Monday, September 30, 2013

Manny catches a ride

This weekend I took the dogs and Callie for an early morning walk. Go figure about half way around the block Manny starts limping and stops walking. What to do with a limping Chihuahua? Hmm, well I wasn't going to carry him so I figured he could hitch a ride with Callie. I just hoped she wouldn't torture him too much. So I plopped him on the foot rest and made it the rest of the way around the block. Callie thought it was great fun and only kicked him 10 times. Sorry Manny.
By the time we got home he was completely fine, go figure drama queen Manny! Oh well Manny got a new ride and Callie got a good laugh.


Sunday, September 29, 2013

Happy Wedding Day Susan and Loren

Today Callie and I went to Susan and Loren's wedding. It was a warm afternoon and we were in the hot sun. Callie kept cool and busy during the ceremony playing in the ice cooler full of water at the end of our aisle. She did surprisingly well staying in that little area and being quiet for the ceremony. I mean she wasn't silent but the other people around told me they couldn't hear her. We are snacks, read a book and played with bubbles to stay quiet in the back row. The book was the biggest problem as she points out items she knows. Then we waited a long time until the wedding couple arrived. Callie enjoyed the mashed potato bar and fruit array as a snack and then we cut the line for dinner since it was bedtime and we had to go. We didn't get to stay for dancing and fun which is too bad because Callie would have loved it but she was tired. She fell asleep as soon as we got in the car. All in all pretty successful considering the circumstances and it was just me and Callie this time. Happy Wedding Day Susan and Loren!
Here is Callie with my work crew! CVMTU!



Saturday, September 28, 2013

Callie's new favorite book: Biscuit Goes to School

Callie has moved on to a new favorite book. This one is a lift the flap about a dog that goes to school for a day. She really likes to hear about school and she likes to lift the flaps. We taught her about a teacher an told her that GiGi is a teacher too. I swear sometimes she says teacher although in this video I got her to say tea at best.
Besides that Juan has been teaching her to count. GiGi taught her to count to 2 wen he was really little and to this day two is her favorite number. It was even what she called LT until she could say T. Well she also likes to say 5 because she means high five. Juan will count and she continuously says 2 or sometimes gets 5. When she says five she then says bravo and claps. I tried to get her to do it on video but she just kept saying 2, although you can see her clap after 5. It's still really cute either way and we obviously don't expect her to actually count to 5 at 17 months. But if the book has teaching moments we find a way to embrace them.
Today we also read a book about the moon. A big kid book about the science of the moon. She loves the moon so much she even watched a movie on the iPad about the moon. It's definitely geared towards 10 year olds but she still liked it. She made GiGi go outside 4 times tonight to look for the moon at her house and then she kept putting her hands up and saying no moon? Gone?
This kid really makes me laugh. Hope you enjoy her learning as much as me even though its not really accurate. Practice makes perfect.



Friday, September 27, 2013

Snack monster

Callie loves snacks. She would prefer not to have real meals and just have snacks all day. Today she ate cereal while sitting on her horse and watching tv. I thought this was pretty hysterical.
Then later she had a homemade fruit roll up. These are her favorite! I decided in this last batch to start tricking her and added spinach to the fruits. They are simple to make, I just use whatever fruits we have that are getting close to going bad, blend them and dehydrate them on trays. I roll them up in parchment paper and cut into portions so its still fun to unroll them. Callie doesn't even notice the veggies :) score one for mommy!



Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Knock knock

I think I created a monster. In trying to teach Callie about using the potty I let her come with me to the potty and even flush the toilet and get the toilet paper. Now she doesn't want to let anyone go to the bathroom without her. She is like the potty queen and needs to be there every time. If you go in the bathroom and shut the door she bangs on the door, and yells your name followed by pee pee poo poo. Here she is today yelling at Juan and trying to bust down the door. It sorta humors me because I just let her in so I don't get this behavior, but still it's funny. It hasn't really led to an improved potty rate, she just enjoys seeing the toilet flush and pulling toilet paper. She also likes to know if you had to pee pee or poo poo, quiz time when you step out!


Sunday, September 22, 2013

Calling GaGa

I'm not sure why but every time Callie pretends to call someone it's GaGa. At Nena's  house it's always Tia Wow wow aka Norma. Here she is in her kitchen calling from her phone. GaGa never answers.... Bc the phone doesn't work! But Callie pretends anyways. We will call GaGa on the real phone another day. Love ya!

Visiting the Bodycott's

Nicky and Hunter are one from their honeymoon, so today Callie and I went to visit them. Callie enjoys rampaging and exploring other people's ones and the Bodycott house was no different. Callie got to see their dogs too which was quite a treat for her. Winston was the highlight and she was obsessed with him. He can do some tricks including shake which Callie thought was so funny. The dogs are rambunctious and big so it was all hands on deck to manage the dogs and Callie so no photos of that meet and greet. We took her for a walk to the local yogurt shop for a snack. She walked all the way there and home (it's pretty close though). We walked in the alley instead of the sidewalk since its a main road and she thought that was pretty neat. She was nosy to anyone riding their bike, walking, or just being in the alley for any reason. She also liked to stop and see the birds and some mess that Hunter dubbed caca and she immediately repeated!
Hunter took these photos of her walking in the alley. Thanks guys for letting us visit.


Juan has been away all weekend for the Chargers game which ended in disaster and disappointment. Poor Daddy. Callie has been asking for him but when we call him she ignores him. Then when we hang up she asks for him again. Typical Callie... So I took this video after we hung up to send him to see she really does miss him! I miss him too, watching Callie all alone an be daunting! He comes home tomorrow and tonight Callie spent the night at grandma and grandpas so. Don't have to wake her at 5:30 to get dropped off before I got to work. Thanks grandma and grandpa :) can't wait for daddy to get home! We miss you!

Saturday, September 21, 2013

17 Months!

Today Callie is 17 months old! She's getting big so fast. Here's a few new things Callie can do:
1. Run!
2. Repeat repeat and talk some more. Callie has at least 100 words now. Her language has just exploded in the last month. She repeats things we say very quickly and can put together words, usually just 2. Some interesting things she says are NoQuiere all the time! I blame Nena for this one, he he. Peeeeas anytime she wants something and she knows she might not get it. Cooking and kitchen, she talks a lot in her kitchen but we don't always understand her.
3. Sing along. She now can sing along with Old McDonald and Wheels on the Bus. She basically does the spuds and hand gestures for wheels on the bus. Ill try to get this on video soon but it's mostly in the car so I can't while I drive.
4. Flush the toilet, about 50% of the time. She is obsessed with poo poo and wants to flush the toilet every time I go to the "potty".
5. Walking on tippy toes. I don't know why she does this but now he can stand on her tippy toes she can walk around on them too.
7. Reach the front door handle! Tippy toes means she can reach a lot more things including the handle to the front door. We lock it with the deadbolt so luckily she can't get out but that doesn't stop her from trying!
8. Get in and out of the bathtub. I can't turn around to get the toothbrush or towel anymore because Callie will climb right out! She has also climbed in with all her clothes on!
9. Climb on the couches. She can climb on the couch, finally, and that means she torments the dogs when they are sleeping. She can also reach a lot more by climbing on the couch so I have to be more strategic were I put the no no items.
10. Avid pretender. Callie really enjoys playing pretend with her baby and in her kitchen. She pretends to pour milk and stir food. She even makes sound effects which are so cute!

I think that's all I can think of for now. Callie is one amazing child. She is strong willed and so independent and I know that's because she is a little bit of me ;) she is also one smart cookie. Her language skills amaze me and her ability to identify people and objects is incredible. She can even associate objects. This week I was talking to Juan about a new elementary school and she started saying NaNa NaNa. And I was like why does she say stuff that makes no sense and be so adamant about it. I said Callie I don't know what you are saying and then she gets even more mad and says school NaNa. And then it clicked! The only way she knows school is because we tell her Eliana is going to school so she associates those two things together. Impressed? I was!

Here are some photos from today. In the smoothie photos she is doing cheers with the cups. So cute!






Friday, September 20, 2013

Row your boat...

I have been really bad about taking photos lately, luckily Mari took this one during the week. Using the bathtub as a row boat in her pjs!

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Grandpa time

Yesterday we went back to Grandma and Grandpas house to have dinner even though I picked Callie up at 1. Callie doesn't get to see Grandpa much ow that I pick her up early with my new schedule and she looks for and asks for him. So we try to find time to go spend time with him. Yesterday they were playing at her desk, focused coloring. So cute.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

CT Apples

Yet another post that didn't upload, jeez I am on a role...

Today we received a box in the mail. To Callie's surprise it was filled with clothes. As she pulled the clothes put of the box she saw the actual object in the box and exclaimed "Apple!". Even though she just had a snack and lunch she still insisted we eat the apples. GiGi always sends me some Macintosh apples since they are my favorite and they never have them at the store in San Diego. There is something about these apples. They are perfectly crisp but not too crunchy and just the right amount of sweet. These ones made it in perfect shape no bruises thanks to the clothes that kept them protected.
Callie enjoyed the apple and we shared one since I knew she wouldn't be hungry enough to eat a whole one.
Here we are enjoying our CT apple, thanks GiGi.





Monday, September 16, 2013

Happy Mexican Independence Day

Tia Mari had Callie again today. Thank goodness for Mari while mommy works. She dressed her up in one of her festive Mexican dresses for Mexican Independence Day. How funny is she? That's the cheeeese face, lol.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Blowing Dandelions

Today on our walk around the block I saw some dandelion flowers, you know the kind you blow the seeds. I was so excited as I can remember picking them in the fields or even our very large lawn as a kid and making wishes as we blew them away. First off i think this is the first time i have ever seen these here in CA. We don't have many dandelions growing around  in our grass. I thought wow what a great thing to teach Callie today. So I showed her how to blow the seeds off. She was very amazed and impressed. She tried but unsuccessfully, she was just tasting the flowers so she gave them to me to blow off. The bad news is that I only found 4 total and she wanted MORE! I actually forgot to make a wish but just spending the time sharing something new with Callie was worth all the wishes I could have made. I just love seeing her explore new things and especially those that I have fond memories of as a kid. We shared lots of love blowing in the wind with our seeds today, and we even saved 2 for daddy to share with Callie for when we got home.




Saturday, September 14, 2013

Busy day with Mari

Hmm this was from Monday but had a failed post, oops just noticed now, better late than never.

Callie spent the whole day with Tia Mari who was nice enough to volunteer to watch Callie for the next two Mondays. My new schedule made for a change and Callie needed someone to watch her when Nena wasn't available. Boy does Callie love spending time with Mari and why wouldn't she. Look at all the fun they had today! When I picked her up at the park by Mari's house she cried because she didn't want to leave!



Day of Firsts

Callie had an incredible day of really big "firsts"!
1. First time saying her own name! And we caught it on video! (The second or third time she said it)


2. First Sea World Show, dolphin show into the blue. All of our past Sea World visits we haven't bothered to sit down for a real show as she didn't pay attention or sit still. Today we tried and she did really well. We were feeding her snacks throughout the show and the lady in front of you would tell you she was antsy, she must have kicked her 3 times in the back, oops. Callie had a great afternoon at Sea World. Now I need to go back on a less crowded day and let her play in the water fountain area of Sesame By of Play.


And last but not least...
3. First poo poo on the potty! I was so proud of her. Well it's not like she said poo poo or asked for the potty but I saw the poop face when we were in the bathtub and so I took her out and put her on the potty. It was still impressive as she usually just stands up and doesn't sit for more than 1 second. Hopefully we can continue a potty streak.
(Sorry no poo poo photo, lol)

Friday, September 13, 2013

Lunch with Baby Bryce

Callie and I went out to lunch with Amy and Bryce today on our day off. We went to Callie's favorite restaurant, Bluewater, but for some reason she didn't eat that much today. I can't tell if she was distracted by the pop chips or just paying attention to baby Bryce. Last time we saw him he was just an itty bitty baby and now he is a big 9 month old boy. Callie didn't even mind standing in line because she was playing with Bryce in his carseat. The only problem is that she is not very gentle. We need to work on gentle touching of a baby and keeping fingers off the face. The poor kid she just pokes him in the face, then grabbed his entire face when she tried to hug him and then she stood up and stepped right in his fit! Sorry little Bryce.
We had to pay for parking at a city meter. Callie thought it was fun to put money in the meter. We had to put more in later so we didn't run out. Then she kept saying what I thought was "Manny" and I was so confused as there were no dogs and we weren't home with manny. Then I finally got it when she was pointing at the meter, money she meant. Ahh smart cookie. I was out of change so she was out of luck.




Thursday, September 12, 2013

Hose fun

It was a warm afternoon here and I now have the luxury of being home for the afternoon with my new part time schedule. I let Callie fill up the pool with the hose. She thinks the hose is more fun than the actual pool!
As much as I prefer Mondays off it is nice that today was my Friday and I was off around noon. The more mommy and Callie time the better!
Callie is still talking about the moon today and wanting to go outside to see it. She stayed up late tonight and really got to see it glowing bright with the dark night sky.