Month 19 - April 25

Looking back through the pictures of the month, it is hard to believe how much we have done in a month and how quickly this boy's hair grows!  Mimi, we need another haircut!  The key words for this month is: Our Little Helper.  Caleb is a little "Monkey See, Monkey Do!"   Anything we are doing, he wants to do too.  Below are some pictures of the past month: 

Caleb is ready for his playscape to be set up!  He is already climbing all over it.

Caleb loves walking up and down the alley and making the dogs bark.  One would probably be scared at the big dogs loud and veracious "woof, woof".  But, not this fearless boy-he laughs and giggles at them.  He even goes up to the peek-a-boo cut out in our neighbor's fence to get a closer look at Bo Duke.

Walking around so independently at the Arboretum

Love any stairs anywhere 

Pretending to play basketball with a hanging planter at the Arboretum

Crazy about the fountains

Caleb loved the animals by brushing them, trying to pick them up, and attempting to ride them.  Maybe we should spend more time with animals, since he doesn't really know how to act around them.

Busted!!! You caught me pulling the pedals off these beautiful tulips.

West Dallas Community School Field Trip with Julie's old students.  They pushed Caleb all over the Arboretum, picked him up, and were just the biggest helpers.  Sweet kids!

Caleb loves reading his "Bi-bal" (Bible) before bedtime.

Caleb is rocking some serious bedhead after naptime! 

One beautiful Saturday afternoon we had a Block Party in our driveway.  It is something we have wanted to do since we moved in.  We are excited to say that we had about 20 neighbors come out to enjoy some food, fun, and community comaraderie.   

Thanks for your help, Chef, the burgers were great!

Now for all the helping pictures...Helping water plants

Caleb is torn-does he hunt for Easter Eggs with his playgroup or does he water the green grass?  Hmmm...tough decisions for a 18 month old.

Dusting

Unloading the dishwasher and organzing the silverware. (This is great until the dishes are dirty and he is still trying to unload them and doesn't understand why he can't help put away the dishes). 

Hammering the ladder (don't you just love this pose-such a hard worker).

He watched Daddy scrub the garage floor and now he is scrubbing the kitchen floor.

Daddy has been working SO SO SO hard to get the playscape perfect for Caleb (more pictures to follow) but Caleb was able to help his Daddy do some work.  Caleb would even grunt as he was tightening the screws.  Too Cute!

This boy LOVES his Daddy.  He walks all over the house looking and saying Dadda.  He is starting to realize when Mommy says "Daddy is at work," that it means he is not playing hide and seek and really is not home.  But when Craig is home he finds things around the house or yard and carries them to "Dada" (like the picture below with some leaves).  Caleb will even say "Dada" to random people when we are out and about.  Caleb gets SO excited when Daddy is home and even wants to wake him up on Saturday mornings when Mommy is trying to let him sleep in.  (Sorry Babe!) 

We often think about how much we truly love and adore our child and know that God loves each of us a million times more than that.  God is good!

Wyatt's Construction Birthday Party

Our sweet friends had a Construction Birthday Party last weekend and we had so much fun!! Wyatt turned 3 years old and Caryn and Stacey threw a perfect party including sand to dig in, a paper house to paint, golf tees to nail into styrofoam, incredible "themed" food, and every last detail covered.

Every child had their own "worker's hat" and a "job".  Caleb was a part of the Work Crew.

I think these two punkins were trying to see who could get the most paint on themselves and sweet Brylie won!  It looks like Caleb is being chivalerous and doing all the painting himself.

Wrecking Balls (clementines), Boulders (cake balls), Gravel (popcorn), Traffic Cones (bugels), Sack Lunches (paper bags with goldfish), and other touches of orange and yellow.

The birthday boy

Pinata Time!! I guess Caleb thinks he can help the birthday boy with his foam hammer.

Precious Cade loved the sand and Chapman has his eye on his worker's belt.

Thanks Smith's for a fun birthday!!

Easter Weekend

This Year's Bunny Picture:(this is what took so long-we were trying to wait patiently for it to arrive in the mail.)

Last Year's Bunny Picture:

We had a wonderfully relaxing three-day weekend around the house being productive, lazy, and enjoying a ton of family time.  On Friday, we started the weekend with Caleb's 18 month appointment. Then we took about 80 Easter baskets for boys and girls who live at a homeless shelter in downtown Dallas.  We have some great friends at church that organized over 500 Easter baskets to be donated, stuffed, and delivered.  What a joy it was to serve with our little guy on this special occasion.  (Sorry we didn't take any pictures.)

Friday afternoon we dyed Easter eggs.  I think Daddy had the most fun and he is very creative with his egg dying skills.  Caleb even enjoyed it and made the most beautiful green egg.  We did a lot of yard work and Craig continued to work on the playscape (pictures to follow once it is complete) plus we took a few trips to the hardware store, which is Caleb's new favorite play ground.  On Saturday evening we went to our church's Easter service.  It was a great experience to go on Saturday evening along with 3,000 of our closest friends.  There were over 200 kids in the nursery ages 4 and under.  It was packed to the rim.  

 

Pure delight as Caleb is looking at his filled Easter basket!

On Sunday we were able to have a lazy morning making Resurrection Rolls, an Easter egg hunt, and seeing the treats in Caleb's Easter basket.  Since, this was Caleb's third Easter Egg Hunt in 3 weeks, he is starting to learn to go for the plastic eggs, open them, pour them out and eat whatever he liked (the teddy grams were his choice).

Caleb threw the hard boiled egg with basketball plastic sleeve on it.  He realized that he could then peel the shell off! Great Fun at our Easter Egg Hunt!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter celebrating our risen King!!!

18 Month Updates

On Friday we went to the doctor for his 18 month check up.  Caleb is 34 1/4 inches tall (95%) and 27 pounds 11 ounces (75 %). Since his last appointment 3 months ago grew 2 inches and gained 2 pounds. He's a growing boy!! He did great with his one shot but it did give him a fever and fussiness for a few days.  This is the first noticable side effect we have seen.  Thankfully he won't have any more shots for at least a year and a half!!!!

Thank you to all of you who continually ask about Caleb's kidneys. We just recently went to see the urologist (6 months since his last procedure). Both kidneys are still enlarged (right kidney is 10 cm and the left one is 8 cm). The urologist didn't seemed too worried since they have been through so much the last year of his life. It sounds like his body will eventually grow into his kidneys. We will go back in 6 months for another round of tests (Caleb will have to go under anesthesia in order to run these tests.) In the meantime, we continue to give him antibotics to reduce infection and a laxative to keep things flowing down there. Thanks for all your continued prayers and support.