Is he a Double-Agent?

So, we all know Kaleb, right? Scrawny little rambunctious and totally wild guy. My best word to describe him is "EXTREME." It's his most frustrating yet endearing quality about him. He is either extremely loud, silly and obnoxious, throwing tantrum after tantrum, unable to go 10 minutes without using a "yucky word," and I'm on the verge of killing him... or... he is the cutest, sweetest, and most lovable thing on the planet. Also he can be the happiest, most excited little kid ever... or extremely angry and frustrated.


There is hardly any room for in between. He is most often one or the other. Mellow would be his antonym... his nemesis even. He is my wild child.


Getting a moment's peace with him is a treasure. He wares me to the bone. He pushes those boundaries as far as possible and then some--not to mention always at a much-too-high decibel. (Alli has even commented that she wonders if he has a hearing problem because of how loud he can be.) Maybe.


I just gotta say, thank goodness for those extremely sweet moments.


He is lucky he as cute as he is... or who knows what might happen to him!


So this is the Kaleb I know and love.





Apparently there is another.





When Kaleb turned 18 months old, he started going to Nursery every Sunday. At first he showed the common signs of being shy and not wanting to be left alone... but after few weeks, he was fine. He could walk right in, start playing with toys, and there was never a complaint.

This year he started preschool. When we first started taking him, he again showed those signs of being bashful and unsure of being left alone... but now he seems to be fine. Last week his teacher asked me if he is as quiet at home as he is in school. She said she hasn't heard him speak a word. Not even during Show-and-Tell. For him it is all "show" and no "tell." Well, I figured he was just still adjusting, after all it had only been about 5 weeks. (9 school days.) Here he is on his field trip to the Fire Station, obviously not being himself.



And then the next day I ran into his Nursery teacher. He said "hi" to Kaleb, and Kaleb just turned towards me and pretended as if he hadn't heard or seen anyone. I greeted his teacher and after a few failed attempts at getting Kaleb to even look at him, his teacher asked me... "Does he know how to talk?"


WHAT?!

He will be turning 3 in like a week. He will have been in Nursery for a YEAR and a HALF... and has never spoken a word? Who IS this kid? What has he done with my Kaleb? Or... out of curiosity... can he teach MY Kaleb a few tricks of the trade? Is there hope for having him mellow out just a bit? This is just preposterous! I don't even know what to think. It just baffles my mind that after a year and a half, he has not transitioned back to his comfortable self. Kind of makes me sad! I wonder if it will ever happen in Preschool. I mean, I guess at least he won't be a "problem child." But... still. Should I be worried that he's not being himself? Will it ever happen?

Or... maybe I should just add "shy" to his list of extremities. Now he's either super-shy... or in desperate need of a chill pill. One or the other.