Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Caleb's 2nd Birthday 2008

Today March 27 is Caleb's 2nd Birthday. Last year we landed back in San Antonio on March 20 after our long journey just in time to celebrate our new son's 1st birthday a week later. The year has gone by pretty quickly with a lot of memories of "firsts" that will last our entire lives. Caleb meeting our family and friends for the first time in person. Caleb saying "mommie" and "dada" for the first time. Caleb first learning to walk without our help just a few days after we arrived back home. Caleb's first visit to the zoo. Caleb's first visit to the beach. He loved the beach and I am sure is going to love going back this summer. Caleb's first Christmas with us. Caleb saying "luv u" for the first time. It has been a fun ride so far and I look forward to all the coming firsts to spend with my son Caleb and beautiful wife Pet. And now Caleb is about to turn 2 for the first time (and last time).

We had a great Easter! I think that Caleb is a choco-holic like his mom! He wouldn't even wait for someone to take off the wrapper before biting in. Caleb got to do 2 Easter egg hunts. One was on Saturday morning at our church. By Sunday afternoon when he got to have another Easter egg hunt at our house, he already knew what was in the eggs and he would try to open them before putting them in his basket. We had a nice relaxing Easter weekend with food, family, and celebrating Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. Caleb had given us a Christmas present of a pair of Spurs tickets to a night game on Good Friday. So we got to enjoy a good basketball game too! Also, Pet was off the whole week before Easter weekend for Spring Break. She really enjoyed being with Caleb all day every day for the entire week. She would love to be doing that full time. This summer, we plan on looking at our financial options more closely to see if that is even possible. Anyway, Caleb had a great time. We spent Easter Sunday with Pet's parents, her sister and brother-in-law, and Caleb's cousins Anthony and Tyler. Tyler is only 1 month older that Caleb so it was fun watching them both run around hunting eggs, playing, rolling around on the ground, swinging and sliding on our swing set, fighting over eggs and balloons (ok - that last part wasn't so fun).


Caleb is doing great. He is awesome! He is very sociable (unlike us) and affectionate. He is repeating and copying me and Pet so we better be careful what we say. He loves to play outside. We got him a swing set for toddlers for the Spring and Summer season so we did not have to go to a park all the time. Even at age 2 he is good at catching a football thanks to the expert guidance of his daddy :). He likes to eat pizza (who doesn't?). He loves to eat tomatoes and potatoes. He eats lettuce as long as there is ranch dressing. He would drink ranch dressing if we would let him. He has tried to grab the small dipping cup of ranch dressing and gulp it down. He was not very happy that we took it away. Indoors he likes to watch Barney so as soon as the tv goes on he says "Baa-ee". He keeps on repeating this until we cave in (so much for watching the Spurs). His birthday theme this year will be Barney. We will be celebrating his birthday this Saturday at our house. He chases our cat Astro all over the house, but hasn't caught him yet. Sometimes I pick up Astro for him to pet. He still likes playing with daddy and his small basketball goal. We got Caleb a Manu Ginoboli shirt when we went to the Spurs game. He looks so cute in it. He has toys in every part of our house.

Well, I guess that is it for now. Talk to you later. Here are some photos since Christmas.

One last thing. A special thanks to Rod, Kym, and Aray in California for their most recent post on their blog. They are our special friends who we got to share our Kazakhstan adoption journey with. Rod and Kym adopted their beautiful daughter Aray the same time we were over there getting our son Caleb. We will always have a special bond with them as God chose to bless both of us at the same time and place in the most memorable journey of our lives. The physical journey to a far away land and the emotional journey of starting new families together. They are now starting the long adoption process again and are planning on going back to Kazakhstan to add to their family. You can read up on their adoption adventure story to Kazakhstan to adopt Aray at "http://www.rodandkym.blogspot.com/". Another thing I think is awesome is that Aray was born on the exact same date as me - June 25.

P.S.: HAPPY BIRTHDAY CALEB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Caleb and mommie in our backyard.





Caleb and daddy at our Church playground.


Caleb collecting Easter eggs in our backyard. (Go Spurs!)




Tyler and Caleb swinging in our backyard.





Caleb sitting on our couch eating some dried apple snacks.



Tyler at his birthday in Feb. (Yum - look at all that pizza!!)





Caleb - future all pro football player or future Cowboys fan at least.




Caleb and daddy at park.



Caleb with ice pack for his "boo boo" ( now he always says "ice" when he gets hurt)


Caleb with electric car from Nana and Papa just after Christmas