Caleb is THREE!!

Our sweet baby boy is three years old!

Caleb weighs 36.5 lbs and is 37 1/4" tall!

He wears size 2T or 3T shirts, 3T pants, and size 8 shoes!  He can dress himself too!

He loves taking his bath, and loves having way too many toys in the tub!

Caleb is potty trained, even at night!  He still wears a pull up at night, just in case, but mostly stays dry!

Caleb loves Disney movies, and has seen most of them!  He knows all the songs and characters!  We swear he has a photographic memory!

Caleb is a pretty good sleeper.  He sleeps about 10 hours a night, and still takes about a 2-3 hour nap everyday.

He has become a picky eater :(  His best meal, with the most day to day variety is breakfast.  He eats cheerios, toast with jelly, eggs, cottage cheese, or fruit.  Everything else he eats includes grilled cheese, peanut butter and jelly, cheese and crackers, mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, grilled chicken, potatoes, noodles, rice, tomatoes, cucumbers, apples, strawberries, and of course chocolate!  He does understand however, that if he eats too much chocolate he'll get a tummy ache!  I'm waiting for the day for him to call me out on this one!

He is very verbal and talks in full, complete sentences.  He's also starting to talk on the phone!  I love calling to talk to him on my lunch break.  The things he says are always surprising us!

Caleb is very dramatic!  He is always acting, or talking in silly voices! 

He is also very empathetic, and shows genuine concern for others. 

He seems to be a lefty, but is also very good at using his right hand. 

Right now he's into anything Disney: Toy Story, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and Mickey Mouse and friends are still his favorites!

I'd say one of his favorite toys is his doctor bag.  Whenever anyone gets hurt, including himself or one of the dogs, he HAS to get his doctor bag to do a checkup. 

He can do 24 piece puzzles all by himself, but acts like he can't do it and asks for help.  I know he's pretending because he uses a silly voice when he asks me to help him!

Caleb LOVES Mila!!  Nothing makes me happier than watching the both of them interact!  From the moment he tells her, "Good Morning, Mila!" and her face lights up, to when he tries to help feed her, you can always feel the amount of love our babies have for each other!  I also love when he tells me, "I want to hold her."  He even shares his things with her! 

Caleb is very strong willed!  I can tell him to do something or not to do something until I'm blue in the face, and the boy looks at me, smiles, and does the exact opposite of what I am telling him!  Aghhhh!  Yah for being three, and done with the terrible twos!  Now I'm not naïve!  I know that the threes are probably worse, but since he acts older than he is, I'm hoping he'll be acting four half way through the year :)

Things I don't want to forget about at this age: That chicken head look when he walks into our room each morning, how we get a hug and kiss every morning, how he loves his chocolate milk, how he gets embarrassed and changes his voice when we ask about the Disney princesses, his adorable smile, how he uses his imagination, his never ending energy, the way he still holds our ears when he's tired, how he runs to the door to give me a hug when I get home from work, his outstanding memory, his inquisitiveness, the way he gets excited over the smallest things, how animated he is, and the way he still snuggles us!

Caleb John, you are absolutely amazing, and we are so lucky to have you in our lives!  You are definitely a challenge at times, but we still love you so incredibly much!  We know that this "preschool age" will fly by, just as the past 3 years have, and we'll be wishing that we could turn back time!  The way you care and love and do everything with all you heart, makes you so special to us!  We thank God for you each and every day!

Poor Riley

Riley is limping yet again, and it breaks my heart.  He was running round in the backyard, and when he came inside he was limping pretty badly on his right front paw.  I literally just walked into the house after work, and found my poor baby limping.  I was trying to look at where he was hurting, when Caleb ran to get his doctor bag.  I wish I could have video taped Caleb with Riley.  He put on his stethoscope, put it on Riley's side and said quietly, "Be still, be still Riley."  Then he said, "thump, thump, thump, ok his heart sounds good."  He took off the stethoscope and put it around his neck.  Then he took out his blood pressure cuff and was asking which leg he needed to check.

I'm so grateful that our vet said we could bring him in right before they closed.  They think he strained/ sprained his elbow.  I swear he tore something in his elbow, but the vet said it felt symmetrical to the other side.  We got some pain meds, and have to try to keep him calm.  Wish us luck and please say some prayers for our first baby!!  It breaks my heart seeing how badly he still wants to be a puppy, but his body is starting to age quicker.

Mila's Baptism Photo Shoot

I've envisioned a little photo shoot with Mila wearing her Baptism dress for a while now, but had to wait a little bit for two reasons!  I knew I wanted to do it on the wood floor in the living room, but up until a week ago, we still had our Christmas tree in that exact spot!  FINALLY the basement was redone, and we could FINALLY empty out the garage of all of our things, and FINALLY put away all of Christmas!  Secondly, I needed to wait until she could sit up by herself :)  I had fun with our little baby doll!

Mila ~ 7 months old

This past month has definitely flown by the fastest.  Now she's closer to being a one year old than a baby!  We love our little girl so much!  She is such a sweetheart, and definitely shows us exactly how she's feeling :)

Mila is inching towards 9 month clothes!  I can't believe it!

She's a really great eater, and opens her mouth up really wide for every bite!  She has liked everything she's tried!  She's had every kind of baby fruit and veggie, and next up we'll be starting to make some of our own baby food combos for her!

Mila is getting better at using her sippy cup.

She has been spitting up less.

She's starting to eat puffs.  Caleb likes to help her with this!

Mila has two teeth!!  Her two bottom teeth came in!

She is still a Momma's girl!  The pediatrician said that her separation anxiety will probably get worse before it gets better.  Sorry folks! 

She is sitting up all by herself!

She's starting to hold her bottle all by herself!

We play the tickle bug game and she laughs with the anticipation of getting tickled!

Mila can do a sit up!  It's insane how strong she is!

Mila likes to chew on her taggie blanket!

She takes out her paci and tries to share it!

Mila's starting to loose some of her rolls!  Her thighs now only have two rolls, and her cheeks seem a little less full!  It must be from all of that standing she does when she goes in her exersaucer!  She's a jumping bean in there!

I caught her holding on to Caleb's ear when they were snuggling during nap time!

From the Mouths of my Babes

Yes it's plural now :)  While Miss Mila isn't really talking yet, I figure it's only a matter of time!  Here are a few things Caleb has said lately:

I was looking at something online, and he came over and said, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"  I smiled and said, "Well I don't know Caleb, what are you thinking?!"  He said, "I think we should buy that!"  I was cracking up!  I asked him where he learned to say that, and he responded, "I learned it myself!"

I asked him how he got to be so sweet, and he said, "It's because of my Kaitlin."  Kaitlin is the 4 year old daughter of my friend Trish from high school.  They have fun together with play dates and he just went to her birthday party!  He was hugging the birthday girl during the party!  That night Erik asked Caleb if Kaitlin was his girlfriend.  He said, "Kaitlin is my girlfriend, and I am her boyfriend.  We are friends Dad!"  Erik then asked if they were going to get married.  Caleb said, "No Daddy there is not going to be a wedding.  We just had her party!"