August 2012

Parenthood makes you say and do a lot of things you never could have imagined saying or doing. Here are a few from my month:

-Explaining to my toddler that daddy (his hero) eats broken muffins (and watching him devour the previously tragically, inedible muffin)

-Eating after my toddler. The thing I said I would never. ever. do. Yes, I have joined the ranks of moms who think, "I can't waste that entire muffin! It's only got 3 slobbery bites missing!" I've even lowered myself to unscrewing the lid to his water sippy and taking a swig or two on really hot days at the park. What has happened to me?

-Coming up the basement stairs to find my toddler holding two pieces of something, crying "broke! broooooke!" and suddenly realizing he's holding the two halves of the "child proof" door handle that is supposed to protect him from opening the basement door and hurtling down the stairs onto a slate floor. Nice.

Other random acts of adorableness:

Caleb has starting calling his stuffie Grover "buddy". It's sooo precious to watch him take him into the high chair or read to him saying "buh-dee!, buh-dee!"

In fact, this has been the month of two syllable words. They've included: "yeh-woah" (yellow), "double" (as in him trying to repeat me saying "double trouble" so funny!), and "muh-nee" (money).

He's become mommy's official kitchen helper on Saturday mornings. When I compare it to these precious moments, sleeping in seems over-rated : )

Caleb loves to practice "writing".

I wrote the one that actually looks like a letter, but the other marks are his.

Practicing correct pencil posture.

As much as I love seeing Caleb interested in "academic" things like writing, I treasure even more getting to watch his imaginative play develop. He spent almost 30 minutes playing with boxes of pasta one day!

Setting up his "house"

Standing inside it

Lining them all up

"I've got them right where I want them..."

"Ah-BOOM-Ba!" (as Caleb would say)

Caleb is also starting to enjoy dress up. My parents kept a well stocked dress up bin for me, which I loved, but he seems to be doing just fine with things around the house for now : ) Something to think about in the near future though!

First brain freeze! David and I were giving him sips of a smoothie at Panera. Just as I was about to warn David I thought Caleb needed a break, Caleb turned bright red, grabbed his head and let out a big yell. He recovered quickly and of course, had no idea the smoothie was the culprit and began demanding more. It was sad, but also a little funny too ; )

Another food first: Sloppy Joe! Shout out to Papa on this one : )

Recently, when I give him a choice between "time out" or "obey" he's been replying, "Bay! Bay!". He still only obeys about 70% of the time he claims he's going to, but it's a big improvement over immediately saying "GUNG!" (his word for "yes"...don't ask me why, because I don't know!) to the time out.

Colors clicked this month! It started with blue and yellow and, once he understood those concepts, he mapped on several more rapidly! He can recognize and say the words (in a toddler, but understandable fashion) for the colors: blue, yellow, green, black, brown, orange and purple. White and pink are recognized but not spoken. He won't even attempt to say red. Why? Again, no idea!

As Caleb's comprehension has continued to increase, we've begun reinforcing his Sunday school lesson throughout the week. So far we've read/sung/talked about the Parable of the Lost Sheep, The Parable of the Lost Son and the Lord's Prayer. He's beginning to understand that the Bible is a book about Jesus (not about sheep, despite his love of making the "baaaaa" noise : )

Last night, after David finished praying, Caleb was talking about our prayer time ("Mommy! *folds hands* Daddy! *folds hands* = Mommy and Daddy prayed). It seemed like the perfect moment to help expand his comprehension of what prayer is. So I said, "Yes Caleb, Mommy and Daddy prayed. Who did we pray to?" I didn't expect him to answer, but after a long minute of obvious deep thought Caleb yelled out "Jee-Juh!" Yes, son, that's right, we pray to Jesus.

Doing a morning devotional with Daddy

On the last weekend in August, we headed to the small town just north of us for the annual Corn Festival. It was huge! We only walked half of it and I was ready for a nap afterwards. We did the usual festival things- found some crafty gifts for friends and family, ate fair food and topped it off with homemade vanilla iced cream topped with peaches. The later was Caleb's favorite part. He has no shame screaming "Ice! Ice!" for ice cream : ) I love getting to make these special memories with my guys!

There were just a few people...

Old fashioned icecream churns!

"I want some of that you guys!!!"

Right after this, David had a 3 day trip that we expected to be no big deal because it was so short. It was however, the first trip that Caleb was able to realize, in advance, that daddy would be gone for a few days. We've always explained it to him, but this time he understood and made it clear he was not happy. After much reassurance, and a wonderful library book called "When Daddy Travels", we got through it. A month later, he still asks if daddy went to work in his car or got on a plane (using the noises for each...you kinda have to speak toddler to understand him...).

All-in-all it was a great month, but there's no doubt about it, our little guy is growing up fast!