6 Months

Stats:  
Callie had her 6 month check-up postponed a few times because I had to travel so much for work this month, so these are her 6 1/2 month stats.  Callie weighs 13 lbs 9 oz (5th percentile), is 25 1/2" long (30th percentile) and her head is 16.63" (36th percentile).  Our pediatrician says she's small but hearty and that her height/weight growth curve is moving along normally, so she isn't concerned about her growth.  WHEW!

Health:
Callie caught her first cold this month.  I also caught the same cold on the exact same day, so poor Bryann had to take care of a sick baby AND a sick wife.  Callie was really, uncharacteristically fussy on Saturday while Bryann was at school, and I was like "WTF is going on?".  Then that night, she REFUSED to go to sleep for more than 45 minutes, and I didn't notice she was running a little warm until I fed her at like 2 am.  So I took her temperature at 100.4, called the RN line to see what to do... Apparently nothing- stupid babies and colds - we were told to let her immune system do it's thing and not to give Tylenol for fevers below 102.

So I basically breastfed her every hour and sucked the snot out of her nose with the Nose Frida (amazing invention).  When she wasn't sleeping, she was crying, and both Bryann and I (at one point or another) got so annoyed and fed up with the crying that we needed to take a break or we might have gone insane.  I don't know how single parents do it.  I'm completely baffled that anyone is able to survive raising a kid on their own.  We actually gave in around 4pm on Sunday and gave her some Tylenol.  30 minutes later she was 90% back to herself.  By Monday she was fine, but I was still sick.  Stupid babies and their stupidly amazing immune systems...

I DID learn a few things though - apparently breast milk delivers antibodies specifically tailored to fight whatever illness she's dealing with, and adjusts it's temperature to suit her body temperature.  Breast milk also helps keep the mucous in the nose from proliferating and keeps babies from getting all stuffed up.

Poor baby girl is sick...  :-(  

Sleep:  
Callie has gotten into this terrible habit of waking up at 1:30 am now.  Usually Bryann puts the pacifier back in and she's asleep again.  Sometimes that doesn't do the trick and he bottle feeds her.  But she's always up again between 3 and 4 am.  Then again between 6 and 7 am.  We are exhausted...

Clothes/Diaper Size:  
We moved Callie into size 2 diapers at night and are going through the last of our size 1/2 diapers during the day.  She's fitting nicely in her 3-6 month clothing, though occasionally I can squeeze her into a 3 month outfit depending on the brand.  I even have Cherokee brand NEWBORN clothes that she still fits nicely into.

Diet:  
Callie is still breastfeeding, and eating nicely from the bottle.  I'm SO glad the bottle battle is over!  We introduced some solids to her diet towards the end of this month.  We started spoon feeding her bowls of oatmeal at night, and she's played around with some mushed carrots.  I think she even got a few carrot chunks in her mouth, rather than all over her face!

Baby Gear Love:  
We're still getting great use out of her Ergo carrier, her strollers (both the BOB and the stroller frame for her car seat), and since she's still a little (ok, a LOT) small for her highchair, I purchased a used Bumbo with tray on CL, and she's been much easier to feed in it.

There are lots of mixed opinions out there about whether Bumbos, or walkers, or any sort of seat that enables babies to sit before they're "ready", but we really only put her in them for short amounts of time (10 minutes here and there) and closely monitor her while she's in them.

Nicknames:  
Nothing new this month.  Lots of variations with the word "Goo" and "Monster" in it.  Googley Bear came back since we watched Monsters Inc. the other day.

Favorite Songs/Lullabies:  
Callie seems to enjoy any music at all.  I turn on my Pandora stations during shower time, or while I'm working and she's playing on her jungle mat.  I also sing all the usual silly songs while I'm feeding her, burping her, changing her, or playing with her.

Milestones/Firsts:
Sitting up.  Callie can balance herself pretty well leaning forward and doing a tri-pod thing with her arms.  She sits really well on my lap, leaned against a corner of the couch, or with the boppy pillow supporting her sides. 

Sitting up before she's even 6 months old!

Eating cereal from a spoon.  Lots of adventures in eating this month!  She likes to grab the part of the spoon with the food on it, but never manages to actually get any food in her mouth.  So I end up holding her hands while I feed her so she can slurp the oatmeal off the spoon.  She's SUPER smiley through the whole process and leans forward for the next bite.

Exploring some oatmeal and some spoon

Half-rolling back to tummy.  We have to help her roll over because she hasn't figured out the leg fling yet.  So we hold her leg down opposite side and she flips herself on over.  She's enjoyed playing on her stomach a lot more this month.

Doing the half-assed half-roll

Crying to get attention or to protest against having whatever she got hold of taken away.

First Snow.  We had Snowmagedon 2014 hit Portland this month and got a good 8 inches of snow at our house!  We couldn't help taking her out and snapping a few pictures.

SNOOOOOWWWW!!!

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I know this is all about Callie, but look how cute Sammy is!

First cold.

First baby play date.  I had Annie & Clara, Tamara & Hannah, and Katee & Isaac over for a good ol' baby play date and mommy gossip session.  Annie brought her camera and snapped some awesome photos, and it was really nice watching all the babies interact with each other.  Isaac brought his farm over because he wasn't sure whether we would have an appropriate amount of toys, but he ended up ignoring his farm and SUPER into Callie's Disney Princess walker and her Jungle play mat.

First time spending a few days alone with Grandma Lainey and Grandpa Jake.  Bryann and I both had work trips scheduled (me in LA and Bryann in Tacoma) over the same period and my parents were amazing and came to watch her for a few days while we were gone.  She fared just fine.  She ate from the bottle like a champ and even slept well.  I think I had a harder time being separated from her than she did.  I came back at like 10:30 at night, went in to feed her and she woke up for a few minutes, said "goo goo ga ga" (translation "Hey mommy!  How was your trip?  Nice to have you home. Welp, gotta get back to sleep.") and went straight back to sleep.  For my part, I enjoyed a few nights of un-interrupted sleep, and work and some LA friends kept me occupied while I was away, but I think 3 days away from my baby and my family is about my upper limit.  By the end of the trip I couldn't WAIT to get home.


Likes:
"Coffee Talk" (in the voice of Amy Pohler and Maya Rudolf on SNL).  This is where I drink coffee while Callie talks to me, and I ask her to expound on her thoughts.  She really does have some fascinating opinions already!

Putting things in her mouth.  Seriously.  Everything she gets her hands on goes in her mouth.  I even got her a little too close to my valentines roses when we were having mirror time in the kitchen, and she got hold of the rose buds and yanked the rose out of the vase and started chewing on it.  And she moves SO FAST, I couldn't stop her in time so she ended up yanking out a bunch of the petals.

Getting "kiss-monster"ed in the face.

Being thrown in the air.

Dislikes:  
Being tired.  Callie definitely has some great "put me down for a nap IMMEDIATELY" signals, including rubbing her eyes like crazy.  I once caught myself rubbing my eyes when I was really tired and cranky one night, and I was like "Hmmm... I now know where she gets that from!"  Perhaps it IS just a baby thing in general to rub ones eyes, but I prefer to think she's inherited all of my adorable quirks.  (Yes, my quirks are ADORABLE!!)

Things I Don't Want to Forget:
Spoon feeding her oatmeal cereal for the first time.  She would get a good bite down her gullet and then look up at me and smile oh-so-proudly!  UGH she's the cutest!!

One time we put her on her stomach in her nursery to try to entertain her longer before putting her to sleep, and she full-on planked like a seal, and lifted her legs super high up in the air behind her.  I swear they went above her head.  Bryann and I laughed and laughed and laughed.

Singing "Happy Half Birthday to You" in our family room with my parents and with Reezy on the phone.  Bryann was still in Tacoma on a work trip, and I had just gotten in from my work trip and was exhausted and hazy.  But it was still wonderful to reach that milestone with her and sing to celebrate.

Tummy time with Daddy

Enjoying her toes these days

She's quite the early reader

Just being adorable.  Don't judge the Reindeer jammies in February!

She LOOOOOOOVES playing with her toes

Pumping in the airport while I'm on my business trip

My milk stash when I got back from my 4-day trip

Polk-dot Queen of the World!!

5 Months

Stats:  We skipped the 5-month check up, but I took some measurements at home.  Our bathroom scale (measuring the difference between me and Callie) says she's about 13lbs. (11th percentile) and I measured her at 25.75" long (68th percentile).  Apparently she's just growing tall and not growing chubby yet.

Health:  We seem to have gotten her reflux under control.  At Callie's 4-month check up, our ped upped her baby Zantac dose to 0.7ml twice daily.  Since then I've seen a pretty big improvement.  She still spits up occasionally, but doesn't soak her clothes requiring several outfit changes a day like she used to.  

Aside from the reflux, she's healthy as can be!

Sleep:  I wish I'd appreciated her sleeping more during month 2 and 3...  This month has been really up and down.  At one point this last month, she was up every 45 mins to 2 hours.  Then she'd sleep long stretches (10pm-5 or 6am) for one or two nights, making me think waking up so often the few nights before was just a fluke.  But really it's the sleeping long stretches that was the fluke.  Usually she's down at 8, dream feed at 10, then she's awake and hungry between 1:30am and 2:30 am, and again between 4am and 5am.  

At one point last week, I was so exhausted (and my boobs were worn out from her eating at 2am and increasing my milk supply for that time frame, then skipping that feeding the next day and sleeping until 5am, making me engorged and in pain,) I told Bryann I couldn't do any more feedings before 4am, and if she woke up before then, he'd have to take over with a bottle.  Since then, she's still woken up a few times in those early morning hours, but Bryann's been starting by putting the pacifier back in, and she usually falls back to sleep.  She's only not fallen back to sleep once, and she took 2.5 oz from a bottle at 1:30am with no problems.  (yay!!)

Clothes/Diaper Size:  I officially had to pack up all of her Newborn sized jammies and onesies.  She's filling out the 0-3mo, and just starting to fit comfortably in the 3-6 mo clothes.  She's still wearing the 1-2 diapers from Costco, but once those run out, we'll be able to use all those size 2 diapers I got my baby shower.

Diet:  Still breastfeeding!  Yay!  She gets pumped breastmilk in a bottle when I'm at work and Katee is watching her, and she's been doing SO much better with the bottle this month.  Almost no fuss anymore!  *crossing fingers it will stay that way...*  

She also gets a bedtime bottle with rice cereal mixed in to the breastmilk, because 1) we need to get some extra calories in her to help her gain weight better 2) rice cereal helps manage her reflux and 3) she eats more from the bottle at bedtime than what I can pump.

Baby Gear Love:  I still use her swing and her jungle play-mat daily.  We've been able to use some of the toys we got from the baby shower and as hand-me-downs and we particularly like her soft Elephant rattle and a sunshine face rattle.

Nicknames:  Callie-bug, Goober Boober, Babers, Goo-ga-moo, Googley-Bear.  I've also nicknamed myself "Mommy Kiss Monster".

Favorite Songs/Lullabies:  If I start singing the feeding song "Yummy yummy yummy, you've got milk in your tummy..." she'll stop eating and look up at me and smile and giggle.  I taught her "Auld Lang Syne" this month so she could sing along at New Years.  She just generally appears to like any old song with any old words I seem to make up and sing to her all day long.

Milestones/Firsts:  Callie has officially started (purposely) reaching for and grabbing toys, and then sticking them in her mouth.  Really anything she gets her hands on goes in her mouth.  She's almost figured out how to put her pacifier back in her mouth, too.  

We heard her first giggles this month.  She's not one to giggle easily, so sometimes it takes quite a bit of silliness on our parts to get her to giggle.  Mostly she just squeals with delight and does this extended-smiling bit, but every so often, she lets out a "hee-hee-hee".  

Callie can also stand supported for a goodly length of time, and she likes to sit up supported, either with our hands under her armpits, or leaning against us sitting on our laps.  

This month, Callie experienced her first New Year's Eve.  We hosted the 3rd Annual Turner's New Years Bash, and she REFUSED to go to sleep.  So we ended up bringing her downstairs to join the party, and putting her in the Ergo when she finally got tired (which I think was around 10:00).  She woke up again right around 11:30 and Bryann almost missed the countdown because he was feeding her and putting her to bed. 

Callie also got to meet her Great-Grandpa Joe!  Papa came to visit for a few days just before the new year, and I know it was really special for Bryann, and meant a lot to us both.   

Callie with Great-Papa Joe

Super Dad with Grandpa

Likes: Watching me shower while I sing and dance and make funny faces at her.  Standing up on the bathroom counter and cooing at herself in the mirror.  Talking, thbbt-ing, and coughing on purpose, discovering all the sounds she can make now.

Getting her diaper changed.  Being thrown in the air (but just the teeniest tiniest bit, or I get a little anxious!)

Dislikes:  Not being put down for a nap or being fed IMMEDIATELY when she decides it's time.

Things I Don't Want to Forget:  Every DAMN time I watch Bryann playing with Callie...  Just KILLS me.  I think I might die of my heart melting.  

Bryann feeding her with a bottle at bedtime and remarking "Remember when this used to be hard?"  

Callie squealing at me while I sing for her and play peek-a-boo in the shower.  

The Baby Zantac Saga:

Day 1- Kristi leaves cap off newly refilled prescription. Bryann unknowingly spills said newly filled prescription into drawer and soaks baby clothes in baby Zantac. Kristi notices bottle is missing from dresser and Kristi and Bryann get into spat about whose fault it is that baby Zantac is now out again. 

Day 2- Kristi refills prescription yet again while pharmacy lady wonders what sort of underground baby Zantac drug ring tired mom is running. Bryann spills bottle of baby Zantac AGAIN, this time through no fault of Kristi's, but Bryann tries to blame the baby and her exuberant kicking. Perhaps if Bryann left baby lying down on changing pad and hadn't picked baby up and placed her legs within kicking range of bottle, bottle would not have been kicked over. Bryann takes full responsibility for his actions and hopes Kristi won't kill him. 

Day 3- Kristi refuses to be seen at Pharmacy again, so Bryann goes in to pick up prescription YET AGAIN as well as deli dinner for the drive out to beach house. Bryann leaves bottle in the same bag as deli dinner. Kristi finishes deli dinner and throws away bag. Kristi asks Bryann where the baby Zantac is when they arrive at beach house that evening. Bryann says in the food bag. Kristi bangs head against wall. 

Day 4- Kristi refills prescription for the 4th time, claiming it was forgot at home while on vacation.  Monkey at Tillamook Fred Meyer Pharmacy is inept and Kristi spends 2 hrs on the phone back and forth between pharmacy and clinic. Insurance now thinks something fishy is going on and won't pay for prescription. Luckily baby Zantac is cheap...

Callie with Great-Papa Joe, GC, and Auntie Whitley

Winter walks with the baby through Cook Park

Bryann with our other "child"

Hanging out in Hannah's Bumbo

Chewing on her hands, enjoying life after keeping us up all night

Enjoying a cuddle nap

Playtime with Daddy

Colts V. Patriots!

Colts V. Patriots with the mamas

Trying to eat her Mr. Sunshine rattle

Throwing a tantrum during "tummy time" 

With Uncle Adam and G-pa Jake after Adam's MBA graduation ceremony

Look how big she's getting!

Ready for some football!

Kitty napping on top of baby, napping on top of me.  

Daddy-Daughter playtime on the kitchen counter.  I love the way she's looking at him!

Time

“Fifty years," I hackneyed, "is a long time." "Not when you're looking back at them," she said. "You wonder how they vanished so quickly.” 

 ― Isaac Asimov, I, Robot

If I had a box just for wishesAnd dreams that had never come trueThe box would be emptyExcept for the memoryOf how they were answered by you

But there never seems to be enough timeTo do the things you want to doOnce you find themI've looked around enough to knowThat you're the one I want to goThrough time with 

 ― Jim Croce, Time in a Bottle 

People sometimes say they get flashes of their lives past.  I often get flashes of my future.  My life has passed before my eyes, and suddenly I'm my mom, 62 with my first grandchild.  And I'm filled with joy.  Or I'm my grandmother, 92 with my first great-grandchild.  And I'm filled with joy.

Getting older is no longer this far away, hypothetical.  It's very real to me now, and I can almost taste what it's like to be at the end of my life.  And it almost makes me cry.  Not because I'm sad to see my life over, but because my life has been so full of wonderful blessings.

I'm married to a most wonderful man, the love of my life, and I did actually look around enough to know that he's the one I want to go through time with.  We're coming up on 10 years of being together, then apart, then together, then apart, then together again.  (hahah)  And recently we've been incredibly blessed with a happy, healthy, bouncing baby girl, light of our lives, apple of our eyes.  We are surrounded by friends and family who love us, and we both currently have jobs we love.  I know life/marriage/parenthood will not always be easy, but I know I'm in the right place, and I've found the right people.

My box for wishes and dreams is empty.  When I flash forward and get visions of the end of my life, I am filled with joy.  I know these years ahead of me will pass faster than I'd like, but so far I have no regrets.  I hope I can hold on to this sense of calm and never doubt I'm on a blessed course.

First comes love - circa 2004

More "love" - circa 2009

Then comes marriage - 2011

The comes the baby in the baby carriage - aka my enormous belly - 2013

The baby out of the "carriage".  Can't get enough of this picture!  Aug 27, 2013

Me in 30 years

Me in 30 and then again in 60 years

Reflections of a 30-something and Resolutions for a New Year

When I was younger (like tweens and teens,) I had a lot of "philosophical" conversations with my parents friends at their Friday night Yacht Club events.  One conversation has stuck out in particular all these years later (...and I don't know why I remember this so vividly, but for some reason it made a huge impact on me.)  I suppose we were talking about what I wanted to do when I grow up, and I suppose I said something about when I thought people were too "old" for stuff, because for some reason I had a list of things I HAD to accomplish before I was 30 or it would be too late.  I don't know - the silly mind of a silly young Kristi...  Anyway, the group of adults I was talking to were taken aback that I thought 30 was old.  The women told me how much they enjoyed their 30's, and the men told me how women are SO much more attractive in their 30's.  They said, essentially, it was because when you're in your 30's, you've not only figured out who you really are, but you're OK with who you are and you start to LIKE who you are.  I guess this struck me so heavily because when I was a tween/teen, I didn't really like myself.  I had zero self-esteem, I didn't think I was "good enough" at anything, and I didn't know myself very well.  I tried on a billion different hats growing up.  I ran in several different groups of friends, I tried a bunch of sports and extra-curriculars, and I have a sense now that I was always trying to be someone else because everyone else seemed happier than I was.

So fast forward 15 years, and here I am, in my 30's.  Am I happier?  You betcha!  More content with who I am?  Absotutely!  It didn't happen all of a sudden, but I'd say I've noticed a big change even over the last 2 years.  I have a pretty good sense of who I am, and sometimes more importantly, who I'm not.  I'm probably never going to be a big crafter, or sewer, or super amazing cook.  My house will probably never be as clean as I want it to be, and my car will probably always have garbage in the back seat.  These are not things I'm particularly proud of about myself, but I'm cutting myself a little slack, because those are things that don't really matter in the grand scheme of life.  I'm no longer trying to be perfect.  I'm just happy to be me.

I'm a lover, and a giver, and I like to smile and laugh and be active and I really enjoy the company of others.  I'm relatively lazy.  I don't compare my life to others' lives as much as I used to.  I'm grateful at the end of each day for everything I have, and I don't often have regrets.  I've spent 90% of my life so far trying to figure out who I am, and I finally have a good sense of myself, and have come to peace with who I am.

So as I end the last day of my 31st year of life, there are very few things I need to "resolve" to do next year.  Really, they are just a continuation of things I've been working on and ways that I can be a happier, more content person.

1 - Be active.  I love walking, hiking, and going to fitness classes - yoga, pilates, zumba, etc.  I'm going to continue being an active person, and hopefully get out more this year than I did last year - but I'm partially blaming that on being pregnant, moving, remodeling our house, and having a newborn.  All things considered, I still got out for lots of walks, and did video yoga quite a bit with Annie.

2 - Kick our Budget's Ass!  After a big move, and LOTS of new-house expenses, and LOTS of new-baby expenses, we're getting back on the wagon as far as our household budget is concerned.  We've set up a good budget that I think we can live comfortably within, and we have money set aside for our future financial goals and debt payoffs.  Both Bryann and I tend to be impulse buyers though, so it's time to reign that in and get back to purchasing only what we need and plan for. 

2A - Meal Plan. We've done this (spottily) in the past and it's decreased our grocery budget AND helped us to eat healthier, so I'd like to be better about it this year.  When I plan meals, I find we waste less produce, eat out less at fast food places, and consolidate our grocery trips to only go out when we have a goodly long list of things we need for the next week or so. 

3 - Work on the Four Aggreements - This book was recommended to me by my therapist when I was going through my major depressive phase in college, and I didn't quite "get" it back then.  But I've revisited these ideas since and I've found that when I put them into action, I'm a happier person, I have more integrity, and I like myself a lot more.

1. Be impeccable with my word. - Essentially say what I mean, and mean what I say.  Don't use my words to gossip about others or put down myself.  Use my word for positive thoughts and actions, and send good juju out into the world.
2. Don't take anything personally.  Everyone is on their own course and pretty much nothing anyone says or does is about ME.  It's about them and whatever they're going through.  Trust that if something IS about me, that someone else will tell me so and we'll be able to work it out.  This also ties in pretty heavily with Crucial Conversations which has also helped me a lot just to re-work the way I think about other people's actions.  I've been able to work on this a lot this past year, and I'm seriously a happier person for it.  

4 - Be the best Mom I can be.  I don't really think I need to do anything differently for my little girl.  I'm a pretty awesome mom as it stands right now.  I've really taken to the new role, and I love that little bug more than anything else in the world!  I just want to continue doing the best I know how, giving her the time and attention she needs, the love she craves, and the experiences she'll thrive on.

4 Months

We've made it through 4 months of parenthood!  This past month has been really fun.  She's woken up to the world.  She smiles and socializes and we even heard her laugh once!

Stats:  Weight: 11 lbs 5 oz -14th percentile

Height: 24.5 inches - 58th percentile

Head circumference: 40.5 cm - 35th percentile

Health:  UUUUGGGGHHH!  We cannot figure out this spitting up thing.  We had her on Baby Zantac, then tried Baby Prevacid and neither of those really reduced the amount that she spit up.  By all other accounts, she's a happy bouncing baby meeting developmental milestones, so I'm trying not to worry about it too much.

Sleep:  This month has not been as beautifully predictable as last month.  Sometimes she'll give us a nice stretch of sleeping 10pm-4am, and sometimes she's up every 2 hours during the night.  Needless to say, this month has been a little harder on me since I'm not getting my beauty sleep.

Clothes/Diaper Size:  Fitting nicely in the 0-3 month and 3 month clothes.  She's a bit wee for her age, so she's not in the 3-6 month clothes yet.  I think those won't be used for a few months yet.

Diet:  EBF and bottle fed during the days she's at Katee's and I'm at work.  Bottle feeding has gone decently well this month.  We've had a few trying nights while Reezy or Bryann was watching her and I got a night off for Book Club or Holiday Ale Fest, but overall she's been eating when I'm at work.  I've read that the 4 month stage can be a period of regression in her eating and sleeping habits, so I'm hoping things will get better by this time next month.

Baby Gear Love:  ErgoBaby, her swing, SwaddleMe blankets, MAM pacifiers, MAM bottles (the ONLY bottle nipple we've had better success with), a carseat+stroller frame that is pretty small and stays in the car, Lights & Sounds jungle-themed play mat with dangling toys, caterpillar rattling dangling toy-thing, BundleMe super warm carseat blanket-thing

Nicknames:  Callie-bug, Goo-Goo, Monkey, Spit-up Monster, Goober Boober, Babers

Favorite Songs/Lullabies:  Moon River, Baby Mine, Nothing's Gonna Harm You, Silent Night, and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas are the go-to lullabies this month.

The new eating song goes "Yummy yummy yummy, you got milk in your tummy, and I feel like feeding you!"

The new burping song is "You Can Burp if You Want To"

You can burp if you want to
You can leave your gas behind
'Cause your friends don't burp
And if they don't burp, well they're
No friends of mine

The new finished feeding song is "Bye-bye boobie, boobie bye-bye"

Milestones/Firsts: The holiday season lent itself to lots of first events.  Callie had her first Thanksgiving - We had the whole family at the new house- Reezy, Great Grandma Lyles, Grandma 'Lainey & Grandpa Jake, David & Audy- plus our friends Connor & Jess and baby Nora.  

First Christmas adventures- seeing the lights at The Grotto, cutting down her first Christmas tree (though she slept in the carrier the entire time), singing Christmas Carols with my choir peeps down Peacock Lane, Christmas morning and opening presents.

Callie rolled over from tummy to back several times over Thanksgiving weekend and I missed all of them until Sunday night that weekend.  Then I caught this awesome video!

First accidental injury (of many in the future, I'm sure) by Samson's tail- he whipped his tail against the back of her head. She was NOT happy. Poor girl! 

Callie has been smiling a lot this month, putting her hands in her mouth, practicing sitting up, practicing standing, holding her head up and looking around and supporting her weight on her forearms during tummy time.  Her eyes are starting to change colors.  She still has a deep dark blue ring around the outsides of her irisis, but the insides are turning hazel.  She's also very vocal and spends most of her play time saying "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh" and thbt-ing. 

Likes: Having her diaper changed, watching me shower while she's sitting in her bouncy seat, putting her hands in her mouth, having her face wiped while I make silly noises, getting picked up out of her crib in the mornings (she smiles SO HUGE when either of us come in to get her)

Dislikes: Being sleepy, being bottle fed, not getting fed IMMEDIATELY when she decides she's hungry.

Things I Don't Want to Forget:  Callie has laughed ONCE for us - Bryann was lying on the ground and was holding her up on his stomach and she let out a "haha!" and it was the CUTEST THING EVER!!!  Since then we've been trying to get her to laugh again, but all she does is this extended smile/silent laugh.  So frustrating!!

Her many, many smiles this month.  Particularly how she smiles at me when I go to pick her up out of her crib or her swing.  

The way she wobbles her head when I'm helping her sit up, or she pushes herself off of me when I'm holding her to have a look around.  She looks just like a bobble head doll.  

Dancing in the basement with her, singing along to the "Company" soundtrack.  

Spotted!  Grandpa is snoozing on the job.  

At The Grotto with the Schlyper clan

Baby and Daddy with the Christmas tree and newly painted fireplace

We discovered her neck was strong enough for flying!

Grandma 'Lainey and Great-Grandma Lyles

Callie and Kitty chillin' out max and relaxin' all cool

Sam is sniffing around hoping to discover a little puddle of spit-up.  Tummy time is always good for that. 

Cut down our own Christmas Tree

Little Elf!

Family Christmas portrait