Cuteness

This blog post is dedicated to the cuteness that Caleb has been lately!

So, Caleb has decided that he loves to feed his Kitty Cat! He will pick out her bowl, bring it to us with the can and a spooon and wait for us to fill up the bowl. He then proceeds to take it to Lucy's mat. Lucy is always in the way, so he says "Scuse Me Sucy!" and bends over to put her bowl on the mat. Then, he pets her on the back and tells her to enjoy her meal. He loves his kitty. He will also tell her bye every morning the whole way out of the subdivision. "See ya Sucy!" "Bye bye Sucy" Today I think he even said "Miss you Sucy!"

I also just love all the cuteness from him in the morning. He will wake up and call out for us. Once we open his door, the sweetest little voice say s"Heeeeeyyy!" and he stands up to get picked up out of his crib.

Caleb really enjoys any of the little chores we ask him to do. For instance, he loves to put his dirty clothes in the hamper, throw his diapers away in the diaper pail, check the mail, put his shoes where they belong in his room and help Mommy or Daddy when we are in the kitchen. I love having a cute little helper!

I will finish with a cute little picture of Caleb's class at the Pumpkin Patch. He went on his first field trip yesterday and Stephen and I were both so excited to go along with him. He loved the pumpkins and the animals they have at the farm! We also got to go on a hayride!

Gone Fishin'

Well, Caleb's birthday party has come and gone. (I knew it would take me too long to finally sit down and blog about it...) A great time was had by all. Caleb was a little unsure of why so many people were in his house that day, but he got over it quickly with some yummy food and juice. It was a fishing theme, complete with fish shaped finger sandwiches, a tray of worms crawling around in dirt...OK, so they were really gummy worms in crushed up oreo cookies :), shells that we collected at the beach and his stuffed animal fish caught up in a fish trap. He loved all his food, but he especially LOVED his cake. In fact, the days that followed his party, Caleb would attempt to go in the kitchen by himself, stand on his tip toes and peek over the counter top at his cake. We would catch him and he would turn around and say "CAKE!" We were blessed that Pat Sheppard made him another beautiful AND allergy free birthday cake!

Another highlight for Caleb was when everyone sang the Happy Birthday song. He looked all around at everyone singing and got a huge grin on his face. Here is just a sampling of the pictures from the day...

Happy Birthday Song...told you he loved it!

Mommy decorating the table...

All this birthday stuff makes a boy thirsty! (See his little fishing vest?)

Waiting on his new car to be put together....think he was excited??? :)

His yummy and CUTE birthday cake!

Happy Birthday, my sweet boy!

Happy Birthday

I figured I would go ahead with the Happy Birthday Caleb post...by the looks of my blog, I have become slack and an event as important as this should not pass by without a posting of it's own!

How can I be a mommy of a 2 year old already? Time has gone by so fast. Sometimes I wish I could just slow down the time and bottle it up. I don't want to miss anything and yet feel at the same time like I miss so much! I figured I would write a little letter to Caleb today as my post...

Dear Caleb,

Happy 2nd Birthday! Not a day goes by that I do not thank God for you. You really are my sunshine. I know I may sing that to you a lot, but it really is true. Even on dark bad days, all I need to do is see your smile and things are ok, if only for a moment. I cannot get enough of your sweet hugs and kisses and will drop anything I am doing if you shout from the other room, "mama?" You have learned so much this year and I am so proud of you. You have made friends and love to talk about what you did on the way home from school. Your favorite things to do at school are singing songs and going on walks with the blue rope. I say blue because you always make sure to remind me of the color when you talk about your walks at school. I am pretty sure that your best friend is Kate. If I ask you what you did that day, 9 times out of 10, it has something to do with Kate. You two love to play together and I think it is so sweet to watch you play with your friends. I think you will be a good friend as you grow up because you seem to already have such a big heart for your friends!

You also like to play outside in our back yard with Daddy and get very excited when you get to pick cherry tomatoes from the garden and eat them straight from the vine. Another favorite thing of yours at home is Lucy, our kitty cat! Many times you will go in your play room, look around for her and if she isn't in there, you will pat your legs and say "kitty, kitty, kitty" and when she finally comes running into the room, you will get so excited! Your vocabulary has grown and I have a feeling that you will soon be speaking in complete sentances. Your current favorite phrase is "I want more! (moe!)" Needless to say, we hear that just about every night at dinner! You do love to eat! :)

My favorite part of the day is going in to your room each morning. Your face lights up, and you quickly get to your feet, scoop up your blanket (which you call Kee or Kit) and say "Up!" I pick you up and you always lay your sweet little head on my shoulder. That is one of those feelings I want to bottle up so I can keep it with me and open it up whenever I want to! From there, we will go in my bed and you will drink your milk (moke) and watch Blues Clues on TV. Those 5 minutes of snuggle time really do get me through the day!

You are so smart, Caleb. You love shapes. In fact, you can name off pretty much any shape, from oval to octagon and you are usually correct! You are also great with puzzles and no longer need my help to get them put together. Another sign that you are gaining your independance. It makes me so proud to watch you learn new things and do things by yourself.

I could go on and on about the silly things you do to make us laugh, make us smile and even make us cry tears of joy! This letter would get long, and the few readers that I have on my blog would probably get bored!

I really am so lucky to be your mom! I am so honored and humbled every day to think that God chose Stephen and Me to be your mom and dad. We must have done something right to deserve the title of "Caleb's Parents" because we could not be more proud of you, our sweet Little Man. My heart is so full of love for you and skips a beat when I see you playing outside at daycare, or discover your scent on a blanket you have left in my car or just hear your name. Thank you for being you, Caleb. I hope you have a wonderful birthday, full of all your favorite things!

XOXO,

Mama

Then: October 5, 2007

Now: September 2009

Wordless Wednesday: I didn't steal the cookies from the cookie jar!

Goodnight Moon

I really wish I had a video camera last night. Caleb and I were reading stories before bed. He was sitting in my lap and had given me a pile of books to read. As soon as I finished "Goodnight Moon" he jumped down, walked over by his bed and sat on the floor. What happened next melted my heart. He opened the book and read it to me. He has done this before, but last night just seemed different and more special. Maybe because he was saying actual words from the pages rather than made up words!

This is about the words he used as he read:
Page 1: babahda MOON!
Page 2: lalaladadada CHAIR!
Page 3: COMB!!!
Page 4: dababada COMB!!!!
Page 5: BOON!! (his word for balloon)
Page 8: (he skipped a few...) COMB!!!! (He was really stuck on the comb last night...)
Page 9: He put his finger up to his mouth "Shhhhhh!"
Page 10: Comb!
Page 11: ninite STAR!!! (then he waved to the star in the book)
Page 12 (or so!) SHHHHH!!!!
Page 13: ALL DONE!!! and he claps his hands, so proud of his reading...

What a sweet boy! I love that he read Mommy a Night Night Story last night. So precious!

Time Flies

I can't believe that Caleb's 2nd birthday is right around the corner. Time just flies by way too fast. It is so hard to sit back and enjoy every single moment, but I really wish I could do more of that! I love watching Caleb grow and learn new things. It is amazing and I will forever be so thankful that God chose Stephen and me to be Caleb's parents. We must have done something right in our past to be blessed with such a great little boy!

So, I am planning Caleb's birthday party. I walked into Party City yesterday afternoon and had to blink. Wasn't I just there yesterday picking out first birthday gear? A year goes by way too fast! This year we are doing a fishing themed party. Caleb loves fish, and loves to tell you what they "say" by bobbing his head up and down and opening and closing his mouth really fast. So, a fishing theme it is. I am slowly getting decorations, picking out cake ideas, and deciding on what we will do at his party. We have decided to hold it at the house this year, which could either go very well or be a disaster...to clean up! It will be a smaller party this year, on a Sunday, so as not to interfere with football, and be all about the birthday boy. All food will be Caleb safe this year. That is my main request. It isn't fair to have to tell the birthday boy "No" on his birthday! (Well, when it comes to food anyways!) I will be trying a couple new recipes the month leading up to it, so everything will taste good to Caleb and all of the other guests! Be on the lookout in just over a month for birthday party pictures! :)

Beach Trip 09

Ok, so we have been back well over a week and I still haven't blogged about the beach...SORRY! I guess my thoughts were that once I blogged about the trip it was over....We certainly were not ready to say good bye to the beach.

Caleb LOVED the water and by the end of the week got used to the sand. He refused to walk in the soft sand for the first part of the trip, but by the last night he was off walking in the soft sand on his own. Pretty much, every day was the same and it was a routine we all enjoyed!

We woke up, had breakfast and got ready to head out to the beach. We hauled out all the gear and let Caleb decide if he wanted to play in the water, play in the sand or go on a walk with his wagon. He really liked looking for shells and snack time on the beach the most! About lunch time, we would go up to the room and eat lunch. Caleb would then nap for 2 hours or so and we would either head back down to the beach or take up some chairs at the pool. Caleb's favorite part about the pool was the steps. Up and down, up and down. He also liked to jump in and have mommy or daddy catch him. Then, in the evenings we would head out for dinner or go on evening walks once we were cleaned up. We stayed in a few nights, but we really enjoyed trying some new restaurants. We were SO thankful how accomodating all the places were with Caleb's food allergies. Most of them made him a special meal in his own skillet, which was very appreciated by mommy and daddy. We think Caleb's favorite restaurant was Bubba Gumps. We sat outside and he loved our waitress, who was always bringing Caleb a pack of crackers. Caleb did not care for the birds that live on the deck....I think he thought they were going to take his food! Here are a few pictures....enjoy!

Caleb has moved up to the Two Year Old room at daycare and seems to be loving it. He gets very excited when we drop him off in the morning and he usually runs in the door saying "HEEEEYYYYY!!!"

We got great news at the allergist this morning and we actually left feeling optimistic...which is quite the change! His peanut allergy looks as if it is going away! Thank goodness. We are hoping the eggs and milk will soon follow suit! Please keep your fingers crossed that one day, Caleb will be completly free of all his food allergies! We like hearing good things from the allergist!