My Daddy's Shoulder's

Caleb, You are Two!!!

To my dearest Caleb! You are turning 2!!

I don't know where the time went this year, but it seemed to really fly by. But we have loved getting to know your quirks, the things you love, seeing you learn, seeing you grow, making memories with you, and laughing so hard that we cry! You make our lives so incredibly full!

In the past year, you have gone from a little wobbly on your walking to full blown running. You love dance, you love to count, you love to say your ABC's, you love to be cozy with Mommy, you love to be tall with your Daddy, you love walks, you love to swing, and you just love life!

I remember taking you to the park when you were just 6 weeks old and we would stare up at the trees. To this day, you love the outdoors and you love to look at anything and everything. You point out EVERYTHING you see. You are very smart and catch on to a lot of things (words, numbers, phrases things you see) very quickly! You love to play "I see you" (your version of Peek-A-Boo) with blankets or behind furniture, etc. You are also incredibly sweet.  You care about animals and the things that you really do love. You try to hug the TV if it has your favorite animals on it. You try to hug a picture that I have drawn on the Magna Doodle. You have such a sweet heart for your Mommy and you adore your Daddy.

You love to "call" your G-Pa on your pretend phone and watch birds out on their deck. You learned quickly that Grandma (or Gamma) will give you cookies anytime, anyplace. And that she is just as cozy and warm as Mommy. You made some special memories this year when we visited your Aunt Jen and Uncle Wes. They adored having you there, and you loved it too! You were in awe of the ocean (but you didn't want to touch it as I think you recognized the amazing power of those waves). You really enjoyed building your first sand castle! And you did SOOO well on your first road trip! You loved to watch all of the trucks go by! And even though there were all these milestones, some of the simplest acts that made you laugh and laugh were throwing cards at your Aunt Jen! Or when Uncle Wes chased you at the playground. I think it is safe to say that your aunt and uncle are your buddies for life!

You have grown into this sweet, fiery little boy, and no longer a baby (though you will always be my baby). You have tantrums more often because you are learning how to communicate and express your frustrations, etc. But we are also learning how to respond and how to handle those situations as well. You push limits, and we know it. But it's because you are such a strong and fiery personality. I believe this personality will make you go far in life! God will use that for good. I know it!

You are stubborn and like what you like. And sometimes Mommy and Daddy have to almost "force" you to try the new stuff to see if you will like it. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. But you are learning a little more that it is okay to try things. If you don't like it, you tell us. If you do like it, you definitely tell us! And if you like something or want to do something, you repeat it over and over and over!

You are such a boy! And it's fun! You love dirt. You love trucks. You love forts. You admire and try to act like your Daddy and G-Pa. It has come so natural for you to want to be like them.

But when it is bedtime.....you are mama's boy! Daddy isn't allowed to touch your back when it is bedtime. You want your Mommy all to yourself and don't want to be "bothered." Sleepy time is serious business! And speaking of sleeping, apart from the current coughing and illness you are overcoming right now, you sleep very well in your bed. You have been doing that for the past few months now. We walk to the bedroom and close the door, and then Mommy holds you and we rock and pray to Jesus for our bedtime prayers. And then we cuddle some, and you point to the bed and say "bed." And I place you in your bed and tuck you in! I make sure you have your turtle blanket, your bedtime penguin, monkey, and turtle as well. And then I turn on your penguin light that shines stars up on the ceiling, and we both say "Bye Bye Night" (as this mean goodnight to you), and I love you! And then I close the door. You go to sleep as you watch the stars and are usually out within 10 minutes time. I sure love those sweet moments with you.

You love to pray to Jesus too! We started out just praying in the car on the way to Miss Jane's house, but then we also added in bedtime prayers to Jesus. And sometimes, at nap time you want to pray. And then there have been times when you just asked to pray (and it wasn't in a car or bedtime). I love that! I love that you are starting to learn more and more about Jesus and that you can talk to Him ANYTIME! You also ask for Mommy to sing the "Jesus song." You love the "Jesus Loves Me" by Chris Tomlin, which is different than the "Jesus Loves Me" that most kids learn.  However, you love both. And you love most songs you hear on Hoopla Kidz (a website of animated nursery rhyme songs) and Elmo's World.

You used to be addicted to your binky. Binky was your friend, and if you lost it, you would sing-song "Binky - where'd you go?" It was so sweet. We were concerned that you would never be without that binky. However, you started only "holding" the binky over the past month. Your Daddy even thinks a few weeks back when you went for a walk with him that you two passed a little boy that didn't have a binky, and you took the binky out of your mouth and just put it in your hand. So maybe you are learning that the binky is for babies and not for big boys.  And then, one day, when you were throwing a tantrum, you just threw it out of frustration. It went under a car, and I couldn't get it. So I told you that it went "Bye Bye." And you repeated that "Binky went Bye-Bye". But you weren't upset about it being gone. You have gone several days now without a binky in your mouth or even in your hand. If you want comforting, you just come to us directly, which is nice! I thought this would be harder to wean you off of the binky, but much like everything else you have done, you have self-weaned from the bottle, you led on the rolling over, crawling, walking, and talking on your timing. And I think that is the best thing we have learned. Us following your lead has been good! No fights or stress. So with potty-training in the next year, I think we are going to do the same thing.

And even though your Mommy and Daddy work during the week, you love staying with Miss Jane during the day. You love playing at her house, as well as learning. She has such a sweet love for you as well. And when Mommy or Daddy come to pick you up, there is always the biggest smile and hugs for us! It's so special to be your Mommy, and I know your Daddy feels the same way about him being your Daddy.

We are so blessed to be your parents. I can't imagine this world without your sweet face and laugh! It hasn't always been easy, but our lives are so much better with you in it! I mean look at where we are right this second. You are in the hospital, and I never want that for you. I hate when you are not feeling good, and I hate when I can't make it all better. I am sad that we aren't able to have your party when we wanted, but we will still have it (just later). But we will make your birthday great even if you are stuck inside a hospital. Mommy will get you a piece of your birthday cake and we will still sing Happy Birthday and make it as wonderful as possible. My prayer and hope is that you can leave on your birthday to come home. But regardless, your Mommy and Daddy are always here for you and are your biggest advocates. Even when things get hard or rough, we are always here for you! You also have an abundance of friends and family that adore you and love you too. Always know how loved, how special, and just how much of a blessing you really are!

We love you, sweetheart! Happy 2nd Birthday!!

Love, Mommy and Daddy

Oh Apathy...Oh Complacency...Are you going through the motions?

For the past couple of days, I have contemplated even writing a post about some of my feelings. I have posted on Facebook some very frustrated feelings, but I mostly get ignored. And honestly, there is a good chance this blog post will also be ignored. But I hope not. I feel led to share....

This message is for Christian Americans. No one else. The reason being is I am disappointed in the American Christian. We live in a country where freedom is one of the most priceless things we have. Other Christians in other nations would do anything to have that freedom to practice our faith as freely as we can. And while many of those freedoms are being challenged, the Constitution protects those freedoms. Our founders viewed faith to be just as essential as freedom. And we are fortunate that we can do that. Not everyone is free. In fact, I don't actually think Christian Americans really appreciate their freedom. It is way too easy to take it for granted. I say the same thing to myself. I don't think I have really appreciated what I can do as a Christian that I definitely cannot do in other countries. Just look at the Christians in other countries who are being slaughtered by ISIS. There are underground Christians all over the world. There are people starving for Christ...longing for truth and to hear this truth, while American Christians are stagnant. We like to pat ourselves on our back for putting quotes or verses on our wall as a way of saying "see, I'm a Christian." I in no way think those things are bad. They are good. But that doesn't mean we know what it means to suffer for Christ. I don't even think I really know what it means to suffer for Christ. But you ask those people in Iran, China, Iraq, etc who are literally laying their lives on the line for Jesus Christ, and they don't flinch in their faith. They will do whatever it takes to save their family members, save their friends to know Jesus. Even if it is illegal to do so. But here in America, we have "tolerant" Christians, we have people who flip flop on their beliefs, we have "Christians" that go to church on a weekly or almost daily basis, and yet they live the same lives as people who are not. This isn't what the Christian faith is about. Again, I point the same fingers at myself. I am incredibly flawed and fall short every single day.

But I think American Christians need to get out of their apathy, stop being complacent, and actually take their faith seriously. It's time. Our future as a nation is very questionable right now. When more than 50% of people claiming Christianity voted for a man who claims he is a Christian, but can't even tell us what he values, what his favorite verse is, when he jokes about how he would date his daughter because she is hot, where he brags about the number of women he has slept with, where he claims that his sex life is his own personal Vietnam, where he calls people nasty names and lies soo frequently that it has become a joke, and where a man who flip flops on his views almost on a daily basis - we have a problem.

If we are so passive and say "Well, I don't want a pastor-in-chief" or "I just want someone to win for the Republican party," then i would say we are compromising our values as Christians just to "win." I never claimed any man was perfect or that any man is a savior other than the only Savior we have - Jesus. But, we aren't supposed to compromise our values either.

Let's look at what happened last year with the videos that showed that Planned Parenthood was selling aborted baby parts, and where was the outrage? Do you realize, that maybe 5% of my Christian friends even expressed outrage on that? Or the numerous times in the past year that religious freedom has been on attack. Or how many even mentioned the be-headings of Christians in Egypt, etc.How many of your Christian friends and family did? Did your church say anything?  Did your pastor? If they did, then you are in the minority. Why are we staying silent? Is it because we don't want to be attacked? Labeled?

I hate to remind you - but staying silent isn't something Jesus wanted for his disciples. We were told to spread the gospel. We were told to speak out against injustices. We were told and shown how to live by Christ himself. He laid His very own life down. I think of this verse: "Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God." ~ Micah 6:8

Again, I am pointing the finger at myself on this too. I have failed on this. And while God gives us much love and grace, he doesn't want us to be passive. He demands we stand for something. I am reminded of Revelation 3:15-16 - " I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth."

I don't want to be lukewarm. I want to stand for something. And when there is injustice, when there is violence, when there is evil occurring, we should be standing up and speaking out. We should be paying attention to what is going on and knowing what is going on in our country and in other countries. And we should know more about that than what Beyonce's newest song is about. We should be using our rights to vote (how many Christians are NOT voting and should?). Our pastors and clergy should be doing more. We have the right to peacefully protest against injustices as well, and we should. I just think it is way too easy in America to be passive and to be complacent. And we should be uncomfortable with what we are seeing. We should be looking for ways to volunteer and help organizations that fight against abortion, help in ways to protect children from sex-trafficking, stand in the gap for our fellow Christians in other countries and speak out for them. We should be on our knees praying for forgiveness for our apathy as a nation. We should be praying and seeking God in all we do. We can do more. I can do more.

And part of that is in our lifestyle and how we speak about others. How we work. How we treat others. How we show compassion. We are supposed to vote differently. We are supposed to BE DIFFERENT.

This isn't a tirade full of anger. I promise. But I am frustrated. And I am even frustrated with myself. I know I could have said more and done more. But I don't want to live my life with regrets. I don't want to just go through the motions anymore. And Matthew West's song "Motions" really hits home with me on this:

"I don't wanna go through the motions

I don't wanna go one more day

Without Your all consuming passion inside of me

I don't wanna spend my whole life asking

What if I had given everything

Instead of going through the motions?" 

We can do it. We can be strong. With Jesus, anything is possible. Anything!

Don't compromise who God made you to be and trust in Him to do this. Are you with me? 

Enjoying Springtime and Caleb is 23 Months

Our big boy is 23 months and we have a month to go til we have a 2 year old! What?! When did that happen?! I swear this past year has truly flown by at lightning speed! It's amazing when I think of this little boy who used to be a tiny little guy who could fit in my arms perfectly. Now, he hangs out of my arms or wants to be Mr. Independent and walk or run on his own!

He is learning so much and surprising us everyday by the things he says and does.

Just in the past month, he has learned how to count to 10 very well, and can point to those numbers and know what they are. He has on occasion counted to 15 (though the teens sound very similar). He knows how to read most of the letters on a book, and can do the alphabet (the LMNOP gets a little mixed up, but he tries really hard).

He also attempts to "read" certain books he knows. He has a Bath Time book and goes through each page and talks about what it says. It's like he is memorizing what each page says, but you can see he is trying to learn the words as we go through it. In his Elmo "So Big" book, he knows the words "Ma-Ma-Ma," "Da-Da-Dah" "Ha-Ha-Ha" and "La-La-La" when I point to them! And in his airplane book, even though he can't read the words, he tells the story of what is on each page and what it is saying. He really loves books! He is definitely a bookworm!

There are more words to his vocabulary, but I couldn't possibly remember them all. Some of the ones right off the top of my head:

• "Be Cozee with Mommy" - He loves to be snuggly with Mommy and he will say he wants to be cozy with Mommy. Probably because he has heard me say "Do you want to be cozy here with mommy" when he wants to snuggle! 
• "Birday cake" - birthday cake (he said this when we celebrated his G-Pa's birthday, and now everytime he sees a cake)
• "we-seet" - for receipt. I know this is an odd one to know. But when we go to the grocery store, he wants to hold the receipt and we taught him the word and now when he sees one, he says the word and is entertained by it. 
• "Daddee at wook"- Daddy at work 
• "Goo-nigh Bye Bye" - when he says goodnight to Daddy at nighttime before I put him to bed. 
• He says "bus" every time he sees one when we drive somewhere or if he sees it on a book
• He used to say "Ah-si" for outside. Now he says "ow-side"
• "Popper" for his toy corn popper
• He knows Big Bird now pretty well and will say his name when he sees him. 
• He tell us "tall" for when he wants Todd or me to put him up on our shoulders! He loves to be tall! 
• "Let's go!" - When we go anywhere
• "Go to Pahk" for Go to park
• "Go for walk" - When he wants to walk anywhere whether we go outside or even just a little walk inside the house and he wants to go to another room. 
• He now tells us "dat way" and "in dare" (in there) and "ike dis" (like this) for how he wants us to do something or go somewhere
• "Wainin" for raining

There's so much more, but I can't remember it all. But these are some of the more memorable ones. 

We are enjoying the spring temperatures we are having now as well. Caleb is an outside boy and he loves to go for walks and go to the park! His favorite thing ever at the park is the swings! He still isn't a big fan of the slides. Not yet anyway. He loves to explore everything and anything. Even things you think aren't very interesting. And if there are steps somewhere....he wants to go up and down and up and down those steps. 

He has a big personality, full of laughter, fun, and sometimes drama. Yes our kid can be quite dramatic. He will throw himself on the floor if he is mad or frustrated. He also likes to make up laughs. He has his normal laugh, and then he has laughs that he plays with and practices. It's quite funny. 

And this month, we got his new big boy seat, He really loves it! He also really loves being able to see forward. He gets excited when we get in the front seat and he says "I see you!" It's too cute! I taught him what a green light and a red light are for as well. He knows that red light means stop, and when it is green, it means go! In fact, Todd was telling me when he picked up from the sitter the last time, that they were at a light, and it was green. He yelled "Geen" to go! haha! Too funny! What's nice is that he has this seat for his long road trip coming up. 

Speaking of such things - We are looking forward to some wonderful memories coming up - our first family vacation as the three of us! We are visiting my sister, Jen and brother, Wes in Virginia Beach! Some major firsts for Caleb - his first long road trip (11 hour trip) and his first time visiting the ocean! It isn't his first hotel stay as we did that on New Years Eve, but this will be a longer time! We are soo looking forward to it!! 

Stay tuned for more fun updates...and next month, our boy is 2!!! I leave you with this sweet face! 

Ch...Ch...Changes..and Caleb Updates!

Well our big boy is just two months away from turning 2!! And that's sooo exciting. This past month he has done way more changing and has learned SOO much more than even in previous months! I will get more into that later though...

But right now, the changes!

So my office moved from downtown Dayton to outside downtown Dayton in a really cool building located in Tech Town! We used to pay for parking, and we paid between 75-85 dollars a month (depending on if I was late with the payment). But then once we moved, no more parking fees! The new building is very modern and quite fun! I love my new cubicle, and it just feels like a new and clean slate for our office. (I have some pictures below - not the best, but came from my phone).

Our new building

The ceiling from the entryway

Entering our office

Enjoying my new office! 

Part of my cubicle - I love the orange stripe! It's so fun!

Another fun change for me is I was recently given the project manager position of a project I have worked on for 10 years! This is going to give me a chance to really show what I can do and hopefully helps me learn how to be an effective, efficient, and good manager and leader!

So all in - very excited about the new changes from this past month! But, changes didn't just happen in my work life. Mister Caleb is also changing rapidly!

He is definitely a little boy and no longer a baby (though, he will always be my baby)! I don't know how this happened or what changed, except that Caleb will now lay down in his bed and go to sleep on his own and sleep THROUGH THE NIGHT! :) YAY!! This Momma is so happy! It's really quite sweet...not sure how it all started, but he drinks water before going to bed, and we say our prayers and rock maybe a couple of minutes in the rocking chair to settle down (he's not asleep), and then he shows me he wants to go into his bed. I lay him down, put his blanket on him, and give him his bed-time penguin (this is very recent too), and there is no crying! He just goes to sleep! And he sleeps the whole night! Oh my gosh! It's so wonderful! And it's really quite precious to see him hug and love his little penguin as he goes to sleep. See - changes can be really good!! :)

Also - this little guy is talking SO MUCH more! He is talking in sentences! He repeats a lot of what we say now (gotta make sure we are careful and don't say anything we don't want him to repeat). And he has just added so much more vocabulary this month. It just spiked up majorly!

I won't be able to get it all down here, but some of my favorites are;

• "hereyougo" - Here you go! I guess I say that a lot! ;) So once he gets something from me or I have fixed something for him, he says "hereyougo" 
• "It's a wewo sign!" - He says that when he sees a yellow sign. He knows the color yellow and knows what signs are! 
• Actually...in general, when he points to something he always starts with "it's a (word)" 
• When I ask him something, he usually will say Yes! He can say no and has said it a few times, but when I ask him to do something and he doesn't want to do it or gets mad, it is usually a whine instead of a "no." 
• He knows a lot more animals now - "elefun" for elephant, "mahkey" is monkey, "pingen" is penguin, "birdie" is birdie, "doggie" is doggie, "kitcat" is kittie cat, etc. He is really annuciating words a lot better! 
• He now tries to call people more by their names. G-Pa is "B-Pa," but then I recently discovered that he calls Grandma the same thing. So both of them right now are "B-Pa." 
• He recently saw a photo of Jen and said "An Jen" for aunt Jen! 
• He has gotten better about asking for what he wants to eat. He will ask for "Ba-Kah" (sound of a chicken), "Bagen" for bacon, "pech" for a toddler pouch that has veggies and fruits, "go-gur" for yogurt, "See-Rul" for cereal, etc. 
• He knows the colors yellow, purple, pink, and sometimes red and green. 
• He is getting better at singing the ABCs. If you point to a letter, he knows many of them just by pointing to them. The book I made with photos of things that start with the letters, we go through and I say "A is for..." and then point to the picture, and he gets at least 22 of the 26 items! It's hard to say Xylophone for X. LOL! 
• He sometimes knows how to count 1 through 6. He definitely knows the number 1 2 and 3 when he sees them. He sometimes knows the others (4 through 6). It's good he knows 2 since he is turning 2 very soon! 
• If Mommy is doing stuff and he wants me to pay attention to him, he always says "All done!" as he points to my computer, phone or whatever I am doing.
• He says "kiss" now when we give him kisses or when he sees Mommy and Daddy kiss! So sweet! 

Again - this is just some of the things. I couldn't possibly remember everything because he always seems to learn something new that takes us off guard! ;) 

Caleb also had his first Easter Egg hunt this month at church! He was really excited about the steps! He kept going up and down the steps. And he learned on those steps how to step up and step down without holding the railing! Such a big boy! But when it was time to hunt for eggs, he didn't want to go. LOL! That was until he saw all the pretty eggs on the ground. Then he had fun! But once we were done with that, he had to go back to the steps. 

Easter Egg hunt! 

Caleb's loot!

This month we are celebrating Easter, G-Pa's birthday, and hopefully enjoying some more of this wonderful spring weather! And then at the end of April, our very first vacation (with the three of us) to Virginia Beach and to see Aunt Jen and Uncle Wes! So exciting! Looking forward to many memories! 

But until then...I leave you with Caleb laughing! He has the best laugh! :)

Christmas 2.0 and Caleb's 21 Month Update!

This past month has been quite busy! The last weekend in January, we celebrated Christmas 2.0 with my sister, Jen and my brother-in-love, Wes! It was soo nice to spend time with them as a family! We hadn't seen them since the end of summer last year, so it was very much needed time!

We opened up some presents and enjoyed some Christmas food (Dad's Christmas Lasagna), and watched Christmas movies (see - it really was Christmas 2,0). We also went to my parents property for a bit, and Caleb enjoyed playing on G-Pa's trailer. Instead of playing "Peekaboo," Caleb says "I see yo!" And that's not a typo. He actually says "yo" instead of you. And he played that a ton with his Aunt Jen!

"I see yo!" 

"I see yo!" 

Caleb and Aunt Jen were buddies for sure during that time, and Caleb made everyone laugh so hard. He is really growing into this cute, funny, little boy! He has us all wrapped around his finger!

A couple of weeks later, we celebrated Valentines with our cutie pie! We got him his first Magna Doodle (which he LOVES), an Elmo book (My Fuzzy Valentine), and a yummy chocolate/peanut butter snack! Todd and I will be celebrating later this weekend our own Valentine's time. We each make our Valentines, so I look forward to seeing what Todd did for me. And I will share what I did for him after this weekend (don't want him to accidentally see).

Caleb Update:
So here's an update on our little Mister: He is hovering around 25-26 pounds, and he getting taller. He was 32.5 inches the last time we measured him (November), but I bet he has grown a little more since then. Before we know it, we will have to get him a big boy car seat! :)

What a face! He looks more and more like a little boy every single day. 

He is definitely our big boy!

He has learned so many words and is using many sentences now! Some of the cute words/sayings:

• Let's Go! (when we have to leave to go outside)
• Go! Go! Go! (if the car is still, and he wants to get moving)
• He now says Elmo fully instead of Mo! 
• "geh sum to eat" (Get something to eat!)
• EAT! (sometimes he just says EAT because he is hungry)
• He can say most of the Alphabet. His favorite parts of the alphabet to say is R, S, T, U, V - not sure why that is his favorite,. He can sing the ABCs and in tune as well, but he misses that middle part (L, M, N, O).  
• "Puh well" - Puzzle
• "Cen Cen" is chicken. He used to only make the chicken sound, but now he tries to say chicken.
• Toes - he says this very well! He loves his toes! 
• Horse - seriously he says this correctly and very well! 
• He says "Yes" more when we ask him questions. And if he doesn't want to do something or have something, he will either say No, or kind of grunt "Eh"
• With his new magna doodler, he actually recites letters (like A, B, C) when he is "doodling." We think he is trying to write, even though he can't write. But we were excited he wanted to try and do that. 
• We are working on his name. We go through all the letters with him and he knows most of the letters of his name. L and E trip him up sometimes. 
• He can now say "Jesus" very well! I have these old pictures passed down from my great mother that have pictures of Jesus on them. He knows them! 
• B-Pa - recently he called his G-Pa this! 
• He will typically repeat words you ask him to say or his version. So he is learning more words all the time. 
• We have worked some on the numbers, but I think he sometimes gets confused with numbers and letters. However, our sitter, Jane, has told us that he will count to six (with a little help). I haven't heard him yet, but that's encouraging. He does say "Se vay" for seven. 
• "Veeyo" is video! And when he wants a "video," he means he wants us to put on Elmo. We get Elmo's World and many of his songs on YouTube. And we use Chromecast to put it on the TV so he can enjoy it! 
• He will actually say as a sentence - "want a veeyo"
• If he wants to go for a walk, he will say "Wok" for walk and grab your hand!
• When he points to something, he will usually say "It's A (Fill in the blank)"
• "Want to Dah" - want to dance
• We have the Periodic table as a shower curtain, and I taught Caleb that the sign for Radioactive means "Boom!" - So when he sees it, he says "Boom!" 
• He is doing really well and learning all the time! I love seeing him learn. It really makes me soo happy to see him do so well! 

We have had some nicer weather more recently, and that means he gets to go outside or "Ou Side."

He is still a pretty picky eater. We are still working on that. But, green beans are his favorite veggie for sure. His favorite foods are: bacon, green beans, bananas, grapes, cookies (the nutritional bars by Plum Organics), chicken fries (shaped in the form of a fry), peanut butter to dip apples and bananas in, and apple sauce. 

We feel so blessed as parents to have our big boy! He makes us so proud! Every. Single. Day!

Here's to Caleb's 22nd month....just three more months til we have a 2 year old! Until then, I leave you with this cutie pie!

Caleb is 20 months old and the Start of the New Year

20 months old! When I think he only has 4 more months til his 2nd birthday, I just don't know where the time went. This 2nd year is going by MUCH faster than the first year. He is astounding us every week with the newest things he is saying and doing. 

So as with other posts, here are some new words or modifications on words that he is saying now:

• Saturn - yeah this one astonished me a couple of weeks ago. One of the books he has includes a photo of Earth and Saturn, and he so matter of factly said "Saturn" when he saw Saturn. I was amazed!
• "Obot" for Robot. There are a few books he has that have robots in them. 
• "May Say" - medicine. I hate that he knows this word, but when you deal with coughs and/or teething, he is going to pick up on the word
• "Bable" for table.
• "milk" for milk
• "book" for book. He never really said book before. He just knew what we were saying when we said book. But he would never say the word until this past month. 
• "MoMo" is Elmo
• "Peegee" for penguin (this is definitely an improvement from when he used to say Pa for penguin.
• "Suh" for sun
• "Sy" for slide
• "vac" for vacuum - (not too bad if you ask me)
• "Spoo" for spoon
• "Hi" for hi. He says this a lot now when he sees us
• "Peas" for please

He can say a few phrases too. He says "Get this" and "Mommy peas" (Mommy please), "I want Daddee", and "What is that?" He is doing better with phrases...and because I am kind of tired as I write this, I can't remember every phrase. But he is doing well! 

And I mentioned he is a helper, but it's fun to say "Caleb, please put this back." And he picks up the toy and puts it right back in its spot! Or if Todd says "bring this to Mommy," he does it! He also likes to tease people. If someone asks him for a cracker or for something he has, he will sometimes act like he is giving it and then take it right back (totally smiling and teasing them)! 

He is quite a pro at puzzles too. He was at my parents over a week ago, and they had a puzzle from when I was little and he had no trouble putting it together! Now these are for kids his age, but it's just impressive that he just knows what to do with these puzzles! 

He takes apart stuff like our remote, buckles, etc. And with our Christmas lights we had up, he wanted to plug them in and tried to (many times). UGH! Scare me to death. But he knows what to do because he has seen us do it. Just don't want him to get electrocuted. I do see an engineer in our future (if he wants to) because he really wants to understand how things work. I love watching his brain work! 

So all in all - he's growing very well and learning a ton! I wish I could say I have learned how to handle tantrums better, but I haven't. Screaming can be soo hard to deal with sometimes, but I am trying. He is soo independent and wants to choose the things he eats and does! 

We had a nice Christmas and New Years and are looking forward to a delayed "Christmas" with my sister, Jen and brother-in-law, Wes in just one week! They couldn't come visit us until the end of January, so we are just celebrating again! Plus - when my sister is in town, I am there! I miss her so much! She is without a doubt my best friend! I think we talk several times a week (via text) so that helps at least. But a text can never replace the time spent in person! So I am anxiously waiting for another week to go by to see her!

In recent news - I had a car accident! I won't go into specifics, but I am quite mad at myself about it. It was mainly because of the poor snowy conditions, but I should have also been more careful. Thankfully, I had already dropped off Caleb to our sitter, so he wasn't involved. Annoyed about the situation honestly, and this car is old. We are still holding onto the car for a while as it is still driveable. I will be quite sad when it is finally done. So far we are going on 13 years with this car! This was the first car I ever owned myself, and it has been through so much. So we aren't ready quite yet to get rid of it, but the time is coming! 

I used to enjoy snow, but after all our family has been through in the past year and a half, I am more or less just ready for spring. I look forward to taking Caleb to the park again and going on walks. Even Caleb isn't sure about the snow thing. He hates being bundled up (until he walks outside and realizes it's so cold). He isn't interested in snow yet, even though I have tried to play with him a little in it. He doesn't even like walking on the snow and freaks out a little about it. I think maybe next year he might like snow a little more. We'll see. I think all in all, we are just ready for pretty birds chirping and flowers blooming again! And temperatures above 30 degrees! 

I think that's about it for now....I look forward to sharing about our time with my sister and brother next month! Until then, stay warm and stay safe and enjoy another picture of this cutie pie!