Monday, August 13, 2007
Caleb is practically twenty-three months old and he continues to be an absolute joy and holy terror all in the same breath. So many things he does just makes me want to populate the entire earth with more of my babies. And most of the things he does makes me want to rip my uterus out with my bare hands and burn it to smithereens to ensure I never, ever have another baby like Caleb. Like you'd never guess from the above picture that he's currently beating me over the head with his toy truck and going out of his way to trip his baby brother and throwing his enormous garbage truck across the room in rage. No, most people look at him and go home ready to have their own earthful of babies, hoping they'll all be just like Caleb. But if they only knew. . . .
 This is a typical picture of Caleb. See the cereal he's poured all over the table. And there's milk dripping down his face that you can't see but it's there nonetheless, making him all sticky. And his brothers are all there too, laughing hysterically. If you ever dare make the mistake of laughing at some silly thing Caleb does, beware because he'll continue repeating the silly behavior no matter how much mess it makes or how much destruction he causes. And if you ever tell him to stop, be prepared for the consequences. On this particular day when he got tired of making us all laugh, he chucked the bowl across the room. We're constantly telling him to quit being destructive and he's constantly finding new ways to do exactly the opposite of what we've told him. He's especially violent when he wants attention and there is nothing sacred when it comes to his rage. He's beaten babies over the head with toys, thrown valuables, hit people like it was going out of style and even gone so far as to hurt himself to turn our heads and demand our undivided attention.
 In a desperate attempt to give Caleb the attention he regularly demands (and deserves) I've started letting him help me cook. And you can be sure there has been more than a few times he's thrown measuring cups and egg shells into the kitchen aid when I wasn't looking (thus tempting me to rip out my uterus with a fork) and made me have second thoughts about his assistance. But. . . for the most part, Caleb is an excellent assistant and is great at dumping sugar, flour, oil, eggs and more into the mixer without missing. He's also fabulous at stirring and begs for any opportunity to do so. The other day I was making breakfast and he came running into the kitchen shouting, "Oil in! Oil in! Oil in!" When I finally figured out what he was talking about we of course had to make pancakes just to accomodate his request. And while we were at the park one evening Caleb started playing with the wood chips, sprinkling them on a wood beam and calling them sugar. Then he picked some grass and sprinkled it on top, and called it flour. He's always liked mixing and concocting--maybe he'll be a chef someday.
 Caleb has a few very favorite things right now, but most of all it's trains. He lives and breathes trains and will do just about anything if it involves one. He can make all the sounds a train makes and can often be found crawling around the floor with a train saying "chugga, chugga, chugga" all along the way. He'll sit and watch his "train TV" (I Love Toy Trains video) all day long if we'd let him and he has just about every train book we own memorized. Caleb also loves his new clip-clops (flip-flops) and wears them everywhere we go. I think they're the cutest thing since monkeys and when he has them on his chubby little feet I melt like butter. He loves the phone and will spend hours walking around the house chatting on the phone even if no one's on the other end. And he loves books. I don't think he'd ever tire of having books read to him and would probably spend all day snuggled on my lap listening to books if he had it his way. And of course, he loves to run. I think if Caleb had a theme song it might be "Don't Fence Me In." He loves to run and explore and climb and swim and splash and jump and dance.
Despite his energetic and sometimes destructive ways, Caleb is probably one of the sweetest little boys I know. He loves to cuddle and suck his thumb and will do so with just about anyone he knows. When we were at the Erie Zoo everytime we saw a new animal he'd say, "Hug. Hug the donkey." "Hug. Hug the parrot." And he'd throw his arms wide open in the hopes that one of them might really hug him back. Caleb says some of the sweetest little prayers around and can do so from start to finish all by himself. And believe it or not, he even thanks God for his baby brothers. I seriously don't know how I'd survive without his little self to snuggle and my only prayer is that he's got enough Guardian Angels lined up that he'll be around for us all to love. . . for a really long time.
posted by Shana # 3:00 PM 
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