Soccer Star

We can add Soccer Star to Caleb's resume. After a somewhat disatrous soccer season in June (remember? I do not recomment the YMCA) we thought Caleb's love for the game would be diminished. But early in the fall Caleb declared that he wanted to play again and we were thrilled! With his arm all healed and a new year under our belt, we signed him up with the Frisco Soccer Association. The professionalism is great and we are super impressed with his coaches, they are teaching the boys amazing drills and skills. Caleb was so proud of his first soccer cleats that he wore them home from the store. His first game is this weekend and we can't wait to see how this season turns out for our dude and his team, the Red Devils (named after Manchester United).

Sometimes the coaches use Caleb's ball for team drills...Caleb isn't thrilled when this happens. He loves his green ball! Thanks Pop!

No words. Love it!

The chill did not slow these dudes down.

I feel like I shoud just record myself saying "focus Caleb, focus." I say it a lot. Point in case....

Caleb has already earned a reputation as the lovable one. When Brian arrived at practice last week, Caleb very cheerfully shouted from the field, "Daddy! Can I have some of your water? Mommy left mine in the car!" Oh the laughs he elicited at his Mommy's expense.

Bouncing

Okay. So my friend Mary has a blog where she is completely forthright and honest about her good and bad days, about the realities of life. I completely love and respect that about her. It is inspiring and encouraging, especially as she deals with tremendous loss. We all love you so much Mary! With that said, I have had trouble doing the same on our blog. I can't say that I have her courage or her gift for words, but I can say that the last month (well..few months) have been hard. I am not well and there are days that I barely function. But I have this amazing husband, and the last few months have felt like a new-newlywed stage. He has surrounded me with compassion and love and his return from work is the light at the end of my day. I anticipate his cuddles almost more than anything. My Mom and friends and Caleb have all been fantastic and supportive. While I am not comfortable revealing the particulars about what is going on, I do appreciate prayers. The Lord is my strenth and prayers are so welcome.

There is no way to hide all of this from Caleb and we do not try. He understands about as much as his four year brain will let him. He has a way of giving me hugs and cuddles that make me relax and melt and love on him even more. He makes us so proud as he continues to grow and demonstrate more self-control, compassion for others and just plain genious-ness! We have triend to maintain as much normalcy as possible, Brian is a true champ!, and continue to find fun adventures to enjoy as a family. McKenna made it easy on us a few weeks ago with a trip to Carrollton for her birthday party. McKenna is Caleb's first friend. She visited him in the hospital when he was a day old, dubbed him little buddy, kissed his nose, and has been an integral part of raising Caleb ever since! Oh the pictures we have of McKenna feeding him a bottle, sharing her toys, cuddling and leading him off on new big kid adventures! I think so much of the nurturing he demonstrates to other babies has to come from the affection he received from McKenna. He adores her and follows her wherever she might go!

Her party was at Pump It Up. The PERFECT venue for a child with endless energy and his parents with very-limited energy! These moments allow us to focus on the immediate; on our surroundings, on our peeps. We had a lot of fun. McKenna's Mom has her own heavy load and it is inspiring to see how much she can put aside to give her little girl these amazing memories. I am surrounded by such strong and Godly women. Thank you Lord!

Caleb bum shot. Love it!

The expressions say it all!

We lost count of how many times Brian did this with Caleb!

The beautiful bithday girl!

This is Brian's "I MADE IT!" pose.

That would be my legs squeezing through the maze with the dude. We had a race. He won.

WHEW!

Loving on my dude.

Even better! Whee!

The birthday crew. McKenna's parties make Caleb's look tiny! =)

Caleb went around and made sure every child had a balloon. Nobody asked him to. That is just the kind of dude we have.

Sitting still. You have to see it to believe it!

Puppy Party

Oh yes we did. We threw Chai Qi a birthday party today!

For those of you not in the know (which means you haven't read enough blog entries...shame on you!), Chai Qi is my parent's adorable miniature poodle. She joined our family last March and I love how much my parents have embraced pet ownership. There was no doubt that we would have a party for Chai either. I think my Mom and I just assumed we were both on board and never so much as questioned it. So yes, we are those people. Yes, we had a puppy party! And yes, it was fun and Caleb totally dug the whole thing!

Yesterday, my Mom, Caleb and I made a dog birthday cake. We found a recipe online which was easy-breezy and it turned out really well. While it was tasty-ish, my Mom very generously made us a people cake too. I made Chai's cake into the shape of a bone the best I could and voila, Party Time! Caleb got to pick the theme and he quickly chose Tinkerbell. Not so bad since we could recycle the candles from Mom's party last year (also the Dude's doing). Chai's friend Max joined the fun and brought along his parents, John and Marilyn (family friends). My Mom even had a favour bag for Max! An honest-to-goodness doggy bag, ha ha! Overall, a very successful puppy party. So there!

Chai's Peanut Butter Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Our yummilicious people cake!

Oh yes. We had party hats!

Happy Birthday Chai!

She had some help with the candles.

(Caleb took care of the ones on our cake)

They loved it! They licked the bowls so clean they shone!

We love you Chai Qi!!!!

Rockstar

Yesterday was another one of those days where we are reminded just how big our little dude is getting. He went to his first Children's Choir practice at our church and it felt like such a big moment for us. He was excited to go and not even a little bit hesitant at drop-off. Brian and I sat on the couch in the hall wondering what he was doing and how he was doing and looking forward to hearing all about it! Caleb very much wanted to take his guitar with him, but was easily convinced that he should leave it in the car. On the way to his choir room, he informed us that he needed to wear his hood so that everyone would know he was a rockstar. Seriously, this child can turn me into a puddle of goo with the no effort whatsoever! He had fun and we are all looking forward to next week! He is such a big boy...next up is soccer in February!!!!

January 25, 2012

Living A Dream

Caleb's friend Jillian was celebrating her birthday at one of our fire stations... Do you think we had any trouble getting Caleb to go? His love for Jillian aside, he will never refuse an opportunity to learn from the pros. He wanted to wear his uniform and looked every bit the tiny fire-dude! He had a blast and continues to practice his fireman skills on a DAILY basis. He makes my heart melt, I love my fire-dude!

January 7, 2012

A Day At Sea...Sort Of

Having Brian home for two weeks was amazing. It just felt right. We got to have pajama days, get stuff done days and fun excursion days. When we left our day in Caleb's hands, he chose the Grapevine SeaLife Aquarium. We had no problem with that whatsoever! Brian had never been, so Caleb was quite happy to show him around. We even got to see the new sea Turtle (as of yet unnamed)! It was just a few days before the return to normalcy and we were happy for the adventure! Given that my parents live just a few minutes away, we dropped in on our way home and were surprised with a homecooked meal! Wahoo! We went home happy and full of good food!

(Brian took the last two photos and I thought they were too excellent not to include!)

January 5, 2012

Passing the Torch

When Brian was little, he apparently lived in the land of GI Joe. I have heard many stories of their adventures together. He has carefully saved a few of his treasures (he says it is maybe a third of what he used to have) and on January 5th passed them on to our dude. I was so excited to witness this precious moment. He is learning their names and will very proudly point out who helps build bridges and whatever else. He is soaking it all in!

His imaginative play skills are in full force and it is so much fun to watch and be a part of! He loves his action figures and pretending to be a fireman, saving the day! Imaginext makes this amazing line of toys called Rescue Heroes (which Caleb loves!) and they are fantastic. Caleb has seamlessly merged them with his new GI friends and come up with all sorts of interesting scenarios already!  I can't wait to watch my dudes get lost in their own land of GI Joe...and firemen.

p.s. Cute note: Caleb watches his Rescue Heros DVDs so that he can "learn how to be a fireman when I grow up." SO CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!