Ewan's Corner

It’s now official – unless he arrives early (and that seems unlikely), Daniel will be born (induced) this Wednesday 12th April 2006 :-) Everything is less stressful this time around – I am incredibly excited, but not nearly as worried. Fewer unknowns make for fewer worries, and we both know that we can handle this baby thing now… and because Daniel and his brother are less than 2 years apart age-wise, we haven’t yet got out of the habit of waking up in the middle of the night. We think Caleb understands that his brother is in mommy’s tummy, but more that I’m not sure – we’ll just have to wait and see how he reacts.

The most important thing I remember from Caleb’s birth is the phrase "Giving birth is not a medial emergency". I don’t even remember who said it, or where I read it, but if anyone had to ask me for the most important thing to remember when your wife gives birth, that phrase would have to be it.

Caleb at 21 months – a snapshot

He counts to 10 now (often skipping 1 and 2), and counting to 5 usually means he wants his milk (5 scoops makes a bottle :) He knows so many words now i could never write them all down – my favourites are "wowwee!" when he amazes himself, and "dishis" for delicious – and he says things like "ants bite you" (checking his pants for ants), "bean is hot" at suppertime, "naughty tiger" (Shere Khan), "look, plaster!" (proudly), "i seeeee you!", "nappy change" / "i poo" (useful that) and "how ya doin’, grammie?". He has replaced most of his "baby" words with their adult equivalent – "nano" (banana) has become "banano" and "dana" is now dummy (which makes his mom sad :-)

His timing is improving too – he knows how to instantly turn a parent’s frustration / anger into love, guilt and awww factor with a single "sorry, mommy" or "nice hug". He now says his own name, or rather a mix of "BeeBop" and "Caleb" which comes out as "K-Bop". He loves to read books with us (in particular The Jungle Book and The Very Hungry Green Caterpillar). He loves his animal cards and can name almost all of the animals, and loves to do animal noises (the Monkey is his favourite). He sings along to Old McDonald, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and certain Robbie Williams songs.

Putting him to bed is usually easy now – his routine is well established (Daddy comes home, play while mom cooks supper, supper for all, bath and bubbles, and then straight to bed – +-8pm). I love to just watch as he falls asleep, turning onto his side, making little sighing noises and clutching his "piggit". He usually wakes early in the morning, and demands to be taken to "mommys bed" – along with the toy animal of the moment. He picks flowers for his mom when we go for a walk, and laughs and says "funny" when we laugh. He loves to take a shower with a parent – happily singing and playing with his toys, driving his toy broombrooms up and down the walls and saying "byebye water" when he gets out. He has no fear on his plastic bike – he takes years off his gran’s life riding backwards down the driveway, and doesn’t understand why dad won’t let him ride down the complex driveway.

I actually enjoy shopping trips when it’s just dad and son – he loves playing with the fountain at his favourite mall, running around delighting the grannies, stealing things off shelves and trying to improve his already good shoplifting skills. He loves biltong, cheese, yoghurt, pasta, tomatoes, porridge and peas – and hates most meat, chocolate Pronutro and nasal spray. He loves watching the monkeys when they come into our garden, and watches ants for minutes at a time.

Two moments i don’t ever want to forget:

1. Caleb on a sugar rush (thanks to half a kiddies juice from Steers, almost 90% sugar and we never usually give him sugar and sweets). He danced and spun wildly round the kitchen for ages, singing and laughing madly and making us imitate him. We both laughed so hard we cried.
2. One night a few weeks ago when mom was at antenatal classes (one of the classes Dads weren’t allowed to attend) – Caleb was overtired and grumpy and I was exhausted and totally out of patience. He was sitting on his changing mat, wrapped in a towel after his (unpleasant for both of us) bath when he suddenly reached out, slowly and carefully touching each of my cheeks, then with both hands wipes his palms carefully down my forehead nose and lips and said "daddy wash". He almost made me cry, and he made me realise how worthwhile all this effort is.

One Response to “Amazing little Caleb, and Daniel’s Imminent Arrival”