Caleb 2008

Another year has passed and Caleb is now 3 years old. No more a baby or even a toddler, he's our little boy and it's been so exciting to watch him grow and change and learn. Here are some things about Caleb...

Caleb has amazed us with his vocabulary and how quickly he jumped from making only animal sounds to speaking in sentences, reciting songs and even books. He loves singing and can often be heard up in his room singing "Take me out to the ballgame" or most recently "Rise and Shine and give God the glory" (a storybook that illustrates the song). He continues to love his books and now at naptime and bedtime brings at least 10 books into bed with him. Andy and I tried to limit the number of books but he would just go over to his shelf and take more, we decided to let him be. I don't know how many nights we've gone to check on him and found him asleep with a book on his chest. Once he can read, we'll really be in trouble. And speaking of reading, he's on his way. He can read STOP and even today pulled letters out of a puzzle and spelled STOP on the table. It's not going to take him long to pick it up. He also knows his numbers and happily counts to 20 when asked. And to think June of 2007, he wasn't really talking at all.

Caleb also continues to LOVE puzzles and I really wish we could find a small puzzle for him to do between with 50-75 pieces. He easily puts the 48 piece floor puzzles together and has even gone so far as to be able to use the picture on the box to figure out where a piece might go without actually connecting it to the other pieces. One good thing is that he never seems to get bored with his puzzles even though he's done them at least a hundred times. He still happily put them together and even likes it when Sadie hands him pieces.

Now we are trying to keep him from being too much of a bookworm. :-) He does love playing outside and with the recent addition of a sandbox to the backyard, he's always asking to go out. He loves digging in the sand and the dirt, looking for wiggle-worms, and running races aroudn the yard with Sadie. When we're out front, he is most often found riding in the Cozy Coupe and parking behing our car to get gas. It's been so fun seeing the kids play together outside and seeing Caleb beginning to pretend and make up games.

The big news this year is that Caleb is starting pre-school. He'll be going 2 mornings a week to a little pre-school in Shadyside. Yesterday was his first orientation day and tomorrow he goes for real. We're hoping that he gets some more opportunities to be with other kids and I'm looking forward to getting him more art opportunities. We'll see how this goes. He did like storytime yesterday and of course enjoyed exploring the new toys and puzzles in the classroom.

Now unfortunately potty-training has not been going so well. We've been working on this, it seems like forever, and seemed to be getting the hang of it in August. Then he started having stomach issues. I got tired of the huge messes and being confined to the house so I started putting him in pull-ups. That was a big mistake. Now his stomach seems to be settling a little but he no longer goes on the potty and I'm left with tons of accidents. We've been trying to watch his diet and had him tested for celiac and now we're just waiting for the results. I'm praying that the pre-school will continue to be understanding about all this while we get it straightened out.

Caleb is still a very picky eater and continues to vomit when trying new foods but we are seeing some improvements. Most recently he's been enjoying corn muffins and peanut butter bread. It's taking a lot of patience and is so challenging trying to decided when to be firm with him and when to let his eating go. But then again, I'm finding that with just about every aspect as these kids get older. I want to be consistant and yet it can be so hard to maintain the energy for being consistant. Then there's wanting to be firm but not so strict that you're constantly battling. Now I look back on the days when they were infants and think "my word, they were so easy."

I still feel so blessed to have this amazing little boy who says the sweetest things and has the most amazing smile. I'm looking forward to all the discoveries he'll be making this year and can't wait to watch him continue to grow.