Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Double Trouble

A few weeks ago, while visiting my mom, Callie and her cousin Cory (who's 2 1/2 months younger) got into their first "trouble". My cousin was over with her 3 kids (9 year old twin boys, 8 year old girl) and she, my mom, and I were in the kitchen working on something. The babies were into everything, so we decided to put them in "The den" which is a small play room my mom has for the kids. The big kids (my cousin's 3, Cameron, and my nephew Cody who's 5) were in the den and we asked them to keep an eye on the two babies. There was a gate across the doorway and the bathroom door was closed. Plus, we were in the very next room.

A while later, we found out what happens when you leave two 9 year olds, two 8 year olds, and a 5 year old in charge of two 1 year olds. This happened in the span of about 10 - 15 minutes and the older kids were completely oblivious! Apparently one of them used the bathroom and forgot to close the door behind them :) Luckily, though....they remembered to close the lid!







Swimming!!!


My kids both love to go swimming at Nana and Pappy's house. It was one of our favorite summer activities this year because it was SO hot! Cameron is so tall that he has no problems touching and keeping his head above water...Callie likes her goldfish floaty, but prefers being held so she can kick her legs and splash! Here are a few highlights from our pool days this summer...


Callie getting ready for her very first time in the pool!
Callie and her cousin Cory
She was having a blast!
Swimming with Aunt Shelby

Cam looks distraught...


Taking a break and looking adorable! This was my favorite of her bathing suits :)

She loved getting out and marching around the deck...
Ruffles on the toosh are a MUST!


She's Got Personality!



That girl of ours certainly has enough personality to go around. She hasn't a shy bone in her body and loves to make her presence known wherever we go. Walking out of Skyline a couple of weeks ago she yelled "bye" and waved at every table we passed on the way out. I have so much fun just watching her play and learn. Here is one of the times I captured a bit of her personality when she was eating...I love some of the expressions she makes :)






Baseball


Cameron loves to be active and play any kind of sports, but he's always been a hockey player at heart. He started on his first hockey team at age 3 and still loves it more than anything.

When he was very young, we noticed that he was very good at hitting a baseball. Especially after many trips to the neighbor's yards to fetch baseballs. :) Every year when baseball sign ups would come around, we'd ask him if he wanted to play and he always opted for spring hockey. Well, this year he finally decided to give it a try and we are all very glad that he did! Baseball season was so much fun!

He is definitely a natural...his coach couldn't believe that he had never played before. He played for Warren County Little League and was on the Angels team. His favorite position was catcher and he did a great job! At one game he even got an out when he caught a pop up foul! One of his favorite parts about the season was that the coaches had nick names for all of the players. His was "slap shot" because he plays hockey. He really thought that was cool....but we aren't allowed to call him that...it's "only for the coaches" :)

They didn't win the league championship, but they definitely won more games than they lost. Most importantly, though, he had a wonderful time and learned so much. The coaches were wonderful at encouraging the boys and not putting them down at all. We were lucky to be on such a great team!

Over the summer the coach invited the team to his house for a pool party which was very nice! Also, Cameron has the opportunity to play for the team again this fall. The season will be brief, but he's so exited to play again! Here are a few pictures of our Little Leaguer in action!


Opening Day Parade





End Of Season Pool Party

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Slacker

I have been slacking on the blog this summer. I actually have some entries that are ready to post except for the pictures. Brandon was having some issues with his computer and I was unable to upload the pictures, so I have been waiting. It's fixed now, so hopefully I'll be able to catch up on all of the things I want to write about. More coming soon....

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Callie is 15 Months!

July 14, 2010

Callie turned 15 months last week and we had her check-up today. She has been battling an ear infection, medication side effects (messy ones) and some sort of virus that left her with a high fever all over the last two weeks. The poor baby has been in the office so much since she was born that everyone knows us by name as soon as we walk in the door. We have been there 3 times in just over a week. I'm waiting for them to reserve a room just for her! Anyway, she is doing just fine now and hopefully will stay healthy for a good long while.

Her check up went fine. She weighed in at 19 lbs. 3 oz. That's a whopping 4 lb. gain since her 1 year! She's really starting to pick up the pace :). In comparison, the last 4 lbs. that she gained took her from 4 months to 12 months! She's back on the charts this month and in the 3rd percentile for weight. She's 28 3/4 inches long and that puts her in the 7th percentile for height. She (like her big brother) is a bit top heavy and her head measures in the 45th percentile.

Callie is doing so many new things these days, I could never list them all. She has learned some new dance moves and is always eager to show them off. She's starting to repeat some words, but is not talking a whole lot. She knows pretty much everyone closest to her by name. Cameron is "Bub" now instead of "Bub-Bub" and she'll often say "Hi, Bub!" when he walks in a room. My sister, Shelby, is "Belb". She says "Pap" for Pappy and "Nana" when she's in the mood, which isn't often. Of course "Dada" and "Mama" are used the most. She says "Book", "Drink", "Thanks" which sounds more like "Nank" and a few other things, but she mostly just babbles a LOT! She's also learning some animal sounds. Her favorite is "woof" for dog. She knows duck, cat, snake to name a few...but she's started saying "woof" for every animal she sees.

She still loves to read and will sit literally for an hour and look through her books and babble as if she's reading them. She now will bring a book to me and reach to be picked up when she wants me to read to her. She has her favorite ones, of course and I get to read them over and over and over! There is a dinosaur book at Nana's house that she will dig through the toy box and find every time we're there. Nana will have to read it at least 5 times. You have to find a certain color dinosaur on each page and she's read it so much that she now knows exactly which dino to point to on every page.

She loves music and will pretend anything is a microphone. She sings and dances ALL day long and I am loving it! She is also presenting her prissy girly side more now. She loves bracelets, necklaces, and PURSES! She will put on her bracelet, sling a purse over her arm, and strut all over the house. She also has a toy lipstick that she uses quite a bit. She also takes very good care of her babies, giving them a bottle and plenty of kisses and hugs. She also very much enjoys getting dressed and wearing pretty shoes. I let her walk around the house most of the time bare foot, but if she sees some of her shoes, she will carry them to me and sit down for me to put them on.

Callie started going pee pee on the potty about 2 months ago and then later in the week started pooping on the potty. We put her on the potty before her bath and sometimes at points during the day if she is dry for a while. She knows just what to do, now...she even claps for herself as soon as she sits down. We are not "potty training" her, but this method worked for Cameron and he was completely out of diapers at 22 months. I am certainly not opposed to saving some serious dough on diapers! We'll see how fast she is potty trained...she is definitely way more strong willed than her brother.

About two weeks ago, Callie figured out that if she screams REALLY REALLY loudly, people respond and give her what she wants...especially in the middle of Target...or a restaurant. She then figured out how to throw a full blown tantrum...including throwing herself down, screaming at the top of her lungs, and flailing about. I'm really hoping she outgrows this FAST although I somehow doubt it! She is very smart, though...at the doctor's office today she threw a fit on the hard floor. She plopped down on her bottom and then laid herself back very slowly and gently as to not hurt her head before she proceeded to scream and kick. We're in for it with this one...

Some other quick stats on our girl...She's wearing size 2 diapers, but I think we're on our last box before we move up to 3's. She is wearing 9 month clothes and now starting to fit into some of her 12 month things. She's wearing size 2 shoes and just outgrew my favorite silver flip flops which makes me very sad. She's a good eater and even though she still only has 2 tiny teeth, she manages to eat pretty much anything we give her. Some of her favorite foods are fruit (bananas, strawberries, and blueberries are her favorite but I haven't found a fruit she doesn't like), chicken, pasta, quesadillas, and rice (especially fried rice and the rice at Fiesta Brava).

Anyway, I could go on and on! I am so thankful to have our girl and can't believe how much fun it is to have her around. Cameron loves her so much and I am so grateful for that. She's a major daddy's girl which is mostly a good thing (except that he spoils her too much). Here are some pictures of the princess...





Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Teeny Toe-wear

Ok, so I'm only slightly embarrassed about this post. Wait...I'm actually more proud than embarrassed. After all...it's not a BAD thing that our 1 year old has more shoes than anyone in the family. As a matter of fact, if you take away my flip-flops, she probably has more shoes than all of us put together.

I always knew that if I ever had a little girl that we would all be in trouble. I LOVE buying Callie clothes and shoes. Truth be told, I was nearly as bad with Cameron when he was a baby. He had several pair of shoes as a baby. Anyway, people are always making comments on Callie's foot wear and asking me if she has a pair of shoes to match every outfit. Well, yeah...she does. Oddly enough, when my mom was at our house last weekend, we got Callie dressed and decided that none of her shoes matched her outfit...so we made a trip to Once Upon a Child to get her a pink pair of shoes. She got pink ones. And gold ones. And purple jellies.

While I admit that it is completely unnecessary for a child so small to have THIS many pair of shoes, I will also defend the collection with the fact that not one pair of her shoes cost over $10. MOST of them were less than $2 at second hand stores. I realize that not everyone gets the obsession...but I truly enjoy dressing my kids and choosing matching accessories to make them look as cute as possible. I try my hardest to be frugal about it...most of my purchases come from garage sales and second hand shops and the occasional Target purchase (although I can't say that was true when Cam was a baby). My thought is...I waited so long to be a mommy to a little girl and I am going to enjoy every minute of it....until she becomes a teenager and starts having her own opinion. (my friends with girls are laughing right now...yes, I know they form opinions WAY before becoming teenagers - but I can still hope)

But I digress...I myself was curious as to the number of foot coverings we own for our little princess...so I lined them all up tonight and took pictures. I think there are something like 26 pair (counting the bunny and ducky slippers) that she fits in today. Some of my favorites have been retired to the dreaded "outgrown" bin. A few pair in this picture are only days from their demise as well, but here it is...The Callie Grace collection...







That's not bad.....right? :)