EXTREME Baby!

For some time now, I've been meaning to blog about Caleb's EXTREME personality that we've politely deemed as "passionate." Ha! No, really, he is little boy with BIG PASSION. And everything he does and feels is to the extreme...hmmm, now where could he get that from?

When he's happy, he's extremely happy.

When he's mad, he's extremely mad.

When he's silly, he's extremely silly.

...and beware b/c he can go from one extreme to the next with very little warning!

But it sure does make for fun (most of the time!). And I love watching his BIG personality coming out of his little body. And God has definitely already given me an extra dose of patience to cultivate Caleb's passionate heart. A few weeks ago as these extremes really started to emerge, I probably would not have referred to Caleb's extremes as "fun" - I probably would have gone with something more like "frustrating." But with daily prayers for patience beyond what I naturally possess, I now am not only able to laugh hysterically when he is on the happy or silly end of the spectrum, but I am also able to smile through the other end. I thought that I had learned a lot about myself and my flaws when I got married, but now enter baby - and wow, the lessons are never-ending. So yes, I have learned that I am not the world's most patient person but I can bet that God has given me my extreme boy for good reason. And I'm sure that as he cultivates that passion, God will continue to cultivate patience in my heart, so we are the perfect combo :)...I love that I can already see it happening and am excited for what God has in store for us in the future...

So back to Caleb...He's also an extremely BIG and STRONG (both in strength and will) baby! Just shy of 7 months, he is still hanging out there close to the 90th percentile in height and weight - 19lb. 10 oz. and 27+ inches (please excuse my failed memory but I was very busy wrestling my strong lil dude to stay still on the scale to which he won as he flopped over and pushed up on his arms with a huge proud grin in true Caby style!)

And as we sat in the room waiting for the doctor to come back yesterday, I was flooded with memories of Caby's first sickness...which made me laugh one of those "uh-huh kinda chuckles" b/c yes, I realized that even his first bout of illness was extreme...

In fact, Caleb's first week home sent us to the doctor 3 times with 2 of those visits requiring us to go to the lab to have blood drawn.

Then, at just over two months, Caleb caught his first "cold" that entailed...

4 trips to the doctor

A change in pediatrician

1 Upper GI to check for reflux

1 nebulizer

2 trips to the pharmacy

EXTREME, I'm telling you, he's extreme...guess I should have expected this with an extreme entrance into the world after 41 extremely long hours of labor!

Ah, but I love every extreme inch of that precious baby boy, and I can only imagine where this passion will guide him in his journey (although I am a bit of afraid of what this might look like in toddler-hood - ha!). But really, I absolutely love his extreme passion b/c I know someday as he grows into it, he will be a Kingdom Rocker, and that is something I've already begun to pray over my lil guy - that he will do extremely great things for the Kingdom of God!