This week:

Caleb visited the Fire station with his preschool class. His teacher said that he was very good and paid attention. It was great to get such a positive report. He said he had fun; he then went on and on about what he saw.

Caleb is most proud of himself, as of last night. He went to Awana last night. He and I have been working on learning verses and repeating them back. He went last night with several prepared. He did so great that all the teachers were amazed! He had at least a dozen memorized. He did so well and so much that the teacher said that she was going to have to find a special prize for him for doing so well. He knew so many verses that it took 20 minutes to recite them all, sign off on the pages and get the stickers. He earned a whopping FOUR patches!!!! in one night! He was soaking up the praise from his teacher. He was proud of himself and did a little shoulder strut. He liked hearing from the teacher that she was proud of him. Now he can't wait for me to sew them all on. I'm so glad that this is going so well for him. I'm sad that we will miss the next two Wednesdays, but we will be back in time for the next "book night" and the final awards night. I don't know if Caleb gets any awards yet... but I'm hoping he will because I know he will feel sad if he doesn't get anything, knowing my little sensitive bug-a-boo as I do.

Joshy said Belly Button today. And he loves sitting down and ready books. He is most captured by books with flip-flaps. He doesn't even mind rereading the same book over and over again, in fact it's his idea. Also he can point to his eyes, nose, ears, mouth, and feet. He is learning toes, ankle, knees, and elbow.

Caleb is learning his basics (Colors, numbers, letters) quickly. The greatest thing for him right now is the game UNO. He knows all four colors, plus the rules of skip, drawing cards, and reverse. He wins often which keeps him interested. Yesterday he counted to 9 or 10 (skipping six for some reason). I was shocked at that. I tell him the numbers, but not all that much in the numeric order... but he got it. He loves watching the "Talking Word Factory" too. He learns about vowels ("Sticky letters") and "Blends" like ST in Best. He is doing great. I'm sounding out lots of words with him during our nightly verse learning too. I think he might start recognizing words on their own soon, at least I hope.

Caleb is forlorn and missing his friend Donovyn. Donovyn moved. We went out there one time and came home with a large goose egg with an impact wound on Joshy's head and a big bump on Caleb's head. That night he told daddy he didn't want to see Donovyn again, but by the next morning he had changed his tune. Now he has been asking for close to two weeks to see his friend. In Caleb's words: Donovyn loves him and likes to play with him and so *sniff* I miss him and want to play with him. I'm working on a play date, but it will be difficult to pull off with packing, laundry and our trip coming up.

We are going to California to see Grandma and Papa Bishop on May 2nd through the 9th. Caleb is excited, but he is containing it well. He talks about Chuck E. Cheese as much as the Grandparents Bishop.

Lastly, before I stop the kids from clobbering themselves or Zuma with toys: I'm thinking about having a Caleb birthday get together the afternoon of May 20th. If you're interested, save the date... and maybe even let me know if you are thinking/planning to come. Most likely it will be the Gold Creek again, and probably 4ish (although not set in stone yet). I'm taking comments and input at this time...

Ok, Talk to you later.