Anton

This sweet boy has been on my heart a lot lately.  Click the link below to read baby Anton's story and to donate to his adoption fund if you feel so led.  He has a family here in the United States waiting to adopt him, ready with open arms...praise the Lord!  We wait in expectation to see what the Lord has in store for this little guy!

http://hopeforanton.blogspot.com

18 Months

 

Caleb you are 18 months old...unbelievable!  We love the stage you are in right now, we love each stage but this one is so unique and fun!  Your personality just continues to shine and it's so fun to watch you learn, grow and be you.  We love your huge sense of humor, your loving ways, and we really just love having you around and being with you so very much.  You are a sweet little boy, and such a blessing.

This past month you have become quite the talker and are learning so many new words each day.  Not only do you say so many more words, but you really understand e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g Mommy and Daddy say!  We love that, and are often surprised at how much you know already!  We are so excited to watch you learn even more, and especially excited to hear your sweet words! :)  You have your own little language and you also speak english.  Ha!

Here is what you are saying lately:

"all done"

"belly button"

"baby"

"bye bye"

"book"

"banana"

"car"

"cute"

"dada"

"down"

"done"

"ears"

"go-go"

"hot"

"love you"

"kiss"

"k" for okay 

"mama" (used most frequently and also Mommy's fav)

"mac" (mac-n-cheese)

"no-no" (used a lot)

"nigh-nigh"

"nuh-nuh" (nurse)

"okay"

"opps"

"oh no"

"off"

"poo poo"

"peach"

"shoe" (super cute)

"snack"

"toot"

"up"

"uh oh"

"wa-wa" (water)

"yeah"

and so many more...

You love to play with other kiddos, as always.  Mommy feels comforted that you feel so secure when she is away for awhile, you just play confidently with others and don't even notice she is gone really.  You just really love to be with others and play, play, play!

You are sleeping really well at night, and are still taking one to two naps a day.  You will usually either take two shorter naps or one long nap, varying from day to day.  You love to go "bye bye" and go on fun field trips with Mommy.  You also love to explore your home territory by climbing on anything and everything you can, you are such a fast climber and we really have to keep a close eye on you...as we have learned you climb so incredibly fast!  You also love to run around the house, play chase, hide and go seek, be pulled in your wagon, push around your little shopping cart (or run around while pushing your shopping cart).  You are such a gentle boy, loving others.  You will often sneak up behind Mommy, through your arms around her neck and just love on her saying "ohhhhh" and then give her kisses.  You are SO full of love, and we love you right on back!  It's so fun to watch your expressions of love be shown even more as you grow.  You love to nuzzle noses, give hugs and kisses, pat our backs, and give loving looks and words to us as well as others.  We are so thankful for you! :)

Your favorite foods right now are pickles, beans of all kinds, mac-n-cheese, french fries and chips, peaches, bananas, waffles, broccoli, zucchini, apples and cantaloupe.  You dislike meat of any kind, which we think is just a texture thing and that you will soon outgrow, other than that though you will pretty much eat anything! 

You still love to dance and love music, you have really started to sing even more as well.  You will repeat songs we sing and have even been attempting to yodel lately...it's pretty cute!

You have such a sweet spirit, and are very gentle.  You have become even more adventurous as you grow and are showing your will even more!  You love to explore and climb, which we must limit in certain situations for your safety (but also allow you to be adventurous, of course)  You love to get into everything and empty drawers, shelves, anything of their contents.  We just laugh as we have heard so many words of wisdom from those parents who have gone before that these days will fly by, so we are just gonna go with it...messy house and all!  

Love you Boose Bear! 

17 Months

 Caleb all bundled up going down the slides for the first time...he loves the slides! 

 Field trip with mommy to Campbell's Nursery

Caleb is 17 months old, he is full of life!  We are so thankful for him, and that the Lord has sustained his life and kept him safe and healthy.

What is our little guy up to now that he is 17 months old?  Well, in the past month he has learned to say more and more!  He says "all done" (a done) and "there you go" (there go).  He also has been repeating more words that he hears us say, it's so adorable.


Caleb has sure been adding to his dance moves lately.  We love to watch him boogie, and he loves to show off!  He loves music, and will dance to the beat.  It's so cute to watch him focus really hard while moving his limbs to the beat.  He even has the Elvis leg move down! We really need to get that one on video.

He is on the move, if he isn't dancing he is walking or almost running around here, there and everywhere.  We love that he is walking and able to get around so freely now, it's a joy to watch him...and also exhausting! :)

Caleb LOVES Toy Story 3.  He watches it everyday.  So do we.  We have all of the lines memorized.  Toy Story 3 will always be near and dear to our hearts, we will probably even watch it when Caleb goes off to college someday, and shed tears thinking of the times we watched it with our little boy.

We see God working so much in Caleb's life, even now as he is so young.  We pray that he may have the fruits of the spirit now...love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control.  It's amazing also to see his love for others really grow and watch him reach out to show love to others, even at his young age.  We see God's hand in his life and His faithfulness to hear our prayers for his life.  Most of all, we pray that Caleb will know that he is a sinner, in need of Jesus to save him, and to surrender his life to Jesus at a young age so that he may know Him and walk with Him all the days of his life.

16 Months

Caleb you are 16 months!  Mommy and Daddy are so thankful that you are theirs, and in their lives!  We cannot imagine life without you...or even what life was really like before you were in our lives! :)  Mommy and Daddy love you so much!

At 16 months you are really growing and changing...and moving!  You now walk everywhere, never crawling, ever.  You even look like your are running sometimes, you walk so quickly!  You have not fallen hardly at all, you are so very cautious and each step you take is very steady.  We are thankful for this!

Oh Caleb, you are so silly :)  You make us laugh each day with your funny little sense of humor.  You have always had such a great sense of humor, and it continues to grow as you grow.  You are also so animated, and have an expression and sound for every occasion.

You have many words now, you are saying more and more all the time!  Your words have so much meaning now, rather than just repeating a sound.  You say...

"hot" to food when it is warm

"bubble" to bubbles in the bathtub

"uh oh" when you drop something

"oh no" when we say "oh no"

"boom boom" when you drop something or fall on your bottom

"ni ni" to go night night

"nuh nuh" to nurse

and many more, those are some favorites

You love to read and will often bring books to use to read to you, we read many times each day.  Your favorite book right now is The Three Little Kittens.  You love to play, and never sit still.  You get into every cupboard possible, and love to play with pots and pans.

You are now playing pretend with things.  You pretend to stir with a spoon in a bowl and then to eat what you have just stirred.  You also pretend to talk on the phone.  So adorable!

You are really fighting sleep at night, you want to keep playing and have a hard time letting go of the day. 

You are still a great eater and will eat anything!  Well, except for meat, you prefer beans to meat for some reason.  But anything else is great!  You especially love melons, zucchini and broccoli.  A new found favorite is, of course, macaroni and cheese.

You love to dance, and will dance to any music playing.  You have always loved to dance...so I guess the real update is that you have been learning some new dance moves :)  You also still love to sing, as always.  You sing "la dee da dee da la dee da la dee da" it's so precious.  You also still love to strum the guitar.

So many things to update!  You are just so cute, and we love you so much and can't get enough of you...our Boose Bear.  Each day we love spending with you and soak in as we know they are going to go so quickly.  We are thankful for today and thankful that we have been blessed by the gift of you as our little boy!  

Love you Caleb!

15 Months

Boose, you are 15 months old!  This post is a little late, but we have been extra busy this past week with Daddy being home for fall break!  We had such a great week together, spending a lot of time together.  You and Daddy played and played and played!

You are learning to walk, and are walking more and more each day!  You are so cautious, and so graceful it's really sweet.  You have such a gentle way about you, yet are such a boy all the time!  We love to watch you learn and grow and take those steps.  You are pretty excited too, and you light up with each step you take.

You are really talking now, you say all kinds of things.  You are starting to combine words that we can clearly understand as well.  You have say "Bye bye mama" and also what sounds like "I love you".  You say Daddy all the time, and you say "mama" in an extra sweet tone of voice.  We love hearing your little voice, all you say warms our hearts and your sound is so sweet.

You still love music, and with a growing love too.  You dance often when music is playing, a cell phone rings, or any beat that you may hear.  You still love to play the guitar with Daddy and sing along with him.

During the day you are a busy little guy, playing all the time, and also going places with mommy.  You love to go out and about with mommy to do errands and are so social with others.  You love to say "hi", wave, give a friendly smile, and are so attentive to others.  Recently you have really enjoyed coloring, it is so cute to watch you scribble on paper with crayons.  You also love to play chase Daddy around and hide-and-go-seek. 

You love to eat, you will eat almost anything.  You do not like meat, however.  You may be a vegetarian?  Maybe just for now :)  You love love beans of all kinds, vegetables of all kinds, fruit, and all of your snack foods that Mommy gives you during the day.  You eat puffs, Mum-Mums, granola bars, and other such snacks while you are taking a snack break from playing.  You also are taking a sippy cup more and more, and seem to really enjoy drinking water. 

You love bath time, and usually end up in there after the majority of meals (because you are so very messy)... which you don't mind, because you truly love it so much.  You love to play and splash, dip your face into the water, scoot around, lay down and play with the water coming out of the faucet.   

You are such a sweet spirited little boy, really loving towards others.  We are so very blessed to have you in our lives and we just cherish each day we get with you, Caleb.  We love you so much and look forward to all the days we get to spend with you.  We are so blessed to be your parents, God has truly given us such a perfect gift.  You are our little buddy, we love you love you love you.

14 Months

 

 

 

You, our sweet little Caleb, are 14 months!  Well, you will be in two days on September 18th!  We decided to write this post early as our last month birthday posts have been late, and we have a busy weekend coming up!  Caleb...you are such a joy, and each month we seem to fall more and more in love with you... our first born son.  So here goes your little update...

You are almost walking, you walk when holding onto one of our hands, we barely support you...so you can walk, you are just waiting for the perfect moment to show your stuff and take those steps.  You have taken two steps to and from furniture.  We are so excited for the day you will toddle along next to us!  We know that day is coming soon, so we are enjoying our little crawling cruiser right now.

You are talking more and more.  You say all kinds of stuff, some that we can determine what you are saying and then most of it is in your own little language...it's so adorable.  We love to hear you jibber jabber, you have the sweetest little voice.  Recently you have been saying "hi" a lot while waving hi.  When we walk into your room, you will look at us, wave and say sweetly "hi!".  Also, you have been saying what sounds like "I love you".  We say  "I Love you" so much in our home, we thought you might grow  to  think that to be your name!  The past few days when we say "I love you Caleb, I loovvveee you" you say "I uh ou" or something like that.  We think it's his very own way of saying it back to us!

You are our little buddy, and we LOVE you. 

Shopping List

I just read a fun little article on the Dr Sears website, here it is...

Taking in the following factors - protien, fiber, beta carotene, Vitamin C, B, folate, calcium, zinc, iron and phytonutrients here are the top ten Sears recommended veggies in alphabetical order. Are these on your shopping list?




■Artichoikes

■Beans (black and kidney)

■Beets

■Broccoli

■Chickpeas

■Lentils

■Spinach

■Sweet Potatoes

■Tofu

■Tomatoes
 
Tofu...no.  Never tried it, if it's good I guess I am missing out!  Caleb has tried and loved all of these foods except for tofu and beets.  We aren't a big beet eating family, and no tofu.  However, we eat broccoli almost each day, and we do eat beans a lot.  Cole hates beans.  He doesn't eat them.  I do however, and so does Caleb, so Caleb and I eat beans and Cole eats...not beans.  We do eat chickpeas, occasionally, we should start eating them more.  Tomatoes are yummy, and Caleb loves sweet potatoes and squash.  Squash wasn't on the list.  We love spinach.  In conclusion, we will be eating more chickpeas.