15 month old C

What a fun three months that it has been!  So full of changes for my little guy.  He is so much fun.  I love this age of constant exploration...(although, I must confess that it does wear me out!)

I joke and say that he's going to think his name is "O'Caleb!"  I say it constantly.  He's always getting into something or doing something that he shouldn't.  I always reply with 'Oh Caleb!'...probably with much exasperation in my voice at times but with amusement too.  He is a busy, busy little boy.  (Although, they probably all are!)

C is a climber.  He scales everything.  He loves climbing on the couch.  For a while, he was constantly attempting to climb the clothes racks.  He loves the stairs (although he took a header down them today and is steering clear of them for now).  He climbs on chairs so that he can crawl up onto the table to find any remaining goodies.  Jut knows when C has had an adventurous day when he comes home and finds all the kitchen chairs sitting on their sides.  He climbs on the portable heater in the bathroom so that he can terrorize poor Pumpkin while she's trying to eat.  He climbs up into the benches on the breakfast nook so that he can create havoc with all our school supplies.   He tries climbing up to E's bunk...thankfully he can't manage to get higher than the first step yet. But if he can climb it and find something on it, he does.  I thought the other kids liked climbing but they had nothing on C!  He truly loves climbing.  Thankfully he hasn't thought about climbing out of the crib, yet.

He has sprouted 5 teeth in the past 3 months, I think.  He has in 3 of his molars and 2 of his incisors have broke through in the past week or so.  So, he is up to 13 teeth.  Yippee.

Crawling is a forgotten skill.  Walking (and attempted running) is all the rage.  We visited the Whitakers after Christmas and their little guy (who is 6 weeks younger than C) was a 'seasoned' walker.  C watched him for a while and by the end of the day, C was a walker too.  It took another week for him to really hone his skill and not take off crawling in the middle of his treks but he left crawling behind at the Whitakers.  Now, I really can't keep up with all his mischief.  He just disappears and mischief finds him.

Talking isn't his forte, but he's learning to get his points across.  I sign to him and he just grins and says, "aegh" and keeps pointing.  He clicks his tongue when he wants something to eat.  He jabbers and jabbers and jabbers.  He's always talking.  Someday we will know what he's saying.

He LOVES reading.  He loves climbing up in the chair by the bookshelves and pulling out books and reading.  I get tired of cleaning all the books up, but it entertains him for probably at least 30 minutes a day...so I can't really complain because it does keep him occupied and out of trouble.

C loves wrestling.  If the olders are on the floor, he's going to pounce on them.  It drives them nuts when they are trying to watch TV.  If I'm holding the olders reading, he'll plow his way through to sit in the middle of my lap.  He can be a bit of a tank.  But, he wants to be involved and be in the middle of what is going on.

He is such a happy little guy.  I love this (exhausting) age.  He makes me laugh every day!

A Little Christmas

My household is a *touch* on the active side.  Okay...so things are pretty busy around here.  The 1-year old is especially busy and doesn't adhere to many rules.  Consequently, I decided that I was not going to put up any of my 'real' decorations this year.  I had visions of our tree crashing to the floor and the mess that would follow.  Besides, I didn't want to be after C all the time about leaving the tree alone...and I didn't want to have to gate it.  So, handmade ornaments were in our future for the month of December.

On Black Friday, one of the blogs I subscribe to discussed the ebook The Truth in Tinsel.  The premise is to do a short devo with your kids each day of December leading up to Christmas and make a corresponding Christmas ornament.  Perfect!  It followed right along with my desire for homemade ornaments...and the desire of my kids to do 'crafty' things.

I was worried that we wouldn't have enough ornaments to decorate the tree at the beginning...but as we didn't decorate the tree until the 20th (or something similarly ridiculous), it wasn't a problem.  The 'problem' became storing the ornaments waiting for the tree to be ready...oh well.  

It was fun.  We made lots of different types of ornaments ranging from old CDs with glass beads glued on to symbolize Mary's Song to salt-dough mangers to paper dolls of Mary and Elizabeth.  It was fun.  We did get rather behind by the end...some days are hard to fit a 5 minute devo and 10 minute craft but we managed to do one after almost every meal the last couple of days and finished with a cross on Christmas Eve.  

To decorate our tree, we also made a string of popcorn and cranberries.  In the beginning, the boys kept eating it, but now that it is good and stale, they leave it alone.  We made another batch of salt dough ornaments left over from our Sunday night program, too.  The kids made a few things in Sunday school that we put on the tree.

It was a beautiful tree and we've enjoyed it very much...and I've enjoyed letting the kids decorate it (and consequently undecorate it) as much as they've wanted.  It has been the perfect tree for this time of our lives.  :)

Reflections on the Year

Last year we started a doing a 'Time Capsule' with the kids on New Years Eve.  We had fun looking back at 2011 when we opened last year's capsule...and it was also interesting seeing 2012 from their eyes.

When I think back on 2012, I think about how difficult this year was for us.  We lost Jut's dad on March 1st.  The kids didn't mention that significant event...I doubt X even remembers it.  My grandfather passed away at the end of April.  The kids didn't think about that either...however, that didn't hold much significance for them except for the excitement of seeing their other cousins.

However, for Jut and I, both those events were life altering.  Life will never be the same as it was when 2012 started.  Jut still had his dad...a very sick dad...but still his dad.  I still had my grandfather...and an intact family.  So much has changed.  With the passing of my grandfather, their estate had to be settled.  Never in my wildest imagination did I ever envision the fallout of settling the estate.  Family dinners and gatherings with the extended family are no more.  It has been a hard road to travel...and I am just a bystander of a grandchild.  The struggle of the generation above me has been awful as this has all unraveled.

Those are the two events that stick out in my mind when I think about 2012.  However, the year wasn't all struggle and turmoil.  We got the joy of watching C blossom from infancy to toddlerhood.  Today he finally gave up crawling.  Walking is now his preferred mode of transportation.  He's vocal and can signal what he wants.  My baby is gone...a little baby that started the year without teeth now has 10.  A little baby that survived on milk now eats and eats and eats whatever you feed him.  There is so much joy in watching life bloom and grow.

Also, we had a phenomenal vacation this summer...it even made it on the 'best things of 2012' for E.  We rented a house on a bay near TC with another family and just escaped life for a week.  It was great.  No church issues...no school (for Jut)...just family and friends.  It was perfect.

There were other things that made the year interesting, too...Jut assumed the role of 'lead minister'.  We had our first ER visit with X and his bout of pneumonia.  We experienced our first ambulance ride with C when he drank my bottle of essential oils.  E started kindergarten this fall at home.  That has been an exciting journey.

We look forward to the new joys, adventures and challenges that wait for us in 2013.  We will be so excited for Jut to finish his coursework and graduate with his Masters in Missional Leadership this spring.  We look forward (with much anticipation and some anxiety) to buying my grandparents' house and the extensive remodeling project that will follow.  E will be in her first dance recital this spring...X and C will continue to grow and blossom and be too cute for their own good.  A new member will be joining the extended family in June and the kids will have their first 'real' first cousin.  Exciting times.   We are looking forward to 2013!

One of those Moments I Don't Want to Forget

This actually happened the first Sunday in October but I keep forgetting about it until someone else brings it up...and it did make quite the impact because someone reminds us of it every week or so.

The month of October we had one combined service at church.  The first Sunday was a PACKED house.  We were squeezed in with few extra spaces.  We choose to keep our kids in the sanctuary until the sermon.  The boys can get a bit squirmy by the end of communion but we feel that it is important to worship as a family.

So anyway, the church was packed.  Jut had left the pew getting ready to do his thing.  X was sitting on my lap saying, "Mom, I'm thirsty.  I smell water.". I tell him it is almost time to leave and we'll get a drink when we leave.  Then, Jut dismisses the kids.  So, I tell X it is time to leave, put him in the aisle, grab all our stuff, collect C and am working to shoo E out of the pew when I hear Jut say from the podium, "Hey, Buddy.  What do you need?". Jut had walked up on to the stage and turned around and there was X standing on his heels.

I look up at Jut's words and there is X standing on stage next to Jut.  Everyone laughed.  X looked a bit bashful when he noticed the room full of people staring at him but he said, "Dad, I'm thirsty." Jut quoted a bit of Scripture about asking for a drink and gave X a drink from his cup.  To which X replied,"Thanks". Jut suggested going to class and away he went...by this time I was waiting for him at the base of the stage.  Both of us were pretty embarrassed by the whole scenario, but it was pretty sweet at the same time.  It broke any tension that existed in the room that day.  It is amazing what an impact it had on the congregation...as I previously stated, people mention it to us almost weekly.

It was a special moment that I wished the floor would open up and swallow us at that particular second but now it is one of those memories I know I will treasure in my heart.

Happy Holloween!

Okay, this post is a month late, but I just downloaded the pics from the camera and I decided that the munchkins were too cute not to document.

X and E changed outfits from our trick or treating adventure at Huckleberry Railroad.  Thankfully, C didn't have such opinions.

 X got a couple of costumes from his birthday and decided he wanted to be 'Pirate Chica'...I didn't bother to tell him 'chica' is Spanish for girl.  He thought it sounded cool.  Sprout has a little chicken that was 'pirate chica' one day.  He thought it was a good name, I guess. Besides, he was still 2.  One can get away with a lot when you are two and cute.

Notice the sword that is as tall as he is...Thank you, Grandma.  What a wonderful birthday present that was...However, I do understand that pirates need swords.  I just wasn't thinking he needed a 3 foot long sword. 

E decided that she did not want to be a pioneer...after all she dresses up as that weekly.  She wanted to be a fairy princess.  It was quite the costume she concocted from all her dress up clothes.  Her outfit was only established the final minutes before we left because it kept changing.  Pay special attention to her footwear. It screams fairy princess.  Strawberry Shortcake socks and sparkly flats loaded with bling.  Unfortunately, it was cold.  So, E had to wear her coat and so most people didn't get to see the wings and the top half of her ensemble. 

  
The funniest thing of the night was that when we got to my folks' house, X was so exhausted he practically fell asleep standing up in the doorway.  My dad scooped him up and he soundly slept for our visit, the car ride home, and to the next morning.  He didn't even remember going out there.  Poor little guy that can't nap anymore can't handle being out after 7:30.  :)  But, one must admit, it is too exciting to nap on Halloween...you might miss the trick or treating!

Thankfully, C goes along for the ride and did well with all the excitement...but then again, Halloween didn't bother his napping habits.

First Snow

Last Sunday, we had our first snow of the season.  We didn't know it was coming.  It was a surprise.  X walked down the stairs in the morning and exclaimed, "Mom, its Christmas!" when he saw the ground covered in white.  E and X were beyond excited.  There is something magical about the first snow through a child's eyes.  Both kiddos just wanted to go outside and play, but it was Sunday and we had to get to church. 

As soon as we got home, X put on his hat and mittens.  E changed into her snow gear and out the door they flew.  They had so much fun playing in the snow.  There really wasn't very much...just enough to coat the grass but it was enough.

My pictures didn't turn out very well...I'm not sure what was going on with the camera, but they had fun.  It was nice because they weren't in the kitchen begging for food while we were cooking.  There was definitely an up side to this snow!!  :)

Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy gave us this amazing sunset at the end of October.  I didn't even get a picture at the peak of its color.  It was amazingly beautiful.  My pictures don't do it justice but it was phenomenal.