
-We are potty training! It started really well, got a little trickier for a while, but now - at 3.5, he's almost completely potty trained, thank goodness. He still occasionally has accidents, but we just try to ignore them and hope that they stop happening.
-When Lydia was this age, I made sure that we arranged lots of playdates for her and she absolutely had specific friends that she loved. But Caleb mostly just plays with his siblings. Then when we get together with friends that have someone Calebs same age, he's always thrilled. He calls Lenny, "My friend, Lenny" and it's the sweetest. It reminds me that he is fully capable of having his own friends and makes him feel so big.
\He met his cousin Luke, who lives in Indiana for the first time this summer and Luke was immediately granted best friend status. I wish we lived closer!
Sadie is just one year younger than Caleb and she is not nearly as forgiving of his overbearing nature, but Caleb loves her anyway. When he's not getting in her space they are great little friends and they wander around the house getting into mischief together. In fact, once David mentioned that Caleb and Sadie are always trouble. Either Caleb is bugging her and she's upset, she's playing with one of his toys so he's upset OR they are playing together, thick as thieves, and getting into trouble together. Ha.
-Caleb loves his Uncle Sam and Sam is such a wonderful uncle to him. I hope that they always have a special relationship and that Caleb will grow up to emulate his namesake.
We visited Grandpa Great's ranch for the haying season. We were absolutely zero help. But we had SO much fun. I specifically post this in Caleb's update post because of three things:
1- He calls Grandpa-Great, my Grandpa Walker (Ellis Ramon Walker), "My Grandfather" when referencing him.
2-He has a shape/counting board book and one of the pages is to count the square hay bales in a field. Whenever I read it to him, he stops and corrects me that the haybales at "My Grandfather's" house are NOT square, they are round. It makes me laugh every time.
3-He often tells me, "My Grandfather said I could ____ "(insert some thing that I've told him not to do, but he has decided that he actually should be able to do because he has received permission from "His Grandfather.") "My Grandfather told me that I could eat this banana." Ha!
-He's very independent and getting so big. He does all his morning jobs, including combing his hair and brushing his teeth and he's started to clean the room and a zome to earn "his dollars" for our Family Economy. Also, he's started drawing with markers and such and it melts my heart when he brings me cards that he's made just for me.
I love these pictures of Caleb being so sweet with Lucy. Melt my big mama heart!
-I asked David what he wanted to remember about Caleb at this time and he said "He likes to growl like a dinosaur or a dragon. And he's good at it. He's got a good growl. Also, the way to diffuse a tense situation with him is always to bring in humor. He will be stubborn or upset about something, but if you can start acting silly it turns him around almost immediately. The humor really works on him."
(Photos of decorating zoo cookies and pulling taffy at Grandma McAllister's honorary birthday party.)
The Penny.
Oh the penny. We were at home, having a nice Saturday together. David, Jenna, and I were in the kitchen tidying up while the kids were all at the computer watching a Wild Kratts show. Caleb came over, fairly distressed, and when I bent down to talk to him about what was wrong he explained that he was holding a penny in his hand but he put it in his mouth and he accidentally swallowed it. (Enter me: pale face, worried eyes) He was more concerned about the fact that he didn't have his penny anymore and he wanted it back - but I was immediately Googling to see how bad this was (knowing that it had the potential to be bad). After a couple of websites that had me concerned that he was going to die at any moment during the next 24 hours, I turned the phone over to David and Jenna to Google search because I'm notoriously bad at finding helpful information in situations like this. We ended up calling the pediatrician, half expecting to be told to go to the hospital for an xray. If it had been a nickel, it would have been way worse, but because it was only a penny, they said to just watch for specific signs and watch for it to come through in his stool. I was worried, of course, and slept by him that night waking up every hour or so to listen to his breathing because apparently, you can think that a penny has made it through the esophagus but if it's still in the lower section it can unwedge itself and cause major problems. We anxiously awaited it to pass through his body, learning all sorts of information about the digestive system from our new Human Body book. (I mentioned above that he's been really interested in the human body and I got him a book at the start of homeschool, this process only heightened his interest and knowledge of how the digestive/body systems work.) Unfortunately, two of his stools got flushed that next day without me having the chance to look through them (ugh!). I spent the next several days sifting through poop with no penny to be found and finally gave up, in the hopes that it was in one of the stools that got flushed. He's acting fine and happy and I'm so grateful that it wasn't a bigger issue. *Many a prayer were prayed on his behalf from this sincere and heartfelt mama and I'm taking it as an answer to my prayers.* Also, it's probably better that we didn't find the penny because I was absolutely going to frame it and hang it in his room to remind everyone that WE DONT EAT PENNIES!
He's afraid of monsters and it's so sad. He is scared at night, and even during the day he doesn't like to be alone "because of the monsters". I have tried everything I can think of to help, but it's not working really well. Luckily he sleeps in the same room as Austin and Lydia so that helps. I've also started putting a picture of Jesus in his bed with him, and I think that helps, too. But it's so sad to see him so scared without knowing how to bring comfort to his heart.
He's been anxious about when his next birthday will be and was so excited when we told him his half-birthday was soon. He asked if he could have a "Bump-ed" cake and the answer clearly had to be yes. Lydia and Austin made him a super special half-birthday gift and it was super sweet of them and he was very happy.
So, happy 3.5, Caleb. You are a special, loved, wonderful little boy. We are so glad to have you in this family with us and are so proud of everything you are becoming.
We love you!
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