And Baby Makes Three

a girl and her dogs, part 3

2012-01-29T07:22:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I posted pictures of Callie with her boys. I love catching her with the dogs. She adores them so much. She spends a lot of time with them. One of her favorite things to do is give them kisses.

She also loves to read with Lambeau

Relaxing in her new pink chair with Braddock nearby is a favorite activity as well.

It's hard to catch pictures of them even though she plays with them constantly because the moment I get up to get my camera, one of them is bound to move. If you have pets or a toddler, you understand.

If you care to see part 1 or part 2 of a girl and her dogs, you can see them [HERE] and [HERE]. You can also see my all-time favorite picture of our squishy bottomed little girl with Braddock [HERE]. She was so little in these posts! sniff sniff. It goes so fast!!

baby signs

2011-12-07T08:27:00.000-08:00

I knew I wanted to do signs with Callie once she became old enough to understand. I started using them with her when she was still quite little. Signing "milk" when I would get a bottle. Signing "more" when I would give her another bite of baby food.

Over the summer, while I was home with her every day and she was more able to do signs herself because she was 9 months old, I started forming her hands into the signs to try to get her to do it herself.

She never would.

She would more often giggle at me. Almost like she knew I wanted her to do it but just wouldn't. Maybe not. Maybe she was just still too young.

Fast forward a few months...school has started and Callie's has started her new daycare. I didn't even know they were working on signs with her. But since we had gotten into school and gotten busy, I wasn't doing them with her at home very consistently.

Thankfully, they were.

One day, she signed "more" at me when I was feeding her dinner! She did it perfectly!

Now, she signs "more" and "milk" very consistently. This morning she was fussing around and reaching out like she wanted something off the counter. I said, "What do you want?" And she responded with the sign for milk. So off to find her sippy cup we went. So much better than trying to give her a million things before figuring out what she wants! She will sign when she wants me to keep reading a book or keep doing airplane with her. It's too cute!

Another great time signing is handy is in the car. I give her puffs or cheerios in the cup holder of her car seat. When she runs out, instead of screaming and me not knowing what she needs, she signs more at me in her mirror (she is still rear-facing) and I know she has run out.

She also blows kisses and waves good-bye very enthusiastically now! It's so funny! She loves to blow kisses at the dogs before we leave for school. When we walk out of her daycare room, she starts blowing kisses down the hall at the receptionist. Melt my heart.

Such a smart, sweet girl!!

Christmas Traditions

2011-12-05T11:42:00.000-08:00

I love Christmas! That's probably because my mom loves

Christmas and passed on that love of it to me.

So I was so excited to put our Christmas tree up and start

to instill a love of Christmas in Callie.

We hung her baby's first Christmas ornament

from last year on the tree first.

So special.

This is sure to be one of many, many Christmas

memories we will make this year.

I < heart > winter.

2011-12-03T11:28:00.001-08:00

I <heart> winter.
Especially when it means that we get to sit in the pressbox at the play-off football game and watch from the window.

I <heart> winter.
Even when it means we need to get bundled up (a lot) for our walks.

I <heart> winter.
Especially when it means time to put the Christmas tree up!

I <heart> winter.
Even when it means that my child gets congestion and coughs more. And has to go to the doctor in her jacket and diaper after throwing up in the car 3 times on the way to the doctor appointment and therefore exhausting all the change of clothes options I had for her.

I <heart> winter.
Especially when it means basketball season and Christmas break are on their way!

Callie <hearts> winter too!

socks and shoes

2011-11-27T14:54:00.000-08:00

Our girl loves loves loves shoes! She also loves socks. If she's in a mood for some reason, I can break out the socks and shoes and she gets happy. Hilarious.

At any given time, she can be seen walking around with 2 different shoes on or just one shoe or a shoe that doesn't fit anymore.

Or a ton of socks that don't match.

I say "a ton of socks" because she is notorious for bringing me sock after sock and wanting me to put them on her. Today she had on 4 different socks on each foot in the first picture!

Here she comes with those socks in her hand, ready to "ask" me to put them on her.

She is my little fashionista already! That is, she will be once she figures out how to match!

masterpiece

2011-11-26T14:14:00.001-08:00

Callie has been spending some time in the older class (18 months +) lately because she has not been taking a second nap very well so they take her in there while the babies nap.

While she was in there last week, they did some fingerpainting. She did not so much like having that paint on her hands, they said. So much that she only got a few swipes of her fingers on the paper before she let them know she did not want anything to do with it!

Here's her masterpiece! HA!

However, I have figured out that she will fingerpaint with much excitement if you change the paint to green beans and the paper to her highchair tray.

Then? She's all in!

Oh this girl makes me laugh on a daily basis!

blowing kisses and basketball

2011-11-08T19:53:00.000-08:00

Callie got all decked out in her itty bitty cheer outfit tonight to go to the first girls' basketball game of the season.

As we were getting ready to walk out the door, she started blowing kisses to the dogs. Complete with the mwah! sound and everything. Adorable. Completely and totally adorable!

I can't believe it's already basketball season. Courtney's boys' team can't start playing yet because the football team is in the play-offs, which is also very exciting. It's going to be crazy this basketball season chasing Callie around in the stands. Crazy, but fun.

And just for fun, here is our girl last year during basketball season in the same cheer uniform.

:) There was no blowing kisses or chasing Callie around the stands this time last year. What a difference a year makes!!

iPad

2011-11-05T12:29:00.001-07:00

I'm blogging from my iPad while Callie naps, using the blogger app.

Callie is napping... See?

I took the picture with my iPad too... Seeing how this will work.

I can do it!

2011-11-04T16:01:00.000-07:00

Callie can do many new things!

-She can hold a whole cheese stick (or piece of bread or graham cracker or strawberry, etc) and take bites off of it. This one may seem a little strange, but before if I handed her something, she would shove the WHOLE thing in her mouth (or attempt to) no matter the size. So, I had to cut everything up into tiny bites for her so she wouldn't choke. Now, I can give her a graham cracker and she can carry it around and take bites off of it. It's very handy!

-She can take her pants and socks off all by herself. She does this very often in her bed. She has also learned to (almost) take her shirt off. It's hilarious! She tries very hard to put her pants and socks back on after she takes them off.

(she went down for her nap with pants and socks on...and both arms in her shirt!)

-She can put shapes in the holes they go in on her sorting toys and she can put the balls in the holes they go in on her play house. She wasn't able to do that before. I would have to show her where they were supposed to go and she still couldn't get them in there. Now? She's got it down.

-She can push around her push toy around and when she runs into something, she can turn it all by herself. Before she would just run into things and throw a fit because she couldn't turn it. Even when she was walking well, she still didn't know how to turn the toy. I remember asking a friend when she would finally grasp this skill because her little boy was 18 months old and he could do it. Now, Callie can too!

-She can shake her head "no" when she doesn't want something. I'll say, "Do you want a bite of green beans?" and she will shake her head no at me. She knows too! She actually knows if she wants more of not. It amazes me. She's got an opinion! HAHA! She will also point to what she does want sometimes. So, she'll shake her head no at the green beans and know that she wants something different.
-She can give a killer high-five! I love it! She gives a great big good slap. It's adorable and sweet! She gets excited to give a high-five too. :)

-She waves good-bye pretty consistently now.

-She says momma all the time now.

-She tries to put shoes on everyone. She picks up all our shoes and tries to put them on her own feet all the time. She also works very hard to get her own shoes on her feet (without success) every chance she gets.

It is a true joy to watch all the new things Callie is doing all the time. She makes me smile all the time.

Momma....finally

2011-10-19T16:17:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I asked Callie to say Momma...and SHE DID! Finally! She looked up at me and sweetly said, "Momma." Clear as a bell.

Then I asked her to do it again and she said Dada. Again and again. ;)

Right now, I'm relishing in the fact that she said it at all. What a sweet sound!

mac and cheese, please!

2011-10-16T19:14:00.000-07:00

Callie is a silly girl. Meal times are no exception.

When Callie is finished eating, she has gotten into quite a habit of throwing her food into the floor. I've tried to teach her to do the sign for "all done," but she thinks throwing the food is a better option. Of course, it is effective because I stop giving her food when she starts throwing it over the side. It's no wonder Lambeau and Braddock stay close by when she's eating.

Sometimes that means the dogs get caught in the line of fire.

Today the mac and cheese didn't just wind up in Callie's hair....

Callie thought it was so funny that it landed on his back. She continued to throw it at him and she landed quite a few more pieces on his back. Poor Lambeau could smell it but he couldn't find where it went. Poor dog!

Turning ONE is TUTU fun!

2011-09-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

Our little girl had her big day!

She turned ONE!

Such a big girl now!

She enjoyed walking around with her cousin Cale.

And snuggling (we think that's what she was doing...ha!) with cousin Jayla.

She loved opening presents!

And she especially....

loved....

(not the hat)

digging into the cake!

family photo

Callie decided Nana needed some cake on her face!

All done! Get me out!

It was a great day! Callie celebrated with family and friends. She got tons of fun new stuff to play with and she had a ball!

Can't believe she is already one! But it was tutu fun!

Callie turns 1!!

2011-09-17T10:45:00.000-07:00

Callie Tate is 1!!

I can't believe it! One year ago today, we were welcoming our sweet baby girl into this world. This year has gone so quickly.

Stats
Then: weight - 8lbs 1oz, height - 20 inches
Now: weight - 21 lbs 4oz, height - 29 3/4 inches

What a blessing she is to us!

Blankie

2011-09-13T11:41:00.000-07:00

Callie is going to be just like me in a lot of ways, I can already tell.

One way....she loves her blankie.

It goes just about everywhere with her. Much like my blankie did. For many (many) years.

When I get Callie out of her crib after a nap or in the mornings, she always reaches out for me. As I get close to her to pick her up, she leans down and grabs her blanket to bring with us. It is so sweet!

She wasn't sleeping great at daycare for the first few weeks and I thought having her blanket there with her would help. I didn't really want to mess with taking the blanket back and forth everyday so we bought her another one. The original blanket was a gift. It has her name embroidered on it. It is sooo soft. It's thirty-one brand and you have to order through a consultant to get items from thirty-one. I couldn't find one through a few consultants because it is discontinued. Luckily, I found someone who could find one for me and we got it. Not sure if it was a coincidence or not, but she slept great at daycare after we got that extra blanket. Probably not.

Nothing is sweeter than seeing her snuggle up with her blankie!

We've got a WALKER!

2011-09-10T10:59:00.000-07:00

Just one week shy of her 1st birthday, our girl has decided that walking will be her way of getting around now. She is D-O-N-E crawling and only WALKS now.

Look at her GO!

She just decided this morning that she is going to walk everywhere. I love it!!

Callie loves her "dods"

2011-09-03T11:08:00.000-07:00

Callie knows the uses of items now. Like she will get a brush and raise it up to her head and try to brush her hair, often with the bristles facing up and the plastic part on her head. HA! She will get her shoes and put them down at her feet and try to get them on the best way she knows how, which would never actually get them on her feet but she knows that they go on that part of her body. If I give her a diaper to keep her content during a diaper change, she will shove it down between her legs. She pulled my toothbrush out of my travel bag and put it up to her mouth. I love to see her learning so much!

She LOVES buckles right now. She is OBSESSED with the buckles on her carseat and high chair. She always tries to buckle them when I am putting her in or taking her out.

“I can do this momma, I know I can.”

Callie has also started to call things by name. Often her name for them sounds nothing like their real name, but I notice she calls items by her same name for them each time.

She calls the dogs “dod” and she says it and points to them now.

And boy does she ever love her “dod.” When she wakes up from a nap and is crying, all I have to do is take her in to where the dogs are and she smiles and laughs and loves on them. She is getting better and better at petting them gently. We went through a stage where she would hit them, but now she pat-pats quite nicely. J

car seats and sippy cups

2011-08-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

We upgraded Callie to a big girl seat.

She has been in her infant seat until now. That seat went to 22 lbs or 29 inches. She just weights 20 lbs now but she is about to outgrow it in height. So, we went ahead and got the bigger seat. The new recommendations say to have a child rear facing until they are 2. So, she is still rear facing in her big ole seat. She doesn’t seem to mind now. She did not enjoy the new seat at all right when we first made the change. But after a few trips where she screamed most of the way, she submitted and decided she might as well get used to it because apparently mommy is going to put her in there each day whether she cries or not. ;)

She is also off the bottle. I thought it was going to be such a hard transition. How would I ever get her to drink out of a sippy cup?? Because I started giving it to her just before she turned 11 months and she would have nothing to do with it. Maybe…MAYBE she would take one sip and then she would throw it down and never look at it again. If I gave it to her in the car, she would cry. I really really tried to push it in the car because she started to constantly turn her bottle upside down and it would spill everywhere. But she would have none of it.

Then we went to the first football game this past Friday night. We stood on the fence with the other people who have kids about her age. There were sippy cups all around and so instead of handing her the bottle, I handed her the sippy cup while saying to the other mothers, “She won’t take a sippy cup, not sure why I’m even trying, but here goes nothing. How will I ever break her of the bottle?” And then (of course!) my baby popped that sucker in her mouth and drank and drank and drank. All night, she used only the sippy cup. AND it just had WATER in it. Woohoo! So, away went the bottles. I was afraid if she even saw them she would want one again. Out of sight, out of mind. Gone. That was easy.

Now breaking her of the middle of the night milk (in her new sippy cup) is proving to be a much bigger challenge. *sigh*

Friday Night Lights and our Girl

2011-08-26T22:07:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the first Muenster Hornet football game. Last year at this time I was ginormously pregnant and going to the games was quite a chore for me. It was hot, I was big, the stands were terribly uncomfortable. Not a fun combo. It was pretty quick after the first few home games that Courtney started taking his own car to ballgames just in case I went into labor and he needed to rush off to the hospital. Turns out she was born on a Friday afternoon, game day. He missed that game. :)

I took some fun comparison pictures of Callie and her daddy tonight. Of course, the pictures of her with daddy as a bitty baby are from later in the season last year, considering she wasn't even born yet at this time yet last year. I cannot believe how much she has grown and changed!

What a big girl!

crazy hair

2011-08-21T10:42:00.000-07:00

crazy hair day

enough said.

11 months old

2011-08-17T09:49:00.000-07:00

Callie Tate is 11 months old!

Callie isn't always, ahem, cooperative when we take these monthly pictures, although I must say I eventually persuade (or bribe, really) her to sit still and look at me.

Not sure you can tell, but she has loads of (those magic) puffs on her lap.

Hey, it works.

Cause before I broke out the puffs, this is what I was getting.

Our sweet little 11 month old is busy, busy! She is oh so close to walking confidently all the time. She has taken many steps and can walk around but is lacking confidence so she still chooses crawling over walking. I think she will be walking by her 1st birthday, but we will see. As I know about our little girl, she has a mind of her own and will walk when SHE is good and ready.

We are trying to get rid of the bottle. Not sure if that is ever going to happen. I offer her a sippy cup all the time, but she wants none of it. I just keep reminding myself that no kid goes to kindergarten with a bottle...it'll happen eventually. Again, in her time probably.

School has started and we are settling into a new school routine. She is doing great at her new daycare here in Muenster. I am so glad that she is going to this daycare. She has wonderful teachers in her room and lots of kiddos to play with and learn with. She's not napping great there yet but I know she will once she gets adjusted. She sometimes chooses to play right through naptime.

She's got such tired eyes in this picture!

Playing basketball, like her daddy. ;)

They try to get her to nap each day, but she ~~cries~~ screams so they get her back up. She'll nap eventually. I guess you can't let her cry it out when there are many other kids trying to nap.

Can't wait for many more adventures with our little girl!

Last hurrah of summer

2011-08-13T10:34:00.000-07:00

School starts Monday. We decided to have one last weekend at Nonna and Papa's where we could relax and swim one last time for the summer.

I forgot to pack Callie's swim hat, so she was wearing cousin Cale's hat.

Callie worked on walking some more too. Won't be long now!

She can run with Papa!

It was a nice, relaxing weekend. Callie loves playing at Nonna and Papa's house!

Bye bye summer!

steps

2011-08-06T20:01:00.000-07:00

One step, two steps, three steps, four.

Soon Callie will be taking more!

She's taken 5-6 steps at a time now. Just 2 days ago she got up and started walking without any prompting from me. I'm not sure how she got up in fact. I just looked up and she was walking towards me! She doesn't seem confident enough to do it all the time, but we are getting there! I'm so incredibly happy I was home with her to see those first steps this summer.

words

2011-08-05T19:02:00.000-07:00

Callie's favorite thing to do these days is say "dada." She calls everything dada, including her daddy. And me. I have been trying to get her to say mama. This is how that goes.

me: Callie, can you say mama?

Callie: dada

me: No Callie, listen... say maaamaaa.

Callie: dada

Yep, that's how it goes. Everytime. It makes me laugh. All in due time, I guess.

She has also said "out" in response to me very sternly saying "out" to Lambeau and Braddock every time I am feeding her and they try to sit and wait under her chair for food.

She is also working on saying dog.
But for now, the dogs are referred to as...you got it...dada.

First Flight

2011-07-30T11:27:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-21T15:03:00.000-07:00

There's nothing better than summer...

...and some painted toenails.

10 months old

2011-07-17T14:21:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-07-14T20:31:00.000-07:00

Then and Now

2011-07-12T20:08:00.000-07:00

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...

2011-07-11T12:24:00.000-07:00

I leave her alone for two seconds...

That's it.

Standing alone and first steps

2011-07-10T19:50:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-07-09T20:46:00.000-07:00

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. :)

9 Months Old

2011-06-17T14:10:00.001-07:00

Callie is 9 months old today!

She is growing like a weed! She is a happy, giggly 9 month old.

Her recent stats are weight: 18.4 lbs (57%), height: 27 inches (48%), Head 47.5 cm (99%)

As I was feeding her yesterday, I was thinking about how things that I have worried so much about seem to work themselves out eventually. It sort of makes me laugh. Take for instance the eating issue. I was just sure Callie was never going to eat anything but breastmilk for her whole life. Like until she went to college. Now she will eat just about anything I put on her high chair tray.

And she has a good time doing it.

Sometimes we don't make this big of a mess. Sometimes we make an even bigger mess. You just never know. On this particular day, she had veggies with whole wheat pasta, grapes, bananas, and blueberries and wheat bread in her eyebrows. Nice.

A favorite food item of Callie's right now is her puffs. We can get her to do just about anything for those puffs. Including learn the sign for "more." She's getting it. She puts her hands together after I remind her of it. She much prefers to bang her hands on her tray to let us know she wants more. We're working on it.

This is a favorite flavor, but she'll eat any of them.

Callie is all over the place these days. The only place she can be contained is in her high chair or her excersaucer, of which she is quickly outgrowing and becoming not so much a fan.

That is, until a few weeks ago, when Nana bought her this:

We lovingly refer to it as "the cage" and it is the best thing since the video monitor as far as baby stuff goes. At least in my opinion. She's got a pretty sweet set-up in there as you can see with toys to play with and practice standing by and a mirror to admire herself. There are also books and maracas (from mommy and daddy's recent Cancun trip, more on that in another post) and a variety of other little toys at her beck and call. She loves for us to get in "the cage" with her and play. In fact, if you get in with her to play and read with her for about 10 minutes, then you can get out and have 20 minutes or so to do whatever you need to do before she tires of being in there alone. Can you say lifesaver??

She has started to do fun things like dance a little while standing up and give sweet, open mouth kisses.

She can also now hold her bottle all by herself. The silly girl could probably do that for a while now, but she apparently likes for me to do it for her.

While on a break during her 9 month picture photoshoot, my friend Keysha told me to let her hold her own bottle. I said that she can't get it tipped up enough yet to do that. She said, "Girl, I saw her hold up 5 pound toys over her head earlier. She can hold her own bottle." HA! And she did. Just like that. Think she might be playing her mommy a little??

Callie has 4 teeth and is cutting 2 more. Which teeth? Well, that's the weird part. She has her two bottom teeth and has for a while and now has her two canines...the fang teeth. We call her our little vampire. She is cutting the two front teeth as well as you can see in this picture.

Callie is still getting up in the wee hours of the morning for a bottle. Trying to faze that out. It normally happens at 4am nowadays. I feed her a 4oz bottle at that time and am continuing to decrease that to try to stop her from waking up.

During the day, she now eats three 6oz bottles and baby food 3 times a day as well.

She has started to consistently take three 2-hour naps each day. One in the morning, one at noon, and one in the evening. Just as soon as we get in that routine, she will probably change that. ;)

When I put her in her crib for a nap or bedtime, she sits in there and plays a while before falling asleep. Or sometimes she cries for a bit. But eventually she falls asleep. Sometimes it cracks me up how she sleeps.

She's not in jail, it just creates those lines on the screen when I take a picture of the monitor. It's strange. They aren't there on my picture viewer but as soon as I snap the picture, there they are. But can you see her? Arms behind her head, legs propped up. So funny!

We are having so much fun with our sweet, fun-loving 9 month old!

Outgrowing things

2011-05-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

The rate at which Callie outgrows things has blown my mind since the very first onesie that became too small. From the clothes to the diapers to the bassinett to the sleep positioner to the first bathtub to the playmat to the bumbo seat. It's hard to give these things up because it proves she is growing up.

And now it's her swing. I put it up in the attic last night. It was a lifesaver for us for many, many months. 8 months to be exact. It traveled with us on a few trips because for a bit, it was the only place she'd go down for a nap. But now that she's become so mobile, being in the swing is the last thing she wants to do. Pulling up on the swing is a more favored activity. Crawling under the swing is fun too. But being in it..not so much. So, we put it away. I have to say, as sad as that is, it's really nice to have it out of the midddle of our living room though!

We also had to lower her crib yesterday. I walked in to her room on Friday morning to get her to find her standing up waiting on me. Arms outstretched towards me...and there goes more heart exploding feelings...but also, it made my heart about leap out of my chest because the crib rail hit her just above her belly. If she knew how, I really think she could have gotten out of there. Soo, down went the crib. To the lowest level. Because who wants to mess with lowering it again in a month when she gets even taller? Not me!!

My heart might explode...

2011-05-19T20:05:00.000-07:00

Tonight I put Callie down on the floor of her room and went into her bathroom to start her bath water. After starting her water, I turned around to go back to her room to get her. As I turned around, there she was. She had followed me in there. Crawled after me. As I turned around and noticed her, she squealed in pure delight as her eyes met mine.

And I thought my heart might explode right out of my chest.

Now every day when I pick her up from daycare, she recognizes me when I come in the door. There is not much better than that moment. When she sees me and starts kicking her legs and smiling and squealing. Today she crawled to me when I came in. Such sweetness. There went my heart feeling like it would explode again.

Tonight as I prayed with Callie before putting her in her crib, I thanked God for those heart exploding moments. I know there are many, many more to come. And I can't wait.

8 Months Old

2011-05-17T17:17:00.000-07:00

Callie Tate is 8 months old today! She is growing up so fast.

I love her big silly two-toothed grin in this one.

Taking these pictures is getting harder and harder! Don't believe me? check out all the others...

She's all over the place!

A few things about our girl...

-She is crawling now! Check it out HERE.

-She is wearing mostly 9 month clothes or 6-12 month. Some of her one piece outfits are 12 months.

-She wears size 3 diapers.

-She is starting to get a tooth on top.

-She has started making the m and d and g sounds. But mostly she just says dada. Or dadoo or dadadada or daaaad or just plain old dad. See where I'm going with this? Every thing is DAD.

-At her 8 month appointment (which was supposed to be a 9 month appt but the receptionist scheduled us wrong), she weighed 18.4 pounds (57 percentile). She is 27 inches tall (48 percentile) and her head is 47.5 cm (99 percentile).

-She drinks six 6 ounce bottles a day. Because my milk supply is slowing down somewhat, those bottles are 4 ounces breastmilk/2 ounces of formula.

-She eats baby food like crazy now! She loves it! All of it, every kind. She eats two 4 ounce fruits and two 4 ounce veggies a day + rice cereal or oatmeal. She makes quite a mess now when she eats and loves to rip her bib off. If I drip any food on her tray, she is quick to rub it all around and make a big ole mess. Blowing raspberries at me when she has a mouthful of peas is fun too. As you can see.

-She loves going on walks so much!

-She had her first trip to the zoo last weekend. She loved it! You can see that HERE.

-She consistently wakes up once a night nowadays. Gone are the days of our baby sleeping through the night. *sigh* But I'm embracing the middle of the night snuggles. Those happen at about 2:00am each night. She drinks a bottle and goes right back to bed. Then she sleeps until 6am when she wakes to eat again. Sometimes she goes back to bed then, sometimes she stays awake and ~~plays~~ gets into everything while we get ready for work.

-We had to take her headrest out of her carseat this past month. She has gotten too big for it. She rarely cries in the car and she cried all the way home from school and all the way to school the next morning. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I took the headrest out and voila! She was happy again.

-She takes at least 2 big naps a day. Typically she takes one in the late morning that is an hour and a half and one late afternoon/evening nap that is an hour and a half too. She sometimes takes a few smaller 30 minute naps as well. She takes those naps in her crib at home or her crib at daycare.

-She doesn't like her swing very much anymore. She tries to get of it so we don't put her in it much anymore. She still really likes her excersaucer. She has many toys that she loves, many of them are the ones that sing songs and make a lot of noise.

-She loves "reading" books. She opens and closes the books over and over.

We love our little 8 month old sweetie pie!

On the move!

2011-05-16T17:14:00.000-07:00

We've got a crawler on our hands!!

She's been working on it pretty seriously since Thursday.

(video taken May 12, 2011)

But she officially took off crawling for the first time yesterday, on Sunday.

(video taken May 15, 2011)

And today she proved that she can do it quite well, including going from laying down to sitting up.

(video taken May 16, 2011)

She's on her way!

(video taken May 16, 2011)

She hasn't quite figured out how to go very quickly yet and still has to be bribed to move from place to place, but I'm sure it won't be long before she takes off on her own all the time. Maybe I want it to be a while before she gets to that point! I have a feeling it will just be a day or two though. ;)

Zoo!

2011-05-14T21:07:00.000-07:00

We woke up this morning and it was such a beautiful day...not too hot, but sunny and pretty...and we didn't have anything else going on, so we decided to take Callie to the zoo. She absolutely loves to take walks, so we figured that this would be like a glorified walk for her. She might not notice the animals too much, but we knew she would enjoy it. Courtney and I had such a great time! Callie was the perfect little zoo-goer. :)

She is ready to see the animals!

Daddy and Callie

Getting her pose on.

The giraffes were the highlight for Courtney and me. We acted like we'd never seen one before!

I could have sat and watched them for hours. They're really beautiful.

The more I looked at them, the more amazed I was at what interesting creatures they are.

Callie liked them too.

They have a petting zoo area where you can pet and feed the goats. When we first walked up there, I put Callie's stroller right in front of the little window of the fence. The goat below stretched out so far and stuck his face right in Callie's. Scared me to death! HA!

Courtney bought some food to feed them and he put it in the tray of Callie's stroller. That goat ate it right out of there. Callie just watched him.

Courtney fed one out of his hand. Apparently, that's pretty gross. hehe

When this little goat stuck his head out, Callie let out a strange scream sound. She didn't like him so much.

Our little family

What a fun day!

If we have it, she will eat it!

2011-05-13T18:57:00.000-07:00

The title of this post makes me think of the movie Field of Dreams…“If you build it, they will come.” And that quote makes me think of my dad. I watched Field of Dreams with him when I was a kid. I think I might have fallen asleep during the movie. I remember trying so hard to stay awake and knowing he really liked the movie and wanted me to see it. My memory is hazy as to whether or not I actually fell asleep or not, but I just remember being tired and trying very hard to stay awake.
Anywhoo…

Back to the point of the post…if I try to feed it to Callie now, she will eat it. Basically whatever IT is. You may [RECALL] that is a far cry from where we were when I started baby food with her when she was just shy of 6 months old.

I’ve been trying baby food with her every day since I first started with her and she would maybe take a few bites, but more often she would blow raspberries at me and push the food away and cry. She really wouldn’t have any of it. Then about 2 weeks ago, it just clicked. She first started to eat YoBaby yogurt and she loved it! I had seen a commercial for it and decided to give it a try since she wasn’t digging any of the baby food or rice cereal or baby oatmeal or pureed banana or pureed avocado. I bought the blueberry kind and the apple and sweet potato kind. She loved the apple and sweet potato but would have none of the blueberry. So, I just fed her the apple and sweet potato yogurt every day. Then I started adding in other baby food and she would open her mouth and eat whatever I put in front of her! I couldn’t believe it! So we stocked up on all kinds of fruits and veggies and yogurts and baby oatmeal and rice cereal. She loves it all. There isn’t anything she hasn’t liked yet. When we eat out, we give her bread and samples of our food in tiny pieces. She also eats baby food now at daycare too. We've come a long way in the food department! YAY!

Big Girl

2011-05-09T15:37:00.000-07:00

Callie has reached some “big girl” milestones at her ripe old age of 7 months. I am constantly amazed at the things that she is doing now or wants to do.

For example, she always wants to be standing up. Usually she does this with our help. As I’ve said for months now, she will pull herself up while holding on to little more than one of our fingers. Now she tries to pull up on everything in sight. She doesn’t want to be sitting. She doesn’t want to be crawling, which might be why she still isn’t, at least not in the traditional ways of crawling. She doesn’t want to be rolling around, which she can do quite well.

She wants to be standing. Like this.

And now she can do it, while holding on to something for support, all by herself!

Another “big girl” moment came when we put her in a high chair at a restaurant for the first time. We tried that out on Mother’s Day. My first Mother’s Day, except Courtney reminded me in my card from the dogs that he gives me every year that it isn’t really my first Mother’s Day. I’ve been celebrating Mother’s Day for the last 7 years since we got our first fur baby, Lambeau. ;) Anyway, we tried putting her in the high chair on Mother’s Day. She’s been ready physically to do that for quite a while, but we always feel like she is more easily contained in her carseat when we are in a restaurant. But, she did great! While sitting in the high chair, we fed her bits of bread and she played with her table top toy.

Callie has also gotten big enough to ride in the shopping cart! Until now, we’ve always taken her into stores in her carseat. We still do that on big trips to Wal-Mart because it’s just easier that way. She is big enough to ride all by herself in the cart now and she really enjoys it. Of course, she tries to grab at everything within reach now too.

I say it all the time, but I just want to freeze time right now. She is growing up way too fast! This age is such fun and I want to keep her here for just a little while longer…or maybe a long while!!

7 Months Old

2011-04-17T19:13:00.000-07:00

Callie is 7 months old now!

As I did her 7 month pictures with the sign and teddy bear today, Callie performed for the pictures just like she does in real life nowadays....

Yep, that's about right...she is ALL OVER THE PLACE all the time now. So, I got a few good pictures of her and then she noticed the sign and ripped it right down. If we are at a restaurant and I have her on my lap, she is grabbing at everything on the table within reach. We've gotten to that point. Hide the goods that are within her reach!!

And within reach for her is anything she can scoot around to or grab by reaching out as far as she can. She isn't crawling yet. She gets her arms in position or she gets her legs in position but she can't get them working together. Yet. I don't think it will be long. She wants to move around so badly.

She can hold on to our fingers and go from a sitting position to standing now quite easily. I always say I think she might walk before she crawls. She's got some strong arms and legs. She loves to work those legs too by standing on our laps and jumping up and down with our assistance.

I said she is all over the place and that includes on the changing table. She won't stay on her back for a diaper change to save her life. She flips over on her belly or wriggles all around now every time. It's quite exhausting. I've gotten very good at putting a diaper on when she is on her belly. I've also gotten very good at finding things to entertain her for a brief moment so I can get her diaper on. Whew! We are going to be in for it when she's a toddler, I can already tell.

She still won't really eat baby food...except for yobaby yogurt. She loves it! Her favorite is the apple and sweet potato kind. She sits in her high chair and eats that every evening before her 5:00 bottle.

She typically drinks 6 bottles a day. She has 6 ounces in each bottle. Since Miss Independent self-weaned sometime before Thanksgiving and Christmas, I pump exclusively and feed her breastmilk in bottles. I'm not able to keep up with Callie and the amount of milk she wants to drink at each feeding anymore and so I supplement 1 ounce of formula in 3-4 bottles a day. I'm hoping I don't have to do more than that, but if I do, it will be okay. :)

Since Callie started teething, then got a double ear infection that required 2 doses of antibiotics, she has gone back on our deal of sleeping through the night. I miss that. *sigh* She has starting waking at least once a night quite regularly. Sometimes that's at midnight, sometimes 2am, sometimes 3:30 and most frequently 4:30am. She eats and goes right back to bed until I have to wake her at 7 to leave for school but I do miss the days of her sleeping from 8:30 to 5:30 or 6:30am uninterupted. She still goes to bed at 8:30pm.

She's got such a spunky, fun personality. She is still very serious, not laughing very often but she gives us plenty of sweet smiles and lots of open mouth excited faces. We can get her giggling if we tickle her sides.

As you can see, she is a little chunk. :) She certainly isn't starving from not eating baby food! HA!

She still has just the two bottom teeth. I think she is starting to work on some more teeth now though. The slobbering has gotten pretty bad again.

We are loving every second with our 7 month sweetie. As I pray with her before bed each night, I thank God for trusting us with her. What a true blessing she is to us!

a girl and her dogs, part 2

2011-04-06T19:28:00.000-07:00

I did a post of Callie with her dogs when she was very small, in fact, she was a month old or younger in THAT post.

Thought I would share some more. Here are some recent pictures of Callie and the boys. She adores them, especially Lambeau. They think she's pretty great too.

Braddock, looking annoyed, but he really loves the attention.

Braddock, showing off for her.

I looove this picture!

She has a blankie in one hand and Lambeau in another.

Spending a lazy morning with Lambeau

Checking out Lambeau. He always gets her attention.

You knew this day would come eventually.

Hitching a ride on Lambeau. ;)

Just a-swingin!

2011-04-04T13:48:00.000-07:00

Callie enjoyed her first time swinging on real swings on a playground!

She held on like a big girl. So cute!

This was at a park in Hot Springs Village we visited while celebrating Mom's birthday.

Fun times!

All she needed was a highchair...

2011-04-02T19:23:00.000-07:00

Obviously, if I had broken out the high chair in the beginning, we wouldn't have had the eating issues we've been having.

Obviously.

Who knew? We borrowed this high chair from our neighbor and it's been sitting in our garage, waiting on me to get it cleaned up. Today Callie sat outside on the porch while I cleaned it up with a hose in the yard. Classy, I know...sort of classy like our overgrown flowerbed that hasn't gotten any attention since the night before I went into labor...

Then I brought it in and got her all set up in it.

And she chowed down on sweet potatoes and applesauce like it was no big thing. Except that it is a big thing, because she has yet to really eat any food at all since the day she ate sweet potatoes and peas back a few weeks ago. We offer baby food each night with her sitting in her bumbo seat but she won't eat it.

Tonight, she did! All because of that high chair! :)

Here's hoping I don't jinx myself by publishing this post! HA!

Grow, baby, grow!

2011-04-02T13:32:00.000-07:00

We had Callie's 6 month appointment on March 25th. She got her 6 month shots which she took like a trooper. She only cried a little. They also did all her measurements.

Weight - 16.4 lbs - 51%
Height - 26.5 inches - 73%

Then the nurse measured her head.

Head - 46.2 cm - 100+%

The nurse remeasured because she said she knew the pediatrician would make her do it again. Same thing. Then Dr. Day came in and he measured her head. He got an even bigger measurement than the nurse. I started to get a little nervous since they were making such a fuss about it. I asked what it means for her head to be so big and he told me to hang on for a second while he put some information into the computer.

Let me give you some backstory on this girl's head. It was big when she was born. You might recall from her birth story that the doctor had to use forceps to get her big ole head out. Then after we got her home, she started to get a flat place on one side. We had to position her so that she laid on the other side of her head in her carseat, bouncy seat, crib, etc. There was even talk of putting her in a helmet at her 2 week and 2 month appointments. Luckily, that worked itself out and at her 4 month appointment, the shape was fine and the doctor felt good about it. I, however, being the new sometimes worrisome mom I am, have always worried about her head. It's always the top of my list of questions to ask her doctor at every visit. So, this measuring and remeasuring of her head had me getting a little tense.

Now, where were we? Oh, yes, he was putting info in the computer.

So he got it all put in and showed me why he was concerned about her head size. Because you may be thinking what many people have told me since this day...don't all babies have heads that are bigger than anything else for a while?? Well, his concern was more about her head growth from 4 months (our last appt) to 6 months. Apparently it had grown exponentially faster than anything else in that time. He showed me some graphs charting her growth and her height and weight had always been on this nice curve that is considered "normal" development. Her head had been on that curve at 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months but it had started to spike up off the curve at 4 months, but not too much. But now her line was spiked completely straight up, showing an abnormal amount of growth. Then he started to speak to me about what that means. The long story short version is that he used words like "neurosurgeon" and "cat scan" and "surgery" and "fluid on the brain" and other similiarly scary terms. But he also said that since her development is right on for where it should be that he wasn't too concerned but he wanted to get her checked out just to be safe.

Okay.

He really did share that information with me in a very gentle way. I think he was expecting me to lose it. To cry. To go all new mom crazy. But I didn't. I was very calm. I think mostly because she is on track developmentally. However, since I have always had concerns about her head it was a bit scary. Plus, with brain surgery as the cure for what may be ailing your 6 month old, it's pretty scary. They told me they would set up the appointment for us for Callie to get a cat scan asap. They reassured me that she is fine and nothing would happen to her before we made it to the appointment. Thank you God for that.

That was a Friday. Fast-forward to Monday. They call me to tell me her appointment was on Wednesday at 8am and that we would have results by noon that same day.

On Wednesday we went to the appointment for Callie to have a cat scan. I wondered how in the world this would work! Turns out it's pretty simple. Courtney and I got to go in with her and after they got her laid down and strapped in, Courtney kept her arms down and still and I held a bottle then her pacifier in her mouth. It was very noisy and her little eyes got so big when it started but she did so good. It was only in like 15-30 seconds and we were out and on our way.

Then we waited. UGH! That noon phone call did not come until 3pm. Waiting is so hard! But the news was GREAT! She is completely and totally normal!! No fluid on her brain...her bone structure is perfect...all is well! He said even if her head continues to grow that he wouldn't be concerned because everything looked perfect. YAY!

You know what that means though, right? We've got one big headed little girl on our hands! hahahaha! We can laugh about it now. :)

So, grow baby Callie grow! But that head can slow down a bit! ;)

And here's our sweet girl playing in a trash can

at my parent's house in Hot Springs Village.

a birthday visit

2011-03-21T13:33:00.000-07:00

My mom turned 60 on March 19th. We went to Hot Springs Village to celebrate with her. My sister and her husband and sweet little Will came too. It was such a good time!

Callie got to hang out with her cousin Will that she see far too little. They had a good time. Well, mostly. Will doesn't really enjoy sharing his stuff with little Callie just yet. And right about the time he starts to want to play with her, she will hit that stage where she doesn't want to share. Too funny!

Looking at Mom's singing birthday card.

I'll take that from you, thankyouverymuch.

Come on, let me see again!!!

Hello there little Callie!

Sitting with Uncle William

Great-grandpa time

checking out his cane

Sharing some conversation

Great-granpda has lots of cool stuff. A cane, something in his pocket...

...a hat...

Great-grandma time

Borrowing Will's chair

Taking a little (quick) stroll down the hall

This is super fun!! Don't you love dragging me around Nana??

Holding hands...awwww <3

Giving her hugs

Big girl, she's mastered sitting up.

It was so fun to celebrate Mom and her birthday by having us all there together. Callie and Will have the VERY BEST Nana in the world!!

6 Months Old

2011-03-17T20:18:00.000-07:00

It's our sweet girl's half birthday! 6 months old.

We go for her 6 month appointment on March 25th so we'll have new stats on her then. Also, she's having her 6 month pictures taken by my extrememly talented friend Laura of Laura Kent Photography on the 26th so I will have those to share eventually too. I cannot wait!!

Now for the new and interesting things Callie is doing now...

*She recently went through a crazy growth spurt and wanted to eat every 3 hours around the clock. That meant overnight too. She is over that now, it lasted about 10 days, and she is back to sleeping all night long.

*She sleeps from 8:30pm-6:30am. Except for the last few days, when she has started teething and is now getting up halfway through the night when the tylenol wears off. :(

*She eats 5-6oz of breastmilk every 3 hours during the day.

*She wears size 2 diapers.

*She is wearing 6 month or 6-9 month clothes. She can still fit in some 3-6 month but her 3 month onesies are just about too small.

*She is sitting up all by herself now.

(sorry don't know how to turn the video...??)

*She loves to play and roll around and smile and bounce in her jumper at daycare and her excersaucer at home.

*She giggles more now but she still doesn't do it a lot. She tries to laugh a lot...big open mouth...usually squealing but she still has her silent giggle most of the time. We say we think her giggler is missing. You can tell she totally wants to giggle but she just doesn't yet very often for some reason. I'm sure that is fine, but the overly concerned new mom in me is totally going to be asking the doctor about that.

*She is not a fan of baby food yet. We keep trying every evening though. She's had avocados, rice cereal, bananas, peas, baby oatmeal and sweet potatoes (in that order) but she doesn't like any of it. Actually it's not as if she doesn't like the stuff we feed her...it's like she doesn't like the whole idea of eating food. The moment I come at her with the spoon, she purses her lips and then starts to blow raspberries at me just in case I think I might try to get that spoon in there.
***update - I wrote this post a few days before I was ready to publish it...since then, Callie has started to eat her baby food!! She ate sweet potatoes and bananas on Wednesday evening and peas and bananas this afternoon. YAY!

*She loves my cell phone. She always takes it from me if I use it around her.

*She looooves books. We have a stack of books on a tray on the ottoman next to the couch and she will reach over to the books and grab one that she wants to look at. And she knows which one she wants too! Lately it has been her Lovebug book that my mom got her. Her picture goes on the heart of the bug's tummy and it shows on every page. It light up too and sings music. She adores it and opens and closes it over and over because the lights and song start and stop that way.

*She sleeps on her belly in her crib every night. She used to sleep in her bouncy seat until mid-February, but that is no more! She takes most every nap at home in her swing.

*If she finds her pacifier in her crib, she can put it back in her mouth now if she wants to.

*She has cut her first tooth! It came through on Monday night (3/14) I will be sad to lose her toothless, gummy smile.

*She got to cheer for her daddy as his basketball team made it to the Regional tournament. We were so proud of him!

After the team won Area, they get to cut down the net. So special!

And to quote a page or two from her favorite book,

Callie,
You're my punkin wunkin,
My peaches and my pie,
My bread and butter, peanut butter
Apple of my eye.
You're everything that's wonderful,
You're all of the above,
But most of all what you are
Is God's sweetest gift of love.

We love you our little 6 month old sweetie!

I can sit up...all by myself!

2011-03-12T11:35:00.000-08:00

She has mastered it! Sitting up! All by herself.

She has been doing it with assistance or for tiny amounts of time alone, but today I sat her up and she held the position all by herself for long enough for me to get my camera and get all situated for a pic before she toppled over. She even rocked a bit side to side and adjusted herself to remain sitting. Big girl!!

This food stuff is for the birds!

2011-03-12T10:24:00.000-08:00

Baby food...we decided to give it a try. My pediatrician told me at her 4 month appointment that we could start whenever we wanted at that point. He said it was fine to start then or to wait as late as 6 months. Well, Callie will be 6 months on March 17th. I was going to wait until she turned 6 months.

And then she hit a growth spurt. And started wanting to eat ever 3 hours overnight. She eats every 3 hours during the day, but she's been sleeping through the night since before she was 3 months old so this eating every 3 hours at night was not a welcome surprise! On our trip to Oklahoma she woke up Saturday night and wouldn't go back to sleep without eating. Then she started doing that for the next 2 weeks. Baby girl was hungry! So I decided it was time to start food.

In all my first time mom naivety, I thought we would sit down with a bowl of food and she would eat it with as much excitement as I was feeling and then she would begin to sleep through the night again, with her belly filled with the deliciousness of avocado and a nighttime bottle of breastmilk.

*sigh* That's not how it went at all. She was not a fan. Wasn't that first day we tried it and still isn't a week later.

As I said, I decided to start with avocado. Had been doing some research and found that you don't have to start with rice cereal after all. Avocado is great brain food. :) So I pureed some an avocado and added some rice cereal and breastmilk, set her up with a bib in her bumbo seat and we were ready to go! But not so much. She wouldn't even look at me. Then I gave her a bit of food and she blew raspberries at me and spit it all back out. I moved her out of the bumbo seat to her bouncy seat and she still would have none of it. I was all ready to go with camera for video, cell phone camera for pics and spoon filled with food. It was not the experience I had planned!

face covered in avocado, bib off because it was just getting in the way!

I've got my mouth open, but I really don't want ANY of that stuff!!

Now, fast forward a week later and she still doesn't want anything to do with any of it. Nevertheless, we try to feed it her to every night. I have tried rice cereal with breastmilk, pureed bananas with breastmilk, avocado with rice cereal and breastmilk and peas. She ate the most of the peas...about 6 spoonfulls...before deciding she didn't want anymore of it. That was last night. And today she wouldn't have any of the peas at all.

I know she will get it eventually. I've decided not to stress over it. I'm sure she'll be eating more than just breastmilk by the time she goes to kindergarten! HAHA!

Until then, the frozen avocado and banana wait patiently in the freezer for another day.

Perseverance

2011-03-06T10:25:00.000-08:00

Perseverance.

When Callie sets her mind to something, she usually accomplishes it. :) I think that is a trait that will serve her well in life. Today, it helped her grab the mobile on her swing. Tomorrow, world dominance.

Let's go to the movies!

2011-03-05T10:45:00.000-08:00

Callie saw her first movie today! My friend Blaine called and asked if we wanted to go to the movies with her and her twins. I was a little hesitant because I wasn't sure how she'd do in the theater. But she does love her some tv, so I thought maybe she would love it.

She did!!

Her first movie was Rango. Turns out she like Johnny Depp! :) It's not a great picture, but it's sort of hard to take a picture in the dark theater without making people mad with the flash. Ha! I had to do it though. It's her first movie experience, after all!

She sat just like this, all excited about the movie and staring at the screen with this much intensity the whole time. Well, that is, until the twins decided they had had enough and we left. They didn't like Johnny Depp as Rango as much as Callie did.

Good times!

Hanging out with Kyson

2011-02-27T10:30:00.000-08:00

Time spent with other small humans

makes this girl very happy!

Especially when they are big enough

to help her out by giving her the paci.

Kyson decided to give her paci a try,

even though his mother (my best friend Keysha)

says that he never ever has taken a paci.

He might even try to pick her up

and get her wherever she needs to go.

Even though we should try to tame that wild hair

before we let him take her out in public.

It's even fun to be fed a bottle by her new friend.

I just know these two are going to be friends for a long, long time.

A rolling she can go...

2011-02-21T11:12:00.000-08:00

Callie can now roll over any way she would like. She has been able to roll from front to back for about a month. And now she has mastered rolling from back to front! She had been trying to get it but she seriously couldn't do it very well on Wednesday and did it like a champ on Thursday. Like it was the easiest thing in the world.

I caught her on video on Saturday (2-19-11). Rolling over like it's nothing. Atta girl Callie!

And Lambeau really is alive in the background. He's just a heavy sleeper. Literally. HAHA

Bye bye bouncy seat

2011-02-19T19:29:00.000-08:00

We moved Callie to her crib at 3 weeks old. At first she slept swaddled and in a sleep positioner in her crib. Then somehow, we ended up putting her in her bouncy seat to sleep. I seriously cannot remember how or why we did this. At all. Maybe she had fallen asleep in there once and I decided to start putting her in there at night. No idea. Can't remember for some reason. I can't remember how old she was when we started that either. I do know that when I took Callie to Holdenville and then to Tulsa to meet her cousins for the first time, she was sleeping in it then because I traveled with it. That was November 14th. She was 2 months old then. But either way, she has slept every single night in her bouncy seat in her crib in her room. She started sleeping through the night in the bouncy seat on December 14th at 3 months old. She got a cough right before Christmas and her pediatrician said to make sure she was sleeping upright while she had the cough, like maybe in a bouncy seat. See? I was really just a step ahead.

Not really.

I was just doing what worked. She slept well in the bouncy seat so we left her there. It worked. I really have only one thing I don't want to do with her as far as sleeping is concerned and that is have her in our bed. And she wasn't. She was in her bed. Just in a bouncy seat in there.

But not anymore.

As of last night, she is sleeping happily in her crib! Since she has started to roll over so easily, she had gotten a bit agitated in the bouncy seat, wriggling around and trying to turn over. So, since I have a long weekend because of President's Day, I got up the nerve to try putting her in her crib with no bouncy seat. Since she is sleeping through the night, I really didn't want to do anything to mess that up. But it didn't mess anything up! I put her in the crib on her back and she immediately rolled to her belly and fell asleep.

Success!

This picture is from tonight. Tonight she is snoozing away on her side. Which, by the way, I like much better than her being on her belly...that made me very nervous last night. I clicked on the monitor probably 100 times to make sure she was still breathing. Even though she can hold her head up so well and roll over, she's never really slept on her tummy. Ugh, scared me! I guess I better get used to it though because it seems to be her preference. I put her in her crib tonight with her head facing away from the camera, but she turned herself all the way around until her head was at the other end of the crib. I very much like this view.

This, my friends, is the best show on tv tonight!!

Holding on

2011-02-19T10:07:00.000-08:00

As Callie learns to hold on to more and more things,

I find myself wanting to hold on to this time.

Grab it tight.

I want to capture it all.

Every second.

And never let it go.

5 Months Old

2011-02-17T19:22:00.000-08:00

Callie is 5 months old today!

This picture says it all...

...because she is so into things now!

She is very observant and pays attention to everything around her.

She's a smiling, giggling (every now and then)...

...happy little thing.

She loves her feet...

...so very much.

-Callie weighs about 16 pounds now.

-She can roll from back to front with ease now. In fact, she does it easier than she goes from front to back now. She just started going from back to front really well. She loves to do it and if I put her on her back, she rolls over very quickly to her belly. She used to hate being on her belly so much that I was thinking she might not ever crawl! But now she is spending more time on her belly and she's beginning to scoot herself around a bit.

-She has very strong legs. If I sit her on my leg with her feet flat on the ground and let her hold my fingers, she can stand herself up.

-She sat up today on her own when I picked her up from daycare! She was sitting up, leaning against me and she started playing with *big Callie's purse. She leaned onto the purse and I moved away from her and she sat up all on her own! We are getting so close to her sitting up with no support at all!

*there is another Callie at daycare. Our Callie is "baby Callie" to all the kids and I refer to the other Callie as big Callie. She is 4 and she loooves baby Callie!

-We haven't started her on rice cereal or food yet. I don't have any good reason for that really. I feel like she has no tummy issues with breastmilk and she is quite content with it, doesn't seem like it isn't enough for her. So, I don't feel like making any changes yet. My plan is to start her on it at 6 months.

-She sleeps from 8:30pm to anywhere from 6-7am.

-She eats 5-6 ounces every 3 hours during the day.

-She still takes at least 3 naps a day, usually 4.

-She thinks the dogs are just about the coolest thing EVER! If they walk into the room, she lights up...all smiles and squeals. She spends a lot of time watching them. She reaches out for them now and likes to pat them.

She is seriously getting more and more fun every.single.day. So, I'll ask again, can I please freeze time??

Sleeping beauty

2011-02-09T13:23:00.000-08:00

Oh man, I love this little girl so much. So much it hurts a little.

Precious.

Awwww.

SNOW DAYS!

2011-02-08T15:52:00.000-08:00

During the great SNOWmaggedon of 2011, we were home from school for FOUR fabulous days! That meant a lot of time for picture taking and snuggles with our sweet girl. I really enjoyed this time at home again with her.

I put together her excersaucer. It was such hard work to put together! I think I needed to be a rocket scientist to understand some of those directions, but I got it done finally. Courtney was the overseer of the project. haha

But it was well worth it because she loves it!!

checking herself out in the mirror (she LOVES to look at herself in the mirror!)

The dogs enjoyed the snow, kind of. They were troopers anyway and would go out in it to potty without any compaints. I'm thankful for that!

We finally ventured out on Friday to go turkey bowling with some friends. What is turkey bowling?? Glad you asked. You get ten 2-liter bottles as pins, a frozen turkey as a bowling ball, an icey road as the lane, some willing friends and voila! Turkey bowling! It was so much fun! Good times had by all.

Callie and I got all decked out for the cold.

Wish I had better pictures of the one time she will probably get to wear this adorable, fleece-lined snowsuit that we borrowed from my dear friend Emily but unfortunately these pics snapped on an almost dead cell phone were it. My camera died. My cell phone died. Courtney's cell phone was on it's last leg so I was happy to even get these. *sigh* By the way, dontcha love my Green Bay scarf?? Knitted by my talented sister. Thanks Harrison! :)

Oh and my baby loves to sit up now and wishes she could do it all by herself. She is getting close!! She actually did for a few seconds the other day before toppling forward. If she is sitting with us, she wants to be straight up, not leaning back at all.

She was checking out the dogs in this shot. Another fascination of hers for now. :)

Well, I'm off to enjoy looking at the snow. It'll be all melted soon and back to normal.

Pink Converse All-Stars

2011-02-06T12:18:00.000-08:00

When my best friend became pregnant 11 years ago, I bought her daughter-to-be a pair of Converse All-Star shoes. Pink ones. As a kid, I had pink converses and I loved them so much. I wore them all the time! My dad still wears his black converses. I remember loving my pink converses because they were like my dad's shoes. But mine were pink. And adorable. Of course, mine were much bigger than the tiny baby shoes I bought for Becky's daughter-to-be Taylan so many years ago.

Becky hung onto those shoes. Then she gave them to me at my baby shower.

And now Callie is wearing them.

Sweet little pink shoes.

Love you Becky and Taylan and thanks for passing them on!!

Changing diapers

2011-02-05T12:09:00.000-08:00

A big part of having a baby is changing diapers. And changing diapers A LOT. And changing diapers in a lot of places.

I've changed many diapers in my baby's 4 months of life. I've changed diapers when there were no places to change diapers (which brings me to a big complaint about how EVERY place that has a bathroom should have a changing station in their bathroom. Come on! Can it really be that expensive to add to a bathroom?? But that's a whole 'nother blog post.). I've changed diapers in the back of a car, on my lap, on tabletops (when the bathroom with no changing station was just too disgusting to even think about changing my baby in it), outside, on beds, and now....

...now I've changed her at a basketball game. In the stands.

At least I was in good company!! :)

Oh the life of a coach's wife!

all the new things...

2011-02-02T11:48:00.000-08:00

Callie is getting to be more and more fun every day!

You may remember that our sweet girl did her fair share of ~~crying~~ screaming for a good part of her early days. Starting at 3 weeks and continuing until she was well into her 2nd month of life. As I type that I think that surely doesn't seem like a very long time, but it was when we were all up in the middle of it. And when you don't know if it's going to last 3 months or 13 months, it can make new parents quite anxious. I thought we would never have a content, happy baby again. I say again because she was so content for the first 2 weeks after we brought her home. But she is back and we are loving every minute!!

Now, back to the FUN part. She is now quite easy to entertain and keep happy. She is much more predictable. She is much more interactive. She is much more concerned about the things around her.

She has started to notice the dogs so much! She is constantly watching them and turning so she can see them. It's neat to watch. She even reaches out and touches them now. Look at her with her hand back on him. Awwww...

She is a busy raspberry blowing thing! She loves to make noises with her mouth. It's just the cutest thing!

She loves to have her blankets up near her face. If she's in her carseat or swing, you can guarantee she's got ahold of the blanket and has it up around her face, most all the time it is in her mouth.

She has FINALLY giggled. Not a big belly laugh. Yet. But a sweet little sound. She used to just open her mouth really wide like she wanted to laugh, but no sound would come out. Yesterday, sound came out! Courtney and I were both home during Snowpallooza to hear it! :)

(please disregard how stupid I sound in the backgroud...anything for a laugh, I guess...)

She has great neck control and likes being on her belly more and more...

...sort of.

She is figuring out how to roll from back to front. If she has enough momentum she can do it. Otherwise, she gets stuck like this:

...and has no idea what to do with that silly arm.

She is quickly losing her hair. Which bums me out because our baby girl is supposed to have wild and crazy hair. I don't want it all to fall out!! I find her hair everywhere! In her carseat and swings...in her bouncy seat...on her clothes. *sigh*

She's getting big enough to play in some of her "big baby" toys...like her Jenny Jump Up.

Well, almost. ;)

We got her a new bath seat. We were using a fisherprice bathtub, which was great when she was tiny and could fit in the sling part, but now she can't and she was not a fan of the seat in that tub. So I got her something new! It sits in the tub and you fill the actual bath tub up and the seat becomes immersed in the water. She really loves it! She kicks her legs out over the side and just hangs out.

This is such a FUN age! Can we just go ahead and freeze time??

Go Pack Go!!

2011-01-27T11:49:00.000-08:00

We are pretty excited that our Green Bay Packers are going to the Super Bowl!! I married into being a Packers fan, but I now love to watch the Packers too! In fact, we've been to Green Bay twice.

The first time was over Christmas in 2005...the game we went to was on Christmas day.

It was cold and I loved every second of that trip!!

The second time was for the first regular season game in September of 2006.

So it just makes sense that we would get Callie in on some Packer fun!

She had a great time watching the ballgame with us and some friends.

We will be cheering loud on Sunday for the Packers in the Super Bowl. Wish Courtney could have gotten tickets since the SB is in Arlington. Oh well, it'll be fun watching it with friends and our sweet girl!

4 Months Old

2011-01-18T11:42:00.000-08:00

Little Miss Callie Tate is a whopping 4 months old!

A few things about our girl...

*She weighs14 lbs even and is 25 inches long. That puts her in the 60% for weight and 78% for height.

*She "talks" to us all the time. Lots of babbling going on. Right now, she doesn't really make letter sound (no ddddd or mmmmm, more like awwww or ahhhhhh) but she does her share of communicating. :)

*She constantly puts her fingers in her mouth now. All.the.time. See?

*She grabs for objects all around her...whether it's a toy or mommy's shopping list...

*She has started noticing the dogs. This happened for the first time after we got home from Christmas in Arkansas.

*She holds her head up very well now and doesn't mind tummy time nearly as much...

...of course that is mostly because she can just roll right over onto her back anytime she wants to now. You want proof? Well, you better believe I have proof! HA!

*She got to see her first snow. Big, fantastic flakes.

*She can (sometimes) put her pacifier back in her mouth on her own...she does it quite frequently when she's in her swing. She sure can't do it in the night when she wakes up and wants it though!

Here she is...I caught her in the act! :)

*She sleeps from 8:30pm to 5:30am on most nights.

*She eats 5-6 ounces every 3 hours except overnight when she goes 9 hours.

*She is in size 2 diapers now. We just started those over the weekend. After she pooped out of her 1's quite a few times, I decided it might be time to go up a size!

*She loves to stand up, with assistance of course.

*She loves to look at herself in the mirror. She gives us an all-out gummy grin when she sees herself. It's so stinking cute!
*She still has yet to laugh out loud. She opens her mouth so big like she wants to laugh but no sound comes out. She does shriek a lot when she's excited, but no giggles yet. We CANNOT wait to hear her laugh!!
*She loves to sit in her bumbo seat and check out what we're doing. (This would be one of those shrieking moments...)

*Speaking of checking out what we're doing...she is so aware of everything going on around her. She was playing on her play mat on Friday and I sat down and when I started talking to her she twisted around to be able to look at me.

I love all the new things she does every day!

My favorite things - new mom version

2011-01-15T19:00:00.000-08:00

Here are a few of my most favorite things as a new mom. Must haves, if you will.

Lansinoh nursing pads
-if you're breastfeeding, nursing pads are a must. But I tried out a few brands and these are definitely the BEST! No leaking. None. For real.

Summer Video Monitor
-this is by far my most favorite thing we have for Callie. Peace.of.mind. Enough said.

The First Years drying rack
-love this thing! I use it every single day. Thinking about buying one for school and just using the bottom half of it for my office.

Colic Calm
-this is a homeopathic gripe water. It says on their website that it works instantly and that babies love the taste. I'm gonna go ahead and agree with both statements. It works instantly. Don't believe me? You could ask my mom and my pastor's wife. Both have seen Callie screaming and I give her this and she is instantly calmer. Yes, instantly. It's nuts! And she loves the taste. Which is weird because it is charcoal black. But she sucks it out of that syringe. It's for gas, reflux, colic, you name it. In fact, after I got this I stopped using her gas drops and just used this as needed.

My breast pump - Medela
-Callie is only 3 months old and this thing has made many trips with me. It has a car adapter so I can even use it in the car. I have used it driving home from a dinner date with my hubby (that's romance, people!), in the backseat after the Rangers playoff game, in my office three times daily, at my parent's house, and at home each night. It's wonderful! And borrowed...thanks Harrison!!

Nursing tanks
-when I get home each day, I immediately change in to my nursing tank. It's just so easy and comfy! I sleep in them as well. I wore it every single day I was on maternity leave. The part that covers your boob clips and unclips so easily for nursing. I love these so much! Mine is a bit different than the one pictured, but the best part is the clip. Also borrowed...thanks Keysha!!

What are your favorites?

Me and my girl

2011-01-14T19:08:00.000-08:00

I am usually behind the lense taking pictures of my sweet girl, but as I was browsing pictures, I came across a few recent pictures of Callie and me. It's obvious they are all from the month of December by her Christmas-y attire. :)

I love this sweet girl so very much. I am so proud to be her mommy.

Christmas Traditions

2010-12-29T12:07:00.000-08:00

One of our Christmas traditions when we are in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas at my parents' house is to take a Christmas day walk on the golf course. We get all bundled up and we all head out for a walk.

In the past, "all" included us and our dog(s).

Dad and Courtney and Lambeau in 2006

Dad, Courtney, William, and Lambeau in 2006

Now "all of us" includes two sweet babies. Callie and my sister's little boy, Will.

Dad, Courtney, and Callie in 2010

Dad, William, Courtney, Callie and Will in 2010

I love seeing the difference and seeing the guys push the strollers on the walk. It will be even more interesting as the years go on to see how our Christmas day walks change.

Us girls, following behind. Enjoying some girl time and chatting and laughing on the way.

I love Christmas traditions!!

3 month pictures

2010-12-19T12:58:00.000-08:00

We took Callie to take her 3 month pictures on Saturday. We went to Picture People and I was actually quite happy with how they turned out.

Our little girl smiles ALL the time now. Except when you try to take her picture in a studio apparently. She wouldn't smile at all. They still caught some great picture nonetheless.

I absolutely love how she is holding herself up in some of these shots. She's getting so big!!

She was hacked over that bow so we decided to lose it.

We love her wild and crazy hair anyway, so we are happy to show it off. ;)

3 Months Old

2010-12-17T12:59:00.000-08:00

Callie is 3 months old today.
Here are a few things about her and what she's doing now.

She rarely cries just to cry anymore.
I said rarely. It still happens some. Like when I try to pose her for her 3 month picture when she is tired. But, I guess that technically isn't crying just to cry...that's crying cause she's mad and doesn't want her picture taken. Haha

And she loves her pacifier. Her paci, as I call it. But her daddy insists we use the whole word 'pacifier' when we speak of this jewel. Either way, she loves it.

She's developing her own little personality. Which a friend recently described as "spicy" after she saw this arms crossed picture. She really is very sweet.

She recently discovered her hands. She sucks on them a lot and spends time watching them open and shut. She also grabs things around her now, like her blankets and toys. It's so cute to watch her discover them and what she can do with them.

She has started sleeping through the night. I still get up once a night to pump, but she is sleeping straight through. She goes to bed about 8:30 and sleeps until 5:30 usually. She slept as late as 7am a few times.

She will no longer nurse off of me for some reason. Maybe because she is so used to a bottle since she gets 3 bottles at daycare. So, I just pump and feed her breastmilk from a bottle at every feeding. She eats 5 ounces every 3 hours. Except overnight of course.

She smiles all the time at people when they talk to her. It's so sweet!! Her daddy and I LOVE getting her to smile at us. The very best is when I get her up in the morning to leave for school and she gives me a big smile. It melts me. I love those moments so much.

She laughs at her daddy and me but no sound comes out yet. Just a big ole open mouth smile really. I cannot wait until we can hear her laugh!

She weights 12lbs 12.8oz. I know this because we had to take her to her first sick baby doctor appointment. She's had a snotty nose for a few days and then the congestion got much worse and she started to cough. She was coughing so hard she would gag and throw up so I took her to the doctor. She had one infected ear, but he said it was just starting. So she is on an antibiotic.

We are going to Hot Springs Village for Callie's first Christmas in just a few days. We are so excited to spend that time with my family and our sweet 3 month old girl!

I want to never forget...

2010-12-12T14:00:00.000-08:00

.the smell of her little head

.the way her little chunky thighs feel

.how sweet she looks when she sleeps

.how I could literally burst open with happiness when she smiles at me in the mornings

.how she opens her mouth to laugh but no sound comes out yet

.how every day is a new discovery...for her...and for me as a mommy

.how proud it makes me when she is crying and I pick her up and she stops

.that she has some wild and crazy hair that is the softest hair I've ever felt

.how she loves music to play in her room

.that she was born with almost no eyelashes and they have grown in day by day

.how she stares at me when I am feeding her

.how fun it is to have her to sit on my lap and listen as I read her stories

.that as we near 3 months of her life, she seems to be growing too fast

Nakedness

2010-12-03T19:17:00.000-08:00

Nothing

better

than

our

naked

baby

girl

Gazing...

2010-12-02T19:09:00.000-08:00

at her mobile

has become

one of her

most favorite things

to do.

First Thanksgiving

2010-11-27T10:08:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful first Thanksgiving with Callie!

We always spend thanksgivng with Courtney's mom and his family. This year we spent it at Uncle Brandon's house in Edmond.

Callie had an adorable turkey shirt I ordered off etsy for her. Here she is showing it off.

Her cousins Cale and Azure were there for the fun and festivities.

Uncle Brandon, carving the turkey. It was his first Thanksgiving at his house, so he did the honors.

Cha Cha gave Callie a sink bath one night. We love our little duckie.

All bathed and adorable.

Hanging out with Uncle Brandon

The brothers and their babies.

Daddy and Callie and Uncle Brandon and Cale.

Showing off how well she can hold up her head now. Those are daddy's hands. He's not in many pictures, because he was only there for a short while.

Courtney was only able to come spend about 12 hours with everyone for Thanksgiving because the Muenster Hornet football team is in the state play-offs and they had practice on Thanksgiving day! It's a very exciting time in Muenster right now!

This year we are so thankful for many blessings!

2 Months Old

2010-11-17T15:06:00.000-08:00

Callie is 2 months old now!

November 17, 2010

We had her 2 month appointment on Friday. You know, the one where she gets all her shots.

It was a sad time. You can’t tell by this picture because I had gotten her all calmed down by then, but she screamed her little heart out. It broke my heart. She had big, real tears for the first time actually. Running down her face. Add that to a runny nose and you’ve got my sad girl after her shots. After holding her tight and swaying around and offering her pacifier, she finally calmed down. Then she was completely fine and we headed to the Muenster playoff game where we enjoyed the game from the press box. Perks of being a coaches’ wife.

Callie is 11 lbs, 6.4 oz and 23 inches long now. In case anyone cares about the percentiles, that puts her at 66% for weight and 73% for height. She is growing great!

A few things about her:

• She is holding her head up better and better. She consistently holds it up when we hold her. She still has trouble holding it up when she is laying on her belly. Still working on that.

• She is smiling more and more. I have trouble catching them on camera, but her daddy and I love to get her to smile in response to us. Still waiting on giggles. She smiles at me a lot in the mornings and it just makes.my.day.

•She is wearing size 1 diapers and 3 month or 3-6 month onesies, depending on the brand and you know, if she's wearing one at all. :)

• She likes to take baths now. She does NOT like getting out of the bath and getting dried off.

• When she is trying to fall asleep or is tired or is nursing, she rubs her ear and the hair above her ear. It’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen.

• She has slept through the night two times. She consistently sleeps 6 hours, then gets up to nurse, then sleeps another 3 hours. I just get up with her once at night and it is typically at 3am.

• She has had only breastmilk and when we are home, she is breastfed. She has 5 ounces each time she drinks from a bottle. She usually eats every 3 hours except overnight when she goes for 6+ hours.

• She is awake for longer and longer periods of time now. Sometimes after we get home from school, she will stay awake until time for bed. On those days, if she doesn’t nap well after we get home, she will go to bed for the night at about 8.

• Her most favorite thing to do is lay on her back and play with the toys on her playmat or lay on her back on a blanket and just look around. In fact, we were at dinner and she was fussy in my arms and didn't want to eat, so I laid her on her changing mat on the top of a table (see her in the picture below? Don't worry, we really did watch her to make sure she was okay! I promise...I sat in that empty seat right in front of her) and she was perfectly content the rest of the time. Whatever works, right?

• She sleeps in her bouncy seat in her crib. Yep, I put the bouncy seat in the crib because it makes me feel better! Ha! And I want her sleeping in her own room. But she sleeps so well in the bouncy seat. So, there you have it. Don’t judge! ;)

• The screaming/crying fits for no reason where she can’t be consoled are happening less and less nowadays. In fact, it’s quite rare to for her to cry that way anymore. She is becoming much more content. Thank you Lord.

• She is on Zantac twice a day for reflux. The doctor said we will re-evaluate if this is still necessary at her 4 month appointment.

• She enjoys riding in the car. She sleeps (she is my child!) or just looks around.

We just love our sweet 2 month old!

Road Trip!

2010-11-14T15:57:00.000-08:00

Callie and I took our first road trip. We made the 2 ½ hr drive to my parents house in Holdenville, OK. Callie is definitely my child because she loves to sleep in the car. I fed her right before we left in the loaded down car (who knew such a tiny human would require so many things for a weekend getaway?) and she didn’t make so much as a peep the whole trip. I stopped off to get a gigantic starbucks drink and we enjoyed ourselves very much in the car. ;)

On Saturday, we got up and around and my mom and I took Callie to Tulsa to meet the extended family. I was so excited for Callie to meet her great-grandparents! She has both sets of great-grandparents, which is such a blessing. Unfortunately, my dad’s dad was not feeling well and he didn’t want to risk getting Callie sick, so we will have to visit them another time. But she got to meet my grandma and grandpa, my mom’s parents.

I love how my grandpa is playing with her in this one.

4 Generations. Greatness.

I was also so very excited about Callie meeting her third cousins. My cousin Michelle had her baby girl Breckyn in August, then I had Callie in September, and then my other cousin Brent and his wife Lori had a baby girl Lydia in October. So much fun with three baby girls!!

Lydia, Breckyn, Callie

With their great-grandparents

The moms and our girls

Callie and Breckyn enjoyed their first play date very much. Can’t you tell?

It was such a wonderful time with family! I am so glad that we made the trip so that the little girls could meet each other. I wish we lived closer to them. What fun!

I survived.

2010-11-04T17:48:00.000-07:00

I made it through that first day back to work.

Most of my anxiety came from worrying about getting out the door on time. And guess what? We made it out the door on time and with everything I needed! My principal told me to take my time getting to school on Monday. He said if I needed to stay at the daycare to get her all settled in then it was fine for me to take the time to do that. I am truly blessed to be working where I am with the people that I do.

Callie slept great on Sunday night as she often does. We took her to a Halloween party at our neighbor’s house and then came home and got bedtime routine going. She slept from 9:45pm-3:30am, then from 4:00am-6:15am when I had to wake her up to nurse and get going. We made it on time to daycare and I did stay for a bit and discuss her daily routine with them. It’s very nice because Callie is the only infant at daycare right now and so she gets quite a bit of individual attention from Miss Ashley, who is in charge of the babies. There will be another baby joining her in February. Callie goes to a daycare for staff kids in my district. That is so nice! I had heard wonderful things about the daycare and they have exceeded my expectations so far! I will even be able to go over there and nurse or snuggle her during my lunch break sometimes.

I stayed strong as I took Callie inside. I stayed strong when I talked to them about her schedule and what she does during the day. I stayed strong as I kissed her and walked out the door. And then I got in my car. And I broke down. :( She was sound asleep when I left her and I kept thinking that she was going to wake up in a strange place with strange people and it broke my heart! I got to school and went into one of my friend’s classrooms and she had a big Dr. Pepper waiting for me and a shoulder to cry on. I needed both things! I eventually got myself under control and I didn’t cry anymore during the day. And I only called once to check on her during that first day. I would have called more times probably except that I was swamped at work. Apparently if you take 6 weeks off, you will be very busy when you return. Who knew?? ;) That was good though because it kept my mind busy. When I got there to pick her up (finally!) Miss Ashley had a detailed print-out of her day that tells me when she ate, napped, was fed…it even details cuddle time and center time! Too cute!

I survived!

I get to look forward to coming home to this piece of sweetness!

And every day gets a little easier.

Cousin Cale

2010-11-02T16:15:00.000-07:00

Courtney's brother Brandon and his wife Kyla had sweet baby Cale in June. We drove to Ardmore to meet them for dinner so that everyone could meet the new babies It was so much fun!

Kyla and Callie

Kyla, Caden, and Callie

The babies together

Cale and Callie hit it off immediately.

Hey there, cousin!

Checking eachother out.

Group pic

We're spending Thanksgiving with them so we'll get to have all kinds of fun then. Good times with family!

Our Lil Punkin

2010-10-31T07:00:00.000-07:00

Callie’s first Halloween was fun! Nana came to visit for the weekend and Nonna and Papa came on Sunday. We decided to take some pictures at my friend Edie’s house because she has a beautiful fall pumpkin arrangement in her yard. We were so excited to get some fun pictures of her in her adorable Halloween outfit.

Callie thought it was ~~the best thing ever~~ cruel and unusual punishment for us to go out and take those pictures. Remember how I said my baby ~~cries~~ screams a lot? Well, she certainly let us know she did not enjoy taking these pictures. But, I had to post a few anyway! ;)

Well, in momma's arms...this is not so bad....

Wait a second, you're gonna put me down?!?

I do not think putting me down is such a good idea....

Nope, don't want you to put me down here either.

Nana and my paci can calm me down. Ahhhh

All you had to do was hold me.

Whew! That was hard work...take me home!

We got home and got her all settled down and we were able to take some pretty cute pictures of her in her Halloween outfit.

I even caught a smile.

(proving she doesn't hate us for putting her through that! ha!

That, or she was pooping...)

and a yawn.

Speaking of smiling. Now is the time. She should start to smile and giggle at us any day now. She actually does already, but it doesn’t seem to be regular enough for me to think it’s more than gas-induced. ;)

Hope your Halloween was happy too!

Going back to work.

2010-10-27T14:55:00.000-07:00

It is quickly nearing time for me to return to work. I was able to take just 6 weeks off of work. I would love to have taken off much more..heck, I'd love to be able to stay at home with Callie. We waited 9 years to start our family and if I could have stayed at home, we would have started much much earlier. Because being a working mom is hard work. Being a mom at all is hard work. Let me just tell you how much I know that now! Whether you work or stay home, it's all hard.

I am very, very nervous about Monday morning. I'm nervous for many, many reasons. Of course, there is the obvious reason of being anxious about leaving our sweet girl with strangers. They will not be strangers for long...I know that, but right now, they are strangers. I mean, I've met them. I know that our daycare is great. I know they will take care of her. BUT. But, they are not mommy and daddy. I hate that. I want to keep her home with me forever.

Then there is the part that REALLY kills me. The part where I will miss Callie tremendously while I am working. Missing moments of snuggling during the day.

Oh my, I will miss these afternoon moments. I realize I can have these moments still on the evenings and weekends, but I love having these moments at 2 in the afternoon!

Another thing that makes me sad about returning to work is that I feel like I will miss Callie's happiest time of the day. She starts to get very fussy and cries quite a bit more after 5pm than she does at any of time of the day. Do the math--that is just about the time we will start our time with her each day. That makes me sad. I am hoping she outgrows that and starts to have calmer evenings.

I am also nervous about my lack of sleep. I get quite a bit of daytime sleep right now. In fact, I sleep when Callie sleeps each and every day until she wakes up for her 11am feeding. So, I really get a good amount of sleep, even if it is interrupted. That is all about to change!

But, the thing that gives me the most anxiety right now is how in the world will I ever get up and around and out of the house on time?!? How? I figure I will need 2 hours to get myself ready and to feed Callie. That means waking up at 4:45!! Yikes! And sometimes her night feeding takes place from 3:30-4:30 which means I would just need to stay awake after nursing her at that time! WHAT?! And the whole scheduling of it all just about makes my head hurt. What if she wakes up at 4am instead and then need to eat right in the middle of our drive to work? (Her daycare is near my work...our school district has a daycare for staff kids and so she will ride with me to work each day.) What then? I really hate for her to scream in the car. It hurts my heart just about worse than my head! So, then I think that I need to start giving her a morning bottle so my husband can give it to her...but I will still need to pump and I don't really know that I want her having one more bottle each day. Then I think it's silly that I worry about that part of it at all!

Not to mention all the things I need to pack for her each day! Whew! swaddle, bottles, MILK, extra clothes, clothes (if I take her in her pjs), diapers, wipes, diaper bag...and I'm sure there's more that I will undoubtedly forget on Monday morning! I know I'm being a bit dramatic here perhaps, but I really have a lot of anxiety over it.

I just really need Monday morning to get here and for it to pass! But, then again, I just really need Monday morning to never get here at all. That way I can enjoy daytime snuggles forever!

awwwwww.....
:)

a girl and her boys

2010-10-22T17:50:00.000-07:00

Our dogs have really settled in nicely with Callie home. They've exceeded my expectations for how they would react. I wasn't really too worried, but I am very happy with how they've done.

You may [recall] that Braddock started to really sense that something was going on right when I first got pregnant. Well, he loves his Callie! He is definitely the most interested in her. If I would leave her bedroom door open, I think he would sleep in front of her crib.

They get a little on edge when she cries. Especially if I have loaded her up in the carseat and take her out of the house crying. They get downright upset by that. And they are always very happy when I get home with a quiet, sweet baby.

Although Braddock is most interested, Lambeau does his share of watching over her too.

Nothing like a girl and her boys...

And no worries, Callie was in no way harmed during this little photo session! Braddock flipped over and decided to snuggle up to her. ;) We quickly moved him to another position.

See?

I can't wait until she starts to get interested in them too.
:)

Firsts

2010-10-21T14:36:00.000-07:00

first bottle

first time on her playmat

first bath

She hated it! But she loves baths now

first snuggle with all her boys

first walk

first OU game watch party

first date night for mommy and daddy

Callie stayed home with Nana (my mom)

first professional picture

first time on the football field, greeting daddy after the game

Go Hornets!

first time to sleep in her crib

Looking forward to many more firsts!!

One Month

2010-10-17T16:14:00.000-07:00

Time officially flies by.

Callie is ONE MONTH OLD! I cannot believe how fast it's gone.

Here some info on our baby girl...

She wore size newborn diapers up until October 17th when I switched her to size 1. However, she can't fit all size 1's, only the Huggies. They are smaller than the Pampers 1's. Weird. She could still be in newborn, but we ran out and so I went ahead and made the switch since the Huggies are a little smaller.

She is 22 1/2 inches long and she is in the 9 lb range. Those are both estimates, not "official" measurements, because we haven't been to the doctor since she was 2 weeks old. Then she was 21 1/2 inches long and 8lb 9oz. Our next doctor appt is at 2 months.

She had a VERY fussy/cranky spell a few weeks after she was born. She was quite content for the first 2 weeks of her life and then she started to have unexplained crying. All.the.time. If she wasn't eating and sleeping, she was ~~crying~~ screaming. It was actually quite a nightmare. I did my fair share of crying too! Then I called the doctor and he prescribed Zantac for reflux and I had a friend tell me about some otc stuff called Colic Calm and so we started that too. Let me just tell you...something worked because our Callie was instantly back to her old self. And momma was too! :) Boy, it was a rough time though. Very, very rough.

But, she is MUCH better now!!

Here are some fun recent pictures. Love this sweet girl!!

Growing girl...

2010-10-12T12:34:00.000-07:00

Weekly pictures.

She's already growing so much!

1 week old, September 24

2 weeks old, October 1

3 weeks old, October 8

Welcoming little Callie

2010-10-10T15:47:00.000-07:00

Here are just a few of Callie's first pictures after being born and some of her special visitors.

Daddy and Callie's hands

Callie and her daddy

Our sweet, fabulous nurse

first family picture

Keysha with me and my girl

My mom

Callie with her Nanna

Callie with Phyllis

Callie with her Nonna

Becky and Taylan drove in from Houston to be with me.

Courtney's mom

already protecting her

I love this picture.

Callie with her Cha Cha (Courtney's mom)

Callie with her Grandpa (My dad)

Our dear friends, drove a long way to visit Callie for the first time. Phyllis, Amy, and sweet Ava.

Callie with Keysha

After her first bath

Courtney's dad

Callie with her Papa

Callie's Birth Day

2010-10-09T11:57:00.000-07:00

September 17, 2010

This day changed my life. Sounds so cliche, right? Well, it's true. Absolutely true.

And it all started at 4am.

I woke up at about 4:00 in the morning and felt like I had to go to the bathroom. Yep, that's the truth, so I'm putting it out there. Courtney keeps telling me that it's not necessary to tell that part. But I think it is. It's how I knew something was happening. Because, you see, my Girlfriends Guide to Pregnancy told me that I should pay very close attention to my bowels as I neared the end of the pregnancy as that feeling of needing to go to the bathroom could be confused with contractions. Interesting. And after I had gotten up 3 times in just a matter of probably 10 minutes, I decided that maybe I should consult my Guide again. Pay close attention, it said. So at 4:37am I started paying the kind of attention I should: I started timing it. Every 4 minutes I would get the same feeling and it would last about 30-45 seconds then subside. Not pain really at this point...just pressure of a whole new kind. Like I needed to use the bathroom and had stomach cramps. So, you see, it's an important point.

I decided to take a shower at 4:45. I thought this might make me feel better and I really wanted to be showered in case it was THE day. Showering was tough. I had to stop every 4 minutes and wait for the contractions to pass. Not fun. I tried to blow dry my hair after the shower and that was not even possible.

At 5:30am, after an hour of this, I decided to call the doctor. I had not gotten Courtney up at this point. I still felt it might not be real labor starting and I knew the moment I woke him up, it would be go time. So, the doctor call was made. I got the on-call doctor, which I knew I would because my doctor was off work on that Friday. I knew that, it's why my weekly appointment was on Thursday instead of Friday of that week. Dr. Dooley called me back pretty quickly...although not as quickly as I would have liked. She told me that they really want new moms to have steady timed contractions for 2 hours, not just one. And that said contractions should get more intense, closer together, and longer. At least 1 1/2 minutes long and 2-3 minutes apart. I mentioned that we live 40 minutes from the hospital and that I am already dilated to a 3 and 75% effaced at that point and she told me again that first time moms need to really wait longer. After all, she said, these could very well fizzle out and be nothing.

Okay.

Shortly after hanging up, I noticed instantly that the contractions got more intense. And closer together. And longer in length.

I woke Courtney up.

He asked me if I was sure. Ummm, nope, not sure, but seeing as how I double over in pain now in a regular pattern, I'm gonna go ahead and say that perhaps, maybe, this might be it. But as a first time mom...no I am not sure. But go ahead and get up and get around, because someone needs to do something about this pain pretty quick. And I am NOT GOING to miss my epidural window!!

So, he got up.

And he showered. And he went up to his school to get his sub stuff laid out.

And I made phone calls. I had already called my mom and told her earlier that this might be it. She has a 2 1/2 hour drive so I wanted to make sure she got the earliest call. I called Donna, my mother-in-law. While on the phone with her I had a few contractions. Then I called Keysha to let her know it was probably time. And I had 3 contractions while on the phone with her. Then I started to throw up. That's about the time she told me to call Courtney and tell him it is time to go!

All I could think of is how I wanted this to stop. I kept telling Keysha that I was not sure why I ever wanted this to start. For weeks I had been wanting to go into labor. I didn't want to be induced. This is what I wanted...labor to start at home...and now, oh my, I just wanted it to stop!!

I called Courtney and he headed home. Quickly. Once he made it home, we loaded up. Well, he loaded up. I stayed bent over and hurting. I remembered that I had read to take a towel and trash bag in case your water breaks in the car. I grabbed that stuff. I also had a small trash bag with me in case I continued to throw up. I am so thankful for all the people who convinced me to have my bag packed and to have her bag packed. I could not think AT ALL once those contractions got bad. I am so happy that I had most everything ready to go. We left for the hospital at 6:45am.

Once we got in the car, I don't think I spoke or opened my eyes at all until I got the epidural. HA! But I'm totally serious. My husband is a total jokester, especially when things are tense, and so he was playing all kinds of music from his ipod to get me pumped up. I could not even acknowledge his kind gestures. ;) The ride was fine, seemed pretty quick. As we pulled into the parking lot, Courtney turned on the song Eye of the Tiger. Yep, he sure did. He said again it was to get my ready to go. Way to go Coach. Thanks for that. He thought I was waiting on the song to end before getting out of the car, but I was really waiting out a contraction. Oi!

When we got inside the hospital, we were on our way to labor and delivery when I started to throw up again. I somehow managed to tell Courtney to go tell them we were here and that they would come with a wheelchair for me. I sat crouched on the floor, contracting and throwing up. Mis-er-able. That passed and I got up and headed back. I rounded the corner and there they were, coming toward me with the wheelchair. I heard a collective, "Aw, there she is..." from the nurses. Yes, here I am. Let's do this! Fast!

We got the last room available that morning. Crazy! In fact, it wasn't even finished being cleaned when we got there. They got it finished up quickly though. Remember I still was not speaking or opening my eyes hardly at all. My nurse later told us that when pregnant women come in and are not making any noise, they are either not in labor or they are waaaay in labor. She said she quickly realized I was the latter. I thought they would need to check me before admitting me, but no, apparently I looked like the real deal so they just got me started getting my IV and blood drawn and all that. Which, by the way, is no fun for me...my veins close up and roll and all kinds of good stuff. But I was welcoming every stick because it took my mind off those contractions! Nuts!

When the nurse checked me right as they got me in the labor and delivery room, I was a 5, and fully effaced. Right before I got the epidural, I was a 7. By 9am, I got the epidural and I was a 10 and fully effaced. My mom was not there yet. Hurry Mom!!

Let me just stop for a minute to say that the epidural is the best thing EVER! I really think I would have passed smooth out if I had to go through labor without it. Or else I would have just gone to a really different place in my brain to get through it. Some place that I have never been. I cannot even imagine. The epidural did not hurt at all...not even a tiny bit. And then I could talk again and open my eyes and smile.

And put on make-up. HAHA!

Awww, relief. Thank you sweet epidural!

My mom made it at 10:35. Courtney's mom made it too just after my mom. Donna was the first one there. Keysha got there right about the time mom did. We were ready to go now!

Unfortunately, Callie was not quite as ready as we were. Although I was dilated completely and fully effaced, she was not moving down like she needed to. So, instead of starting the pushing right after the doctor broke my water, they had me just turn from side to side every 10 minutes or so to get Callie to labor down on her own. I didn't start pushing until about 1:45pm. The pushing was the hardest work I have ever done in my whole life. I was exhausted. She did not seem to want to move down. I would push my eyeballs out and she would move like a millimeter! I had the very best nurse in the whole world though and she was wonderful and funny and cheerful and sweet. Bless her. There is a special place in my heart for her.

My mom was in there with Courtney and me. So was Keysha. She took all the fabulous pictures for us to document it for us. My husband was fantastic. He went from his jokester self to all business.

Dr. Cummings came in to deliver Callie finally at about 3:00. He was in there with me for 2 sets of pushes when he looked up at one of the nurses and said, and I quote, "Go ahead and cut her epidural."

WHAT?! Did he just say CUT MY EPIDURAL?? As in shut it off?? Oh, I DO NOT THINK SO! My eyes bugged out of my head and I thought to myself, "It's got to take a bit for it to wear off...I will get this baby out before that happens!!"

And I did.

Well, that's not completely true....I didn't do it on my own. He broke out the foreceps and that helped a bit I think. Or maybe that helped a lot. :) Whatever, within the next 13 minutes, our sweet baby girl was born!!!

3:13pm, September 17, 2010, life as we know it, will never be the same.

And I thank God for that.

Welcome, sweet Callie Tate. We love you so much.

Introducing...

2010-09-23T07:54:00.000-07:00

Callie Tate Christenson

born on September 17th

weighing in at 8lb 1oz

20 inches long

making her appearance at 3:13pm

Check back soon...I will be adding her birth story.

Can't wait to share it!

But right now, I'm going to stare at my precious little newborn.

38 weeks

2010-09-14T13:02:00.000-07:00

•How far along?: 38 weeks

•How big is baby?: Who knows! She was a pound big for her size at our last ultrasound, but that was weeks ago. We will find out soon, I guess!

•Weight gain: I've gained 36 pounds.

•Stretch marks?: Battle scars? I'm almost afraid to write it for fear I will jinx myself, but I still have no stretch marks, which makes this girl very happy.

•Maternity clothes?: I wear all maternity pants and most of my tops are maternity too. I can get away with wearing some of my regular tops and dresses.

•Sleep?: Still sleeping really well. I just toss and turn a lot, but I am sleeping soundly in between that and potty breaks.

•Food cravings?: sweet tea, sweets, apples

•Movement?: Lots of movement and hiccups still and it is very uncomfortable when she moves around now.

•Labor signs?: Braxton hicks and lots of them. Lots of pressure down there. It seems like something is happening.

•Belly button in or out?: Still out there. Just praying it goes back in after she's born! HA!

•What I miss: I miss being able to get out of bed easily. It's really a beat-down to get out of bed.

•Milestone: 2 weeks left until we will have Callie!!! If not sooner!! My doctor says she will induce on the 28th (my due date) if we haven't already had her. I am dilated to a 3 and I think she said I am 75% effaced. I go back to the doctor on Thursday. Oh, and I packed my bag and her bag. Come on Callie!!

stream of consciousness

2010-09-13T14:57:00.000-07:00

Alternately titled: Cankles and Car seats ;)

Tomorrow I will be 38 weeks along. I cannot believe that I am just 2 weeks from the end of my pregnancy. More on my feelings on that in a later post.

It has been so hot lately. Sweltering. Awful. Like a sauna. These are not good words to describe the weather at all. This heat and humidity coupled with being 9 months pregnant (or almost…I get so confused, because wasn’t I 9 months at 36 weeks? Then again, aren’t you only pregnant for 9 months?? Pregnancy myth #1 haha). Anyway, where was I? Oh the heat and humidity and being way far along pregnant just DO NOT MIX. What happens when you combine the two??

Cankles.

Yep, they made their appearance last Thursday. I was 37 weeks 2 days when my ankles morphed into the scariest things you ever saw. I was sitting at my desk in my office, looked down, and it alarmed me how big they were! HA! I sent Courtney an email that said that my ankles had morphed into something very scary. He sent back a one word reply, “Gross.” Way to be supportive, hon. But it is quite gross actually. They looked like I had sprained them and they were swollen. Ick. Thursday night I took a bath and put them up. That helped quite a bit. Friday, after the first home football game, they were back to humongo size again. Now it’s more the tops of my feet than my ankles.

Friday’s football game is probably the last one I will make it to for a while. The next games are away and I don’t think I will feel much like getting in the car and traveling to them. Courtney will be taking his vehicle to the rest of the games instead of riding the bus. That way, just in case he gets THE call from me, he will be able to leave and come to the hospital or come to get me or whatever. Which makes me think that I need to make sure there is someone that won’t be at the game that can take me to the hospital on a Friday night if needed. Oh so much to worry about! Except that I’m not really worried about it. It’ll all be just fine.

I took maternity pictures on Saturday. In the heat. In the sweltering, sauna-like heat. After seeing the pictures that my friend Laura took of me as I near the end of this process, it was worth every.single.second in the heat. I CANNOT WAIT to share my photos with you. They will be ready for viewing in a few weeks. Love them!! So glad that she took them for me. Also so glad that I wore something that covered my enormously large ankles in every shot. ;) Check out her website and you will see how talented she is. The girl is GOOD! http://www.laurakentphotography.com/

We got the car seat put in my car last week. Now, when I look in my back seat, I see this:

WOW! That makes it real. I got my car detailed last week and then we put the car seat in. It’s crazy to look in my rear view mirror and see it. Now we just need to get the one put in Courtney’s car. We were fortunate to be given 2 car seats. We got the one that goes with our stroller from the hostesses at my hometown shower. We were given a hand-me-down one from one of the coaches and his wife. Don’t worry, I checked it out to make sure it hadn’t expired. Did you realize car seats expire? Well, they do apparently. This one is not expired.

Well, check back tomorrow for my 38 week picture and survey.

:-)

It's possible I'm losing my mind...

2010-09-07T19:36:00.000-07:00

One of the first things I noticed after getting pregnant was that I felt "foggy-brained." Like I was in a haze all the time. I know it's not just me...I know that this is very common...my friends tell me and the baby books say it too. But, come on, must it be so bad??

For example, is it really necessary that I drive all the way to church in my new fabulous slippers and almost get out before realizing it? Then have to drive home to put on shoes because I am certainly not going in there with my fuzzy pink flipflops on!

Or isn't it sad that when a student comes in today for a schedule change and she says we talked about it on Friday and wants to know if I got her schedule changed and my reply is, "What exactly did I tell you on Friday?" because I cannot for the life of me remember ever even talking to her!?

How about the multiple facebook messages and emails I send to people that start off with, ...I've probably already emailed/messaged you to ask you this, but I can't really remember if I did or not, so I am so sorry if I already did, but.........

And I cannot even count how many times I've walked into the main office at work just to look at the secretary and say, "hmmmm...no idea why I came in here!"

Or now I lose things that I would never lose before. Like keys. My mom and I spent almost an hour looking for the car keys after one of my showers because I had misplaced them. Even though I just knew I had given them to her for safekeeping. Nope, I had just laid them down in the back of the car and piled gifts on top of them, making it extremely hard to find them!

I have always been a list-maker/post-it note queen. But I am at an all-time high with this nowadays. If it isn't written down, it probably ain't happening.

The really bad thing is that the baby book I'm reading now says that this doesn't go away...that I will actually never be quite as clear-headed as I once was! So, if I forget to call you back or follow through on something, it really isn't my fault.

Right?

Wait, what were we talking about??

Progress.

2010-09-03T16:13:00.000-07:00

I went to the doctor today. I am dilated to a 3!

Progress.

:)