Happy First Birthday Callie!

It seems pretty incredible that Callie is 1 year old already. The first 9 months went by so slow, I am sure that was mostly due to sleep deprivation. And now the last 3 months have flown by. She seems so grown up already. She is running around and getting into trouble every second she can. People keep asking me if I am sad she is growing up and if I miss having a newborn infant, the answer is absolutely NO! Maybe that's because she was never a calm happy infant, but I think 1 year is way more fun. Callie can interact and play with you as well as be independent and stubborn. Just today she learned to blow kisses after Joanna showed her only a few times. She is so smart that baby Callie. Out of nowhere she started saying "OK" today as well and keeps repeating it. She does this cute inflection on the k that just melts my heart.
We had a breakfast/brunch with the Chavez family and the Ferguson/DiPretoros before they had to drive back to Monterey. Callie was showing off her new water and sand table on the deck. She was a real ham splashing around in her bathing suit. She learned that she does not like the taste of sand, yuck! She also took her first real tumble hitting her lip and getting a bloody lip. She was tough and only cried a minute and then proceeded to wipe blood all over herself, face, and toys as she kept playing. What a tough cookie she is.
Tonight we went out to dinner at DiMillies for pasta and Callie ate almost the whole plate of noodles! We came home and did birthday cake one last time since it is her real birthday today. She was close to blowing out the candle but it didn't happen. She blows when you sing happy birthday, when she sees bubbles, or whistles and is capable of blowing really well but for some reason when the candle is lit she doesn't blow it out. Then the candle is out and she reaches for it and blows. It's pretty hysterical really, I can't help but laugh. We will blow out the candles at her 2nd birthday party for sure.
Happy Birthday Callie, from your mommy who loves you to the moon and back!

More Birthday Party photos

Here are the rest of the photos from Callie's first birthday party. A big thanks to Carmen for capturing these great moments.

Callie's First Birthday Bash

 

Today we had Callie's first birthday party at the Chavez house. GiGi flew in from CT just for the weekend to celebrate her birthday. We also had family come down from Monterey and up from Mexico.  Callie even had some of her baby friends there to party with her. Her party was such a success and so awesome. We can't thank our friends and family enough. And my wonderful inlaws who throw one heck of a party. They are amazing and I am so lucky to have them. Callie is one loved little girl. The entire party was Elmo themed and she had a giant Elmo walking balloon, Elmo pinata, Elmo cakes, Elmo jumper, Elmo everywhere! I thought that the jumper was going to be a little much and that she wouldn't enjoy it that much, but boy was I wrong. She LOVED that jumper and didn't want to get out of it. She walked around and bounced around and fell over and over again. The poor baby actually got rug burn from the vinyl on her bum from falling so much and she was wearing a skirt. She also had a reaction from the grass :( But she was a trooper, we gave her some benadryl, a quick bath, clothes changes and right back at partying. She wanted to be in the jumper for hours, even with the big kids. She wasn't too sure about beating Elmo with a stick, but she liked ripping the paper off the pinata instead. She enjoyed her cake, although she did not succeed at blowing out the candle as I had hoped.
She had an amazing day, so much fun and everything was for her. What a special little girl. I know she had a fun fun birthday bash, she was so tired on the way home she couldn't keep her eyes open even when we were talking to her. Thank you again to all our family and friends, we are very blessed.

Book Chain Mail

Callie and I received a letter to participate in a book exchange chain letter from a long time friend. I figured we could handle it and decided to participate. You send a book to the kid on th top of the list then make 6 copies and put your kids info on the bottom. By the time it's passed along you should get a total of 36 books for purchasing 1. I didn't have too much faith in the process but felt like I needed to at least follow through for my friend. So we did and I forgot about the whole thing, until today that is. Today Callie received her first book in the mail from a complete stranger! Thanks to Teri Tanaka whoever you are for our first book, from the people who wrote where is baby's belly button she got how does baby fell, a lift the flap book. Callie enjoyed the book and played with it tonight. We will be looking forward to more books coming in the mail, although I doubt we will actually receive 36.

Allergist Update

Today was Callie's one year allergy follow up. We didn't learn too many new things today. We decided to forgo the skin prick tests and go with the blood tests since we can test,any things and get a concrete number so we can see if anything is decreasing. I showed the doctor the photo of Callie after blackberries and she agrees it is definitely an allergic reaction, so for now no blackberries or raspberries since they are very similar.
Wha is interesting to me is that sometimes allergies get worse at this age instead of better. That is because the body begins to produce more IgE which is what produces the allergic response. So if your body has more IgE then the response can seem stronger. So the blood tests should help us know if we still need to avoid all these foods of if anything is improving and if necessary we can do skin prick testing again.
The blood test went much better than last time. It was still torture and she cried the whole time but it only lasted less than 10 minutes vs 40 last time. The lady was better and only needed one arm, one tourniquet, and one needle stick. Thank goodness.
So now we wait and see what the results say.
We have added a lot more new foods successfully. This week was tomatoes which she didn't love plain but tonight we gave her tomato sauce for pasta but on top of quinoa instead and she gobbled it up. Guess its time for me to start getting braver and cooking more foods for her besides plain meat and plain veggies as I think she is getting bored of that. She is 92% for weight so she is obviously eating enough!
I think it should only take a few days for the blood tests, until then we will patiently wait.
I the meantime here is Callie today playing with her doll and house again as well as her destructive side. She likes to disassemble, take apart, and make a mess of anything she can get her hands on. I am trying to teach her clean up but so far unsuccessfully.

Can you tell me how to get to 67 1/2 Center St?

We finally got the whole house back in order, cleaned, organized and in tip top shape. So instead of resting for a day I started my new box project! It's a playhouse for Callie!
Pretty cool from just cardboard, tape, hot glue and leftover paint, huh?
Callie thinks its pretty cool. She opens and closes the door, goes in and out, looks out the window.
The mailbox has cardboard mail and a working mail flag, well it was working until Callie ripped it right off the side. Oh well it was fun while it lasted.
I hope that this makes for lots of hours of fun and imaginative play. I'm hoping to make her a creative child :)
I tried getting a video of her playing with her house but I ended up with this funny video of her and her baby Stella.

Oh and the 1 nap only continues but today it was a 3 hr morning nap! That's pretty much how I got the whole house built and painted today. I would enjoy 1 long nap everyday!
Tomorrow is allergist Monday, it's Callie's 1 year old allergy follow up where they retest her and hope it's getting less severe. Bad news is its in the late afternoon and we have to get blood drawn and have the prick tests again. No fun. :(