On Monday, my silly, sweet, stubborn boy turned THREE!
I was off work for the day so Jerry and I decided to take Caleb to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate. We decided to do the celebration package and it was definitely worth it! We were also joined by Caleb’s Mimi, Aunt, Uncle, and two cousins. The boys ran around playing games for hours and had a blast. Caleb was especially fond of the basketball game. He also figured out how to use the card and card reader which they use in place of tokens now. It was pretty hilarious.
After that, he had an OT session at home which was um… super festive? Then we went to Golden Corral for dinner which was great! We followed that up with a photo shoot in Papa’s studio to celebrate three whole years.
Caleb had a pretty big, busy year. He participated in Micro Soccer AND Water Babies… neither of which were his strong suit. He had a hard time listening to direction for both, but what are ya gonna do?
He is officially registered for preschool in the fall! He will be going three mornings a week starting in September. I’m nervous about sending my baby off, but I think he’ll love it. When we went on a tour last week, he walked right over and sat on the floor with the kids.
Speech has improved a great deal over the last year. He went from saying nothing to repeating just about anything. He still isn’t quite using words to express wants or needs, and isn’t stringing words together yet (though he will occasionally string together two), but he has improved a lot over the last couple of months. He still gets easily frustrated and prefers screaming and pointing to asking for things, but I have faith that we’ll get there. When you write down all the letters of the alphabet, and numbers 1-12… he recognizes and says (or at least attempts) all of them. He frequently says “mommy,” “daddy,” “mimi,” “papa,” “hi,” “bye,” and other random object words. He signs for more and says “mo,” and also loves asking for his favorite foods “chee” and “connie”… cheese and candy.
Caleb has a few obsessions right now, with clocks and watches being at the forefront. He carries them around, points them out, and exclaims “clock!” whenever he spots one. He seems to have an internal detector and finds them before any of us sees them. He loves perusing watches at the store, and even finds watches to browse on my mom’s phone. He’s also fond of his SEVERAL pillow pets which he fondly calls “pos,” and is a big fan of Teletubbies (whyyyy?). He is way too fond of his Bulldog Ruffles too, constantly climbing on her and “loving” her a little too much for her liking. He is also a fan of going to the mall to ride the merry go round, then walking over and getting an Icee in the food court after. Must follow the routine of carousel then Icee, or meltdowns will ensue!
Though he is only a toddler, he is fairly confident that he is the boss. This is something we’re working on. Not only does he think he has control of the TV (which is why I am forever behind on MY shows), he also thinks he is DJ Caleb and has control over the car radio. He will scream his head off until you find a song that HE likes. Sigh. The good news is that he has started “singing along,” which really just means making noises that sound somewhat like the lyrics. He loves singing Thunder by Imagine Dragons, Rockstar by Post Malone, and Young, Dumb, and Broke by Khalid. Earlier in the year, his favorite song was Wild Thoughts, and anything by DJ Khaled. We used to have to play the music videos and he would run around dancing like a madman.
Caleb is fairly small and tall, weighing in at 30.8 pounds and standing at 3’1. He often wears 2T pants still because they fit at the waist but are too short. 3Ts are hit or miss – he wears them because they fit length wise, but some of them tend to fall down. He is a picky eater still, and is starting to express an interest in his potty. Though he hasn’t successfully used it yet, he points at it and sits on it from time to time.
Caleb is a very stubborn but determined boy. He knows what he wants and I believe it will serve him well as an adult. He loves to laugh and run around, like your typical toddler. I believe he is smarter than people think he is too, due to the fact that he has a speech delay. He catches on to things quickly and seems very insightful.
Though my boy can have himself an EPIC meltdown, the first word that most people, including his OT and speech therapist, use to describe him is SWEET. He is a sweet and gentle boy who can be sensitive to loud noises and large crowds… kind of like me!
Caleb is one loved little boy and I can’t wait to see what the next year has in store for him!
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