Caleb Turns 2 Years Old!

10/08/2009

Caleb's Birthday Party
My boy officially turned two years old on September 5th. Can’t believe it. It’s totally awesome. His personality is so magnetic, he’s one of my favorite people to be around!
Stats from 2 Year Doctor Visit
Weight: 24.4 lbs. (10th percentile)
Height: 33″ (16th percentile)
Head: 18.75″ (23rd percentile)
Favorite Activities

  • Monsters – He loves his stuffed Ugly Doll Babo, Shrek, Monsters Inc., his monster pajamas, and Where the Wild Things Are.
  • Music time – Caleb loves singing and playing the piano, guitar, banjo, harmonica, ukulele, jingle bells, and his favorite time of the week is still Musikgarten. He often requests certain songs be played for him, especially “baby song” (Lullaby and Good Night), “rainbow song” (Rainbow Song from Signing Time), and “Ninigarten” (the whole CD from Musikgarten).
  • Being Outside – He needs at least one daily fix of going outside. He loves to dig in dirt, splash in puddles, walk the dog, ride in his car, and just explore everything.
  • Puzzles – Man is he good at puzzles. I gave him a wooden alphabet puzzle the other day and he put all 26 pieces in the right place within like 5 minutes. That totally baffled me. When he gets stuck he puts a finger on his chin and says, “Hmmmmmmm…”
  • Running (especially with Ella) – He insists on doing a nighttime “diaper run” before we put on his pajamas. This is about 15 minutes of him running all around the house in his diaper.
  • Helping – He loves to help me with cleaning, cooking (while standing on the big stool), gardening, fixing things, bathing Ella, doing laundry, vacuuming, and pretty much anything that I’m doing. His favorite person to help though is Grandpa Whiting, especially being outside and carrying big buckets to feed the animals or to use the “big drill” when fixing things. He loves power tools.
  • Play! – his favorite playtime toys are his toy horses & trucks, little people, and musical instruments, balls, play-doh, and painting on his easel or coloring at his table.
  • Swimming – We try to go swimming once a week when the local pool is open. Unfortunately we didn’t make it to the beach much this year because of my wonderful pregnancy complications. He laughs and kicks and plays the whole time in the water, and then sleeps very nicely afterwards! He loves going underwater too, especially to dive after a toy! He still can’t swim and needs me there with him at all times.
  • Cuddling – He loves blankets and cuddling up to share a snack or story.
  • Eating – Caleb is not a picky toddler eater. He eats everything and sometimes eats more than me. If I could bottle his metabolism and sell it, we’d be rich! At dinner the other night he ate 2 eggs, a handful of french fries, hashed browns (maybe 3/4 cup), 2 pieces of bacon, 1 pancake with syrup, a half glass of milk, and part of my ham & cheese omelette. How can someone who eats more than a pregnant woman be so small?
  • TVDVD – this is what he calls anything watched on the TV or computer. He especially loves Yo Gabba Gabba, Sesame Street, Shrek, and Signing Time.

Favorite Books

His Personality

  • Hilarious! – I asked Josh what we would do if Caleb wasn’t the funny child. I think if our next kid is funnier than Caleb, my entire house may spontaneously turn into a circus tent. He wears his cowboy hat and sunglasses when brushing his teeth. He’ll make up songs about random things and insist on singing them to us while he plays his ukulele (and they’re funny and frequently reveal to us that he understands more about what’s going on around here than we think he does). He recently tried singing really high notes to birds outside to see if they would explode (like he saw happen in the movie Shrek).
  • Energetic – He runs so far. He’ll run from my parent’s house to my brother’s house (which is next door… but in a country-dirt-road-long-driveway sort of next door) and back again. Clearly he has endurance. He can also successfully do excellent somersaults and has also figured out how to do headstands on the couch. And the climbing… the climbing….
  • Outgoing – He says hi to everyone, participates exuberantly in Musikgarten, and participates actively in conversation. I love how Josh and I will be talking at dinner and he’ll put his hands on the table and say, “Ah-dee! Grandpa work work work at Home Depot! And Jesus loves me!” He has to get his two cents in.
  • Sensitive & Sweet – If he does something wrong he feels so bad and instantly is apologetic. Like hitting the dog. He’ll hit the dog, then get a super sad face, then say, “Sorry Ella!”
  • Caring – A boy in the nursery at church took the truck he was playing with in an overbearing sort of way. I watched and thought, “Take it back, Caleb! Don’t let him take advantage of you!” But, my boy ministered to me even as a little two year old. His response? He went over to the toy shelf, picked up another truck, and gave that to the boy as well! The boy looked at him like, “Um…. okay…. um…. thanks for another truck.” Caleb then went and played with something else until he noticed the boy was done playing with the trucks, then he went over and played with them.
  • Fearless – Can’t think of anything he’s afraid of. He loves monsters and dragons and things that make loud noises. He loves to be scared when he comes around a corner and loves hiding in dark places. As his cousin Maia says, “Let’s bring Caleb with because he’s bwave!”
  • Talkative – What can I say? He is our kid. And that means he never shuts up. Even when he’s sleeping I can hear him saying, “I did it! Yay you!”

Caleb's Birthday Party