One.

Dear Caleb,

One year ago today we met.  To be honest, I was unsure about you going in.  I wasn't sure that I could love you as much as I loved your brother.  I wasn't sure that my heart had room for that much love again.  And then I saw you.  And my heart had room.  And I loved you as easily as I loved Joshua. 

Watching your personality develop has been amazing.  You've got your brother's easy going nature most of the time but if you want something, you don't stop until you get it.  Unlike Joshua, you don't flirt to get your way.  You pull out the ANGRY EYES and stare people down. 

You are sober and you evaluate everything before you pass judgement.  You rarely smile at new people, but once you know them you smile and wave like crazy. 

And you are strong!  You love to move furniture.  Chairs, the pack-n-play, baskets of toys - all get rearranged on a daily basis courtesy of you.  We joke that someday you'll have your own moving company.  You also have your daddy's organizational streak and will move toys from one basket to another until you like where they are.  Then you change them again. 

I love your curious nature.  Your favorite word lately is "zat", and you use it regularly.  You point at everything and ask what it is.  You usually nod your head if you really want it.  I call you my little expolorer - you investigate everything! 

And when it comes to eating...you are amazing.  Your favorite foods are steamed broccoli, steamed carrots, yogurt, cherrios, and any fruit on the planet.  You love, love, love peaches and nectarines, watermelon, apples, pears, and mandarin oranges.  You'll eat your body weight in them on a daily basis!  When it's time to eat, it's TIME TO EAT and there is no telling you otherwise. And when you're done, you're DONE.  You have very little patience - I'm pretty sure you get that from me.  You refuse to be fed and want to do it all on your own.

You pick things up so quickly...you're smart as a whip!  You sign 'hat', 'sleep', 'more', & 'milk', and are saying 'uh oh', 'night-night', 'all done' & 'no no'.  You call daddy 'da', nana 'nanana', and me 'mamama'.  I love your sweet voice.  You're also an expert cruiser, with no walking just yet.  Trust me...I'm not really encouraging it because once you start, there will be no stopping you!  I don't think I'm ready to be chasing you down just yet. 

My favorite thing in the world is watching you play with Joshua.  Josh likes to get up close & personal with you and you're not a huge fan of it. 

But then there are times when the two of you play side by side and it melts my heart. I love to see the relationship developing between you two. I hope it is a bond stronger than anything else.

You are my favorite youngest son, my favorite Caleb in the whole world.  And I'm amazed by you.  I'm so thankful that you are in our lives, sweet boy.  You've made our family complete. 

Love,

Mama



New Adventures

One year ago today I was awake long before I should have been and spent much of the morning in tears.  I was torn between happiness and sadness, and more than a little bit afraid. I was mourning the loss of all of my alone time with Joshua, but excited about meeting our second son.  Last year, we were getting ready to head to the hospital to become a family of four.

Today I was awake long before I should have been and have spent much of the morning in tears.  I'm torn between happiness and sadness, and more than a little bit afraid.  I'm watching my baby grow up far too quickly, and am alternately sad and excited about his next step.  Today I dropped my oldest son, my Joshua, off at preschool. 

He is attending an integrated preschool about 20 minutes from home. We're familiar with the building - Josh has been having pool PT there this past year. My heart is still fearful though. What if they don't understand his signs? What if he bites someone out of frustration? What if they give a snack and he chokes? What if he hates it but can't tell us? There are so many questions, so much I'm unsure of. And I hate the loss of control. Up until now, for the past three years, I've watched therapy. I've encouraged therapists to push him a little further or stepped in when the therapist is pushing too hard. I've been Joshua's shield. And now, I'm learning to let go. Josh can usually feel my hesitation or fear, and I won't have him burdened with that. So I put on a smile, told him how fun it was going to be, snapped a picture...and I left. Two and a half hours later, I counted the seconds until I could pick him up again. He was all smiles and his classroom aides gave me nothing but glowing reports. He even tried to kiss a few girls. It seems that there was nothing to worry about...everyone speaks the language of love. :)

 

My Favorite Faces

These are my favorite faces. My sweet little fussbudget, Caleb...and my sweet bug, Joshua.
Josh is starting to be more and more interested in Caleb. He'll even sign 'C' when you ask him what his brother's name is! He's especially interested in Caleb's feet when he's in the bouncer...

Of course, there are hazards to playing with Caleb's feet. Sometimes you get kicked in the head!But most of the time it's all about brotherly love here in the house.

And its always fun and games until someone gets a pacifier in the eye. :)

Caleb has a great range of faces that he makes on a daily basis. There's the "Nah-nah-nah-boo-boo" face...And the ever popular "I know something you don't know" face. This is the face he makes when he's about to laugh. He brings his hands up near his ears and wrinkles his nose. And finally, these are his full and happy looks he throws out after he's eaten...

One final picture of my other favorite face in the whole wide world......and I'm done. :)

Videos!

Josh is proving to be an awesome big brother (most of the time). :) Here are some videos to show you! This video is from the day we brought Caleb home.

And this is from yesterday.

Caleb is growing and changing every day. He is starting to get into a routine with when he wants to sleep and when he wants to play. Social hour comes at 5am, 1pm, and 4pm. He loves to talk and has recently found his "volume". If he wants your attention, he'll yell until you look at him. Otherwise, the smiles are plentiful and it looks like he'll be as quick to smile and giggle as his brother is!

Josh is doing great in therapy, and has recently discovered that he can sniper crawl/commando crawl to anywhere he wants to go. He's gotten quicker and quicker and will follow us around the house if left on his own. It's awesome to see!

That's all I have time for now...it's social time with Caleb. :) Love you all!

Caleb...part 2

Ben was finally able to take some time off this week, so we've been spending lots of time at home with our little family...
and Joshua has been spending lots of time kissing his brother.

I haven't had time to do a full out "photo shoot" with Caleb, but I've managed to grab a few cute ones...

(oh my goodness...these toes! I could just eat them up!) (Caleb does not approve of me eating up his toes apparently.)

When Caleb isn't sleeping on me or in between daddy & mommy in their bed, he likes to sleep on his side....in our bed. He won't sleep in his bed for more than 20 minutes and he'll only sleep in the swing during the day. He doesn't like it when the room is totally dark and will wake from a sound sleep to complain about it. I guess you could say that he's pretty particular when it comes to sleep...just like his brother. He is a good sleeper (once he goes to sleep) though, waking every 3 hours to eat at night. His "witching hour" lasts from 8pm to around 10:30pm usually and tires mommy & daddy out. Thankfully, Joshua is sleeping through the night still so once Caleb goes down we can all sleep. I just keep holding out hope that someday Ben and I will be able to sleep for more than a 2 hour stretch. :)

We've also been out and about a good deal! We went to Brown's Berry Patch last weekend to drive a tractor...

...and took our very first picture of the whole family! Can you believe it took three weeks to get one?! We also took a hayride around the farm...

...which Josh throughly enjoyed!We also went for a drive down to Letchworth State Park. It was kind of chilly and drab, and both boys had their miserable times, but it was great to get out and see some of the early fall colors.

In totally not Caleb related news, Joshua is trying out a new walker! Check this thing out! It's like a race car! I love it. :) It moves when Josh even thinks about walking and it's super easy to swivel. I can't wait to see him doing this on his own!! Want to see it in action? Ok...here you go!

So now that you're all caught up on what we've been up to, I'll sign off for now. :) Talk to you soon (hopefully)!