First Flight

Callie and I went to visit Nana and Papa in Hot Springs Village. Callie helped me pack.

Nana flew us in for our visit so we could drive home with daddy and only have one car there. She is so generous! This was Callie's first flight. We were supposed to share a seat but there was ONE extra seat on the plane and they so graciously gave it to me so I could put Callie in her own seat.

The puffs once again saved us and kept her happy for the flight. She did great!

Callie loves hanging out at Nana and Papa's house in Hot Springs Village. She loves to push toys down the long, open hallways.

She had fun playing in the new car Nana got for her (and Will) to play with. Glad she loves it because it was so.much.work to put together!!

We got Callie all dressed up to go visiting friends.

Callie's Papa and Daddy met us later in the week along with our family friends Sally and Harold and Amanda and Kevin and their little one, Cal.

Cal and Callie had great fun together! Cal is older than Callie and so he got to push Callie around in the car.

Callie also learned to climb stairs while she was there. She did great going up the stairs on her hands and knees. Buuut she wanted to climb back down the stairs standing up. And on her own. She refused to let us help her. Needless to say, this is not a good idea just yet, so we had to pay very close attention to make sure she didn't try to go down the stairs on her own. That was a lot of work because she loved climbing on the stairs! Big girl!

What a fun week! We enjoyed good food, good fun and lots of relaxing. Can't wait to make this a yearly summer tradition!

painted toenails

There's nothing better than summer...

...and some painted toenails.

10 months old

Callie Tate is 10 months old today!

Although this picture is dark, it was the ONLY one I got with her smiling.

This is the best portrayal of our busy girl these days.

She was really having none of the picture-taking. It was almost enough to make this momma say oh well, maybe we won't get a picture this month.

Then, I remembered the puffs. The magic puffs. I gave her some then just handed her the container. Altough she wouldn't really smile, at least she would sit still.

This picture cracks me up.

This is her mad face. It is accompanied with little huffy sounds she makes with her nose. HA!

Right now, Callie is really into:

her sock monkey
(thank you April for it!!)

pushing around her push toy all by herself

holding her own bottle like a pro
We are trying to get her to use a sippy cup. She's not really digging it too much. But she's got to learn because I get very tired of her tipping her bottle upside down in her carseat and spilling the oh so valuable breastmilk everywhere.

playing "where's Callie?"

She crawls all around this shelf, squealing the whole way.

getting on and off the couch
(Her Nana, my mom, taught her this valuable skill.)

pulling everything out of her drawers, over and over

Callie has got a fiery little personality these days. Actually, she always really has. She pushes the limits all the time now and really hates hearing "no". However, she does understand no and she really does obey when we tell her no...even though it makes her mad.

Callie took her first step recently. She has done that two times. She doesn't seem quite confident enough to take more than that but she stands on her own more and more every day. I think she will be walking very soon. AH!

She weighs 20 pounds now.

She drinks 3 six-ounce bottles of breastmilk a day but that is quickly dwindling down to just 2. She eats three meals a day. She loves all baby food. Anything I give her, she will eat. She also eats quite a bit of real food now too. Her faves are bread, madarin oranges, pasta, beans and we recently discovered she loves crab alfredo. ;)

She takes 3 naps a day. An early morning nap, a noon nap and an early evening nap. I'm sure once school starts, that will cut back to 2 pretty quickly.

She has 7 teeth now. The four front teeth on top and the 2 front teeth on bottom with one coming in on the right of her bottom middle teeth.  

I feel so blessed to be at home with Callie this summer! I am getting to see so many changes in her on a daily basis. It's been very fun.

Just a girl and her dog.

Then and Now

Here is Callie in her tub in the big bathtub at 3 months old.

Here she is in her bath seat in the tub at 4 months old.

Here she is today at 9 (almost 10) months.

In the big tub, like a big girl.

And in the bumbo seat, at 2 months old

and again at 6 months old

Today, look at those long legs!

In her bouncy seat, at 1 month old

and today, treating the bouncy seat as a climbing toy.

In her stroller, at about 2-3 weeks old

and on 4th of July at 9 months.

She's growing so fast!

Two seconds...

I leave her alone for two seconds...

That's it.

Standing alone and first steps

Callie has mastered standing alone now. Well, I say mastered perhaps a little loosely. She can do it for longer periods of time, but it probably isn't considered mastery just yet.

But she sure is proud of herself! As she should be because she also took her very first step tonight. I caught it at the very end of the video although I was not prepared for it so you may not be able to tell. It's the reason I say "Oh my gosh!" as the video shuts off.

Oh dear, let the madness begin!! :)

Water: it's an acquired taste.

I was so excited to take Callie swimming for the first time. And like many things that I get all excited about, they sometimes don't go as I think they will.

I just knew she would love it.

Oh, but she did not. In fact, she hated it.

We first started her off in Courtney's dad and Donna's pool. It was pretty cold and apparently she thought it was freezing. She was having none of it. We then moved her to their hot tub. I figured this would be okay with her because she loves to take baths. I guess she was still traumatized from the pool so she wouldn't really give it a chance. We tried again the next day and she did better.

Fast forward a few weeks and Callie has started to really enjoy the water. This is her swimming in her new float at Sabrina's mom's house.

Over 4th of July weekend, Callie tolerated her sunglasses long enough for me to get a picture, then off they went. However, she really enjoyed the water. And yep, that is the pool at Mike and Donna's this time. Which is lucky, because I'm not sure I could tolerate the hot tub in the 100+ temps.

Today we swam again at Mike and Donna's and she splashed around and even acted like she wanted to go under water. She didn't. But she acted like she wanted to. I'm too scared to put her head under water. I'm mostly afraid it will scare her so much she won't want to get back in.

She swims at our friend April's house and loves to walk around in the beach front entry with her float around her to support her wobbly little not-quite-ready-to-walk-yet-but-very-soon legs. Too cute.

So this water stuff...took a while to enjoy...but now she has acquired quite a taste for it. :)