A New Cousin :)

On September 12, 2010 my "baby" sister, Shelby, and her husband, Nick, welcomed their first child into the world. Ryan Keith has been such a blessing to our family! We all love him sooo very much :) Callie really, REALLY loves Ryan. She says "Ry-Ry baby" and kisses and hugs him constantly! She always wants to hold him and love on him and it has made for some adorable photo ops...Here are a few of my favorites! I have no doubt that these two will be the best of friends and I can't wait to watch them grow up and play together!

Callie is 18 Months!!!

10/7/10

No matter how hard I try to convince them not to, my kids just keep growing and growing! I can't believe how fast the last 18 months have gone. Here's what's up with our sweetie pie!

At her check-up Callie weighed in at 21 lbs. 10 oz. She was 30 1/4 inches long. That puts her in the 10th percentile for both height and weight!!! She is ON THE CHARTS!!! She's so active and happy ALL the time...it's hard to believe that the doctors were ever worried about her.

Callie is wearing size 12 month clothes. She's in size 3 diapers and wears size 3 shoes and a couple pair of size 4. She LOVES shoes. She always wants to have them on and the shinier the better. She prefers wearing dresses as well and when I say "lets go get dressed" she'll say "pree jess" (pretty dress). She holds her dresses out to her sides and spins like a little ballerina.

We (read: Daddy) decided that this was the week that we would be giving up the binky. I have been dreading this for months. Um...it's really not supposed to be THAT easy, is it? She hasn't even missed it, cried for it, or needed it...I'm so very relieved!!! Her new cousin, Ryan, takes the same kind of binky that she did and she hasn't even tried to take his. She's also seen one of hers in the cabinet...she did reach for it, but I said...it's all gone - Callie is a big girl! And that was that!

A few weeks ago, Callie had to have surgery to place tubes in her ears. She has had so many ear infections this year and the doctor decided it would be best. The surgery itself was so fast and simple, but I had no idea what I was in for when they said we could "stay with her while she fell asleep". They brought us into a room, sat her on my lap and had me hold her down while one nurse held her head, another her feet, and a third held a gas mask over her face while she was looking up at me with tears running down her face, crying, and looking at me like "mommy, why are you doing this to me?" Then her little eyes rolled back and she went limp in my arms, they took her from me and kicked us out. I pray that this is her one and only set of tubes...if not, Daddy gets to hold her next time :) Everything went well and she's been healthy since.

Everyone who has met Callie has seen that she has quite a little personality. When she's frustrated and can't express to us what she wants, it turns into a full blown fit. On one occasion, she was crying and wouldn't go to sleep and we tried everything. We finally got her a drink of water and she gulped it down, then went fast asleep. We of course felt awful about it! I started thinking about how I was going to get her to express to us what she wants. I never really considered teaching her sign language before. Cameron was a very early talker and was speaking in sentences by this age. Callie "talks" almost constantly and will repeat (or at least try) almost any word we ask her to. She understands so much and follows directions very well. She does most anything we ask her to do and loves "helping". She cleans up her toys, picks up her laundry, and loves closing doors that people leave opened. But, if she can't express to us that she is thirsty, I figured that we should at least give sign language a try. I thought maybe she would be too old to start, but started with a few simple signs. I showed her the signs and said the word a few times and she copied me, but didn't spend more than about 10 minutes doing so. An hour or so later we went out for dinner and she started doing the sign for "milk" when she wanted a drink!!! From that point on she has been using a few signs consistently. What's even better is that she also has learned to say the words and uses both together. I wish we would have done this sooner!!! Right now she knows about 10 signs...and she learned them all in about a total of 15 minutes! (more, milk, eat, please, thank you, mommy, daddy, apple, sleep, drink) We are planning to keep teaching these to her...it has helped her learn so many new words!!!

Here are some pictures of my big girl:

Callie loves finding little corners to play in...

She loves her "pretties"! Even when she's waiting to see Dr. Joe...the BEST pediatrician EVER! Gotta love her "cheesy" grin!

I was folding laundry the other morning and looked over and found her like this :) Notice the purse on her shoulder, as always! We hadn't changed her out of her jammies yet and the bottoms were off because she was wearing a pull up....she's been doing great about going on the potty!!! Those are Cameron's old Buzz Lightyear sunglasses that he passed down to his sis.

Backyard Fun

Tonight I decided to capture a few fun pictures of the kids playing outside while the weather is still nice enough. Our neighbors have two little girls and they had outgrown some of their "big" toys. They decided to sell them and asked us if we were interested. Callie snagged a play house for the back yard and a Castle swing and slide for her play room (that will hopefully be ready soon...I'd love to have the ever expanding collection of toys out of our family room!) She loves going in and out of the house and opening and closing the windows. She and Cam also had a good time swinging, climbing the rock wall, and going down the slide. I don't think Callie knows yet just how lucky she is to have such a great big brother. I am so incredibly blessed to have these two precious kids! I love them more every day :) Seriously, though...how could you not love these faces? :)