ONE YEAR OLD!!!!

Giving monkey a drink before bed :-)

In her new tent with her babies

Her new baby crib/bunk bed!

Our one-year-old!

We are so very thankful the Lord gave us such a Sweetie! Happy Birthday Callie! Here are some cute things she's done recently!

Whenever we get her up, she has a system of saying goodbye to her bunny and binki...she used to just pop the binki out and hand it to us so she could start chattering. Now, she's a little more hesitant to give it up. We don't run right in to get her when she wakes up because she likes to have some alone time with Bunny prior to getting out of the crib. As we have watched from the door, she chatters away while periodically giving Bunny some big hugs, wiggling its ears, and then more hugs. When we do go to get her we say "Say bye-bye to Bunny." She'll give Bunny another big hug and then several pats on the back (like Mommy used to do to Callie when burping her :-)). Then she turns around and waves to Bunny just as we're going out her bedroom door! She also loves to hug/pat her baby doll and monkey stuffed animal.

Since she loves her "babies" so much, we found a mini bunk bed crib for Baby and Monkey for Callie's b-day. She is such a good little mommy to them! When we gave it to her today she put Baby in the bed and I told her to give Baby a kiss good night. Callie immediately started blowing kisses!

Callie has also become quite the snuggler lately (which we LOVE). She will run into our arms and give the best hugs (followed by pats). She'll also throw her arms around our legs when we're standing and then pat our legs. She also just likes to recline against us and will regularly back up and then flop on Dave's legs when he's doing homework on the couch. Yesterday, when I was about to put her to bed Dave kissed her and said "Love you, Callie." It really sounded like she said "Wuv ooo" back :-). She's not consistently saying many words, but there have been several times when we've said something and it really sounded like she repeated it, only to never do so again! She DOES regularly or semi-regularly say "Mama" "Dada" "Ba Ba" (bottle) and "Baybee" (baby-she really stretches it out when she says it. She says this when referring to her doll or monkey). Everything else she signals by pointing at it and saying "boom." We think this is because we had some balloons in the house for a while due to Dave's b-day and then a baby shower we had at our home. Callie loved them and each morning she would point to them first thing when she got up. I would always say "balloon." So now, she points to things she wants and they're all "Booms"! She KNOWS far more words that she says. We said bounce the other day and she pointed to the trampoline, and same with camel (her stuffed animal camel), monkey, books, shoes, bunny, etc.

She is still obsessed with bellybuttons and giggles and lunges to touch it each time she sees one! This could get embarrassing this summer if halter tops are back in style :-) (hopefully, they're not!)

Walking turned to running in about 3 weeks! Today I was following Callie around the house-one second we were playing in her room and then we were downstairs, and before I could even process how fast it happened, we were back upstairs in her room! I am continually struck by how much she's changed in this last month, let alone this year!

She is quite the climber and is getting scarily close to being able to climb in and out of the bathtub, laundry basket and anything else she thinks she can fit on or in! She loves bouncing on the mini trampoline and can stand up and bounce a little herself (and grins so big when she does it!). Actually, she's nearly always proud of herself for something :-).

She loves to read-usually she starts with the books upside down. Not sure why this is? She will turn the pages herself and "talk" quietly while she does it. However, the most chattering lately has been from the top of her slide. She will climb to the top and then survey the room, pointing to different objects and then apparently telling us a story about them! The other day she pushed her baby doll down the slide in front of her. I caught baby at the bottom and then held her up and said "Callie's turn! Baby's going to catch you!" She pointed at baby and gave me a funny look and then pointed at me and chattered away. It seemed like she was saying, "Mom, that doll is way too small to catch me; you better do it!" Sure enough, when I said, "Do you want Mommy to catch you?" she smiled and came right down the slide!

Eating can still be a frustration for me. However, I have discovered that when she's hungry enough or distracted enough she eats just great. The best was when we turned on March Madness b-ball and moved her highchair into the family room! Mostly, she just wishes she could have exactly what Mommy and Daddy are having!

She is quite the little prima donna. The other day she was throwing a fit. I put her in a dress with a frilly skirt and then showed her in the mirror. She immediately burst into a huge smile and from then on her behavior improved! I guess if you're going to look like a princess, you have to act like one!

She still LOVES animals...we've encountered a few dogs on our walks around the neighborhood recently. The owners said they were nice so I stopped so Callie could look at them and pet them. We stayed for a couple minutes, but both times Callie burst into tears when I started pushing the stroller away. Apparently, we will have a pet in our future-though right now, Callie is all I can handle :-). I am very much looking forward to taking her to the zoo this summer!

Well, that's pretty much all for now...we have her doctor's appt. next week, so I'll have 12 month stats then. But here are the practical details so I can refer back to them when I forget :-). She's still taking 2 naps (10:15ish-12:00ish) and (3:30ish-4:30ish), nights are from 8pm-hopefully 7:30am. 3 meals with baby food and bottle and 3 bottles each day. She's wearing 18 month shirts now with 12 month (or still the bigger 9 month) pants. She's got a long torso! Her hair is now curling in the back which I just love!