My Fun Caleb

Caleb is loving his new school, but especially his new neighborhood. Chris and I have had to let go a little bit and extend his boundries when he plays outside. He loves to go down the street in front of our house and play basketball in the road with "his friends". Normally, playing basketball in the road would not be something Chris and I would approve of for a six year old. But this road is not busy at all and all the neighbor kids play in it. We've had the whole talk with Caleb about being safe, and it helps that this road is right in front of our house so we can see if Caleb is being safe and playing well.

That's where the quotations around "his friends" comes in. The "friends" he was playing with (Caleb calls everyone his "friends" - even if he's never met them. If they're kids, they're automatically his friends) are 4-6 years older than him. So you can imagine how that goes when he tries to play basketball with them. They're nice kids, they're never mean to him. But Chris and I thought it'd be best if he just play basketball on the hoop on our back patio. Then he can practice dribbling and granny-throwing as much as he wants.

There's a neighbor boy who Caleb also plays with, he's eight, and he has Asberger's. He must be highly-functioning because you wouldn't know he has it. He and Caleb get along really well. Although I'm not used to kids walking up to my livingroom window and knocking on it instead of the front door. Or interupting our dinner to see if Caleb can play, or wondering what time we'll be back from the store so he can come over and play with Caleb when we get back. Comes with the territory, literally, I guess. I'm glad Caleb has a friend to play with.

Caleb's in T-ball and loving it. I think he mostly enjoys getting out in the backyard and practicing throwing and batting with Chris. Have I said yet that I love having such a great sized (for Oregon) backyard? I love it. He hasn't had a T-ball game yet, but I can't wait to watch him play. Watching him at practice, I think he'll be pretty good.

He's a really great big brother and helper. He willingly, with a great attitude, does so many things when it comes to Anna. If I need him to play with her so I can get some things done, he's more than happy to do it. I don't know how long this will last, so I'm enjoying it while it does. :)

We have gotten into the doing-whatever-I-want, "I forgot", showing-major-attitude stage. I shouldn't say stage, this will probably be something we'll have to deal with to some degree until he leaves home. But, we're dealing with it. We have a great kid, it's just the inevitable discipline issues that rise up from time to time. Being parents isn't always fun! :)

Alright, congratulations if you read all of this. I realize it won't be fascinating for everyone but I wanted to do it for family. Have a great week!

Bear with me, please.

I've been needing to do a post about the kids and what they're doing and all of that, while I remember, and because I want to keep relatives living far away up to date on them. This first post is all about Anna.

My Sweet Anna

Anna is crawling/cruising everywhere. She's not at all interested in walking, guess she figures she can get where she wants to go by crawling so why bother learning something new? She has a love/hate relationship with Caleb...already. Sometimes she follows him around everywhere and loves to play with him and sometimes she doesn't want anything to do with him and she takes a whack at him if he comes too close.

As I've said before, she loves her food. She sits with us at the dinner table in her Bumbo and eats bits of whatever we eat. I finally have her trained so she doesn't yell at us when she wants more. Now she says "ease" (Please). I've tried to teach her some baby signs, but she's never done any. Caleb was like that too, as a baby. He talked so early that he'd rather say it than sign it. She loves to talk jibberish. It's usually non-words that end in "ish". She loves making that sound. If you ask her where your nose is, she can point to it. She can also point out your eye and she can say "eye". If you ask for a kiss, she'll kiss you - mouth wide open so watch out.

And I should point out that as much of a Mommy's girl as she is, she has not said "Mama" yet. She says "Daddy" and she has a word she uses for Caleb (something like "Daybe" - sounds nothing like Caleb). She's saving the best for last, I guess. ;)

It figures, her hair is hopeless. She has beautiful hair in the back of her head but on the top, it sticks up in funny places and it's so fine and light that you can see through it. (We call it a baby mullet.) She has to wear headbands because there's no way a bow will stay in it. Oh well, she'll get hair eventually and then I can have my fun. :)

Whenever she hears music, she dances. Bobs her head up and down, then shakes it side to side.

I can't believe she'll be a year old in a month and a half! Where did the time go?

A perfect example of her hair...

Scavenger Hunting

Well, we are moved in. Unpacked, no. But all of our stuff is now in one place and that place is our house. We're slowly whittling down the pyramid of boxes in the garage. We didn't think things through enough on that end. A week ago when we had only been living here for a couple of days, we had no towels, toothpaste, or pans to cook in. So Chris was out in the garage more than he was in the house, it seemed, looking for the necessities. The highlight of the week was finding the box with towels in it. It was one of the first boxes we tried to find and Chris had to really hunt to find it. I like to think he had fun with his little scavenger hunt. ;)

Has anyone ever told you that it takes FOREVER to line kitchen shelves with shelf liner? Well it does. It's worth it, but it feels like a complete waste of a day while you're doing it. I just had to keep telling myself that I should be thankful for so much cabinet space.

We've been slowly meeting our neighbors here. One of our neighbors, who lives a couple houses down the street in front of us, came over with his 7 year old son on Saturday wanting to know if Caleb could come play at their house. I talked to him for a good 20 minutes. Turns out he remembers Aaron and Julie (good friends of ours who we go to church with) from when they used to live in the house across the street from us. Small world. Anyway, Caleb played over at their house for a couple of hours. I'm glad he'll have some friends in the neighborhood.

Caleb lost his tooth. He and I were taking a much needed break from unpacking. We were sitting on the couch, eating popcorn and watching "E.T." when he said "Ew, Mom, what's this?" I looked down and he had his tooth in his hand. I said "That's your tooth." He was thrilled that 1) it didn't hurt when it came out and 2) he didn't swallow it.

Chris and some guys from church went snowboarding last Saturday. It had been a couple of years since Chris had been. He woke up the next morning barely able to move. Who knew you used so many muscles when snowboarding? I'm sure some of the soreness was from a little bit of falling too. :)

Baby and I are doing fine. I don't think I've felt any movement yet but then again, I haven't been paying any attention. Sometimes I forget that I'm pregnant and then I look down at the new belly that's popped out and remember. Two kids, moving into a fixer, and working makes me a little busy. :) I'm getting more excited to welcome a new baby. As most of you know, the idea is something I've had to get used to. I've always wanted three kids, but #'s 2 and 3 so close together wasn't the plan. It'll be wonderful, it's just a new experience that will take some getting used to. I'm very thankful for my family and what this new little person will bring to it.

Anna is doing well too. She's getting a little fiesty. Sometimes she'll be in Caleb's room playing with him and then I'll hear her just yell at him. It's just a "Ahhhh!" but you know she's irritated at him for something. And what an eater! She can put away the groceries and still want more. She never refuses food, ever. And she loves everything. There hasn't been a food I've given her yet that she doesn't like. It's really amazing how much she can eat. We have to cut her off a lot of times. :)

As usual, it's been a while since I've updated so this is longer than I intended. I hope you all have a great week.