Potty Trained!!!

It's official! Caleb is totally and completely potty trained! He has been using the potty like a big boy for a while now, with an occasional accident here and there, but these last couple days he decided he was going take the final step and get er done.  We now get announcements like, "Mommy, I have to poop," and "Daddy, I have to go potty."  Our little baby is so grown up!!!

Oh That Funny

This past weekend was unseasonably warm in Colorado so mommy and Caleb enjoyed a lot of time outdoors driving Cae’s Cadillac va-va-voom around the neighborhood. Mommy loves to watch Caleb drive his Cadillac, but once he is on it there is no getting him off. We’d been outside for a couple hours and Cae was still not interested in going inside, so mommy thought she would trick him by suggesting they go in for a short time to get some water, and then distract him so he wouldn’t want to come back out. Caleb seemed to agree the water suggestion was reasonable so we headed towards the house. The encounter that ensued with the old man neighbor follows:

Old man neighbor: Well hello little guy. That’s a nice looking car you have there. Where are you going?

Caleb: Caleb go drink water in my mommy/daddy house. My pee yellow. Yeah, uh huh. (Caleb proceeds to just sit there and stare at the old man neighbor)

Mommy: (Thinking oh my gosh did he really just say that?  Drive away please drive away)

Old man neighbor: (Looking at Caleb and processing what he said. A huge smile spreads across his face. He looks at mommy) His pee’s yellow?

Mommy:

Caleb: Bye bye (Finally he starts to drive)

Old man neighbor: (Walks up to old wife and old friend) That young driver just told me he had to go drink some water because his pee was yellow. (They all start laughing)

The moral of this story is twofold 1) do not try to trick your kids, it will come back to bite you and 2) daddy please be careful what you say to our son. He repeats EVERYTHING!

NO...I'm Not Tiger Woods!

We got in the Halloween spirit a little late this year but it turned out to be the best Halloween ever thanks to some excellent news daddy received Friday night.  Cae and mommy picked daddy up early from the airport Saturday morning and then went straight home to carve pumpkins.  Caleb, being the picky little guy he is, insisted on having a Mr. Funny pumpkin (his favorite book at the moment), while mommy and daddy opted for something a bit more Halloween.  As mommy did her best to make a Mr. Funny pumpkin, daddy and Cae went to work cleaning them out.  

A big 'ol smile!

 

A scary face!

The finished products!

 

 

 

 

We originally planned to dress Cae as a fireman for Halloween, but we were really disappointed in the selection of costumes so we changed our mind and made him a old time golfer.  It turned out to be a great decision because not only did we see 342 fireman out trick-or-treating, but Caleb's costume ended up being the cutest thing ever (and we didn't see anyone else dressed the same)! We started our day trick-or-treating at Boo at the Zoo and then eventually ended up at a couple houses. Caleb was the perfect little boy and EVERYONE stopped to tell us how cute he was. The only down side was the 478 people who called him Tiger Woods. Really people?!? Just because he happens to be black and a golfer DOES NOT make him Tiger Woods. When have you ever seen Tiger dress like this?  He clearly looks more like Payne Stewart or the golfers from the movie The Legend of Bagger Vance.  After the 100th time someone said, "Oh look, a little Tiger. How adorable," daddy started correcting people.

 

 

 

 

 Here's baby boy in action.

We love how he just stands there and stares at the last lady until she offers him more candy. He even told one lady, "Caleb need one more" after she had already given him a lollipop. But our favorite was the little boy he told to, "Move out the way. Caleb need more candy."

Until next year...Happy Halloween!!

Oh That Funny

As Caleb gets older and his vocabulary develops and personality emerges, we've noticed that not only is baby boy very smart, but he's also quite the little jokester. So, in an ongoing effort to capture as much of his life as possible on this blog so he can read it when he's older and be totally embarrassed  remember all the wonderful things he did, we've decided to start posting some of the many funny things Caleb says. Enjoy...

Yesterday on the way to Geby's mommy and Caleb had the following conversation:

Mommy: Caleb, how much does mommy love you?

Caleb: Ummm, TOO much!

Mommy: How much does Caleb love mommy?

Caleb: (Thinks hard for a moment) Ummm, ONE much! (Smiles)

Mommy: ONE much?!? Well, mommy loves Caleb INFINITY much!!

Caleb: (Looks at mommy likes she's crazy and cocks his head to the side) INFINITI va-va-voom??? No No No. (Rolls his eyes) Oh that funny mommy! Sheesh.

So there you go. Apparently mommy can never love Caleb infinity (without bound or end) because for Caleb, Infiniti is just a va-va-voom...and it's silly to love a va-va-voom.

Happy Birthday Lolli!

Caleb has a message just for you...

Happy birthday from your little chocolate drop!*  He misses and loves you so much!
_____

* We feel compelled to state for the record that this is Lolli's nickname for Caleb and not mommy's or daddy's.

I'm a 1, Almost 2

That's what Caleb used to say anytime someone would ask, "Hold old are you," or "How was your day?"  We loved to hear him say it so we will miss it very much, but we are sure two will bring many more adorable sayings.  Since this was the first birthday where Caleb actually understood what was going on, we decided to make it a special one.  Auntie flew in early to help with the preparations and keep mommy sane. The theme of the party was, Va Va Vooms (or cars for anyone who doesn't speak Caleb). For decorations we hung all his favorite car logos with streamers and balloons.  Caleb was SO excited when he saw the decorations. He smiled and ran around naming all the logos, "That's Lolli va va voom, that's Auntie va va voom, that's Geby va va voom, that's Mommy va va voom, that's Daddy va va voom."

Mommy and daddy spent an entire month working on weekends to build cars out of cardboard boxes for a car race.  We built a train, a sports car, a jeep, and a beetle (which Auntie thought looked more like an old school rabbit), and a special number 2 sports car especially for Caleb. Everyone divided into teams for a relay race around the back yard. Each person raced to one of four pit stops and did an activity (attach the car's wheels, attach the car's license plate, refuel with a bottle of apple juice, or hang a car air freshener), then passed the car to a teammate who raced to the next pit stop.  The jeep, which turned out looking the best, was actually the most difficult car to maneuver.  The gold sports car won the race.

 

The bean bag toss was also a big hit with the kids, however Caleb refused to actually toss the bean bags and instead opted for walking up and delicately placing them in the holes.

 

So many family and friends came for his big celebration.  Geby and Emmanuel came down from Denver, and of course the party wouldn't be complete without his best buddy Matthew! Caleb was very exited to see him and instantly it was just like old times. 

  

 

We ended the celebration with cake and ice cream and then opened presents.* Caleb got so many wonderful gifts; books, cars, clothes, a mini piano, toys, a beautiful gold necklace from Geby, but by far the best present came from Lolli, Auntie, and Pops.  The look of his face when he sees it is worth 1,000 words.

 

Caleb LOVES his Cadillac. He's actually a pretty good little driver too.** Mommy and Caleb take it for a spin to the mailbox everyday after work, and Daddy took Caleb for a ride and picked up a little girl! He just barely reaches the pedals so it's definitely a car he can grow in to. It's a good thing Daddy's car is currently in Seattle because RubRub's Cadillac has taken his spot in the garage!

Happy Birthday little love.  Mommy and daddy are so proud of you and love you more than anything else in the whole world.

_____

* Check out the fancy chocolate car logos on top of the cupcakes. That beautiful work was done by none other than Mommy and Auntie.  Laugh if you'd like, they look a whole lot better than the logos the cupcakes came with!

** Daddy is convinced Cae will turn out to be the first black NASCAR driver. Mommy thinks we should aim just a bit higher.

Too!

Caleb is a lover and a singer. It used to be that when you told him you loved him he would just say, "Too mommy," as in, I love you too. But now that he's almost two he says I love you (he still says 'Too' though) and occasionally feels the need to rattle off all the other people he loves as well...

And while we're on the subject of love, Cae's new favorite song is a remix of the classic jam, Jesus Loves Me. Here are the new lyrics (we think) in case you miss a few or want to join in:

REEEE - MIX

Lolli (insert appropriate love of the moment) love me dis I know

For she awee ma me so

Nurture me so I can go

To be big, to be strong

Yes, Lolli love meeeeee

Yes, Lolli love me.Yes, Lolli love me

Yes, Lolli love meeeee

Yes Lolli love me
All done!

Note the use of the fake 'microphone'. Totally Caleb's idea. Baby boy was born to preform!

Saturday in the Park

Mommy and Caleb spent a thrilling weekend playing in the park and exploring the newly built playground equipment.*  Being the germaphobe mommy is, she would never usually allow Caleb to play on public playground equipment for fear he may get sick and die, yes die; but she figured since the equipment was new it wouldn't be too contaminated just yet.  We could insert a good story here about the first time mommy took Caleb to a playground in the summer, fully clothed, hat, gloves, and a bottle of Purell hand sanitizer at the ready, but why bring up old stuff...

Caleb really seemed to enjoy himself and was climbing all over, sliding down the slides, and making new friends.  He met a four year old girl, Becky, who kept trying to convince him to go down the biggest of the three slides with her. "C'mon baby, it's scary but I'll go with you." To which Caleb would reply, "No, no, no. Tiny slide."  After doing the tiny slide twice the little girl tried again to persuade him but he said, "NO. RubRub do dis one."** And that was the end of that; the girl gave up and went to play with kids closer to her age. He also met a strange little three year old named Brendan who seemed more interested in kissing Caleb on the cheek then actually playing with him. Cae ditched him after about 2 minutes.

Caleb going down the smaller of the three slides...

and back up.

Climbing the ladder.***

Going down the second largest slide.

Perhaps because Caleb had so much fun mommy should reconsider her ban on public playground equipment, or, maybe we can just get him some kid sized latex gloves to wear for protection. Too much??

_______

* Even though this equipment is less than a couple weeks old it has already been vandalized. We've all got much love for Brooklyn, and now the slide at the park does too. Big ups to Brooklyn!

** RubRub is what Caleb calls himself. We guess Caleb sounds like RubRub to a one year old. What can you do?

*** So if after watching this video you are thinking to yourself, "What the ____ (insert expletive) was she thinking? He could fall! That is so dangerous!" you would be in good company. It didn't seem nearly as irresponsible as mommy was filming, but after watching it back mommy is mortified and fully recognizes she should have been spotting Cae instead of shooting video. At least mommy had to good sense to stop filming and help as he reached the top. 

Seattle to Vancouver, Victoria, and Back Again

Our second family trip of 2010 took us to the far northwest and host of the Olympic Winter Games.*  We started our trip in daddy’s new town, Seattle, where Caleb instantly begins suffering from allergies. Cae always comes back to Colorado doped up on Benadrly (every night baby) with a horrible sounding cough (the snot and phlegm set up camp in his chest and throw a raging party for a week or two), and a bright red Rudolph nose from constantly wiping his snot (he will not be the booger kid).  Unfortunately daddy had to work the first couple days of our visit, so Caleb and mommy spent the days eating leisurely breakfasts, strawberry picking, and shopping with our friend Codie.

 

From there it was off to Vancouver, Canada. We drove 3 hours 6 hours across the US/Canada border to our hotel in the heart of downtown Vancouver.**  We spent our time there touring the city on the Big Bus, playing at the Granville Island Kids Water Park, strolling through Stanley Park, and then running around like crazy people in search of the pick-up location for the stupid Big Bus. It was not our fault. Signs were not clearly marked and we realized very early on that although Canadians appear very friendly and helpful, they secretly hate Americans and enjoy seeing us look like idiots. Out of the 20+ people we asked for directions, we were told to go 20+ different ways and 0 ever actually led us to the right location.

This is daddy after our marathon sprint to find the Big Bus...

Um, 'hot mess' is the phrase I believe you're looking for.

From Vancouver we hopped on the ferry to the beautiful Victoria Island. We loved our time there and will definitely make a return trip. We stayed at a nice B&B just a couple blocks from the heart of Victoria and had the best breakfast of cheese soufflé, mushrooms and potatoes, yogurt, fresh fruit, and homemade blueberry scones. While the breakfast was fantastic, it took us all of about 5 seconds to realize we are NOT the B&B type.  Even if we could get past the 1770 ship figureheads and vintage movie poster decorations, sharing breakfast with 12 people (75% of them older than age 60) who do nothing but stare at you and your infant child like you are some strange lifeforms they have never seen is not our idea of a good time. Plus, small talk is something neither mommy or daddy is very good at.

After exploring Victoria we took Caleb on his first small boat ride for whale watching and saw about 40 Orcas and 1 gray whale. Caleb wasn’t all that interested in the whales in the water, but he did make friends with an Orca on the boat who he named Matthew.  

 

If you look really, really, (we mean really) close you can see 5 more Orca fins to the left of the big one.

 

 

Before catching our ferry back to the states we spent the morning at The Butchart Gardens where Caleb had a great time running around (especially on the grass where they had huge signs that read, “KEEP OFF”).

 

Thanks for a great time Canada! We can’t wait to see where our next adventure takes us!

_____

* We never mentioned our first family trip to Santa Barbara on the blog because we never got around to posting the pictures. There just isn't quite enough time in the day, week, month… Don’t be surprised if they pop up later though. It was a great first family trip for mommy’s and daddy’s birthdays.

** Apparently the 3 lane major highway into Vancouver turns into just one lane (yes 1 lane) at 3 pm everyday so we sat in traffic for 3 hours after crossing the border. Fun times folks.