Handsome Little Bully

Since Caleb was born, Joel and I have developed "germ-a-phobia." The NICU staff engraved into our heads the importance of hand washing, especially before touching Caleb. I think we are keeping the Purell, Germ-X and Clorox bleach wipes companies in business. For this reason, we have a lot of anxiety taking Caleb to new places where he will encounter other people's germs. (Stores, the library, church, and even our friends' houses) We've gotten a lot better this summer and every time we take him someplace, we seem to be a little more relaxed about it.
Because of our fear of him getting sick, we've never taken him to get his pictures taken professionally. Those of you who have been to our house know that we don't lack cute pictures of him, but it's not the same as having them done by someone else. (Just ask our friend Jason, who counted how many pictures of Caleb we have in frames or on the walls!) It's something that "normal" kids get to do several times before their 2nd birthday. I wanted him to experience that too. There is a new photography studio in Brookfield, which was running a grand opening deal. I figured since the place is brand new, it would be relatively clean. And since it was pretty cheap, I figured that if he didn't cooperate, we couldn't be out a lot of money. He did great during the shoot. The pictures turned out adorable and I had a very hard time narrowing over 50 poses down to four. They didn't scan very good, but here's an idea of what they look like:






While we were waiting to see the photos, Caleb wanted to play at the Lego table they had in the waiting area. Yes, I even let him play with Lego's that had been touched by lots of kids and probably never were washed. (Although my skin was crawling when I watched him play) There was a little girl playing there already, leaving five empty chairs for Caleb to choose from. Well, our little man decided that HE wanted the red chair so he proceeded to try and push the little girl off the chair (she was twice his size). I think he caught her off guard and she just sat there, so he pushed again and started signing "me" and gave her a little yell. Translation: "Get out of MY chair lady."

This isn't the first time this has happened. At the library last week, there was a little girl (he always seems to pick on girls) who was playing with a puzzle. There were about 10 other puzzles he could have chosen from, but he took some pieces off of the one she was working on. She burst into tears, while Caleb happily ran away with her puzzle pieces. When I made him give them back, he was the one throwing the fit! I think that other kids assume that he's a baby since he's so small and isn't a "threat". Caleb uses this to his advantage and gets real close before making his moves.

He's also started to be a little bully to Macy (our dog) lately. Now that they are at eye level with each other, he'll look her straight in her eyes and grab both her ears and scream while he squeezes them. And sometimes when she walks past him, he'll take a hand full of her skin and twist it. He looks right at her or us with a little smirk on his face when he does it, so we know he knows that it's naughty. For those of you who know how wild Mace can be, she's actually very patient with him and her only defense has been to lick his face (even when he tries to lay on her pillow or goes into her kennel and bothers her while she's trying to sleep). We've been very lucky that she's pretty calm around him.


So, if any of you dare, we're in desperate need of play dates before RSV season starts! I'll tell C that he has to be on his best behavior! I've tried to pack them in this summer, but he clearly needs more socializing with other kids. We'd love to have you over to play or meet you at the zoo. Let me know!