Sadie's New Smile

yep, our little daredevil chipped her tooth at the grocery store on Saturday. we're still waiting to hear from dentist. just glad it's a baby tooth and not needing a trip to the ER :-)

Dress up Sadie

Sadie and her fur cape. She calls it her "kitty" :-)

Halloween 2008

Caleb- Superman and Sadie- Princess

Fall Fun

Saturday we visited the playground and ended up playing in the leaves with our friend Simon and then later that afternoon we took the kids to Shenot Farms to get some pumpkins. It was a great little trip. It's a small farm that's up in Wexford. They have a hayride that you take to the pumpkin patch (with a fresh apple from the orchard to snack on). Then you can walk around and choose your pumpkin. There's also a corn maze (we didn't try that out- it was almost closing time and didn't want to have to sleep in the cornfield :-)). They also had little samples of apple cider for you to try while out in the fields. Caleb's favorite part was trying to find the perfect sized pumpkin. He wanted to be able to carry it (which was quite a challenge). We had to settle for a pumpkin he could hold for about 2 minutes before letting it drop. Sadie's favorite part was the apple she got to snack on and the hayride. She also had some fun rolling pumpkins down the hill. I thought it was a little risky having a pumpkin patch on the side of a hill :-)

We got our pumpkins and also picked up some fresh cider and apple butter and other yummy stuff.

Now Caleb is very eager to "put a face on his pumpkin". Hopefully we'll get to that tomorrow :-)

hope you like the pics

update

It's been a while since I posted last. Life has thrown us for a loop starting right after Caleb's birthday. My step-mom, Mona (Grammie M to Caleb and Sadie) was taken to the hospital for testing after having some shortness of breath and what seemed like a respiratory infection. We discovered that week that she in fact had uterine cancer that had spread up into her lungs. It was a devastating diagnosis that sent all of us reeling and questioning "why is this happening?" It seemed like every day we were getting bad news, bits and pieces of hope were being chipped away. The only thing that seemed to keep us all together was the desire to be strong for each other and the tremendous outpouring of love, support and prayers for my step-mom, my dad and our family. It seemed like testing went on forever but finally the doctors came through with some hope for us. Mona had her first chemo treatment almost 2 weeks ago and has come through that well. She has several more treatments ahead of her, plus radiation and surgery but there is hope that she'll stay with us and that is a precious hope for our family. We're treasuring our time together, keeping faith that it won't be short and trusting God that he will continue to keep us in his care.

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.

The sweetest sound...

Caleb singing along with the songs on his toy radio.