Caleb, Just Caleb

Sometimes Caleb is overlooked because he is at school all day, because he's the oldest and expected to behave as the oldest, and generally because he can be pretty quiet (compared to Joshua and Andrew, anyway!). However, I decided to dedicate this entire post to just Caleb.

Caleb has just finished grade 1 and is looking forward to grade 2. However, just this evening, as we were out and about shopping, he started crying because one of his friends is changing schools. He has such a tender heart, and I think we sometimes forget that with the little tough-boy act he so often puts on. Lately, he's been talking about a little girl named Cheyenne, who chases him at recess time (he loves being chased, and not just by Cheyenne!). This is the map he drew of the school yard with his "plan of escape". I thought it was so cute!Caleb also has been learning a lot about insects and nature at school this past month. So it's no surprise that he has taken a keener interest in these things outside of school too. One day on the way to school, he stops in the middle of the lane, bends over right in front of me, lifts up a broken off piece of square concrete and peaks underneath. He says, "Well, that's what I'm SUPPOSED to do!" I just said, "Oh" and then he proceeds to explain to me that his teacher told him that all different kinds of bugs live under rocks and that he was told he should take a look sometime!

Here he is with a lady bug. He loves to let them crawl all over him.
Soccer season has ended. Here he is after his final game with his team. It was definitely a learning year! What a change from the much more relaxed pace of the 4-6 year old mixed teams he played on the last two years. He is in the back row, second from your left.
And he seems to be doing much more of this lately! I don't know if he's growing, if his night-owl brother Joshua is keeping him up too late at night, or if school has just exhausted him! If he gets a time-out, he'll fall asleep within 5 minutes, and it's very hard to get him to wake up!
And that's just a bit about my son Caleb.

The Greeter

The cutest thing these days is whenever the front door opens, Natalee says "hi!" Even when I'm carrying her and we're heading out together, as soon as I open the door, she calls out "hi!"

My Cute Kids

I know every Mom thinks that their kids are the cutest kids ever...and I am no exception. Well, I've seen other cuter kids, but I've forgotten about them already. I will never forget my children's smiles or their beautiful blue eyes. Natalee and Andrew enjoying their morning snack together.
Smile!
Andrew eating his afternoon snack outside - an ice cream treat. Yum!

And Joshua. This is his fourth cast. The first two were the hard-backed casts, the third one they put on was a day cast that he could take off at night and for baths, but by the second day he had swelling and pain in his arm, so two days after having the day cast, he was back at Cast Clinic for another hard-back cast. We go again next week to see what the next thing/cast will be. (Caleb, although very cute too, was not included in this post only because I don't have a picture of him from most recent camera download).

Baby's Heartbeat

Turn your speakers on and hit the play button! Here is our first listen of Baby's heartbeat, from my June 5th appointment. It's beating at approximately 160 bpm. I always find that first listen to be so incredibly remarkable!

Soccer Season is in Full Swing

Caleb had his second soccer tournament this past weekend. And he scored his first goal on Saturday!!! Unfortunately, I missed it because I had to recover Joshua's sunglasses from a basketball thing. At the end of each game, he got a hot dog and soda drink and on Sunday, after his final game, he received this small trophy, which he is very proud of! He played pretty well; he has his moments where he's on fire, and then there are times when he seems too tired to run. Overall, his concentration on the game is really, really good.
Natalee, enjoying the beautiful Sunday afternoon. Caleb wanted to take her for a walk in the wagon, and usually she sits and enjoys the ride. He had stopped for a few minutes to examine a spider, so she was getting restless.

It's Official, Baby #5 to Arrive in December

I can't believe that tiny little Natalee is going to be a big sister! More about little Natalee later...

I saw Midwife Janet today and a heartbeat was actually found! I was convinced it was just a lump of cells, some kind of odd mutation, that was making me feel sick, tired, and just plain grumpy and moody!! However, there was a very strong little heart beating at 160 bpm!! I'll try to post a short video of that after I upload it. My EDD is December 27, but if things follow the trend, it may be closer to the beginning of December that this baby arrives. Whenever he/she decides to come, it will definitely be a very memorable Christmas! I need a nap just thinking about that.

Natalee and Andrew were also in to see their Doctor today. Andrew managed to make it through without any full-blown hysterics. His problem was that he had to strip down to his diaper for the exam - not his idea of a good time, but between his thumb and his Mom, he survived.

Andrew has grown FOUR INCHES this past year! He is at the same height that Joshua was at this age, but weighs nearly five pounds more. I don't have Caleb's stats for this age. He is definitely going to be a big boy! His large feet really seem to indicate that, as well as his recent growth.

Meanwhile, Natalee has dropped off the charts! She is so small, apparently she does not register in any percentile. She has to go back in another three months for another weight check. Hopefully she will not be as sick as she has been these past three months so she can actually keep some weight on. I am not concerned; she eats well, her digestive system works well, and she's happy, content, and moving all over that house. She's also trying more sounds with her mouth each day. It's been so exciting to have such a young child who is interested in talking!

Farming in the City

On Saturday, we planted our flowers. I had to go out and buy a spade and Caleb really enjoyed digging with it. Actually, the boys ended up looking for worms and weren't too interested in the flowers after a while. Hopefully the flowers survived the frost again last night.
Mike was holding Natalee while watching hockey, and Natalee decided to suck on her toes. I didn't manage to get a picture of her with her toes in her mouth, because once she realized she was the center of attention, it just became a show. She's such a silly girl!
The boys got haircuts on Saturday...bring on the heat! I was surprised Caleb agreed to have his haircut. It had been untouched for several long months, because he was growing it out to be like a puppy. (???)

First (and only, we hope) visit to the ER for 2008

The first broken bone in the Bergmann household. Not bad for seven years and three active boys. Yesterday, as Joshua was navigating the monkey bars at school for possibly the tenth time that day (no, I'm not exaggerating), he swung a little too hard, missed the next rung, and fell down to the ground, hard! I right away ran over to him, thinking he had hurt his back or tail bone. But it was his arm that was in pain. At first glance, it didn't seem like anything was wrong, but by the time we had walked home (he cried the whole way, quite unusual for him), it was starting to swell significantly and I knew we would be taking a trip to the ER.

We got into the hospital at about 1:00 and were shown straight into a room. The Doctor saw us nearly right away, then Joshua was off for x-rays, and then he got some Codeine. (Yuck! He did not like the taste of that!) We waited and waited. The Doctor came by and said that another x-ray was needed and that Ortho needed to be consulted. Joshua got his second x-ray which was much more painful than the first. He got some more drugs, and we sat around and waited. And waited some more. Natalee (who had thrown-up in the van on the way there and didn't have a clean change of clothes) and Andrew were there with us too. More drugs, lots of phone calls to arrange for someone to take care of Caleb, and more waiting. Finally, at around 6:30, the Doctor from Ortho came down to see the x-ray and decided he did NOT need surgery. We were told after his first x-ray that he could not have anything to eat or drink because surgery was a possibility. Fortunately, we avoided that hurdle.

So then we were sent to Casting, and Joshua got a hard-back cast. The front or top is relatively soft. Next Wednesday, we go back to see the Doctor, his arm will be re-evaluated, and if all looks good, they will put a full hard cast on his arm. He will have that cast on for at least one month.

He made it through the afternoon and evening in a great deal of pain, but he did really well. His first night sleeping with the cast was not that great, but his arm should hurt less and less over time and he'll get used to hauling the cast around. Right now, he's taking Tylenol every 4 hours for the pain, but is still up for watching TV, taking walks outside, and kicking the ball around. The hardest part of this will be that he can't play soccer or ride his bike or run, even when he is no longer in any pain. Hopefully his arm will heal quickly.

Andrew's Birthday

Andrew's birthday started out with a bang...to his head. He fell against the rocking chair when we were playing and was left with a nice little golf ball on the head. However, it didn't ruin the day!

Natalee is funny. If she sees her pj pants lying around, she crawls to them, grabs them, sits up and holds them against her cheek, and sucks her fingers. Not the t-shirt, just the pants!
Andrew's birthday cookie. Yumm!
On Friday, we went to a park for Andrew's party. Mike, Caleb, Joshua, and I played some soccer.
Andrew enjoyed the bubbles. It was a windy day, so it was pretty cool to see the huge bubbles blowing through the park.
Joshua climbing a tree...

The birthday cake! Andrew saw a picture of it at Sobey's when we went to order it, and he said, "Ah lack-ah dat cake!"
Natalee, picnicking in style. Queen of the picnic table - her booster chair was right on top of the picnic table.
Andrew got a bike from Uncle David. He's quite excited about it, but it's not as easy as the trike. Hopefully he'll have lots of time to practice this summer.
More of Joshua being a monkey. On the monkey bars. That's his big accomplishment this summer - doing the monkey bars at any playground we go to.
Caleb and Joshua swinging together.

Mother's Day 2008

Me and my cuties on Mother's Day. Left to right are Caleb, Joshua, Natalee and Andrew.
This is what Joshua made for me in school. The ladybug's wings open and there's something written on the inside, as you can see. It also came with some bathsalts.
This is what I got from Caleb. More bathsalts in the jar! Either I'm looking really stressed out these days or maybe I stink! I thought the topper on the jar was just way too cute!
Joshua's rock creations from a few days ago. Apparently, they're "rock snowmen".
Natalee working on getting her diaper off (and yes, she did get it off!). We moved the gate up so she can practice going up and down on the bottom 3 stairs. She really enjoys this and hasn't yet fallen; well, at least, not very far and nothing serious.

Don't Snoop

OK, some crazy people who like to infect people's computers with viruses have added a comment to my last post. DON'T OPEN THE COMMENT, DON'T CLICK ON IT!!! My advice, if in doubt, just DON'T, especially in the world of the internet. I haven't figured out how to delete it yet, but in the future, I will be able to moderate all comments.

Reviving the Sandbox

I found Natalee in the end table, playing with this pop-up toy the other day. She was having a good time!
Most of the time, Natalee crawls to where she wants to go and pulls herself up. I'm making lunch, and she's trying to get as close as possible to the food.
Joshua on Starfall.
The Sandbox Before.
And the Sandbox After. 10 bags of sand. I don't know how heavy they were, 40 or 50 pounds maybe more. Glad I'm part draft horse. Joshua and Andrew had a great time getting dirty in it!

April

April has been filled with many things here at our home. Lots of sickness, but here are a few fun things that were caught on camera. On April 7th, Caleb, Joshua and I headed out to take some pictures of a sunset. It was supposed to be for Caleb's Science Fair Project which never materialized...maybe some other year.
One morning, I headed out to the park with Natalee and Andrew.
This was Natalee's first time in the swing - she liked it!
The City tore down our Community Centre on April 16th...

The boys were all fascinated with the excavator so we had to watch for a bit and take some pictures. It was a sad day for Elmwood.

We enjoyed some warm weather! A few days a week, we have half an hour at school between the time Joshua is done Kindergarten and the time when Caleb begins his lunch break.
Natalee was tired but happy this sunny day.
Today, there is snow on the ground, but on Friday, Natalee felt the wind in her hair for the first time! She really liked it! She also touched the grass with her hands for the first time. It didn't take her long and she was crawling all over the yard!

The tent has always been a great play place for the children.
On Saturday, the kiddies and I headed out to Kildonan Park for a picnic. It was so nice! No bugs! And lots of cars and motorcyles for the boys to look at.
Natalee was trying to get into the sandwiches after her food was gone. She usually has a really good appetite.
Andrew practiced his running. He's getting really fast! Soon he'll be three years old and next year he'll probably be playing soccer!

Standing!

Natalee's latest accomplishment has been pulling herself up and standing. She is extremely excited to be able to do this and experiments all over the house.
Caleb and Joshua have been having lots of fun playing with Natalee now that she's standing. They like to give her toys and then they laugh hysterically when she throws it on the ground.