Just in Time for Snow

We came home from Florida at the perfect time! This has been the coldest winter of the eight winters we've spent here, but we hadn't gotten more than a few minutes of flurries before yesterday. We only got about 2 inches of snow, but it was enough for some play. Caleb had a blast!

Here he is throwing snow balls at the glass door. We also took a walk to Whole Foods later in the day and he got to play in the snow more.


He was having trouble making snow balls with gloves on, so I was making them bare handed in between cooking and cleaning the kitchen up. That got cold for my fingers, so I gave him some bowls to make the snow balls. That worked out much better for me.




The snow came yesterday. This morning we woke up to a nice layer of ice on everything. This is the view from out apartment. (if you click on the picture, it'll super size and you can see the ice on the snow better) It's nasty, but not really if you get to hibernate at home all day. It's actually quite nice. I'm about to make a pot of hot tea. Ahhhh....

Art by Caleb

I am so excited about this!  Caleb has never really been interested in drawing anything but "O"s and snakes, which consist of long squiggles.  But today he drew this!  Aliens, complete with two eyes, two arms, two legs and ten fingers.  All of them in their own rocket ships.  The two little things at the bottoms of the rockets ships are the ... um ... I don't know what they're called.  The things that the fire comes out of.  I seriously want to frame this. 

Random Hugs

I am sometimes so amazed at Caleb.  I'm sure all kids have such defined personality traits, but only *really* know Caleb.  I know the things that make him difficult; He's whiny and controlling and only wants to eat bread and popsicles.  But I also know the things that make him so wonderful; He's polite, funny, affectionate and likes to please us, which means that he is easier to control as he gets older and understands our directions more fully.  

But the reason for this post is about his affectionate ways.  Today, Caleb decided to give random hugs.  He hugged the doctor at the appointment, the cashier at Franklin Covey and the 20-something girl in the elevator.  He was polite with the first two, asking to hug first.  But with the girl, he inched closer and closer and closer and hugged her.  I explained that he was giving random hugs out today and she said it was okay cause she liked hugs.  So, it was really cute.  Every time he does things like this, I am so grateful that I have him.  I'm so glad that he isn't violent with strangers (that's not to say he isn't with Daddy) and that he seems to be very aware of himself around smaller kids.  He actually knocked a little kid over at the playground today and then helped him get up!  It just makes me sigh with relief.  

I'm So Proud :)

Yesterday we were at a mall and letting Caleb play at the play area. A woman came up to Shane and asked if his son was the one in gray. Uh oh, we both thought. Did Caleb push her kid? But no, she explained that Caleb was so polite that she had to come over and tell us! She was in his way, so he said "Can you move, please?" And then he accidently bumped into her son and said "I'm sorry, excuse me." I was so happy that I started tearing up. Maybe it was the hormones, but I was so happy that she was impressed with him and not annoyed. It was one of those rare moments that made me think that maybe we're doing a good job of raising him.

More Caleb Speak

"I told you Mommy! Turn the water on for me! Because I love you."


"You beat me Daddy!" (on the verge of a tantrum)
"You should be happy for Daddy. Don't you want to congratulate him?" I say
"NO! I don't WANT to!" (huffing and puffing)
"Because you're a sore loser?" I say
"No. I'm not a sore loser! I'm a sore ... pirate! (tee hee hee...)"


Half an hour after putting him to bed last night...
"Mommy? Can you tuck me in?" (because every night he refuses to sleep under the covers and so he goes to bed on top of them)
"Okay."
As I'm tucking him in he says...
"Mommy? Can I get out of the covers when you leave?"


Makes me want to have a dozen more kids. Can't wait to see what the others will come up with.

Do You Speak Caleb?

Scoopy - adj. - causing fear: "It's scoopy in here!"

Soft - verb - to feel something soft: "Can I soft that blanket?"

Last day - noun - yesterday or anyday before that: "I went to Disney World last day."

Nani - noun - "Mommy" (what's up with that?)

Only Funny Cause It's Not Your Kid

I've been struggling to keep Caleb engaged. He's very bossy high-spirited. He refuses to do things with me that I never thought could be an argument with a 3-year old. Like when I try to read him a story and it's not bedtime, or when I try to sing... anything, or when I dance, or when I want to play a game by the rules. I just keep telling myself that his strong-willed nature will do him good when he grows up, if we can manage to help him control it.

The funny thing is that I *know* he gets it from me. Once I was working with someone to get a job done that was backlogged 6-months. She was coming up with some ideas of how we could do extra things to make the work better. But we just didn't have time for it and it was really more appropriate to implement on the current work, which we couldn't do at the time because there was a 6-month backlog! She continued to insist so I finally said very sternly "How about this! I tell you what to do and you just do it!" Oh, how this comes back to me every time Caleb explains to me how we are supposed to play Connect 4, or how I'm not supposed to put the Legos in his dump truck *that* way.

So, I went to the library and borrowed a bunch of parenting books. One of which was The New Strong-Willed Child. I have to admit that reading through this book, I realized that Caleb is not even close to being the most strong-willed child ever. But then again, I knew that already. He is somewhat controllable. I'd just like to be more equipped in those times when he isn't so controllable because I detest feeling like I yell at him *all the time*. There are some funny stories in this book. But you know, only funny cause it's not your kid.

When Caleb throws a tantrum in public and we get to the point where I say "That's it! You're getting a spanking when we get home!" he gets even more insane and then starts to scream as loudly as he can manage "BUT MOMMY! I DON'T WANT A SPANKING!" And yes, it's really embarrassing. But this story made me feel better:

When we were riding in the family car and Dana was in trouble and knew what was waiting for her at home, she would put both hands on the window and scream at people when we stopped at red lights. She would shout, "Save me! Save me!"

And here's another good one:

Former U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt was clearly a strong-willed child and grew up to be a very strong-willed man. ... Franklin was very bossy with his peers and he liked to win at everything. When he was once scolded for the way he treated other children, he said, "Mummie, if I didn't give the orders, nothing would happen."

Fish and TV

When Caleb goes with me to Whole Foods, he always asks to see the fishies. He refers to the free standing cart where they keep whole fishes on ice. He loves looking at them for some reason and always wants to touch them (but I don't let him). The other day, I decided to be spontaneous and buy a whole spanish mackerel. I can't tell you how excited Caleb was about all of this. He even got to touch it. After the fish guy cleaned it and wrapped it, Caleb insisted on carrying it. We had this conversation on the way home...

C: Can I touch it and watch TV?

Me: Um. What?

C: Can I touch it and watch TV??!!!

Me: You mean you want to hold it while you watch TV?

C: Yeah, that would be good Mommy! Can I?

Me: Um. I don't think that would be a good idea.

C: But WHY Mommy????!!!!!

And so I preceded to explain why it's not a good idea to hold the fish while watching TV but reassured him that I'd open it up on the kitchen counter and he could touch it to his heart's content. He was satisfied with this. Thank goodness.