Caleb is two!!

A few months ago our little man turned 2 years old.
With that in mind I realized it was way overdue for me to update you all on all things Caleb. He is definitely your typical two year old little boy and by that I mean he is rambunctious, lively, loud, temperamental, and a bit of a daredevil. He is also an incredibly sweet, good natured, funny, charming, friendly, and loving child. Most days you can find us passing time while Sabrina is in school by  having playdates with his rather large group of friends, making trips to the playground (his favorite place on earth), building muscles at The Little Gym or just running errands. Our little dude is  pretty busy for a two year old but he seems to thrive on all the action. If we are having a rare day at home he will often appear at my side holding up my car key and ask to "go go go" Have to say his willingness to be out and about makes him a pretty nice sidekick for me!

While he loves to run around and be a crazy two year old be also has a quiet side. He loves books and will sit for long periods of time with a stack of books next to him looking at the pictures and occasionally asking them to be read. He also is currently obsessed with trains and train tracks. I scored on Craigslist and found him a pretty substantial train set with a table and he will play with it for hours at a time. Coloring, painting and other forms of art are not really on his radar-he would rather scribble on the wall than on a peice of paper so needless to say he does not get the opportunity to express that creative side all that often.

He seems to have a pretty well developed sense of humor. We are convinced he "gets" the joke more often than not. His favorite type of jokes are knock knock jokes. His current favorite is knock knock, who's there? Poppy. Poppy who? Poppy pooped!! :)

Sabrina is still his favorite person on earth. The two of them are definitely partners in crime and are often in cahoots plotting against me. They love to sneak up behind me and scare me-its a good thing I have nerves of steel!! Caleb is more than happy to let Sabrina take the lead in their play which makes her happy enough to play with him. They love to pretend to be animals and I have to say they make pretty convincing puppy dogs and birds. They have their moments but its make me so proud to say how close they are. I hope this continues for the rest of their lives.

Below are some pictures from the life and times of our little guy:

On his second birthday-of course it was an Elmo Party!

Pretty cool cake for a two year old

With his little friends at his birthday party. We outsourced it this year and had it on a  weekday morning at a local music venue that has a daily kids show. The band Rocknoceros was playing that day, its his favorite band and he loves to jam out to their not annoying kids music.

Painting a picture-we only let him use the water paints for now-I shudder to think of what would happen with actual paint.

Snuggling with his big sister on a nice day.

Being silly

Posing with his buddy Ali at Sesame Street Live hence all the Elmo gear :)

Posing with his long lost twin-or the fat baby at the sushi restaurant as he is known in our house.

Best Buddies!!

He LOVES his cousin Dean!

He is also something of a ham :)

Playing with his sister

Learning to swim

Following in the Michl tradition of being handy with tools

One very happy Caleb-he was with his Poppy, his sister and in a pool

Dyeing eggs for Easter with his playgroup friends

Caleb and Ali during their gym class

Cheese!!!

His favorite pastime-eating!!!

With a few of his playgroup buddies

Eating dinner with good friends

More playgroup friends

Christmas 2011

So I know its the beginning of summer around here and I'm the first to admit I've been a total blogging slacker. I'm going to make an effort to stay more current but first we need to catch up. Lots has happened since early December :) so here goes:

Christmas evening found us breaking in the new XBOX Kinect Kyles parents gave us. We love it and the kids really enjoy how interactive it is.

My Christmas Chef-dinner this year was delicious as usual. Love that he cooks for us-its hard work but he does such a great job.

Posing with the Christmas loot

Getting Santa's water and cookies ready

With Grammie and Grampy at the Michl Christmas

We introduced Sabrina to the candlelit Christmas concert at the Kennedy Center this year. She LOVED it and loved having time with us and her grandparents. Big thanks to Uncle Tony who babysat Caleb!!

Us at the Kennedy Center

Sympathy in timeout!

With a four and a half year old and an almost two year old it's not uncommon to see a little person in the corner for a timeout at any time of the day. I have to stay alert because the sibling who is not in trouble will often try to sneak over to the troublemaker of the minutes in order to offer some support.

Well it looks like timeouts are on the brain. This is how I found the doll family after being played with Sabrina and Caleb.

Apparently they don't share well with each other :).

Second time is the charm

We took the kids to meet the mall Santa a few days after Thanksgiving. This was the result.

After Sabrina's Christmas Pageant the kids had the opportunity to meet Santa once again. Looks like the whole Christmas thing has sunk in with Caleb and he followed him around like a puppy. I think it's safe to say he has joined the Santa fan club!!

Sabrina goes to the Kennedy Center!!

This past weekend Kyle and I and both of our parents escorted Sabrina to her very first concert at the Kennedy Center. I'm not quite sure which she liked best, getting "fancy" dressed or the 200 person choir singing Christmas carols. Both were pretty impressive :)

At the end of the concert during the Hallelujah Chorus a young man a few rows ahead of us got down on one knee and proposed. Pretty romantical no?

Halloween parade!!

We officially kicked off Halloween today with a parade at Sabrina's school. The kids got to wear their costumes to school(this was a source of major excitement in our home) and they went to each classroom to trick or treat. After munching on come pumpkin bread and other goodies they met us parents in the back of the school for pictures and to parade around in their costumes.

Posing with her classmates.

Sabrina as Ladybug Girl!!

Meet Allen aka Wolverine. He is Sabrina's first crush and from what little interaction I've seen he seems to be very friendly with her as well. Based on the feedback from her teachers he is something of a Pre-K Casanova and ALL of the girls in the class like him. Never fear, we've already ordered the background check ;)

Marching around...

Caleb enjoyed the parade too!!

Sabrina the gymnast!

In an effort to help Sabrina with her coordination and build up some strength we signed her up for a weekly gymnastics class. She goes once a week for about an hour and is in love with it. They have them jump on trampolines, walk on balance beams, and work on their tumbling. Recently they allowed us parents in the gym area so we could snap a few photos. Enjoy!!

Practicing her champion pose!
Working on her balance.

Caleb has to hang out for the hour, luckily he has his buddy Allie to keep him company-between her and a good snack he is generally pretty well behaved.

Working on her tumbling-flexible much??

Happy girl!!

School's in session

Sabrina started Pre-K the second week in September. She goes to school five mornings a week and so far (fingers crossed) loves her class and her teachers. This is a new school for her this year and she seems to have adjusted pretty well. She already has two buddies she is friends with and according to her teachers she has started to open up and is the chatty cathy we all know and love :) Caleb was a little lost the first few days but he enjoys having Mommy all to himself. He and I are having lots of quality time together between our two playgroups, his Gymboree class, errand running, and just one on one time at home we are busy but having lots of fun!!