The Growing Caldwell Family

Easter morning was beautiful, but a little windy.  The service was nice and everyone behaved!  Who could ask for more? I could just eat him alive!  He was so proud of himself. He picked up about two eggs before he bolted for the playground equipment!   Aunt Nay joined us for the egg hunt and Sissy had so much fun with her! Sissy couldn't resist playing on the playground either.

We had a great Easter morning!  I planned the whole morning out so that we had time for the Easter bunny and still be at church to get a seat at 8:30.  We had to wake Sissy, but the excitement of seeing what the bunny brought was plenty to get her out of bed! The Easter Bunny brought lots of fun things for them.  Their big items were a play-doh sweet shop set for Sissy and a lawnmower for Charlie.  Both of them were big hits.  Their baskets also had books, wind up toys, slinks, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, Magic Clip princess dolls for Sissy, and a train and bear for Charlie.  There were bunny shaped pretzels, jelly beans, and the biggest hit, Peeps! Sarah Graves wanted to leave carrots out for the Easter Bunny and she had the idea to leave him some water.   She was most excited to have an Anna Magic Clip doll.   Charlie particularly enjoys pulling the starter on his lawnmower! I don't know where Charlie learned about Peeps, but he was very excited to get i

We had a super-fun girls afternoon having lunch and going to see Annie!   Sarah Graves was so excited to be one of the big girls!  She proudly sported a headband and carried her purse (filled with snacks).  Before we left, she told me in her most grown up voice, " if you see me leaving my purse, just let me know."   Mom planned the afternoon and treated us to the event.  So much fun to spend the afternoon all together! The stage show was a little different from the movie, but very well done and fun to see.  Sissy was focused pretty much throughout and wasn't put out by the parts that differed from the movie.  We had fantastic seats, so that helped. I look forward to more big girl outings with these ladies!

I think spring has finally made it to Atlanta!    We bought some flowers to plant and SG wanted to make sure they had enough water!  Hopefully, she got a green thumb. Our dogwood in the backyard is blooming and looks so gorgeous!  I love how beautiful all the trees are in bloom.  Of course, with that comes allergies.  It's worth it!

Charlie got his cast off on Tuesday!  He had it on for 8 weeks and we were all glad to be done with it!  He was happy to get it off, but a little nervous too.  I think he wondered what they might do next.  After all, he had two other casts.  Dr. Lourie examined his hand and checked the x-rays.  The bone in the finger is straight now, but a tendon is tight and causing it to turn in a little.  We met with the occupational therapist and she made a splint for his finger to pull that tendon and try to stretch it.  She also showed me how to stretch his finger in order to help the tendon relax and allow the finger to be straight.  He doesn't like any of it! He rips the splint off after just a minute and he pulls his finger away when I reach to stretch it.  I manage to stretch it, but we will have to do something different for the splint.... Here's a picture of the signatures he acquired from the Easter Bunny and the lady who cut his hair!  He was very proud of his Easter Bunny s

Sarah Graves had her four year well-visit with Dr. Pitts.  She is in great health and growing well.  Because she is a little older now they gave her a paper gown to wear.  She was delighted with it!   She is 41 inches tall (57th percentile) and weighs 36 pounds and 4 ounces (47th percentile).  Her hearing is great and she is doing all the cognitive things a four-year-old should do. The pediatrician wanted to be sure she gets enough exercise and that her screen time is limited - both of them are just right.  He was a little concerned about her eating habits and would like me to speak to the occupational therapist and insist that we focus on oral motor activitiy.    We did an evaluation with OT, but haven't had any therapy sessions yet. She received a vaccine for Hepatitis A and also had her iron levels checked.  She wasn't thrilled about having needle sticks, but she was very brave and got through it with ease. 

Charlie knows that's what the Easter Bunny does and he told the bunny that as soon as he sat down.  He was also fascinated with the glasses and told the bunny about those, too!  The highlight for Charlie was when the Easter Bunny signed his cast! Sissy was much more focused and willing to pose!  She really is getting so grown up and proudly sat with the bunny for her picture.  She also has lots of ideas about what the bunny might bring her and it isn't all candy! Love these two!

Charlie loves to watch Frozen on the iPad!  He got himself situated like this to watch!  

Sarah Graves loves play-doh and now she is hooked on this air dry clay.  It's a little messy, but she loves it and works at it patiently. You have to love the tie dyed shirt with her tiara!

My kids love marshmallows, as in, they go crazy for them!  When I saw this Easter craft making a bunny face using marshmallows, I knew it would be a hit.  The person who posted it said that she keeps her kids from eating all the marshmallows by telling them after every 10 marshmallows they glue on, they can eat 2.  This worked for Sarah Graves.  Charlie claimed he didn't know anything about counting and all marshmallows should be for eating!

With mom's help, I took both kids for well-visits.  Charlie loved the aquarium in the waiting room.  Charlie is growing like a weed, surpassing the height and weight increases expected for this time period.  He weighs 27 pounds and 3 ounces (79th percentile), is 32 1/2 inches tall (33rd percentile), and has a head circumference of 18 3/4 inches (50th percentile). He is in great health and the doctor agreed that he has amazing verbal skills.  Dr. Pitts is very experienced and so good that Charlie doesn't resist at all.  He even showed off a few of his animal noises for the doctor! He received a polio vaccine and had blood work done to check iron levels (standard practice).  He barely fussed about the shot and was as still as could be for the bloodwork.  Such a trooper!

Charlie has been struggling with going from two naps to one.  Some days he still wants that morning nap, then struggles through the afternoon only to fall asleep on his way home.  He is so sleepy and so beautiful to watch.   He will work it out soon enough.  For now, we will just relish being able to hold a sleeping baby.  

Charlie has fallen in love with books and can't get enough!  He asks to read constantly from the time he wakes up until he goes to sleep.  He is quite particular about which book he wants to hear and will tell you no if he doesn't want to continue!   Sarah Graves likes to read, too and will often read to herself.  She can remember some of the passages that she really likes and will say them word for word.  She often gets out of bed to come ask a question about a particular name or word for something in a book that she can't remember.  Once she confirms it, she will head back to bed to "read" her book some more!  

I picked Sarah Graves up from school on Friday and reminded her that it was Friday.  She excitedly said, "It's the weekend!  Yeah baby!"  That is exactly the way I feel when we make it to Friday night and finally feel like we have a little more time to enjoy being together and have time for serious fun.

Dear Charlie, How quickly the time passes and each day I realize more what a big boy you are now.  You look much like your Sissy, but you have your own personality and it keeps us all on our toes! You are a talker!  You can communicate quite well with words and when those don't get your meaning across you gesture and find a way to let us know.  One of my favorite things that you say is, "hold you" with your arms up for us to pick you up!  You tend to repeat things two to three times in a row, so it sounds more like, "Hold you! Hold you!"  You also call, "help" and "stuck" when you need it.  You have been learning animal sounds and surprise us all when you begin to meow and pretend you are a cat!  You are also fond of roaring like a lion and woofing like a dog.  Similar to your sister, you say, "mer" when you want more of something. You have a lot of enthusiasm!  You wake up sometimes and tell me you want to eat and when I tell yo

We went to the Silver Comet Trail for SG to ride her bike and we walked.  It was a beautiful afternoon and it felt so good to be out enjoying the weather.  Sarah Graves rode much further than I thought she would and is working on staying in her lane.  She really wants the training wheels off, but has a ways to go before she is ready.  Hopefully, we will have many more chances to get outside right now.

Yesterday, Charlie had another surgery to remove the pin from his finger.  It was a quick procedure and he has a new cast for another two weeks.  We chose a blue cast this time. When he got to pick a prize, he ran to the toy cabinet and immediately started saying, "Anna, Anna, Anna" when he saw the sparkly knock off Barbie!  All things princess make him think of Anna from Frozen!  Needless to say, Aaron couldn't sway him from picking that prize. He refuses the pain medicine even though I think he understands that the medicine will stop the hurt.  He isn't in a ton of pain, buT some ibuprofen would help.