Happy Birthday Caleb

What to say about our big 4 year old?? He's crazy, happy, silly, fun, tenacious, determined, intense, loving, smart, motivated, easily distracted, craves physical attention, has a great memory, has an intense fear of fire right now, usually fearless, and adores his big brother. Some interesting facts about Caleb are:
1. He can count to 100 with a little bit of help;
2. He loves to do Brayden's homework with him;
3. He wants his eggs cooked the way aunt Michelle does them--with sea salt and folding;
4. He loves cooking. He gets right in there and watches and remembers, hence how he knows that Michelle folds her eggs and uses sea salt, which I didn't know;
5. He thinks "drowning" is fun. It makes him "warm." He flipped out of a floaty at a friend's pool and I jumped in and got him, and he was more careful afterwards, but no where near as traumatized as he should have been;
6. He loves to chat/communicate. He is constantly asking to call people on my phone, text, email, etc. He even told me he is a "chatter" like me. :);
8. He does not like his pants being too big around his waist, which most of them are, so he rolls them to get them tighter;
9. He wants to do everything by himself; please do NOT help, it will greatly insult him;
10: He loves to read. He looks at many books every night before bed and can not get enough of books.

Some notable quotables are:
1. I'm too tired to go to bed.
2. I like drowning, it was fun. It felt warm.
3. Caleb: "Dad, what are you doing?" Mike: "What does it look like I'm doing?" Caleb: "Torturing." (Mike was torching some creme brulee)
4. I was telling a Phineas and Ferb story and said "Meanwhile . . . " Caleb interrupted and said "No Mom, nice-while."

We love our crazy Caleb and have had a lot of fun trying to keep up with this busy, busy boy. He keeps us hopping, but we wouldn't have it any other way.

Six months

Devin is officially six months old. And someone this weekend described him perfectly--that boy is fat and happy. He is a whopping 18 lbs. 10 oz. and is 28 inches long. So he's 90-something percentile for length and 70-something for weight, and his head is finally starting to catch up. It upgraded to the 37th percentile. He learned how to roll over just after I voiced my concerns that he wasn't moving to the pediatrician. I don't think he'll be a speed demon at reaching his milestones, but you have never seen a happier baby. We went camping this last weekend with a lot of Mike's family, and we just kept hearing comment after comment about how happy he was. Granted, he was in his element--being held all the time by adoring fans who showered him with hugs and kisses and smiling faces. How could you not be happy? Although, even without being in the limelight, he would be happy. The kiddo wakes up in the middle of the night with a blowout and he's still delighted to see you. Other interesting facts, he couldn't wait to get his hands on real food this weekend. We didn't start yet because we were camping but he sucked on a piece of my bread with relish (as in he was excited, I wasn't eating bread with relish on it that would be gross) and ditto with an apple and he stared at everybody's food nonstop. Also, he drools like crazy. The boys like to say "He drools like Charlie Thacker." It's become a little song. Sorry Sharon. I keep waiting for the teeth to pop out but they haven't yet. Devinator isn't sleeping through the night yet, but that's my fault. I'm a total pansy about it this time. I can't let him cry because he sounds so sad when he does and because I almost never hear him cry. But it's only once a night now, and soon, hopefully, I'll be tough enough to finish the job.

Caleb's preschool

So back in AA we had the BEST preschool ever for Brayden. He loved going every single day and they did great things and Brayden had a great time. Since we came to Tucson, we tried Joy School, which was an "epic fail." And so I've worked hard to find a different preschool for Caleb that would reach the gold standard that our AA preschool had set. While it isn't quite the same, the preschool we have now is fabulous!! The teacher is in our ward, has been doing it for forever and is incredibly creative. It is only two minutes away and every day I am amazed at the fun things Caleb got to do during preschool. They have had their faces painted, they have had a water play day, they have made lion headband/crown things, they have had berry days, food tastings, and all sorts of super fun creative crafts. Caleb comes home super happy every time and I was very pleased to find out the teacher was shocked that I was worried about Caleb hitting at school. I am so glad we found something that has worked so well.