Thursday, September 24, 2009

Caleb at 23 Months

I love going back to read old blogs because they remind of behaviors Caleb has grown out of that I might have otherwise forgotten. So in the spirit of remembering, here's a snap shot of Caleb at nearly 2 years old.
Caleb is currently going through a very possessive phase, as I'm sure most nearly-two-year-olds do. EVERYTHING is "Mine!" He wakes up crying and saying, "My Daddy! My Mommy!" Another child at the food court had a similar stuffed Mickey that Caleb has and he said, "My Mickey!" When Tommy is on the football field coaching the 5 and 6 year old flag football team, Caleb spends the whole time on the sidelines crying, "MY DADDY!" Very. Possesive.

He's also super sweet. He joined the kissing and hugging game late. Far after his peers, Caleb finally got into kissing and hugging, although he's still very particular about when he doles these treats out. In fact, (and I know this will knock me off the Mom of the Year list), I've taken to bribing him for kisses. When he asks for cheese (on a daily basis), I make him say please. Then I make him give me a kiss and a hug! Hey, I have to get it any way I can!

He's finally saying, "I love you" which comes out "Iyuhoo." Every now and again, without any prompting whatsoever, he'll just say "Iyuhoomommy." Freaking breaks my heart into a billion peices!

He's pretending now, which is super cool. He pretends to eat (usually a pretend apple) and pretends to drink (with a huge slurp) any time there's a table nearby. He will aslo pretend emotions, such as being sad. He'll put his little fists to his eyes and rub them and making a whimpering sound to imitate crying. Then I'll say, "Oh no, Caleb is sad! What makes Caleb happy?" And he'll yell, "BIG HUGS!" and run into my arms for a squeeze. He also loves to pretend to sneeze. He'll give a big "ah ahh AHH TOO!"


He's definatly learning the art of a toddler tantrum, which is less than fun. He can be a bit of a sensative soul, too. It'll take very little, sometimes, to set him off. Even a gentle reproof can unleash a torrent of tears.
Here are some pics of Caleb at school. They have Parent Involvement activities where we get to come in and hang out with the kiddos for a bit. This week there was a spaghetti lunch. Caleb was a bit cranky at first, but settled down once he had some food in his mouth. The little girl next to him is his best bud at school. He's going to miss her when he transistions into the 2-year-old room next month!

Monday, September 14, 2009

Convo with Caleb

Here's a snippet of a conversation I had with Caleb this morning on the drive into work, just as we approached the base.


Caleb: "Pane!"
Me: "That's right Caleb, planes!"
Caleb: "I yuhoo, pane!"
Me: "You love the plane? What about momma?"
Caleb: "Pane FASS!"
Me: "Yeah, that plane is going fast. I think it's taking off."
Caleb: "Bye-bye, pane!"



Geeze, I love this kid.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Procrastinator Extrodinaire

By default, I'm a rather bad procrastinator. I'm prone to leaving things to the very last minute (and beyond), sometimes to the point of forgetting all together.

It's irritating. Just ask my husband. I don't like it myself.

And I'm not always as bad as I've been this year. Some years I'm pretty good at getting out birthday gifts on time and tackling my to do list within a reasonable time frame. Sometimes I go through absolute fits of organization and control where I actually send cards out early and remember to go shopping well before a birthday.

Not this year.

I'd like to chalk that up to returning to work, finishing my graduate degree, and trying to balance family life during all of that. And when I type it out, I think, "Wow. That does sound like a reasonable batch of circumstances for becoming such a slacker." Except that I know I'm prone to being a slacker to begin with and the addition of these outside factors only exacerbated the problem.

I finished up my degree in June, but it's been difficult pulling myself out of the habit of putting everything off just one more month. But following my husband's eye surgery, it's become necessary to address my demons. The biggest one of all: my ever-increasing pile of things to mail out.

Is anyone else really, really bad at mailing things? If I don't mail something out the DAY I think about it, I may not mail it out for a year. Literally.

So I'm currently preparing for the Great Mass Mail-Out of 2009. If I don't do it now, before Christmas rapidly approaches, I may soon die in a pile of envelopes and postage stamps.

In this beast of a pile are things I'm embarrassed to admit I've never mailed out. A birthday present for my friend's girls that I purchased last summer. They've both since had another birthday since then. (Kristy, it'll be on it's way Tuesday!) The sad thing is, they were actually in the same country as me this time last year! I could have given it directly to them, not just at the time of their birthday, but for about six months after that until they moved!

I've also got pictures of Caleb taken at school from April. But really, that's not so bad. That's not bad at all. I've also got pictures of Caleb taken from August...of last year! Awful, I know. My mom said I may as well not even send them out now. But I paid for them, darnit! I paid for them with the idea that I would send them out to certain people. By golly, those people are going to get year-old pics of my son, whether they want them or not at this point!

The idea is that if I can get over this ginormous obstacle of mail, I can become better. Right? If I just put this past behind me (you know, the past I'm still holding onto 13 months later) then I can get a better grasp on the present and be more prepared for the future. I have to believe I can get a grasp on this situation before it takes over my life.

And I'm getting there. I've sorted the pics, written the thank you notes, picked out the birthday cards, and am very nearly done addressing the whole stack. In the mean time, I'm just trying not to think about how much postage will cost when I mail this out this week!