Six

Yesterday was Caleb’s 6th birthday.  I can’t believe how old he has gotten so quickly.  He is turning into such a little gentleman.  I love just watching him play.  He will go out in the back, pull out a chair in the shade and just sit and relax.  Or he will say he needs some alone time and go into his room to read.  I am still working up the nerve to send Caleb and Toby to bed at different times, so we have been letting Caleb read for a while in bed before he has to go to sleep.  He picks out a few books to read and/or look through and has a booklight so Toby doesn’t see from the bottom bunk.  I always tell him that I will come in and let him know when it is time to go to sleep, but I usually get called in and handed the stack of books and light. Caleb idolizes his Dad.  Andy has an Ipod and Caleb got an mp3 player for Christmas.  He likes to listen to it just like Dad.  He has all of the songs that are loaded on it memorized.  It is so cute when he can sing along to the radio, but my favorite is when he belts out the song when he has his headphones on.  He also likes to dress like Andy.  He gets out a polo and his belt, tucks his shirt in and says he matches Dad.  

I don’t think I could have asked for a better firstborn.  He is a leader and a helper and is such a great big brother.  I am not saying he doesn’t get in arguments with his siblings or battle over toys with them, but he usually has their best interest at heart.  He sits next to Nellie in the car and is such a big help.  I had a dentist appointment last week and for various reasons brought all of them with me.  Toby and Nellie were in the double stroller and Caleb and Lucy sat in chairs in the tiny cleaning room.  I put Caleb in charge of Nellie if she needed anything.  As soon as I sat in the chair, he asked where the spit up blanket was so he could clean up her spit up. When she started crying about being in the car seat he took out the emergency pacifier and got her calmed down.  I only felt comfortable bringing Nellie because Caleb was there.  On Saturday was Caleb’s last flag football game.  I stayed home because we had a construction crew at our house.  Since Andy is one of the coaches the kids had to stay home.  Toby cried when they left.  A few minutes later the phone rang and it was Caleb calling from Andy’s phone.  He said that he wanted to talk to Toby because he was crying so hard.  He has the most scuffles with Lucy, mostly because he is the closest with her.  Although she often is playing superheroes or some other game he thought up, he is willing to play house and wedding with her. 

Caleb loves to take pictures

 While he often seems so old he melts my heart with his innocence.  He still wears the Spiderman costume that he got in 2008.  It is getting way too small.  He will still wear it under his clothes thinking he is stealth, but the bulging muscles always give him away.  He has been getting himself dressed right away in the mornings, so on Sundays I often have to have him change for Mass.  His new idea is to put his church clothes over his other clothes so that he can make a quick change when we get home.  Usually you cannot tell he has two layers on, but this week his shorts kept showing.  He wanted his Spiderman cake for the 3^rd year in a row.  This was my worst decorating job of the 3, but I blame it on having a newborn. 

 Caleb made a calendar at school.  He has it clipped to his bed and crosses out the days each night.  For the last month he was counting down the days until August, until his birthday.  I brought up how many days left and reminded lots of people because he beamed at the mention of his birthday.  I didn’t want his birthday to be a let down after all of his anticipation.  Last year he had asked me to call him “birthday boy” all day, so I repeated it again. Andy and I kept thanking him for being born and he kept thanking us for being born.  As shy as he can be about being the center of attention, when it is your birthday it is always awesome.  When I told Caleb that we got him a birthday present that we thought he would loved, he guessed that is was a Spiderman webshooter.  It was a remote control helicopter.  He thought it was awesome, especially the fact that is said ages 14+.  He also got Lego Batman for Wii, a game he had been wanting.  He kept asking for a friend birthday party, but with a newborn I didn’t really feel up to organizing it (we said next year he can have one).  Instead we had a cousin lunch.  Aunt Jaime and Aunt Cathy came up with the cousins for some 6 year old fun. 

 I love you, Caleb.  I am so lucky to by your mom.  I can’t wait to see what your future holds.