Key-cub Tah-sim

Dedicated to every parent of a child who doesn’t say their name.

Caleb's Jump-on-Phonics worked for us. :)


Caleb Update: almost 30 months

Weight: 30 lbs
Height: 36.25 inches
Favorite Color: Red
Favorite Primary Song: Book of Mormon Stories
Favorite Part of Family Home Evening: playing games like Red Rover, London Bridge, Stop Sign (our version of Red Light, Green Light), Duck, Duck, Goose!, make-shift fishing with magnets, and playing hiding stuff animals.
Favorite Foods: anything breakfast. Cereal. Waffles. Muffins. Yogurt. Fruit. And also enjoys soup and lots of it.
Current YouTube Playlist: a variety of The Wiggles songs, some Cookie Monster songs and the theme to Elmo’s World. STILL enjoys to sing, dance and listen to music.
Movie of the Month: Wall-E

Skills:

• Can identify most of the letters of the alphabet.
• Gets his colors right 9 out of 10 times.
• Enjoys counting. Counts to 10.
• Recognizes the following shapes: circle, square, triangle, oval, star, heart, and diamond and calls rectangles “door”s.
• Can often fill-in-the-blank for prayers. Knows common phrases like “Dear Heavenly Father” “Thank you for family” and “in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”
• Potty-training.... still at it.

Chores:

• Loves to peer inside our mailbox and tell us if it is “Empty” or “Full” and carrying the contents to the house.
• Puts his dishes, utensils, and cups into the sink.
• Helps mommy empty-out the dishwasher.
• Helps mommy sort and put away the clean laundry, identifying whether the article of clothing is mommy’s, daddy’s, Caleb’s or socks.
• Makes his bed in the morning by tucking in Duckie and Ah-yah-yah.
• Still plays with the broom.
• Helps vacuum.

Playtime:

Spends most of his leisure time doing one of three things: constructing, racing, or pretending.

• If it is stackable, Caleb will use it to make structures. Tupperware, blocks, cubes of cheese, play dough, movies, books, anything really. I find towers erected throughout the house, and I swear they are snares.
  
• Our branch president has remarked on how he has yet to see Caleb without a car in his hand during Nursery. Caleb loves anything that goes, including his own size 9 feet. Most of our day is a course of races and I often wonder which lap we are on.
• Pretending, probably one of his most endearing activities. Besides the usual monkey, froggie, doggie, kitty act, he loves to “cook” for us and enjoys being a “daddy”. I often find him conversing with his stuff animals.

During the day he prefers me telling him a story than reading him one.
Current Bedtime Story: The Cat in the Hat

Personality:

Caleb’s disposition is his very own. Although parts of his temperament are similar to Mike’s or mine, it is only evidence of our qualifying to be his parents not the result of him being our son.
Caleb is very reserved until he feels at ease. He loves people. And is not one to be easily offended. Other children snatch toys away from him or invade his space and he shrugs it off most of the time. Once a child he considers his friend, probably best friend, did hit him and Caleb cried, mostly because it was a clash with his friend. “Gentle giant” is a title that comes to mind thinking about his interactions with others. He reminds us of a Sunbeam we taught a long time ago named Spencer.
His Y chromosome has been kickin-in this past month. He pretends to burp, is destructive and loves making messes out of just about anything.

Three words we’d use to describe Caleb:
Imaginative. Self-content. Response-driven.

Head Over Feet

Earlier this month our family had our semiannual

Family Home Evening: Conference Edition

as I like to call it, over dinner.

We teach what we can from this lesson before Caleb’s attention span calls it quits, then make a list of family concerns or questions that we will pray about up until Conference.
In the past we have generated a catalog of concerns and questions.

This year we had two questions and one, ahem, statement.

Mike had a question.
I had a question.

And Caleb kept placing his feet on the table and ecstatically exclaiming,

So in our family prayers for the past 15 days we have asked for guidance and insight concerning those queries and have been expressing gratitude for Caleb’s toes and his joyful disposition towards them. :)

Don’t you just love General Conference?
CSBH is just around the corner!
(and by the way, “You do not own ‘around the corner.’”)

How are you preparing for this G.C.?

What are you looking forward to in October?

Comment below.

PS I'm also so excited for the Millis book sale,
also on October 2nd...
but shhhhhhh, don't tell Marné!

A Tryst of the Wrist

It was during a Break the Fast at the Freer's. Brother Freer was a counselor in our single’s ward’s bishopric, and often invited the young adults over to mingle in his backyard. It is sometimes painful to think back on those activities. Reflecting back on the “good-clean fun” we use to have makes me clench my teeth.
Like playing Red Rover in the Freer's backyard, after breaking our fast.
Imagine 15 young adults (that’s 18-30 year olds) clasping hands and singing “Red Rover, Red Rover, send

{insert the name of a fish from our shallow dating pool}

on over!”

Sadly, there are worse more pathetic documented activities than this,
but you get my point. (Disclaimer: view the link at your own discretion)

I don’t remember how well I knew Mike then. I’m guessing our friendship was at the epidermis level: not too deep yet, just on the surface. We’d danced together. And I liked him as a person. Not yet as a moose. Maybe I even fancied him a little. Whatever-

He obviously felt comfortable enough to plow into my clasped hand!

Causing two of my fingernails to bend back. Which miffed me more than anything.
I don’t keep my fingernails long out of habit: keeping them short for karate and also when bored or stressed, I tend to bite them. So achieving a white nail plate is a big deal for me.

A. BIG. DEAL.

That night when I got back from the activity, I dolefully clipped the rest of my nails off.
The next day, I ran into Mike. (Not literally. Oh no, that’s his method of concourse!)

And he noticed.

My nails.

And asked why I had clipped them.

That, was a big deal for me too. :)

Last night, we were playing with Caleb. And we taught him Red Rover.
Mike and I sat on our knees and held hands.
Caleb would sing the calling song with us and excitedly dash.
He was content to run into our clasped hands again and again.

I am glad for clasped hands.

I'm Covered. Thanks.

this Sunday blog post is brought to you by rhinopharyngitis




Nimble is not how I would describe any fraction of me, especially my fingers. In particular when I am sewing…
Funny, now that I consider it, because of the invention of the sewing machine my fingers have littletodo with any of the stitching process. So what is my problem?

Ah-hem. Let me start over.

Nimble is not how I would describe any fraction of me, especially my patience. In particular when I am sewing. I don’t line fabric up correctly, my tension is often set too high, I am hasty to use scissors- and how.do.I. wish duct tape was an acceptable textile binding!

Recently I have resolved to make N.H. a blanket. I’m going to attempt to duplicate Caleb’s kiki. Notice how I don’t say reproduce? That’s because I didn’t make his blanket.

One year our ward in Flagstaff was experiencing a baby boom, so the Relief Society made a stash of blankets for the upcoming arrivals. I remember receiving Caleb’s blanket:
My Relief Society President (who was our birth instructor and also had a baby recently) and one of her counselors (who I visit-taught and loved very much) came to my cramped apartment, which seemed even more claustrophobic than usual by the looming moving boxes, sat on my floor, chit-chatted and bestowed Caleb’s blanket.
I didn’t use it for more than a play mat for months because Caleb seemed to swim in it. That is laughable now, seeing how his toes creep out at night from beneath it.
Another sister in that ward crocheted a white blanket with blue trim for Caleb which we used to wrap Caleb in for his baby blessing. We will wrap all our sons in that blanket for their blessings.

Blankets.
…writing this is helping me make connections, relative details.

Like, how even Emma has a blanket. It’s in Caleb’s closet. Stored with his blessing blanket. It was made by another sister, she was my nephew’s teacher at the time but I knew her and her husband for a very long time before that. She had heard about Emma through my mother. I received the blanket in the mail shortly after the funeral. It was a white crocheted blanket with an angel in its pattern. It’s a nice token.
Much like the crafted kimonos and caps donated to the hospital for birth and bereavement. I kept Emma’s pink kimono and cap; it is nice to have something that held her…

I guess blankets are important. Coverings are important.
They are an emblem. A type.

I’ll think about that more today.
(You can too, if you want.)

And maybe, with this perspective, just maybe I’ll be more resolute to align my fabric, to find the right setting, and be more considerate and deliberate with each cut?

Hmm.