Kaleb James

When each of my kids was 18 months old I wrote down a list of everything they were doing, saying, liked, etc. I guess it's a testament to how insanely busy our lives our that Kaleb is now 20 months old and I still haven't gotten around to doing this! Well better late than never, so here goes...

Kaleb at 20 months

Kaleb is by far my most "challenging" child, he has been since the day he was born but along with the challenges come an adorable little personality that has me alternating between laughing hysterically, wanting to pull my hair out and an inability to stop kissing that sweet little face. Kaleb is stubborn, demanding, mischievous and short tempered. But he is also insanely cute, silly, incredibly smart and can be super sweet - especially after he's done something mean. LOL We call him the "Sour Patch Kid" after those commercials with the little Sour Patch Kid cutting off a girl's hair and then giving her a hug and she can't resist him and say "Aw, it's ok" That's so Kaleb! He'll smack you in the head with a toy and then immediately start stroking your face and saying "Soddy" (sorry) It's so hard to stay mad at him! Poor Kobe though, Kaleb must make him cry at least several times a day either hitting him with a toy, pulling his hair or biting him. Kobe is such a sweet brother though and NEVER hits him back. Kevin and I always say it's a good thing Kobe is the big brother. We are trying to work with Kaleb and teach him not to hit/bite/push/pull, etc and I can honestly say he is getting a LOT better now that he is getting older and starting to understand.

Kaleb is very talkative and says a LOT of words, I'll try to list most of them:

Mommy, Daddy, Bobee (Kobe), Daydee (Katie), Mamaaaa (grandma), Nana (this weekend he started saying Morgan "Morgee" and Adam)
When you ask him who he is and point at him he says "Me"
If you say "who wants to ____?" He'll say "ME!" or "Not Me!"
No
Yep and Ya (for yes)
Eee-Ungee (this means "Pee Monkey" - a game on my Iphone he loves)
Murney (milk - not sure why he says it like this but the past few days he's actually been saying "Milk" so I'm sad to see "murney" go, it was so cute!) He does the sign for milk when he says this too
Wardee (water)
cuppy
mote (for remote)
Hi
Bye
Bootie (for his snow boots)
cheese (when he smiles for a picture)
ball
birdie
kitty
doggie
turtie (turtle)
buggy (bug)
ungee (monkey)
pig
bear
Hummer (for any car he sees)
Airpane (airplane)
train
baby
hair
eye
ear
hand
feet
teeth
be button (belly button)
fingie (finger)
leg
arm
eat
pear
stuck
owie
potty
pee pee
"poop" and "pooped"
book
blankie
"dot it"(got it) - he says this when he wipes his nose, or gets something that was hard to reach. It's so cute!
bite
hat
shirt
hot
cold (and shivers when he says it)
shoe
Happy Birday (birthday)
banana
mato (tomato)
dirty
punkin (pumpkin)
want it
snow
blue
lellow (yellow)
"go?" while holding his hands up (like where did it go?)
up (when he wants you to pick him up)
nuu know (I don't know)
soddy (sorry)
yogurt
stroller
bath
all clean
spoon
booberry (for blueberry and strawberry)
grapes
pop (for lolli pop)
guy
all done
broke
uh oh
again
snow and snowing
whoah
gummy (for his gummy vitamins)
pweese (please)
tan ew (thank you)
scared
more (and signs it as well)


I know there are a ton more I just can't think of right now. He talks a LOT. He also understands literally everything. He repeats everything you ask him to and will do whatever you ask him (go get the diapers from the playroom, take these toys and put them in the toy box, etc.)

His nicknames:

Tayub
Monkey
Monkey Moo
Jamie (Katie calls him this because his middle name is James)
Kayub James

We are also working on the potty and he completely understands the whole thing but has a habit of telling us AFTER he poops. The other day he pooped in his diaper, took it off and I walked in on him taking the poop out of his diaper and putting it in the potty. Haha. He pees on the potty pretty consistently and will always make himself pee if you put him on the potty and ask him to so it's pretty easy to keep him dry all day. It's just the poop that is a bit of a challenge. BUT the last couple days he has told me "poop" and then I check his diaper and he is clean and then a few minutes later he comes back and is dirty so I SHOULD have put him on the potty then! While we were driving in Albuquerque last weekend he kept saying "POOP" and kicking his legs and crying in his car seat so we pulled over and I held him on the side of the road and he actually pooped! So we are definitely making progress. :)

When you ask him to show you his muscles, he puts his arms up and shakes like he's straining, it's adorable. He can also identify ALL his body parts, animals and objects in his books and says all the animal sounds. He loves to look at books and would seriously sit in my lap all day looking at books if he could. I'm trying to wean him right now and whenever he asks for milk and I tell him no, he goes "Ughhhhh", it's so funny!

He is the smallest of my kids at this age and I'm sure it's because the boy barely eats! He spits out almost everything you give him. It's such a challenge to get calories into him! He loves fruit (especially blueberries, strawberries, pears and grapes) but he hates meat and bread. I think I need to start getting Pediasure for him. He's lost almost all his baby fat and is pretty lean now. All Kobe's clothes from when he was Kaleb's age are still too big for him. He's still in 18-24 month clothes and is around 26 pounds and I'm not sure how tall because I can't find a measuring tape. Once I find it, I'll measure him and update this post though.

One of my favorite things right now is the sound of him running down the hall barefoot. He still has fat little baby feet and the sound of his feet on the hardwood floor as he runs always makes me smile. He also loves to be tickled and laughs hysterically when you tickle him. He loves to be thrown up in the air and will say "again" over and over to get you to do it more. He's always the "caboose" always running behind Katie and Kobe and loves to be with them and play with them. I don't think there is a sweeter sight in the whole world than watching your children play together.

He is definitely our last child so I'm really trying to cherish the last of his babyness because I know it will be gone so fast and I'll never get to experience this again. Gosh, just typing that makes me sad. But I am also looking forward to him growing up and having the freedom that comes with having all older kids so we can take trips and relax on the beach and do all the things that are so hard to do with a baby in tow.