Year of firsts...6 years old today!

Wow, I can't believe my little Caleb is 6 years old.  What an amazing dude he is growing into.  Where has the time gone.  As I was thinking back to this year for Caleb I realized it was another year of firsts for him.  Usually you think of that as your child's first year or two of life.  But I think Caleb has had another one of those years and we can't be more proud! 

Caleb's year of Firsts: 

First time on an airplane
First time at Disneyland
First time reading a book by yourself
First Basketball "team"
First time playing a real drum set and owning your own drum set
First time swimming by yourself
First time writing a sentence with no help
First time riding a bike with no training wheels
First day of Kindergarten
First lost tooth
First piano lesson

What a year of amazing growth and accomplishment!  I am so proud of you.  You are such a sweet and caring little boy.  I love that you love school and are loving learning to read and math.  I also enjoy your passion for sports, especially basketball, football, and wrestling with your brother.  I also love that you love God and strive to learn more about Him and how He wants you to live!  I am so excited to see what God has in store for you this next year and beyond!  We love you! 

Happy birthday my big 4 year old!

Today is Caleb's 4th birthday! I can't believe it. The time has gone so quickly. What to write about my little "Baylub". He is such a sweet boy. He loves reading books and cars, animals and dinosaurs. He is a low key boy, but also loves to talk and wrestle with Daddy. But for the most part he is content to play cars or read stories. Caleb has been such a good and easy boy, I feel so blessed that God gave him to me.



He is learning so much right now. He is in preschool this year, and is enjoying himself. He does lots of art projects and enjoys his show and tell days! He is currently really figuring out the Alphabet and letter sounds. We have been working on sounding out words a bit and practicing writing letters. He is also very in to counting things and can almost count to 20 (he misses a few numbers sometimes).

This last year has thrown a few challenges in Caleb's path. The main one being the birth of Eli. Caleb loves his little brother, but it has been a hard transition for him. We had a pretty good routine going, and we got lots of Caleb and Mommy time, even with me working part time. But when Eli came along our routine was disrupted and that was challenging for Caleb. He is still figuring out how to "love" Eli without endangering him (part of which I think he doesn't intend to, but the other part I think he secretly does intend to). I also can tell he gets frustrated when I (or Ryan) spend time with Eli and all the attention is not on him. So we are still working on a balance and helping Caleb to realize that the earth doesn't revolve around him (which I think is developmental too)!



The other challenge for Caleb is me being home full time now. We have always had breaks from each other since he was 3 months old and so our time together was always very precious to us. Now, with me being home full time, I can tell we sometimes need those breaks from each other. That's one reason I am glad we chose to put him in preschool this school year. It allows us both a needed break and reminds us how we miss the other one when we are not together. It helps us both keep our sanity.

So through these major changes in Caleb's little life, he has adapted amazingly well, and even though he can sometimes demonstrate some "terrible four" behavior, I keep telling myself that it's normal and just a phase! He is just testing his limits and his independence. Which can be hard, but is normal and needed. We love our Caleb so much and can't imagine our lives or our family without him. He has been such a blessing to us since the day he was born.

Preschool

Well, I know that I haven't updated Caleb's blog since 2008 when he was a few months old. But I thought, since I still update Eli's, I should give a few updates on Caleb as well!

Well, he is a very smart and wonderful 3 in a half year old. He LOVEs reading books. He can look at books for hours, or read books for hours with us. Our favorite present for him has been his Leap Frog TAG system. It's a pen and books and the pen can read the pages of books or say random things when you touch different places on the page. If we can't read to him at any given moment he just gets that out and "reads" his own books. It's also great to take with us to appointments and stuff because he can just entertain himself. Right now Caleb is currently obsessed with all things transportation. He loves fancy cars (not just plain cars, mostly race cars), he likes planes, trains, boats, wave runners. He is biggest into air planes right now. But The boy likes vehicles. He knows most makes of cars by their symbols (like Toyota, Honda, Chevy, Ford and many many more!!) We play a game in the car while driving where he calls out the make of every car (and sometime semi truck, but mostly only Peterbilt) he sees. If he doesn't know I tell him, but he usually remembers after that.
Another big milestone for Caleb is that he just started Preschool today! I think it was harder on me than it was on him. He has been in daycare since he was a baby and has gone to the church nursery for that long as well, plus Adventure Zone at the Y, so getting dropped off someplace isn't unusual for him. He was a bit weepy this morning and was being more difficult than normal (we had a few time outs). But when he got there he just threw his bag in the basket and ran off to play, yelling over his shoulder as he went "Have fun mama!". I kind of stood there not knowing what to do with myself. Then, after calling "bye" to him, just turned around and left. A small part of me wished he was one of those other kids clinging to their mommy's and crying... but not my Caleb he is independent through and through. When I picked him up he was excited to see me but didn't really have a lot to say about it, so I am hoping that eventually he will tell me more of what goes on at Preschool!

And I will, try to update more about Caleb to keep his online baby book going as well!

Caleb Update: 4/4/08

Hi Everyone (at least those who still actually check the blog). Life is going well for us. I thought I would send a little update as to what is going on with our little Buddie. Well, I went back to work at the end of February and Caleb is currently being watched by Grandma (my mom) on the days I work. I work just two days now, which is great, Tuesday and Wednesdays. That has been going really well. I don't mind being at work knowing that my mom is with him (and probably spends more time playing with him than I do).

We just had our 4 month check up for Caleb. He got more vaccinations and the Doctor said he is doing really well. He no longer uses the preemie growth chart and is just using the normal one and comparing him to other 4 month olds. He is almost on the chart for height and weight, and is in the 2% for head circumference (that is inevitable, since he has the Howell Family Huge Noggin Syndrome). The doctor thinks that next time he will actually be on the chart for everything and he is catching up I guess. He was 10 lbs 10 oz! To be honest I think he has gained more in the past week though. He feels heavier everyday.

Caleb also started smiling at the beginning of March, which has been so fun to make him smile. He also loves to talk and tell us all about his world. Unfortunately the concept of turn taking is lost on him and he will only talk when some one is actually talking to him. As soon as you stop to hear him talk he stops as well. He'll learn! This past week he also started lifting his head up when laying on his stomach and will look around to see the world. He is not too thrilled about that and usually gets angry pretty quick but it is a good step.

That is all I have for now. I will try to do better about keeping up on this. Especially now that he is doing so much more fun stuff.

Adrienne

Caleb Update: 2/4/08

We had his 2 month doctor's appointment last Monday and the doctor said that everything looks normal and Caleb's where he should be in terms of growth and development. He got 3 immunization shots that day, but handled them well and hardly fussed at all. He definitely takes after his mother in that area.

We were looking forward to the appointment mainly because we wanted to weigh him. We felt that he defintely has gotten heavier, and he was. He weighed 7lb 2oz, which is a gain of a pound in only 3 weeks (that's a gain of 5oz a week). If he keeps up that rate of growth he'll be a chunk in no time. Look out cousin Markus, you may have some competition on your hands. We're glad that he's doing so well, but we're also sad that he won't remain our small little guy for long; so we're trying to cherish these moments.

Alas, after 2 wonderful weeks at home with my family, I head back to work today. It was definitely hard to get up this morning and get back into my normal routine. I did get some of the house projects done that I wanted to, plus I made great progress in my CPA studies. I think I'll be ready for my test come the end of the month, but I would appreciate prayers for that.

Adrienne's time at home is quickly coming to an end as well. She is slated to go back to work Feb 18, just 2 short weeks away. She's working hard at finding a suitable daycare for Caleb, but it's been difficult to find a place who will take him because he's still so small. Thankfully, Grandma Dede has offered to watch him until we find a suitable place. Also, Adrienne is only returning to work on a part time basis (2x10's), so it will be nice to have her home for the majority of the week.

God has really looked out for us throughout this whole ordeal. If you recall, we were really worried about our finances because Adrienne left work earlier than expected, plus the medical costs. However, we haven't really felt as much of a pinch as expected. We just received a check for more than expected for Adrienne's short-term disability and, thanks to Caleb, our tax refund is much larger than expected. The only thing we had to pay for this whole thing was a $400 copay for Adrienne--that's all! And our flexible spending account from work will cover that. Plus, it turns out that if your child is in the hospital over a month then the state picks up all the expenses that your insurance doesn't cover. So we didn't have to pay a copay or anything! PTL!! We received the detail of his hospital bill this last week, and I have to say thank the Lord for insurance, because it totalled over $130,000!!! God is really looking out for us and has come through once again. I don't know why we keep doubting Him and worrying about stuff like this, I guess it's human nature.

TTFN (ta-ta for now) as Tigger would say

Ryan

P.S. How about that Superbowl game? I can't believe the Giants pulled the upset.

Caleb Update: 1/23/08

Caleb has adjusted very well to life at home. He is eating, sleeping, and yes, crying well. He usually only wakes up once during the night which is great for us, but he occasionally has a night where it seems he doesn't sleep at all.

He is growing everyday and is packing on the chub like newborns do. Last Saturday was his due date so he is officially allowed to be here and has shed his preemie past and entered the newborn world. We can tell because he is making the transition from the preemie clothes to the bigger newborn clothes.

I have gotten through another hectic year-end close at work with most of my sanity. I struck a deal with my boss where I would work the first two weeks of January, even though Caleb had come home, and help out during the busy time and I would get the last two weeks of January off. So I am at home for the next two weeks and am loving it. I get to spend all day with my family going for walks, running errands, finishing up house projects, and of course, studying for that last CPA exam coming up in February. It's been a wonderful time so far.

Here are the latest pictures of Caleb:

Home Update

Hey Everyone, it's me again. I just wanted to give everyone an update. Caleb is doing great at home. He is just sleeping and eating and doing what babies are supposed to do. I have decided to more or less follow the schedule that the hospital started with his feeds and everything. That has gone pretty well, and I think has helped to make the transition more smooth. It is nice to not have to go anywhere everyday! I must confess that Friday and Saturday I barely got out of my PJs (oh yeah, and yesterday too!!). It has been so much more relaxing.

You guys may be wondering about sleep patterns. He is a good sleeper and to be honest sometimes I have to wake him up to eat. The Dr. said for now try to get him to eat on a 3-4 hour schedule even if he doesn't wake up himself, some preemies won't wake up to hunger. That has gone really well. I am not sure how long that is supposed to last, since his is technically not a preemie anymore, but I see the Dr. again at the end of the month so I will ask him then.

That's pretty much it for now. Life has been pretty uneventful at home (which I love!!).

Adrienne