Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Visiting the cousins

Since we didn't get to spend much time with my cousin Jenny and her kids on Christmas we went over to her house to visit this morning. Lilly was in the window waving when we arrived and immediately said Hi Callie. It was so cute. They also have a cat named Fenway that is used to having kids and was rubbing on Callie and letting Callie pet her. Callie loved the cat.
Callie had a lot of fun. She was so tired she fell asleep in the car on the way home again.
This photo is a HUGE improvement from the last photo where Lily was crying and Callie was tormenting her. All 3 kids looking and happy :)


Monday, December 30, 2013

Cookies, hammers, birthdays and surprise visitors oh my

Today was a busy day even though we didn't have big plans. In the morning my brother came down and we went to visit a high school friend of his, more like a second brother and his kids. Callie enjoyed playing with other kids toys lol. Then after her nap we made cookies. Callie had a lot of fun making them and eating them too!
Then she went out to the barn to help PaPa work on the back wall. She hammered one nail in so she officially helped build the barn now ;)
Then we got a surprise visit from my great aunt Charleen from NH. She drove all the way down just to visit for the night. She brought Callie these adorable slippers with cats on them that she loves!! Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of them but here she is doing sticker faces with Charl and eating broccoli trees.
And she painted a special canvas for her Grandma for her birthday today! We called her on facetime to sing HappyBirthday and showed her the painting since we won't see her for another week.
Wow what a busy day it was! No wonder she went right to sleep tonight.






Sunday, December 29, 2013

Where in the world is Callie Maria?

I am sure some of you are wondering where in the world Callie went..... I apologize for my lack of posts for the past 3 days. It started when I took photos Thursday but only on the camera. The photos turn out better the only problem is that I have to get to a computer to get them off and post. Then Friday Juan left in the morning and at night Callie and I went to Long Island overnight. We didn't return until Saturday night and it was so late and I was exhausted. So today I am finally getting around to showing you all what Callie has been up to.
Thursday- Christmas Tree Planting
GiJu and PaPa bought a real live Christmas tree in a bucket, so that after Christmas it can be planted in their yard and it will grow big. This is the second tree like this. The first was the last time we came for Christmas when I was pregnant 2 years ago and we called that little tree the Callie tree. IT is now getting much bigger. This new tree started out 5 times the size of the baby tree from before so it took some effort to plant it. PaPa and Callie used the tractor to plant this big tree. Callie loves riding on the tractor and isn't afraid of the noise at all. It was really cold so she had to wear a full snow suit. It even snowed a little bit while we were outside, but not even enough to cover the ground. Callie had a great time playing with PaPa's tractor and planting the tree.









Thursday nights my parents were babysitting and Cindy and Dick came over wit their granddaughter since they were babysitting too.

Friday- Visiting Olivia
Friday daddy left early in the morning to fly home before Callie and I even got up. During the day we went to visit my childhood friend Sara and her daughter Olivia at her moms house as she was in town visiting from Boston. Olivia and Callie are about 3 months apart, Olivia is older. Cathie, Olivia's grandma, runs a home daycare so the girls had more toys than they could ever have played with. Callie was still singing the Santa Claus is coming to town song this day.


Friday/Saturday- Visiting Lynn and Julia in Long Island
Friday night Callie and I embarked on a great adventure to drive to Long Island to visit my college friend and her new baby. It is a 3 hour drive! I decided night time would be best and we left at 8:15 pm. Out of 3 hours, Callie slept the middle hour of the ride only. I kept her busy with videos, songs, and telling stories. The last 45 minutes were pretty challenging to keep her busy as she was so exhausted but wouldn't sleep. When we got there she was so excited she couldn't sleep either and was up talking for awhile before bed. She slept in the regular bed with me for the first time. It wasn't the most successful night, she crawled off between the crack and the bed in the middle of the night and I caught her. Basically I only half slept while I made sure she didn't fall out of the bed. Saturday we spent all day visiting Lynn, Billy and baby Julia. Callie liked the baby except if I held her too long or if Callie wanted her toy. Since the car ride there was tough on the way home I tried a different idea. We left early and stopped halfway at my high school friend Danielle's hue. We went out to dinner and then visited and ran around at her house. She has a small 20 lb dog Murphy that Callie just loved. They ran laps around the kitchen island and went up and down the stairs at least 30 times. By the time we left Callie was really tired. It was a good break to the long car ride. Callie fell asleep watching videos and slept the last 45 minutes on the way home. 



Sunday- McDonalds
Today we spent the day resting and catching up on sleep. In the morning Callie was outside playing with PaPa in his truck

It was a rainy rainy day. We went to McDonald's to play on the indoor playscape. Little did I know it is really meant for bigger kids. There is a small slide for the little kids but the rest is HUGE. I wish I took a photo of the big part but it was too hard to manage Callie and get a photo there. You climb a tree inside by spiral stairs, then cross a bridge, climb up then down then up again to get to the spiral slide that is probably 30' tall. It was really dark in the slide and it goes fast! i think its a little scary but Callie wasn't scared. We went down 3 times before both GiJu and I said no more! We got an ice cream sundae to top off the visit and Callie just loved that! Look at the mess....

I will try to be better and get the photos and posts up more timely. Bear with me, I am supposed to be on vacation!

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! First off, I want to take the time to say how very blessed we are as a family to have each other and our health. Also to have such fabulous extended families on both sides. Callie has really been enjoying spending time with her family in CT everyday. Today Callie was excited to get up and see if Santa came. Despite how much I thought she grasped the concept, when she came downstairs and I said what did Santa bring under the tree, she still wanted to go see the toys in the basement, since that's where GiJu has all the toys usually. She was nearly crying when I told her she had to stay up by the tree. Once she started opening presents though she really got the hang of the whole idea. Santa sure brought her a LOT of presents in CT and none of them were from Juan and I. Callie coming down Christmas Morning Callie opening a present

She opened all of her presents under the tree and we had breakfast of blueberry muffins, which was her first time for that as well. After breakfast she still had a big surprise waiting, a whole room of Doc McStuffins from GiJu and Papa. They really went all out! She had a Doc pop up play house, a doc dress up outfit, doc stickers on all the walls and all of the doc mcstuffins character talking stuffed dolls. On top of that she had Doc McStuffins ornament set that can be played with like figurines, a doc backpack, a doc magnetic dress up doll, doc coloring book, and 3 doc series books.Her favorite toy by far is Lambie the lamb and she carried her around all day. She also pushed her around in the baby carriage and tried to have her ride on the Elmo train set. She also got a cat piano that can play cat meows instead of regular music notes which she thinks is pretty funny. Callie discovers the Doc McStuffins room

She was so worn out from the morning excitement that we had to wake her from her nap after 3 hours as we were waiting to go to my grandparents house. She got to play with my cousin's kids, Lily and Mason and then played with the adults after they left. She was running around and having a great time. She helped her Great Pa open his new gift of a drill and he let her play with it. She also was having pony rides on everyone's backs around the house and playing chase and peek a boo with my cousin Briana.

 Tonight she called her family back in CA and was showing off all her new toys on facetime before bed. We had such a fun day with all the toys and great family for company. Callie sure was the highlight of Christmas this year, it was all about her. I am not sure she understands Santa only comes one day as when she went to sleep tonight I could hear her singing to herself, "Santa Claus come town" or the Santa Claus is coming to town song. Tomorrow there is a chance of snow! I sure hope she gets to see some snow. Merry Christmas to all!

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Getting ready for Santa

Callie calls GiJu's house PaPa's Farm, which is hysterical to me. She talks about his big red barn and his tractor several times a day. Today she went out to see the tractor after asking several times. She wore her new scarf from Tia Wow Wow and her hat from Tia Mari that miraculously matched each other! She has on her new boots I bought her for the cold weather. No snow yet but still getting cold. Just another day out on PaPa's Farm.

We have been talking a LOT about Santa coming. We have been reading books, watching tv shows and singing Christmas songs. She definately is grasping the whole concept of Santa coming for Christmas. She was telling people that Santa is coming today and was singing and dancing to Santa Claus is coming to town. I even used the go to bed and don't be naughty or Santa will know.
We went out for pizza for dinner tonight and the pizza place had about 8 singing and dancing Christmas themed toys. They let her play with them all.

When we got home we put up all the stockings so Santa can come. Look at all the matching stockings!!! We talked about him coming down the chimney and we checked to make sure it was clear for him. We read the night before Christmas and she went to bed. No screaming at bed tonight. She's all ready for Santa to come ;)


Monday, December 23, 2013

Spike and Painting

Before nap time Callie was reading books in bed with ER blankie sand Spike. Spike didn't mind being covered and right with her. Callie was tickled to have him lay with her as our dogs don't tolerate this kind of touching and sharing.
LAter GiJu decided to let her paint for the first time. Pretty good huh? And not too big of a mess.