We have a crafty little boy on our hands, folks! Here is some of Caleb's sharpness shining through. Now if only we could harness this sharpness in terms of biblical wisdom we'd be set for life!
On Saturday we put Caleb down for a nap. An hour and a half later I went up there to check on him and he was still wide awake. I walked in there and he smiles at me and says, "Caleb wake up." I said, "No you didn't wake up, you never went to sleep." He sheepishly said, "No." Then he cocked his head to the side and very sweetly and pleadingly said, "Caleb get up from nap. Caleb go to bed early."
Then on Sunday Ben was walking Caleb down the hall to children's church/nursery. Caleb has recently been an all-star about going to nursery. (This in itself is a HUGE improvement, friends! A year ago he would scream the entire time he was in nursery.) Anyhow, he still puts up the "I don't want to go to class" talk even though he has joyfully gone in without even a fuss the last 3 times. Praise the Lord for working in him. So Ben was walking him down the hall and there is a strict policy about wellness in our church (for good reasons!) Caleb looks at Ben and puts one finger up his own nose and says, "Caleb not go to class. Caleb hab booders." (boogers) He went to class.
This morning, I was feeding Elliott and reading Caleb books. All of a sudden Caleb gets out a book, starts licking his finger and turning the pages. Then he looks at me and says, "Caleb do it wike Mommy!" As if that wasn't enough to make me double over in laughter, we get to a part in the book that says, "Bear growls and grumbles" and Caleb says, "Bear grumble just wike Caleb. Grumble sin."
I love this kid!
"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them." Psalm 127:3-5
February 16, 2009
February 12, 2009
Random Fact of the Day....
Elliott weighs 4 oz. LESS today at 5 months than Caleb weighed at 2 months. (Read 14lbs 6oz VS. 14 lbs 10oz.) Try that on for size!
February 6, 2009
January 19, 2009
Long time, no see!
Wow! I can't believe it's been over a month since I've posted anything. Time has flown for sure. We had a delightful Christmas though it required lots of traveling here, there and everywhere. We especially enjoyed the simplicity of our extended family Christmas celebrations--no big gift exchange just simply enjoying conversation and fellowship with each other. It brought me MUCH joy to see Caleb pick up where he left off with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. He thoroughly enjoyed interacting with them which made his mom and dad very happy!
We are enjoying our little boys more than ever. Everyday I'm pretty sure they are cuter and smarter and funnier. Caleb has turned into a little pretender. Elliott has revealed that he wants to be heard--he'll "jabber" and make noises loudly while he's playing in his bouncy seat. I would summarize them both as delightful these days!
So what's new with each of them?
Caleb is loving to pretend--he likes to play pizza delivery with mom (funny thing, too, because I'm pretty sure we've never had pizza delivered to our house!) He likes to play doctor--he pretends he's his friend Tali and I'm the doctor. He will tell me he fell of and bonked his head--"Wike Humpty Dumpty!" He is still in love with his farm toys. He pretends each room of our house is a different field, the living room is beans, the toy room is wheat, the family room is corn. He will drive the combines all over the room "picking" the crop and then drive his tractor and wagon next to it to empty the hopper into the wagon. When he is all done, he'll drive his machines into the canvas box where we store them (their "shed") and say "Doodnight Combine! Doodnight tractor 'n green John Deere wagon!" My favorite pretend scenario was this one from last week:
"Mommy, may I Taywub peese hab that buck buck (bucket)?"
Sure Caleb, here you go.
"Fanks Mommy.....in case I pit (spit) up."
Runs into the other room, grabs a block, pretends it's an onion and pretends to eat it. Then he fake pukes in the bucket and runs to the bathroom and dumps it in the toilet and flushes while yelling:
"Taywub pit up. Fush down pah-dee. Bye bye pit up."
Then he literally just dropped the bucket on the floor and kept on playing with his toys like it never happened. Meanwhile I was in the kitchen rolling on the floor with laughter at how funny it was!
He has been healthy for a few weeks now--we had one crazy high fever after Christmas but nothing since then and it is so nice to see my little man's personality as it is instead of masked by the yuckiness of high fevers and how awful it makes him feel. Praise the Lord for a healthy few weeks! We do have to go see a specialist tomorrow to get something checked out that he's had since birth. I'll update more on that tomorrow after the appointment.
Caleb is SO hilarious. Everyday he says new phrases or words that I've never heard him say that make him sound so grown up. For example, "Oh doodness. My Taywub's i-peem-poem (ice cream cone) fall off. Oh bumma!" {That was a pretend situation as well.}
Or there was the situation when he decided to pretend my cell phone was a boat in a cup of water. OOPS! As I was lamenting to him that my phone was broken and oh no what are we going to do he says, "Mommy, go to store and buy new phone." I said, "Caleb, we can't just go to the store and buy a new one, phones cost money and we don't have that much money to just buy a new one." He replies after a brief moment of pondering, "Mommy go to store. Hab Taywub's piggy bank. Use Taywub's peemees (pennies) buy new phone." I have no idea how he even got the concept of money--we've never even told him that his pennies could buy things at the store. What a generous boy! By the way, he didn't get in trouble for that incident. He had no idea that dunking it in water would cause it to break and I was the one who let him hold my phone in the first place.
Caleb's newest achievement is putting together puzzles. My mom sent a puzzle for him the mail a couple of weeks ago. I kind of scoffed when I saw it thinking, "Caleb is HORRIBLE at puzzles." We have many puzzles and it seriously makes me want to pull my hair out when I do them with him because he has NO concept of how to place the pieces or move them slightly. He just didn't ever get them. Sure he can do peg puzzles but jigsaw puzzles (even the ones that say for 18 months) that have 4 pieces--he cannot get. But I showed him the puzzle anyway. I knew he'd like it because it had construction equipment on it. He did! And let me just say that he became instantly obsessed with it. It took 2 or 3 times of me helping him put it together and he could do it. Now he can do it completely by himself in like 30 seconds. This morning I got out the old puzzles and he did awesome at those as well. Here are some pictures of him doing his new one:
(P.S. I am in love with these wooden jigsaw puzzles--they were just what he needed to figure it out! They are sturdy and really helped him get the concept easier than the cardboard thin ones. I highly recommend them!)
Now for my Mr. Elliott. He is so delightful. He giggles and laughs at anything, nothing, and some strange things--Daddy coughing, Mommy making her lips pop, Caleb doing anything. He is ALMOST rolling over but not quite. He is quickly learning to sit unassisted. He grabs at anything you put in front of him and puts it immediately to his mouth. He is working on a tooth. He is figuring out how to use his left thumb as a soother. He would rather stand in your lap then sit in it. He looks like a baby bird because he always has his mouth wide open--either to smile or to try and get something in his mouth. He still is not sleeping through the night after an agonizing week of letting him cry it out with absolutely no progress. He still wants that 3:30 feeding, much to his mother's dismay. With our pediatrician's advice in mind (she originally told us to give it a try but then said if it wasn't working after a week that we should not force it), we are waiting another month or two until we try that again and hopefully we won't have to. Hopefully he will do it on his own. Here's hoping...
He is SO tiny! He was 13 lbs 15 oz at his 4 month check up--25% for all you numbers folk. We about peed our pants when we heard that stat. Caleb has never been below 75% for anything in his entire life--and the 75% was a rarity. He is usually riding on the 90-95% mark. So Elliott is just a teeny tiny babe. As a matter of fact, on Thursday of last week he wore without a problem the outfit that Caleb wore home from the hospital at 2 days old. Hilarious!
He still loves his daytime naps during and falls asleep so easy. The routine is that I bring him upstairs, swaddle him up (with one arm out!), give him his pacifier, sing him a verse or two of a song and put him down. The whole process takes about 3 minutes. When I put him down he is drowsy but sometimes (even after only a verse) he will already have his eyes shut. It's like I couldn't have laid him down awake if I tried. Anyway, it's such a joy to put him down for a nap--no fighting involved! He's like his momma--he'll take any opportunity he can to catch some winks! Did you know when I was little I would tell my parents that it was time for me to go to bed and ask them to please come tuck me in in a few minutes--no lie! This week he has started waking up from naps super early so I'm having to let him cry it out in the middle of naps but I'm thankful that he doesn't cry at the start of them. Praise the Lord for that extreme kindness!
Here are a few pictures of or littlest man:
(he's trying to suck his thumb in this one!)
And for the finale, here is a shot of the both of them taken right before Christmas:
We are enjoying our little boys more than ever. Everyday I'm pretty sure they are cuter and smarter and funnier. Caleb has turned into a little pretender. Elliott has revealed that he wants to be heard--he'll "jabber" and make noises loudly while he's playing in his bouncy seat. I would summarize them both as delightful these days!
So what's new with each of them?
Caleb is loving to pretend--he likes to play pizza delivery with mom (funny thing, too, because I'm pretty sure we've never had pizza delivered to our house!) He likes to play doctor--he pretends he's his friend Tali and I'm the doctor. He will tell me he fell of and bonked his head--"Wike Humpty Dumpty!" He is still in love with his farm toys. He pretends each room of our house is a different field, the living room is beans, the toy room is wheat, the family room is corn. He will drive the combines all over the room "picking" the crop and then drive his tractor and wagon next to it to empty the hopper into the wagon. When he is all done, he'll drive his machines into the canvas box where we store them (their "shed") and say "Doodnight Combine! Doodnight tractor 'n green John Deere wagon!" My favorite pretend scenario was this one from last week:
"Mommy, may I Taywub peese hab that buck buck (bucket)?"
Sure Caleb, here you go.
"Fanks Mommy.....in case I pit (spit) up."
Runs into the other room, grabs a block, pretends it's an onion and pretends to eat it. Then he fake pukes in the bucket and runs to the bathroom and dumps it in the toilet and flushes while yelling:
"Taywub pit up. Fush down pah-dee. Bye bye pit up."
Then he literally just dropped the bucket on the floor and kept on playing with his toys like it never happened. Meanwhile I was in the kitchen rolling on the floor with laughter at how funny it was!
He has been healthy for a few weeks now--we had one crazy high fever after Christmas but nothing since then and it is so nice to see my little man's personality as it is instead of masked by the yuckiness of high fevers and how awful it makes him feel. Praise the Lord for a healthy few weeks! We do have to go see a specialist tomorrow to get something checked out that he's had since birth. I'll update more on that tomorrow after the appointment.
Caleb is SO hilarious. Everyday he says new phrases or words that I've never heard him say that make him sound so grown up. For example, "Oh doodness. My Taywub's i-peem-poem (ice cream cone) fall off. Oh bumma!" {That was a pretend situation as well.}
Or there was the situation when he decided to pretend my cell phone was a boat in a cup of water. OOPS! As I was lamenting to him that my phone was broken and oh no what are we going to do he says, "Mommy, go to store and buy new phone." I said, "Caleb, we can't just go to the store and buy a new one, phones cost money and we don't have that much money to just buy a new one." He replies after a brief moment of pondering, "Mommy go to store. Hab Taywub's piggy bank. Use Taywub's peemees (pennies) buy new phone." I have no idea how he even got the concept of money--we've never even told him that his pennies could buy things at the store. What a generous boy! By the way, he didn't get in trouble for that incident. He had no idea that dunking it in water would cause it to break and I was the one who let him hold my phone in the first place.
Caleb's newest achievement is putting together puzzles. My mom sent a puzzle for him the mail a couple of weeks ago. I kind of scoffed when I saw it thinking, "Caleb is HORRIBLE at puzzles." We have many puzzles and it seriously makes me want to pull my hair out when I do them with him because he has NO concept of how to place the pieces or move them slightly. He just didn't ever get them. Sure he can do peg puzzles but jigsaw puzzles (even the ones that say for 18 months) that have 4 pieces--he cannot get. But I showed him the puzzle anyway. I knew he'd like it because it had construction equipment on it. He did! And let me just say that he became instantly obsessed with it. It took 2 or 3 times of me helping him put it together and he could do it. Now he can do it completely by himself in like 30 seconds. This morning I got out the old puzzles and he did awesome at those as well. Here are some pictures of him doing his new one:
(P.S. I am in love with these wooden jigsaw puzzles--they were just what he needed to figure it out! They are sturdy and really helped him get the concept easier than the cardboard thin ones. I highly recommend them!)
Now for my Mr. Elliott. He is so delightful. He giggles and laughs at anything, nothing, and some strange things--Daddy coughing, Mommy making her lips pop, Caleb doing anything. He is ALMOST rolling over but not quite. He is quickly learning to sit unassisted. He grabs at anything you put in front of him and puts it immediately to his mouth. He is working on a tooth. He is figuring out how to use his left thumb as a soother. He would rather stand in your lap then sit in it. He looks like a baby bird because he always has his mouth wide open--either to smile or to try and get something in his mouth. He still is not sleeping through the night after an agonizing week of letting him cry it out with absolutely no progress. He still wants that 3:30 feeding, much to his mother's dismay. With our pediatrician's advice in mind (she originally told us to give it a try but then said if it wasn't working after a week that we should not force it), we are waiting another month or two until we try that again and hopefully we won't have to. Hopefully he will do it on his own. Here's hoping...
He is SO tiny! He was 13 lbs 15 oz at his 4 month check up--25% for all you numbers folk. We about peed our pants when we heard that stat. Caleb has never been below 75% for anything in his entire life--and the 75% was a rarity. He is usually riding on the 90-95% mark. So Elliott is just a teeny tiny babe. As a matter of fact, on Thursday of last week he wore without a problem the outfit that Caleb wore home from the hospital at 2 days old. Hilarious!
He still loves his daytime naps during and falls asleep so easy. The routine is that I bring him upstairs, swaddle him up (with one arm out!), give him his pacifier, sing him a verse or two of a song and put him down. The whole process takes about 3 minutes. When I put him down he is drowsy but sometimes (even after only a verse) he will already have his eyes shut. It's like I couldn't have laid him down awake if I tried. Anyway, it's such a joy to put him down for a nap--no fighting involved! He's like his momma--he'll take any opportunity he can to catch some winks! Did you know when I was little I would tell my parents that it was time for me to go to bed and ask them to please come tuck me in in a few minutes--no lie! This week he has started waking up from naps super early so I'm having to let him cry it out in the middle of naps but I'm thankful that he doesn't cry at the start of them. Praise the Lord for that extreme kindness!
Here are a few pictures of or littlest man:
(he's trying to suck his thumb in this one!)
And for the finale, here is a shot of the both of them taken right before Christmas:
December 16, 2008
Happy Baby
Elliott is one of the happiest babies we know. He can be starving, exhausted, and cold and still be cooing and smiling. He's had a very upset tummy the last couple of days but you would never know it by his demeanor. We praise God for the joy the he exudes.
Elliott has recently been falling in love with Caleb. Even when Caleb is across the room paying no attention to him Elliott will smile. Here are some pictures of Caleb doing goofy things to make Elliott smile. It worked :)
Caleb flapping his finger back and forth on his lips to make a funny noise:
The result:
Elliott has recently been falling in love with Caleb. Even when Caleb is across the room paying no attention to him Elliott will smile. Here are some pictures of Caleb doing goofy things to make Elliott smile. It worked :)
Caleb flapping his finger back and forth on his lips to make a funny noise:
The result:
December 2, 2008
Happy Birthday, Caleb!
Caleb turned 2 on Thanksgiving Day! We are definitely thankful for him!
Thanks to all of you who prayed for our little man and his fever. It never progressed into anything else (we're thankful!) and stuck around until Wednesday night. He was fever-free on his birthday and had an enjoyable day. He wasn't completely his normal self but we were definitely praising God that morning when he woke up with a normal temperature. We think we made his day an enjoyable one and were so glad to have both of our families here to help.
We started off the day with a birthday doughnut. Did I mention that he didn't wake up until 10 o'clock that morning? Nothing better than sleeping in on your birthday! Doughnuts are definitely a special treat. He licked all of the frosting off, gave it to Ben, and then asked for another. Funny kid!
After breakfast we got him dressed for the day in his new John Deere shirt (thanks Timmermans!) Then we had him sit in Ben's big chair for a special surprise.
He loves to watch a movie called "Birthday Balloons." It's an adorable 20 minute Little Einstein show. He's in love with the little girl on it named Annie. In the movie, it's Annie's birthday and all of her friends come and give her balloons, one at a time. Then they blow away and they go on a mission to get them back. We got enough balloons for everyone to give him one. There were 8 of us, including Elliott. Caleb sat in the chair and we marched in from the other room, one at a time, each carrying a balloon. We sang the balloon song that they sing on the show and told him happy birthday.
I have never seen him make the face that he made. It was a mix of awe, delight, extreme happiness and joy. It almost made me cry I was so excited.
After we were finished, he pretended he was the "Little Einsteins" and that his balloons got stuck in the vines (just like on the show!) It was adorable.
After that, we finished getting Thanksgiving lunch ready. He didn't eat anything (a combination of still having no appetite after being sick & just having had a huge doughnut.) He did, however, manage to reach up to the table and swipe his fingers through his "Grandma Great Charlotte's" cool whip on her pumpkin pie. She didn't mind!
Even though he woke up at 10, he was more than ready for a nap at 1:30. He went to bed and took a couple hour nap. When he woke up we opened presents. He was thrilled with all of his loot: a police car that he can assemble and disassemble, a farm set (complete with another John Deere combine), the Little People Nativity set, some play food, and Little Einstein's fruit snacks.
Next it was time for cake. He requested a "Boo Tactor Cake!!!!" I did my best and this is what I came up with. He was excited! Can I just add that I'll do anything for my little man but blue and black frosting are definitely not among my favorites--they make your teeth so disgusting!
The face he made for the balloon parade was similar to the one he made when we were all singing happy birthday to him. I love it! He's so stinking cute! (These pictures are a little blurry because I was taking pictures with the camera with my left hand and video taping with my right hand! We'll have to get some better ones from the grandparents who were snapping pictures like crazy!)
His first birthday was a blast but I loved his 2nd birthday too! He was really into it and responsive, making it just a little more fun.
Now for some birthday boy stats:
35.4 pounds
38 inches tall
Favorites:
He can say most of the ABC's but his favorite and always correct part is "H-I-J-K" which he yells with much enthusiasm.
He can count to 10 but prefers to count like this "1, 6, 9, 10" with the same enthusiasm as above.
He knows most of the letter names and a word or two that starts with each. (i.e. G...God!, D...Daddy!)
He sings and talks to his monkeys in his bed when he's going to sleep. He usually tells them something about combines. Go figure!
He likes to find new and exciting ways to disobey his Mommy and I am blown away with what he comes up with. It's hard not to laugh sometimes! One example is a couple of months ago he decided to start saying "OK, Bob!" to me when given a command instead of "Ok, Mom."
Overall this boy has such a sweet, sensitive heart combined with some pretty masculine traits. For example, he will come up and give me a big hug and say "I wub oooh, Mommy!" and then in the next breath throw himself on the couch and roll off! He's always trying to conquer something!
He gives us hugs after diaper changes and after he's been disciplined and says thank you!
He doesn't forget ANYTHING you tell him and will bring it up 4 months later without any warning.
We are so blessed to be his parents. We can't believe he is already 2! We thank God for this delightful little man everyday!
Thanks to all of you who prayed for our little man and his fever. It never progressed into anything else (we're thankful!) and stuck around until Wednesday night. He was fever-free on his birthday and had an enjoyable day. He wasn't completely his normal self but we were definitely praising God that morning when he woke up with a normal temperature. We think we made his day an enjoyable one and were so glad to have both of our families here to help.
We started off the day with a birthday doughnut. Did I mention that he didn't wake up until 10 o'clock that morning? Nothing better than sleeping in on your birthday! Doughnuts are definitely a special treat. He licked all of the frosting off, gave it to Ben, and then asked for another. Funny kid!
After breakfast we got him dressed for the day in his new John Deere shirt (thanks Timmermans!) Then we had him sit in Ben's big chair for a special surprise.
He loves to watch a movie called "Birthday Balloons." It's an adorable 20 minute Little Einstein show. He's in love with the little girl on it named Annie. In the movie, it's Annie's birthday and all of her friends come and give her balloons, one at a time. Then they blow away and they go on a mission to get them back. We got enough balloons for everyone to give him one. There were 8 of us, including Elliott. Caleb sat in the chair and we marched in from the other room, one at a time, each carrying a balloon. We sang the balloon song that they sing on the show and told him happy birthday.
I have never seen him make the face that he made. It was a mix of awe, delight, extreme happiness and joy. It almost made me cry I was so excited.
After we were finished, he pretended he was the "Little Einsteins" and that his balloons got stuck in the vines (just like on the show!) It was adorable.
After that, we finished getting Thanksgiving lunch ready. He didn't eat anything (a combination of still having no appetite after being sick & just having had a huge doughnut.) He did, however, manage to reach up to the table and swipe his fingers through his "Grandma Great Charlotte's" cool whip on her pumpkin pie. She didn't mind!
Even though he woke up at 10, he was more than ready for a nap at 1:30. He went to bed and took a couple hour nap. When he woke up we opened presents. He was thrilled with all of his loot: a police car that he can assemble and disassemble, a farm set (complete with another John Deere combine), the Little People Nativity set, some play food, and Little Einstein's fruit snacks.
Next it was time for cake. He requested a "Boo Tactor Cake!!!!" I did my best and this is what I came up with. He was excited! Can I just add that I'll do anything for my little man but blue and black frosting are definitely not among my favorites--they make your teeth so disgusting!
The face he made for the balloon parade was similar to the one he made when we were all singing happy birthday to him. I love it! He's so stinking cute! (These pictures are a little blurry because I was taking pictures with the camera with my left hand and video taping with my right hand! We'll have to get some better ones from the grandparents who were snapping pictures like crazy!)
His first birthday was a blast but I loved his 2nd birthday too! He was really into it and responsive, making it just a little more fun.
Now for some birthday boy stats:
35.4 pounds
38 inches tall
Favorites:
- food--fruit snacks
- game--tackle
- book--"If You Take a Mouse to the Movies" or "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" or really any from that series
- craft--cutting with scissors
- drink--milk
- friend--he talks about his girl friends the most--Tali & Lulu but loves Baby OwNo (Owen) and Baby Hannah too! Secretly he has a crush on Tali's mom and Lulu's mom but don't tell him I told you....
- song--any song, this boy LOVES songs but he especially likes the songs we make up about combines
- toy--combines (and now his fake food!)
- movie--Madame Blueberry
He can say most of the ABC's but his favorite and always correct part is "H-I-J-K" which he yells with much enthusiasm.
He can count to 10 but prefers to count like this "1, 6, 9, 10" with the same enthusiasm as above.
He knows most of the letter names and a word or two that starts with each. (i.e. G...God!, D...Daddy!)
He sings and talks to his monkeys in his bed when he's going to sleep. He usually tells them something about combines. Go figure!
He likes to find new and exciting ways to disobey his Mommy and I am blown away with what he comes up with. It's hard not to laugh sometimes! One example is a couple of months ago he decided to start saying "OK, Bob!" to me when given a command instead of "Ok, Mom."
Overall this boy has such a sweet, sensitive heart combined with some pretty masculine traits. For example, he will come up and give me a big hug and say "I wub oooh, Mommy!" and then in the next breath throw himself on the couch and roll off! He's always trying to conquer something!
He gives us hugs after diaper changes and after he's been disciplined and says thank you!
He doesn't forget ANYTHING you tell him and will bring it up 4 months later without any warning.
We are so blessed to be his parents. We can't believe he is already 2! We thank God for this delightful little man everyday!
November 24, 2008
Birthday Fever
Our boy is sick again and we would covet your prayers! He has another fever that spiked right around noon today. As of yet there are no other symptoms. Pray that the fever will zap whatever is trying to settle in his body; pray that the fever will stay low and leave quickly; pray for wisdom for whether or not we should take him to the doctor; pray that Elliott will not catch whatever it is; pray that he will be completely healed by Thursday (the sooner the better)--it's Thanksgiving AND his 2nd Birthday! Being sick is no fun for him any day...ESPECIALLY on his birthday!
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