Caelan Vaughn, 4 1/2 Years

This is the first time I’ve been late on one of these reflections posts. It’s been a really crazy past few months and I just didn’t get it together to write this post by December 1st, when Caelan turned 4 1/2. But he’s still 4 1/2 now in January and things have settled down some and taken a good turn, so let’s see about this recap 🙂

The most significant part of the last 6 (or 7) months for Caelan has been his experience in school. He finished out the summer in the 3’s classroom. At the end of August, he moved up to the pre-K classroom. Leah also started in the 2’s classroom at the same time and Caelan seemed happy to have Leah there and was also very protective of her!

Caelan and his 3’s teacher

In October, I went with the kids on a field trip to a local farm. It was a lot of fun for the kids to go together and I always enjoy getting to spend time with the teachers and other parents.

Farm Field Trip

In November, we had a conference with Caelan’s teacher. She (and he) showed us all of the things he had been learning, and we were blown away. His writing had improved dramatically. He was learning to skip count by 2’s and 10’s. He was even sounding out letters and constructing words. The following week, he started reading to us from his Level 1 readers. I was so proud!! My 4 year old was reading!!

Reading

It was around that same time that we started hearing about problems at school. It’s a terribly long story that is difficult to tell because it’s made up of so many incidents that eventually led us to pull Caelan and Leah out of their school and find a new place for them. We felt that Caelan’s environment had become unfriendly and that those responsible for him there did not have his best interests at heart. I’m purposely being extremely vague, but suffice it to say out of a class of 12 children, Caelan became the 6th to leave since the beginning of the school year.

Christmas Show

It was a really difficult situation, and we struggled with the decision to move both kids to a new school. We had trouble finding a school with mid-year openings for our kids, but we lucked out and managed to move them to a new school just 3 days after pulling them from their old school. I worried about the transition. Caelan would miss his friends, especially one little boy to whom he had become very close over the past year.

It’s only been a week, but they are doing wonderfully!!! Caelan LOVES his new school and teacher. He was even reunited with another child who also left his old school earlier this year. He doesn’t seem to miss his old school at all (which has been very telling) though he does ask about his friend and I really hope I can arrange a playdate for them. But overall, I think this was the best thing we could have done for Caelan. It’s only been a week, but I’m really hopeful that this change in environment is exactly what he needed.

Mommy and Caelan

This past holiday season, we spent lots of time with family! First there was Halloween. This may have been the only year where Caelan and Leah were willing to get on board with my suggestion of coordinating costumes. Although, I’m still holding out a little hope for next year 🙂 This year, they went as Batman and Robin.

Batman and Robin

There was Thanksgiving with both sides of the family at Grammy and Pappy’s house this year.

Thanksgiving

We made cookies with both Grandma (and Aunt Jen) and Grammy (and Aunts Rachel and Nancy) and the kids really participated this year!! Caelan has been asking more frequently now to help me prepare meals, so I need to start getting him involved in that.

Making cookies

We went and saw Santa this year and both kids sat with him for the first time. Caelan asked for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie, which he did receive 🙂

Visiting with Santa

Caelan also did some of his own Christmas shopping this year. Bill took him shopping and they picked out gifts for me and Leah. Caelan did a great job keeping his purchases a secret! Last year, he had no concept of keeping a secret.

Caelan and Leah are best friends. Since Leah has moved out of her crib, these two wake up in the morning and go into each other’s rooms to play. There’s plenty of fighting too, but overall, they get along really well. They make up games to play together, they scheme together, and they beg to have a sleepover. I will sometimes sit and watch them play and I’m SO glad they have each other.

BFFs

Caelan stopped gymnastics class at the beginning of the summer and started up with swimming lessons. It was the first time he’d been in a swim class without me, and he did get off to a rough start. But he improved greatly over the course of 2 sessions. He is willing to swim on his own (with flotation) now. We took a break from swim lessons over the holidays, but hopefully we will start up again this Spring.

Swimming

Back in August, Caelan started karate. He goes to class once a week and he seems to enjoy it. I can’t tell if he LOVES it or not, but he certainly likes it. He was very excited to earn his first new belt back in November.

Earning his Camo belt

Caelan has had a growth spurt these past few months! He was sort of stalled out for a couple years there but in the past year, he has shot up! I’m starting to shop for him some in the Boys’ section now 😮 He’s very, very independent at this point. There is little he needs help with in terms of self-care, though he does still ask for help often.

In just a couple months we will register Caelan for kindergarten!!!! I can’t believe it, but at the same time, I’m excited for him!! We drive through the crowded bus stop most mornings and Caelan talks about when he will get to ride the school bus with our neighbor, McKenzie. It will be a whole new world for all of us.

The last couple of months have been busy and difficult. I’m hopeful that Caelan’s new school environment will help him finish out his pre-K year on a good note!

Caelan’s 4 1/2 Year Stats

• Wearing 5T and XS tops, 4T pants, size 11 shoes
• Weight: 36.5 lbs
• Height: 41 inches (3′ 6″)
• Loves Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Super Heroes, Legos, trains, cars, watching movies, playing board/card games

 

Caelan Conversations, Part 19

CAELAN [in a tone of awe]: Guess what, Mommy? Yesterday, Pappy watched a no-hitter. And a guy fell when he was catching a ball!

SARAH: Wow, sounds exciting! You know that was a baseball game. That’s the same game we were playing in the yard the other day.

CAELAN: No, Mommy, it was a no-hitter.

———-

One morning I made a smoothie and poured it into my travel mug.

CAELAN: Are you making a new Alexa?

For reference, Alexa (Amazon Echo) on the right, my mug on the left 🙂

———-

On the way to a timeout…

CAELAN: I’m gonna poke a hole in the wall and hope the house falls down.

Um, okay. Not sure he thought that one through!

———-

SARAH: Caelan, please drink your milk.

CAELAN: Did you say “shake your booty butt”?

BILL: No! Not at the dinner table!

———-

On our way to the beach, we passed many farms and saw lots of farm equipment including huge sprinklers on wheels.

CAELAN: Are you kidding me with that sprinkler?!

———-

SARAH: What’s your favorite color today?

CAELAN [who knows all his colors and numbers perfectly well]: Seven.

———-

SARAH: Do you want me to hold your cake pop while you climb out of the car seat?

CAELAN: No, I’m magic. I can hold it AND climb out.

———-

When I get home from work, Caelan runs to meet me in the mudroom…

CAELAN: Mommy, we’re having a face!

SARAH: What?

CAELAN: A feece….[looks confused, and runs away calling] Daddy, what is it again?

After a few seconds, he returns to the mud room…

CAELAN: A feast!! A picnic feast! You want to join us??

Caelan Conversations, Part 18

I am standing in front of the full length mirror in my closet after getting dressed…

CAELAN: Why are you looking in there, Mommy?

SARAH: I am looking to see if my clothes look okay.

CAELAN: You look beautiful, Mommy.

SARAH: Thanks baby.

———-

I gave Caelan and Leah each a bowl of grapes. Caelan’s bowl was orange…

CAELAN [whining]: I didn’t want the orange bowl, I wanted the red bowl.

SARAH: Well don’t look at the bowl then, just eat your grapes.

After a minute or so…

CAELAN [whining]: Mommy, the orange bowl is letting me look at it!!

———-

Caelan and Leah love to play with empty Tic Tac containers in the car. Caelan can open them on his own, but Leah needs help. After Caelan has opened it for her twice…

LEAH [to Caelan]: Open?

CAELAN [exasperatedly]: Ugh!! Again, Leah?! Mommy, Leah asked me to open hers and then she asked me again!!

Annoying, isn’t it… 🙂

———-

SARAH: What should we get Grandma for her birthday?

CAELAN: A train! From Target!

———-

Caelan is singing a made up song…

CAELAN: ♫♪ Oh I wish I was a little baby squirrel, baby squirrel! ♫♪ — Daddy, this part will be so funny, you will, like, freak out — ♫♪ I’ll poop on your head! ♫♪

———-

I hand Caelan a cup of milk.

CAELAN: Thanks, from my teeth.

———-

A conversation with our Amazon Echo, Alexa…

SARAH: Alexa, how are you?

ALEXA: I’m great. I hope you are too.

CAELAN: “I hope you are too”?…But you’re not.

SARAH: I’m not? Sure I am!

CAELAN: You’re not 2….

SARAH: Ohhhh…

———-

Caelan opens a birthday gift from Leah. It’s a green Chick Hicks car that he’s been wanting for ages.

CAELAN: Ohhhh Leah! I’m so proud of you!!!

———-

CAELAN: Okay, this is how it is. [points to Bill] You’re wrong. [points to Sarah] You’re right.

Caelan’s Cars Birthday Party

I’m going to do a whole post on Caelan’s birthday party this year! This party was THE party I have been wanting to do for years – super theme-y! And honestly what made it so cool was that Caelan loved it so much!! In the weeks leading up to the party, he watched me buy all the supplies and do all the prep and he was just loving every bit of it. I could have done a super theme-y party for his first birthday and it would have been cool, but at age 1, he would have had no clue. At age 4, he was really into it!

We had good weather on the day of the party which was great because everything was outside. It didn’t rain and it wasn’t unbearably hot, so that was great. However, it was SUPER windy. Unfortunately that made getting everything set up a little difficult and I ended up skipping a few of the decorations because they would have blown away. #fwp

Here’s how we put our Disney Cars themed party together!!

EDIT: I forgot to include the invitations!!!

The Invitations

I combined a few ideas I saw online and designed these invites!

The Cake

I almost chickened out of making this cake. I almost did a regular sheet cake with Lightning McQueen drawn on it, and that would have been cool. But I’m so glad I went for it and made this Lightning McQueen *shaped* cake!

For the cake, I used this recipe which I have used before and I knew it was very sturdy and easy to carve. I made 2 batches, in 2 9×13 pans. I also made 2 batches of my favorite vanilla buttercream icing. I reserved about 1 cup for details and tinted the rest red with Wilton gel color. Red is notoriously hard to make REALLY red but I managed to do it this time by adding half a bottle of the red gel color and then letting it sit in the fridge for about a day before using it.

I looked up a few tutorials online and printed out some pictures of Lightning from a few different angles and then used all that info to free-hand carve the cake into the shape of a car. I frosted it with the red buttercream. Most of the shaped Lightning cakes I saw online were covered in fondant. To be honest, fondant cakes are not my thing so I knew I wanted to stick with buttercream. I did make the detail decorations with fondant.

The Games

I grabbed a Pin-The-Headlight-On-Mater game from the party store. It came with 8 headlight stickers, but since we had more than 8 kids, I just color-copied the stickers to make more.

Ramone’s House of Body Art wasn’t really a “game” so much as it was a station, I guess. In the movie, Ramone does paint jobs at his House of Body Art, so a temporary tattoo station seemed like a good fit. Unfortunately, this was one of the things that got skipped due to the wind 😦

The major game for this party was the Piston Cup race! We had stacks and stacks of boxes leftover from our move last year so, over the course of several weeks, I picked out 6 boxes and made them into cars! I chose to do Lightning McQueen, The King, Chick Hicks (Caelan’s favorite), Doc, Francesco, and Mater. I used scrap pieces of cardboard, styrofoam, and a ton of hot glue to make the cars a little more stable. I spray painted them their main colors and then used acrylic paint and a foam brush for the eyes and any details. The rest of the details I printed out and glued to the cars.

We kept the cars out of sight until it was time for the race, which was a stroke of genius on my husband’s part. Once those cars were out, only the mention of cake tore the kids away from them!

This is the race track my husband drew in the yard with spray paint! We also stuck little checkered flags in the ground to help the kids see where the track was. They still sort of took a few short cuts 😉

The Favors

I can’t really take credit for anything but the execution of these ideas! I found everything via Pinterest and Google searches. These Pit Passes looked really cute and the kids could wear them during the party, but also keep them as a favor. I got the lanyards from Party City and the plastic holders from Amazon. I designed and printed the passes myself.

I also grabbed some little trophies so that each kid could take home their own Piston Cup. They are really, really small so I couldn’t even fill them with treats. As it turned out, we weren’t able to set the Pit Passes and Piston Cups out on a table as I had planned (wind!!) so Caelan handed out the Pit Passes and we just forgot to give out the Piston Cups.

The Food

Despite the fact that all the food was themed, it was actually less food than we would usually have for a party and it was easier to put together. (I was still running around like a crazy person minutes before the party though. Isn’t that always how it is??) We ordered pizza for delivery (we had WAY too much!!), had sodas, water and juice boxes to drink, the cake, and the rest was just snacks – most requiring zero prep! I made the little signs and uploaded them to Shutterfly for printing. Easier and faster than messing with my printer (which I did do for other things). The plan was for the signs to be held with place card holders, but again…wind…so they ended up taped to the tables and I think a lot of people didn’t get it. #fwpagain Here are the foods we had:

Francesco’s Pizzeria (pizzas)

Sheriff’s Stop Lights (fruit skewers)

Sally’s Cozy Cones (Bugles)

Sarge’s Surplus Snacks (pretzels, Goldfish, Teddy Grahams)

Mater’s Taters (potato chips and dip)

Luigi’s Casa Della Tires (chocolate donuts)

These were supposed to be stacked into a tower, but I skipped that because of the wind (it was REALLY windy!) but these got demolished so quickly it didn’t matter!

The Decorations and Paper Supplies

We had several folding tables set up with red and black plastic table cloths. I ordered plates and napkins from Amazon (because it was cheaper than the party store, which is not usually the case for party supplies!) and got the rest from the party store. We had checkered flag banners, a race banner, and little mini checkered flags. I don’t have a lot of good pictures of these things because – you guessed it – wind!

The Birthday Boy

The most important part of the party!!! This was all for him and he loved it 🙂

Caelan Vaughn, 4 Years

Somehow, we blinked and Caelan turned into a kid. He looks older. He acts older. We need to be careful what we say around him now because he is always listening! In the past couple months, we’ve tried to help him navigate some new social situations. He’s developed new friendships and been on all sides of the hurt feelings wheel (hurter, hurtee, witness). We are wandering into new territory where Caelan has more control over a lot of situations than we do. Parenting is hard, man! I want Caelan to be happy and have friends that he enjoys playing with. I also want him to be kind and compassionate, which he generally is, but 4 year olds have no filter and sometimes that leads to drama.

Caelan seems to be friendly with all of his classmates, but Joshua and Julia are the two that we’ve heard the most about in the last 6 months. Who is best friends with who changes on an almost daily basis, but it definitely seems like he’s having a good time at school!

We met with Caelan’s teacher back in April and discussed his progress in her class. We are so unbelievably proud of how well he’s doing! Academically, he’s well ahead. His teacher even said it’s a shame he’s so young because he’d do well in kindergarten THIS year. He knows all of his letters and can write most of them as well. We are working on sounding out words and that is exceedingly frustrating for Bill and me but Caelan is making progress. He can count past 100 now and he can also do some basic addition and subtraction. I was happy to hear from his teacher that Caelan actively participates in class and seems interested in learning. It is always fun for us to hear about what he’s learned that day, whether it’s a silly song or that “zombie” starts with the letter Z.

This Fall, Caelan will move to the pre-K (4’s) classroom for his last year of preschool before kindergarten (!!!!). We’ve heard that the pre-K teacher has a less traditional style of teaching so we’re curious to see how Caelan does in her class.

Caelan’s handwriting has gotten much better, but some of his letters need a little tweaking!

In May, Caelan’s class took a field trip to a local farm/petting zoo. I was very excited that I was able to go with him on this trip – it was my first time accompanying him on a field trip. It was great to spend some one-on-one time with him, see him with his friends, and get to spend some time with his teachers and a couple of the other moms and dads.

Jumping around here a little (6 months is a long time to cover!) but back in February, we took Caelan to his first live sporting event – a pro hockey game. It was also Bill’s and my first hockey game! We rode the Metro (another first for Caelan) to get to the stadium and watched the game from a suite that Bill’s company had rented. It was the perfect situation for Caelan’s first event. The suite allowed him to get up and walk around, rather than sitting in the seat the entire time, although he did sit and watch quite a bit. He loved chanting “Let’s go Caps!” and hearing the songs and sounds over the sound system.

Caelan has continued with his gymnastics class once a week. He’s really improved a lot in the past 6 months. Classes stop over the summer so we’ll think about whether or not to continue with gymnastics in the Fall or try another activity. At home, Caelan loves to play outside now that the weather is warm. He helps us with gardening and he rides with Bill on the tractor. Now that we have so much more yard space than we did at the townhouse, the kids have plenty of room to play. Luckily, our road is a dead end and gets very little traffic, but we spent last Fall drilling it into Caelan that he cannot run into the street. By now, he’s very good at following that rule. We don’t let him play outside unsupervised but we don’t need to hover over him and that is wonderful for all 🙂

We went to see the Easter Bunny this year, and to my surprise, Caelan didn’t seem afraid at all! Our first 2 attempts to sit on Santa’s lap were failures, but after this success with the bunny, I’m looking forward to another Santa visit this Christmas.

After spending 2 years in size 18 month pants/shorts, Caelan finally had a growth spurt and grew out of those this year. I got him some 2T pants, but he almost immediately outgrew those as well! Now he’s in 3T for pants, but in 4T/5T for shirts. It’s tricky to dress this kid!

Caelan and Leah are still great playmates, but as Leah gets older and more able to assert herself, there are more arguments. However, Caelan regularly tells me “Mommy, I really really really really really really  really really really really really really love Leah! She’s sooooooooooooooooo cute!” I know he loves her and the feeling is definitely mutual but they are brother and sister so fights are inevitable. Caelan has started trying to manipulate her by whispering to her and telling her to do something that he knows will get her in trouble. On the one hand, I get it. I used to do the same thing to my sister (sorry Ray!). But on the other hand…quit telling her to run in the street! Luckily I have been able to squash any dangerous suggestions so far.

Caelan is very independent now and he can dress and undress himself with minimal help (buttons, snaps). He can brush his teeth, go to the bathroom, wash his hands, get a drink from the fridge, clear his place at the table, go up and down the stairs, etc. It’s wonderful that he can do all those things by himself and doesn’t need our constant supervision anymore. In some ways, that makes him, as a 4 year old, much easier than a toddler. But all of those things he CAN do without supervision are also all the things that tend to cause fights and tantrums. He CAN put his shoes on in less than 30 seconds if he feels like it, but it normally takes 5 minutes or so of rounding him up, counting to 3, pushing past the “I-can’t-do-it” whining and other such craziness.

Caelan has been favoring me over Bill a fair amount lately. It’s odd because for the first 2-3 years of his life, he definitely favored Bill. But now, possibly he’s identified me as the less strict parent and that’s the reason for his preference lately. He and Bill have definitely been butting heads a lot lately. I hope it’s a phase and it will shift soon.

Why have they been butting heads? They don’t call it the horrible 3’s for nothing. See my comments above about putting on shoes. And it’s not just Bill and Caelan – I have plenty of run-ins with the 3/4 year old behavior as well. This whole year has been REALLY hard on that front. Everything is a fight – dinner (he claims to hate whatever we’re eating, even if he likes it, then argues with us over how many bites to eat), the bathroom (he will literally sob and wail “But I don’t have to pee!!” while peeing), putting on his shoes, brushing his teeth, getting ready for bed…He fights us every single step of the way. We have tried various tactics and some have worked better than others but we haven’t settled into anything consistent (I know we should). I know it’s all developmentally appropriate, but it’s exhausting. He’s also had more potty accidents than ever before, despite having been potty-trained for over a year now. It’s usually due to stubbornly waiting till the last second. We’ve heard from some other parents that 4 is slightly better behavior-wise, so I’m holding on to that shred of hope.

I’ve commiserated a lot with my friends who have kids the same age. They get it. I’m pretty sure I’ve scared my sister-in-law because my nephew is only 11 months and hasn’t hit the screamy-2’s or the defiant-3’s yet and she doesn’t want to lose her sweet baby to those phases. But she won’t, not completely. Sure, Leah is an expert screamer now, but then she climbs up in my lap, puts her face inches from mine, cocks her head to the side and sweetly asks “popcorn pwees?” and then she is the cutest child that ever existed. Or Caelan will say something that is so funny or clever or full of personality and I am in awe of how sweet and smart he is and how much I love him completely even though I was ready to lose my #$%^ 3 seconds ago. It’s a constant up and down, back and forth…love them, lose it, love them, lose it.

At the end of the day, I sit on the floor in Caelan’s room next to his bed and we play rock-paper-scissors for a few minutes and then talk about what we did that day or what we will do the next day. It’s one of my favorite parts of everyday. I am constantly in awe of his curiosity and his imagination. He makes up stories and names and draws on conversations we’ve had or things he’s learned at school to create his little world. As always, I’m excited for what’s ahead for him – new friendships, moving more and more towards being a kid and not a baby. This time next year, we’ll be registering him for kindergarten 😮 It’s so hard to believe that he’s been in our life for 4 wonderful years now!! I can’t imagine our world without him.

Happy 4th Birthday Caelan!! Love you forever and ever!!

Caelan’s 4 Year Stats

• Wearing 4T and 5T tops, 3T pants, size 9W shoes
• Weight: 35 lbs
• Height: 39.5 inches (3′ 3.5″)
• Loves playing Cars, racing, listening to music, climbing, running

Caelan Conversations, Part 17

CAELAN: Be quiet, Mommy. I’m going to make us a pigeon.

———-

Talking about what to have for dinner…

CAELAN: I want Chick Fil A.

SARAH: No.

CAELAN: Glory Days?

SARAH: No.

CAELAN: Lettuce?

SARAH: What?!

———-

At the dentist, the receptionist notices Caelan’s blue and green gloves…

RECEPTIONIST: Those are Seahawks colors you know!

SARAH: Oh we’ll have to throw them away then! What’s your team, Caelan?

CAELAN: Peyton.

———-

Caelan and Leah are fighting over two of Leah’s toys…

CAELAN: Leah can’t have both toys!

BILL: Yes she can, they’re hers.

CAELAN [sternly and loudly]: I’m going to keep an eye on you!!

———-

CAELAN: Do you want to play chocolate potato?

SARAH: How do we play that?

CAELAN: We pass it till the music stops.

SARAH: Oh, HOT potato?

CAELAN: Yeah!

———-

SARAH: Oh, we forgot your dinosaur paintings at school. We’ll have to get them tomorrow.

CAELAN: Oh man!…..Who’s the “man”?

———-

CAELAN: Something smells.

SARAH: What does it smell like?

CAELAN: I don’t know. It smells like a smell.

SARAH: Okay then.

CAELAN: It smells like a leprechaun!

———-

CAELAN: Mommy, guess who was at school today? It was Mickey Mouse and he was 40 and tall!

———-

CAELAN: Mommy, you have to take the sneaky way to school.

SARAH: I don’t know the sneaky way. I’ll have to ask Daddy.

CAELAN: You go through the bushes, and then you’ll see school.

SARAH [continuing on the normal route]: Okay.

After a minute or two…

CAELAN: Mommy, you have to take the sneaky way.

SARAH: But I don’t know the sneaky way.

CAELAN: I told you, you go through the bushes and then you might see school.

SARAH: What bushes?

CAELAN [annoyed sigh]

Caelan Conversations, Part 16

CAELAN: You packed me an eyeball for lunch.

SARAH: I did not! You’re so random.

CAELAN: No YOU’RE random! Your name is Random.

———-

Caelan is arranging his chair and Leah’s with a blanket over top…

SARAH: Are you making a fort?

CAELAN: No, I’m making a cage. For us to live in.

———-

CAELAN: What’s Valentine’s Day?

SARAH: It’s a day when we say how much we love each other.

CAELAN: And there’s candy! And cupcakes! And treats!

———-

As Caelan climbs into the bathtub he complains about the water temperature, which is a regular thing with him…

CAELAN: It’s hot!!

SARAH: It’s not hot, it’s warm….[quietly to Bill] *luke* warm, even.

CAELAN: It’s not luke warm! Luke warm has sparkles.

———-

Caelan leans over and whispers to Leah…

CAELAN: Come on Leah, we’re going to turn Mommy into a pancake!

———-

This one is hard to explain, but imagine the SNL “Really??” bit and that’s how he said this…

I was sweeping crumbs from the kitchen table onto Leah’s placemat so that I could then carry it to the trash can…

CAELAN: Onto Leah’s placemat?…Really??

Caelan Conversations, Part 15

CAELAN: Sometimes it’s hard to get some quiet time.

SARAH: Tell me about it.

———-

CAELAN [pointing to his hair]: If I tell Leah this is my nose, then Jack and Jill won’t be Daddy’s best friend.

SARAH: ………. ?

———-

CAELAN: I am just going to protect you with my fire, Captain Hook!

SARAH: ………. ?

———-

SARAH: What do blue and yellow make?

CAELAN: Green.

SARAH: And what do green and yellow make?

CAELAN: ……Packers!

We may have told him green + yellow = Packers, blue + orange = Broncos… 😉

———-

CAELAN: Mommy’s a taco, Daddy’s a taco, Leah’s a taco, and I’m a superhero!

———-

CAELAN [sitting down on the potty]: It’s cold!!

SARAH: I know, just go ahead.

CAELAN: But Mommy, the toilet seat is cold! Was it in the freezer?

———-

In the car…

CAELAN: Daddy, what are you doing?

BILL: I’m driving.

CAELAN: Mommy, are you passenging?

SARAH: Yep, what are you doing?

CAELAN: I’m back driving!

SARAH: Back seat driving?

CAELAN: No, back driving! [pretends to crazily turn a steering wheel]

———-

SARAH: Caelan, what’s on your new socks?

CAELAN: Green Lantern. He has a ring with magical powers.

SARAH: That’s right.

CAELAN: But Mommy, what does Green Lantern DO?

SARAH: Um……[Googles to brush up on my Green Lantern trivia! Turns out it was the typical “fights crime”]

———-

After watching Rudolph, Caelan is afraid of the Abominable Snowman only “abominable” is pretty hard to say…

BILL: Who are you afraid of?

CAELAN: The Baltimore Snowman!!

Caelan Vaughn, 3 1/2 Years

This one crept up on me! 3 1/2 seems so much older than just 3. Just as I was shocked to realize a year ago that my BABY wasn’t Caelan anymore, but Leah…now I am realizing that my TODDLER isn’t Caelan anymore, but Leah. Caelan is my PRESCHOOLER (omg)!

The past 6 months were full of all kinds of craziness in our home life. We moved twice during that time, we went on a family vacation, and Caelan started in a new classroom at school. He handled all the change pretty well, but there were a few bumps here and there. Caelan has also learned a TON in those few months!!

Our trip to OBX in August was Caelan’s 2nd beach trip in his life. He loved playing in the sand, collecting shells, taking long walks, and eventually playing in the surf. He was fairly afraid of the water and it took several days for us to convince him to even touch it, but once someone suggested jumping in the surf, he came around.

Jumping!

When the first day of school rolled around, Caelan moved up to the 3 year old classroom. He’s the youngest in his class but so far that’s been great for him. He’s already learning so much.

First Day in the 3’s Class

Caelan has made a lot of progress with counting. He can easily count to 30, and he can count objects up to 30 as well. He can count to 100 by tens and I’m sure as soon as it clicks in which of those tens comes after 29, 39, 49, etc he will be counting to 100 in no time! He’s beginning to recognize double digit numbers as well. Sometimes he gets them backwards and sometimes there are a few hilarious mistakes (“fivety-five”, “onety-six”) but he’s learning 🙂

At this point, Caelan has long since known all of his upper and lower case letters and he knows the sounds for almost all of them. We’ve started sounding out a few words here and there but he is often impatient and/or frustrated with it. He does know how to spell his name and knows what letter many words and names start with. Since starting preschool, he’s started learning how to write/draw shapes and letters. One of the goals of his 3-year-old class is to be able to write his name fairly legibly by the end of the year. Right now, he is able to trace his name and he can write it on his own, though not clearly. Still, just 3 months ago, he could barely draw a shape of any kind so this is a huge step!

You can make out the “E”…

A few months ago, Caelan went through a serious “why?” phase. The volume of questions that came out of his mouth was staggering. And frustrating. Why is a hot dog a hot dog??? I just… ::head desk:: Caelan also started interrogating everyone on things they liked or didn’t like (“Do you like mustard?”). He’d go around the dinner table and survey everyone about certain food items. At other times, it would be more random. He’d pick up a toy and ask “You like this toy, Mommy?” Sure, I love toys.

Enjoying a cake pop at Target

Caelan still asks plenty of questions, but he’s also entered a new phase of nearly constant whining. He’s been extra emotional in the past few months and everything seems to set him off. Part of it is his age, I assume, and maybe part of it has to do with the upheaval in our home life. Though Caelan appeared to handle the moves well, I’m sure it was stressful on some level.

Caelan loves his new closet

The number of stuffed animals in his bed has tripled as has the number of nightlights in his room. He also now requests that his door be left open at night. He had a few nightmares and night wakings in the first couple of weeks in the new house, but those seem to have passed now. We still usually leave the door open though.

Caelan has gained a lot of independence since we’ve been in the new house. He can get dressed and undressed with very little assistance from us. He can brush his own teeth, go to the bathroom by himself, and he is learning to bathe himself as well. He goes up and down the stairs by himself, clears his plate after dinner, and sits at the table without a booster seat. In the interest of keeping it real…while Caelan is capable of all of those things I just mentioned, getting him to actually do something in a reasonable amount of time is often a battle.

Baking cookies

At school, Caelan is doing so well academically. We met with his teacher last week and she told us that Caelan is well ahead of his class, despite being the youngest. Socially, he’s on track with the other 3 year olds who are all going through spurts of minor aggression and bouts of potty mouth here and there. He doesn’t nap regularly anymore so he gets his cot set up next to his teacher so he won’t disturb the other children who ARE napping.

About a month ago, we enrolled Caelan in a gymnastics class for preschoolers. It’s a Saturday morning class for 3-5 year olds and he seems to enjoy it a lot. I’m glad we found an activity that he enjoys and a way for him to burn some energy on the weekends!

Gymnastics

Everyday when Caelan comes home from school he tells us who his best friend is. It varies depending on who he happened to play with the most that day, but I think his real best friend at the moment is Leah. He often tells us as much (“Leah’s my best friend. I love her.”) Those two have SO much fun together! Leah will literally drop whatever she’s doing and run to him if he calls for her – which he does often. There’s plenty of shrieking and fighting over who was playing with which toy or sitting in whose chair, but there’s lots of running and giggling as well. Caelan is often distracted at dinner because he and Leah are too busy making each other laugh to finish eating. He’s also asked a few times to have a sleepover with Leah and if we didn’t think Leah would just fall right off the bed, that would be a fun thing to try! Maybe sleeping bags…

Brother and sister

The past few months have been difficult with Caelan’s 3 year old behavior. There’s been lots of back-talk, the occasional swipe at us, and lots and lots of sobbing and tantrums. I can’t even remember what he was like at age 2, but 3 is much, much worse. (I’m sure Leah will remind us about 2 year olds in a few months, ugh!) Some of his bad behavior happens at school but they have a lot of rules and routines there that mostly keep the kids in check. For the most part he reserves this kind of behavior for just Bill and me (yay). We are hoping to give Caelan some responsibilities at home as well as the opportunity to earn (or lose) certain privileges so hopefully that will help.

As if to make up for the often horrendous behavior, Caelan is also extra sweet and affectionate lately. He dishes out plenty of hugs and kisses, I-love-yous, and compliments. It’s all very sweet and as much as he is absolutely driving us crazy lately, I have this feeling like he needs the extra attention and affection. I have to constantly remind myself that he’s only 3 years old and it is completely developmentally appropriate for him to lack control over his emotions. The tantrums and the limit testing is all normal and he is struggling to gain more maturity as much as we are struggling waiting for him to get there.

In the meantime, I love every extra hug and “I love you” and even though the tantrums over nothing are bewildering, it’s nice to know that often what he needs is a hug from Mommy or Daddy. At this point in his life, we can still hold him and that usually makes it better. I know there are going to be plenty of things in the future that we won’t be able to fix as easily, or at all. So for now I’ll try to be thankful that his problems are usually only as serious as not being able to get his shirt over his head. I can handle THAT problem 🙂

3 1/2 Years Old (photo by Joseph Boss)

Caelan’s 3 1/2 Year Stats

• Wearing 3T and 4T tops, 24m/2T pants (a few are still 18m!!), size 9 shoes
• Weight: 32 lbs
• Height: 38 inches (3′ 2″)
• Loves playing catch, running, reading, writing and drawing, wrestling, playing with Leah

Toddler Stuffs

When you’re pregnant and anticipating a baby shower, you usually create a baby registry (or two). It’s a good way to figure out ALL the baby gear and other assorted crap you will need for your baby’s first 6 months of life. I wrote a post on this a couple years back. Unfortunately, most of it will only be useful for about that long – 6 months – before your baby outgrows it and you pack it away until the next baby comes along (or you sell it if you’re done with babies).

But then what? Now you have an older infant or a soon-to-be-new-toddler and what kind of gear/crap do they need? Thankfully, much less than newborns need but there are still quite a few things that are nice to have. Here is my run down of what we used and found useful for our kids. (Disclaimer: These are just the products that WE used and what we thought of them.)

All photos link back to their source.

Convertible Car Seat

Your infant will likely outgrow his/her infant seat in height long before they exceed the weight limit. More importantly, while you *technically* can put a 30 lb. baby in an infant seat, good luck lugging that thing around when they’re that big! It’s hard enough when they’re tiny!

So the next step is the Convertible Car Seat. We made this switch with our kids when they were around 7-8 months old. The AAP recommends that children ride rear-facing until at least age 2 so you will want to look for a seat that can be used rear-facing and then can later be turned forward-facing. Unlike infant seats with buckets that snap into bases, convertible seats are just one piece installed directly so you will need one for each car that the child will be riding in.

There are plenty of seats at all price points and they all meet the safety requirements by law, so it’s really a matter of budget and preference (and size as some seats fit better in some cars than others). We have 2 Britax Marathon 70’s – one for each of our cars. Our smaller car is a Toyota Corolla and this seat fits fine.

Britax Marathon 70

 

Stroller

If you were using a Snap-N-Go type stroller with the infant seat, you will certainly need a new stroller. I must admit that I am not very knowledgeable on strollers. We have The First Years Jet umbrella stroller and it’s a decent stroller. We use the stroller very infrequently so it would not be worth it to us to invest in a more expensive stroller. We also have our Chicco Cortina travel system stroller. That’s a great stroller with a nice big basket but it’s big and heavy. A friend is giving me a hand-me-down Sit and Stand double stroller which I am very excited about even though, again, we will use it so rarely. There are TONS of strollers out there and the price range is huge ($20-$2000+). Chicco has a lightweight stroller (Liteway) that gets good reviews and is not as heavy as the Cortina.

Teething

This is a fun one. (not really) Teeth can start coming in as early as 3-4 months of age and continue to poke through for the next 2 years or so. Unfortunately, there isn’t a whole lot you can do to ease their pain during this time which, honestly, just sucks all the way around. But there are lots of things you can try and maybe you’ll get lucky!

There are teething toys that can be put into the freezer and then gnawed on by baby to soothe their gums. We also tried frozen wash cloths and frozen purees.

Bright Starts Chill and Teethe

My kids used pacifiers a lot when they were teething.

NUK Classic Silicone BPA Free Fashion Pacifier

When all else fails, and especially at night, we turned to acetaminophen or ibuprofen. Ibuprofen is for babies 6 months or older. Check with your pediatrician for the correct dosage.

Pediacare Infants Acetaminophen

Motrin Pain Reliever/Fever Reducer Infants’ Drops

Baby Food

There are lots of different approaches you can take to introducing your child to foods. We started out somewhat traditionally with cereals (rice and oatmeal) around 4-6 months. We then started trying purees. We started with vegetables, and then moved to fruits, trying each new food for 4 days to allow for any food allergies to show up. I didn’t make my own purees so I can’t comment on that process, but we fed our kids mostly Gerber foods.

Gerber Baby Food

Once my kids were a tiny bit older, we gave them these baby food pouches. They are perfect for throwing in the diaper bag, but honestly, Leah gets one for breakfast everyday. They are so easy and also a perfect way to make sure she is getting fruits and veggies. We use all different brands including Sprout, Gerber Organics, Beech Nut, Goya, and Plum Organics. Babies R Us sometimes has great sales on their store brand pouches so I try to stock up then.

Gerber Baby Food Pouch

Feeder Bibs

Once your baby starts eating food, it’s going to be messy. These feeder bibs are a must have! The pocket is great to catch dropped food and they are easy to wipe down or wash in the sink.

Bumkins Waterproof SuperBib

Sippy Cups

The First Years Color Change Insulated Sippy Cups are hands-down my favorite sippy cups. We also have the trainer cup version. They have just TWO PARTS (cup and lid), they’re EASY TO CLEAN, and they DON’T LEAK. They are also insulated and change color so you can tell if the drink is cold or not.

The First Years Insulated Sippy

With Caelan, we had better luck with straw cups at the beginning and these Munchkin ones were pretty good. But they had a lot of parts and they leaked some (as most straw cups do) so as soon as he could use a regular sippy, we switched.

Munchkin Click Lock Flip Straw Cup

Snack Cups

These snack cups are great for Cheerios, Goldfish, puffs, or any other small snack. They don’t 100% prevent a mess but it’s certainly far better than handing them an open bowl of snacks!

Munchkin Snack Catcher

Booster Seat

We have one of these for each kid at each set of grandparents house. They are small, inexpensive (and frequently available second-hand), and perfect for travel or grandma’s house. We also had one at home and we started using that for Caelan instead of the high chair around 18 months or so.

Fisher-Price Booster Seat

Feeding

We use a lot of The First Years Take & Toss stuff. We use the sippy cups with lids (Caelan, at age 3, uses them without lids), we used the utensils, and I use the bowls with lids. We also use sectioned plates (any brand).

The First Years Take and Toss

We have a few of these suction bowls. They sort of work. The kids can pull them off the table/tray so it won’t help you there, but it does give the bowl a little bit of stability.

Munchkin Stay Put Suction Bowls

For restaurant trips, we use these adhesive placemats. They are awesome. Babies will eat off the table for awhile until they are ready to use plates/bowls (without throwing them) so these placemats are perfect.

Neat Solutions Table Topper

High Chair/Shopping Cart Cover

I’m including this because we used it and it worked well. However, we used it with Caelan and not with Leah, so what does that tell you? Kind of a first-time-Mom thing, in my opinion 🙂 Ours was this same brand but slightly different. The one I’m linking here is better than the one we used.

Bright Starts Shopping Cart Cover

Baby Gates

What you need in the baby gate department really depends on your home. We have 5 gates – 4 different types – and they are all useful in different situations. We have also moved them around a fair amount as our needs changed.

This gate has been the most versatile.  It’s a pressure mounted gate but it has the option of installing it with brackets so that it can swing open like a door. We have used the gate both ways and I like it a lot.

Safety First Perfect Fit Gate

We also have this gate which we use at the top of the stairs that lead to our basement. We need to let our cats have access to the basement and this is a great solution. This is a pressure mounted gate, but it has brackets that can be installed so that the gate can’t be pushed out of place. My daughter will grab the bars and shake the gate vigorously and it doesn’t budge! The only thing is, our kids could probably squeeze through that cat door if they really wanted to. They have not tried, but it’s technically possible so I wanted to mention it. We also have another gate very similar to this, but minus the cat door.

Carlson Extra-Tall Walk-Thru Gate with Pet Door

The last type of gate we have is a super yard style gate. It basically creates a space in which you can corral your child or it allows you to block off a large space. It has 6 panels that can be bent different ways (or removed) so that you can create whatever shape you need. We have used this to block off a fireplace, a TV cabinet, and currently we use it to block our wide staircase.

Northstate Superyard Playgate

Cabinet/Door Locks

Like gates, your need for locks is going to vary depending on your home (and your comfort level). In our old house, we put locks on our “dangerous” kitchen cabinets (those containing cleaning products, knives, etc) but not on others.

We used the Safety 1st Magnetic Locking System locks in our kitchen. They open with a magnetic key so that they are not visible from the outside of the cabinet.

Safety 1st Magnetic Locking System Complete

When it came to baby-proofing, we sort of waited to see what our kids were getting into before we decided what we should try to lock up. In addition to the magnetic locks, we’ve also used a variety of other types of locks including the following:

Safety 1st Adjustable Multi-Purpose Strap

Mommy’s Helper Slide-Lok Bi-Fold Door Lock

Safety 1st Oven Front Lock

Dreambaby Sliding Locks

Furniture Straps

We have used furniture straps to secure heavy furniture to the wall, including bookshelves and dressers. It’s hard to believe a toddler could topple a heavy piece of furniture, but they could. We used these for our furniture and they seem very sturdy.

Safety 1st Furniture Wall Straps

Toys

An exersaucer or a jumperoo is a great thing to have for an older infant (age 4-10 months). It allows them to be upright so they can see their surroundings better and of course it lets them jump! It gives them a little bit of mobility before they really are mobile. We had the Fisher-Price Rainforest Jumperoo and it was wildly popular with both of my kids (and now with my nephew). 2,400+ positive reviews on Amazon can’t be wrong 😉

Fisher-Price Rainforest Jumperoo

An activity table was also a hit with my kids. We didn’t have this exact one, but a similar one. It’s great for the sitting and assisted-standing phase.

Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Fun with Friends Musical Table

Toys that can be pushed around are also great for pre-walkers. We have this ride-on/push toy and both kids enjoy it.

Playskool Step Start Walk ‘n Ride

Other toys in the 6-12 month age range that were popular with my kids were things that could be put into and taken out of a container, anything with buttons, toy cell phones, toy remotes, etc.

Shoes

My kids were around 7-8 months old when we first started putting shoes on them. Part of that was due to the season (it was winter). They had Robeez. Robeez are soft-soled shoes that are perfect for crawlers and cruisers (and even before then). I found that they run big so my kids wore the 0-6 month size perfectly at 7-10 months.

Robeez