Little update on our almost 22-month-old!

Wow, time flies! I realize I haven't done a Callie update post in a few months, and boy has she grown and changed! She is talking up a storm now and singing almost as much! I have sung to her each night since she was born while I put her to bed. The songs are whatever praise song comes to mind, most what I remember my mom singing to me when I was growing up. A couple nights ago, Callie started singing with me while I was rocking her. It was such a sweet moment as I realized these "Jesus" songs were sticking in her head, and hopefully, making their way to her heart. She talks about Jesus now and sometimes sings, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus" when she's working on something. When you ask her "who's Jesus?", she may respond with "Light of the World," "God's Son," or from her favorite Newsboys song "the King." The song says "Make a way for the King; the King is coming!" Callie belts out "Make a way for" then, "King Jesus!"

She loves to get in your face and tell you stories. You know it's a story because you'll catch words here and there while she rattles off paragraphs of other "words" and then looks at you with hopeful expectation for the appropriate response (which by the way, is always praise for such a great story!) She can pretty much repeat anything-the bigger or more interesting the word is, the more likely she'll try! Her favorite word right now is "camouflage." And she can tell you that God makes the animals camouflaged so they don't get hurt. (Now, you have to know she's saying that to get it, but once you do, you can definitely tell!) She loves movies and books about animals, though since our Disney trip, we've been a little stuck on 2 famous mice!

• Other quick updates: She's eating better now! Yay! She usually has dollar pancakes or small waffles, sometimes hash browns for breakfast. An almond butter and jam sandwich (1/2) for lunch, and meat with green beans, corn, or rice for dinner. She likes apples, dried cranberries, Rice Chex, or applesauce for snacks. She also very much enjoys cookies :-). She's eating dairy free & gluten free to avoid painful rashes, so her diet is not as varied as we'd like, but I'm just happy she's finally eating!
• She is wearing 2T clothing-pants are still big on her skinny waste but shirts/jackets/jammies fit great! She's 26 lbs. Size 4 diapers for the last few months. Size 5 shoes. We can get her hair into a pony tail or pig tails now-both make her look older and pretty adorable :-).
• She loves books, puzzles, cars (very enthralled with the Pixar Cars movie characters), Wild Animal Baby Movies (which she calls "Dancing Babies"-they are very educational and the source of her knowledge about camouflage!), Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Tinkerbell, and her babies (which include: monkey, bunny, Pooh Bear, puppy and her 2 dolls "Abby" and "Becky") She still sleeps with monkey, bunny and Pooh. Abby, Becky and Puppy sleep in the doll crib across her room.
• She wants to walk and run everywhere on her own. She really doesn't care for the stroller that much, as she'd rather be walking.
• She's close to being able to sing her ABC's! She loves working on it and also sings many parts of "Baby Beluga," & "Jesus Loves Me."
• She can count to 14 but consistently leaves out 7.
• We are potty-training! She's doing great when I watch the clock and take her every 1/2 hr or so. She is very M&M motivated :-). I'm hoping she'll start telling me on her own soon. We'll see!

It's hard to believe our baby is getting close to 2! She keeps us hopping, and we are so thankful for her!