We are heading into our last month before age 2 and I can't even express how much I love this age. It's perfect. Fun, adventurous, sweet, snuggly, and filled with cheesy grins. This handsome boy is full of goodness and although it feels like he should still be my baby - I wouldn't trade this age for the world.
Stats: Solidly in 2T everything. He fits into size 6/7 shoes, but prefers his size 7/8 boots and they fit him great. 8 teeth. Soft wispy baby hair that sometimes has a hint of strawberry blonde in the right light. I still can't figure out what color of eyes he has. If I had to choose, I'd say grey.
Some things to remember from this month:
-Some of his favorite books are: "Chik-en boom boom" (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom) "Jes-es Kist" (Jesus Loves Me) "bee" (Little Yellow Bee), and "dig" (Where do Diggers sleep at night?) I love the way he says "chik-en boom boom", but he actually flips the pages so fast I can barely read any of the words. And he asks for the Jesus book "Jes-es Kist???" frequently - but most frequently when I've already read his last book and I'm prepping to stand up to put him in his bed. He knows that I won't say no to reading the Jesus Christ book with him.
-Things that he says that I love:
"I want some dat." - basically everytime I put anything in my mouth. He has a sixth sense for when I've snuck into the panty and grabbed a candy to eat, because even though he can't see what I'm eating... he knows... and he wants some candy, too.
"can-dy?" - always phrased as a question because he's asking for more candy all day long.
loves chocolate chips and says "choc-at chip" for basically anything chocolate.
"drag-drag" or "drag-une" - a winner of a Christmas gift. He loves his big stuffed dragon.
"funny" - he says this after something happens that he finds particularly amusing, or after he's done something that he things is (or should be funny). It might be my favorite thing that he says.
"Help!" means "leave me alone, I want to do it all by myself" but "Mommy, help." or "Help me!" means, please help me. Most of the time he just wants to do it all by himself.
"Ma - watch!" - he says right before he does a new trick like spinning in a circle or drawing something on a paper. I love that he wants me to watch him and validate him. I love him, ha.
-He's super well behaved, although he likes to explore and adventure. The other day I stepped away from making dinner in the kitchen for like one minute, and when I came back he had dropped all but two of the eggs out of my almost full 18ct carton (more eggs are on the other side of the stool) onto the floor. He was so thrilled! He wasn't being naughty about it - his face totally was like "Mom! Watch this! If you take the egg and drop it... this is what happens!" Luckily, I only needed two eggs for dinner, ha.
-He draws on the walls 100 times more than any of my other kids did, but I find that I don't care all that much - because the other 99 times that he has a pen/pencil/marker in his hand he's very good about only drawing on paper, and will even look at me and ask (I can't figure out how to explain how he asks, a combination of "mama" and looking at my with his big eyes with a marker in one hand and a paper below him) if he can draw on the paper. Most of the time I say yes, sometimes I need to get him a different paper to scribble on. Most of the time he even puts the lid back on the marker before getting a different color, and if he forgets, all I have to do is remind him and he'll find the lid and put it back on. I'm so impressed with him, and so grateful - because with us doing homeschool we have markers and pencils and crayons all over the place and it's not really feasible to try to keep them away from him. Plus, magic erasers take it all off once it reaches the point that it starts to bother me.
-Lydia came home from gymnastics, finally having mastered her back-bend and she was so excited. Caleb was thrilled for her, and wanted to try it out. His version? Balancing on his head and his toes and throwing his arms out behind him. He does it every time Lydia practices.
-Also, on the note of playing with Lydia: to her delight, he's happy to play dogs with her. They crawl around on the floor panting with their tongues out and are really quite convincing.
-As far as his relationship with Austin, it's a very good balance of: 1) they love each other and 2) Caleb tolerates Austin hugging/laying/hanging onto him. Austin is very affectionate and loves Caleb SO much. Caleb tolerates that, and frequently will go and give Austin big hugs that end up with them rolling around on top of each other on the floor. I love to watch them together.
-Sleeps with his dragon on one side, his blanket on the other, and his head on his pillow - plus, a white bear tucked under one arm and a water bottle in the other. It's a very particular setup. As part of the betime/naptime routine he always wants "more" water (even if it's full) before he can go to sleep.
-He goes to bed at 7, wakes up about 7 - and takes one nap during the day, which he's flexible with. He can go down at 11 or later like 1 and he'll sleep really well. This is basically the golden-time of childhood sleep.
-The other night he woke up about 10, which is very rare for him. He usually sleeps through the whole night. He was really sad and although he didn't want to be in his bed, he also did NOT want me to hold him. He slipped off of my lap and laid down on the floor - crying. I laid down next to him and he fell asleep within two minutes. I let him sleep there for the next hour to make sure he was really asleep and moved him back into his bed - but it was so funny and sad and sweet.
(He got into the cough drops and ate over 20 of them. Ugh! But luckily they were the ones that really are just basically candy - and he was fine. He was so proud to show me all the candy he'd eaten, and I learned my lesson about keeping cough drops higher than the counter.
-He loves his boots and can put them on all by himself, which is awesome.
-He eats most of his calories at breakfast. He loves basically all breakfast foods, specifically oatmeal, cream of wheat, pancakes, and chex with yogurt. He'll eat at least two servings for himself, and usually finish off what the kids didn't eat as well. He eats less at lunch and almost nothing but fruit for dinner. But it works for him, so I'm letting his body lead the way.
-We've had some good adventures - this winter has been decently snowy which has made for some good adventures into the backyard. He usually only lasts a few minutes before coming inside and most of the time I just let him watch from the window - which he's happy to do. But our trip to the swimming pool was much better in his (and my) opinion. It took him a minute to warm up to the water, but he really enjoyed spending most of his time playing with the spray fountain on the side.
-We also adventured to the Clark Planetarium this month - which was a win.
-All three of the above adventures have been with our Haderlie cousins. We're trying to spend as much time as we can with them before they move to Iowa in a couple of months. Caleb is completely enamored with "Baby Sadie". He loves her and he's so sweet to give her kisses on her forehead and try to take care of her. He's also getting better at not completely suffocating her with his love.
Which is good practice because he's going to be a big brother in less than 20 short weeks! He's going to be a wonderful big brother, I have no doubt. He really loves any baby that we see (although he calls them all "baby sad-ee"). I can't believe how big he's getting and how he's not my little baby any more!
-He LOVES helping me with things. Sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, cleaning the toilet. He wants to take over and do it all himself. For his birthday I'm planning to get him a little broom/mop set because I need him to be able to help alongside of me if I ever want to get any work done again.
-I've said before how observant he is. He watches everything we do and wants to imitate it with exactness. The sweeping/mopping is a good example. Another example is this:
I found him sitting with these scriptures, flipping through the pages saying, "Jes-es Kist. Jes-es Kist." Melt my Mama-Heart. I don't know why I was surprised that he's made the connection that the scriptures are where we learn about Jesus Christ. We read them every morning during breakfast, but a lot of the time we are talking about Nephi or the other prophets. I do try to pull everything back to our Savior - and I guess it just makes me grateful that in his own small way he's picking up on that. Caleb, I hope you learn to always look for Jesus Christ in the scriptures. He loves you and He will lead and guide you to be a strong, kind, brave man. The scriptures will bring you peace and direction as you read them. Always remember this!
Oh, I just love you - Caleb. Happy 23 months!
