Hey there baby-boy. What is it about you growing up that makes me want to call you my baby? Well- all the sudden it went and turned into winter on us. You have some feelings about that, and so do I. But we are taking in stride and have had a great month.
Stats: Graduating up into mainly 2T items. All of Austin's old winter clothes were 2T and they fit pretty much perfectly.
Things to remember:
-He's basically the luckiest third-baby ever to have such great older siblings.
-Wakes up saying "hungry?" and his favorite breakfast is Rice Chex covered in yogurt. 
-For all his laid-back-ness, he's a super picky eater. I think it's more that he's stubborn than picky, because if he decides in the first 5 seconds that he doesn't want to eat the thing, he won't eat it - even if it's something that he usually likes. I'm basically at a loss every single day to know what to feed him. I've realized that I need to just be more stubborn than him, because it's not good for him to just end up eating snacky things and if I hold out (like, hold out through the whole day) then he eventually eats the food. And he's clearly growing fine (and it's a stubbornness thing, it's not forcing him to eat things he really doesn't like.) The only thing that he won't ever eat is meat. That's something that I'm not sure how to handle, but I'm hoping that he eats enough beans and yogurt and milk that he's getting plenty of protein. Because the only two things that he will always eat are milk and yogurt and he eats a lot of them. Actually, he always will eat fruit, too. (Well, usually.) I try to serve the fruit at the very end of the meal because if I serve it at the beginning, he won't eat anything else - he just wants more "fo-ot".
-A story about this: we just barely went to Sue's house to help with Christmas baking. For lunch I gave him a bunch of cooked carrots and potatoes. I know he likes carrots. Really likes them. But he just wanted to eat pineapple. I was feeling stubborn and just let him sit in the highchair while he stubbornly wouldn't eat the carrots. After almost an hour I gave him some pineapple. Only after that, and after I had started completely ignoring him because I was busy in the kitchen, out of the corner of my eye I saw him pick up one of the carrots and eat it. If I looked over at him, he stopped eating. But by the end, he'd eaten all of the carrots. Funny boy.
-He calls snow "nose" and he loves to watch it and point to it and talk about it. He likes less to be out in it. He now uses the word "colddddd" and "freezing!" as descriptors whenever we go outside. David took the kids outside one morning while I was gone and after a little while he was ready to go back in. However, he was content to watch the fun from the window for the rest of the time.
-He's a great helper, and loved helping to set up the Christmas tree. He pays attention to details and is insistent that he get to participate exactly the same as everyone else. David had gloves on to fluff the tree and he had to have some too, if only because that's what he saw his Daddy doing.
-We went to the Alpine Live Nativity and his favorite part, easily, were the ducks in the Bethlehem Village area. It wasn't particularly snowy or freezing, but I dressed all my kids up in snowsuits because, winter, and it was a huge success. I couldn't help but take a hundred pictures of him because he looked so cute waddling around. (I swear, these are the narrowed down photos.)
His language development is really starting to take off. Two word sentences and SO many words. He will copy basically everything you say, and he will frequently repeat the last word of any sentence you say, even if it's not directed at him. He's constantly listening and practicing. He's hyper aware of his environment, and always paying close attention to what's going on around him.
-I went sledding with the kids. I left Caleb in the car for a little while because we were parked right by the hill and I didn't want him to get too cold before the kids were ready to go. He found my lipstick in the dashboard and tried his hand at applying it, ha. When I pulled him out to play in the snow, he just stood by me the whole time watching what was going on but without any desire to play, too. Occasionally he'd say "cold!", semi-accusingly, but he was mostly content to just stand there.
We love you Caleb, our sweetest boy. We are so looking forward to enjoying this Christmas Season with you, and through your eyes.
