Caleb-isms

*As we were driving in the car today, Caleb said, "Mom, I need to get a pair of punching mitts!" He was talking about boxing gloves but I thought "punching mitts" was much more clever.

*Caleb didn't want to go to bed tonight, so he was giving every excuse in the book not to stay in bed. At one point, he stood at the top of the stairs and hollered, "Mom! I'm going to wear my comfy shirt to bed!" I thought, "What the heck?" and went to see what he was talking about. There he was, at the top of the stairs, wearing his pajama bottoms and a bright red Christmas sweater. He pulled it out of his closet and decided to wear it to bed. I told him it was fine, but he felt the need to argue his case even further, explaining that this sweater (that he's only ever worn once in his life) was the "most comfiest sweater EVER". Okay......

*They always say that you shouldn't cheer kids on when they eat because they might end up requiring cheering at every meal. I read this when Caleb was young, and thought, "I'll never do that!", however, as the years have gone by, the cheering has seemed to work. Tonight, we had meatloaf for dinner. Caleb had a melt-down, mostly because he was tired, but also because he refused to eat the two bites of meatloaf that we put on his plate. Almost a whole hour went by with Caleb moving from the living room to his bedroom and back to the kitchen table---the whole time saying that he doesn't like what I put in the meatloaf and that he wouldn't eat it. Finally, Chris said, "Caleb, we'll cheer for you if you eat your dinner." Caleb got a sparkle in his eye and said, "Okay!" Instantly, he was happy and he sat down to eat. It really turned into a family affair because after each bite that Caleb would take, the whole family (Chris, myself and Hannah) would cheer and clap super loud. Hannah thought it was the best thing ever and she was laughing and cheering the loudest of the three of us. The loudest in the house, however, was Jack who had no idea what we were doing so he was barking his head off as we were cheering. The whole charade got Caleb to eat his dinner, but I really don't think I can handle being a cheerleader every night!!