the jellyball family blog

Dear Caleb,

Hey bud. You're now 31 months old. Admittedly, I am still referring to you as a two-and-a-half year old and we're counting the months less and less. You are growing up fast and becoming quite the lovely little man.

You are our little independent, curious, imaginative monkey. It's hard to imagine that you were once a helpless little baby, and now you're walking, talking, expressing yourself, with thoughts, desires, memories, preferences and emotions.

Being two is tough. You're still learning to speak in sentences, learning new words and how to put them together. You've got a real interest in the alphabet - you point out letters when you see them. We have this fridge magnet alphabet toy that sings a catchy tune when you push on a letter that tells you the sound each letter makes and a word that starts with that letter. You've started improvising with the song, so now you are saying things like "C like in Caleb" and "G like in Gordon" instead of the word suggested by the toy. When you see the big Chapters sign outside the store, you point out the big "C", like in Caleb. I suppose it isn't long before you are reading!

You are, unfortunately, all mixed up with your languages. You sing the alphabet song with your letters half in English and half in French. (Has anyone ever noticed that in English, W is a double-U, whereas in French it's a double-V? Try explaning THAT to a kid.) You have started noticing that sometimes, Mom speaks in English, and you point it out to me when you hear it. You are still babbling all kinds of strange phonetic sounds (your version of English, I suppose). When I ask you questions in English, you usually respond with a resounding "Ya", no matter what I ask. Except if I ask you, "What is your name?" and you say "Caleb" with the English pronounciation.

You've picked up on all kinds of English phrases. When you hear your father try to open the back door, you imitate me by screaming "It's OPEN!" (even though sometimes it's not) and you often say "I got it, I got it" when you open or close a door - something your father and I must say to each other lots.

You're also learning all kinds of British expressions from watching Thomas the Tank Engine, which is produced in Britain. I heard you say to one of your trains today, "Thomas is CROSS."

I think you're still having trouble with pronouns, though we're making an effort not to speak so much in the third person and more with "I"s, because we've noticed that you speak in the third person as well when you refer to yourself. Sometimes when I use words like "you" and "yours", I see that you're wondering who this "you" person is. I stumble with my explanation of how "I" refers to Mom when I say it, but it means Caleb when he says it. It's really confusing to explain. I suppose some day you'll just catch on, probably before I figure out how to explain it in a way that isn't completely confusing.

We have some pretty hilarious conversations with you. The other day, you told me that Mommy had two big boobies. Then you asked if you had boobies, and I told you that you had two small boobies. We then had to clarify that Noah had two small boobies, and Daddy had two small boobies. It's hard to have a conversation like this with you and keep a straight face, becaues you're completely serious, and you make these hilarious declarations like they are big, prouid revelations. I can't wait for you to tell a complete stranger that Mommy has two big boobies.

We become most frustrated with you when you cry or whine without expressing your emotions or desires - sometimes it's to the point where even when you are talking, we can't make it out from the extraneous noise you're making. It's hard to change the situation without knowing what's going on, and that's what is most frustrating. I know this is part of being two and it will pass. Some day you'll be able to say something like "Mom, I am really upset because..." instead of screeching.

The past month has been really different around the house as I was studying evenings and weekends for my exam. (Which I passed, yay, me!) You spent a lot of time with your dad going to the park and going for walks. You came to love going to the local toy store near us, Mrs. Tiggy Winkles (I love the way you say Tiggy Winkles) and that Dad almost always buys you a Thomas train when you go there with him. You started to actually miss your mother - something that just never really happened before since we spent so much time together day in, day out. It was nice to see how happy you were to see me and to be away from you long enough to actually miss you too.

Your love affair with Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends continues. You have accumulated much of your own collection. You now bring your Thomas rolling suitcase with you when you go to your grandparents' house, where they have your cousin's old sets of trains and rails. You'll get right to playing the minute you get there, and you'll play with it for hours on end. Before you go home, you negotiate as to which trains you can borrow to take home with you.

The other day you spotted Thomas stickers at the store and the stickers are now everywhere - on your high chair tray table, on the headboard of your bed. Your collection of Thomas DVDs is quite extensive - we recently scored 10 DVDs from a former Thomas fanatic and I am regularly browsing the local online classifieds for other such treasures. Before I was a parent, I didn't truly understand the way parents got into these obsessions that their kids had, but now that I am a parent, I can see how much joy these things bring to you, but also how they stimulate your creativity.

Your potty training is coming along well, though we're still struggling to get you to verbalize your desire to pee or poop before it happens. You're starting to wear underwear during the day while you're home, so we're attempting to make some progress. (It helps to have Thomas underwear.)

You were always a big drooler, but lately it seems like it's much more under control. You rarely suck your thumb anymore - only when you are in bed and for the little bit after you wake up from sleeping. Sometimes when we're in the car, you ask me if you can have a nap in the car and I know what you really want is to suck your thumb.

You often have a short nap in the afternoon - you'd probably sleep an hour or two if we let you, but normally we try to wake you up after a half hour so that you aren't up late. You are an absolute darling for the couple of hours before bedtime - you are calm, you play independently without as much as a peep, and you are usually more receptive to doing intellectual activities like reading or puzzles. Sometimes it's hard to even want to put you to bed when you are playing so well. You are rarely one whose behaviour disintegrates as we get closer to bedtime, though on the rare occasion you will ask to go to bed.

You're a pretty good eater though you're still really uninterested in trying out any new vegetables. But the ones you do eat, you eat pretty well. I've started sneaking in extra veggies into certain dishes - like today I snuck some sweet potatoes into your smoothie and in the tomato sauce of your macaroni. You usually eat some toast in the morning (unless your father serves breakfast, in which case you eat whatever he's eating, like cold chicken). Lunch and dinner is pretty similar and you manage to get most if not all the food groups in you. You eat just about any fruit, which is a real blessing.

You continue to be a great big brother to Noah. You make him laugh, you play with him, and yes - sometimes you are two years old and you are not nice with him - but it's usually more about wanting to snatch a toy than it is about wanting to hurt his feelings (or his body). I often catch you squeezing him in a hug (still working on getting you to hug him around the body instead of the neck) or giving him a kiss on the forehead. You guys are often laughing between yourselves and you're always game to get him to laugh by doing something silly.

You love playing outside. You love your toy trucks, the ride-in car, and you love going to the park (hooray for park weather!) It's amazing now to go to the park with you because you run around and play and we don't even follow you around anymore - we just keep an eye on you from wherever we are with Noah.

I love that you can be trusted to be by yourself when sometimes I am busy - you can play by yourself and keep yourself out of trouble. You've never really been one for mischief - you're usually far too busy reinacting some scene from a Thomas episode, or constructing some very elaborate track with your train tracks.

You have learned to ride a tricycle - and you go fast! A few days ago you received your first two-wheel bike (with training wheels) - thanks Grandma and Grandpa! It is completely amazing to watch you pedaling a big-boy bicycle with your head looking like a mushroom with your red helmet.

You are a truly imaginative and wonderful little guy. You have a great sense of humour and you are really fun to be around. We love laughing with you and we love you more than you can imagine.

Love,
Maman & Papa