Caleb is THREE!

Happy THIRD birthday to the sweetest little boy EVER.  This morning I went into his room to get him when I heard him wake up, and I said....

Me: HAPPY BIRTHDAY CALEB!!

Caleb: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

Me: No, silly, it's just YOUR birthday today

Caleb: When is your birthday mom?

HA! Then we Skyped with Ben's parents in Africa and he told them Happy Birthday after they said it to him.  When Ben came down and said "Happy Birthday Caleb!!" he said "Happ.... thank you grandp-- dad!" HAHHA.  We're working on responding with "Thank you, *insert name*"  He's improving.

Then I told him I would make him some birthday pancakes for breakfast.  And he kept talking about his "birthday panny cakes."  I can't stop laughing about it.  Why panny cakes?  Maybe it's because he loves Miss Patty Cake and it kind of sounds like that??

Anyway, in memory of 3 years ago, I HAVE to post a picture.  Does it look like he may be suffocating?  He might be.... but I was a new mother and didn't know any better. ;)  Just kidding.  He was fine, I'm sure... I mean, he's three now, so obviously he had enough air.  This was the best moment of my life. hands down.  My dad always said "there's nothing like the first one" and although I act offended every time (I'm 3rd), he's totally right.

I remember when we got home from the hospital no one was happy..... Caleb was crying, I was crying, Ben probably thought about crying.  I was very emotional (and I'm really not a very emotional person at all--although getting more with each child.....), AND, I felt like I got hit by a train...  Caleb was jaundice, and while everyone thought he was such a cute little "glow-worm" I remember I was SO upset he had to be hooked up and get his foot pricked all the time.  Thankfully my mom was out (in MS) and helped me, and I DESPERATLEY needed her.  Thanks mom, you're the BEST.

I just showed Caleb this picture and said, "that's you-- baby Caleb!" and he said "Yeah, I was broken".  Interesting.  Now he's reminding me of when he purposely stepped in dog poop on our walk the other day.  I forgot he's little and we've never encountered dog poop on a sidewalk before, so I didn't think to warn him and just had to watch him go for it.  It was horribly disgusting. And I yelled in horror ... "NOOOOOOO!!! THAT'S DOG POOP AND DISGUSTING. We DON'T step in dog poop.  EVER" ... or something like that.

Anyway, back to Caleb's birthday.  We had a birthday bash on Saturday morning.  It's hard to have a rockin' party when you have grandparents in Africa, an Aunt in Spain, an Uncle/Aunt in MO, an Uncle in IA, and an Aunt in AZ.... and no cousins... so, we had great grandparents, grandparents and a great-great Aunt.  It was VERY fun.  And when they all left Caleb said that all his friends came over.  It was very sweet.

Let's get to the party! First, we have the dollar store center piece on top of a piece of sesame street wrapping paper (classy, I know).

 

Then, we have the cupcakes!  I made Cookie Monster, Elmo, and Oscar. I thought they were pretty stinkin cute. I finished the last cupcake approximately 5 minutes before people came over.....

This is my SWEET lazy susan server I got at Menards. I love it, and I'm pretty sure it was under $10.

This was the food.  It wasn't anything too special.  We had ham and cheese sliders , potato salad (I found the recipe online and it was OK, I didn't LOVE it, so I won't post it), chips, punch, fruit, and the cupcakes of course.  For the crowd, I think it was a reasonable amount of food.  I was going for a light lunch.

Here's a cool shot.  I'm very good with the camera......aka my phone ;)  I thought I was getting a shot of all the food, but then I noticed I didn't put the buns on the platter (from the dollar store!!  Seriously, I LOVE Dollar Tree)

And here's all the guests! (great lighting!)

And here's Caleb opening his present.  It was tools!

\

Caleb gave ME a present for his birthday-- he slept in underwear and was dry this am!! I seriously think potty training might be over. Forever.  Wouldn't that be amazing?

Today we'll probably go for icecream and I'll try to think of something else fun. ... like I just told him we'd take a donut break in a minute. The problem with going somewhere today is that Grace is still pretty sick.  She's coughing her brains out and her nose is a faucet =(  It's so sad!  The good news is that Caleb has ZERO expectations for the day.

So Happy Birthday to my precious little boy, he brings more joy to us than he will probably ever know!

We love you Caleb Daniel!!

-Melanie

 

Friday night update!

I think in college it might have been embarassing to update a blog on Friday night, but since becoming a parent (maybe even just married) I have no problem posting on Friday night and admitting I'm not doing ANYTHING. =)  So, let's get started!

Caleb the other day wanted me to be a horse.  I was willing, but I wanted to know my name of course, so I asked, "What's my horse name Caleb?"  It was....

Geb-ohb-dept

WOW I said.  I asked again, because it was so complicated I was sure he wouldn't remember and he said..

Geb-ohb-dept.

So then I just burst out laughing.  That's what he was referring to me as we played....

He was a different animal with an uncomplicated name like Max or something.

Today after putting Grace to bed, I came downstairs to Ben and Caleb on the phone with each other.  It went something like this.

Ben: Who is this?
Caleb: (in a high pitched voice continued throughout the conversation) Auntie Tailor
Ben: Where are you?
Caleb: In Mexico with Uncle Jim
Ben: What are you doing?
Caleb: Playing Grandma Kappers' game
Ben: What's it called?
Caleb: Birdie Puppie

BHAHHAHAHHAHA.  Seriously. He KILLS me. Maybe it has to be your kid in order to think that's funny, but I cannot stop laughing about it.  It's just like-- WHERE do they come up with this stuff?? By the way, Uncle Jim is Ben's brother and in December he married Tailor.  They went to Mexico on their honeymoon, which Caleb apparently remembers. They have never, to my knowledge played Birdie puppie.... (feel free to correct me Uncle Tim or Auntie Tailor..) and I have a feeling that's not a game that Grandma Kappers' owns.

Grace was becoming the worst eater to ever live, so I decided to switch to mostly table food... and now my life is waaaaaaay better.  I'm SOOOOOOO happy I made the switcharoo.  She is gobbling up all sorts of things with her hands, and it's wonderful.  The last couple days we tried prunes and apricots... she loved it!  Hopefully I can convince her (like I did Caleb) that prunes are candy.  HAHA (but seriously... it worked....).
Here is what the floor looks like after Grace eats.  She's not trying to throw it on the ground she's just THAT bad at eating.... I think it looked worse in person although it still looks bad here.  Don't worry, she did make some in her mouth.

 She's 9 months, and when Caleb was 9 months he was still eating pretty much only baby food.  I think that's why the idea of table food this soon took me by surprise.  They're already so different.  Like... Grace is maybe only starting to consider the idea of moving, and Caleb was crawling by now.  Caleb was standing up by now, and Grace prefers to just sit....  I'll call her content... some might call her lazy...... But EVERYONE would call her the sweetest little girl EVER.  Ok, maybe not everyone, but isn't the picture below precious?  There she's stuffing her face with cheese.  I think she'd like to eat cheese for every meal every day, but mom says no.  I'm a big meany.

Now, the picture I just showed and the next few I posted to instagram.  So, if you are one of the 22 people following me (BHAHAH, I'm such a loser!) you've already seen them..... Also my screenname is mlndyng, and I think if I had known what instagram was when I signed up, I would have picked a different name.  I picked that because it's kind of my username for all things.  It was my Dordt email address back in the day-- it's your name without the vowels... and at Dordt I wasn't married.

Moving on.... any day that it is KIND OF warm, we are going outside for walks lately!  We LOVE family walks.  We've started taking two strollers though because we find it easier to push... Caleb is REALLY heavy.

Here's my little thumb sucker.... isn't it cute?? (for now anyway?)

 Caleb got to eat pretzels on our walk.  He thinks that's pretty cool.

My two favorite boys

Sooooo sweet!!

 And now, I'll do a special shout out for the TRUE WOMAN CONFERENCE.  Seriously, this conference is life changing, and if you are a woman you should go.

Here is the link. http://www.truewoman14.com/.  I went two years ago, and it was the best conference I've ever been to... by far.  It's totally worth your time, money, energy... etc.  They have fantastic speakers (including my personal fav, Nancy Leigh DeMoss) and great music (the Getty's lead).  Please check out the link and sign up.  I think there's a discount for a little while yet if you register.  Thousands of women from around the country and OTHER countries come.  It's SO neat!!

But no one panic.  If you do nothing right now, I will CERTAINLY be posting about it again because I love it THAT much.

And, on that note, I'll leave you.
Until next time!
-Melanie