Bits and Pieces about Caleb

It has been a while since I've recorded Caleb's likes, habits, and funny little quirks.  Here are some of his recent happenings...

Caleb is doing a lot more singing and reciting things that he hears lately.  He can just about say the whole Lord's Prayer, which we do at bedtime each night.  We've gotten to the point where I say the first word if he is stuck, and he finishes the sentences.  He even corrected me one night when I said it slightly differently.

He also sings some song he knows (or maybe has made up...) of "The Lord is Good" over and over, or other days its combined with the Flag Salute, which they are learning at preschool.  This was the most recent one I overheard him saying:  "The Lord is Good, the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, liberty and justice for all.  Now, today we are going to have snack first.  Potty and wash."

Since I have been teaching some preschool Spanish classes on the side it has resparked Caleb's interest in Spanish.  We listen to my Spanish class cd in the car often, and his favorite song has been 'Saco una manito', a cute song about hiding your hands behind your back, taking one out at a time, making it dance, closing it, opening it, and hiding it behind you again.  He has down most of the lyrics of the first part:  "Saco la manito la hago bailar, la cierro, la abro, la vuelvo a guardar." 

Along with his singing is also coming more dancing.  This is "The Caleb Dance," as daddy has dubbed it <Video below or click here>

Many days Caleb will insist on sleeping in his 'running hat'.  He loves that hat. This day he also insisted on sleeping on the floor of his room.  And now that the weather is getting colder he has started wearing his 49ers beanie during naptime instead.

Other days (most days) when he sleeps in his bed he will sometimes call it his 'kayak' (something daddy started I think?) and his asks us occasionally to sleep in his kayak with him.  I don't do it very often because I definitely don't want to start a habit of it, but every now and then Jimmy or I will lay there with him until he falls asleep.  I try to remind myself that this is something we will look back on fondly when he is older. :)

This past few weeks he is getting into playing make-believe games - his favorite of which is playing "bomberos" (fire fighters).  We were at the park and he was running around with his boots on one day...  He said "I have to put my gear on! (as he pretends to get dressed), then "mommy put your gear on!  Put your phone down! (as I'm trying to take a video of his imaginative play)".  The video I thought I was taking turns out to not have been recording :(

Loves playing with his buddy, "Jake man", as he likes to call him.

Loving riding his bike...

Realized today that he can correctly identify twenty letters of the alphabet!  Still needing help with r, w, y, k, n, and q.

As I said each letter for his name he found them and we spelled his name together:

Says he likes "meat", but not chicken (referring to red meat, which he calls 'brown' meat).  Not very into veggies right now.  Still doesn't like potatoes in any form except for fries - not mashed, not red potatoes in stew, not sugary sweet potato pie on Thanksgiving even!  Has never been crazy about tortillas, which are such a versatile food from a mom's perspective, but I have started calling quesadillas "Mexican Pizzas" and he loves it.  Funny the games you have to play sometimes.

Caleb is getting sillier all the time...

Part of his silliness includes swapping out letters in words to make new words and silly sounding names for things.  He thinks he is pretty hilarious.  I like hearing him experiment with language and rhyming.

Jimmy called him a white "Urkel" when he saw this picture.  Totally made it up himself when I told him to pose for a picture with his new boots on.  Cracked me up.

Landon is 2 years old!

Landon is TWO!  What a joy he is with his silly personality, he makes us laugh every day with his wiggles, dance moves, and silly faces.  

Just started saying his own name as "Nan-Nan."

At his appointment today he weighed in at 33 lbs (93%), was 36 3/4 in. tall (95%).

He is getting very good at singing Happy Birthday (from a few friends' recent parties we went to...), and just in time.

On Halloween, Landon quickly learned how to say "Trick or Treat" when he went up to a house.

When he wants us to play or read, or wants to show us something, he says "Come, Come," and waves us toward him with a downward facing hand.

Sometimes at bedtime he says "Byyyyye!" as we leave the room.  

He has learned his first color: BLUE.  I was holding something blue in my hand the other day and he walked up, pointed, and said, "Bwoo".   My guess is he learned this one from Caleb, whose favorite color is undoubtedly blue, since Caleb asks for the blue _____ (spoon, plate, bowl, socks, etc) all the time.

We have been listening to a cd of Spanish kids songs in the car that I use for my Spanish classes.  One of the boys' favorite songs is an Alphabet march song, to which I sign the letters as we sing.  Landon loves to try to say some of the letters, especially "L" (ele) and "LL" (ay-yay) as he waves his hand around with fingers up like an L.

Starting to learn his numbers.  When I count, after saying 'one' he will say 'two' and 'three'.  He has also done this a couple of times in spanish, me saying 'uno' and he says 'dos, tres'. 

Until a week ago, Landon refused to drink milk from a sippy cup, straw cup or any other cup, cold or hot, except his bottle.  Then someone gave us some of those bowls with a straw connected to them. He LOVES to drink milk through it from his cereal!  He keeps saying "Mo muk peese!" Problem solved. :)

I was gone one day and Jimmy sent me this picture.  When he went in to get Landon after his nap Landon had tucked Elmo in under his baby blanket, and put the paci in Elmo's mouth, and told Jimmy "Melmo Nite Nite" with this proud smirk on his face.  I was impressed that he did that all by himself!

Still likes to give this look, made famous on our trip to Lago Vichuquen in Chile.

Here is one example of why I call Landon my little monkey.  He was sitting on the recliner and slid down with his legs on Nana Dee (just for a moment!) as he drove his car around his lap like he was sitting in a chair!  

Loves to say 'cheese' and smile for the camera and loves to get dirty!  What two year old doesn't love that you ask?  Well, Landon enjoys it a whole lot more than Caleb!

(Notice the layer of fine white powder all over him from the Bocci Ball court....)

Having fun playing Harmonicas (Video here or below):

Finally starting to understand that this car run is only for driving cars, not for little boys to run and climb on. We are at the science museum about once a week and our most recent visit was the first time he tried driving a car on it instead of climbing up like a ramp.

Landon's preferred sleeping position:

Still loves to read, loves to cuddle, with his animals, his blankie, and with us :)

October Fun + Halloween

The kids always have a great time running around at Phillips' Farms, and this happened to be on October 1 when the pumpkin patch stuff was almost all up.  

All three cousins piled into Caleb's bed (full of sand!) one day and thought it was the greatest thing!

Some boys at the park had this contraption, which I later found out is called a "Stomp Rocket".  Caleb wandered over to see what all the fun was about.  Note to self: GREAT boy gift!  They have to run after the rockets each time they shoot them so they get lots of exercise and love doing it, and its inexpensive! :)

Our Wednesday park date with The Elsons ... here are the Calebs being silly. 

...and the younger boys giving some kind of goofy smiles.

Bathtime in Nonni's new (huge) sink

We had lots of fun at a birthday party at the WOW Science museum.  The paper Caleb is drawing on is is black and when you 'draw' it scratches off the black to reveal rainbow colors below - very cool.  Loved these glasses, they make me laugh every time the kids put them on!

The kids got to make "Lava Lamps"

The boys have been enjoying painting and coloring a lot more lately, and Landon is getting better at not spilling the bowl of water :)

We took some of our big trucks to the park one day and there was a group of other little boys there, all between 2 and 3 years old, who LOVED playing trucks too.  Caleb did very well sharing them, including his brand new one. 

On days when it comes before or after naptime, the boys love sitting on the porch to watch...

...the Garbage Truck.  

Caleb's preschool took its first field trip this month to Fog Willow Farms near Wilton.  It is like a big pumpkin patch and animal farm.  We had a great time, and Caleb loved hanging out with his buddy, Jake. 

Learning about Bees

Petting the goat that escaped from the petting zoo area. 

Have you ever tried getting 20 three year olds to sit still and all smile for a picture??  Not an easy task!

Caleb loved climbing around on this jungle gym of hay bales.  I think it might have been his favorite part.

Getting ready to carve a pumpkin with Daddy...

Pumpkin decorating with a Sharpie (+ close supervision!)

Landon didn't want to do anything but stab the pumpkin guts with the carving knife, haha.

And the next day, painting pumpkins.  Note for next time: don't use Tempera paint.  It dried very spotty and thin, as if we had painted with kids' watercolors.

This year we had a plethora of pumpkins at our house, of all shapes and sizes.... 

I discovered something called 'surface carving' and had a lot of fun with it!  Its a tool that looks like a razor used for shaving, but it has three different attachments for carving out different design.  It was fun to get to decorate a pumpkin without the work (and time) of hollowing it out first!  Will definitely be doing this again.

Instead of wearing costumes to school on Halloween, Caleb's school all wore pajamas, teachers included.  They watched a movie with popcorn and had face painting too.  This is the first time he has had his face painted. He has always checked out other people doing it from a distance, but never wanted his own cheek done.  He has been into 'bats' this month.  

Many have seen this picture on Facebook, but for those who haven't, Jimmy and I went to an adult costume party.  We loved getting dressed up for the occasion!

Here is the full costume, actually a few days before Halloween when we were trying it all on.  Its actually the only time they were wearing all the costume components at once - guess that's just how it goes with little kids and costumes!  :-S

Halloween night was fun, grandparents and great grandparents stopped by to see the boys in their costumes, and then we headed to a friend's house for homemade chili, some trick or treating (boys' first time), and handing out candy.

Caleb (3), cousin Tessa aka Tinkerbell (2 1/2), Landon (23 mo)

Our adorable nephew Beau (10 mo) as a duck!

Here it begins... their first house trick or treating at our neighbor's.

Love our little bomberos!