Third Week Down!

Well, Caleb and I have been hanging out together for three whole weeks now, and have had nary a boring moment. Okay, maybe ONE boring moment, because we were both a little under the weather yesterday. So the boring moment - for me, anyway - was when I crashed on the couch, turned on PBS, and let him watch Teletubbies while I slept for twenty minutes. Oy, for a mom who didn't want her kid really WATCHING tv until he was two, it was quite the guilt trip ticket. But guess what? I ain't gonna take that ride!

But seriously? I need to watch Teletubbies before I let him watch it again. As I drifted in and out of consciousness because Caleb was laughing so hard, it seemed like a pretty trippy show. Weird, wild stuff. And not in a good way.

Things have been absolutely fabulous. We had a two day break from the scorching heat this week, which really helped my attitude. I've decided that pregnant women shouldn't be expected to pay for air conditioning in these summer months. Seriously. I'm so cheap that I fight Jonathan to take the AC below eighty, but I'm the one dying in the heat. Blech. But today is the first super hot day for a while, and I'm really looking forward to getting back to the pool!

I wanted to write down a few super precious things that Caleb has taken to doing that I haven't mentioned. (Remember, I'm the one not keeping baby books, so this might be the only record of my son's accomplishments that he has until he starts school!) First off, when we pray, he's held hands and said "pray" for a long time, but he's just started doing this thing that we're REALLY thanking God for. Because he's really into the imitation thing, he's started squeezing his eyes closed when we pray, which we both do. Plus, Mommy (I) always whisper my thanks along with Jonathan's praying aloud, so he's doing his whispering thanks - which sounds a lot like his tickling noise. The third thing, I'm not sure where he's getting: he shakes his head back and forth in kind of a weird positive nodding and negative head shake method. The best way I can describe it - at least until we can get that sucker on video - is that he kind of looks like he's imitating Stevie Wonder singing! Ohmigoodness, it's too cute for words. We actually have to pray twice sometimes because we want people to see it!

Let's see, the next thing is his obsession with ouchies. I'm assuming that all kids go through this, or at least all boys, because he's adamant that we point out every owie at least four or five times a day. And the only thing to be done for them is to kiss them. And if Mommy or Daddy don't pay attention quickly enough, there's no one left to kiss the booboos other than Caleb. I first saw this when his little sandal had rubbed his big toe raw, and he kept hollering that he had an "ow-uh-chie," but I couldn't see what he was talking about. So he sat down on the floor, grabbed his foot, bent his head over to it and kissed his own toe. The same thing has happened repeatedly for knee booboos that I've kissed half a dozen times, but that he seems to think need some extra attention.

He's an absolute angel, y'all. My mom used to say that he's 95% angel, 5% little devil. We're actually sliding that percentage back a few points these days! I would say that 90% of the time, he's the best, most well-behaved little man in the universe. But that other ten percent? WATCH OUT! He's getting a real sense of independence where it relates to telling other people what to do. His most common phrase is "No, Don't." Two very distinguishable words expressing that Caleb's will to dominate is strong. The trick is to NEVER do what he tells us when ordered around like that. It's harder than it sounds. Sometimes, when he's screaming and screeching about something, it's the toughest thing in the world not to just give in to stop the noise. Seriously. His screeches can make you feel like your eardrums are going to shatter. It's a beautiful and powerful feeling to be the adult about it and overcome.

He's also really working on the phrase "I love you." It's mostly "I lulloo," but it's the most precious sound in the world. Sometimes he'll do the answer back of "I lulloo too" to his own "I lulloo." Like Jonny says, his voice is the sweetest thing to listen to. Last night at dinner, he was telling us a tremendously funny tale about something humorous that had happened - as illustrated by the multiple dissolves into giggles - and we just sat and loved every minute! Jonny told him that we're going to have to start calling him Elmer Fudd, though, because sometimes he'll stop to belabor a point with a fake laugh ~ "Huh huh huh" ~ and accompanied by a fake smile where his little eyes crinkle into slits. Sweet, sweet, sweet!

Okay, gotta run. He's waking up from his mandatory hour in isolation!

Three and a half months since my last post?!

Okay, so for two of those months of not blogging, I was just a miserable kid who didn't want the rest of the world to hear about how whiny I was feeling. Seriously, I was so unhappy with my life that I couldn't find five minutes in which I was feeling positive enough to post a lovely message. And then for two of those weeks, there was so much going on that I didn't want to jinx that I didn't want to write about it. And for one tiny month now, I've been so joyously busy that it's been impossible to get enough time to joy a few words.

SO! I will invite you to congratulate me on my newly unemployed state! My whole job in this world is to be a mom. My old job was wonderful, and for six and a half years, I gave it everything I could. But now, I don't have that distraction. It's tough as heck to go from being something of a workaholic who rocks at her job to arguing with a twenty month old over the amount of milk he's allowed to have before breakfast. But at least it keeps me laughing!

Obviously, so much time has passed since my last posting that I couldn't possibly recap, but here we go: I have the cutest kid in the world. My husband is a rockstar at his job, and we're trusting God that he will be making enough money to cover the shortfall from my loss of income in about six or seven months. During that time, we're standing in faith that this was the right time for us to make this monumental change. I just want to be a mom, and I had no idea when I was pregnant with Caleb that he would be so much more important than any other work I could ever have.

So with the beginning of Gavi's pregnancy having been so rough, and my intense desire to actually go into labor this time rather than being induced, I was really feeling the strain of needing to leave my job sooner than later. Sooner worked better for my company as well, and here we are today. And I never knew life could be so sweeeeeeeet.

Don't get me wrong, it's not perfect. It's actually at least five times harder than I thought it was going to be. Because while I was working I only saw Caleb for a couple of hours a day and on weekends, I was under the impression that he was the perfect child. Now I understand that he really is perfect, but perfection doesn't always equal things like well-mannered or well-behaved. He's a little boy, for crying out loud! I'm getting to know his full range of personality, and having fun with the chaos.

We've done SO much in just the brief time I've had with him! It's been a real joy to see what a truly BOLD little boy he is. And kids, let me tell you, there's not much baby left in this kid. (Which makes me really excited to get another baby!) He's already outgrowing size 7 1/2 Wide shoes, and he uses the feet in those shoes to run everywhere. He's getting much older kids at parks to play with him, he's charming the socks off of the hundreds of little old ladies in our condominium complex, and as long as he isn't too sleep deprived, he's always willing to lend an cheery hi to every person we meet.

His vocabulary has grown by leaps and bounds, let me tell you. A lot of what he chatters about is still nonsense, but he's definitely got some English language grasped. One of the biggest happinesses for me is his use of the word Please. We've kind of been persistent about it, because the whole pointing and screaming thing really irritates me, and now it's becoming natural for him. Our next big step for manners is Thank You.

His new obsession is monster trucks - Mommy's dream! I really hadn't been letting him play with little matchbox cars or anything because I thought he was too young. But then Mr. Pat from my work gave him a First Horizon racecar and a Graebel Van Lines truck, and the kid wouldn't let them out of his hands for days! Then a little boy at the park last week let him play with some trucks, and the rest is history. Grandma actually just bought him some trucks yesterday, and he's in heaven.

Me too, actually! Let me tell you ~ first of all, he'll play with them for about ten minutes without needing me to entertain him. I know we'll get past this phase, but since he quit going to school, he's a little clingy. It's probably just a reaction to the change he's gone through, so I'm not worried about it, but it's made for a pretty tough time for me. However, yesterday and this morning, he just played with his trucks by himself long enough for me to get the dishwasher loaded and unloaded, and a couple loads of laundry washed! (Of course, the trucks had to make a couple of pit stops in the dishwasher while I patiently explained that it wasn't a carwash.)

But the other cool thing about them is that he's learning to be obedient even when he doesn't want to be! Yesterday afternoon, we were getting ready to go to the swimming pool - happy Heat Wave to all you living in Denver, by the way! - and he was unwilling to let them go. I explained that the trucks couldn't go to the pool, and after a few minutes, he put them down willingly! Then for dinner last night, he put them on the piano bench without argument so that we didn't have to deal with trucks at the table. I'm so proud of his attitude sometimes!

And sometimes, like when we went to Miss Kellie's house this morning to see puppies and horses and goats, he's a real little crankbait. I knew in the car on the way over that it was going to be a rough time - he was screeching and wailing the entire trip. He was moderately pleasant with Miss Kellie, but acted like the puppy was trying to eat his face, never got more than ten feet from the horse, and it took him about twenty minutes to warm up the the goats. (Who were so precious with him, by the way. By the time he was willing to touch them, he thought they needed a LOT of kisses. So he would grab their faces and kiss their noses. I seriously think I might want to get a goat for him someday!)

We've also had a lot of friends and family support us in this change. Both Aunties Megan and Alisa have come spent a day with us, traversing to the library for an Old West puppet show for the former, and spending hours at the park for the latter. Mr. Dean and his Mommy Terra came up to visit us on Tuesday, so we went to the pool and played with them. We also went north last Friday to spend some time with the Smith boys, too. What a bunch they are! Caleb would do well to spend more time with such a pack of boys!

And of course, there's the zoo. Jonathan and I were given a gift membership to the zoo for a combination Mother's/Father's Day gift from my folks, and I think we're going to have that place memorized by the time Gavi gets here! We went yesterday morning with Grandma G, on a day where the heat record for Colorado was tied. Yum!

Ugh! I have to promise myself that I won't spend more than ten minutes next time I post. Otherwise, I'm never going to write again. My munchie is waking up, so we've got to get to the swimming pool! Happy Wednesday World!