Caleb Turns Two

My precious little Caleb-baby turned two today.

Growing like a weed, the sweetest little thing 

and wild and crazy as every little boy should be.

Pink Presents

One of things I love about having nieces is that I can buy them girly pink presents and it's perfectly normal.

When I found out my sister-in-law was having a baby I began to think about the coming home present I could get for the baby/her and her husband. I'm a thirty-one consulant, so when I looked in the catalog I decided to get a little basket with the baby's name on it and fill it with some girly baby things.

They were going to call her Louisa, Lulu for short. Putting Lulu's Trinkets on the front would be perfect. No wait, not perfect. Trinkets won't fit. I need something that is seven characters. Over the next few days I had my whole department trying to figure out what was seven characters and sounded cute with Lulu. Lots of words were thrown around, none being exactly perfect. I needed something... something awesome. Then one day a team leader (this is how serious it became, even management was involved, haha) came up with...

It was perfect.

Now of course, since she has a big sister, Charlotte, I needed to get her something as well. Something fun. I looked in the catalog again and found a makeup bag.

But transformed it into an activity bag

I bought everything from the dollar store. I also put a connect the dots activity book on top and shut it up tight, so it wouldn't fall out.

When my other niece, Penelope, saw that Charlotte got a "big sister" present, she wasn't upset that she didn't get one. She was assured that when she became a big sister she would get a present too. Somehow she knew that I would get her something. Her only concerned was that I wouldn't know her favorite color...

It's pink.

Summer Fun

So far summer has been pretty good to us. As you can tell by our calendar it has been (and will be) jammed packed, per usual.

There was a lot of dancing going on in June. Charlotte has her recital at the beginning of the month. She was a wonderful little flower and a great lil dancer. I had my dance show in the middle of the month, which went off without a hitch. Because Joe was laid off when lessons started, back in September, my instructor made a deal with me that I could do work for her in exchange for lesson fees. It was such a blessing to me.

Also in the middle of month The G-Ma came for a visit. It's always fun when she comes into town. There's always lots of scrabble being played and lots of food being eaten. We were told to block out the whole weekend for her arrival and we certainly did spend all weekend down my in-laws visiting.

The past few weeks we been full of swimming, trips to the library and the park. Elijah is finishing up swimming lessons, for the summer, just in time for camp to start. He has learned a lot from Mr. Joe, his swimming instructor. He even enjoys baths more now that he isn't scared of getting water on his face.

Caleb is still too little to do a lot of things that his brother does, but he has made great strides in his own little world. He is starting to communicate with us using a few signs and shaking his head no. He understands a lot, but still hasn't grasped talking yet. The speech therapist said to try to get him to start with animal sounds and the word/sign "more", so that is what we will do.

We have lots of fun stuff come up too. This weekend we are going to Bengies, a drive-in movie theatre near our house, to see Monster's University, The Lone Ranger and Iron Man 3 with Elijah (and a few other family members). This is Elijah's first movie at a movie theatre, so  he is super excited. So excited, in fact, that we had to start a countdown on the wall to avoid the "Are we going to the drive-in tonight?" question every day.

Later on in the month there is a possible baseball game, our Anniversary and Caleb's birthday. We are pretty sure this year we are going to have a pool party for him, since the in-laws have a pool they said we could use. Nice, simple and easy... just how I wanted birthdays to go this year. At the beginning of next month, my sister and I will be headed up to the Pittsburgh area for a bridal shower for one of our best friends. Should be an awesome time. I can hardly wait. August is looking pretty empty, but I am positive by the time the shower rolls around it will be filled to the brim also.

I love summer. There's always so much to see and do. I hope yours has been just as enjoyable as ours.