Ten Years of Motherhood

Ten years ago I celebrated my first Mother's Day a week overdue with my first child.  I think the doctor jinxed me by setting an induction date for the Monday after Mother's Day and saying I wouldn't even need it because I'd certainly have my baby home by then. Caleb seemed to take that as a challenge to stay put for as long as possible.  May 13, 2002 we welcomed our first child into this world.


Tomorrow I not only celebrate ten years of being a mom, but I also celebrate Caleb's tenth birthday.  It's amazing how quickly the time has gone.  It seems only yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital and calling grandma to come over and entertain him at 2am when he was wide awake and his parents were too exhausted to stay up with him.


Now he's two inches shy of five feet tall and challenging his five-foot-two grandma that he'll pass her up by his next birthday.  He probably will. It's been fun to see him grow into the young man he's becoming.  I love looking through old pictures from when we were doing construction on our house and seeing Caleb right next to my dad complete with his toy hammer and nails "helping" build.  He's always been a great helper.

Auntie Kelsey and Caleb 2005

Gone are the chubby toddler cheeks that were so sweet to smooch.  They've been replaced with the face of a boy.  Just the other day I saw him running across the gym with his class and thought to myself how "grown up" he looked.


Caleb has never been one to get excited over things.  He's very even tempered and easy going.  For him, being excited means an extra sparkle in his eyes and a slightly wider grin.  I saw that sparkle when my brother invited him to go to Washington, DC with his family.  I wasn't sure how he'd react to the invitation since he's very much a homebody, but that sparkle was there immediately when he realized what that "fake" airplane ticket meant.


It was there again when he opened his birthday present a week early.  He found this lego set in one of his books that he really wanted; The Crystal Reaper. We found it on ebay for over $200 brand new which was way too much for our budget. There was one used set that was up for auction and ending that night and I told him we could try to bid on that one.  He sat in my bedroom while I was on the computer waiting to see if we won.  I gave a heavy sigh when the auction ended and he said, "We didn't get it did we? That's okay mom." And went down to bed.


Little did he know that I actually won it for him.  As he was opening his gift we could see him slowly realize what it was that he was opening.  That sparkle and grin were there when he rushed over to me, wrapped his arms around me and said, "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.  I love you mom."  Money well spent to see him that happy.

 So tonight we are going out with grandma to celebrate ten years of motherhood, ten years of grandmotherhood and a tenth birthday. My how the time flies!

My first baby just turned nine...

Yesterday marked nine years since I became a mother. Caleb Daniel entered the world a whopping 9lbs 9oz and 21.5 inches long. I remember feeling like I had been hit by a bus. We didn't find out the gender at our ultrasound because we wanted to be surprised.  Honestly, I thought we were having a girl until Mike and both had a dream about having a baby boy on the same night. At that point we decided that we needed to settle on a boy name "just in case."

Since he was due close to my uncle Dan's birthday (May 12th) we knew Daniel would be part of his name. I had two naughty Dannys in school that year so we decided against using it as a first name. Mike wanted to name him Kale, but I thought it was too close to Kate when I wrote it out and I knew I'd end up crossing the "l" thinking that it was a "t." Then he switched it to Cale which I still wasn't fond of so I suggested Caleb as a compromise. I don't think Mike has ever called him "Cale."

It's funny how a name fits a person. Caleb is definitely a Caleb. The name means "loyal" and he is loyal to a fault. I remember one time we decided to leave Brady with grandma while we went into town because Brady had bitten Caleb and nearly drawn blood. Caleb sobbed the whole way because he didn't want us to leave his brother behind.

There are so many interesting things about him. One of the most prominent is his obsession with mice. It started when he was a toddler and loved watching Bear in the Big Blue House with the little blue mouse named Tutter. He started drawing mice, writing practice sentences about mice, using mice as examples for math problems (there were six mice and two went away how many are left?) and so on. The door of his room has a giant piece of paper with a "mouse hotel" drawn on it.

Speaking of drawing, he is very good at linear drawings of buildings and machines and such. He pays very close attention to the details of how things are put together. One of his favorite things to do is build with legos. He is very creative in that sense and even built a solar system for a school project out of legos.

I can't believe he is nine already. It seems like yesterday he was outside in his duck boots and camo sweatsuit splashing in the mud puddles looking up at me with those chubby baby cheeks and bright greenish blue eyes. Today he is inches away from growing taller than my 5'2" mom and quite proud of the fact that at age nine he is as tall as my now 6'3" brother was at age nine-and-a-half. I don't think he'll reach his goal of passing grandma by the time he turns ten, but if he hasn't by age eleven I'll be very surprised.

To my eldest child... Happy birthday. It is so nice to have someone in the family who looks at the world the way I do. Someone who can relate to my life experiences as the firstborn. At times this sameness can cause us to butt heads, but know that despite any conflict we may have I will always love you. You will do great things one day, of that I am sure. I can't wait to see what this next year brings as you grow and learn and mature. I hope you enjoyed your birthday and I am sorry I embarrassed you with that balloon. I was just excited about your birthday and I thought it would be a fun way to share that excitement. I didn't realize it would upset you as much as it did. I love you and thanks for being such a wonderful and unique child. Our family wouldn't be complete without you.  Love, Mom

Baby Be Blessed Dolls

Today the dolls I ordered from Baby Be Blessed arrived. I ordered them back in February after we got our tax return.  They take about 12-14 weeks to complete the dolls and ship them out. I had intended to save them for the kids' birthdays, but after peeking at them to see how they turned out I just couldn't wait.  I gave each of them their doll still wrapped in tissue and then counted to three before I let them rip into them. They were very excited to open them. The kids were thrilled to see that the dolls looked like them and that they even had their names on the tummies.

I love that you get to choose your own scripture verse for the dolls. I was originally going to choose Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go" for Caleb's doll. I changed my mind when I found this verse because I love that it has a similar message, but adds the reminder to "do everything in love."

Choosing the verse for this doll was very easy. When Brady was born 8 weeks early this verse kept running through my head. I wrote it out on a piece of paper and taped it to his isolette. I knew that I couldn't be strong for my baby, but our Savior could be and this verse was a daily reminder of that fact.

Amelia tends to be a worrier. She is the first to be afraid at bedtime and I thought she could use a gentle reminder of what to do when she feels the need to worry or be afraid. It was very cute when Caleb read Amelia's verse. He said "That's a good one, mom, because she's scared all the time." I like that he figured out my reason for choosing that verse.

Daisy has a very joyful nature so I did a search for the word "joy" on BibleGateway.com. This verse has so many wonderful qualities listed in addition to joy that I thought it would be the perfect verse for her doll. Caleb's reaction to this verse was a little different than his reaction to Amelia's. "Mom, Daisy is only some of those things. She is really not good at self-control."  Oh, the truth behind life with an almost three-year-old.

So there they are. My family of dolls. Each one unique in its own way just like the children they belong to.