Chatterbox!

I've created a monster! Caleb talks so much these days that I wouldn't even know where to begin to tell about everything he's saying. My favorites are:

• Daddy? (or Dewey, or truck, or airplane, etc) Where go?
• Airplane - hear it?
• Hey, baby!
• Ewww, icky!
• hoocut (haircut)
• ahmos (animals)
• Ewww, poop - diaper.
• Shhh, (pause) - hear it?
• counting: "wee fo, wee fo, wee fo" (3,4,3,4,3,4)

In addition to that - we're just having fun and enjoying spring. Every afternoon (unless it's raining), we spend time outside playing, going for walks, checking on our flowers, watching the big kids play, using our sidewalk chalk, etc. It's just a fun time to be a little boy - and a little boy's Mama. Caleb doesn't know yet that he's getting a swingset for his birthday, but he's going to LOVE IT! He loves to go to the park to slide and climb, but the playset at the park doesn't have swings. We may never get him to come inside!

Tonight, we went to a free event at the UofA called Farm Friends. Several area 4H clubs brought farm animals for kids to see and pet. Caleb didn't really want to touch most of the animals, but he loved the baby chicks. He watched them intently for long periods of time and went back to them over and over. He did not like it when a sheep bleated really close to him. He cried and said, "No, Baa!" He liked the rabbits a little bit and seemed to enjoy looking at all of the other animals, but he really didn't want to touch them. I can't say that I blame him.

This weekend is going to be a busy one for us. We're going to Touch-A-Truck on Saturday morning and Razorfest on Saturday afternoon. Caleb will LOVE Touch-A-Truck and Rudy and I will love Razorfest. We're hoping it won't be completely exhausting for all of us, but we know we'll have fun. I'll try to get pictures up on Shutterfly on Sunday.

What we're looking forward to...

We are so excited about the upcoming event TOUCH-A-TRUCK. These days, Caleb loves "bih tuhs" (big trucks), "tah-tuhs" (tractors) and pretty much anything with wheels, so we know he's going to love Touch-A-Truck!

Check it out...Touch-A-Truck

Easter, Caleb's solo trip to Hot Springs and other stuff...

Spring Break became another SNAFU for us as Rudy's back went out on Monday night and he spent 3 days flat on his back in the bed with the heating pad and a Vicodin prescription. I spent the days with Caleb and we entertained ourselves the best the we could. Caleb, of course, realized that something wasn't quite right, so he didn't sleep at night, which meant that I didn't sleep at night. It was a trying few days, but we survived...yet again.

On Friday morning (3/21), I took Caleb to the Easter egg hunt at his school. He didn't quite get what was going on, but once he realized there was candy in the eggs, he was all over it! He would open up the eggs, take out the candy and drop the empty egg on the ground. He used his Lightning McQueen Easter "basket" that Jan and Elle picked out for him.

After the egg hunt, I took Caleb to Krispy Kreme for a doughnut and then we came home to get ready to go to Sherwood. We loaded up in the car and headed out to see Memmie and Poppie for Easter weekend.

We had such a great time at Memmie and Poppie's house! We went to the park on Saturday and to church on Sunday. Caleb got TWO Easter baskets and lots of love and attention. Of course, once Caleb went to bed, the 4 adults played marbles and had so much fun! It's one of our favorite things to do.

On Sunday, we took Caleb into "big church" for as long as we could. He made it about 5 minutes into the sermon before he decided to start talking. That's when I took him out to the foyer. We stayed out there until the sermon was over and then rejoined the family in the pew. Caleb loved all of the singing and looking at all of the people!

After church, we went back to Memmie and Poppie's house for lunch. Mom and Mr. L. came to get Caleb after lunch. They took him back to Hot Springs with them for 3 nights! Everyone expected him to cry when they took him, but he looked out the window of the car and said, "Bye-bye, Mama! Bye-bye, Daddy!" Rudy and I drove back home after they left and it was VERY QUIET at our house.

While Caleb was in Hot Springs, he played outside with LaLa and Pops, went to Little Bitty City with Maddox, had a cookout at Brad and Harolyn's and just generally got spoiled. Mom said that he didn't cry for us at all. What a brave little man we have! Mom brought Caleb home on Wednesday and spent the night with us. She took Caleb to school Thursday morning and then drove back to Hot Springs.

On Saturday night (3/29), our friends Bryan and Casey Wilhelm came over for dinner. They brought their daughters, Caroline and Claire. Caleb had a great time playing with the girls and we enjoyed visiting. We're really hoping to do more with the Wilhelms now that spring is here and we can get out of the house more!

This week has been just as crazy as most. On Tuesday (4/1), I drove down to Hot Springs to spend the night before going to a conference in Little Rock on Wednesday. Jan came up after work to take care of Caleb, because Rudy had rehearsal for a gig that he's playing next weekend. When I got home on Wednesday, Caleb absolutely broke my heart into a million pieces. I was so excited to see him and Rudy when I got home. As I was unlocking the door, I could hear Rudy saying, "Guess who's home, Caleb!" When I opened the door, Caleb said, "Lala!" and then realized it was me instead and laid down in the floor crying. I was heartbroken. It wasn't until the next day that he really even had anything to do with me. It hurt my feelings so badly, but now he's decided that he likes me again and we're doing okay.

Last night, we had a great dinner with Grandma Voise, Jan, Todd and Chris. It was good to have the 3 brothers together - even if it was just for a short time.

Today, (4/5), we went to a birthday party for Jackson Lyons. It was at JumpZone - a place with inflatable slides and bounce houses. Caleb loved it! Leslie's brother-in-law, Kyle, took Caleb on all of the slides - even the great big ones. He thought that was so much fun! I just can't believe that Jackson is FIVE YEARS OLD!

Now, Caleb is napping. Whew! We are going to dinner with all of the Voise family tonight and he needs to be well-rested.

On a sad note, Rudy's Grandpa Voise died on Easter Sunday at 5:15 PM. He passed away at the hospice center. His memorial celebration is tomorrow afternoon, so the whole family is in town this weekend. Grandma has been handling it as expected of a person who just lost their life partner. She says that the grief comes in waves, but she is trying to do what she can to be active and to stay positive. We've promised her plenty of time with Caleb to keep her spirits up and we've offered her our guest room anytime she wants a change of scenery. She and I went to get pedicures and manicures on Thursday afternoon and it was very therapeutic for her. She's decided to do that more often! I think she's going to be just fine.