Saturday, February 23, 2008

Gentle, like a delicate flower...

We love cousins! Caleb just became a cousin times two! In addition to his awesome Schalesky cousins, Bethany-8, Bria-2, Jayna 2, Joelle-4, and Caleb at Christmas, and John Allen Schalesky born October 25th,Caleb's first cousin on the Burdick side of the family, my maiden name, born December 26th. Isabella Claire Brudny (my sister's first child) is so sweet, and Caleb loves to hug her.

He knows how to touch her "gentle, like a delicate flower" now after our trip up to see her in February.
I can't wait to see her again next week! Caleb is excited too. He loves cousins. Talks about them all the time, sings about them, and prays for them too. At night we say our prayers, and he prays for each of the cousins by name. Cutest thing!


And now, the newest addition to the Schalesky family has arrived, truly a delicate flower...
Lily Grace Schalesky was born on February 15th. Caleb totally understand "Uncle Nathan Dadda now" and understands "new baby cousin" what he is having a little trouble understanding that he has to share Uncle Nathan with Lily. You know how a lot of first children have a hard time with mama holding a baby? Well, Caleb could care less if I hold Lily, but he is quite disturbed when Uncle Nathan holds Lily.
Thankfully, it hasn't effected his love for Lily and he adores her. You can see why, isn't she sweet? Thinking it is good practice for him for the future... Children are truly a gift and a special blessing from the Lord.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Mama's Taking Us To The Zoo Tomorrow

Zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow, we can stay all day. We sing this song by Raffi on the way to the Zoo each week (and just about anytime we drive anywhere). It is just the prelude to the excitement that awaits Caleb at the Santa Barbara Zoo. This trip we got to see the Amur Leopards in action (although they are resting in these pictures). They had just been wrestling with each other. The Lemurs climbed overhead to check us out. We always visit the "ma-a's" and the "ba-a's". The African Cat was out! And we discovered there are two of them. We learned the trick to seeing them (because most people never do). The trick is to go to the Zoo just before closing time. Apparently, this is when the cats are up and about, and they ran around in circles for us for quite awhile. They were really friendly and cute.This trip was back on January 21st. Christian was driving friends to LAX, and we were looking to do something after Caleb's nap. A quick trip to the Zoo did the trick, and then we crashed Caleb's friend Drew's Birthday dinner with his family. It was a great night!

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Me, You, My Genius

"Mamma rock you," is what Caleb says before he goes to bed at night. I rock him partly to sleep in the glider before placing him in the crib for the night. Well, for a couple weeks he has been saying this, and although grammatically incorrect, it is really cute. The night before Christian left for Chicago, Caleb said, "No, Dadda rock you, Dadda rock you," meaning he wanted Daddy to rock him, not Mommy. He does not mean to have Daddy rock me, Mommy. It is just his cute way of communicating.

However, this morning Caleb said, "Momma read to me; I sit with you." What? Did he just demonstrate proper understanding and usage of "me" and "you"? After just a couple weeks of using "you", he now understands proper usage of the word! And, did you notice the fact that he is speaking in complete sentences? Yea, he has been doing that all week, last week too. What is happening? My baby has grown into a toddler, and my toddler is turning into a little boy!

I am a little sad that it is going so fast, because I admit, I think the baby talk is reallty cute. Unfortunately, I have not been pulling out the video camera frequently, or ever, to capture this cute baby talk either, and it is rapidly disappearing. I better video some talk tomorrow!
Oh, and while Christian was in Chicago all week, we would talk to him on speaker phone in the morning. I usually say, "Bye Honey" when getting off the phone, I guess, because when I told Caleb to say, "Bye Bye Dadda", like he usually does, he said, "Bye Honey". Really, it was absolutely hilarious. He has done it a few times since then too. Pretty funny.

Spidey

We have entered the world of Super Heroes. I have committed the original Spiderman theme song to memory and we regularly watch the intro after breakfast now (check it out, it is pretty cool). Caleb runs around in his Halloween costume (Batman) on a regular basis now, and we fly like Superman through the house. Christian shamelessly promotes this behavior,
although I must say, it primarily developed and flourished while he was away in Chicago last week. Not sure what triggered the intense fascination, but Caleb wants to be a Super Hero. And yes, I did sing him to sleep for his nap today singing Spiderman. Part of me is sad that he doesn't request Hark the Herald Angel, or Gloria, or one of my favorites the Aunty Melody Silly Cat song anymore. However, this new super hero obsession isn't all bad.
I have to admit, especially with Spiderman, I love that he looks up to a guy who has a unique characteristic that he ends up using for the good of all mankind. Spiderman sacrifices his own needs and desires to help others. He is a good guy. Yes, he makes mistakes, but don't we all? Spiderman perseveres through hardships (parents aren't alive, best friend tries to kill him, etc.) and gets back up after being knocked down. Who can fault a kid who looks up to someone like that?

Therefore, I am updating Adventures with Caleb with all relevant Super Hero information we come across. One, for my own convenience in finding Caleb's favorite songs, cartoons, coloring pages, etc., and two, for any of you who want to see some cool Super Hero sites that are toddler appropriate (at least in my opinion). Please comment with any sites you find too (if toddler appropriate). Have fun!