Quick Caleb update

It's the middle of the Heroes premier so I'll make this quick. here's a video of Caleb reading through Dr. Seuss's ABCs

hope you like

The Backhoe Ride

We had an exciting day as birthday celebrating continued. We got to visit G'ma and G'pa Bush out in Derry. They weren't able to make it into the party because of the wonderful construction and traffic on the parkway. We spent the day visiting and opening presents- a big fire truck and rescue helicopter that make noise, a new puzzle, a special book to read with daddy and some special coloring books. After celebrating though, it was time to go back home and Papa Joe had to take his backhoe to work. We went outside and Caleb started getting upset. He didn't seem to want to go. Then he said "Papa ride?" Well, Papa Joe couldn't wait so he took Caleb and set him up in the cab and then climbed into the backhoe. Then he pulled Caleb up onto his lap and started it up. First he raised and lowered the scoop for him and then thy pulled out and went for a short ride up the road and back. Caleb loved it!

I took him from G'pa's arms to put him into his carseat and he babbled non-stop. I could only make out a bit of what he was saying but I did hear "batto, voom, voom, whoa." I think G'pa really enjoyed the ride too.

10 mos old Sadie

It's only fair that I give Sadie a post since Caleb got two posts this week, so here it is.

Sadie-girl has definitely inherited my nickname- Monkey Woman. She is a daredevil and is not at all afraid to crawl or climb anywhere. This is probably why she started climbing up the stairs just short of turning 10 mos. We have become a "gated" community which has been hard for all of us. It was so nice having freedom from stretching and contorting yourself to make it over the gates. We have also discovered that we absolutely cannot leave Sadie in any kind of seat without being strapped in and even then you have to watch her like a hawk because she'll wriggle out of things. We've given up on the bathring entirely because even strapped in she could stand up and get out of it. Bathtimes are very quick with her. I caught her a couple of times in the grocery store, standing up in the cart and bouncing her knees up and down like she's dancing. At home in her highchair, she loves to spin around to get a complete view of everything that's going on around her.

When she's crawling on the floor, I really have to watch her. She puts everything in her mouth (doesn't help that she's teething too). Several of Caleb's crayons have teeth marks in them and we're thankful that they're non-toxic. Last week, she managed to eat cat food- she was just too quick for me. On the good side, she hasn't tried to go near the bowl since.

Sadie is getting very good at walking with a walker. She will push the Pooh train all around the dining room and living room and she does really well with it. Lately, though, she'll start pushing it and Caleb will decide that he wants to ride and will sit down and ride along with her hanging on for dear life in back of him. She's a tough girl though.

I think she might have picked up "hi" because she's been saying that a lot and will get mad if you don't respond to her. She's also pretty consistent with saying "mama" and "dada".

Sadie's favorite toy is still her bear but she's also showing a love of music like her brother. She's discovered a little magnetic barn we have on the fridge that plays music and loves to have it play for her. She's also mastered the Dinosaur ball toy, where she puts the ball in the hole and it plays music as it comes out.

We're counting down to her first birthday and are very excited to see her growing each day.

2 yr old Caleb

So I posted about the birthday party, now I thought I would update you on what all the big man is doing (don't worry, Sadie will also get a post-equal time and all)

We were at the doctor's today and Caleb is 34 and 1/2 inches tall and weighs 29 and 1/4 lbs. He's still on the tall side of things but is leveling out. Hopefully all the 2T clothes we have will last a bit longer.

Caleb did not like the doctor's visit at all which is surprising because he's never gotten that upset about going before. He didn't like the nurses, hated having his head measured and wouldn't talk to the doctor.

Talking
Caleb's vocab has really taken off over the past couple of weeks. He's regularly combining words together to make short sentences like "read, please." That's one we hear a lot but how can you say no when he asks so sweetly.

As I mentioned earlier, he recognizes all of the alphabet and can say all the letters except W. He's recently started trying to sing the alphabet, which is really cute to hear. He recognizes and says his numbers 1-10 and loves counting steps. However, we counting on his own, he doesn't seem to like the number 7. He'll only say it when he sees it.

He has also picked up his primary and secondary colors, thanks to the book Mouse Paint.

He's finally started saying cat and dog instead of "eow" and "woof." And he's also started saying Sadie but it sounds more like Sa-ie.

G'pa Joe taught him what fire crackers say so if you make a whistle like a bottle rocket, Caleb will supply the "bang". Speaking of bangs, dump trucks go "ee, ee, boom" according to Caleb and we've taught the boy that bears say "aa, aah, choo". That's from Bear Snores On.

I'm sure he says more but it's hard to keep track and you never know what he's going to decide to repeat. I told him last week "you're so funny" and he turned around and said "i so funny" back to me and has since started laughing and saying "ah's so funny". He also loves saying "eeinside" and that's to go inside and outside.

Moving
Caleb has gotten very good at climbing up and down the stairs and does it by himself sometimes (but I still get nervous not watching him). He's started running a little bit but it still looks a lot like a fast walk. At the playground he can climb up ladders and has climbed the cargo net with just a little help from mommy. And he loves going down the slide.

The boy still loves music and dancing and has added coloring and drawing to the mix. Outside it's with chalk- our sidewalk is almost always covered with drawings and marks of some sort. Inside it's crayons and markers. I'm slowly coming around to introducing him to paint. We'll see. He's also started playing with playdoh but isn't too into that. He really doesn't like touching weird things. But he did taste the playdoh and made a lovely face before deciding "yuck".

well, I think that's all I can think of for now. These past two years have gone by so quickly. I'm so excited to see him learning new things every day but sometimes I miss how small he used to be.

Caleb turns 2

Caleb is 2 years old!!!

We wrapped up his 2nd birthday party this evening and I think it went well, except for the singing of Happy Birthday, but I'll get to that in a bit.

Caleb had a big day today. It started this morning with a Storybook Walk through Frick Park with daddy. I think it might have been the happiest place in the world. It combined all of his loves, a playground, books and even a bookmobile. Apparently, they set up little areas throughout the park and had story times (complete with carpet squares to sit on). They had crafts for the kids, snacks, face painting and plenty of books. One of the highlights for Caleb was seeing the buses that were shuttling people to and from the parking areas. He kept telling Andy "yeyo skool bus" (that's the best I can do with typing it phonetically).

They were at the story walk from about 9:30 this morning 'til 1. Then we got him home, gave him quick lunch and sent him off to bed for quick nap. G'mas and G'pas and aunts and uncles were coming in at 3 for a little cake and ice cream...or so we thought.

Well, the parkway coming into Pittsburgh was shut down (for hopefully one final time) and that meant even more traffic than usual. On top of that, I'm sure the Pitt football game also added to the traffic. Shortly before 3 we got a call from my dad saying that they were stuck in traffic. Then a little while later, my mom called saying not only were they stuck in traffic but also having car trouble and they wouldn't be able to make it in. Finally at 4 my brother showed up, thinking he was late only to learn that they were the first ones to arrive and then my dad pulled up right after that. During this time, Caleb had not taken a nap but Sadie managed to sneak one in since everyone was late getting here.

The party went really well after the rocky start. Caleb was really excited to see everyone and after Sadie woke up, she was happy to see G'ma and G'pa. We were able to comfortably stay inside since it was so muggy outside, it was nice to be in air conditioning. After some play time and munching on snacks we started opening presents. The highlight of the presents would have to be a birthday card from G'ma and G'pa that played "Celebration" when you opened it. Caleb and Sadie would both stand at the couch dancing to the music and there were a few times where we had to stop with the presents to play the music. G'ma and G'pa also got him Elmo and Ernie bumper cars. Those were quite the hit. Both kids loved chasing them around the dining room. Caleb got a soccer ball from Uncle Jason and Aunt Lindsay that Sadie really liked and grabbed onto several times this evening. Andy and I got him some Thomas tracks and Edward because he's the number 2 engine.

After playing with new presents and coloring new pictures and reading new stories, it was finally time for cake. We set Caleb in his seat. He tasted the icing a bit. Then we lit the candles and began to sing and Caleb began to cry, not just cry sob. We don't know why and can only guess that our horrible singing offended him so greatly that he was driven to tears. Well, I don't know that that was really the case but he was not happy with us singing and attempted to push the cake away, getting icing all over his fingers and then tried to climb into my lap. We cleaned up his fingers and then I held him and he finally let us sing but we could only whisper. He liked the candles but wasn't quite ready to blow them out even though he's spent many meals blowing on his strawberries because they were hot. Caleb got a special cupcake that he mauled but seemed to like and we all enjoyed gluten-free cake and ice cream. The cake wasn't too bad, just very heavy. Gluten apparently makes things lighter.

After cake, we played some more then said good bye to everyone. Both little ones were very tired and happily went to bed.