Caelum is four. Our sweet little bundle of blankets and baby has become a big, bustling boy of four.
I know there's a lot of Caelum's babyhood that is lost in the dark recesses of my mind (see toddler in above picture for explanation), but there are so many sweet memories we've had with him over these past few, FAST years.
Caelum has always been our rough, tough bruiser. While I grant his whininess at times, he is a roll with the punches (or deliver them) guy who, when injured, cries for ten seconds then gets back to playing. Caelum: the 9-month old baby teaching his big brother how to go down slides.
Not so surprisingly, Caelum has been drawn to the world of knights and armor. His favorite Christmas gift was a $14 set of armor from Rainbow. Every morning he would get up and put it on, first thing.
He has the sweetest heart too. He LOVES his siblings with fervor. Esmé and Caelum are becoming close friends and play together often. Perhaps that is why she's so good at making gun noises. He has been nothing but sweet and gentle with her, and kindly lets her have his blanket (which does look a lot like hers) or just about anything he has that she wants.
Owen remains his bestest friend. They play together from the time they get
up until they go to bed...and usually for an hour or so after that.
They do schoolwork together and play LEGOS and board games together.
They enjoy wrestling, flipping off the couch, setting up battling
"worlds" out of Playmobil toys, and playing basketball, football, or a
new one: danger ball. They are very much like puppy dogs.
I love seeing their relationship grow and how they interact together. I pray they are friends for life and that each will seek to protect and care for the other (and of course, Essie).
Caelum had a fun birthday. He came out of his room to a whole lot of balloons in the living room. He looked down at his body and said, "I look so big!" Grandpa Mantis has a song about wearing one's birthday suit that he sings for everyone's birthday. On the morning of his birthday, Caelum and Owen were singing it. Caelum, with the sophisticated humor of a four year old, yelled, "My
underwear is my birthday suit!" The boys thought this was the funniest, most risqué thing ever. And no, I didn't correct them.
As at all times, we celebrated with food. Cae chose cinnamon rolls and green smoothies for his breakfast and Waffle House with Daddy for lunch.
We then went to Barnes and Noble so he could pick out his birthday book, and of course we got an M&M Blondie from Starbucks while we were there. He was riding high from the sugar and ready for a treasure hunt when Zach got home.
Zach had made a scavenger hunt which ended with the clues forming a map, leading to Caelum's treasure. We had given him a telescope and a pirate sword which greatly aided in him finding the X that marked the spot.
Zach came through with a great gift idea for Caelum and Owen: a toolbox with real tools in it. Caelum has frequently raided Zach's toolbox to get screwdrivers for whatever project he's working on, and now he has his very own set.
We had sweet potato chili and cornbread for dinner (thank you for one healthy choice of food for the day, Caelum!), then a few more presents. Gramma and Grandpa drove in and we had chocolate fudge cake with Bobbi frosting. And, you guessed it, more presents.
Having Gramma and "Gampa" there made it really special. Gramma provided
a special birthday edition of her famed Clarabelle stories.
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| Queenie, Clemsonopoly is getting a lot use around here. |
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| Eating mussels. Cae loved them because he's an old man in a child's body. You can see how O felt about them. |
Caelum my dear, we love you so much and thank God for putting you in our family. When you were three, you asked Jesus into you heart, and now that you are four, I look forward to seeing how he draws you closer to him to the praise of his glory. I pray that these days don't go too fast and that you'll grow in the fear and knowledge of God, who loves you "even more than I do."
