Update - Caleb

Where to begin? Caleb was officially 2 1/2 a few weeks ago, and he is every bit of a two-year-old. Have you ever seen the Sour Patch Kids commercials? They're sweet one minute and sour the next. Yeah, that's a pretty good description of Caleb these days. He is such a sweetheart most of the time - hugging and kissing his sister, listening so well etc. And then as he's beginning to assert his independence, we get some of the sour. 30 minute meltdowns happen several times a week, sometimes almost daily. All it takes is for him to not get what he wanted, and he's screaming and crying and pitching the biggest toddler fit you can imagine. Those are particularly exhausting for me, and I find this stage to be very trying - very rewarding, but also very trying. The Lord is definitely using it to refine me. If I am not on my knees in the morning asking the Lord for strength and patience, well, then I am not as patient with Caleb as I want and need to be. His favorite phrase right now is "I thought I was gonna do it". It's pretty amusing most of the time, minus the times that a meltdown follows.

Caleb is also potty training - well - sort of. He likes to pee on the potty and can do it all by himself, from undressing to getting on potty, down and washing his hands. His favorite part is the 2 M&Ms that follow. But he absolutely refuses to do any other "business" on the potty. The picture above is from a night when Marc was out of town and I took the kids to a frozen yogurt place. Caleb was so incredibly excited about it and talked about it for days. I decided to use this opportunity and told him that when he goes poo on the potty for the first time we will go as a family to celebrate at the frozen yogurt place. Even that incentive hasn't worked yet. But that is Caleb's personality. There is no forcing or talking him in to doing something. He will do it when he decides that he wants to. I'm just hoping it's not too long from now :)

Caleb has also started randomly talking about things that he heard at church or from me and Marc. A few weeks ago he was playing and just started saying "The Bible says is absolutely true". I asked him where he heard that, and he said his class at church. I love that they are teaching the children at such a young age that there is absolute truth, and it is found in God's Word. Caleb has also started wanting to pray. The other day he bowed his head before eating his snack and started thanking God for his snack, Karis' sippy cup, his racecar, and everything else within sight. He also prayed that God would help him to not be scared of dinosaurs and lions and that He would give him peace and protect him. Yes, he used those words. This is what Marc and I pray aloud for him every night -by his request. We definitely learned the hard way about what Caleb watches. We let him watch The Land Before Time (such a cute movie but the t-rex is scary!) and ever since he has had trouble falling asleep on his own at night. I'm sure it won't be the last mistake we make as parents, but sometimes I could kick myself for that one!

Aunt Janice, Caleb loves his new shirt with pockets in the front - he really digs pockets of any kind.
He is all about football and baseball these days. He even got to go to the World Series last night with Gramps and Grammy (pictures to come)...lucky kid!

I love this sweet boy of mine so much and especially love watching him play and carrying on lots conversations together about all sorts of things.