the jellyball family blog

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!