Russell is 4!

Happy 4th birthday to Russell Sprout!

Four just seems so old, doesn't it?

Here is what Russell is like these days:

• He weighs 28 lbs 1 oz, which is around the 10th percentile.
• He measures 38.5 inches, which is also around the 10th percentile.
• He wears 2T clothes.
• He's obsessed, I repeat, obsessed, with animals.  Pygmy hippos, regular hippos, and rhinos are his favorites, but there isn't an animal that he doesn't like.  Sometimes he says he doesn't like "bad" animals (aka, predators), but most of the time he's still a fan.  
• Loves to tell jokes.  His most common joke goes like this: Why did the chicken cross the road?  To make friends!
• His favorite lunch is hot dogs and steamed carrots.  The only food he doesn't like is avocados.  He's a very adventurous eater and even enjoys spicy foods.  If his picky side ever surfaces and he starts refusing foods (it only happens when he's in a bad mood), we just remind him of our family rule:  We will put the food on your plate, but you don't have to eat it.  He always ends up eating it anyway!  He just needs to have a little control, that's all.
• His favorite snacks are fruit leather and a piece of bread.
• He can zip his own zipper, but has recently convinced himself that he can't.  Same goes for doing up his own car seat buckles.  
• He wakes up early (ugh) and makes his own pop tart for breakfast (nice).
• His hair is wavy and pretty thin.  I think he likes being the blond one in the family!
• He is very thoughtful and is great at sharing with Caleb.  
• He adores his baby brother and knows just how to talk to a baby.  He always makes Zach smile when he interacts with him in any way!
• He is very, very...shall we say "strong-willed."  Ok, ok, he's stubborn.  Sometimes he'll have a fit over something small, like when we ask him to clear his plate, and it'll escalate to needing to scream it out in his room for 20 minutes.  But what he doesn't know is that his mom will always be more stubborn than him.  I learned a long time ago that one key to parenting is to be more stubborn than the child.  ;)  He's not going to get away with anything on my watch!
• The most common source of distress (read: tantrums) for Russell is when we request that he change out of his pajamas.  He strongly prefers to wear pajamas all day, and refuses to wear clothes that aren't "comfortable."  I'm not sure if I should pack up all of his pajamas and make him sleep in regular clothes, or just choose not to fight this battle and let him wear pajamas all day every day and hope that this is just a phase.  I do let him wear pajamas most of the time as long as we're not leaving the house...after all, I would do the same thing every day, if I could.  ;)
• At times, when he's having a tantrum, I've been able to say to him, "Russell, do you think you'll get what you want if you cry?"  And he realizes that crying won't work on me, and he stops.  Clever little manipulator.
• He is also very clever in other ways.  He makes the most witty jokes, and notices the most obscure details.  I love that about him.
• The dentist has been telling us that Russell has a small mouth and his teeth are close together and that he needs to floss better than other kids his age (which isn't a problem, Russ loves flossing) and that he'll need braces.  Yes, we knew when our kid was three that he'll need braces.  Real fun.
• He has told me many times that he doesn't like being called Russ or Russell Sprout.  Only RUSSELL and SPROUT.  I still call him Russ all of the time, and he never corrects me, but if you have that conversation with him, he'll tell you he prefers Russell.
• He gets a lot of compliments from strangers on his eyelashes.  Somehow all of my boys have lovely eyelashes.
• He is very attached to Baby Bear, his small stuffed black bear.  He sleeps with him and brings him places when he's nervous (like to Church) and even uses him to wipe his tears.  Literally.

Russell, I'm glad that you're making up for your difficult infancy by being a wonderful preschooler.  You are full of whit beyond your years, you have an amazing brain for storing animal facts, and you are one of the most caring, giving, and gentle little kids I've ever met.  Russell, never change your gentle ways or your goofy personality.  We love you exactly how you are!

And now for an interview with Russell:

Caleb is SIX!

I seriously can't believe that Caleb is a whole six years old!  That just seems so old to me!  Here is what Caleb is like at 6 years old:

• He weighs 33 lbs 5 oz.  That's 5 ounces less than he did on his fifth birthday.  :(  He got up to 34 lbs 15 oz in February, and we tried an informal tube wean during the summer, since he went through a phase where he cried every time we needed to give him formula, saying he just wanted to eat by mouth.  He is doing a fantastic job eating orally, but even with a bolus of formula when he's asleep at night, he just can't eat enough to grow.  So now we're stuck with the perpetual dilemma of tube-feeding: trying to give him enough formula to grow, but not so much that he's always so full of formula that he's never hungry.  I hate having to pick between a kid who eats or a kid who grows.  It seems that we just can't have both.  :(
• Measures 42 inches tall.  I don't have a record of his height when he turned 5, but he seems to be a whole lot taller!  
• Wears 4T and barely started wearing 5T clothes.
• Makes friends easily at school.
• Has a hard time handling frustrations.
• Loves to sing.
• Wants to be a paleontologist when he grows up.  I made him this paleontologist cake for his birthday, with a dinosaur and dino eggs hidden between the layers.  He loved it!  It was also gluten-free (this recipe, but I subbed in an all-purpose gluten-free flour) and dairy-free, to accommodate Caleb's dietary needs, and also happened to be free of the top 8 most common allergens!  And it was actually pretty fast and easy to make and decorate!  Win-win-win-win!

• His favorite color this week is red.  He has never been able to decide on a favorite color, so we'll see if this sticks!
• He is very indecisive.  Whether it's picking a favorite color or a piece of Halloween candy to eat, it takes him forever to decide anything!
• He is coming along well with math.  The other day, after being tucked in bed, he called me back to his room to tell me that he had counted to 300.  Just yesterday he asked me what 6+6+2 was.  I asked him if he knew, and he thought for a minute, then gave me the correct answer.
• He is doing quite well with reading, too.  He can read a lot of things by sight, but he doesn't feel confident enough to sound out words (even though he knows all of the sounds of the letters).  He can sound out words, but most of the time he just figures out what the words say based on the context and pictures on the page.  I don't see any problems with that!  Although it would sure help if he would just start sounding them out.
• His teacher said at parent teacher conferences that he is doing great in school.  He is nice to everybody (which is what's most important to me!) and he scored as high as possible on the testing she has done (basic stuff, like being able to identify all uppercase and lowercase letters).  She also said that his attention span is completely normal, hallelujah!  
• He has started spelling and writing his own words:
  
   "Russell: I
  love you Caleb.  To Caleb." (He was writing a note from Russell to himself, having Russell tell him he loves him.)
  
  

"[Cat picture] your a a god bhyr," when interpreted means: "Captain Hook, you're a good behavior."

(Looking back at this, I should have let him finish putting on the "ll" at the end before taking the picture.)

• He has a curl in the middle of his forehead that's so stubborn and prominent that he even includes it when he's drawing pictures of himself.

And in keeping with tradition, here is an interview with 6-year-old Caleb!  He was in a somber mood, which made it easier to record him, but it doesn't accurately show his crazy personality.  Still, he's got some good stuff to say!  It's a bit long, so if you don't want to watch it all, the best parts are the beginning and at about 6 minutes.

Sometimes it feels like just yesterday that my life turned upside down when you came 13 weeks early at 2 lbs 7 oz, and sometimes it feels like another lifetime.  You are the most positive, energetic, forgiving, clever, silly person I know.  You test my patience every day, and I'm sure I'll thank you for it some day.  You've always been my inspiration and my example and I cherish you and the chance I get to be your mom.  We love you, Crazy Cal!

Introducing: Zachary! (And a birth story)

Zachary LaVell Purser

7 lbs 5 oz

19 in

37 weeks 5 days

The Birth Story:

For the past month or so, my blood pressure and the protein levels in my urine have been creeping up.  Not bad enough to do anything about, but bad enough to pay a little extra attention to.  At my 36-week appointment my blood pressure spiked higher than ever (just a few points away from declaring preeclampsia) so my doctor told me to go to Labor and Delivery on that next Saturday for a non-stress test (where they monitor Baby's heartbeat and my contractions) and a blood pressure check.  Nate and I had discussed how perfect it would be to have a baby on the Saturday afternoon of a 3-day weekend.  But we both got the feeling that this day was not the day, so I didn't even pack my bags.  I headed off to L&D while Nate stayed home with the kids to mow the lawn.

A neighbor of mine was the charge nurse at L&D when I got there.  She got me hooked up and my blood pressure was reaching new levels.  The first few checks were alarmingly high.  After about half an hour my blood pressure was consistently low, though, which was reassuring.  The not-so-reassuring part of it all was the baby's heart rate.  It was in the safe range, but there wasn't enough variation.  He had been extremely active the night before, but since waking up that Saturday morning he had only moved a few times.  The whole time I was hooked up to the monitor he only stretched out twice, and didn't move at all other than that.  They were looking for his heart rate to increase every now and then, but it didn't move around at all.  After getting a good picture of how the baby was doing in there according to his heart rate, my neighbor/nurse sent the info to the doctor on call.  She came back shortly and said, "How would you like to have a baby today?"  I kinda freaked out inside!  I was excited, but not mentally ready!  She said that he didn't look too bad in there, but not too good, either, and since I was past 37 weeks they'd feel more comfortable getting him out rather than leaving him in.  I had been having the exact same feeling for the few weeks previous, so even though I know that the closer to the due date the better, there are instances where 37 weeks is better than 39 weeks, so we had to go with it!

So they sent me down the hall to a delivery room.  It was about 11AM by this time, and they wanted to monitor me for another half hour before starting pitocin, just to make sure that the baby looked like he could handle pitocin.  If not, they would have done an c-section.  But he looked fine for that next half hour (and for the rest of the induction, too), so they started a very slow, low dose of pitocin to get things started.  At this point I was dilated to 3cm, which is where I'd been for the two weeks previous.  

Nate had to bring the big brothers to their swimming lessons at 12:20, so he didn't get to the hospital until just past 2PM, after gathering my things and getting things situated with the boys.  His sister came to watch them and stay the night.  On his way out, he found the new camera that we had ordered on the front porch that wasn't supposed to arrive for another week.  It was a sign.  ;)  Today was the day, and we needed the new camera to document it!

Shortly after Nate showed up, around 2:30, the doctor broke my water and increased the pitocin.  I was still just dilated to 3cm.  I could feel the contractions, but they weren't painful at all.  Far less painful than the ones I had been having on my own for the past few weeks!  The nurses estimated that he would be born around 8PM.

Right around 5, the contractions started feeling rather painful.  I knew that I didn't want an epidural unless things dragged on, but when the pain gets real you start thinking about it.  ;)

I had always heard that when you deliver without an epidural, you feel "pressure" when you're getting close to pushing.  By "pressure," they really mean you feel like you need to have a bowel movement.  I didn't feel that at any point, but I was starting to feel like I was constipated.  The nurse said that was a good sign so she checked me again.  I was 5.5cm and 90% effaced, and she said it felt like I had a forebag of water that would need to be broken, so she'd have to call the doctor in.  I could feel it break while she was checking me, and that's when things got real.

It's a bit of a blur, but I was having less than a minute break between contractions, so they turned off the pitocin.  I was getting a little frantic with the extreme pain and couldn't stop thinking about the epidural.  They could tell I was close, even though I was only dilated to 5.5cm, so they started getting the room ready, and fast.  I started feeling nauseated.  Not 10 minutes later they checked me again and I was 8cm.  I didn't know what to do with myself, and was going out of my mind, so I started pushing.  The doctor was there and checked me again and I was fully dilated.

My first push was not a good one.  I think I was scared of what would happen if I really pushed.  Then I got scared of what would happen if I didn't push!  They kept telling me to grab behind my knees, but there was no way I was letting go of those bed rails!  I found myself screaming involuntarily.  I gave two good pushes and his head was out.  One more really good push and he was born at 5:49PM!  Just before the nurses' shift change.  ;)

They put him on my belly to rub him and suction his mouth and nose.  They didn't do that with Russell, and I was surprised how wonderful it was!  They left him there for a few moments, until the cord stopped pulsing before cutting it.  Then they quickly took him over for a weight and a diaper before putting him on my bare chest.  We cuddled like that for the next few hours!  It was amazing!  He was still all covered in vernix and blood and nobody cared!  In that time the doctor delivered the placenta and gave me one tiny stitch from a super tiny tear.

He is almost exactly three times Caleb's birth weight and exactly one pound less than Russell's birth weight!

And that's Zachary's birth story!  About 6 hours of labor total, but only about 45 minutes of pain, when I went from 3cm to delivering a baby!  It was all so bizarre, and not what I was expecting, but looking back I can say that it was exactly how I wanted it!  I can't say I'll ever be brave enough to deliver unmedicated again, but it was a really good experience with the happiest of endings!

Caleb is 5!

Happy birthday to my great big boy!

This is what Caleb is like at 5 years old:

• He weighs 33lbs 10oz.  He recently had a big ol' growth spurt, gaining 3 pounds in less than 3 months!  For Caleb, that's incredible!  This is literally his first growth spurt in his entire life (if you don't include the weight he gained immediately after getting his feeding tube).  We even had to pack up all of his 2T clothes.  He's wearing exclusively 3T now!  And his clothes fit him pretty well, too!  It helps that Walmart now carries toddler pants with an adjustable waist for under $10.  We stocked up.  :)
• He is starting to stay dry at night, as long as he wakes up to use the potty.  This is pretty impressive to me, since he currently gets 800ml of formula while he sleeps (that's over 26 ounces!).  He has to unpin his tube extension from his waistband to go potty (we pin it to him at night so it doesn't pull his feeding tube out).  For a while there he was waking us up to help him to the potty, but a few times now he has unpinned his tube himself!  I'm pretty proud of those fine motor skills.  ;)
• He can zip his own jacket.  I remember most of my kindergarten class couldn't even do that!
• He very recently discovered the joy of art.  Just a few months ago he didn't even know how to color inside of the lines and the only thing he could draw was a car.  Seriously.  But now he colors in the lines and comes up with original pieces of art--rainbows (his favorite), monsters, houses with chimneys, people, butterflies, etc.  
• Some art of Caleb's:  a butterfly; Meggie (he drew that picture on the day she was put down); him in front of a house with a door, doorknob, and chimney, as well as green grass that he cut with scissors to be the texture of grass; and two boys who bear a striking resemblance to Caleb and Russell, yet Caleb told me they weren't them, they were bunnies and then he drew tails on them...hmmm....
  
   A super cute monster that he drew on cardboard (we get a lot of boxes around here, and it's always his favorite thing to color on).
  
  
• I made Caleb a rainbow cake, since he's so fond of drawing rainbows.  He always asks me to remind him what order the colors go in.

• He knows and can write the entire alphabet and is starting to sound out words.  I'd guess he could be reading by now if I took the time to teach him, but pretty much all I have the energy for these days is growing his baby sibling.
• He gets worked up easily when he's frustrated with his inability to do something.  We both have to take a lot of deep breaths.
• One of his favorite things to do is make Russell laugh.  It doesn't take much for Caleb to get Russ to laugh, either.  They're truly best friends.  They play so well together.  Of course they have their moments (I swear, they're more likely to fight over something when I'm on the phone), but for the most part they have the best balance I could ever expect from two brothers.
• His other best friend is Nash, as it has been since they were wee babes.
• His best preschool friend is a girl named Maci.  She likes zebras and Frozen and they like to play "kitchen" together.
• He doesn't have a favorite color, but tends to like red.
• He's kind of a follower.  When other people like something, he's more likely to like it as well.  He's not always an original thinker, but he does have great self confidence, which sort of evens it out.
• His favorite toys are games--board games and card games and puzzles and such.  Unfortunately he needs supervision to play lots of them, and he can't play them all day long or the pieces will all get lost.  But yesterday when we asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday, the first thing that popped into his mind was "PLAY GAMES!"
• He picks his clothes and dresses himself every morning.  Sometimes I have to send him back to change--like when he wants to wear shorts when it's 40 degrees out (he's a big fan of shorts, just like his daddy).
• He is super distract-able.  It takes about three reminders to get him to put his shoes on.  Same thing for putting on his seat belt (which he's been doing by himself for a while now, and he's still in a 5-point harness) and his pajamas.
• He loves being helpful--he will set the table without us asking (this is a new thing for him, and we're loving it).  He also loves doing chores, especially cleaning the toilet (no one tell him it's gross, please!).
• He hates brushing his teeth.  Sometimes there are tears.  I attribute it to his oral aversion and his highly sensitive gag reflex.  If he's even the littlest bit sick, brushing his teeth makes him throw up.  But he's been to the dentist three times and always gets great reviews on his teeth, so that's great!  (Even though he only brushes at night....)
• He is a very thoughtful person.  He loves to donate his money to people who have less than him, he always remembers people who are struggling in his prayers, and he just plain likes to please people.
• He's a super snuggler.
• The best word I can think to describe him is enthusiastic.  Everything is exciting to him.  Seriously.  It can be exhausting, but it's an amazing quality.  He sees so much good in the world!

Caleb, we couldn't imagine our family without you.  Life without you would be so boring!  You are a great big brother, a wonderful helper, and a fantastic snuggler.  I love your zest for life, and how you love everyone.  You are a great example to me and I couldn't be more proud to be your mom!

And now, an interview with the man of the hour himself:

Russell is 2!

I can't believe my little baby is a big 2-year-old!  Where has the time gone?  He has changed so much recently and I just can't get enough of his happy, silly, charming little personality!

At 2 years old, Russell:

• Weighs about 21lbs 8oz (not super accurate--I usually only weigh him first thing in the morning after a bowel movement, because if I don't then I've found it could skew the results by up to a pound.  On the morning of his birthday he woke up with a completely dry diaper, so I'm guessing his weight is closer to 21lbs and an ounce or two).  That's not on the charts and it's extremely close to Caleb's weight when he turned 2, even though Caleb was born weighing 2lbs 7oz and Russell was 8lbs 5oz.  I'm not super happy with his weight, but there's not much more we can do about it.
• Measures about 32 inches tall, which I don't think is on the charts, either.  That's the same height as Caleb when he was 2 as well.  And it's just tall enough to graduate from an infant car seat to a convertible car seat (rear-facing, of course).
• When you tell him to say please, he says "pretty please."
• Loves hot dogs, olives, green beans, and marshmallows more than any other food.  He also has quite a sweet tooth, but won't eat things like cake.
• Is super shy of strangers (wouldn't even get close to Santa), although he does love to say "hi" and "bye, love you" to everyone he sees in stores.
• Loves all animals, especially our cat Captain Hook.

• In fact, his favorite toys are his plastic animals, which he always sets up either on the end table or in a line, like this:

• Can count, but it always goes like this: two, free, nine!
• Always says "no!, play!" when we tell him it's time to go to bed.  He does go to sleep on his own right away, though, and sleeps for at least three hours every afternoon and at least 12 hours every night.
• Loves to identify what color things are, but always gets the color wrong...unless it's something that's yellow, because he tells me that everything is yellow.  
• Loves to roughhouse, especially with his brother (and his brother's best friend, as pictured below).

• Will laugh at anything Caleb does.  They often get into laughing fits over the silliest things.  I LOVE it!

Making "silly faces" for the camera.

• Loves babies.  Seriously loves them.  He likes to give them toys, kisses, hugs, hold them, and lay down on the floor next to them.
• Pronounces his name as "Huddo" and Caleb's name as "Taya."
• Is super dramatic at times.  When he doesn't get the answer he wants (no, Russ, you cannot have fruit snacks right after lunch when you hardly touched your food...fruit snacks are a treat and I will not reward you for not eating lunch), he throws himself on the ground.  These episodes don't usually last long, but he sure can put on a show!  I'm surprised he still does it, since he pretty much never gets what he wants when he acts that way...but what can I say!  At least he's persistent!
• Snuggles with his head on my shoulder while I sing him songs before tucking him in for a nap or for bed.  It's my favorite part of the day.  :)  He requests what song he wants, and I sing it.  We sing a lot of made up songs, too, like the Auntie Jenna Song, the Sadie Song, etc.
• Has a best friend--Henry.  Henry's big brother, Nash, is Caleb's best friend, and their mom, Anna, is my best friend.  We're all best friends, and it's the best.  :)  Russell talks about Henry a dozen times a day, always insisting that we mention him in every single prayer, sing "The Henry Song" (which is just Rock-a-Bye Henry on the treetop) when we tuck him in, etc.

• Wakes up asking about everybody in our family.  A usual morning goes like this:

Russ:  Daddy?

Me:  Daddy is at work.

Russ:  Adobe?

Me:  Yes, Daddy works at Adobe.

Russ:  Taya?

Me:  Caleb is getting dressed in his room.

Russ:  Sadie?

Me:  Sadie [the dog] is outside.

Russ:  Auntie?

Me:  Auntie Jenna is at work.

Russ:  Henry?

Me:  Henry is at his house.

Russ:  Sandy?

Me:  Yes, Henry lives in Sandy.

• Gets super excited when I tell him he can have a snack/toy/song/whatever he's been asking for, and jumps up and down saying "favorite! favorite!"
• Excitedly points out when things "match!" or there are "two!" or things are the "same!"  He also uses the word "too" appropriately, such as "Huddo play, too."
• Can walk down stairs just holding onto the rail, but has yet to try walking up stairs.
• Is still gluten-free, although we haven't seen any improvement whatsoever.  In fact, he got much, much worse (I'm talkin' blood in his stools...lots of it, and often) in the first month after removing gluten from his diet.  We noticed that his corn intake was increased by a lot when he went gluten-free, so we cut out the major corn products (just corn flour, but not things like corn syrup, corn starch, corn oil, etc) and he hasn't had any blood since then.  I'm hopeful that we'll be able to add gluten back to his diet soon, but hopefully we won't have to cut out all corn products.  After over two years of meticulously reading labels for Caleb, I can confidently tell you that corn and all of its derivatives would be by far the hardest single food to avoid.
• Can pull his pants up when they're falling down.  If you're one of my Purser boys, that's a necessary skill.  If you're a Purser boy's mom, that is a milestone worth recording!
• Calls onesies "pockets" and likes to stuff things in them:

• Loves to help out with things like emptying the dishwasher, wiping down the dinner table, and cleaning all of those dirty hand prints off of the walls (so many dirty hand prints!).
• When you ask him how old he is, he answers "BIG!"
• Likes to think that his belly button is the equivalent of Caleb's feeding tube.  Every time he takes Caleb's syringe and puts it in his belly button, he says "ouch!"  I don't know why...it doesn't hurt Caleb when I tube feed him!  He also tries to put his rice milk straight from his sippy cup into his belly button, and he loves to help me feed Caleb by holding the syringe.  Just today, he was getting cranky in the car but didn't really have anything to complain about, so he said in a winy voice, "Button hurt."  Caleb said, "But Russell, you don't have a button!"  We all laughed and laughed!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Happy second birthday, Russell!  We love you to pieces!

Caleb is 4!

Can you believe it's been four years since my little man came into the world?  That day was one of the scariest, best days of my life.

Every year on this day I think about what we've been through.  His first year was a roller coaster, no doubt, and ages 2-3 were pretty awful with lots of vomiting and more questions than answers.  I'm glad to say that we finally have a few things figured out and things are looking up!  Let's hope it only gets better from here on out!

Some things about Caleb at 4 years old:

• He weighs 28lbs 4oz.  He has gained four pounds in the past year, which isn't much, but all of that has been gained since his DGE (delayed gastric emptying) diagnosis in January.  After being treated with augmentin (1 teaspoon 2x daily) to speed up his digestion, he immediately gained over two pounds.  That was a big deal after having no weight gain in about 8 months.  A few months ago he started plateauing again, so we started giving him 1.5 teaspoons of melted coconut oil through his tube 2-3x a day, and that helped him pack on the next few pounds.  I'm afraid that he's starting to plateau again now that it's sick season, but we plan to stay as quarantined as possible so we don't lose too much ground.
• He wears 2T and 3T clothes.  His 2T clothes are getting short on him these days.  Yay!
• He wears size 8 and 9 shoes.
• He still doesn't eat much by mouth (maybe 100 calories...today it was two baby bites of a hot dog, about 8 green beans, one pea, a minuscule nibble of a piece of pineapple, a little graham cracker square with a melted chocolate chip on it, and a starburst...some days are better, some are worse).  He gets about 17 ounces of medical formula mixed with rice milk through his feeding tube pumped at about 50ml/hour while he sleeps at night, as well as 6 ounces in the mid afternoon and 6 ounces before bed (both fed via gravity feed), and hopefully a few ounces at breakfast or lunch (it's hit and miss), plus a few teaspoons of coconut oil.  He also gets four ounces of water first thing every morning, and gets his tube "flushed" with about half an ounce of water after every feeding.  It sounds like a lot, but it's really not.  That's a minimum of 29 ounces of rice milk and formula combined, plus about 5 ounces of water, and 100 calories of real food.  I wish we could give him more, but it's so hard to increase his volume without making him throw up!
• His favorite thing to do is play outside in the sand by himself, with the dog, or with his brother.  

• If you ask him, he'll say his best friend is Russell.

His next best friend is Nash, but judging by these pictures he's actually a bigger fan of Nash.  ;)

• He is finally forward-facing in his car seat.  When we got our mini van in June/July, we asked him if he wanted to face forward or backward, and he chose backward.  So backward he stayed!  Until he noticed that a few of his friends were facing forward.  When he mentioned it to me, I asked him if he wanted to face forward, too, and he said yes.  Since the switch, it's so much easier getting him in and out of his car seat!  I can even buckle and unbuckle him from the driver's seat.  It's pretty awesome.  Although, we have yet to reveal to him the pleasures of having a DVD player in the mini van.  I'm hoping to keep that one a secret for now.  ;)

• He sleeps in his own big-boy bed!  He stayed in his crib well past his 3.5-year mark without ever climbing out of it.  It was working really well for him, until a few months ago when he started waking up in the night asking to use the potty.  We wanted to capitalize on the opportunity to have him nighttime potty trained since he gets a lot of fluids through his feeding pump while he slumbers, so we decided it was time to put him in a toddler bed to make the potty easier to access.  We put a little hook on the wall by his bed to hang his backpack with his feeding pump so he could just grab it and go to the potty.  For a while he was asking help to go potty many nights out of the week, but it's been a while now since he's gone.  Oh, well.  Some day.

• Nap times are a thing of the past.  Whoever said that "a child will sleep when they're tired" has clearly never known a child like Caleb.  He doesn't get drowsy when he's tired, he gets more wild than usual, and he's usually pretty wild.  You don't want to see him when he's tired!

• He does a great job of staying in his bed at night time.  I'm sure it's mainly because he is tethered to his feeding pump, but he has never once gotten out of bed to join us in our room in the night.  Sometimes he will come down the stairs shortly after being tucked in, but not often.  And in the morning, he almost always stays in bed until I come to get him up.  It's ideal.

Except for a few times, when he has left his bed after being tucked in and waits for us on the stairs, where he eventually falls asleep, pump backpack and all!

• He is allowed to eat anything but the top 8 allergens, is known to have eosniophilic reactions to dairy, soy, and wheat (debatable, but for now we're considering wheat a "fail") and still has to trial the other top allergens, and goes wild if he consumes red food dye (so it's also not allowed).  We just started an egg trial.  It sounds so complicated, but it is so much easier than where we've been!  We can actually share family dinners!
• He can hold a conversation with anybody and everybody, is super easy to understand, and uses correct grammar (other than "I don't want no -fill in the blank-"), but still likes to regress back to Russell's style of talking (ugh), probably because Russ gets attention for talking in his little learning way.  It happens a million times a day.  Not my favorite thing.
• He isn't one bit shy.  Not one bit.  While trick-or-treating, he said to one person, "So, how is your day going?"  He also likes to tell strangers, "My name is Caleb.  My dad is Nate and my mom is Anna.  My brother is Russell, and the girl in our house is Auntie Jenna."  We talk often about how he shouldn't talk to strangers, and what to do if one tries to take him.  He's great at reciting "I bite and kick and scream," but I don't think he could identify a stranger if his life depended on it.  That's why I keep my eye on him every second when we leave the house!
• He gets himself dressed on his own, so he sometimes ends up with some pretty creative outfits.
• He tries my patience on an hourly basis.  
• He has some pretty intense sensory needs--can't stop touching things, talking, moving, or putting things in his mouth (other than food).
• He is a pretty sweet big brother.  I'm fairly certain that he doesn't see Russ as inferior to him because he's two years younger.  They talk and play so well together (a lot of the time--not always).  
• He is suddenly very scared of things.  If there's an intense scene of a movie, he runs to the playroom doorway and pokes his head around the corner to watch.  He has seen a few movies in theaters and always does awesome while there, but when he had the chance to see Despicable Me 2 for a second time, he absolutely would not go because he was scared of the purple monsters.  
• He has an amazing memory.  He not only talks about the Christmas tree that he had in his room last December, but he talks about how we sing one song and open one present every night in December, and how the presents are wrapped in paper that he finger painted.  Sometimes I don't even know what he's talking about because I don't remember as much as he does!

And now, here is an interview with Caleb on the day after he turned 4:

And a few "then and now" pictures (no smiles...I'm just happy to have a few that weren't completely blurry):

Isn't he amazing?  He sure has come a long way and beaten a lot of odds!  We love our little miracle!