A Conversation with Caleb

Tonight I picked Caleb up from his bath and carried him like a baby into his room to put him into his pajamas. Here is the conversation we had.
Me, "Caleb. I'm not going to be able to carry you like this very much longer. You are not tiny anymore."
Caleb, "I'm not a tiny caterpillar." (A book we read is called The Very Tiny Caterpillar)
Caleb, "I'm Caleb. Caleb Travis DeJong."
It just struck me as so funny. Maybe you had to be there.

Disneyland Souvenir

So when we were at Disneyland we wanted to bring home some kind of a CD that had some of the music from Cars with the actual people singing the songs from the movie. We found a CD that was the Best Songs from Pixar movies. It has songs from Cars, Monsters Inc, Toy Story, Incredibles, etc. It has been a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing because we get to hear Caleb singing along with "Our Town" from Cars which is about the sweetest thing I have heard in my lifetime. The curse is that Caleb realized there was an instrumental song from Incredibles that he loves that he is always requesting. It is an 8 minute entirely instrumental song that we have to listen to constantly. Aarrgh! It is pretty funny because he frantically dances to it. Today he was shaking his body in his car seat and he kept saying, "I'm shaking, momma."

Videos

This is my first try at uploading a video to the blog. This is a clip of Caleb at the Playhouse Disney show at Disneyland. He was dancing like crazy the entire time. He LOVED the show!

2 and a Half

Caleb is now two and a half. He has turned into Mr. Independent. He is always saying, "I can do it all by yourself." (He means "myself.") He is really committed to climbing into booster chairs and car seats by himself. He also wants to buckle his own car seat. He refuses to let us get a band aid for him but has to open it and put it on himself. Whenever he does something, he shouts "I did it" and runs up to get a high-five. Watch out if you try to help him in any of these tasks because you are asking for a melt down.
We haven't had much in the way of "terrible twos" but lately Caleb has been throwing more fits, throwing toys, hitting me or Travis...he definitely has quite a temper.
For Halloween he dressed up as a UT football player. We took him to the ward trunk or treat on Saturday. I was unaware how seriously people take Trunk or Treat here and was a little embarrassed by our undecorated trunk/ lack of lawn chairs/ lack of spooky music. I also took Caleb trick or treating around our neighborhood on Sunday. He would say "trick or treat," "thank you," and "happy hawwoween" to everyone. He also loved the jack-o-lanterns and still talks to me about them and how scary they were. The funniest thing was there was a little girl walking around in a pumpkin suit (she must have been barely walking) and Caleb walked up to her and leaned down to talk to her and gave her a hug. Caleb has always been pretty interested in babies. We only lasted about 45 minutes because it ended up being a lot of walking, so I brought Caleb back to bathe and go to bed and figured I'd still answer the door for trick-or-treaters while I was getting him ready for bed. I had him out of the tub and wrapped in a towel when the door bell rang. I told him to stay put and went to hand out candy and there were like 20 people at the door. I started handing out candy and then heard a ruckus amongst the trick or treaters and turned to see Caleb streaking all over the house. I had to close the door except a crack and finish handing out candy.
We also got the chance to go to Disneyland in October. We visited the beach and then spent five days at the park. Caleb loved it. He still talks about it all the time. The things he mentions the most are the plane ride where the plane took off and landed on the ground and he talks about characters he saw in the Pixar parade like the robot walking around with Jack Jack on his head. He loved the rides. He really liked the car ride where you drive the cars around a track and he loved the Buzz Lightyear ride where you shoot aliens. He also loves to talk about the Winnie the Pooh ride and how Winnie the Pooh was all dirty from the honey and how that was so funny. Personally I loved the water rides the most even though I got soaked on the rapids ride and it was pretty cold outside. It was so nice going with our cousins and Grandma and Grandpa DeJong. It really made it that much more fun with us to be with family.
The saddest thing about the trip is that we didn't want to take our new nice camera so we took an old camera and when we got there it wouldn't work. The battery was gone. We even tried recharging it and that didn't help. I mean who goes to Disneyland for the first time without a camera?!? Luckily we have pictures that Mandy and Grandma DeJong took that I will post when we got a hold of them.

Singing

Caleb loves music. He has always enjoyed watching "The Little Einsteins" on TV and has always been really receptive to music. He went through a quiet time where he would listen to us sing but wouldn't participate even when we tried to get him to sing along. He has recently started singing on his own and it is so much fun to hear. This morning we woke up to the sound of Caleb singing in his bed. He was singing "High note" up high and then "low note" down low which is something he's learned from Little Einsteins. He repertoire contains the ABC's, Twinkle twinkle little star, and Itsy bitsy spider. He will also engage in "Popcorn popping" and sometimes the theme song from The Little Einsteins.
He also loves to dance. Right now he loves hearing the song "Hey Soul Sister" and will be like, play the "heeey, heeeey" song. Then he dances around like a madman. His moves consist of standing in one place and moving his butt back and forth but he is beginning to try to move his arms sometimes also.

Caleb's Play

It's a miracle! Caleb has started to play by himself! Caleb has constantly needed Travis or I to play with him the majority of his life. We have been working on his independence. He has just started to be able to play by himself. I really noticed it this past weekend. I think a big part of it is that he is starting to develop an attention span. He is also beginning to develop an imagination. This weekend he would play with his cars and make sounds with them and drive them around the kitchen. He also went into his bedroom and was playing by himself for a while, which is huge for us! It's so fun to see him able to entertain himself!!!
Next we are trying to work on getting him to read on his own. He will quickly flip through the pages of a book. He will also look at them longer if he we are driving in the car, but we really want him to be able to sit down and read for long periods (5-10 minutes) of time by himself. We'll see!
Today Caleb started his new preschool called "Kids R Kids." They said he had a great time. They also commented on how well he talks and on how clear his words are. When he turns 2 1/2 he will move to a class with the 2 1/2-3 year olds which I think will be fun for him. It's crazy that in like 2 months he will be 2 1/2!

Our New House

We are so excited! Two weeks ago we moved into a rental home. It is the first time we have lived in a home as a family...and the first time I haven't been in an apartment in 13 years. One of the things I noticed right away was that it was SO QUIET! I couldn't believe the difference. We also have double the amount of space we had in our old apartment. We have a backyard which was one of the main things we felt like we needed for Caleb. We also live on a cul-de-sac so I can go out with Caleb in the evening and he can ride around the cul-de-sac and I don't have to follow him around or feel worried about traffic. We found a new place for Caleb to go to daycare which is about 5 minutes from our house. Also Travis's school is about 10 minutes from our house. We both have a longer commute to work, which is not our favorite, and we are going to cancel our gym membership because with gyms, the farther I have to travel, the less likely I am to use it. We are waiting on pins and needles for it to start cooling down so we can spend more time outside.

The area we live in is in the beginning stages of being developed. There are all the major stores and of lot of fast food places, plus they have a new movie theater and a new ice hockey place for the minor league ice hockey team. There aren't a lot of sit-down restaurants yet which is probably pretty good for us actually. Our ward is very friendly. The building is just around the corner from our house.
The funny thing is we walked into the house and spent about 10 minutes in it and immediately wanted to get a contract for it, but we didn't realize how close it was to the church, to a nice day care place, to Travis's school, and so forth until we moved here. I guess we got lucky on that, because looking back I think we were a little rash on taking it as quickly as we did. Overall we are happy, Caleb is happy, and we are learning the ropes of taking care of the yard and such.

Schlitterbahn Trip

Our last family trip of the summer was another trip to Schlitterbahn. It's so hot here that any trip we take has to involve water and we like the water park at Schlitterbahn a lot better than the one at Sea World so we decided to take one last trip for the summer.
Caleb had a blast! There is so much that he loves to do there. He is like a little fish swimming around in the water. This trip he liked going around the "wave pool/ lazy river" with us that he has been a little uncomfortable with in the past. He loved the "pirate ship" where he goes down slides all by himself. He went down some slides where he was flying down and I was getting nervous but he was laughing like crazy. We also snuck him on to a ride we could do together called the "Family Blaster." One of the lifeguards told me that that was one of the only rides that we would all be able to do together, so after waiting for 30 minutes, we saw that you couldn't ride if you were under 42 inches. We were like, you have to be kidding me. Then the people in front of us suggested just throwing him in a life jacket and jumping on the ride like we didn't know. We did that and ended up being able to go. It is a giant circular tub that we sat in with Caleb wedged between us. You go down these roaring rapids and then get shot up to the top of the ride. I was screaming but Travis and Caleb were both laughing. It was so much fun to be able to do something all together.
At about 7:00 we decided to take him home and we pretty much had to drag him to the car. We were on the road for about about a half hour and he was out. It's about a 2 hour drive for us to Schlitterbahn. I wish it was closer because we would get season passes and go a lot more frequently. It's a really family friendly park. They have free parking and let you take in your own food and drinks. I was pretty proud of myself because I made chicken salad sandwiches and noodle salad, neither of which I had ever made before, and they were pretty delicious. I always bring way more food than I think we will eat and we usually end up eating all of it anyways. I think it has something to do with being in the sun and being outside all day. Anyways, that was the last trip we will be able to take this summer and it was a very successful one.

Going to Grandma's

Today Caleb and I were hanging out and he said,"want bouncy ball." I said, "We don't have a bouncy ball." Then he remembered that we had played with one while we were at Grandma Sheen's house. He said,"It's at Grandma's house. I go get it." He started walking towards the door. I said, "Bye have a good trip!" (He likes to pretend he is going to work and will put on shoes, take a bag, and drag it to the door as he says bye, so I figured it was going to be like that.) Then he walked over to the door, opened it and started walking down the stairs towards the garage. And that is how we found out that he can open doors. So, after I got over my surprise, I went running after him and told him that he would have to go on an airplane to get to grandma's. :( It was sweet and sad at the same time.

Caleb's Language

So Caleb's language has really taken off in the last couple of weeks. I hadn't really realized it until we returned home from a 3 week trip and Travis was shocked by all the things Caleb could say. We try to figure out what has caused this increase in language and I have a couple of theories. 1. He just spent the last 3 weeks with all of his older cousins and picked up on their language. 2. He just has a bunch of synapses that are beginning to fire in his brain. 3. It is because I took so much DHA when I was pregnant/ nursing. :) Just kidding about the last one.
But today, I was shocked by what he said. He came up and handed me his bottle and said, "I need more drinking water." I am totally not kidding. "Drinking water?" Where would he have possibly heard that phrase from. Bizarre thing number 2 that he said. He was sitting in the backseat and said,"Thursday, Friday, Saturday" like he was naming the days of the week. Now I KNOW I have not tried to teach him those yet. It's like these adult things coming out of this little boy's mouth. It's fun and exciting, though. You never know what you're going to get with him.

Schlitterbahn

Yesterday we loaded up and traveled to Schlitterbahn for the day. It was the first time in a while that Travis and I were off work on the same day so we decided to celebrate. Schlitterbahn is so awesome because it has a ton of things for kids of all ages...even ones Caleb's age. Caleb has always been pretty fearless when it comes to water, but he really surprised us yesterday. They had a huge rainstorm that flooded New Braunfels, so 3/4 of the park was closed. We weren't sure how Caleb was going to do with the few things we had to do but he had a blast...it was almost better for him just to have a few things to do all day rather than last time we went when we tried to do everything at the park.
They have this pirate ship that has water shooting out of it and you can climb up onto the pirate ship and go down 4 different slides that they have. They used to let babies ride on the laps of their parents but won't let you have lap riders anymore so we were concerned about taking Caleb on it, but we figured we'd give it a try and have one parent at top to send him down and one at the bottom to catch him. We sent him down and as soon as he got on the slide he flipped over so he was going down on his tummy. I was frantically waiting at the bottom to catch him and when he came down he jumped up and was like, "Again, again!" We kept taking him up all day. Every time we'd put him on the slide, he'd flip over on his tummy and go off down the slide. As you saw him retreating down the slide, he would shoot you a smile before rounding the first bend. It was crazy! They also had a kiddie pool that had slides on it that he kept going down. It was about a foot deep with water. He started crawling around on his hands in the kiddie pool with just his head sticking up out of water. We were following him all around hysterically, but he was having a blast. He is definitely a water baby.
The one bad thing is that he refused to take a nap. Last time we went we found a spot in the shade and he laid his head down on my shoulder and fell right to sleep. This time we kept taking him out and then bringing him back to the shade to try to get him to go to sleep (probably from 1-4 that we kept trying) and finally we just thought, forget it. He can sleep when we get in the car. Sure enough as soon as we got on the highway he was out and slept all the way home.

Fun Little Surprise

So last night we had fun little surprise...we put Caleb to bed and then went to check on him around 11 that night before we went to bed and he had taken off his pajama pants and was laying their naked from the waist down. He had peed all over the bed so we had to strip the bed, put a new diaper on him, and strap him into a onesie at 11:15 last night. He's taken his shorts and diapers off before, but pajama pants are harder because they are fitted at the bottom but I guess he's getting more savvy at stripping down. Everytime I think we're done with the onesies something else happens that makes us put him back into them. Silly boy.

Why didn't I bring my camera?!?

Yesterday Caleb and I went to the mall and I had one of those "Why didn't I bring my camera" moments. I mean the whole reason we have a flip video is because the size and weight makes it easy to carry anywhere. Anyways, here's what happened.
Caleb and I went to the mall to buy a swimsuit for me. When we were ready to leave it started pouring down rain! I mean pouring. I don't even own an umbrella so I figured we should find something to do while we waited for the rain to stop. Luckily they have this place in the mall that has a bunch of bounce houses and you pay and the kids can go in and jump around in the different bounce houses. I had never taken Caleb before so I talked to one of the ladies and asked her if I could go into any of the bounce houses with him so that he would feel comfortable trying it out. She said that there was one bounce house only for kids under 3 and that I could go into that one with him. She also let us go in for free since it was Caleb's first time to try it out. He had a blast! At first he was kind of hesitant but then another little boy came in and was bouncing all around and Caleb kind of figured out what it was all about. Another boy gave him a ball to use and he jumped around and threw his ball and ran after it. They had slides and pads that he could crawl on.
But the part I wish I had my camera for was when they called all the kids together to dance to the song "Cha cha slide." It something all the workers do for birthdays and the song says things like "everybody clap your hands" and "right stomp, left stomp." So Caleb was in the middle of the all these 8 and 9 year old kids copying them trying to do the dance. It was seriously one of the cutest things I've ever seen him do. And then when the song finished the workers screamed "Happy birthday" which Caleb repeated and then started jumping around saying "I did it," "I did it!" My description seriously doesn't do it justice. I loved seeing him that happy.

Caleb Turns 2!

A couple of weeks ago Caleb turned 2. It has been bittersweet for me. I just feel sad that he is not a baby anymore. Every day he surprises us with the things he says and the things he can do by himself. He is such a blessing in our lives.
For his birthday, Grandma and Grandpa DeJong were able to come into town. Caleb was ecstatic and every time he woke up he asked "where's grandpa?" or "where's grandma?" On his day we tried to do all of the things he loves- we woke up and ate blueberry pancakes and opened presents so he would have all day to play with them. He got some new movies, a choo choo set, a table and chairs that are the perfect height for him, the Radiator Springs set from GeoTrax, and a Cd player and Cd's, and some new clothes. We turned on one of his Cd's and he started dancing around the room. He kind of just stands in the same place and moves his hips back and forth. It was so cute! Then he played with his GeoTrax for a long time. He was so happy with all of his presents.
For lunch we went to Chucky Cheese's to eat pizza (which is one of his favorite things). I think he's still a little young for Chucky Cheese's but he enjoyed the pizza. We had cupcakes and ice cream- he just felt whatever about the cupcakes but he LOVED the ice cream. Then his daddy had to go to work and so we took him to the swimming pool at our gym. He loved being in the pool and begin outside. For dinner, Grandma and Grandpa treated us to barbeque and Caleb had lots of turkey and pickles. :) He rounded out the night cuddling with Grandma and watching Incredibles (one of his favorite movies.) He was an exhausted little guy, but I think he had a fun 2nd birthday.

Sea World

A couple of weeks ago we took Caleb to Sea World in San Antonio for his birthday. We had a little trouble getting in, but once we got in Caleb took off and was happy to have so much open space to run in. We took the stroller and I bet he spent maybe 20 minutes tops in it. Unfortunately there was only one ride he could go on, which was the log ride. Fortunately he absolutely loved it. There were some pretty steep drops, so we weren't sure how he'd do on those, but he kept saying "Wheee!" while I was screaming.
He loved seeing the penguins and the whales. They also have a splash pad there and he was having a blast running around in the water. He is a fearless little guy when it comes to water.
They have a water park at Sea World that wasn't open yet, but luckily the day we went, they gave us a free ticket to come back later in the season so Caleb can experience the water park.

Talking, talking, talking

Since Christmas, Caleb's language has REALLY taken off. It is crazy! I am so glad that we have used baby sign language with him because most of the words he is saying are words he has been signing, like car, bus, etc. Well this week he has gotten crazy...Tuesday he said "happy", Wednesday he said "elbow" and pointed to his elbow, and today he turned and said "More crackers please." It was the first "sentence" he has ever said! I went sprinting across the room to give him crackers to encourage him to keep talking.
We are still getting some of the screaming and pointing when he wants something and have to remind him to use his words. We get a lot of "what's that?" "What's that?" The other crazy thing is what he has picked up. We were looking through one of his books the other day and there was like 10 different sea creatures in it and I said "Where's the pufferfish" and he totally pointed to it! And he could point to the dolphin, whale, star fish and other animals on the page. Then he pointed to the treasure chest and said "treasure." Every time we get to a stage I think, this is the most fun, but then he gets older and I think, this is the most fun. I hope it always continues like that. :)

Snow for the first time

While we were in Utah, it snowed. It was Caleb's first experience with snow. He did not like walking on it for some reason. If I put him on the snow, he would whine until I came and took his hand and we walked on it together. Or he would find a path to go around the snow rather than walking on it.

Christmas at the DeJongs

This year Caleb and I traveled to Utah for Christmas, but Travis had to stay home, so we had "Christmas" before we left. We had decided to get a minimal amount of present for Caleb because we figured he won't remember anyways, but the day before we ended up going to Toys R' Us and getting things that we such great deals they were too good to pass up. :) His big presents were a garage for his cars, a wagon, and a slide that I'm sure the downstairs neighbors are really thankful for.