Caleb Sings a Song

The unit we've been working on lately has been about leaves. In the beginning, we took a leaf off of a plant that we keep on our patio, and we have been watching that leaf in relation to the other leaves still on the plant. We have talked about how leaves work, and how plants in general are vital for our own living (converting carbon dioxide into oxygen). Besides the academics of leaves, we've been learning that "we live and grow in Jesus." Caleb has learned a really cute song that I promised him I would share with the world, so here it is. He's in his PJs, as most of our school is done before breakfast, and we had just finished examining our plant and our leaf (which has not fared very well by itself over the last week!).

Hope Landing Talent Show 2013

Every year, Hope Landing has a talent show to showcase all the wonderful things the kids can do. Last year, James rocked out to Great Balls of Fire. This year, he showed off his alphabet skills. I was so excited at how well he did. (Disclaimer: he doesn't enunciate very well, but *I* know he got the letters right!) And I loved that Caleb had a part, too. I was a little afraid he would have stage-fright, and I prepared the OT (Gena) to take his spot if needed, but he did great! He even stole the mic at the end to say "Hooray for James."


So proud of my boys and all that they accomplish. And so thankful for Hope Landing and the way they pursue the best for our kids.

Here are some other photos from that night....

My two boys and their bow ties. Ready to go! (You can see poor James and his sty)

James with one of his Physical Therapists, Tricia.

Blowing bubbles before the show

Master of Ceremonies and Hope Landing CEO.

Entering the stage.

Dance break!

All the talent of the night, taking a bow

Newbie3 Coming!

I am 11 weeks along! The due date is December 9, but neither of my boys hit anywhere near their due date, so I'm thinking sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas and leaving it at that. The video was taken when I was about 9 weeks along.

I go to my first appointment this Thursday. Any other tidbits I might want to share, I think I've put in posts that I've been writing along the way, and not posting yet. I'll post them up soon!

Be careful, little ears...

I have been struck by how much Caleb hears. He may not understand it all, but he listens and remembers. Of course, there are the things he repeats that I wish he had not heard...or maybe that I wish I had not said. But it is so cool to hear truth come from such young lips!

Here is Caleb singing his Awana Cubbies theme song.


Caleb prays the same prayer every time he prays: Thank you, God, for a great day, and for helping Mommy and Daddy feel better.

Recently, we asked him to pray something different. After all, Mommy and Daddy were not sick any more. And he said, "I'm praying that you'll feel better from your sin!"

Huh. Oh. Well, keep praying for that, then!

He has branched out to pray other things. Sometimes it's funny, often sweet. And every once in awhile, a reminder of how much he listens. A few nights ago, it was, "Thank you, God, for a great day, and for helping Mommy and Daddy feel better. And please, God, we don't deserve you, but we need you."

In church on Sundays, he often answers the pastor's rhetorical questions.

Bro. Doug: "Do we follow others, or do we follow Christ?" (pause for dramatic effect)
Caleb, from the pew: "CHRIST!"

And now that we've been doing Cubbies for a semester, he's got quite a few verses tucked into his brain...or at least snippets of each one. His favorite seems to be, "Jesus is the resurrection and the life." But it's just as easy to recall, "All have sinned" or "God loved us and sent His Son" when we're trying to explain things.

I don't say all these things to say what a spiritual child we have; he's a "pleaser" and would probably remember whatever he thought was important to us. He's too young to understand much of what he says. However, it is such a reminder for me, as a parent, that it is never too early to start talking about the truth of Christ! It's good for him, and it's good for us, too!

James Walks the Dog

James is working with a new therapist at Hope Landing. Her name is Lucy. She wears a bandana to work every day, sleeps in the corner when she's not with a client, and she loves dog treats. She's a beautiful Lab mix, owned by another of James's therapists, Suzanne.

At their first official meeting, James was fairly nonplussed by Lucy. He had seen her at a campout before (and thoroughly broke her in by screaming his excitement in her face), and apparently books were more interesting on this particular day. Later, however, he got a chance to walk her down the hallway. Gena (his OT) held one hand, and he held Lucy's leash in the other. Usually, his one-handed walking is fairly wobbly, but I loved watching him walk with such confidence!

He's taking more independent steps each day. Last week, we recorded 9 steps in a row in Physical Therapy with Sam, and he repeated it several times! This week, we've been laid up with sickness, and James has been particularly pitiful about walking, but even then, he's been more daring about taking his own steps. It's fun to see!

Oh, see, you say? (Oh say, can you see?) Here's a little video of James walking the dog!

James is a Climber

James has learned how to climb.

For several heart-attack-inducing, goose-egg-producing weeks, he has not known how to climb back down, and simply teetered over the edge head-first. Yikes.

Thankfully, we've seen him successfully climb up and down on Caleb's small chair, the "daddy chair" rocker, and Caleb's toddler bed. Talk about the school of hard knocks!

James's current favorite thing to climb is Caleb's small chair. He has even figured out how to stand up in it.

I'm losing years off of my life here, people!

The video below is what I watched him do four or five times yesterday. Believe me that I made this video for posterity's sake, and then promptly (and sternly) got James off the table. That boy is pure second child. Where a stern "no" will stop Caleb in his tracks (most days), James will endure even worse discipline, then head right back to what he was doing.

No children were harmed in the making of this film...only a small heart attack on the mama's part.

Caleb swims!

Despite not swimming much this year, Caleb has overcome his fear in the water! The first time out, he clung to me like his life depended on it (despite the fact that he had more floatation devices on him than most boats). The second time, Grandma was very patient with him, and helped him get more used to the water. By the third time out, he was pushing me away, tell me that he could do it by himself! I'm so proud of him! Of course, he's still wrapped in floaties, but overcoming his fear was a huge step.

Piano Man

James got to participate in his first talent show tonight! Here's the video of my little man rockin' it out! He ended up dancing a lot more when he sat with me in the audience, but I think he did pretty well for his first performance!

The women with James are Allyn (left), his speech therapist, and Tricia (right), his physical therapist.

The Grasshopper and the Boys

My boys have really started enjoying each other lately. It's a sweet thing. James is moving from "observer" to "participant," and I think Caleb has liked having the playmate...most of the time!

This morning, I found what is locally called a "Texas grasshopper," though I never saw anything like this in Texas. They're huge black grasshoppers, with yellow, green and red markings. They're quite remarkable, and very easy to catch. They're not very jumpy like other grasshoppers. This particular grasshopper was snacking on my corn leaves. I'm starting to see the start of a little ear of corn growing, but I don't have much hope for it, so it didn't bother me to share the harvest. But I grabbed a mason jar and plopped the grasshopper in, to show the boys.

Caleb, of course, was elated. He thought it was so neat. I was very surprised at how James reacted to it...or really that he reacted any more than just gazing at it. He tapped the glass, held the jar, and was very interested in what the grasshopper did.

After the grasshopper took a few tumbles in the mason jar, I thought we might better let him outside to recover, so we headed outdoors.

I tipped the mason jar over and convinced the insect to get out, but after that he had no desire to move. We all stared at him for a minute, and then James reached out, grabbed the thing, and plunked it back in the mason jar! I dumped the grasshopper back out, and James again plopped him back in the jar. It was so funny! And he was as proud of himself as when he gets the triangle in the right hole in the shape sorter at therapy.

Caleb was a little more intimidated by the creature. It was, after all, the biggest grasshopper he'd ever seen. I think it was last summer (or the summer before?) that these bugs were out, and Caleb held one on the way to church. I actually thought there might be a scene when I tried to pull it out of his hand before entering church, but now that he's older, he seemed to have picked up on some people's aversion to bugs.

So, this morning, Caleb was having some trouble figuring out how to grab hold of the grasshopper. James watched him for a few moments, then once again grabbed the grasshopper himself. This time, instead of dropping it in the jar, he held it out to Caleb, as if to say, "See? This is how you hold it." Then he set it down in front of Caleb.

Caleb, who seemed to understand what James was telling him, said, "Thank you!" and tried again. It took another couple of tries before Caleb got it right, but he was proud of himself when he'd gotten the grasshopper back in the jar. (James, meanwhile, was having a conversation with the cat on the other side of the door.)

It finally came time to release the poor creature, but we all enjoyed our touch with nature.

Here's a video of our morning. Enjoy!

Turtle Adventures

On the way to James's therapy today, we pulled over to carry a turtle to the other side of the road. I decided to let Caleb see it before I dropped him into the grass, and then I asked, "Hey, wanna take him to Hope Landing with us?"

What 3-yr-old boy would say no??

Caleb wanted to name him...well, Caleb...but we settled on Caleb the Turtle, or C.T. for short.

C.T. was pretty traumatized by the time we got there, and C.B. (Caleb the Boy) was carrying him up-side-down, putting him in the playtent inside Hope Landing, stomping all around him...poor turtle.

We eventually got him outside, where it took awhile to get him to come out of his shell (ha ha). While we waited, we found a feisty little caterpillar who refused to be picked up. So, we decided to bring the turtle to him. We didn't know if turtles ate caterpillars, but we soon found out!



Definitely eat caterpillars!

We went inside to pick James up (who did not have nearly the fun we had!), and by the time we got back, C.T. was gone. I'm sure we'll be looking for him every time we go!

James in Speech Therapy

My mom gave James some awesome flash cards at Christmas that we have just started using in speech therapy. At first, the therapist said that usually kids start with 3-dimensional objects instead of flash cards. But, since we had them, let's try them anyway. Well, James blew us away! He's done this maybe three or four times now at therapy, using 8 cards or more, and gets most of them right!

Caleb at the Parade

We got to take the boys to the Christmas parade this year. There was lots of hubbub, because I'm just as excited about parades as Caleb is. I even convinced Jon to pre-park his truck in a prime spot, so we'd have a place to sit and enjoy! (Does he love me or what!) He even bought me cotton candy when we got there. He's my prince charming.

Well, Caleb loves the band, and so he brought his cymbals to play during the parade. You'll see the part they play in the video.

I had SO much video of the parade. I wanted to remember every minute of it. To remember how much Caleb LOVED it. To hear him squeal when a new float went by, or a new band was coming up. He waved to every Homecoming queen or Miss Jr. Norphlet or whatever pretty girl was sitting on a car, and he yelled, "Hi Princess!!" every time. Made my heart melt! Hopefully this is a good video to show you a little of it all. And excuse this sappy mom for putting over two minutes of some random small-town parade up. :)

James in His Walker

Here comes James down the hall in his walker! This is the first time he really figured out he could move! He heads to the hall bathroom, where Caleb is. I had a feeling once he got mobile, he would follow Caleb wherever he could!

(click the image above to be directed to the video)

How we spent our Saturday morning

James's Favorite Activities, in Video!

As I said, James is getting more and more active these days. It's like he's suddenly awake! He wants to be upright as much as possible, which frees his hands to hold toys, splash, and generally explore. He loves to laugh, and his nighttime giggle-fests with Mama and Daddy sometimes bring Caleb out of his bed to get in on the action. You can hear him in the background; he came out of his room presumably to go potty, but really because we were having so much fun in there!

Here's his new jumping skill! This was taken the very first day he started jumping, and he's only gotten better! This is a skill that Caleb never learned; he just swung in his jumper, and really still can't jump, though he's getting better.

Recently, I started giving James his baths when Caleb was taking a bath. Instead of using the small baby tub, I just plop him in with Caleb, suds him up, rinse him off, and we're done. James of course wants to sit up, so one day I pulled him to upright, and he started splashing away without me even needing to show him what to do! He splashes like it's serious business!

Checking in on the Household: Caleb

Oh my goodness, it seems that life has been consumed with new baby, Down Syndrome, 2-yr-birthday, the holidays, the terrible twos....whew! Despite all the craziness, the last few months have been really wonderful. Caleb has bloomed as a big brother, and James loves him like crazy. Jon and I find ways to spend one-on-one time with each of the boys, and we enjoy them both so much. They make us smile and laugh, and sometimes I'm just giddy because my heart is so full with a husband who loves me dearly, and two boys who bring me so much joy. I am very happy and blessed with my house full of boys.

Caleb. What can I say about Caleb? I wish I could give you live streaming of an average day around here, so you could truly get a sense of who Caleb is. Caleb is lively, with a song in his heart and a dance in his step. He beebops around the house humming to himself, or does a happy jig with a delighted, "Look at me, Mommy!" He is very observant, and I have caught him imitating me applying my makeup or tying my shoes. He understands things quickly, and has almost gotten "left" and "right" down. One of his favorite songs is the "Clean Up" song. The way I sing it goes like this:
Clean up, clean up
Everybody, everywhere
Clean up, clean up
It's time to do your share

The way Caleb sings it goes like this:
Clean up, clean up
Everybody do my share!

And that's generally what happens. He's content to sing the song while everyone else cleans up. But, that said, he is very helpful, and the song itself is a good way to get him excited about putting things away. Caleb also loves to help in the kitchen. The minute he sees me in the kitchen, I hear, "I help you!" and then, under his breath, "...yellow stool..." as he heads to the bathroom to obtain this favorite object that grants him access to so many things. He carries the stool to the kitchen and promptly finds the least convenient spot to put it (usually directly between myself and the counter) so that he can "help" me measure and pour, stir and shake. His favorite, of course, is washing dishes. What little kid doesn't love running water and soapy bubbles?

Caleb's favorite playtime right now is with Daddy. All Jon has to do is lay on the guest bedroom bed and put his feet up, and Caleb climbs over, under, and on top of his Daddy. This often happens when Jon gets home from work, and they both love it.

Caleb loves to watch movies, though we haven't really gotten into the more popular ones. We stick to Veggie Tales and I'm trying to introduce the old musical classics to him. It's funny to hear him quote a movie randomly in the day. Quoting from Veggie Tales' story of St. Nicholas, he said, "Thank goodness for snow!" only it sounded like "Tae doodiss fur know!" He was so pleased with himself, but it took several tries before I figured out what he was saying.

He's starting to be the poster child for "Kids Say the Darndest Things"--usually pertaining to his potty habits. He has told me he needs to go potty by saying, "There's poop in my booty" or "There's peepee in my [...]" Once the deed is done, he will categorize his poop by size, and yesterday he decided that that particular offering to the porcelain god was "his favorite." It's hard to keep a straight face when one's little boy is so proud of his poop.

 In contrast to his potty humor, Caleb is enamored with royalty. He puts most any object on his head as a crown and proclaims, "I'm king!" He wraps blankets over his shoulders for a majestic train. If he sees a lady dressed to the nines, he will ask, "Her queen?" And we've often discussed the differences between a prince and a princess, as he's as likely to claim himself one as the other. This has led to frequent comments from Caleb about whether someone is a girl or boy. His pronunciation of "girl" is more like "doy-you" and always makes me laugh.

If you haven't gathered from this post (or personal experience), Caleb is a talker. He is always saying something, and if he runs out of things to say, he'll start making nonsense noises. He's full of imagination, and can turn any object into something else. Currently he likes finding see-saws in odd places: a pine branch resting on a pile of things, the bow on my shoe (with the knot being the fulcrum of the see-saw). He imagined that a ball of carpet fuzz was a string of Christmas lights. And his building blocks are always turning into houses or train stations.

His life is full of extremes. Things are "very, very, very, very bad!" or get an approving, "Dat's dood!" He has many "favorites" and is starting to claim his friends (I'm his best friend, by the way).


Not to deceive you, Caleb is definitely two. He throws fits and glowers at us with a frown. He yells and screams, and sometimes outright disobeys us. We spank him, yell at him (because we're not perfect, either), discuss with him, and worry over him. But at the end of the day, we smile.

"No, Mommy. Don't take my picture."

"I said DON'T TAKE MY PICTURE!!!"

 When Caleb started acting like a two-year-old, it really threw us for a loop. Jon and I didn't know how to handle this willful being, and I was afraid the terrible twos would cure me of ever wanting any more children. However, we've gotten into the groove of things and learned a little about how Caleb ticks at this age. When he's angry and glaring at Jon, Jon will say, "That's a good angry face! Now show me a happy face." And Caleb would beam, all anger forgotten. And of course, instead of saying, "No more movies" we say, "Hey Caleb, let's go get your dinosaurs!" and we usually avoid a meltdown.

At some point I have to quit talking about my boy, so I'll end with this little clip of a conversation with Caleb:

Video of James Playing

James is 10 weeks old. Today he's looking at toys and touching them...a big step! You'll also see him follow his brother with his eyes quite a bit, and the beginnings of a little smile! As for Caleb, you'll see just how much this little boy talks!

(Click on the picture to get sent to the video.)

Lemonade

Trying lemonade for the first time. Not sure if it was the lemonade or just the novelty of drinking from a cup, but Caleb was a fan! Taken 10/9.