the jellyball family blog

Dear Caleb,

Last week, you turned 29 months old. It has been a completely crazy past month, with the renovations in our house turning our existence at home upside down. I watched with amazement as you continued to take everything in stride.

You are always happy to see the characters that are coming and going through the house, always looking to check out their trucks and see what kind of cool tools they bring. You are curious as to what they're doing, and it doesn't phase you at all that there are random strangers wandering in and out of your home. You don't seem to mind that the house is always a complete mess, or that there are so many things you're not allowed to touch. You don't seem to mind that at times, we are stuck in a bedroom for hours on end while there is work ongoing in the house. Last week, I had pangs of guilt and pride at the same time, as I watched you playing with your trains and cars on the edge of a bed, running back and forth in the tiniest little space, and yet you were completely happy and oblivious that the prior week, you had so much more room to move around.

You are amazingly resilient and I am so very proud of you. Throughout these crazy past few months, I've watched you blossom into a social being. You love meeting new people and learning their names. You enjoy playing with other kids at playgroup and when we go to the Thomas train table at Chapters. In fact, you always seem happier when there are other kids around, even if it means that you will have to share toys. Even though we have to remind you to share or prevent you from succumbing to the urge to grab a toy you like out of another person's hand, you always understand why we do and you hardly ever get upset over it. I'm always very proud of how well you play with other kids.

Our days have become different now that you are no longer napping. We no longer go out just during the morning, but sometimes in the afternoon and almost always in the evening after dinner. Sometimes when you are very tired, you doze off while in the car or sitting in bed watching TV. We are still trying to figure out the whole nap thing - it seems like there are days where you really need it and others where you don't. There are days where you are so tired that you are cranky and irritable, constantly sucking your thumb with fatigue. We haven't figured out whether to have you nap every few days, or do a very short nap every day.

Bedtime is usually a function of whether or not there was any dozing off during the day. Some days you fall like a rock in bed, without any protesting, and there are still nights where your father has to tell stories and sing songs to get you to calm down enough to be able to fall asleep. Either way, your father is the only one that you want when it's bedtime. (Sometimes I think it's because with me, there's no leeway - I'll put you in bed and that's the end of it. Whereas, with your dad, there's usually some room to move - whether it's a bedtime story or that he'll let you get out of bed for a few minutes.) Most days you go to bed somewhere between 7:30 and 8:30pm, and there isn't a peep until at least 7am.

We've stopped turning on the monitor in your room. Usually we hear you yammering away in your room in the morning, though you don't get out of bed until you hear one of us get up. There has been the very odd, rare time where you've gotten out of bed to come into our room, but it's only happened once or twice and each time you had a completely guilty look on your face. We kind of like this arrangement we have where you stay in bed until we're up, so we're going to milk it for as long as it lasts.

Your biggest obsession at the moment is Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends. You know the names of all the trains, what colour they are, and you can practically recite certain Thomas stories back to me. I find it completely uncanny that you can distinguish between three characters who are the exact same colour of blue but are all slightly different. You love going to play with the tracks and trains at your grandmother's house and at the local bookstore (where they entice you to come play at the train table and expect that no kid will leave the store without a couple of trains!)

You love to watch the Thomas & Friends DVDs. Your dad bought you six new DVDs this month because we were so sick of watching the one DVD that we had (thanks Grandpa). Now we have some new material to watch, but also a bunch of new songs to learn. You are requesting that we sing the Toby song, or the James song. It's particularly funny when you ask your father to sing, because for one, he doesn't watch them nearly as much as I do, so he doesn't know the words. The other reason it's funny is that your dad really doesn't have a knack for learning the words to a song anyway. You get frustrated that he doesn't know the words and eventually have to resort to allowing me to sing.

You've started enjoying more "adult" music, as we call it (i.e. the radio) which is a real relief for me in the car, because we've been playing the same CD for the past year now. Today in the car, you requested "Low" by Flo Rida, because you love to sing along to the part where he goes "Low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low."

Most days you are still a good eater. You'll usually eat some toast for breakfast. Lunch and dinner are fairly similar - we attempt to give you something from all the food groups but it doesn't always work out that you eat something from all of them. we still struggle to have you eat vegetables, though in general, everything else is pretty simple. You're pretty good at a restaurant, especially if there is bacon involved.

You have started talking in almost full sentences. The other day, you said to your little brother "Noah, il faut pas toucher ca" (Noah, you shouldn't touch that) and I just couldn't believe what a nice sentence you had constructed. You know how to ask nicely, though you have to sometimes be asked to ask nicely. So, when you bark out "D'autre lait" (More milk), I ask you to ask nicely, and you say "Maman, d'autre lait, s'il vous plait" ("Mom, more milk, please"). You are really good about saying thank you, though I haven't quite been able to get you to say "You're welcome" very consistently.

You're definitely starting to pick up more English and show more interest in it. A friend recently commented that she thought it was pretty amazing that you'd learned an English song phonetically, and I have noticed that you are always trying to repeat things you hear on TV. You will pick up all kinds of words from your Thomas DVDs, like "flagpole" and "castle" and today you said "Push hard, Gordon!" You already know how to say "Thank you very much" and ""That's good" and when you are asked to repeat "I love you baby", you say "I love you maybe". It's awesome.

You've become a little territorial about some of your stuff, which is completely normal for your age. Mostly, it's about having to share your Thomas trains, which is really OK considering it's the thing you love the most in the world after your dad and possibly bacon. I always have to laugh when you spot your brother making a mad dash for some of your trains or tracks. You immediately sprint to pick up another toy and throw it in his path, hoping to distract him from his mission. You'll say "Noah, jouer avec ca!" (Noah, play with this) and sometimes he will, but often times he just swats it out of the way and heads onto his target. At that point, you'll look at me and say "Maman! Prendre Noah!" (Mom, take Noah) and sometimes I do, and sometimes I encourage you to share your toys. You're always really good about sharing toys with Noah when you guys are out playing at the train table at Chapters, which makes me especially proud considering Noah is always the smallest guy at the table. You look out for him - I love that.

You're really great with your brother. You love sharing your food with him - you're so happy now that he eats O-shaped cereal, because now you can share your food with him. You love passing him an O from your bowl of cereal to his outreached hand in the high chair next to you. You love giving him hugs and kisses. I think this is pretty special considering most older siblings I know of would rather smack around their younger ones. (This may still be the case in the future, but for now I think it's pretty awesome.) You love making him laugh and you always humour him when he tugs at your hair or swipes at you. When you hear him crying, you frown and say to me, "Noah pas content" (Noah not happy).

You are in desperate need of a haircut but I know you're not going to be crazy about going to get one, nor will you tolerate being in the bathtub long enough for me to attempt one. I'm not sure what we're going to do about this, but it's getting quite unruly and shaggy, and I am almost at the point where I will allow your father to take out his electric shaver again, though not quite. Your maternal grandmother was choking back tears the last time we did that, I think she may still be traumatized. But hey, on the plus side, pretty soon it'll be long enough that I could put it in pigtails!

You are an amazing little guy. You are goofy, spirited, too smart for your own good, and sometimes, you are two years old and can be a little tough to handle. But you have a warm heart and a wonderful soul and we love everything about you. You are so much fun to talk to, you have a playful little sense of humour, and you are really funny.

Next week, you will be starting to spend a bit of time at daycare. This is a big deal for me, a HUGE deal, really. It has taken me months to even get used to the idea of considering putting you in day care part-time. Your father helped me realize that it's not really for me as it is for you - you need friends, you need the interaction, you need the experience, and there's no doubt in my mind that once you start going half days a few days a week, it will be something that will do wonders for me as well. So next week, I'll start you off with one hour, and we'll go from there.

I'm pretty sure that you will be all "whatever" about it and have the time of your life. We'll see if *I* survive the experience, ha!

You're the best, Caleb. We love you, maybe. Ha. Just kidding. We love you LOTS!

Maman & Papa