Painting Day

Here's Caleb flexing some of his artistic ability. He made quite the mess and seemed to enjoy every minute of it...

Christmas

Here are some pictures taken on Christmas with us and our Christmas gifts. My sister has become quite the domesticated seamstress and made us both reversable aprons (a back up plan in case her PhD gig starts to bore her :)) And of course, thanks to Daddy, Caleb made out like a bandit with his collection of tonka trucks, kitchen set, Doodle Pro and various other toys.

More Pictures from the Santa Brunch

Just some random pictures of us at the Santa's brunch. Here we're waiting for the line to Santa to die down so that we could get in some good pictures. Afterwards we went to through the museum of life and science and Caleb had a ball looking at everything.

Caleb's 2nd Birthday

Caleb's 2nd birthday party was Sunday and we had a sesame street theme since his new favourite friend is 'Ernie'. We kept it small with some neighbors and a handful of friends and I think it was a success. We had cake, opened presents and did a quick arts and crafts project where we had everybody put their hand print down so that Caleb can see who was all at his party later.

Ahh...this string is itchy!!!

Hey look! It's Ernie in my seat!!!

Talking to Auntie

First Santa Visit

Here's Caleb's first visit with Santa....He seemed a little confused as to why we had just put him in Santa's lap but we got a great picture out of it!

Chillin' with Daddy

Just some random pics of Caleb chillin' with Daddy on Saturday when we were at Tara's house for a cookie exchange.

I know that I keep saying this, but doesn't he look so grown up now???

Dancing Caleb

I love it when Caleb dances. It makes me smile every time....he LOVES that Alicia Keyes song. He has me playing it on repeat all night long until he goes to bed and then he cries and points to the CD player when I finally turn it off so that he can wind down.

Of course I'm biased, but he's so precious. He's getting so big now! I can't believe that he'll be turning 2 in 5 days!!!

Caleb & Dana Makes Cookies

Caleb has found a new favorite pal. Our neighbor Tara and her daughter Dana (and we can't forget her son Justin even though he's not in this pic) have become Caleb's new favorite people to hang out with. Dana loves to 'babysit' and Caleb just runs around chasing after her screaming. During breaks, Tara flexes her culinary muscles and enlists them to help bake oatmeal cookies as snacks. Caleb has a ball 'helping' mix the cookies (even after an incident with Tara's fingers getting caught in a blender) and it seems to be the highlight of his day.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

A Park!!

Our neighbor (Tara) showed us this hidden gem of a park which had a huge playground, sand area and a huge set of swings (half of them which were built to accomadate toddlers). It was Caleb's first time in a real swing and he almost couldn't contain himself! He was just as happy as he could be swinging away.

The playground also had these big and little slides. Caleb skipped over the little slides and headed straight up to the top for the big slide. He slid down without any hesitation (to my surprise) and even after doing a face plant and eating some playground dirt, he jumped right back up to go down the slide again. He certainly didn't get that fearlessness from me. That trait must have come from Daddy's side.

Too Cool to be (Almost) Two

Here Caleb looks just too cool to be (almost) two.

Last night he woke up around 2:30am and kept pointing towards the downstairs. When asked what he wanted, he sleepily cried..."sandwich!"...I'm a little fuzzy about what happened after that exactly since I rolled over and promptly fell back asleep since I was sure I wasn't going downstairs to give this hungry toddler a sandwich in the middle of the night.

When I woke up at 5:30, he was alseep on his own toddler mattress and Daddy was passed out next to him on the single mattress. (Both of which are on the floor since we haven't managed to get a bed in Caleb's bedroom yet ever since we diassembled the crib.) Perhaps this is a precurser of Caleb wanting to sleep in his own bed? I think that when that day comes, I'll be very sad to lose that wiggly, arm throwing, leg kicking, but extremely cuddly sleep buddy...

Monchichi Memories

Anybody else remember Monchichis??? I saw Caleb playing with my monchichi (circa late 1970s) last night and it brought back sooo many memories! Mine's very ragged and worn down so I came into work this morning and decided to try and google 'monchichi' on ebay....now I know what the ebay addiction is all about. There were so many monchichis to choose from!

I immediately messaged my cousin in HK (Claire) but since shipping is so high, we bemoaned the fact that my parents had just left to go back to Vancouver and therefore can't pick me up a sweet monchichi for memories sake!

I think that if I were to ever collect anything, I'd start with monchichis...

Getting Close to Christmas....

It's getting close to Christmas! Daddy loves this time of year so the lights are already up and our tree (fake) is up and waiting for adornments. We had the neighbor run out yesterday to take our Christmas Card photo (which I won't post just yet since it'll be on ya'lls cards) after some failed attempts to do it on our own.


Christmas sure does creep up fast after Thanksgiving. Now we have Earnest's birthday (he's decided to switch from Jay back to Earnest (or E) if it's not confusing enough already) next Tuesday, then Caleb's birthday the Tuesday after that and then Christmas the Tuesday after that....whew! It's going to be a busy month!!
By the way, he broke that salt shaker as soon as the photos were done....which was ok since I broke the matching pepper shaker the other day getting something else down off a shelf where they were living between holidays....

Caleb Shopping

Caleb loves to be in charge of the shopping basket when we go to the store. Once it gets too heavy, he'll start taking things out of the basket and handing them to you....which results in him having 2 items in the basket and me balancing the rest in my arms while we shuffle to the checkout. I guess this means it'll save on our grocery bill since he won't let me buy anything too heavy?

Birthday Pics

Nicki threw this birthday party for me 2 weekends ago (and I forgot my camera!!) but here are some pics that Heather took. Nicki made a ton of food including lettuce wraps, vegetable chow mein, and these giant shish-ka-bobs which were pretty much steaks on a stick. It's too bad I don't have a photo with me and Nicki during that night!!

Thanksgiving Brunch with Heather & Brandon

Heather and Brandon invited us over to his mom's house for their annual thanksgiving brunch on the Sunday before Thanksgiving....unfortunately, Jay couldn't make it this year since he had to work. Little Zachary looks to be about as big as Caleb in that picture and he's only 9 weeks old!!! Brandon took Caleb out to see the horses in the pasture next to the house and Caleb got to pet a horsie!!

Mommy & Daddy

This pic was taken on my birthday right before we went out to dinner (without Caleb) for the first time! Our neighbors (Tammy & Tony) came over to babysit for us and we went to Tony's oyster bar so that I could eat my half peck of steamed oysters and king crab legs. It was a good 29th...

This is a video of Caleb dancing to the new Alicia Keyes song....but because of the way I was holding the camera, you can't hear the music!!

Caleb Giggles & Bottle Notes

Just a pic of Caleb giggling...he's been such a sweetie lately....he gives high fives, kisses and he'll throw anything you give him into the garbage. On Thanksgiving, we threw all his bottles into the trash since I was just tired of the bottle and it was embarrassing to bring those bottles to people's houses when we went to visit. He's adjusted remarkably well (further re-affirming that it was me that was holding him back all this time) and while milk consumption was down drastically for the first 2 days, he has since picked up right where he's started and with the nuby sipping cup, he drinks down the milk much faster and falls asleep much faster which is a good thing.

Hair Cut

Caleb got a haircut this weekend and it's so cute. He was so good sitting in that chair....the only thing he didn't like was when they were edging up the front...