He’s on the move!!!

Wednesday August 27, 2008

It’s funny how changes in life often emerge just slow enough that we have time to adjust to them, even if they are changes we have been dreading. I speak of Emet beginning to move around. There is that stage of babyhood where they are finally sitting....but not crawling or moving about that is such a welcome stage for mamas. When they are laying all of the time, they tire of it and want to be held or propped up constantly. When finally they can sit, you can park them in one spot with a small pile of toys, and there they remain. Then you look around your house and begin to dread the day when the babies will be crawling and getting into everything. Well, I noticed this week that we have arrived, ever so slowly – scoot by scoot. Emet isn’t yet crawling, but he can spin in all directions and go from sitting to tummy and somehow push himself backwards on the wood floors to where he wants to go. He loves to get into the magazine rack and eat and rip paper. Caleb has become Mama’s helper in that he can grab baby by the ankles and pull him backwards away from the object of concern if I am busy cooking or the like.

In the past few days, he has become quite the handful when changing his diaper, for the minute you put him on his back, he arches his back and turns with all of his might to end up on his tummy – reaching and grabbing for everything just out of reach. I remember this stage with Caleb. It is just close enough in memory to be odd to have Emet doing the same thing.

I thought today about Emet – being a second child. There are so many things that will inherently be different for both he and Caleb. With Caleb, each stage is new, and we sort of watch to see what happens, what works, etc. With Emet, it will be a comparison and a chance to try new things or relax a bit. Emet will always have a bigger brother to look up to. Caleb is the big brother, but I doubt he will ever remember not having a baby brother.

I feel so blessed to have our two boys. Caleb is growing up and changing so fast. Today he ran along side me, holding onto the stroller as I walked from 199th Street back to the car at Battle Ground Villiage....about ¾ mile. We stopped to pick a few flowers – he always picking one for me and one for himself. Once back at the car, he wants to take his little cars and play in the dirt under the sidewalk trees while I get the stroller unloaded, baby Emet in the car, and the stroller put away. Once I slam the back door, he has been gathering up his toys and proclaiming “Ok, Mama – let’s go!”. What a treasure to a Mama’s heart. His newest thing is to always want to put himself into his car seat (instead of us lifting him up into the seat, or down from it. He cannot yet buckle himself, but this week as Jason and I have forgotten to buckle him two times, he each time has said – “Mama (or Papa), Buckle me!!”

He also loves to make baby Emet laugh, and we will drive along and hear both boys giggling in the back seat. They also now do this more and more at home. Caleb is definitely going through the “mine” stage, and most often desires whatever Emet is playing with, but we are working on sharing.

When we are disciplining Caleb, one thing we do after he does his time out, is have him explain to us what he did. If he is still angry, he has to take the anger out of his heart, throw it on the floor, and stomp on it. Once he relents to do this, it is almost an instantaneous reaction that he is more lighthearted and happy. If he has taken something from, or hurt, baby Emet, he has to go look him in the eye and apologize. As you can imagine, it is hard to look baby in the eye, so it is hilarious to watch as Caleb goes and sometimes lays his face on the floor in weird positions just so he can look baby in the eye and say, “I’m sorry baby Emet I took your fire truck away.”