Category: Monthly letters (Page 4 of 7)

Dear Caleb,

You are now well into your terrible/terrific two’s.  We are thoroughly enjoying your personality – you higher level of understanding, your sense of humour, and your new found ability to imitate what you see (which isn’t always good!)  We are not enjoying your new “scream like a girl” routine.  Although your speech path Karen loves this.  She says any vocal play is good.  Remind me to call her during your next flop-on-the-floor-screaming-in-an-ear-piercing-pitch moment.

Your speech therapy is going well.  Recently you even had a session with your friend Eve included as a model.  You were trying to imitate everything Eve said.  The last few weeks you have become increasing more vocal.  You try to imitate and sing along.  Your current favorite songs are Head and Shoulders, Wheels on the Bus, and Row Your Boat.  You are also starting to get good at signing… I only had to show you once and you totally know how to sign “more cnady please”.  (Funny that I have worked on Mom, Dad and milk for almost 2 years and you still won’t sign those!)

You are also sprouting up – you are getting taller and taller.  Good thing it is summer because a lot of your pants are too short.  Unfortunately you aren’t gaing weight, and your head circumfrence has stayed the same for a while.  We are monitoring you and hopefully it’s just because you are an active boy.

You love to cook lately.  Your favorite gourmet meals – instant pudding and cookies.  You love to get into the bowl with your spoon!

This month you had a very important job – you were the ring bearer in cousin Anika’s wedding.  You did so well.  You listened to instructions, kept your tie on, stayed with flowergirl Marissa, and charmed your way into the hearts of 160 guests.  Not to mention you were cute!

 

You have a very busy social life these days.  Including a first sleepover at your Grandma’s/Aunts’ and Uncle’s house.  You are constantly calling on your girlfriend Eve to play.  And you have been hanging out with lots of your peeps this summer!

Here you are with family…

 

 

…and friends…

We love you cute stuff!

Love,
Mommy
xo

PS- to all our faithful readers, I hope you enjoyed how photo heavy this post was – I wanted to make up for the lack of photos (due to the card reader incident).  Bigger resolutions of many of these photos can be found in Caleb’s toddler album, for those of you that steal photos for use on your own blogs and desktops…not that I’m naming any names!

Dear Caleb,

You are now 25 months old, and we have all officially survived the first month of the terrible twos… and yes it is official the screaming, drop to the floor tantrums really are terrible! But oh well…such is life!

At a recent doctor’s check-up we found out that your head isn’t growing, but that your height has sure rocketed up. So you are where you should be for height, and your are a little lower for weight and head circumference. We are monitoring this, but it’s not a huge problem. You realize of course that this small head thing is from your dad – along with all of those other quirky traits!

You babble all the time now. And sometimes you come up with these fabulous words. We know one day there will come a time when you are talking in full sentences non-stop. Your understanding of language is incredible. You follow directions really well – when you want to. And you are becoming such a big help around the house. You love to help with laundry, dishes, gardening, and cooking. I guess we’ll have to start thinking of an allowance for you soon!

I love you, very much – even on the days you won’t stop screaming. And even on the days I have to give you a time out from the play area because you bit another child. Sigh. We’ll call that a trait from daddy too!

Love,
Mama!

XO

PS- When we can get the computer to work properly I’ll post some more pics.

Dear Caleb,

You are now a two year old.  It seems like only yesturday we were bringing you home and wondering what to do with the tiny little bundle wrapped up and in my arms.  Now we wonder what to do as you go flying sround the room high on sugar and milk and asking to watch Elmo or Thomas – again and again and again!  (What’s really amazing is that by doing the ah ha ha laugh of Count von Count from Sesame Street, you have conditioned daddy and myself and your aunts and uncles to pull up Sesame Street clips from Youtube on all our computers… you have us all so well trained!)

You definately know how to make your needs known to all of us.  You point, whine, cry and more recently have started to use a few words.  I love to hear your little voice telling me a neeeeeeeerrrrrrrrmmmmm  (airplane) is flying in the sky, or that you see a baaa (sheep) or a bayyybeee (baby) on tv.  You love getting everyone to sing Happy Birthday – and you can sing the HA, day and Kay parts (Kay for Caleb)…and you pretend to blow out candles after the song!  But the best word of all has been “mom”.  Mom means everything – up, help, I want something, I can’t do something, do it for me…. but sometimes it means me, your mommy.  I will always remember the day I picked you up after work and you ran towards me and yelled mom.  It made every tantrum you’ve executed in the last 24 months worth it. 

And of course we still love hearing that fabulous little giggle of your’s.  Everywhere we go you can still make heads turn and grumpy people smile just from that laugh.  Uncle Ryan is right, it should be a ring tone on my cell phone!

You are so independent, and so smart.  The other day you helped me do dishes.  You were so proud of yourself for helping.  And you knew that after scrubbing the spoon you had to turn on the tap and rinse them.  You also help with vaccuuming and laundry.  And you try to help dress and undress yourself.  You have an obsession with your pajamas right now, and it is amazing how quick you can pull them back on when I’m trying to help you dress in the morning.  And of course, you still love your shoes.  As I was getting ready for a run yesturday, I saw you sneak off, find your runners and try to get them on so that you could come too.

We are so proud of everything you have learned to do and all that you continue to learn everyday.  Each day with you is amazing as we watch your brain work and see you accomplish new things – from mastering the playground slide, to drinking from a bendy straw, to telling me when your diaper is dirty (and then playing with the poop while I’m getting out clean diapers)!

We love you so much, and are having so much fun with you.  You will always be our little bayyybeee… but we love watching you grow up to be our little boy Gooey!

Lots of birthday kisses and squishes,
Love,
Mommy

XO XO

Dear Caleb,

This is your last newsletter as a one year old… where has the time gone?  It seems like only yesturday Daddy and I were bringing you home from the hospital – this tiny little bundle who depended on us for everything.  Now you are becoming Mr. Independent.  You know what you want, and try to get your way – all the time.  If not, watch out for Hurricane Caleb.

Some of those “terrible two” tantrums are brought on by fustration as you still can’t always communicate your needs.  But you are trying really hard.  In the last few weeks we have been bringing you to see Dr. Craig – the chiropractor (and the other Caleb’s daddy).  This along with your Speech therapy from Karen and OT exercises from Carolyn (Trevor’s mommy) – have produced some excellent changes in your speech sound production.  You can now tell us that a sheep says BAA, a lion goes RRRRR, trains are “woo-woo” and attempt to say things like “more”, “puh-oh” (Playdoh), and “eyaahhh” (yeah).  You are also getting really good at intraverbals…. that’s speech therapy talk for filling in the blanks.  When we read a book together, I can pause and you try to fill in the missing word with a sound.  Karen was so impressed when you read her your Moo Baa La La La book today.  You are also trying to label.  It’s so neat to see you point at something and tell us “dat dat” (look at that).  I’m so proud of you.

As your speech increases, so has your need to “do it yourself”.  I’m sure you’ll soon have your own HGTV show with toddler DIY ideas!  You are still our happy gardener.  In fact I have a deal going with the neighbours that you’ll be cutting their lawns for $10 a house…we’ll have that university tution saved in no time!

You have also been trying to play with daddy’s tools, and you try to “fix” things when they aren’t working.

Today you figured out how to climb up the climbing wall at the playground to get up to the slide.  And you figured out how to get in and out of the bathtub tonight.  It’s kind of a seal sliding approach, but you did it.  (Sorry – no pictures of this…too busy trying to stop you from drowning!)

You are definately a busy boy now.  You don’t like to stop to have your picture taken anymore.  In fact you cried at our family photoshoot, because we made you pause during your duck chasing.  So, this newsletter is void of many photos.  Oh well!  I still love you, and all your antics (well, all your antics minus the tantrums and the milk sprinkler imitation you do!)

Enjoy your last few weeks as a one year old!

Love,
Mommy
xo

PS – Make sure you behave for daddy while Mommy is away in Vancouver… this will be my first overnight trip away from you boys…wahhh!

Dear Caleb,

You are now 22 months old.  It’s shocking to believe in just a few short weeks my little boy will be turning two!  You have definately mastered the two year old tantrum… you may not be communicating using clear verbal words, but you have a very very loud voice, and an ear piercing scream! 

You are becoming a very independent little person.  You try very hard to undress and dress yourself – with some definate ideas about what you will or won’t wear, and what shoes are okay!  You are getting very good at climbing, and can get up and downthe stairs very quickly.  You have also recently learned how to climb up into your highchair, and are trying very hard to climb up onto the big slide at the playground.

You are also turning into a very good helper around the house.  You will help to get your own dishes, put things on the kitchen counter, and will help to vaccuum.

You also like to help outside.  You love to mow the lawn with your new bubble lawnmower… you must be an Ell boy!

 

Actually, you love being outside.  Sometimes we have a hard time getting you to come back in the house.  You love to run around with the neighbourhood kids – chasing them, running through random backyards, swapping toys, sidewalk chalking, lawnmowing, toy car riding, and of course, just getting dirty!

When you aren’t outside, you love to relax on the couch, make that – between the couch and the ottomans.  This is your new favorite way to watch your movies.  Who needs a recliner, huh?!

Recently we celebrated Easter, and you were so cute about the egg hunt.  You knew that good things come in those plastic eggs (thanks to the photo shot we did with you)… and you didn’t want to let go of the ones you collected.  Once you figured out that you got to keep the ones in your Easter bucket, you went around collecting, and stealing a few from others!  It was wonderful to see you enjoy yourself, despite the rain.

We also recently entered you in a model contest, where you got a professional photo taken by Erin of Prairie Child Photography.  You were such a ham – you kept trying to rip off the backdrop, and touch the lights and camera.  And no way did you want to pose or sit or stay within the frame of the camera.  At least we got one good shot.

 

We’ve also had a few playdates with all your little friends.  In order to get a photo of you all, we had to sit you on the couch and turn on your favorite Elmo movie – the things we do for a good picture!  And it must be an almost two year old thing… but you and your friends love balloons!

You are growing up so fast!  A few weeks ago we even took you for your first big boy haircut at a real hair salon.  You screamed bloody murder, but your hair sure looks good!  We love every minute with you (minus the screaming, temper tantrum ones)!  These last few weeks with you as a one year will be very special to us, especially as you start to use your voice more – in a positive way.  Speech therapy continues to go well, and you definately made my birthday this year when you learned to say MOM.

I love you cute stuff!

Love,
Mom
XO

PS: Yup – I realize the newsletter is about 12 days later, but I’m making progress!  And to those who want to see ALL the photos in Caleb’s Toddler Album or for those who save pictures off this site to make print copies, you can acces them here.

Dear Caleb,

It has been far too long since I wrote you a letter… but the time has just been flying, and I’d rather spend my days playing with you, than writing about it.  (Sorry to all our faithful readers!)  You are now 21 months old…only a mere three months and you will be two!  These last three months have been busy ones, and a memorable time for all of us…

We survived our move from “the big city condo” to the “house in the ‘burbs”!  Thanks for all your help with the packing!  It was sad to say goodbye to the place we first called home.  Our last day there we went to pick up the final items and you shut yourself up in your old bedroom and didn’t want us to take you out.  By the time we left you and I were both crying.  I know you probably won’t remember it, but that will always be the place we first brought you home to.

 

I will miss how close it was to get anywhere, and all our wonderful walks to town or the park.  But it is wonderful to finally have a yard of our own, and not worry about downstairs neighbours! 

 

You love the fact that you get to go outside and play with all the neighbour kids.  (Sorry that you got run over by the little motorized kids hummer yesturday…but you held your own and handled it like a champ and got some big hugs form one of the older girls!)  I’m so excited that you get to grow up in a neighbourhood full of playmates, green grass and room for you to run around (even if it is snowing out!)  Yup – before we got our lawn you were playing in a snow covered dirt pile!

 

You also love that we have a garage.  More specifically – a garage door.  You favorite thing to do is watch that door open and close.  You also love to clean sweep your kitchen cupboard.  Daddy and I thought it would be good for you to have your own cupboard where you could get your own cups, plates and bowls.  We didn’t intend it to be for you to get out ALL of your cups, plates and bowls!  You also love to climb up on all the new furniture.  And stairs are no problem for you!

 

You still love to play with your cars and trains.  More recently however you have gotten into arts and crafts- definately mommy’s son!  You absolutely love to play with playdoh, you love to draw and you love stickers.  Everyday we sit at your little table and you play contently with your art stuff…. and everyday I pick playdoh out of the carpet!  But it’s totally worth it!  Having a family room for all your toys is great…even though we still seem to have toys in the living room!

You also still love to play with the phone and babble away.  Just this past week you’ve finally started to say something when someone is really on the phone.  You do your chicken and cow conversation:

Mommy: Hi Caleb!  Are you having a good day today?
Caleb: Cuk cuk cuk, moo!
Mommy: Yes chicken say cluck, cow says moo.
Caleb: Cuk cuk cuk!
Mommy: I have to go back to work – have a good afternoon
Caleb: mmmmmmmmooo cuk cuk
Mommy: I love you
Caleb: Cuk Cuk Cuk Mmmmm (blowing kisses in the phone)

 

The last few months we’ve also been busy with Kindermusik – which you were really starting to like.  We also had our first few visitors, and last week we celebrated daddy’s 30th birthday.  We had around 50 people over.  You loved getting cake.

 

We’ve also had speech therapy sessions.  In January we went for a hearing test – which was normal… after fighting with you about wearing the headphones!  And we got waitlisted for Speech services.  But Mommy followed her instincts and figured out it was a motor planning issue – so now you are seen by Mommy’s work – some speech now and you will start to see an OT soon.

You have adjusted well to our new home and the longer commute.  As a family we are adjusting to our new routines and your therapies.  I still get sad sometimes that you can’t call “Mommy” when you need me, or get fustrated when you can’t tell us what you want.  But I know one day those words will come.  Until then, your beautiful little face keeps me going everyday.  I love you cuk cuk!

 

Love,
Mommy
XO

PS – In February I won some CDs from a radio station because I wrote a Haiku about you:
Your beautiful smile
A laugh, a hug, a snuggle
Gets me through my day!

Dear Caleb,

You are 18 months old today…that’s a year and a half – already!  The time has sure flown by.  It seems like only yesturday you were this tiny baby I was cuddling to sleep in our bed…oh wait that really was yesturday – except you were a restless toddler who refused to go back to sleep in his crib!  Yup – you still have nights where only sleeping with mommy will ensure any of us will get more than a four hour stretch.  It’s been 18 months – you’d think we’d be used to this by now, huh?!

But for the most part you have been a joy and delight to us.  You do sleep through the night a fair amount.  And you eat most of your veggies and help out with chores – putting laundry in your basket and plates in the dishwasher… you are already one up on daddy!

And you have the most adorable personality…

You definately know what you like and don’t like these days.  For instance you hate having your diaper changed, your face and hair washed,  being forced to stay still, waiting and snow… yup you really didn’t like the snow we recently had!

You also love many things.  You love your boots – that can be seen in almost every picture here!  Right now you have an obsession with watching the Disney movie Cars – Car has been one of your first words.

You are also in love with ranch dressing (all that dip dipping) and oranges.  One day you stole the box of mandrines off the kitchen table and we caught you trying to peel and eat one!

You also love to play with the phone and pretend to make calls to people.  When the phone rings now you are the first to go running for it.

You are a very busy little boy – so full of energy, and always wanting to be a part of everything we do or always trying to include us in your play.  I love coming home to you everyday after work and getting my hugs and kisses (even the wet ones).  You truely make my day, and even when it’s been a hard night and stressful day – thinking of you can always put a smile on my face.

Thanks for making me feel like the luckiest and most loved mommy ever!

Love,
Mommy
XO