Catching Up on Caleb

When did my bright-eyed baby Caleb become a little boy? Caleb is talking up a storm and I wonder daily where he comes up with the things he says. Today he woke up and said to his train table, "Good Morning, train tracks. You my best friend." He LOVES his trains and has decided that he is asking Santa for a Thomas train. Not sure which one since we have several but I guess Santa will have to find another one. Having the train table in his room has been perfect since he gets up most mornings and plays in his room by himself for a little while. The extra minutes of getting Clara settled before Hurricane Caleb comes through have proven to be beneficial on more than one occasion!

We haven't worked on potty training very much lately. I guess we are supposed to be but we aren't and I'm not ashamed. He just hasn't taken much of an interest at all and we don't have the time or energy to constantly nag him about it, so I'm just waiting a little while. Most people I talk to say it didn't truly click for their boys until around 3. I had hoped it would be sooner than that for us, but I'm not going to force the issue because I think it is just more trouble than it's worth. I also don't mind not having to ask him if he has to go potty every 5 minutes.

He still loves trucks and tractors and loves to point them out as we drive by. He says, "Ohh, look at the big tractor, Mama. See it?" He also loves to swing - that is where I find him most days when I pick him up from school. He can see the cars and trucks go by from the school swing, so I think he must be in 2-year-old-boy heaven.

Speaking of school, Caleb is very protective around his sister during drop-off and pick-up. The little girls like to come up and visit with Clara, but Caleb says "my baby sister" and tries to close the canopy on her car seat. I try to make it a teaching moment about sharing but can't help but find his actions endearing. I hope she'll be able to rely on his protection for years to come.

Seth calls Clara "Clara-bean" sometimes. Because of that, Caleb calls Clara "Clara-bean" almost all the time. I think he thinks that Clara is her nickname.

Caleb's Turn

Caleb has a new toy laptop and he likes to pretend to be like Mommy and Daddy with it. We have this table set up in our room until we find a desk to match our new bed, and Seth and I work at it on our laptops. Caleb saw me at the table the other day, ran out of the room, grabbed his laptop and then came back in the room. He looked at me and said, "Excuse me Mama, Caleb's turn." Of course I let him right up.

A Couple of Cute Stories

I don't have any recent photos, but here are a couple of stories of things that have happened recently:

Gloves
Like most of the country, Nashville has had a really cold winter. After taking an interest in my gloves one morning, I put Caleb’s mittens on him. He then ran circles around the couch clapping his hands and yelling “gloves, gloves!” When Seth took him to school that morning, he wouldn’t take them off. All the other kids were jealous of Caleb’s gloves, so the teacher had to get out the gloves that they sometimes use for art. At some point that morning, the gloves were removed – I’m assuming not until snack time though. When I picked him up after lunch, I put the gloves back on him before heading outside. Once we got home, he didn’t want to take them off, so he had them on during his entire nap. I made him take them off after he got food all over them during his afternoon snack….

Ashes
We randomly played “Ring Around the Rosies” with Caleb a couple of weeks ago. Now he routinely grabs one of our hands, begins looking for the other parent and says, “hand? ashes?” He doesn’t like just playing with one of us. For example if Seth is at work, Caleb will grab my hand, look around and then say “Dada, hand, ashes?” When I say that Daddy is at work, he reluctantly plays ashes with just me. Ashes is just not limited to house play either. We met Jeremy and Mica at Buca di Beppo in Cool Springs last week (after Caleb’s dreaded haircut). After dinner, Caleb and I waited outside for Daddy to use the restroom before driving 45 minutes home. Caleb wanted to play ashes, so he settled for just a Mommy and Caleb game. When Seth came back out, all three of us held hands and walked around in circles, falling to our feet at the end. Don’t you wish you could have seen us? :)