So as I promised I put together a collage of Callie's year in review in her month by month photos with the stickers. It really brought me back seeing all the photos of her. In month one I still see the torticollis she was born with and it doesn't surprise me that she was yawning since she didn't sleep much? In month 3 I remember her first smiles and really plump cheeks and her first giggles. In month 6 I recall her being so interested in exploring items while sitting that I couldn't get her to look at the camera, either that or her hands were in her mouth because month 7 brought teeth! Check out that grin which only gets better by month 8 where I see her personality starting to come out. She looks proud and sassy in the way she is posing for the camera. In month 10 she was walking away so I put her in the basket to keep her still for the photo. By month 11 there was no stopping her and hence the photo on the move which was impossible to pose. And lastly at month 12 she just rips the sticker off to show it to me! She is sassy and a typical toddler who can't sit still for even a minute, not even for a photo for her mommy. I love every single one and I love seeing this collage of her growth. I love her more every single day and I am proud to be her mommy. She is an amazing little girl and one day she will grow up to be an amazing woman, but just not too fast ok? I need to cherish my little baby for a lot longer still.
Thanks to everyone who still follows along and reads Callie's blog. We love you all. There were a lot of photos that didn't make it into the months stickers collage where I dressed her up for other photos, but don't worry there will be another sampling of my favorite photos coming soon. Guess you'll have to keep following to see ;)
Today was one of those days where I just couldn't win. I wanted to have a fun day with Callie and maybe go to the beach.
I started the day extra early at 5:20 am with Callie screaming, then the weather wasn't great so the beach was out. I tried to take a nap when Callie did but had to deal with some issues from work. So No nap for me. I decided that we could cook some things together so I prepared a bunch of kale for kale chips. When Callie got up we had fun shaking the leaves in the bags to coat them then spreading them in the pans to bake. While we waited for it to bake we played with the watermelon, then cut it up and ate it. 30 minutes later when the kale was ready we sampled it. For my first try I think it was ok. A little salty but still good. Callie really liked it and wanted handfuls and was just pushing it all in her mouth and the dogs, unfortunately pretty quickly I realized that she was having a reaction to it. I assume it is not the kale as she has eaten kale before without this type of reaction. It didn't have many ingredients, so either balsamic vinegar or brown mustard? I am not really sure. Her reaction was isolated to around her mouth and her wrists, mostly just where it touched her skin. I waited it out 15 min and washed her skin with soap to see if it would be enough to go away but to no avail. Se had real hives pretty quickly and spreading so we went with the Benadryl. Callie was a champ and didn't even mind the reaction she was still pretty happy. I got lots of photos and video prior to the reaction. Once I saw what was happening no more photos.
So that was strike 1. Strike 2 came soon after when Callie was following me to the garage and tripped over Manny ( he is always in the way!). She tripped and fell on the other wood baby gate we are not using that is currently stored by the garage and scraped her arm on the wood. Her first real scrape with blood and scab. Poor Callie, what a rough day. Mommy is not a good babysitter!
The afternoon went much better and we played with sand, went for a walk, and cleaned up our earlier messes. And my last strike was when attempting to install the furniture straps on her bookcase and dresser for safety. Callie was watching closely as I attempted to install the straps. I wanted to find the studs but 5 holes later and not a single stud. I quit for the day and ordered a stud finder on amazon. I will try again in a few days. So on a Monday where I thought would be an easy day it just wasn't. :( back to work tomorrow. I'd prefer a tough Monday home with Callie anyway over a work day, so give me more Mondays.
I finally marked Callie down on her ruler growth chart on the side of her bookcase. I have been meaning to do it since last week but kept forgetting. Instead of using her measurement for the doctor where she is actually laying down I thought it was more fun to just stand her up and draw a line. I am going to go back and put her birthweight for reference but all the other measurements will be in actual standing height. I didn't think she would notice that I made a line and wrote1 year but that kid is observant! As soon as I finished she took the pen from me walked over and tried to draw on the bookcase too. She amazes me. I guess I should be careful what I am doing around her since she is so observant and coming everything now..... Who knows what I might do she will copy!
This weekend we bought Callie a kiddie pool for the deck. It's been very warm out so it seemed the perfect time to get it set up. Also last year I waited and then every Walmart was sold out, I wasn't going to miss out this year!
We got this for $13 and its going to be worth several thousand! In 2 days she has played over 2 hours. She is obsessed with the water. The first time she saw it she tried climbing over the edge. We keep the water level low as she falls a lot and has gone under and doesn't like her head to get wet. I anticipate we will spe d a lot of time in this little plastic pool :)
Kristen had a bunch of us over for a BBQ as Lan was in town visiting from Sacramento. The last time we all got together the babies were just sitting up. This time they were all running around, what a change! It also makes it a lot harder to get a photo of all 4 kids. We put them up on chairs but it didn't help much as they tried to climb down. Out of the 50 I took these are the best ones. Notice Ben sticking his tongue out and pointing in one. I love that one :) and in another Callie is climbing to the other chair to steal the boys blueberries.
Callie has been wanting to eat her food with silverware off real dishes because she is a big girl now. Well this week she broke 2 bowls, yikes. So I gave her something heavier, a plate. She liked it for sure. Those lentils were delicious. So good in fact that she licked the plate! So cute!
She has been crabby this week and I am pretty sure there are new teeth coming in as she drools all over.
Today Callie and Juan came to visit me at work for lunch. Callie got to say hi to a little boy we work with and loved the ball we have. Guess I better buy one for home. All the toys we have and she just wants to play with a ball, go figure.
Singing do wa diddy diddy dum diddy doo. He he
Callie wants to walk the dog literally now. I let her walk and hold his leash but poor Manny gets pulled and yanked and she walks too slow for Manny. Check her out in action.
Callie had her one year old check up at the pediatrician Monday. Sorry, lots happened Monday so I decided to spread it out over the week. Callie is a very healthy child besides her allergies. She weighs 24 lbs now! Pretty incredible in a year how much she has grown, from 7 lb 14 oz to 23 lb 15 oz, tripled in weight. That puts her in the 92nd percentile for weight. She also is in the 92nd percentile for head circumference. That's because she has a big brain, that smarty pants. She is catching up in height a little bit, but at 2' 5" she is still only in the 45th percentile. Because of her weight, she will switch from formula to low fat milk instead of whole milk. It's also time to get rid of the bottle, slowly we will dwindle away, and time to increase tooth brushing to twice daily. She likes that so it shouldn't be a problem.
Callie got 4 vaccines on Monday, the pediatrician did a lot of research before she came to see us to ensure it was safe for Callie to have each of the vaccines since she has an egg allergy and previously had a reaction to the rotavirus vaccine (or so we thought but this was before we knew she had food allergies so who knows). She was pretty confident that there shouldn't be a problem and its in her best interest to get them all. The other option was to have her get the vaccine at the allergists office in case of a response, but we decided it would be best to just do it at the pediatricians. We would stay extra long to ensure she didn't have a reaction, we also kept her naked to watch her skin closely. I carry an epipen at all times and the dr office has one there as well. She screamed bloody murder during the vaccines and it was difficult to calm her. She got 4 shots and so 4 band aids and then proceed to pull them all off and play with them. After 12 minutes she did get a small reaction of a light rash on her belly. The dr came back and 2 nurses to watch her for a bit. They took her vitals and she was uncooperative. I knew she was fine because we have been through way worse reactions but the nurses seemed nervous. We decided together it would be best to give her Benadryl to be sure it didn't get any worse. She did fine after that, the rash went away and she had a fine day afterwards. Callie just likes to keep everyone on their toes ;)
Here she is putting her band aids on her dolly.
We finally made it through all 12 stickers for our month photos. Month 12 was especially difficult to capture as she was pulling it off her shirt and running away. I guess it really captures what she was doing at 12 months! I am working to put together a collage from all 12 months so maybe later this week or next.
Big thanks to Taylor for buying me these stickers, it sure was fun to document the months photographically. I would highly recommend these as a baby shower gift.
To celebrate Earth Day, Callie planted her first organic garden. We planted an organic herb pot that has basil, oregano and cilantro as well as broccoli seeds and bell pepper plays and cherry tomatoes. I know I know most of you are saying bell peppers?!, isn't she allergic to that? Well we aren't positive yet and it's one of my favorite things and is an important veggie to be organic so I figured we would try.
Callie enjoyed digging in the dirt, the oversized shovel, and the hose of course. She made a real mess but we had fun and had a bath right after. Happy Earth Day!
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!
