the jellyball family blog

Dear Caleb,

Happy birthday to you!

You are four years old today.

Caleb, I cannot tell you how amazed that we are that you are FOUR years old. We can still remember so clearly the day you were born. The seemingly never-ending labour that started on a Friday night and ended on a Sunday afternoon. Those harrowing first 24 hours when you wanted to do nothing but feed, feed, feed, and how your dad had to trick you into sucking his gloved finger in an attempt to distract you from your perpetual need to suck on something.

There were those first weeks where we didn’t know whether it was night or day – it seemed like we were up all the time and never sleeping. You started to show your delightful personality, as you learned to flip onto your belly around Christmas time and dance circles in the exersaucer. Before we knew it, you were walking, talking, and now you’re four years old and you are your own little man.

You sleep in a big-boy bed. You still have this habit of rolling all over the place in your bed during the night (thankfully not overboard) and you never sleep with your blanket – you always end up on top of it. You sleep soundly during the night – you hardly ever wake up during the night even when your little brother is wailing in his bed right next to you.

You and Noah share a room, and we often hear you two laughing or whispering after we’ve turned out the lights. You each have a basket of toys next to your bed – these are toys that you have “reserved” for yourselves. You are a good big brother – you look out for your brother and while you two do a lot of play fighting and generally get on each other’s nerves, you love him very much and you miss him when you two are apart.

You are so independent – you can get dressed and undressed, you can climb into your carseat and buckle yourself up. You love to be a good little helper – whether it’s helping to measure flour when we make cookies or putting away your bicycle in the garage. Personality wise, you are a spitting image of your mother – calm, caring, disciplined, and a complete wuss when it comes to amusement park rides.

You love routine and predictability. There are certain things in your daily routine that you depend on, and when we change up these things, it seems to really turn you upside down. Something as simple as not hanging your helmet on your bicycle once you’ve put it away will drive you to tears when you realize that you’ve forgotten to do it. To you, these things are important and I am perpetually reminding myself that while it isn’t a big deal to me, it’s a big deal to you.

You are making friends and socially aware of your surroundings. We remember a year ago when you were in preschool, you were fairly oblivious to the kids around you and what they were doing – you were happy doing your own thing, and if someone joined you in your game, that was cool. But when we asked you what were the names of your friends, you didn’t really know. It wasn’t until the last few months of preschool that you talked about your friends and what happened at school. I remember coming into volunteer in your classroom only to realize – to my horror – that you had a GIRLFRIEND. You two walked around playing with one toy and then moving onto the next game. You loved having a dedicated play friend – which was really all she was to you. (She, on the other hand, relished in the idea of being able to put her arm around you and hold your hand.)

A few months ago, you attended a summer camp that was run out of your new school and this was a big change for you. It was a full day instead of just a couple afternoons a week, and you’d gone from hanging out at home with your little brother and father to being in a new classroom, with new people, for a full day. The period of adjustment was hard – there were tears (from everyone) but you were a trooper and got through it. A few weeks ago you started in your new program with new classmates and teachers – and you seem to love it. You are learning new songs and talking happily about your friends, and we couldn’t be happier at your progress.

You and Noah are in the same school program but in separate classes. You see each other at recess and after school, and I hear stories about how you two will cry when it’s time to go inside, back to your separate classrooms, because you want to stay together. At the same time, I know that if you were in the same class all day long, you two would be fighting like cats and dogs, so I think you guys have just enough together-time because you still miss each other. You are almost always playing together when I come to pick you up after school.

You speak French and English fluently, switching between them effortlessly but sometimes getting kind of “stuck” speaking English when you are playing with your friends. You already know how to write your name and several other words. You are starting to recognize words around you – whether they are on boxes of cereal or signs on a store. You are learning to put words together with sounds, and I know it won’t be long before you are reading like a big boy.

You have an excellent ear for music as well – you recognize songs during the first few bars of music, and when “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas comes on the radio, you are as happy as a clam. You love to sing and you are a quick study when it comes to learning new songs (definitely NOT your father’s genes). You are – and have always been – amazing at puzzles, since we bought you your first puzzle at the age of 2.

You are a good eater. You are usually game to try just about anything – even if it’s just one bite. You are a ruthless negotiator – you are always looking to understand how many pieces of food you need to eat before you get your dessert or can go play. You love to go eat at a restaurant! The other day we were out having dinner and you were serving salad onto plates, buttering your bread, and making chit-chat about how the food smelled good.

Your favourite toys these days still include your Thomas trains, our friends from the movie “Cars”, the cast from “Bob the Builder”, and more recently, Wall-E. When you play outside, you love it when I chalk up the driveway with signs and destinations, so you and your friends next door can ride around on your bicycles and tricycles.

You have become best friends with our neighbours’ four-year old daughter, Morgan. You and Morgan are both avid fans of Thomas, and you both enjoying playing with each other. Morgan’s little brother, Oliver, is a couple months younger than Noah, and the four of you guys will play endlessly in the driveway whether it’s with the bicycles or digging holes in the garden. The line between our houses has become blurred – it’s just one big playground. The other day, you went to play inside Morgan’s house and when you smelled pie baking in the oven, you declared that it smelled good in the house and that maybe you’d stay for lunch. We love that you have friends nearby that you see every day.

You love your bicycle and going to the park on your bike is one of your all time favourite things to do. Our neighbour’s blue and red tricycle is a close second, though. You love it when I chalk up the driveway with street signs and destinations so that you and your friends can do laps and go to exotic places.

Caleb, we are so very proud of you. You are a big boy in every way – you are smart, articulate, kind, caring, and curious. Please continue to grow into the stand-up little guy that you are.

Love,

Maman & Papa

Dear Caleb,

Happy third birthday, my dear sweet boy. It's hard to believe that three years ago today, we were going through the single most life changing event in our lives – we were becoming parents. It was a mixture of tremendous joy and pain, but at the end of that journey, we came out of it with a truly amazing gift – YOU!

I can safely say we are out of the terrible twos and we are into the terrific threes. You are sweet and affectionate. You are trustworthy, reliable, and when you choose to be obedient (about 80% of the time), you are a real gem. Sure, the remaining 20% is a bit of a struggle, but most of the time it's just because you're reluctant to follow along with the program – you're not really in the mood to go in the bath, or go to the grocery store, or put on your shoes, because you're in the middle of some elaborate game with your cars and you'd rather do something else.

You love to be the big boy and you want to do everything yourself: get your own tootbrush (and Noah's), brush your own teeth, pour your own milk, turn on the lights in the kitchen, serve yourself some yogurt from the big container to your own bowl, choose your own slice of watermelon, wash your hands, cut up a slice of watermelon, spread cream cheese on your toast, etc. You are constantly saying "C'est moi qui va faire" (It's me that will do it). On the positive side, you require so little supervision now and there are many things you can do now. On the down side, some of these new big-boy things you can do are more dangerous and thus do require constant supervision, and it's a slippery slope between giving you a little responsibility and letting it become a big free for all.

Thankfully, your father is a totally laissez-faire kind of guy and he doesn't get flustered by much. Pour your own glass of milk? Go for it. Oh, you spilled it milk all over the floor? No problem, we'll just clean it up. Which is totally more your style than the Mom perspective – I'm so not in the mood to clean up milk off the floor so what do you say I pour you a glass of milk and we call it a day? I'm so not any fun. It's no wonder your happy to send me off to work while you stay home with your dad and have tons of adventures.

I think switching it up has been great for everyone – this change has been great to kick us out of the rut we were in with our routine. It's so easy to stick to what you know, and shaking things up is the only way to encourage us to change things up. Going back to work has helped change my perspective on things and it was a welcome change of scenery for me. Even though I miss you guys terribly during the day and I live for those hilarious voicemails you leave me throughout the day, I appreciate my time with you all the more and I had far more patience now. My drive home is always feels like the longest part of my day, because I cannot wait to open the back door and hear the pitter patter of running feet and the chorus of "MAAA-MA!"

Your day to day is completely different now that your dad is in charge of the day shift. You guys embark on all kinds of adventures – playgroups, museums, parks, and plenty of awesome activities. There is playing in the dirt, hands in the mud, stomping in puddles, riding your bike, building of ramps, spraying the hose, and eating of popsicles. You know, BOY stuff.

You go to nursery school three afternoons a week. The first day at school was about learning the routine, some of which you weren't so fond of. (Story time? Uh no, I'd rather go play with this computer I've just discovered.) Your dad was there with you on that first day to help you get adjusted. The second day at school was the first time you were alone somewhere without a family member around, and you didn't quite understand the situation. There was some crying, but through the experience, you built a trusting relationship with your teachers. On the third day, you cried for a few minutes when your dad dropped you off, but within minutes you were off playing. Now, there's no crying and you're loving every minute of it. Apparently you're great at story time and you're happy to come home and tell us the story they read and how there was a squirrel looking for snacks. (There was a time where you preferred eating books to reading them, and more recently, you only enjoyed books about trains/cars, so we're happy you've starting showing a real interest in the actual story.)

One of your teachers knows sign language and teaches sign language as she speaks. The other day you told me you wanted a cracker and signed the word, and told me there was a story about bears who loves apples, and signed the words for bear and apple. Apparently you've picked up signing quite quickly and it's amazing to see you learning these new things. You come home with collages and paintings which I proudly hang on the walls of my cubicle at work.

Yesterday I met your teachers for the first time and thank goodness your father forewarned me that I should be there early to pick you up. Your routine at nursery school ends with outdoor play in an age-appropriate, gated playground and your father told me that you are often there waiting at the gate when he arrives to pick you up. The sight of you clinging to the bars of the gate while the other kids ran around playing was enough to make my heart melt. I knew you were particularly looking forward to me picking you up from school, and that you were anxious to get home because your grandparents were there babysitting Noah… but boy were you EVER ready to go home that day.

I spoke to your teachers, who told me that we should be really proud of you because you are a sweet, sweet boy. I can't tell you how much this comment makes me proud, because it's not like they were commenting on something you learned or something you did, they made a really accurate comment about the kind of person you are and the kind of sweetness that you radiate. (Also, they mentioned that you are really good with the toilet routine and love washing your hands. Which you totally do, it's practically one of your hobbies.) You were happy to show me your hook in the classroom where you hang your knapsack, how your fellow classmate, Jackson, has a Lightning McQueen backpack, where you guys sit down for story time, the collage that you made that day, and where the toilets are.

You play really well with other kids. There's never any drama or problems. You're easy going and you go with the flow. Recently, you've been really great at sharing your toys with Noah, especially when you see that he really really wants something.

You've always been a great eater and you continue to be. You are almost at the point where you eat just about anything, though you are still fairly reluctant to try anything new. It took me almost two months to convince you to try eating your cereal with milk, but yesterday you finally decided you'd give it a shot. (This is where I realized that my own pet peeve of hating soggy cereal was being passed on to you guys, so now we ALL eat our cereal with milk. That's right, motherhood is all about sacrifice.) You love popsicles and ice cream cones. We just started letting you eat nuts and I think you enjoy them mostly because for years it was the forbidden fruit, so to speak.

You're still a good sleeper. Once you fall asleep, you sleep like a rock and I can't remember the last time you woke up during the night. Sometimes getting you to fall asleep can be a little bit tough – you are so active up until the minute before going to bed, so I imagine it's hard for you to settle down quickly once you're in bed. There are days where you quite literally pass out from having too much fun. You wake up around 7am – sometimes earlier and sometimes later. Occasionally you will fall asleep in the car or in your high chair around dinnertime when you are particularly tired, but most days you go the full day and go to bed between 8 and 8:30pm.

I've noticed in the past week that you've started to ask why. I think this is perhaps the start of the dreaded "WHY WHY WHY" phase. Your English is incredible and while originally we were worried that you would be behind your peers at school in this department, apparently your teachers feel like you are just as good as the norm. You love to speak in English, perhaps it's the novelty of learning a new language, but you'll talk to anyone! You speak in these beautiful, lovely sentences and you've started listening in on our conversations and asking us "Qu'est t'as dis?" (What did you just say?) Your father and I used to be able to speak in English in front of you and have it be our secret language, but now since you understand everything, we've started spelling things out, but we know even those days are numbered and before long you'll jump in and say "Yes, I would like to go to the P-A-R-K!"

Sometimes I feel like we live in an episode of "Kids Say The Darndest Things". You are truly funny and witty. The other day when it was time for bed, I invented a song and was singing "It's time for bed, it's time for bed" and while you love to sing along, you giggled mischeviously and improvised with "It's time to play, it's time to play". Smart little bugger. There's no fooling you.

You've always been great at learning new songs and I'm always amazed when we sing along to songs and you keep up with the lyrics and the melody. We recently picked up a couple of Thomas & Friends CDs with all your favourite songs featured in the DVD series and there are a couple of songs that you're happy to listen to ten times in a row. Or more. Your dad got tired of having to back the CD up to play the same song over and over again, so he found the remote control and taught you how to use it, so now you grab the remote, turn on the CD player, and select your favourite song. And then you replay it over and over again.

One of your current favourites is a song called "Let's have a race", and in the chorus, it goes "Let's have a race, have a race, have a race…" Your current favourite game is to put on the song, race your cars on a predefined path around the couch and the pouf, around and around and around while singing along to the song. This game is called "Race-a-race-a-race" and you are always looking for someone to play with you. It can be a little bit dizzying (and frankly, after several dozen laps, a bit boring) but you're always happy to race with anyone. Sometimes Noah likes to just run around doing laps with you, and sometimes he doesn't even race a car, he just likes running after you.

We've spent weeks thinking about your birthday. I've been plotting your birthday cake for weeks now, and despite many commercially available Cars-themed cakes being out there, I've decided to make my own cake for you. Partially because I just enjoy that kind of thing, partially because I'm just against multicoloured icing (that quite frankly, no one loves to eat), and partially because I'm just so looking forwarding to ROCKING YOUR WORLD with a Lightning McQueen cake. I will post some photos of the cake later, but suffice it to say I have happily plotting away. It turns out that we're having two small family get-togethers to celebrate your birthday – one with my parents and one with your father's family, so now I'm thinking about how I might do two different cakes for you. I know, I know. I'm crazy. But I know it's going to totally knock your socks off.

It's going to be a very Cars-themed birthday – most of what we've recommended that people buy you for presents has been in that vein. I am reluctant to have you receive so many gifts on your birthday, which is part of the reason why we've tried to spread out the celebrations. I don't want birthdays to be about the presents, but to be about spending special time with the family, so we're hoping to start doing this now. After this week, though, there is going to be a whole lot of Cars in our house – more Cars friends, more Cars-themed clothing, more Cars-themed toys. It's kind of strange the last year was all about Thomas, and you've even started showing an interest towards Bob the Builder recently, so we know that there are going to be these phases of things you love that come and go.

Yesterday after having opened a few birthday presents early (we are trying to spread out the deluge of new toys), you looked at me and asked me what I had bought you for your birthday. The conversation went something like this, except it was in French:

"Mommy, what did you buy me?"

"I'm not telling you, because it's a surprise. But you have a gift from Mommy and Daddy, and one from Noah."

"What did Noah buy me?"

"I can't tell you, it's a SURPRISE."

"Did you buy me some CARS?"

"I can't tell you, it's a surprise."

"Is it CARS, Mommy?"

etc.

It was hilarious to see you find ways to ask me what I'd bought, like you were trying to trick me into revealing my secret. You love a good secret. Except when you can't be in on it!

I'm going to try to keep writing these newsletters, perhaps not monthly but close to it. You are doing such amazing things every month that I feel obliged to document them all so that when you're a big boy, we can look back on it and say "I have ZERO recollection of that." Thankfully we had it all written down.

Caleb, happy birthday my little monkey. We love you so much and we couldn't be happier to have you in our lives.

Love,
Maman

p.s. Credit goes out to Dad for thinking he should be now responsible for writing this newsletter, but acknowledging that perhaps he should work on doing things like groceries before signing up for newsletters, so instead he'll contribute ideas. Thanks for all the ideas, Luc!

Dear Caleb,

You are a month shy of turning three years old. Lately I've been looking at a lot of baby pictures and I can hardly believe you were that mohawked, potbellied little baby who was so fat that you grew cheese between the folds under your chins. Seriously, how did this:

Turn into THIS:

Such is the magic of parenthood, I guess.

You are an independent, imaginative, witty, cheeky, and sweet little man. There is nothing left of that baby in the photo. You are fully toilet trained. You sleep through the night. You eat three square meals a day (OK, maybe more like 1 square meal and two where you graze.) You get in and out of the car on your own. You climb into your own high chair. You wash your hands with soap. You pour your own glass of milk. (Mostly into the glass, sometimes not.)

Gone are those terrible twos, and it feels like we're very much into what I've heard characterizes the age of three. Mostly angelic. Your not-so-angelic moments are really nothing in the grand scheme of things, but there is such a contrast between your loveliest and your not-so-lovely moments that make things more apparent. This morning, you went from giving your little brother a "magic kiss" (Mom's invention - to take away the pain that comes with a boo-boo) on the arm, to shoving him so hard that he fell because he was getting too close to your trains. I like to think that we all have our moments, and the way we are for 80% of the day should be what defines you. And if I were to look at your 80%, it would tell me that you are a trustworthy little fella, that you are happy, creative, logical, caring, and incredibly funny.

You are able to speak in these long, lovely sentences. Sometimes you get lazy and you start barking out sentence fragments ("want milk!"), which can be really frustrating considering it sounds rude and you're totally able to ask nicely. Your English has really come a long way in the past month. While French is still our primary language at home (and hopefully will always be), sometimes we speak in English just to give you some practice. You're doing really great and we are feeling so much better about sending you to an English school knowing that you will be able to get by just fine. Sometimes when you don't know the English word for something, you just put in the French word, which makes for some pretty funny sentences. ("Mommy, I want the caresse..." when you want a hug)

You've become a pretty good eater. Breakfast is always a little tricky, but you're usually happy to eat lunch and dinner. You're great in a restaurant, and you eat from all the food groups. Still working on those vegetables, but you're starting to be better with that. With your dad at home, I'm sure you will start eating all kinds of new things. You love to try eating with real chopsticks.

You love "your" computer (my old laptop). You play puzzles on-line, you surf the Disney Cars website, you play on the Starfall alphabet site, and when I left you with a colouring game on the Thomas The Tank Engine website, you somehow managed to find the Videos section of the website and started watching clips of Thomas episodes. Which reminds me, your father taught you how to turn on the TV and select a recorded episode of Caillou (a children's animated series), so now when Noah waddles into the TV room, points to the TV and says "Aillou", you say "OK, Noah!" and you go get the remote. Until Mom the party-killer catches you in the act and breaks up the fun, that is.

You have been in heaven for the past few weeks with your father now at home with you and Noah. Not only is your father your hero, he also takes you guys out for way more fun activities than I ever did. You go to the park almost every day, most of the time while riding your two wheeler bike. You guys have been doing the museum tour - the Museum of Agriculture, the Museum of Science and Technology, and the Museum of Cilivization, which is by far and away everyone's favourite. He even took you guys to the War Museum, thinking there might be something of interest for you boys, but it ended up being pretty gory and non-age-appropriate, so now you tell me, as we drive by the War Museum, that "This one not fun Mommy. Not the toys here, Mommy."

Speaking of your bike, I never took you out on your bike because when you originally got your bike, you needed a lot of supervision on it as you were just learning to ride, so I was never able to run after the bike while having Noah with us. Well, now you're older and much better with your bike, plus your Dad is much more fearless with this kind of thing and frankly, just a whole lot better at it, so you've since become really, really good with the bike. Going to the park is mostly about getting to ride your bike. Your dad tells me that sometimes you get to the park and barely stay there 5 minutes before you ask to get back on the bike to go home.

You love watching the movie Cars and it's amazing that you can watch the entire movie from start to finish. You love the characters, the story, and sometimes you like watching it in French and tell me that Lightning McQueen in French is "Flash McQueen". Even though you are really into Cars, you still continue to play with Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends. You showed a renewed interest in Thomas after having met the train in the flesh, so to speak. Strangely enough, a few days before the big date with Thomas, you started telling us that you didn't want to get on board for a train ride, so we ended up needing to bribe you with a new toy to get you to go for a ride. Weird. Who knows, being almost-three is complicated, I guess.

Every day, you send me to work with one of your cars. It started with the red Jeep, then it was the orange fire engine, and lately you've been giving me some real precious cars, like Fillmore and Luigi, character cars from your favourite movie. Some day if you give me the Blue Lightning McQueen (your favourite car), I'll know I am #1.

Next week, you start nursery school. I am anxious and nervous about it, but I'm sure it will go great. I hope you'll enjoy the new environment, the new people, the structure, and the change of scenery. I can't wait to hear all your stories from "school". You've always been imaginative, and you're so great at making believe.

You're really great with Noah. You help him down the stairs. You love to run around the house holding his hand and trying to rope him into playing with you. When you go to pour a glass of milk, you take out two cups - one for you, one for him. You love when it's his nap time, because you know that's when you get a little one-on-one time, or get to do something special like have a popsicle or watch a bit of TV.

You usually wake up around 7am - though lately you've been getting up around 6:30am, which is really tough because you start to get a little cranky in the afternoon. It's rare, but sometimes you'll fall asleep in the afternoon while watching TV, or if there's an afternoon car ride. You go to bed, reluctantly, at around 8:30pm and you fall asleep like a rock. I could play the drums in your bedroom and you probably wouldn't wake up. You're a good sleeper.

You are an awesome little guy. You're well adjusted, you have all kinds of love in your heart, and you are just hilarious. We love talking to you and laughing with you, and we still go to bed every night talking about all the amaizng stuff you do in a day. we love you lots.

Love,

Maman

Dear Caleb,

You are 34 months old now. Really, truly, a big boy. In just two months, you will be 3 years old, and that's when I will write my last monthly newsletter to you. I'll still aim to write them from time to time, and I hope to keep the blog updated with your latest adventures.

This past month has been bittersweet for your mama, because I'll be heading to work on Monday. For the past three years, you have been my constant companion, and I don't know what I'm going to do when you're not there to point out all the big Mack trucks, to sing songs out of tune with me, or to to give me what you call back massages, except you massage everything BUT my back - my boobs, my arms, my leg, etc.

When I'll be sitting at work on my computer, I'll think about how you love being on computer. I hooked you up with my old laptop - which you now call "your" computer. You do online puzzles, play on the Disney/Pixar Cars website, and sometimes you humour us by playing one of the educational games we bought for you. Sometimes when you haphazardly click away while navigating a website, you end up on random pages that you don't recognize, and then you tell me that there's been an accident, and would I fix it? Damn those banner ads with their flashing animation. I'm starting to think about parental controls and you're not even three years old.

You have made incredible progress this past month speaking English. I find it amazing that you can now have a fairly good conversation in English and that you're able to express yourself now. When you don't know the word, you use the French one, so sometimes your sentences are half in English and half in French, like today when you wanted the Dustbuster and you said "Mommy, I want the aspirateur." I used to worry that you would be going to nursery school in the fall and have a great deal of difficulty because English was not your primary language, but just seeing the progress you've made this past month, I know you are going to be just fine.

You'll be starting at our local nursery school in September, going there three afternoons a week - and while I say "afternoon", it's really just a little over 2 hours, but it will be the first time you'll be spending any amount of time on your own, away from us or a direct family member. I am definitely nervous about it, but I know that you're going to be fine, or that you WILL be fine, and I'm glad your Papa is going to be the one taking you there, because I know I would be a big fat wreck about it. I have a feeling that within no time, you will be all "don't let the door hit you on the way out". Kind of like when our neighbour Helen shows up for your playdate and you tell me to hit the road ("Mommy, not go here.") or when you are anxious for some alone time with your father when he gets home ("Maman, va prendre ta douche." - Mommy, go have your shower)

You are still a huge fan of trucks, cars, and trains - as you have been since you were old enough to play with a toy. The movie Cars has been your biggest obsession in the past month - perhaps even surpassing your current love of Thomas. All we've heard about in the past few weeks is Lightning McQueen this and Lightning McQueen that, and now, when you meet complete strangers, instead of spouting off about Thomas, you will be all "Hello, how are you, Lightning McQueen race car goes fast fast fast! Vroom vroom! I am speed!" We've started a small collection of toy car characters from the movie, and damn all the merchandising - it seems like you can't go anywhere without seeing Cars branded stuff. You have Cars themed pyjamas, underwear, sandals, backpack, books, and toys.

We're officially back to no naps for you, though there are definitely days where you wake up too early and end up being Mr. Crankypants all day long, and forget it if there is a late afternoon or early evening car ride, because then it's snoozeville. We've dropped the nap because it just made bedtime unbearable - you just didn't want to go to bed and you spent hours wailing about the injustice of it all. I remember the good ol' days where we would put you to bed wide awake at bedtime, close the door, and that'd be the end of it.

When we moved to the new house about a year ago, all the changes brought on a huge sleep regression and since then you haven't been able to sleep with the door closed. The protesting at bedtime started when we told you that you couldn't suck your thumb anymore (this happened a few months ago), so instead of quietly sucking your thumb in bed until you fell asleep, you had nothing else to do and decided that incessant babbling, wailing, and acrobatics were the way to go. And then there are the million excuses - I have to go pee, I'm thirsty, blow my nose, I need a hug, I want to give you a back massage (this was my favourite one from last night's hour of procrastination). Quite frankly, I'm looking forward to the day where we put you and your brother in the same room and you guys can commiserate to each other and leave us out of it altogether.

You've become a pretty good eater, and most of the time you eat all your food groups (though you're still fairly weak in the vegetable department). Occasionally you will consider a new food, though normally you're happy eating what you always eat. You love eating watermelon, pot roast (or roast beef, if we call it pot roast), fish sticks with lemon juice (I think you mostly love squeezing that big plastic lemon with the juice in it), and you're pretty much a world traveler when it comes to food - you love Lebanese, Greek, Vietnamese, and of course, good old French Canadian meat pies. Ice cream is by far our most valuable currency.

You're now officially toilet trained and you no longer wear diapers or Pull-ups. It was a little scary at first, because I never knew how long of a window we had when we did outings, but now we can do our normal routine of a quick outing before lunch without really having to worry about toilet stops. We haven't had any accidents out and about - I think partly you're just too busy when we're out to remember that you have to pee. We've had a few accidents here at home which included a couple of nightime accidents and one afternoon one where you were sitting with me at the dining room table, playing on your laptop, and you looked right at me and said "It's no big deal" in French, and then I looked under the table to see a river of pee streaming down the chair. That was NOT COOL, and I think that particular instance was pure laziness - I mean, you were in the middle of colouring Lightning McQueen. It's pretty amazing overall that you are doing so well with your toilet training.

You play really well with your brother, most of the time, though you do have a tendency to steal his toys on a fairly regular basis. It's pretty funny to hear you talking to him - sometimes you repeat word for word the things we say to you, and you say them back to him in a really parental tone. Like how I just heard you say to your brother that he has to hold your hand because you're both walking in the parking lot, except of course, you're not in the parking lot, you're in the kitchen, which you tell me is the shopping mall. You guys are really cute together.

You are truly an easygoing little guy. You're trustworthy, eager to help, and affectionate. You have your difficult moments too, when I have to tell you a thousand times to do something, or you get upset over not getting your way. These moments, while they sometimes feel like they go on forever, are really few and far between. You're truly a good kid and I'm always so proud of you.

I know you're going to have a great time at home with your Papa. You tell me that it's OK for me to cry at work when I miss you. I know I will be itching to get home every night to tackle you with a million hugs and kisses, and it will only make me appreciate more and more what a wonderful person you are.

Love,
Maman

Dear Caleb,

You are now 33 months old. We are very much into the thick of two year old territory and a few months shy of your third birthday. You've really become a big boy - you've gotten taller, thicker and heavier lately.

You are a real firecracker. You are passionate about what you love. You love to talk to people and meet new people. You are curious about the world around you - everything amazes you and interests you.

In the past month, you have shown an intense interest in speaking English. You beg me, in French, to "speak in the English" with you. You love practising your English too - and you've made some tremendous progress in the last few weeks. We used to be able to pick out a few words and basically the rest sounded like baby babbling, but now you can almost have a real conversation with someone in English, you just don't know all the words. You can say "Hello, how are you?" and respond "I'm fine thanks" when asked how you are. As we leave somewhere, you will say "Have a good day! Bye bye!" and join your brother as he blows kisses to random strangers. I'm truly amazed at how much you've been able to learn in the last few weeks and I have a feeling it won't be long before you are fully bilingual.

Your French is incredible. You speak in full, beautiful sentences most of the time, except when you get frustrated and yell out single-word commands like "give!" or fragments like "not go to sleep!" We've taught you that you need to ask nicely if you want something, complete with pleases and thank you's. You still talk about yourself in the third person, which is a habit we're all trying to break - so the concept of "I" is still a bit fuzzy to you, though you occasionally use it in sentences that we've taught you, like "Je veux faire caca s'il vous plait Maman" (I want to make a poop please Mom). You pick up the most hilarious little expressions and mannerisms from us, and you say things that make us laugh all the time. Sometimes they're little grammatical or vocabulary errors, which we find to be quite amusing. The other day, you arrived at the park and there weren't many kids around, and you asked your dad, "Papa, ou l'enfant?" (Dad, where the child?)

You still love your trains and everything about Thomas, but we've definitely weaned you from watching the Thomas DVD series. It just seemed like every time that you watched a DVD, you'd get really upset once it was done because you'd want to watch another. These days, watching a Thomas DVD is a special thing.

You've really gotten into a series called Caillou, which feature the adventures of a little four year old boy. In the car, we listen to nothing but Caillou songs, and you have almost all the songs memorized. You are often heard singing Caillou songs to yourself as you play. When you wake up from your afternoon nap, you get to watch the day's episode of Caillou that we record on TV.

Your big obsession this month has been puzzles. It started about a month or so ago when we discovered that you were able to put together this truck/vehicle floor puzzle that was given to you by your Uncle Bundy and your Aunt Yumi. It used to take a lot of coaching for you to put it together, but before we knew it, you were doing it all by yourself.

So we bought you a Thomas floor puzzle aimed at 2 year olds, and within a few days, you had it mastered. So we went back to the store and bought you a more complicated one - with slightly smaller pieces and targeted towards 3 year olds. This one lasted all of ten minutes before you had it figured out. I'd left you with the box and ten minutes later you came to get me and told me you were done.

You're now doing these 49-piece puzzles with teeny-tiny pieces - it's absolutely insane. Since then, we've bought you numerous new puzzles and it continues to be one of your favourite things to do, especially as you are stalling at bedtime - that's always when you pull out the puzzles with the teeny tiny pieces. We've broadened your puzzle collection to include themes other than just Thomas - you love your Cars-themed puzzles and will tolerate the Winnie the Pooh one, though you have completely ignored the ones with Rescue Heroes, Smurfs, and Mickey/Minnie Mouse. Who ARE those fools anyway? clearly they don't have wheels.

Your diet has really improved a lot in the last month, where I ended our newsletter begging you to eat more vegetables. It all started with these red "trainer" chopsticks that your Aunt Sarah had sent us a few months ago. You started using them and got really into using them, and it didn't really matter what you were eating. That day I happened to have made some broccoli, which you had so far refused to eat. But sure enough, you wanted to try eating different foods with your chopsticks and were anxious to try it on some broccoli - I think you had even ASKED for it from my plate. I totally egged you on as well, telling you things like "I don't think you could really pick up ANOTHER piece of broccoli, could you?" and you'd smirk and shove another piece in your mouth as I feigned surprise and cheered. You've since accepted broccoli as an acceptable vegetable, and even added watermelon to your repertoire. I love it when you eat blueberries with your chopsticks. Makes me think you'll be catching flies with them pretty soon.

You love playing outside and I really should do more of that with you, but lately it seems like the outside of our house is a bit of a mess, but you're always happy to go to the park or for a walk. You love playing with the hose outside, but inevitably, no matter how many times we tell you not to, you end up hosing the house or your little brother or some combination of the two. You love playing in the sand too - which is great because I remember when you were younger, you could not even tolerate the presence of sand in your sandals at the park (forget walking barefoot in the grass!) You have some new water guns, which I suspect will become quite a favourite of yours.

Bedtime and naptime is always a bit of a struggle. You'll nap in the afternoon if you're at home, and perhaps if there is a particularly long car ride in the afternoon, but never when we're out and about or at a family member's house. You are always at your most well-behaved right before bedtime, which really encourages us to let you stay up late, but inevitably, there's the struggle to put you to bed. You're just a busy guy with no time to sleep! You have no desire to sleep and you'll never admit to being tired. You'll reluctantly go into bed, but there's always a fair bit of whining that follows. You'll call our names incessantly. You'll do aerobics in bed. You'll kick the wall. You'll pull all the stickers off your bed and rearrange them (sometimes you wake up in the morning with stickers in your hair). Sometimes you will do this for what seems like hours! It's been a month now that you have stopped sucking your thumb, and since you no longer have this quiet way of putting yourself to sleep, getting you to fall asleep has become someone of a pain in our behinds.

You do, however, play incredibly well. You are a master track builder. You can sometimes play with your trains and tracks for hours, inventing new games for them and re-enacting all kinds of stories from your storybooks. You can be trusted to play independently and unsupervised while I'm putting Noah to sleep or doing some chore. You're a great little helper too - you love to be responsible for our cooler bag with snacks and drinks. You love to be the one to hold the cash register receipt or put items in or out of the shopping cart. Even when we're outside doing gardening work, you are a helpful little assistant, filling up lawn bags and raking piles. (And sometimes un-raking them.)

You continue to be a great big brother to Noah. You pepper him with hugs and kisses (sometimes a little too much). You love to make him laugh. You love sharing your food with him and engaging him in a clinking of drinking glasses. You love to tickle him - you approach him slowly with your two wagging fingers, which sends him into a pre-tickle fit of laughter. You're always trying to give him food from your plate - I once caught you feeding him bites of your hot dog behind my back.

You have a playdate with our next-door neighbour's 13 year old daughter, Helen, three times a week. You LOVE Helen. When the doorbell rings, you scream "HELEN!" and run to the door, and she has barely taken her shoes off before you are dragging her by the hand into the living room, spewing all kinds of Thomas-related talk at lightning fast speed. When she goes home, you slump your shoulders and tell me that Helen has gone back to her house, then run into the kitchen to demand your dinner. The other day you were eating watermelon and you were practising saying "watermelon" in English, and you started calling it "waterhelen", and burst into a fit of laughter at your own joke.

There are some big changes coming up in your life. In August, your mom will be going back to work and your dad will be at home with you. You really can't wait for this - when your father leaves for work, you beg him to not leave and demand that Mom goes to work instead. We're also applying to have you start attending nursery school three afternoons a week starting in September. Since we told you about it a few days ago, you've been telling me that you'll be going to school, and when you're there, there will be no Mommy, no Daddy, no Noah. And that there will be other children there, and friends too.

I'm not sure how much longer I'll be writing these newsletters - I think I will have to start writing them a little less frequently since things are going to start getting even busier than they are now. I'll do my best to write them as often as I can, since you are growing fast and changing every single day.

We love you lots.

Love,
Maman & Papa

Dear Caleb,

Here I am, sitting on the couch in a gigantic pile of your Thomas trains, which you deposited on my lap and around me, while wearing a single winter fleece mitten you'd found this morning. Yes, this is (apparently) what 32 month-olds do. That, plus, not nap - you are upstairs in your room singing to yourself. Again.

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. It seems like just yesterday that you were muttering single-syllable words, and now you're speaking in almost-full sentences and making really keen observations. (Like today, on the bus, you pointed out all the men that had mustaches and beards.)

This month, you started to show signs that you might be moving on from Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends. You still play with them a LOT, and you always want to build tracks with the various track sets we have. You haven't watched a Thomas DVD in weeks - I used to show these to you when you woke up from naps to help ward off the cranky, but once the DVD was over, you wanted to watch another, and it really became a matter of delaying an evitable tantrum by the exact length of a Thomas DVD.

You've started enjoying the adventures of a little boy named Caillou, and Caillou is your newest obsession. You had seen an episode of Caillou many months ago and showed little to no interest in it. But a few weeks ago, your Mamie gave you an old Caillou pyjama that used to belong to your cousin and you have wanted to wear nothing but since. You started this evening ritual with your father where you two would watch episodes of Caillou (thanks Youtube!) on his laptop. Except the only legitimate episodes your father could really find were in Spanish, so the two of you sat there watching Caillou in Spanish and learning all kinds of interesting words. The other day you pointed to a school bus and said "autobus de la escuela". Until we found the French version of the Caillou theme song, you and your father have been singing bits of the song in Spanish. We're in the process of learning the lyrics to the theme song (something that happens quite naturally when you are requested to sing it a million times a day, usually in public places) and you seem to already know half of it.

About a week ago, we told you that you could no longer suck your thumb when you went to bed for naps and for the night. You'd been really good about giving up the thumb during the day, but it was time to cut out the thumb for good. We told you that thumbs were for babies, and when you enquired as to whether Noah sucked his thumb, it was helpful to be able to say that Noah doesn't suck his thumb (he never sucked anything except his Momma, but that's a different story).

This past week, however, has been a napless blur. You weren't able to fall asleep for your naps and it took over an hour of screaming, wailing, singing, and asking for water/milk/tissues before you fell asleep for the night. I was constantly amazed that you would wail for an eternity, occasionally breaking from your whining to ask if you could suck your thumb for a minute or two, and yet, you are so pure and honest that you never once snuck in a suck. (Other parents I've spoken to have often asked me how I stopped you from sucking your thumb and I responded with "He's just really, really honest." A true testament to your character. It's taken about a week, but it seems like you are finally free of the thumb. Hooray!

Your potty training is going well - you have been consistently doing your poops in the "big toilet" (a kid-sized adapter put on the real toilet) every day after lunch, and you can pee on demand. You still struggle to take your pants on and off, and it's a bit of a struggle to pull down the training pants or big-boy underwear, but hopefully you will get the hang of it soon. You're still far too busy in your day to let us know that you want to go for a pee, though when you are wearing underwear and you have an accident, it's usually a small one - you will catch yourself in the act and you are usually able to hold it. Except for that one time a few weeks ago where your dad thought we should take you to the park in underwear... the walk to the park was about 20 minutes and you had barely climbed up onto the play structure when you froze in mid step, and before you knew it, you were standing in a pile of your own pee. And we hadn't thought to bring replacement clothing or a diaper. Ha! Good times.

Your diet hasn't changed much though you have added breaded fish sticks to your limited menu of acceptable foods. You saw your brother eating some and you thought it was chicken. I ignored you when you said it was chicken, and after you ate it a few more times, I corrected you and told you it was fish and you didn't think it was a big deal. Though you were momentarily skeptical because in your world, fish means Goldfish crackers. You love ice cream (what kid doesn't!) and would do just about anything for an ice cream cone. Although the other day I tried to convince you to eat one mouthful of cauliflower (in a bacon and cheese sauce, by the way) in exchange for a mini-cone with ice cream and you couldn't do it. Bugger.

Sometimes you will see a food that you don't recognize, but you always suspect it's something really adult and delicious that you're not allowed to eat yet, and you ask for it. The other day I was rinsing some white beans when you said in French, "Give me!" and I said, "Give you what?" and you were all "Give me... THAT." since you had no idea what it actually was. So I did, and you ate a single white bean, and then you made a face that said "I was totally expecting that to taste like ice cream and am sorely disappointed in you, Mother."

You are really a darling little boy - you are good natured and honest as heck. You are affectionate, passionate, really serious about the stuff you love, and you are also two years old, which means that you have your moments and these are moments when I sometimes want to give you a good, swift kick. I can't stand having to ask you not to steal toys from your brother, or have to tell you six or seven times to do anything, especially when I know full well you've heard me the first time, but I have to often take a few deep breaths and remind myself that even though you almost speak like an adult, you are really only two years old.

You received a real haircut this past month! Finally! Mom's homebrew haircuts were just not cutting it, and your father was getting sick of seeing your huge mop of crookedly cut hair, so we decided to try taking you for a hair cut. We kind of lucked out going to a place that does a lot of kids haircuts and Mister Frank who cut your hair must have cut many a little boy's hair in his time because he danced around your moving head with his scissors like a real artist. You look decidedly more Asian with the shorter hair!

You are a big fan of your two-wheel bike, though you enjoy being able to zoom-zoom around in your tricycle. You have been a huge help recently with our garden work, filling up your toy wheelbarrow with your child-sized shovel, all while pointing to your shovel and telling me that this was YOUR shovel. At the park, you love to play in the sand with your scoops and shovels and trucks, and you're usually pretty good about sharing with other kids.

You love to try to speak in English. In fact, much of the past month has been spent listening to you babble in your own version of English. You are able to say quite a few things now - you can "read" your favourite book, "Go Train Go" where you recite back whole passages of the book like, "I'm late, go train go!" or "Screeeech! go the brakes!" The other day, you ran up to me, put your hand on mine and said "Mommies. Play trains." Whenever our thirteen year old next-door neighbour, Helen, shows up for your 4pm playdate (hooray for one hour of babysitting three times a week), you launch into your "English", and poor Helen can only say "Uh huh... ok..."

You are a great little kid and I am always impressed with how truly awesome you are. You are a big goofball. We love you lots. Please start eating more vegetables.

Love,
Maman & Papa

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

Dear Caleb,

A few weeks ago, you turned 30 months old now - officially two and a half!

It has been a bit of a rough month. The weather has sucked - snow, snow and more snow, as well as bitterly cold weather. I suppose it was not the end of the world that we were stuck indoors for most of the last month, since you've also been sick for the better part of the last few weeks. First with a bad cold and cough, and now with some kind of stomach flu.

(Warning - the next paragraph deals with a lot of vomit, so if you are squirmy about this type of thing, just skip the whole next paragraph, please.)

We have discovered that you are very much your father's son - whenever you are sick, you tend to throw up. Last night, you spent several hours throwing up and every time we cleaned you up and put you in a new change of clothes, you would throw up again. You'd look up at us with pitiful eyes and ask to have your clothes changed. Thankfully, your father has some kind of special vomit instinct and he manages to either figure out when you're about to vomit, or react fast enough to catch it with his bare hands.

You are a truly sweet little boy with a good, good heart. You are sensitive and emotional creature. Even though there are moments when you are rough with your brother and you don't always share well (which is typical of your age), I see a wonderful relationship forming between the two of you.

A few weeks ago, we took Noah to the doctor to receive his one year old vaccinations. As we waited for the doctor to enter the room, I told you that Noah would be getting "vitamins" in his arms and that he would probably cry, so when this happened, we would sing one of your favourite Thomas The Tank Engine songs to distract him, as he loves music.

When the nurse arrived in the room with two needles, you burst into tears and attempted to make a run for the door (which, thankfully, was closed). The nurse and I both attempted to explain to you that you weren't the one receiving the shots, but you still continued to cry. Then your brother received his shots and both of you were crying, but then when I asked you to put our plan into action, you started to sing. You sang your heart out, stopping every few seconds to choke back tears and hyperventilate, but you kept on singing and your brother stopped crying.

When the doctor came in the room, she asked if you too had received some shots today, because your eyes were still red and puffy from crying. My heart was full of pride and love for you - I know that you are a sensitive creature who feels things very deeply, and especially so when the people you love are involved.

The other day, we were over at a friend's place and my friend's baby was very interested in poking Noah, and you hovered over your brother like a shadow, carefully inserting yourself between the poker and the pokee. You're always looking out for him, I love that.

And yet, there are some typically two year old moments, when we catch you giving Noah a shove or suddenly developing an intense interest in whatever he's playing with - to the point where you cannot stop yourself from snatching it from his hands. Or conversations that go like this:

Me: Are you done with your milk?

You: Yes.

Me: (dumps milk down the drain and puts cup in the dishwasher)

You: (starts crying) MIIIIIIILK!!!!!!

Ah, yes. To be two years old. It's tough stuff.

I am often reminded, though, that you are the nicest two year old that I know. When we're out and about, I see all kinds of kids, and you are always the most well behaved. I'm really proud to be your momma.

You are all about Thomas the Tank Engine these days. You wake up in the morning talking about your trains and you go to bed crying to play just a little longer. You recite back phrases from the English Thomas DVDs that you watch, so really, most of the English that you speak comes from those DVDs. If you are asked, in English, "What's your name?", you will often reply with an assortment of names - all of which are trains from the Thomas series - "Thomas and Gordon and Percy..." In fact, if anyone speaks any English to you, you reply back with whatever English you know. So for example, a conversation with a cashier at the grocery store goes like this:

"Hello, how are you?"

"Island of Sodor."

or:

"Are you helping your Mom with the groceries?"

"Toby Cranky Murdoch."

Your father and I love to do this imitation of you where we mutter various train names and bits of the show under our breath, like you often do when you are playing. Lately, you have been muttering and yammering to yourself more than ever, in what sounds like a foreign language, but really it's a mixture of French and your phonetic interpretation of English.

Your doctor was pretty much spot on when she said that toddlers your age eat one good meal a day and the rest of the day is spent snacking. Sometimes you are a great eater, and other times, you eat hardly anything. We find, however, that you are most interested in eating right before bed if we ask you if you want a snack. You'll do anything to avoid going to bed, and you'll eat just about anything.

Bedtime is still a huge struggle with you, as you are a busy, busy guy. You would stay up until midnight if you could, and amazingly enough, no matter how tired you may be, you will be your most well-behaved and attentive right before bed. We will often let you play just a little bit longer, because it seems like just before bed is when you love to do all kinds of super intellectual things, like put together a puzzle or read a book.

We are occasionally putting you down for a half hour nap during the afternoon, though it's a tricky thing because sometimes a nap ends up making the bedtime routine very painful.

You know your alphabet and your numbers (though counting is still tough to do - you tend to forget the number 4 and your version of counting means you count to ten while randomly pointing at things). You love to sing songs and dance. You are learning to say please and thank you - though most days when you are hungry, you annoy me by barking out orders like you are a rude critic in a restaurant.

"GOLDFISH!!!"

"Excuse me?"

"GOLDFISH!!!! Please."

I love that you are so independent these days - you are not just independent, but trustworthy. You can be trusted to go up and down the stairs on your own, to play on your own in a different room, and I never worry that you are doing something you're not supposed to do. You don't (currently) have that mischievous tendency. This is a huge help to me, especially when I need to be hands-on with Noah.

It's going to be a fun spring - I know you're looking forward to going to the "big park" and going out for walks. You are an awesome little guy and we still go to bed each night lauging about the amazing things you've done.

Love you lots, big guy.

Maman & Papa

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

Dear Caleb,

You are now 28 months old. It's been such a busy month for us all here at the house - the renovations have been keeping us busy and keeping our (clean) play space very limited. We've spent much of the last month hiding out at your grandparents' house during the day, where they have generously offered to let us hang out while our house is undergoing noisy and dusty activities.

You really love this - you get to spread out with your cousin's Thomas train set, play with various undiscovered toys from their amazing stash, and play with your amazing grandparents. I can leave you with them for anywhere from a couple of hours to almost a full day if I need to, and you're perfectly content there. I've taken to calling it "The Spa" because it's as much of a relief for me as it is for you, being there and having their help. I love my in-laws. They are the best.

This past month has also been especially crazy because we finally decided to try to phase out your afternoon nap, after much reluctance on my part. After several months of having you nap for 2-3 hours in the afternoon but then stay up until 10:30pm or 11pm, we decided to try keeping you awake in the afternoon instead. This wasn't particularly hard - you always resisted taking your nap so when we told you that you didn't have to nap and you could play instead, you were thrilled.

We still have to be careful that you don't doze off though - and this proves to be particularly difficult when there are long stretches in the car or if you are watching TV in bed. On the odd occasion, you start to get droopy eyed while eating dinner. I always dread putting you in the car in the late afternoon or early evening, as I know I have to play 20 questions with you to keep you awake. Sometimes it's hard coming up with conversation topics that can keep a 2 year old interested!

If we do manage to keep you awake until bedtime, you drop like a rock with little to no objection by about 8 o'clock. All of a sudden, it seems like we've regained part of our evenings again! It's not that we didn't love hanging out with you until the wee hours of the evening, but it can be a little exhausting to be on duty for such a long stretch.

You usually wake up somewhere between 7am and 8am, but you stay in bed, singing songs or talking to yourself until we come to get you, or call out for you to come to our room. It's amazing that you don't venture out of bed on your own, but we plan to milk this for all it's worth, for as long as we can.

You have days where you eat really well, and days where you hardly eat anything at all. We can usually count on you to eat really well during one of your three daily meals, and throughout the day you will eat a variety of the food groups, though you're still fairly averse to most vegetables. You're able to eat with real utensils, real plates and real cups. We usually don't put a bib on you except when you're eating something messy like spaghetti or yogurt. It's pretty incredible to ask you if you feel like eating something and have you say yes or no.

It's amazing in general how well you speak. It's moved beyond a word here or there or haphazardly strung together - there are real full sentences, conjugated verbs, and the notion of pronouns. There are days where it feels like you make leaps and bounds in your language development - you'll wake up one morning and blurt out complete sentences and full-blown thoughts. You are starting to pick up a lot more English these days. There are words which you definitely know in both languages, like thank you or I love you or chicken - which always kind of amazes me when I will say an English word and you will repeat back the French word. Recently you've been saying a few words to me which I didn't understand, but I realized that you were speaking in English and saying "flagpole" and "castle", words you learned from watching your favourite Thomas the Train DVD.

Your French-Canadian grandfather (Papie) has been teaching you all the important English phrases you need to know - "I love you baby", "Show me the money", and "Ciao baby". (On a related note, he has also been teaching you some fill-in-the-blank type of games, which usually involves him saying "Papie is..." and you are expected to say "handsome" or "intelligent" in French. You are always a good sport.)

Your pronunciation has gotten much better this past month - you're able to fully say long words like locomotive, whereas you used to only say the last couple of syllables. There used to be a lot of words you would mispronounce (like "a-see-woir" instead of "asseoir", meaning "sit") and only we would know the Caleb-version of these words, but you have started to really pronounce well and your sentences are getting longer and longer by the day.

We really love that you can express your thoughts and emotions. Whenever you whine or cry, we try to encourage you to speak what you fell because not only are you capable of doing so, it helps us help you. The other day, we were leaving our Tuesday French playgroup and as I was driving home, I was feeling exasperated and discouraged, having just wrestled both you and your little brother into your snowsuits kicking and screaming. From the backseat, you said in a soft little voice to me in French, "Mom, Caleb like playing with boys." It was all the encouragement I needed.

Your favourite thing to watch on TV right now is that Thomas & Friends DVD that your grandfather gave you two weeks ago, which you would most certainly take to bed with you if you could. We have watched it at least twice a day every day for the past two weeks and I am starting to catch myself singing those darned songs throughout the day. (Probably partly because I am not permitted to sing along with the DVD in your presence.)

Your favourite toys are your little Matchbox cars, and you are starting to amass quite a collection of them. You are also a big fan of the Thomas train set - we have a few of these, and you love going to your grandparents' house where you get to play with your cousin's entire Thomas train set (rails plus a gazillion train characters). You also love going to Chapters bookstores where they often have a Thomas train table setup for kids to play with.

Last weekend, we happened to drop into our neighbourhood kids consignment shop and crossed paths with a dad who was leaving the store with two gigantic bins. Turns out he had just dropped off the motherload of Fisher Price Geotrax stuff and we scored two huge bags of rails, buildings, and a few new remote control cars for you to add to our existing, previously small collection of rails. I've really enjoyed building out these big tracks for your cars, maybe a little more than you, even.

You also seem to really enjoy going to playgroup, which we try to do once a week, where you learn lots of new songs and get to interact with other kids (and their germs). You love to sing! You love learning new songs and you have a quite a few in your repertoire. You can sing "The more we get together" by Raffi, though your version goes more like "More gedder to gedder to gedder...", complete with little French accent. It's hilarious.

You love doing big-people stuff, like hanging up your clothes or sweeping the floor (and then inevitably, the carpet, the walls, yikes). You imitate everything that we do. Today you caught me licking an envelope and picked up some sticky notes nearby and licked them too. We have to start watching what we say and do around you.

Your potty training is coming along well. You have learned to pee - every time you sit down on the potty, you're able to pee very quickly. There have been a few poops in the potty as well. You haven't mastered the art of telling us when you have to go, but that's the next step. If we catch you in the act of grunting out a poop, we try to intercept before it's too late and put you on the potty. You've even gotten so excited about the potty that you've forgotten (lately) that we used to give you chocolate for successful deposits. On the days you do remember (or the days where you see the container of Smarties), you ask for candy before you've gone to the potty, only to be told that you only get candy when you make a pee pee or a poo poo, and then you run to the potty to squeeze out a few drops of pee. Then you scream "Ohhh oui!!!!" (oh yes) when you stand up and squint to see if you've been successful. It's quite funny, really.

I love seeing the way you respond to other people. You are a social being - you love talking to people that you know and you respond especially well to your male role models. Your father continues to be he who walks on water. You adore your father like nothing else. You cherish the baths you take together (in fact, lately you have refused to be bathed by me at all) and you love going for car rides in your father's car, just the two of you. You love having your father put you to bed, and just the other night, I caught a glimpse of you sitting on his lap, nestled under his chin, reading a bedtime story. Only a glimpse, because as soon as you spotted me, you cried out "Non, Maman!" in an attempt to shoo me away, as I was undoubtedly interrupting some kind of male-only party I wasn't invited to. Just to be clear, this doesn't hurt my feeling at all - I love seeing that you have such a strong bond with your father.

You are also a huge admirer of all the tradesmen who have been coming and going through our house - especially John the carpenter, Rod and Mark, our plumbers. The other day, Rod invited you to sit outside the door of the bathroom where he was working, and you proudly sat there yammering away at him with all kind of random commentary. You ate up every word he spoke, maybe even understanding very little of it, and when I came to see what you were up to, you shooed me away with your trademarked "Non, Maman!" Again, I guess I am not invited to these manly discussions on plumbing, but truthfully I'm not that interested anyway. You were quite thrilled to see Mark again - it'd been a few months since you'd seen him and he was every bit as thrilling as you remembered, especially since he humors you when you say hello to him, every single time he walks by (each time as though it was the first time you'd spotted him).

Your father has been taking you to Sportball on Saturday mornings, which you really love. You and your father get to run around with a dozen other parent-child duos (mostly of the father-son variety) playing all kinds of ball sport related games. It is the highlight of your week, especially when you guys stop in at McDonalds on the way home. You love to put out your thumb and say "We did it!", just like you guys do in class.

On Sundays, you spend time with your maternal grandparents, where you are pampered by your grandmother, including a delicious home-cooked Vietnamese lunch. My mom told me that last weekend, she spoon fed you your lunch (except it wasn't with a spoon but actually with chopsticks) and this is the part where I realize you are milking your grandmother's love for all it's worth, you smart little bugger. I fully expect to hear that next week you will be eating your lunch on a large velvet pillow while getting foot massages and watching Thomas DVDs.

While you have been able to recite the alphabet for some time, you can now also recognize most of the letters when you see them. You can also identify most colours. The other day we were at the library and we were reading one of those point-and-learn picture books and I was amazed at how many words you knew - much more than I thought you did.

You are still an amazing big brother to Noah. You make him laugh and you seem to truly love him. As with most kids your age, you are starting to find it hard to share your toys with him, but most days, I find Noah sitting amongst a pile of toys that you have fetched for him.

You have an incredible little spirit and a charming personality. We still go to bed most nights talking about you and how amazing you are. You are growing up fast, and as we start to get to know all the layers of your personality, we can only fall in love with you more and more.

Love,
Maman & Papa

p.s. I am realizing as I write this newsletter that there are precious few photos of you this month. You are far too busy these days to pose for the camera for me! I will try to do better next month.