Out for a morning of picking blueberries at Giusto Farms in Acampo. They happened to have a lot of ripe berries on the bushes so there was a special half-price deal going on that week. Our family loves blueberries, and we ended up taking about 5 pounds of them home to freeze!
Baker Elson, Caleb Elson, and Caleb Williams headin' out to find some blues
Teri Thompson helping teach the boys how to get the fruit off the bushes
Landon, eating instead of picking, as to be expected. His face was covered in dirt by the time we left from shoving all those unwashed berries into his mouth!
Tessa, Caleb, and Caleb checking out the farm equipment
Aunt Aly and cousin Beau
Landon kept wandering back over to the corral where the goats and geese were. He definitely loves animals.
Yes, it will forever be known to my friends and I as Marine World, but I guess the correct name now is Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. :) So our friend Lisa had some extra passes and we took the kids for the day to play in the water and ride some rides. I think this was the first big out-of-town day trip that I have done without Jimmy's help, but its always great to go with other friends and their kids so our eyes and hands can help each other out!
Audrey was not hesitant at all to have the bird on her arm. Caleb wasn't quite so sure about it.
Caleb enjoyed using the joystick to make his elephant 'fly' up and down
Landon, wet from the splash pad near the Elephant ride.
Driving the safari jeeps. Each passenger gets their own steering wheel, so no one can argue. :)
On the train ride.
Caleb and Audrey flying the helicopter
It turned out the larger water area was closed for repairs, but the kids had a blast playing in these spouts of water at the little splash pads.
Audrey's favorite way to enjoy it was by leaning her face directly above the hole and letting it spray her right in the face each time, followed by lots of laughter and repeat.
Caleb giving the face spray a try like Audrey was doing.
Flying swings. These about did me in... I had to look way out in front of us to not get sick... Haha.
We didn't actually see any animals, but that will have to be for another trip on a cooler day. This time it was hot and perfect for some rides and some water play!
- It cold! - as he lunges himself repeatedly into our kiddie pool, face first, and loving every second!
- Want that!
- "Hey mommy! We-bra!" - as he points to a Zebra in a book we are looking at.
Other new words:
- Copcle - popsicle
- Cuh-cake - cupcake (used to also refer to 'pancakes')
- Kee-tee - Katie (our next door neighbor)
- Mick-keh Mah - Micke Mouse (when I told him what kind of pancakes we were having for breakfast)
- Mummy - yummy
- Sim soo - swimsuit (as he runs over to us to put it on him when we say we're going swimming)
Spanish:
- Foo-fa - fresa (strawberry)
No new teeth since last month that I am aware of...
Still loves his bottle, though he only has it at bedtime now.
Paci ("pabay") is very beloved still as well.
Getting better at fine motor skills...He helped me put wooden pegs into the holes for a book shelf I was putting together, he is able to connect some trains and trucks with their trailers all by himself, and is getting very close to being able to connect the garbage cans to the lift mechanism on Caleb's big garbage truck.
Gets very excited when we correctly repeat back to him a word he has tried saying to us and he can tell he communicated what he wanted to.
Hair is quite blonde, and his eyes are definitely much more brown than they were at the beginning of this year, though we still see some hints of hazel mixed into them... Much lighter brown than Caleb's eyes, though.
Absolutely loves playing in the water, and is quite fearless (which is very scary for us!).
Still LOVES to dance! Here is a video of the boys at the Farmer's Market recently, or click link here:
Today is Caleb's third birthday! It has been a long time since I've done any stats updates for him, so here is everything I have been jotting down about his personality and preferences as he has neared three:
Caleb has started calling us "mom" and "dad" most of the time, instead of "mommy" and "daddy". It feels kind of strange. Make it feel like he is too grown up for my liking. :S
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite Songs right now: "Life is a Highway" from the Cars movie, and a song we call "Follow Me", which basically just sings the scripture of Matthew 16:24 (Click here to hear a sample of it). (By the way, these are great cds for kids that don't sound much like kid music, so I actually really enjoy them, too. They are called Family Worship Seeds, and you can hear samples on Amazon.)
When asked today what he wants to be when he grows up, he smiled and said "You know...!" I said, "No, I don't know... Can you tell me?" He said "Fire truck!" I asked a few more questions to clarify, and he said "I want to do the Hook and Ladder when I grow up." Looks like his current career choice is a Fire Fighter.
Caleb sometimes needs reminding to use 'please' when he wants something, but he is very good about saying "No thank you" when he doesn't want something, including in a groggy state the middle of the night when I try to give him Mr. Monkey or put his blanket over him. Cracks me up that he thinks to say "no thank you" when he is half asleep.
Caleb has picked up on mommy's habit of saying "Oh my gosh" and "Oh my goodness", but he says it in a very funny way that always makes us smile.
Likes to count and then yell "Go!!", but instead of 1, 2, 3, his is usually "1, 2, 3, 4, Go!!"
Caleb has really been into running around a ton lately, as fast as he can, with as big of strides as he can, and a big smile to go with it. He loves to have people watch how fast he can run, whether inside or outside.
Fairly sensitive to loud noises - the blender (Nutrabullet), the lawnmower (Recently while Jimmy was mowing he told him, with his hands over his ears, "I'm going to go away from your loud mower."), the blowdryer... Sensitive undamaged child eardrums I guess? Never used to bother him though...
Caleb is VERY observant and has a really good memory. He pays attention to every little detail, and notices immediately if he walks into a room where something is different, like a new decoration on the mantle. He knows all of our neighbors' names and their cars, even if we see the same kind of car like theirs out around town (out of the context of our neighborhood).
After the nap-dropping scare during the last few weeks in Chile, Caleb soon returned to his daily nap schedule (thank goodness!), and usually gives us about an hour to an hour fifteen.
Starting to be a lot more interested in blocks and building things, mainly fire trucks, and the Hook and Ladder ones specifically.
A wild and exciting rendition of "Rock a Bye Baby", in which the boys get 'rocked' and were giving great belly laughs
Like to love on Landon
Really likes doing puzzles. Until a couple of months ago we didn't own any, but he loves doing them now.
Likes playing Ring around the Rosie with Jimmy and I, or with Landon.
Loves going to "the gym" (Impact Sports open gym time) and the science/train museum (the WOW museum). We go to one or both of them each week.
As of just recently he likes getting into the pit of foam blocks
Enjoying reading books alone or with us during the day time, which he didn't do until these past few months. I think it helps having a little brother who is really into books right now, too, and plus its good cuddle time, which Caleb loves.
His shoes of choice are definitely his Fire Boots (rain boots).
Likes holding hands with Landon in the car. (No, we didn't go anywhere with him not in a carseat :))
Enjoys hugging the big bear outside of Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Glad he still doesn't know what that store sells... :)
Much to daddy's excitement, Caleb is starting to show some pretty impressive skills at playing baseball. Around the beginning of June he took interest in hitting the ball, briefly from the T, then he quickly moved on wanting Jimmy to just pitch it to him. He has gotten quite good at connecting, and now when we put the T up for him he can smack the ball half way across the yard or out into the street. We got him a baseball glove for his birthday so now we have to teach him how to use that, instead of him wanting to throw the ball to us for us to use his glove to catch.
This was lesson number one, the batter's box and home plate. Tap home plate...
