The Christmas Camel

Merry Christmas everyone. May your holidays be filled with loved ones and special memories. Please take a moment to remember why we celebrate this joyous holiday.

Last Sunday evening I went to my son’s church to see Caleb perform in the Christmas cantata. He got to be a camel. They tried for weeks to teach him to say Merry Christmas but he wasn’t about to do it. Instead he just stood there like a good little camel and looked cute. LOL He does that very well. Before the service started I took this picture of my little man all dressed up for church. He was so cute I just wanted to squeeze him into.

I was so proud of him standing up on the platform in his little camel outfit and not taking the hat off. He was very happy to be onstage and was a true performer. When they were leading the children off of the stage out a side door he was the very last in line. He very quickly ran over to the piano bench, crawled on top, sat down and his little fingers were about 5 inches from banging the keys when the music director scooped him up and hugged him laughing. He was soooooooooooo close to making the show into a comedy. hahahaha

After the children were led off stage they circled around through the side of the church and entered the sanctuary to sit with family. Caleb sat in front of Mike and I with his parents. While the choir performed he sang right with them. Of course he didn’t know the words and just mumbled right along but he did not skip a song.

When he was here last Friday he was very interested in my nativity scene on top of my desk. I told him the story of baby Jesus and he began to sing. He didn’t know the words but I could tell from the tune that he was trying to sing, “Jesus Loves Me”.  I sang the song with him and then he began to sing, “B-I-B-L-E”. At the end of each song we would clap our hands say, “Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Baby Jesus.”  At the end of each song the choir was singing guess what Caleb did. You got it. He would clap his hands and say, “Yay Baby Jesus.”  It was so cute. No one else in the church was clapping between the songs but Caleb didn’t care. He enjoyed the show.

At the end of the service the pastor asked all of the kids to line up in front of the altar and for the adults to come shake their hands. Caleb loves to shake hands. Kristin put him in the line to shake hands but he quickly got out of it and began walking up and down the pews shaking people’s hands and even leaned up on the stage to shake the hands of those in the choir. hahaha He was such a ham. I was so proud of him. It was so sweet to see that even at the age of 21 months he knows the reason for the season. We are celebrating the birth of Jesus. Merry Christmas everyone.

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Saturday I was very blessed to spend the day with Caleb, Donna and David. Caleb comes just about every Saturday. This weekend Donna and David had to come to get their “Cheetos Hug”. Caleb loves the cheese puffs from a local Amish market here and Donna and David brought him a huge bag . He was orange all day. LOL

Donna and David have been such a blessing to me in so many ways. David helped me to get my Christmas decorations out of the attic and they both helped to decorate my tree. Mike has been working until after dark each day and not taking a day off from work. I knew that I would need to decorate alone this year. However, they both volunteered and jumped right in. Caleb was such a good boy while this was going on.

Some people gave us new Basset ornaments for our tree this year. Here are the three latest. I wonder how they knew we would love them so much? haha

I also have a few ornaments that remind me of cherished loved ones that are no longer with us. Alison was such a great friend. She sent me this ornament the year before she died. I love it and cherish it. She died in 2002 and I think of her often. It is so hard to be without her. The world is such a lonely place.

In 1992 two things happened. One is that I married my now husband and the other is that I met Mrs. Runyan. She was the classiest lady that I have ever met and I seldom went a day without speaking to her. She attended my family holiday dinners and taught my son how to play poker. She was quite a bit older than I was and often told people that she wished that I had been her daughter. Her death is something that has cut me to my soul. I honestly believe that I am a better person for having known her.  I have many of her Christmas ornaments and put a few each year on my tree to honor her memory.

Each year for Christmas I try to get a new stuffed animal that sings and is animated. I had been lining them up on my desk but now that I have Caleb I put them on the lower shelf of my book shelf in the living room so that he can play with them. He loves them very much.

After Donna and David left Caleb fell asleep and took a very long nap. I guess the tree and company really wore him out. While he was asleep I remove the blown glass from the top of my desk and put out my nativity set. I love this nativity set. I have seen others that were so much more expensive than this one but I don’t believe that the detail of them can stand up to the detail on this one. Even on the years that I don’t put up a tree I always put out this nativity set.

Caleb Helps Grandpa Work

Caleb was so cute helping Grandpa with his blueprints on the new house that he was building. He always has to be around where Grandpa is and thankfully Grandpa is a very patient man and loves children even more than his hounds.  Everyone that knows him knows that is a lot of love. LOL

Apparently Caleb thinks the laundry room should be closer to the living room so he is moving a few things around. LOL (He was writing on a piece of paper on top of the blueprints). I love the little box of raisins sitting there too. So cute.

 

A Day With Caleb

I love to keep Caleb and lately have been blessed enough to get him just about every Saturday. He comes early in the morning and when his Mommy gets off from work she comes and picks him up. He is learning his A B C’s and loves to sing. Yesterday while shopping I could tell that he was singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. He brings such joy to my heart.

My sister Donna and her husband David came yesterday to get their “Cheetos Hug”. Caleb loves Cheetos and he also loves to hug. After Donna and David left, Caleb took a nap. He looked so angelic sleeping that I had to take his picture.

The funniest thing happened about an hour after I took these pictures. I go in to peek at him and in his sleep he had slid out of the bed. Now toddler beds are only a few inches off of the floor so he wasn’t in any danger of hurting himself. When I found him he was standing on the side of the bed still asleep. hahaha

I of course picked him up and put him back in the bed.  After his three-hour nap Grandpa had come home from work and they had to feed the hounds. Caleb loves to feed the bassets.

After the hounds were fed we all sat dog at the table for dinner. For some reason dinner off of Grandpa’s plate tastes so much better. He laughed so hard while he was eating Grandpa’s mashed potatoes and porknbeans. Grandpa pretended to be offended that Caleb was eating his food. Of course Caleb saw through it and ate even faster. hahaha

His favorite dog is Buford and he calls him BoBo. BoBo is very patient with Caleb and loves him just as much. They watched a Christmas Music video together while on the couch.

Can you tell that Caleb loves BoBo? Can you tell that Mommy bought him a Basset Hound shirt in support of the hounds? Can you tell that BoBo is a very patient dog? Boy is that dog patient. Well this was just one day with Caleb. I can’t wait to spend many many more with my little man.

Little Stinker

Caleb was a skunk this year for Halloween. He was so cute. He loved getting all dressed up and loved getting the candy even more. After the second house his little legs were flying to get to the next one. His mommy said that he liked it even more when the people gave him the candy to put in his bucket himself. I can’t get enough of this kid.

Mommy dressed up as a punk rock star and daddy went as his typical everyday red neck self. haha

I am sure that Caleb is wondering when he can get dressed up and go again. I can’t wait to see him at Christmas this year.

Who Knew?

Caleb must be reading my blog. I am on vacation this week and I kept Caleb two days this week. Yesterday he went to his bookshelf and brought me a book. He crawled up in my lap and had me read it to him twice.  I have been dreaming of the time when he wanted me to read to him and couldn’t believe the book that he chose.

Anyone who has read this book knows that I cried through the ending. Yes, I cried through the ending twice while my innocent little grandchild sat cuddled in my lap listening to his grandma read. It was the most precious afternoon.

I will miss him so much next week when I go back to work. I have treasured our time together this week. He is such a good boy and so smart. He watches everything and repeats anything that he sees you do.

I knew that he liked Elmo so I brought up Youtube and for 45 minutes he sat on my lap watching videos. This one is his favorite. He just sings along with it at the top of his lungs. Of course grandma had to sing along too. That is the way it goes with Caleb. EVERYBODY sings. lol

He also liked this one.

I am not supposed to get Caleb today but will tomorrow. I miss him so much I may have to go pick him up once the Structural Engineer from the Insurance Company leaves. Remember the flood back in August? Well it caused structural damage under the house and my house is currently being supported with enormous jacks. It never ends around here.

OK I just spoke to Caleb’s mommy and I am going to get him. I can’t do without him today. It just seems wrong. Cya.

 

Caleb’s In Charge!!

I know that I have been absent for a few days. Work was so hectic last week and on top of that my husband had the flu. Thank goodness it wasn’t the H1N1 flu but he was very sick none the less. On Saturday he returned to work so I hosed everything down with Lysol and our grandson Caleb came over.

He was quite a bit late and I was getting concerned. Here is the story. Usually Caleb arrives in the mornings at 8:30 but this past Saturday my daughter-in-law called to say Stephen wanted to take Caleb out for breakfast and would be bringing him around 9:00. When he arrived around 10:20 I had questions.

Seems Stephen carried Caleb out to his truck and left the diaper bag on top of the hood of his truck. He sat Caleb inside the truck and placed his cell phone on the console. He put the keys in the ignition as well. He noticed that the diaper bag was on the hood so he got back out and slightly clicked the truck door so that Caleb couldn’t fall out. You guessed it. Caleb pushed the lock button on the door.

Luckily it was cool so there was no danger of him being inside the truck. Stephen begged and bribed Caleb to get him to unlock the truck door but Caleb just laughed at him and held onto his little belly shaking his head no. He is 18 months old now and quite the little ham.

Stephen said he felt like the worst father alive when after 30 minutes of having Caleb laughing at him he had to go to a neighbor to ask to use their phone. Remember when he placed his on the console? lol

Stephen called his wife and mommy quickly came home from work to unlock the truck door and get her laughing little boy out of the truck. Anytime we asked him if he locked daddy out of the truck he laughed really hard. Daddy learned several valuable lessons on Saturday. First always put Caleb in his carseat first. Never leave the keys inside the truck and never leave your cell phone in the truck. The biggest lesson is to never turn your back on your little boy because he is EXACTLY like his FATHER.

I will never forget the coiled up rubber snake that he put in the pantry behind the can of green beans. When I got the can out the snake jumped out at me. Stephen was only three at the time. At the age of three he also put a whoopie cushion under the behind of the  pastor’s wife during a ladies church luncheon at prayer. Everyone was standing for grace and no one had begun to speak yet and were sitting down when we all heard a large sound come from under a very blushing woman next to Stephen.

God has a sense of humor and has provided Caleb for Stephen. We all get to enjoy him too. hahahahahaha

Caleb’s Doat

Do you remember Caleb’s goat from a few months ago?

http://grace2882.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/the-goat-and-the-pit-bull/

Well the goat is all grown up now and Caleb calls her Nana Doat. Doat is as close to goat as he can say. It is so cute. Nana Doat has changed quite a bit. She now looks like this.

While waiting for the children to be called to line up he had no problem in sitting in another little girl’s Hannah Montana chair. Doesn’t he have the prettiest blue eyes?

Friday night Caleb was in the County Fair showing his goat and made this Gammaw’s heart swell with pride. He was the first of the children to enter the arena with their goats. Of course he was not going to hold the leash. He was too busy strutting with his cowboy boots on.

They lined up and Caleb couldn’t resist giving his goat a big hug. This caused the crowd to go AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. Of course he quickly realized he had done something worthy of notice so he began to walk around the enclosed arena filled with straw. The more he smiled at the audience the more laughter he got and the more he put on a show. He quickly threw himself on the straw and the crowd went wild. This child will be on stage I tell you. A star in the making.

His mommy quickly got him and took him back to his place in line. He of course was not too happy about that. Luckily the entire show took less than ten minutes. I don’t think kids and kidds this little could have done much more with their precious little Doats.

The next day I babysat Caleb while his mommy and daddy were at work. I am so glad that he hasn’t let stardom go to his head. He is still eating my store bought cookies but for some reason he is so kewl that he has to wear shades.  Gammaw’s shades that is.

 

Grandma Time With Caleb

I took Thursday and Friday off from work and spent both days with Caleb. I had so much fun and looked forward to this for over a week. Caleb of course did not disappoint me. He was such a wonderful bubbly little boy both days.

Last week the hospital volunteers where I work had a fund raiser and I bought Caleb a tunnel that you can attach two tents to at each end. I first gave Caleb the tunnel without the tents attached and he loved it. Just look at this face.

Caleb really loved his tunnel but he quickly left it to play with a few of his other toys. It is amazing how you can buy him something new but he still goes back to playing with the favorite toy from when he was 3 months old. I just love seeing his toys all over the living room. Some people the clutter would stress them out but once he goes home it all goes neatly back into his corner bookshelf.

When Caleb arrives he always goes looking for my cat. He always finds her and says, “Cat Cat”. He knows that he has to be easy with her and Chessie will let him pet her twice before bolting off to a hiding place. Thursday Chessie hid behind a recliner.

Caleb could still see her but did not attempt to get to her. He periodically went to take a peek at her and always told me it was a “Cat Cat, Meow Meow”. When he plays with his farm set he always holds the horse up and says, “Eeyore”. That is the name of his pony. He loves his pony.

Caleb will constantly come to give hugs and kisses. He is such a precious little boy. He cracks me up. I asked him if he needed me to change his diaper and he said, “No”. Of course I checked and he was wet. He got changed anyway. lol

After having him for two days my house was very quiet today. I got a lot cleaned and organized but would have gladly traded a clean house for another day with my little man.

He is very good at feeding himself. He even ate applesauce without making much of a mess. I tried a new recipe that I will share this week and he loved it too. It is amazing how much food this little guy can consume. I didn’t see how it could be physically possible but he kept putting it in. What a guy.

Caleb and Eeyore

As I have mentioned before, my amazing grandson, Caleb has a pony. It is a very cute miniature pony named Eeyore. Caleb is in love with this pony. My son was telling me this morning that when they go to his in-laws home that as soon as Caleb gets out of the car he starts running towards the barn yelling, “Eeyore, Eeyore”.

He calls all horses and ponies Eeyore no matter how many times they tell him the correct name. When I showed the picture below at work to my co-workers they all asked if they had dyed Eeyore’s hair and the answer is no. This is Eeyore in all of his natural glory including Caleb in his natural glory too.

My son took this picture with his cell phone so it is a bit bright but still perfect.