Punkin's Progress

Gavi has the most exciting developmental progresses, but Caleb keeps us laughing with his wonderful perspectives. For instance, Gavi is a few tiny days from his first birthday and is starting to RUN already! And Caleb and I were just talking about Jesus’ mommy, and I told him her name was Mary. He said, “Jesus’ mommy is Mary. Mary Christmas.” I was laughing as I tried to explain that it was a different kind of Mary. He was really trying to follow me, so said, “Jesus’ mommy was a different kind of Mary Christmas.” I love hearing his thought processes!

I finally set Gavi loose with a spoon and food. I figured that I’d better give him some practice since he’s going to go after his cake on Saturday! Well, I stripped him, and it’s a good thing, since the first food I offered him was chocolate pudding! EEK! He was a pudding monster until I threw his tiny chocolate bottom into the shower!

The same day, a rainy day, I decided to make train cookies with Caleb. I would submit that no one knows how much patience they need as a mother until they’ve tried to bake cutout cookies with a two year old. He rolled out the dough, with my hands trying to control his motions. He cut out the cookies. He put them on the cookie sheet. He frosted them, then decorated them further with blue and green icing.

I’m not sure how I survived that day. I’m also not sure how I’m ever going to live down the fact that Jonathan had the camera with him, so I don’t have pictures of either event for the world to enjoy!

Caleb has started leading Gavi around by the hand. It’s incredibly precious to watch Gavi follow his brother – often laughing hysterically – and Caleb enjoying the whole situation so much. I’ll be grateful when Gavi can stick up for himself a little better. I still have to referee an awful lot, because Caleb will steal his toys or even knock him over. Grr. Being a mommy at those moments isn’t fun, because I really want to snap at Caleb sometimes. Oh, or when he actually BIT Gavi while we were shopping. I thought my head was going to pop off my neck because my blood pressure raised so fast.

Gavi has hit the little mountain goat phase! No couch, table, chair or toilet is safe. The only two things in our house that he can’t scale are Caleb’s bed and our bed. And even those are just a matter of time until he figures out how to step on the ledges. I was answering the phone last week and when I came back into the living room, Gavi was standing on the couch playing with the blinds. I took him down, assuming that Caleb had put him up there, then watched that little booger climb back up. Grr.

Caleb sang at church a couple weeks ago. It was “All in All,” and I was really looking forward to it. Arm motions and everything. But when the song started, Caleb just sat there staring straight forward. He got a couple of arm movements in, but didn’t even make an effort to mouth the words, which is what he usually does when he’s not entirely sure of the words. Still, he was cute. Then when they prayed, we were again beaming when he bowed his head, folded his hands, and saw his eyes clothes. Until he looked at the kid next to him, and said loudly – while the pastor was praying – “Close you eyes.” At least it wasn’t as embarrassing as having him attack a banjo during a prayer!

But he is singing “Jonny Appleseed!” I taught it to him about a week and a half ago, and he’s already sung it about four hundred and twelve times. His favorite part is the “amen” repetition. Everyone is gracious about it and sings along. It’s fun for him! Actually, it’s the quickest he’s ever learned all the words to a song. It’s fun for me to see him develop. I’m now going to teach him another song so I might not hate this one so badly by the time Gavi is ready to sing it.

And this past weekend was Gavi’s first camping trip! He handled himself incredibly well, and was just as cute as anything you’ve ever seen! My favorite was when I ran out of socks for him and popped him into a pair of his brother’s! I had to pull them up over his pants, and he looked like the cutest little soccer player there ever was. He didn’t really like the hike we took though. He was in a carrier on Grandpa’s back, and seemed to really enjoy the ride. But he started screaming bloody murder just at the top of the trail. We paused for lunch and baby-calming time, but he just HOLLERED at the top of his lungs. Bouncing, swaying, squishing and singing just served to infuriate him further, and Jonathan finally ended up RUNNING down the trail with him. Stinker magoo!

And for the end of this entry, I offer another embarrassing Caleb story: Caleb was in the bath on Monday when our neighbor brought us some cookies. While I was standing there oohing and aahing over their chocolate chip deliciousness, Caleb jumped out of the bathtub and ran out to see who was visiting. I think Mandy was a little shocked at a naked boy running around, but actually turned a little red when Caleb announced, “I HAVE A PEENIE!” and showed her…

 Bob Weber replied...

The party was awesome, glad we could make it.

 

September's First Update!

As I sit here, my son Caleb is hollering at me that his tanker truck had a spill, my son Gavriel is repeatedly slamming his fingers in the desk drawer to amuse himself, and I’m overwhelmed by the blessings showering down on me. I’m not sure things could be any better, honestly.

So many things have been happening that I’ve had trouble keeping them straight in my brain let alone getting them put down on paper. But now that things are slowing down, I figured I’d better get them down before I lose them forever.

Biggest milestone: Gavi has been walking for two weeks now! What a terrible mom to have not shouted it to the world before now. August 21st marked his first multiple steps. He’d been taking one or even two little steps for about a month, but since it was really just…stepping, I didn’t figure it counted as walking. But then on Thursday night, the three of us were hanging out in the hallway – Caleb’s favorite reading spot! – and Gavi walked to us from the wall across from us. I kept putting him back up against the opposite wall and making him do it over and over. When Jonny got home, we were laughing and trying to tell him about it when Gavi walked from the hallway to the kitchen to greet HIM! It went from four steps to seven in less than half an hour!

And here we are, two weeks later and he can walk all the way down the hall that he could only walk across the first time. He gets a kick out of going faster and faster until he just face plants. He’s the physical definition of “the walking wounded.” He missed the tub with his hands and instead caught it with his face, and then he tumbled down the stair on our porch to meet the patio with that same face. My beautiful little boy is looking like he went a few rounds with Frazier. Grr.

And Caleb is getting SO verbal! All of a sudden I have a whole new respect for the patience my parents displayed when dealing with a chatterbox like me. He’s also really big into favorites. His favorite toy and book change by the minute, but his favorite food has been oatmeal for at least two weeks. His favorite animal at the zoo this morning was the black bear – because he was sleeping upright in a tree, which he thought was “awesome” – and his favorite phrase is, “so how you today?” It’s fantastic to see how he’s growing, and also how far my eyes can bulge out of my head before my brain implodes. It gets to that point sometimes. That’s when it’s time to play in the sandbox for Caleb!

The two of them are really starting to play together. I knew it was going to be awesome, but I figured I’d have to wait another six months to get to this point. Whoo-hoo! I’m available as a referee most of the time, because even though I want them to settle their own issues, Gavi can’t stand up for himself just yet. They run around the coffee table in the living room until one of them falls down. Surprisingly enough, it’s usually Caleb! They make me SO happy!

Gavi and I had the chance to go out to lunch with my friend Evelyn last week. While I was digging in the diaper bag for some wipes to wash his hands, he was chowing down on a blue crayon. Honestly, the whole point was gone in the two and a half seconds it took me to turn back to him. No wonder they make those suckers non-toxic. That wasn’t the worst part, though. When I took it away from him, he cried. When I tried to get it all out of his mouth, he threw up. Then when I got the urp cleaned up with the same wipes that had distracted me in the first place, he started grinning with blue crayon specks in his teeth. Ugh! Talk about feeling like a crummy mom!

Then there was GG’s b-day party on Sunday! We had about thirty people all gathered around my Gram to pray before we ate. Whoever was praying took the opportunity to thank God for who Grammy was to different people. “And please bless Mom, Grandma, GG, Ruthie, and friend.”

“And Caleb,” came a small voice from the center of the room.

Oh my goodness, those of us who heard it were choking with laughter. It was one of those kid moments that you wish you had on tape!

Gavi kissed a peacock at the zoo today. Or rather, came awfully close. The boys were playing on the grass when a peacock started toward them. Caleb got all panicky and ran away screeching. But Gavi just stood his ground as the bird got closer and closer. It was one of those moments where I honestly didn’t know what the right thing to do was. I don’t want my kids to be fearful, but I also don’t want to go down in history as the mom who allowed her baby to be mangled by a harmless bird! So I just started praying and didn’t make any moves. The peacock was probably just smelling the biter cookie in his mouth, but it sure looked like he was poised for a smooch. And just as Gavi was leaning in, the bird continued his journey toward the giraffes. Ugh, I can be brave, and I don’t mind most germs, but if my sweet Gavers got avian flu from frenching a peacock, I’d be pretty perturbed.

Caleb just came and asked me if he could take a bath. “Just me, not Gavi. I need some time by myself.” I completely understand, kiddo. But a mama must comply…