It sure is hard to believe you are three years old. I have been a bit sad today honestly. And last night. And the last couple weeks. I stayed up late cleaning up the nuclear fallout that was our house. It took me three hours to get three rooms under control. Two rooms and a few blocks on the floor in the third actually. I wanted today to be yours completely. I didn’t want to worry with the house. I sat down last night when I was all done and just stared at your pictures. My how you have changed. Each month that passes I find myself thinking, this is absolutely the best age. Surely it can’t get any better than this. I just want to freeze you at this age forever. But another month passes, and with it come new things, requiring me to revise my “favorite” age.

An hour old

A day old

I have now realized, I am trying to kill myself, one ridiculously difficult birthday cake at a time. We did a construction theme for your first birthday, so messy was okay. I can still remember Scott and I suddenly both waking up at 3:30am. We couldn’t believe both of us woke up at the same time, and looked at the clock. We counted down the minutes until 3:35 and we both kissed you and told you Happy Birthday as you lay there snuggled between us sound asleep. At 3:36, Scott started snoring again. I was up until around 5:30am reliving those first hours like a movie recorded in my head and played back on the dim ceiling of the bedroom.

The smash cake

For your second birthday, I must have looked up one gazillion different vehicle cakes. I settled on a Disney Cars themed cake. Four birthday cakes later, I had the 1.5 cakes I needed.

For Christmas, your grandmother (my mom) gave you a cake pan that bakes little car shaped cakes. As soon as I saw it, I knew it had birthday written all over it. We decorated cakes in February, and I began the baking process Thursday. We had to reschedule the birthday party at the last second, so I started over on Saturday so that the cakes would be fresh for Sunday’s party. Let me tell you little man, I sure hope you appreciated it, because I actually dreamed about baking cakes. No lie. I was so worried I wouldn’t have time to finished decorating Sunday morning, that I dreamed I was painting little cars in my sleep. When we were pulling out of the driveway, I calmly turned to Scott and said, you are a Sunday afternoon driver and you are 80 years old. I fully expect you to anticipate a pig falling out of the sky. Because if those cakes have a fender bender in the trunk, you won’t live to tell about it! (PS they were all delivered in pristine condition.)

Each car has a chocolate letter on it (yep, made those myself too) that spells out Happy Birthday Caleb #3

There’s even a Lightning McQueen

you and cousin BJ

Three towering candles

A chocolate muffin with candles for the birthday boy this morning. Charley was there to help blow them out. And eat some muffin.

One of the most common phrases in our household is now “I can do it aww by mysewf.” Everything from climbing in the car, going down steps, and using adult silverware to trying to dress yourself, putting on your shoes, and reading (reciting from memory) books. You have yet to apply this newly found independence to potty training though. Soon enough, soon enough.You have become our car radio. You sing us down the road every car trip now. We exchange glances and giggle in the front seat over how adorable you sound. Your birthday party was moved to its rain-date location at the church. The whole way home yesterday, you sang to us, “Wain Wain Go away, Come again a-nut-der day…”I love that you can pronounce words such as Mississippi and Maximum Destruction, but no matter how many times we tell you that our orange cat is a boy named Bubbus, you insist that she is a girl and her name is Bobbis. We pronounce Bub-bus very clearly and you respond Bob-bis with the same clarity.

In your hooded bear towel from Auntie Julie

I love that you ask about Daddy during the day all the time as if he is a long lost friend. Once every few hours, you will ask, “Where’s my Daddy?” or say “I want my Daddy home.” You are his shadow, his little helper. Anything he is working on. From changing tires, to working on ovens to fixing coffee. You are right there, soaking up information about the task at hand. If it involves tools, you will no doubt need your Little Tikes assortment of tools as well. Daddy has you in training, you pick flowers for me outside like they are going out of style. You have even gotten into a few landscaping beds at public places and picked flowers before I could stop you.

Playing with birthday stuff

I love that you think I belong to you. You love to be close. In my lap resting your head while we read a book. Cradled in my arms to fall asleep at naptime. Practically in my lap in a restaurant booth. Two inches in front of my face speaking as if you were three rooms away if I’m trying to nap. There are no personal boundaries. Personal space is non-existent. When Scott and I hug, you run over to worm in between our legs. You put your back against mine and push Daddy away with all your little might. The other day you even said, “Move Daddy, so I can have Mommy!” You already have me kiddo. You already have me.

Like the porcupine shirt? He chose this shirt out of about five different ones. Probably because it looks like the wolverines on the game he loves, Gulo Gulo.

Playing Froggy Boogie

One night a few weeks ago, I was sitting with you just before bed. All was dark and quiet, I couldn’t help but hug you extra tight and kiss you a few extra times. As I buried my face in your soft cheeks you whispered “You’re my best mommy.” “And you are my best Boogaman,” I replied softly. I just couldn’t let go. I couldn’t make myself put you in the bed. We sat, you cradled in my arms. Your legs hung well over the armrest. I just watched you intently. A few times you reached up and closed my eyes, as if to say “quit staring at me!” I asked if you were ready to get in bed. “Sit wif you.” Okay, but just for a few more minutes, then you must go to bed. Just for a few more minutes, need me to fix anything with a hug. Just for a few more minutes, stay little. Just for a few more minutes.

I love you more today than I did yesterday. And I’ll love you more tomorrow than I did today. Happy birthday Little Man.

4 Comments

Fwig·is·wa·tor: Where one would typically put something that they would like to keep cold. An appliance that usually is combined side by side, below or now above a fweezer. Yes a fweezer. The only thing left in the house that my child has little to no interest in and has never really even attempted to get into, break, or otherwise deface or destroy.

Leave a Comment

…in Caleb’s imagination!  He piled up the couch cushions on the floor to form, what I presume to be, a sand dune.  He climbed on top of it, and pointed down at the sand (carpet).  As I sat folding laundry, he got a bath mat out and dried off from swimming, then I told him to look behind the beach chair-recliner for a beach ball.  So he got his ball and threw it in the sand, then he found a treasure map, and we dug for buried treasure, which ended up usually being “yum-yums.”  Whatever that is.  We drank juice, and milk and chocolate milk, and ate our weight in yum-yums, dug up numerous treasures.  He would say, “come help me dig mom,” and scrape his hands wildly at the floor.  All of this came from his little imagination.  That is really the first time he’s done anything like that.  It was too cute.  I just let him lead the show, to see where he would go with it.

1 Comment

Luckily, the weather on the coast is impossible to predict. When we left, it was supposed to rain through Sunday! It rained most of our drive. But after we arrived, the rain passed and it was sunny and hot the rest of the weekend! We hauled all of these tools with us so that Scott could move the air vent for the couple who owned the house where we stayed. When he went to talk with the wife about it, she basically said, you aren’t cutting another hole in my hardwoods!!! Who can blame her, but that meant we brought a huge sawzall (to cut the hole with), a drill, flashlight, box of flex, and other miscellaneous crap…for nothing. Scott went to Lowe’s and bought a few cans of expanding foam to insulate the current vent and called it a day.

We went to the aquarium while we were there. That was pretty neat. They had some HUGE stingrays. I love watching them swim, just gliding through the water so gracefully. Caleb seemed to think it was pretty cool, but I think overall, he was a little over stimulated the entire weekend. Just being out of his element, in the car a lot, not sleeping that well, etc. We all fell into bed last night and knocked out until 8am. We are actually hoping to go to the mountains next month…not so sure that will work out…but I would love to see the colors changing. Good news…our grass is returning to our front yard! Scott rendered it a mud hole with his RC truck, but we must have gotten some rain while we were gone, because it has started to fill back in.

I spent a completely unnecessary amount of time worrying about where Caleb would sleep.  We brought along an air mattress, so that he could sleep in our room since we’d be in strange place.  To our surprise, one bedroom had a full bed and a twin bed right up against each other.  Great!  Did I mention a slab of rock would have slept better?  So the second night, I sent Scott outside to blow up the air mattress using a air compressor that plugs into your cigarette lighter.  I know, we’re so prepared.  FORTY minutes later (20 minutes after Caleb passed out in my arms), he returned with the mattress.  I put it in the second bedroom thinking surely this bed would sleep better than the other one.  I woke up around 5am to check on Boog.  Not only was he way off to one side using a balled up blanket as a pillow, he was also sleeping on the hardwood floor!  Obviously the air mattress that took 40 minutes to blow up had a hole in it.  I felt so bad!  I put Caleb in the bed with Scott and I slept on the loveseat the rest of the morning.  By the way, the second bed was no better.  Both rocks.  So in that aspect, I’m glad to be home to my pillowtop.  Overall, it was quite nice to get away.

Leave a Comment

To rediscover the world though a child’s eyes (and ears). We were walking around the pond behind our house this afternoon. I didn’t really even notice the crickets chirping in the edge of the woods. I grew up in th country, and the bugs and frogs just sort of blend into the sound of being outside to me. Caleb stopped to listen and said, “Hear dat? Hear dos bugs Momma? They singing. Hear da bugs singing Momma?” Yes I do. I hear them singing baby.

sunset behind our house

2 Comments

With Caleb being a late talker, we celebrated over every little word. He was pretty much silent his entire second year of life (from 12 to 23 months). Then he just decided it was time to talk. But I had no idea how fun it would be once we started to talk back and forth, and have actual conversations. It just makes him seem more like a little mini adult. And as an added bonus, you never know what kids are going to say. Just the other day he looked at me and said, “Mommy got BIIIIIIIIG boobies!” Scott of course, thought it was the most hilarious thing ever. Okay it was pretty funny, but not something I want to encourage, because I am usually the one that goes out shopping with him. A sample from our daily conversations:

We bought two hot wheels at Target, and one became lodged under the carseat on the way home. I had groceries to put away, so I left it. At his naptime, I had to pry the other hot wheels away so that he would go to sleep. I just went in to get him up…

C: Mommy where’s momocycil (motorcycle)?
Me: Under the pillow
C: Ooooo! Mommy where’s red car? (because he has a memory like an elephant, and he dreams about cars and wakes up thinking about them)
Me: Out in the car, it got stuck under the carseat, remember?
C: Oh. <long pause> Mommy go get red car please.
Me: Ooookay.

I swear he must dream about cars. Scott recently got a new RC monster truck. Caleb is just totally obsessed with it. When he wakes up from his nap…”Get Daddy’s big new truck?” Scott doesn’t even get a hello when he walks in the door…”Daddy! Get big new truck!” Who knew there were a such thing as car genes and that they could be genetically passed down from father to son.

Scott had a cookie last night, and of course quickly acquired a new best friend perched on his lap.

S: What do you say?
C: I want one I want some I want…
S: What’s the magic word?
C: Cookie?

But yes he is starting to say please and thank you and sorry. So that means we must be doing something right. Right? I think so.

~~~

I just thought to add, Caleb has a few favorite new phrases, “Dat (that) works” and “No problem.”

~~~

Okay just one more thing to add, I promise…Suddenly every unidentifiable or out of the ordinary noise is a “monmer” (monster). Sometimes I wonder what all goes on in that little head. He had another night terror the other night I think. It was mild compared to the others, I’m not totally convinced that he wasn’t just too hot. He was all sweaty, and woke up and resettled pretty easily. He’s only had about five night terrors all together, but it seems like he is impossible to wake up fully or console. He just screams, and even though his eyes are open, it doesn’t seem like he is really awake.

Leave a Comment

Last night I was giving Caleb a quick bath. No water in the tub, just using the showerhead. Our drain has no cover or stopper over the hole. So of course, as little boys do…he started peeing. He watched the stream for a second, then took a step forward, and aimed it right down the inch and half diameter drain hole. That’s my boy! I figure he shouldn’t have too many problems getting it in a toilet sometime in the next year.

Leave a Comment

(Additional note: It is only on Wednesday August 1st that I realize that I typed this on a Tuesday, not a Monday, thus proving a strong case for Mommy Brain as an actual disease inflicting mothers everywhere. But I think I’ll leave it as memory monday anyhow.)

~ ~ ~

Why didn’t I take more pictures? I think this all the time. Some people would laugh at this statement, especially when scrolling through the 30+ gigs on my hard drive of his first two years. But there were many missed opportunities. I wish Scott had taken more pictures at his birth. And his first bath. Those are all blurry because the professional nazis nurses work so fast and he was screaming. Why didn’t I buy a better camera sooner? Why did I insist on trying not to use the flash the first month, resulting in many blurry shots? But the question I am asking today…why didn’t I take pictures of Caleb’s one trip to Georgia? My mom’s family lives there. She said my grandmother is ‘ready to be with Daddy.’ And I don’t have a single picture of my son with his great grandmother. I never will. I still remember the last time I saw my cousin William. I was about 13. It was the middle of the summer, and my mom and I were visiting family in Georgia. I don’t remember even knowing that he was a deputy sheriff. But I remember exactly how he looked. I remember how my grandmother’s furniture was arranged. She has this delicate loveseat covered in pink fabric. She had it positioned caddy corner by the doorway leading from her den to the sun porch. I had my nose buried in a Seventeen magazine as most 13 year old girls do. I didn’t even get up to see who had come to the door. He walked past the window between the sun porch (which used to be exposed to the outside, thus explaining the window between the rooms) and den. I was taken back by how handsome he looked. On his lunch break I think. He was in uniform, and he took his hat off and placed it over his heart as he entered the room, greeting three ladies as any gentleman would. When he sat down, he put his hat on his knee, and his arm behind my grandmother. Side by side on that loveseat. He looked so strong, and she looked so tiny. As if the loveseat may just tip and send her up in the air at any given second. I just sat quietly as my mom, grandmother and he visited. I can’t remember anything he said that day. I wish I could. I don’t even know whether I was listening. When you see someone so young, you never think that it could be the last time you see them. My grandmother said he came by once a week to visit. She seemed so proud of him. Looking back, I am too. Proud to have called him family. I remember hugging him before he left. I can’t remember hugging my grandmother last time I saw her. I know I did. But I can’t remember it. I can’t remember whether I was holding Caleb when I hugged her, or what room we were in. I can’t even remember what she looked like holding him. If only I had known that I wouldn’t see her again. That he wouldn’t remember meeting her that single time. If only I had tried harder to remember the details in those sleepless days with my 7 month old. If only I had taken just one picture…

Leave a Comment

I love you. Actually four. I love you Mommy. You’ve never actually said this as a sentence. Not without being prompted sort of. Like “Tell daddy love you,” or “Tell Momma love you.” But today was different. Last week when you woke up from your nap sick, I couldn’t get you calmed down. Your poor little body had heaved up everything possible. I had stripped your dirty clothes off down to your diaper, and had to wipe it off, because you were too upset to be changed. I wrapped you in a blanket and kept trying to calm you down with no success. Finally I nestled you down in our bed and got a big stack of board books. I snuggled up as close as I could and began reading. You stopped crying immediately, you love books these days. A break in the tears gave your tummy a chance to settle. From that day on, you started asking for books at naptime. I have always just laid down with you in the bed in the past and snuggled you down for a nap. Okay, okay, sometimes I nap too.

I began reading two sweet sleepy time books today. You snuggled close, just under my chin, and said, “I love you Mommy.” Just so quietly and sweetly. I nearly lost it. My voice cracked trying to continue the story, as I sniffled my way through, and you continued to snuggle up close. When we finished our books you turned over and tucked Charley in tight. You said, “I love Charley Mommy.” I hope I remember little moments like this when you are graduating from high school or getting married or when you have a little one of your own. You’ll look up at me at that moment and understand just how much I love you.

Leave a Comment

Well I have a few excuses for not blogging for a week. Number 1, and most important, I have officially unplugged my kid from the tv. And it was super easy, to my pleasant surprise! I also pulled the plug…he is only using his paci at naps and night time. My other reason for the lack of blogging: I am trying to come up with a new name. I change names like I change clothes apparently, but I want a new blog title and perhaps my own domain. I want something catchy that makes other moms shake their heads and say yep, been there, done that. Needless to say I’ve come up with zilch so far.

Cute things that the kiddo has done:

  • The disappearing car trick: He holds the car up and then puts it (in his hand) behind his back. He holds up the free hand as if to say “Where’d it go??” Then he points to it, and brings it back out as if he has just performed the greatest feat of all time. I clap and he grins from ear to ear, eyes dancing with delight. He even tucked the car between his upper arm and his side a few times, so it really did ‘disappear.’ I love it! Just when I thought he couldn’t get ANY cuter!
  • I had him “hewl mama” [help momma] make brownies a few nights ago. He had fun stirring and eating chocolate chips. After grabbing a fair share out of the bowl we explained that they must be mixed in, so he waved and told them bye and we stirred them into the batter.
  • After the brownies cooked, Scott tried to give him a bite, but he shook his head and ran to me. I didn’t say anything, I just set a piece with a chocolate chip on the table. He snatched it up and ate it, and then I put his in his chair. He kept attacking my plate for more. I/we finished mine and he threw his little arms up to say ‘all gone’ then glanced at Scott’s plate. Spying that daddy had some brownie left, he nearly jumped out of his chair to go steal some. He picked every little crumb off both plates.

He has a laundry list of words now. His speech has increased by leaps and bounds in the last few weeks. I think he is late talking because he wants to be sure he can say things correctly. He has never been one to babble very much either. Here is the unofficial and probably incomplete list:

Words
mama
dada/daddy
nigh-nigh (for night night)
hat
moon
ball
hey
bib
bone
eat
you
me
yay
big
baby
bubble
beep beep
child
go
help
bag
wow
wheel
cookie
up
down
bee
bowl
out
elbow
knee
boat
uhoh
more
book
door
good
ear
byebye
Oh Gah!
(Yes, he says this while throwing his hands
over his eyes in a very dramatic manner.
This usually happens when we have to come in
from outside)

plus the noises for:
car
train (hoo hoo while ‘chugging’ his arm up and down)
airplace
bird-tweet tweet
cow-moo
sheep-bah
pig-*snorts*
lion/bear/tiger/etc-roar
rooster-a very high pitched squeel
cat-neow (yes said with a ‘N’)
dog-woof woof
horse-*neighs*
owl-whooo whooo
elephant-*makes trumpeting sound while tilting his head back*
monkey-hoo hoo hoo ha ha [the CUTEST]
chicken-bak bak
siren-(like the fire chief that must live near us, we hear all the time)
honks nose

knows signs for:
eat
milk
drink
hat
drive
open
fix
more
airplane
learning I love you

And words just added in the last five minutes:
Mack [the truck on Cars (with Lightning McQueen)]
cook

Leave a Comment

Next Page »