This one's for you, Cousin Emme!

A couple posts back, I noticed that Callie had the same jacket as her cousin, Emme! So here is Callie sporting the matching jacket and the "Party Pigtails" hairstyle that Emme loves to rock :-). If we didn't live a few thousand miles away, I'm sure those wouldn't be the only things Callie would be imitating from Emme! (Please ignore our messy house and focus on our cute baby!)

I struggled to get her to look at the camera, but wanted you to see the whole look!

Finally, there she is!

Before the pigtails but showing off her teeth!

Walking!

9 & Now almost 10 Months!

SOOO, if you can't tell from the title, somewhere between Christmas and New Year's, I missed an important blog post! My baby girl turned 9 months old! While I didn't document this important feat in words, I DID take her in to have 9 month pictures taken, so don't judge too much :-).

Callie's 9th month was lots of fun. With her newly discovered skill of crawling, she decided independence suited her and she didn't need "Mama-mama" quite so much. I loved this, as I could move into the next room without her screaming, and if she wanted to, she'd just follow! She also did fantastic in the church nursery, as she finally felt like she could move like the big girl she always thought she was!

The second weekend of December, we took our first official vacation since Callie was born. We went to Sunriver with our good friends the Elliotts. Callie LOVED having friends to play with all weekend! She did much better than we expected on the 3 1/2 hour drive there (and back, actually). Sleeping and eating were a challenge all weekend, but we discovered after we returned home that teething might have added to that problem. The week following Christmas into the first week of January, we discovered 3 new teeth! (YES 3!!!) She now has 4 teeth on the top and 3 on the bottom. (I'm pretty sure the bottom 4th is coming soon, though!)

So, here are some 9 month Callie highlights!

• Is a pro-crawler now!
• Only crawled for about a week before she started pulling herself up onto EVERYTHING!
• Went on her first vacation to Sunriver, OR
• Discovered Cheerios and "cookies"-which she loves
• Decided avocados are pretty much the best food in the world and thereafter refused to eat ANY "baby food"
• Celebrated Daddy's 30th b-day with a surprise party and did WONDERFUL with Grammy and Poppy for the evening
• Celebrated Christmas 4x. Callie loved Daddy's Lego train around the tree and the pile of presents. She would crawl over and make selections each day, but didn't open them. She did pretty well around the tree, only starting to take ornaments off toward the end of the month. She loved the Advent calendar Grammy made for us and got so excited to put the new "ornament" up each day!
• Got 2 top teeth at the beginning of the month and then 2 more and another bottom tooth the last week of the month right around her 9 month b-day.
• I completely weaned Callie this month. She made the transition to bottle pretty well, since she could look around much better this way and bite it if she wanted to! It has been a good thing for Mommy and Callie. (though, we discovered formula is NOT CHEAP!)
• Callie really started looking like a "big girl". Chubby cheeks, pulling herself up on everything and crawling very fast add to this look!
• Loves her fire truck toy from cousins.

10 months!

About a week after Callie turned 9 months, she pulled herself up on her push toy and took off walking! She is so delighted with this skill and loves to demonstrate it for anyone who will watch. (We hold the webcam up so Grammy and Poppy and Aunt Anna can see her on Skype. She watches the computer the whole time-making walking straight a little tricky, but she wants to see their impressed reaction!) She is doing better with sleeping at night. When she does wake up, it's usually because she scooted out of her blankets and just wants to be tucked back in. Nap times are changing. Her consistent 10am morning nap is now more like 11. This is wonderful for church, since she is happier in the nursery. However, on normal days, we're still struggling to find the time for her afternoon nap. Sometimes she goes down between 2 and 3. Other times, she will just play and play and just wants a short nap before 6.

Much to Daddy and Mommy's delight, Callie started giving Wonderful hugs! Her Daddy loves to lie on the floor and have Callie crawl over to him. When he lifts her up on his chest, she buries her face in and gives him a big hug! She also has started giving her stuffed animals hugs, which is pretty adorable.

Dave is having so much fun with Callie as she gets older and more able to "play." Yesterday, when I was at work I received the following text message from him: "Callie LOVES animal cookies!" And when I got home I discovered Daddy and Callie had built her first fort with blankets and the kitchen chairs. Inside the fort were all her favorite toys and the bag of animal cookies :-). They had a fun morning!

2011

I've had a lot of things on my mind the last few days as I think about this new year. First of all, I am so thankful for the Lord's sustaining blessings throughout 2010. It was a challenging year, but God is good and His love and faithfulness really do endure despite our temporary pain and frustrations. As I get older, I have become more and more aware that it is because of the pain and frustrations in our lives that we are able to better appreciate His blessings and grace.

I am so thankful for my sweet Callie Sue and the joy, laughter, love, AND pain and frustration she's brought us this year. Parenting is not for the faint of heart, and yet, there really is nothing like watching your child accomplish something for the first time, call your name, melt into your arms, or burst into giggles! Days are often long and exhausting, but mostly my heart is so overwhelmed by the way God has shown his love to me through my little girl. I pray that she falls in love with her Savior and chooses to devote her life to Him and that I can point her to Jesus every day by my choices and words.

I feel that I wasted a lot of time in 2010 by worrying about things outside of my control (and really how many things can we TRULY control?) instead of entrusting them to my faithful and loving God who always has the best plan. I also just plain wasted time, whether it be on Facebook, watching TV or just being lazy. I have been reading Francis Chan's book, Crazy Love. If you haven't read it, make the less than $10 investment. It may just change your life. I know I have become more aware of just how spoiled I am and how little time, energy, money, etc. I devote to the things that God would have me invest in and the thoughts He would prefer I meditate on, and the people with whom He wants me to interact. I pride myself on being a somewhat organized, logical and wise person with the things God has given me. Yet, as the premise of the book says, true love makes us a little crazy. How many crazy things do I do for God? How many would I be willing to do this next year? I love the idea of a fresh start and a New Year's resolution, but when it comes right down to it, most of mine have been broken before March-many before the end of January. What will make this year different? I hope and pray that I will rely more on God's strength and less and less on my own "resolve" this year. I want 2011 to be the year that I fell "crazy in love" with my Savior and my pursuits were the result and outpouring of that love. If you're reading this, I'd love for you to remind me about this throughout the year and ask me how it's going!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning we opened presents just the three of us--As you can see, Callie was tired of waiting!

This is NOT her present, but she didn't really care any more! Besides, the wrapping paper is the exciting part!

New books!

So excited!

She was happy to help Daddy open his presents, too!

In the afternoon, we went up to my parents house to celebrate! Dave and brother-in-law, Josh were excited to find Dutch Bros. gift cards inside of these old VHS tapes that served as clever wrapping solutions so they didn't guess their gifts!

Grammy helping Sophie as she listens to the baby's heartbeat.

Callie was excited to awake from her nap to open MORE presents!

She got a Little People Nativity Set and her first doll. It looks like she's worried Daddy's going to steal it in this picture!

This video is of Callie watching the Tinkerbell movie Dave got her for Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Callie making a present selection in her Christmas Eve church dress.

Playing with Grandpa and Grandma Bertolini

Family ready for Christmas Eve service

Callie received her first Bible from Great Grandpa and Grandma Stewart!

And, she got lots of other fun gifts she was excited about!

Christmas "Card"

Merry Christmas Loved Ones!

The beginning months of 2010 were spent on last minute preparations for baby! Dave finished up her room and putting together furniture, stroller, high chair etc. I did the baby registry and baby showers and did my best to find a comfortable sleeping position (yeah, right!) and together we went to regular doctor appts. and looked into life insurance. AND THEN, Callie Sue arrived bright and early Tuesday morning, March 30^th, and our lives were changed forever!

I spent the spring and summer months transitioning into motherhood and wondering how my mom made it look so easy! Along with adjusting to being a father, Dave also took several seminary courses over the summer, wrapped up 6 years of full-time youth ministry and began his new job as Associate Pastor. If change equals stress, you could say we were basket cases! We are so thankful for the Lord giving us the strength for each day and all the prayers from family and friends.

Other noteworthy news this year:

• My parents celebrated their 30^th wedding anniversary on March 15^th!
• Dave led a group of 20 teens on a mission trip to Alaska this July, along with our new youth pastor and some wonderful adult helpers!
• Brother-in-law, Josh, was hired as the Children’s Pastor at Skyline Baptist in North Bend.
• Josh and Anna received an offer on their home just days before moving to North Bend after a long 11 months on the market. Praise the Lord for his faithfulness!
• While this year has been grueling on my parents with my mom’s health issues and business challenges, we praise God that the cancer has not spread, and she has not needed chemo or radiation. We greatly appreciate your continued prayer for my Mom and Dad.
• Dave was able to arrange his work schedule to have “Daddy/Callie time” while I’m at work two mornings a week.
• We celebrated our 6^th wedding anniversary on December 18^th.

We are so excited to share Christmas traditions and began to explain the meaning of Christmas with Callie. Having it be Callie’s first Christmas has made us step back to evaluate what Christmas is all about to us as a family and what we want Callie to grow up remembering and prioritizing. It's not about all the presents under the tree but the true GIFT of Jesus Christ and the salvation He offers us!

A few thoughts about Callie: She’s pretty much adorable all the time. She has the most kissable little cheeks. She loves to make funny faces and does an awesome snort. She loves to blow bubbles with her saliva-very attractive on a girl! She has the sweetest giggle that is awfully contagious. She adores her daddy and gets so excited whenever she sees him-her whole body shakes and she breaks into a huge grin and chatter. She thinks cats and small dogs are hilarious. She loves playing patty cake. She enjoys “Skyping” relatives. She started crawling as soon as we got out the Christmas lights and is now pulling herself up on anything and everything!

We hope this holiday season leads you to be more in love with our Savior, Jesus Christ and brings you blessed times with family and friends!

With love, Dave, Amy, & Callie Bertolini

8 Months!

Well, this picture pretty much captures Callie's entire personality-fun-loving, happy, playful and spoiled little Diva :-)! Each month she is developing more and more of her own personality, which is so cute and exciting some days and entirely frustrating others! Normally, she sleeps well in her crib but occasionally (and unfortunately seeming to be more often) she throws tantrums when we put her down. I have watched her from her door as she screams and then puts her pacifier back into her mouth to see if I respond. If I don't in the allotted amount of time (about 3 seconds), she whips it back out and screams again, only to repeat the process! We had some exciting "firsts" this month. Callie's first word was "Mama"-cried out in the middle of the night on November 19th. It has since been the go-to word whenever she needs something-whether that's me, food, sleep, etc. I was a little concerned, though when she saw a hippopotamus on the t.v. and said "Mama!"

The second exciting first occurred when I was putting the lights on the Christmas tree this past weekend. There was still a pile of lights on the floor and it didn't take long before Callie figured out how to crawl over to them! We were suspecting Christmas decorations of some kind would do the trick, as she'd been VERY close to crawling for about 3 weeks now.

I would love to report that Callie enjoyed her first Thanksgiving and tried mashed potatoes and green beans. Unfortunately, eating is still giving us fits. She really doesn't seem to like any baby foods, so we think it's a texture thing. As one friend said, "She just has refined taste buds!" So far, we have tried sweet potato, squash, pear, applesauce, and peaches (along with rice cereal and oatmeal), but all have been met with the same disgusted reaction. She does enjoy "Puffs" and Rice Wafer crackers.

It seems she is working very hard to get her first top tooth. I'm praying it will break through soon, so I can trade in the tantrum baby for my sweet girl! In the meantime, I'm off to call Dave to bring home more infant Tylenol!