Dad and the terrible two's!

This has been a rare but nice week. Drew is doing one of his hardest rotations and yet, somehow, he has been around a lot. It's probably due to the fact that he was on-call a lot and whenever he's on-call, he gets the next day off whether or not they need him at the hospital all night. Caleb has been basking in his father's attention and I've been loving having Drew around to share in some of Caleb's energy!! We are definitely in the middle of the terrible two's right now. Caleb has a very strong will power and is starting to fight me on various, random things. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to some of the things he chooses to go to battle over. It's very frustrating. One minute he'll be happy and running around and the next, he's telling me "NO!" and stomping his feet. I know. I was warned this would come. I just didn't think that it would be quite so...I don't know how to describe it other than to say, frustrating! Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore my son. It's just that sometimes, when he's in the midst of a tantrum, I wonder- 'where has my adorable and lovable son gone???'

Enough of that!! Now I'll tell you some of the cute things that Caleb is up to these days. He is starting to play pretend, which is great! It's so fun to watch him as he toddles around the kitchen pulling out various bowls, spoons and measuring cups, telling us he's making us some "hot soup" or an "ice cream cone" that is just "lummy, lummy" (translation: yummy, yummy). He also loves to help cook dinner, wash the dishes, and play with the vacuum (yes, the actual vacuum and no, it's not plugged in- and yes, it has fallen down the stairs once...oops!). A lot of this is practice for Drew and me in patience because although cooking and cleaning end up taking more time to finish when he's helping, it's awesome that he wants to help out so much! Caleb is very, very good at picking up his toys and putting them in the toy bins when he's asked to. He even did it all by himself today after lunch without being asked. He loves, loves, loves to read books and has started "reading" books to himself which is really sweet to see. He also likes singing songs and 9 times out of 10 when he and I are driving in the car somewhere, the radio or music is off and he and I are belting out songs together! I love it. For as much frustration as Caleb brings in to my life, he brings me at least twice as much joy and love, if not more. I'll just keep praying that I survive the terrible two's!!!