Happy Halloween - a couple days late!

Three is a very fun year for Halloween! Everything from pumpkin picking, pumpkin carving (ok, so he refused to touch the insides of the pumpkin for the most part. I finally convinced him at clean up time...), and of course, the trick or treating. He even wore his pirate hat the entire time! Caleb is typically not a fan of any type of hat for longer than 5 seconds!

Trick or treating was a lot of fun this year. Each house we approached, he would look for the "ring bell" and yell out "There is the ring bell!" when he would find it. He perfected his "tick or teat" and managed to score a bunch of candy, most of which he can't eat. Bummer! He doesn't seem to mind when we tell him he can't have something and we were sure to have a good stash of "Caleb-safe" candy on hand to help him re-fill his goodie bag.

I can't believe it is already November. We are in my favorite part of the year and it just seems to be flying by already! I want time to stand still. I want to see the Holidays this year through the eyes of a child. I want to soak each and every moment in and not pass days away without being appreciative for what I have. I think having a child makes this time of year so much more magical, and for that I am so very thankful!

Here are a few pictures from our fun Halloween! Happy November!

Happy Birthday, Caleb!

How you went from this:

to this:

in the blink of an eye is beyond me.

My goodness, my precious Caleb. Time sure has flown. Just over an hour ago, three years to this date you came in to my life. I never expected motherhood to be such pure joy. At three years old, you just amaze me with how smart and talented you are. You love music and will tap your foot or clap your hands to the beat of the music. Just a couple weeks ago, you actually drew a picture of a quarter note and correctly identified it on sheet music. You must be a musical prodigy. :) You also know all of your letters and can count to thirty all by yourself. You can read your friends names and are starting to familiarize yourself with short words as well. You started to tell us your letters (big ones and little ones as you say) at two and a half years old. It really was just so amazing to me!

The things you come up with to say now are also amazing. "What you said mommy?" You are also starting to get into sports. You take part in "playball" at school and your coach says you have improved so much since the start of the school year when we enrolled you in the program. Your daddy and I think you are great at kicking a ball and you have also gotten really good at hitting a baseball off the tee!

On this day, your third birthday, I just want you to know how much you are loved, my Little Buddy! I sometimes go in your room at night and pray over you while you sleep. I thank God for bringing you into our lives and pray that you live a long, healthy and happy life. I pray that I can make a difference in your life...teach you right from wrong, how to be a gentleman, and that you will grow up always surrounded by love. I really do not know how I got so lucky to be chosen as your mommy. You bless me every single day with the most precious smile and sweet little voice. My heart melts each time you tell me that you love me. I would give you the world if I could, as you have given me more than you will ever know.

Happy birthday, sweet Caleb! And many, many more!

Wordless Wednesday...

Ok, so technically there are some words... :)

Remember Me?

I have been horrible at keeping up with this blog lately and I hate that! I love to have the little day-to-day stories written down and I haven't been doing a good job. Maybe I will work on changing that. We will see!

So...what has been keeping me so busy? I did start another blog. It's called 52 Treats I Can Eat. I created it to give me some new exciting things to feed Caleb that most non-food allergic kids get to eat every day, whenever they want. You can find it at www.52treatsicaneat.wordpress.com. I usually put in where I have made substitutions to make it Caleb-safe....so while it is a blog geared towards food allergies, everyone can enjoy it!

Here are some of those silly moments that I haven't been writing down. Sorry for the stream of consciousness writing...just not feeling it today, as I have been doing data entry all morning. (and now spending my lunch typing on a computer....something isn't right here!)

Caleb has transitioned into a new class at school. The first week was a little rough since most of his old friends went into a new classroom without him. Thankfully, he has his friend Ella from his other classes in there with him and has grown to love all the new kids - all girls - as well. He is such a ladies man already. Every morning he runs in and the girls all run up to him to talk to him. His friend Ella is usually the first one to greet him. The other day, she ran up to him and put her hands on her hips, looked out the corner of her eye and said "Heeeey Big Boy!" The next morning....it was similar, only this time she said "Hey Caleb! Are you going to come and get me?" (Yes, he did....of they went to play with their favorite toys together!) One of my favorites happened just about a week ago. He ran into his room, as he always does, and said "Hey Ladies!!" He was so proud and I think he takes his role as the "Man of the Classroom" very seriously. He always wants to be the "caboose" for the day. Maybe so he can be sure to protect his "ladies" as they walk down the hall!

He amazes me every day. I have said before how well he does with his letters. Now he will randomly find a letter in a book or on a flashcard, cup, menu, etc. and say "There is a C in my name." or "There is an S in Miss Sarah's Name!" he gets so proud of himself...and I do, too! :)

He is great at calling the "Dawgs!" You should ask him to say "Go Dawgs" for you sometime!

OH! How have I gone without blogging this huge milestone??? Caleb is officially FULLY potty trained. Day and night time! He has done GREAT! It was about mid-August when he was trained and has done wonderful ever since. He loves being a big boy and going in the potty. Many mornings he will go into the bathroom and say "I stand up. Because I am a big boy!" So nice to not have to deal with diapers any more.

I will try to be better about keeping up with this blog. I need to! I hate for the little funny moments to pass on by without being documented!

Catching Fireworks

Well, the long July 4th weekend has come to a close. It really was a wonderful weekend! We spent the weekend down at the Farm. Caleb's first question as we pulled up to the farm was "Where is the tractor?" And that kind of sums up how the weekend went. He was on the move getting to try all sorts of new things.

Caleb went on tractor rides with his Daddy, golf cart rides, ate MANY peaches (the 4th is the annual peach jam making trip! - more to come on that in a bit., went swimming, ate blackberries fresh off the blackberry bush - turning his mouth and shirt a very dark shade of purple, played in the garden, and,of course, watched fireworks. He loved every minute of it! We went to Eastman, GA to see the fireworks show, and they did a great job! Caleb's favorites were the big ones that look like they are coming right at you in a perfect;y formed ball. He would hold out his hands and try to catch them. He even put some of those "fireworks" in his pocket to save for later. And, yes, the next day, he asked for his pants so he could pull one out of the pocket. This is a picture of Caleb and his daddy playing while waiting for the sun to go down. See his expression?? It pretty much stayed like that the whole weekend.

On to the peach jam....I completed four huge batches of the yummy goodness. I also made a double batch of peach cobbler for everyone to eat. It was so good! We had peach everything, and by the end of the weekend, I had to have pealed over 50 cups of peaches....which is A LOT, and we still have some peaches left over. (anyone have any good peach-something recipes???) Caleb proved to be a good helper and was a master peach sampler by the end of the weekend. He can't get enough.

We took our time coming home from the farm and stopped in Macon to visit their Bass Pro Shops and stretch our legs. It was a nice little outing and Caleb loved watching the fishies in a different store than where we usually go to pass the time when we get Cabin Fever! We got home and went swimming, where Caleb got to learn something else new and exciting...belly flops! Of course the padding of his puddle jumper takes away the sting. ;) The alarm went off this morning, and here I am back at work - don't worry, I am on my lunch break!

I hope you all had a nice 4th of July weekend, as well. Now, I get to count down the days until Beach Time! YAY!!!

So I won't ever forget...

Caleb, you really do make me laugh every single day. Here are a few tidbits of things you have said or done lately that have made me laugh:

• I love how you say sunglasses. "Mommy, I need my funglasses!"
  
• You got your toy phone out the other day and called up your girlfriend Kate and said "Hey Kate! You gotta go potty?"
  
• I was making dinner the other night and told you that you would need to play by yourself in the living room or watch tv. As I was letting the water rise to a boil, I came and sat down next to you on the coach. You immediatly pushed me over and said "No Snuggle, Mommy! You go cook dinner!"
  
• You have a silly laugh that you do when you have forgotten to do something. For instance, last night you used your fingers instead of your spoon to eat your peas. When I told you to use your spoon, you did your silly laugh and said "Oh yeah!" with your hands out to your side. It is the same response every time and I love it!
  
• Sometimes your daddy and I will be talking at the dinner table and you will all of the sudden say "No talking Mommy! Listening ears!!" I think your daddy put you up to it, but he swears he didn't!
  
• You still love the trashman. He is the first person you thank God for every night when you say your prayers. (and you usually thank God for the trashman at least two or three times each night.)
  
• I love how you lay out all your animals across your bed every night. You are allowed to pick one out (this is after they started to keep you up at night, and when we asked you to go to sleep you said you couldn't because your animals were awake). After you pick out one animal, you put the rest in your chair and tell them to all snuggle with each other. (snuggling is your THING! You are very good at it!)


• Every red car you see is Ms. Melinda's car.


• You love to hide, but you always give yourself away. If you want to play hide and seek, you usually see your daddy and will yell out "Hide! hide!" Sometimes you hide somewhere, others you stand really still in the middle of the room with your eyes closed and your hands over your eyes. As soon as someone says "Where's Caleb?" You pop out and say "HEEEEEEYYYY!"


• I love to watch you dance! You have some great moves!


• The other day, you accidently put two legs in the same leg hole of your pants. You were very upset by it. (When i told you how to fix it, you did the silly laugh and said "oh yeah!")


• When you get very excited to tell someone something, your words just can't keep up with you. You can tell a whole story in about 10 seconds, but none of the words can be understood. But, you have the most excited look on your face and you will be pointing all around to tell us about the exciting thing that just happened.

I know there are so many other moments I could write about. I will have to just write them down as they happen because it really is every day that you say or do something that cracks me up. This post wouldn't be complete without the following picture that Ms. Nyssa sent to me from school. You were hot and sweaty, so your teachers spiked up your hair and wanted to take a picture. When they told you to smile, here was your response:

Letter Scavenger Hunt

During the summers, I get off work at noon. I love the Brenau Summer Fridays. It actually helps me feel as though I have a bit of a "summer break." This past Friday, Caleb and I went on a letter scavenger hunt through the mall. He rode in his stroller, I told him what letter to look for. When he found it, he would should out "There it is!" and I would take a picture of the letter. He LOVED this activity. (and now that I blog about it, I feel like a real "mom-blogger" and it makes me feel a little bit giddy.) He has loved looking through the pictures on my phone. Last week I saw a picture of "Alphabet Mystery Box" in one of my friend's photo album. Basically, there is a mat with every letter of the Alphabet and a box. Inside the box is a small toy/item that starts with every letter of the alphabet. The child reaches in a draws out a toy and then places the toy on the corresponding letter on the mat. I have decided (how's this for a "mom-blogger" activity??) to laminate each photo - although, I may take a few new ones so they won't be blurry - onto a mat of our own and create our own version of the Alphabet Mystery Box game. I think Caleb will totally dig it and feel some pride in knowing that he helped make the game! How is that for creativity from this working-mom?

Have I ever told you what a great stay at home mom I could be?? ;)

(Now, before I post I am saying a little prayer that blogger carries over the format I have posted my letters in. It looks great in Preview...but always looks different on my actual blog...here goes nothing...)