6.5 looks good on you Caleb-love! It's incredible to watch you absorb new information and watching you apply it and store it in that amazing brain of yours. You have a massive amount of energy and have much to say. It's just so wonderful to be your mother and be the one who gets to hear about the thoughts in your head and learn through this life with you. We all love you very much and are happy to celebrate this half-birthday with you. (We were technically in San Diego on your half birthday, so we waited until we were home to celebrate but you were SO excited to go to the Nothing Bundt Cake store and pick out a Red Velvet cake. You knew that was the one that you wanted, and even though I tried to sway you to the Oreo-flavor-of-the-month, you were set and you were very satisfied with your choice.
Stats:
Lost teeth, two. Favorite book series, Dragon Masters. Favorite shirt, the red long sleeve Pokemon shirt.
Caleb has sprouted up like a bean pole and any toddler chubbiness has been lost to reveal the child lankiness that he is sporting now.
Some things to remember about Caleb right now:
-His brain is a fantastic place, so imaginative and complex. He is a master storyteller, not in the literary sense, but in the sense that he will start telling you about something and it's an extremely elaborate and detailed description of something that may or may not have actually happened. He reminds me SO much of my brother Jacob at this age.
-He and Austin are one size of clothes apart. They are just different enough that they really fit best into their own clothes but they can get away with sharing some things, especially when I am in a hurry or because they have particular shirts of the other that they like a lot.
-He has so much energy that often he bounces back and forth from couch to couch. On repeat. For extended periods of time. I think it's good for little boys to be able to move their bodies and whenever he starts to do that, I am grateful that we homeschool and that he's not being reprimanded for not staying in his seat for 7 hours a day. My mom used to tell me how it drove my brother's teachers crazy because every once in a while he would stand up out of his chair and run a couple of circles around the classroom before he could sit back down. He would get in trouble, but what else was a little high-energy boy to do? I'm grateful Caleb has the time and space to burn off his energy.
-He really likes Pokemon and he can tell you names, types, powers, damages, and much more about SO many Pokemon. He will explain in detail how the different Pokemon interact with each other and tell stories about the Pokemon TV shows that he watches.
-He gets completely sucked into a project and will focus all of his time and attention on that single thing. Drawing pictures, making paper triangles, or other repetitive projects. He usually has a fine time focusing on his schoolwork and when we get into the groove he's golden - but it's a different kind of focus when he's doing something self-motivated and he has the time and space to just delve deep into his own project.
-Caleb is the pickiest eater we've ever had, but it's a funny kind of picky. He's more likely to eat an entire head of broccoli than a cheese quesadilla and he likes everything plain. Plain rice, plain grilled chicken. We might eat tacos and he will eat a whole bowl of ground beef with grated cheese and a few tortilla chips on the side. Or maybe we have a pasta dish and he will eat the pasta plain with no toppings. I just try to make it not a big deal and hope that because it's not a power struggle, it will improve with time, and that's proving to be true. He eats things now that he wouldn't before (one of his favorite soups is Nacho soup, which has a lot of different ingredients and is pretty spicy for someone who just likes plain things). We have a family guideline that if you don't want what's for dinner, you can have oatmeal - and Caleb eats that many nights. But he is growing and seems healthy and so we are satisfied.
-A note: his favorite way to eat "hot buttered toast" is to make sure the butter is put on when the toast is still very hot so that the butter is all melted - not a speck of solid butter anywhere.
Some pictures/adventures as a record of Caleb's last 6 months:
-We really enjoyed playing Mario on the Wii in the basement this summer. Caleb was a little on the young end, but he held his own and really enjoyed playing with his siblings and family.
We loved swimming this summer. We went to our own pool a lot, plus swimming lessons, Lehi outdoor pool, provo rec center, and kayaking. Caleb loves swimming with goggles and his flippers. He's such a great little swimmer and doesn't wear his life jacket almost ever when we swim and i feel like he's confident and capable.
Caleb has particularly been enjoying 7-11 Slurpees this summer. Whenever he gets any money, his number one thing to do with that money is to go get a slurpee. He's so generous of spirit, he usually shares it with all of his siblings and once when we went together he decided that he wanted to buy me one, too. I told him that he didnt need to spend his money on me - I would buy my own. But he insisted that it was his treat and we left with two small slurpees, one proud 6 year old, and one incredibly grateful mama.
(Pictures on the left from our neighborhood 4th of July party - Caleb was in dessert heaven.)
Camping at the Summer Range is one of my kids favorite events of the summer. There were so many darling pictures of Caleb and I couldn't narrow them down past this. Caleb loved exploring in the trees with Sadie and Lucy and LOVED riding on the 4-wheeler. Although he isn't old enough to drive on the four wheeler alone yet, this year he was able to start that learning process with me or David on the back helping him control it and guiding him through. He was so excited!
-I think one of my very favorite things about watching sibling relationships grown and develop is watching the way age and time change which siblings play with which. For a long time Austin and Caleb were the best of buddies and they played together constantly. Austin has aged up a little and now plays more with Lydia, but Lucy has also aged up a little and she and Caleb are best little friends. They wander the house together coming up with games of pretend or working on a project together. All of the kids play well with each other- but Caleb and Lucy have hit a special little pocket right now where they spend a particular amount of time together and I love it.
-Caleb loves David and David is such a great dad to him. David has mentioned that going to Kentucky with Caleb in March was one of the best things for their relationship. He really, really enjoyed that one-on-one time with Caleb and feels like their relationship is stronger because of it.
Caleb loves when David plays "Chase the Monster" also known as "Poison Ball" with him. David explained it like this: "One of the kids favorite games to play with me is "Chase the Monstor," this game has evolved over the years as the kids have gotten bigger and now we almost always play "Poison Ball" chase the monster. This involves me trying to get all of the kids frozen at the same by hitting them with the ball when they are out of their safety. The kids try to defeat me, by capturing my ball in their safety (where it won't freeze them), and then hitting me with my freeze ball without me catching it. They also have a ball that unfreezes them and I try to capture that ball so they can't use it to unfreeze themselves. Also any unfrozen kid can touch a frozen kid to unfreeze them as well. The kids love it and it really is fun. One day Shantel came down and after watching 5 or 6 rounds with each side winning about half, she commented that she had no idea what the rules could possibly be. However, the kids and I know the rules well and we love playing together."
-Caleb and some of his "plain" food choices (as mentioned above). Plain broccoli. A plate full of plain green leaf lettuce. He's such a funny eater, but he's healthy and growing and so I won't complain.
Classic Fun with Austin and Caleb (while our car was being repaired).
This year I took the kids camping at Maple Canyon all by myself. Caleb loved the marshmallows cooked on the camp stove and did a great job hiking box canyon to the very end.
Caleb lost his first tooth! He was so excited and proud. Several months later he lost his second tooth at the San Diego Zoo, where it was so wiggly and bothering him so much that I asked if I could pull it and I did. I pulled it while we were on one of the trolley busses that take you around the park. Picture on the right was taken after Caleb and Lucy watied with me for HOURS at a van repair shop that ended up being more expensive than expected. They bonked heads getting into the car and when they were both screaming I had to laugh because thats exactly how I felt on the inside, too.
One of our homeschooling friends had a Charlottes Web Book Club and Party and Caleb won the watermelon eating contest. He was amazing and so proud!
Caleb played Tball for the first time this year and it was an adventure. I'm not sure that he actually liked it very much. But he did like getting the treat at the end of every game. Overall, I'd say it was a good experience for him.
Homeschool is going really well for us right now. Caleb is learning a lot and growing and developing in all the best ways. He is smart, so smart, and enjoys learning. Here are a few pictures from our homeschool. I feel like we have a good balance between bookwork, hands-on activities, computer time, and community/coop events. It's a privilege to be on this journey with him.
Spring activities: planting a garden and eating popcicles.
Our end-of-the-year Lagoon trip was a success! This was Caleb's first year coming with us and I think it lived up to every expectation Caleb had created for it. The kids did a lemonade stand to earn money for Lagoon. Calebvsaved enough money to buy several treats, including a fancy slurpee (which may have trigged the slurpee love this summer). and some other small things. I think he loved the whole thing.
Playing outside in the mud is good for young children, right?
We have been actively watching the construction of the Saratoga Springs Temple, going out to visit the construction sight each Conference weekend. We were so excited to be able to go to the temple open house together to see the inside of the temple and celebrate having a new temple in our community.
We took a trip with some friends down to St. George and had a great time.
We celebrated some good holidays, Easter was so beautiful this year. It snowed before and after Easter, but this weekend was perfect weather.
The snow lasted well into April and we enjoyed it as much as we could. But we also enjoyed being outdoors all through the summer and are excited about the incoming fall weather. We are lucky to live in a place where there are so many beautiful seasons.
We go and visit Cal and Sue once a week on Thursday. Caleb loves it because grandma and grandpa always have a fruit snack ready for him when we come. He alternates between watching TV with grandma and playing with the toys upstirs while we are there. I'm grateful that he gets to spend so much time with them.
This September we took a family vacation to San Diego and had a lovely time. It was made even better because we convinced the Haderlies to come with us. My mom also ended up coming to help and we had a great time at the zoo, the beach, a hike, Sea World, Point Loma, and hanging at the pool at our house. Caleb is old enough that he will be able to remember, at least pieces of it, and I hope he remembers how much he loved the whole thing.
One story from when we were at the beach: we were walking back up after playing by the water on the day that we arrived and all of a sudden we couldn't find Caleb anywhere. We started looking and with each moment of not seeing him our worry increased. Finally, David spotted him WAY down the sidewalk, just walking/skipping and kicking the sand as he made his way along (the wrong way). We talked about that was him to a T, more oblivious than malicious, unaware that he was going the opposite way of his family because he was so absorbed in his own experience. Later that week, also at the beach, we lost him again. We were scouring other people's beach sites, looking anywhere a 6.5-year-old might wander if something caught his interest. I was reaching full-blown panic mode, when I checked our umbrella one more time to see him tucked next to my sleeping mom resting in the shade of the tent. He had gotten tired and snuggled up to her, but I didn't see him the first time I checked because he was lying down behind her. Later she told me that he had snuggled up to her and started chattering to her about all the things he had seen on the beach while she "mmm-hmmed" her responses to him.
Caleb's Grandpa-Great Walker passed away in August. Caleb loved Grandpa Great and was loved in return. We love the ranch: the tire swing, the haystacks, the four-wheelers, and we will miss having Grandpa Great there to ask "Whose kid are you?" and letting us tag along with him on chores. We love him and I am grateful Caleb was able to know him and spend so much time with him.
Darling Caleb, you are such an important part of our family and we love you very, very much. You are smart, funny, kind, and bring wonderful energy to our home. I'm so proud of you and I am grateful to be your mom.
Happy 6.5!
