Colinisms and Calebites

Caleb is embracing some early "big boy" habits, to my great delight. He is loving the idea of using utensils. The entire first half of his meal is involved in getting food onto his spoon or fork and then preventing the aforementioned food from falling off before it reaches his mouth. And he is actually quite successful in this endeavor. Halfway through the meal he tires of the practice and resorts to shoveling food in by the fistful.

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Colin and his memory continue to amaze us. He can now recite the first 30-45 minutes of "The Polar Express", line for line, complete with actions, facial expressions, and scenes that don't even involve people (like the ticket flying through the air, caught up in a pack of wolves, being eaten by a bird, getting stuck to the train, and then flying in through the window). He can play any character in any scene, and luckily James can manage to get through with only a little coaching from Colin. Most darling of all is the duet he sings with James filling in the second part. When he grasped hands with his Daddy at the end of the song I was choked up with tears and laughter. Such genuine emotion he emotes even in imaginative play.

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Caleb is excited to sit on the little potty in our kitchen. He reads, plays and even eats the occasional snack perched on the porcelain (plastic) throne. Colin still has no interest. However, my mother-in-law brought the cutest little gift in hopes of spurring on Colin's toilet training. It's called the "Peter Potty" and is actually a little flushing urinal! We talk a lot about it, but we're still not at the point of getting there before we need to.

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We are still using both the bottle and the soother with Caleb. I know it's as much for me as it is for him. His wild temper and roller-coaster emotions are easily soothed for sleep with a warm bottle of milk followed by the soother. My brain (and many experts) warn me against this practice, but I'm beginning to realize that odds are my child will not take a bottle and a soother to school, neither will he wear a diaper, and yes, one day he will sleep and not want a nighttime cuddle. No child ever born or ever to-be-born is exactly like mine, and so I am the best and only expert on my children.

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Colin's colourful vocabulary:

- "incorrect"
- "disgusting"
- "I am going to count to ten and then you will go to your room. This is not a choice." (to me)
- "I'm not very happy with you right now."
- "Don't cry, my dear. Life is hard."
- "wonderful" (in reference to nearly everything!)
- "Ow! I "darned" myself!" (when he hurts himself)

And one conversation from today, an exercise in redundancy:

Colin: What's that?
Mom: What?
Colin: Caleb's water in his green cup?
Mom: It's Caleb's water in his green cup.