Daddy's Little Dare Devil!

 I am not sure how many tutus and cheerleader skirts are in Callie Mae's future.  She may be like her mom and be trying Ric Flair moves while wrestling boys in the basement of the church at age seven.  She is unbelievably burly right now and has no fear (except one--more on that later!).  She will climb and stand on anything she can.  She will move her little princess car up to the couch or the tv cabinet and use it as a step stool to grab for things we thought were out of her reach.   Yesterday, she and I went to a Mommy/Baby church function and I was about the only mom sweating while trying to contain her child.  There were mostly boy babies there and Callie showed them up with her walking ability, energy and roughness!  

 Is this not a "little Matt" on a pink car?  Her lucky dog snoopy shirt is from Aunt Michelle.

We have really been enjoying the spring weather.  Callie loves to go outside and try to eat mulch and walk on the sidewalks.  (Notice the new shoes!)

 I think what she enjoys most is walking back up to the front door and taunting the cats.  We have let them out some too!

 Callie likes to make friends at the park (THAT she got from her mother!)

Here comes trouble!  Daddy has to race to catch up before she reaches the slide on her own!

 She will try to walk down if you aren't there to stop her!

 Here she comes!  Look how wild.  This particular time she went down all by herself.

 I think she prefers going down with Mommy.

 But climbing back up is her favorite thing!  We have video of her climbing the entire way back up with a little help with her footing. She was determined!

 And, like mommy, she enjoys swinging.  But like Daddy, she will throw-up if she stays on too long!

The thing that Callie does seem to be afraid of right now is baths.  I don't  know what happened this week to scare her.  Maybe she had a bad dream.  But one night she was enjoying her bath as usual and the next night she screamed through it.  I thought it was just a one night thing but she has screamed every night since.  So baths last about two minutes with her crying the entire time, turning bright red and quivering with fright.  It is so pitiful.  She won't sit down in the water and screams harder when I pour water onto her head.  I hope she gets over this soon and that it won't include a fear of the pool, lake or ocean this summer.  I am hoping that a new fun bath toy might help because we have tried everything else.  Matt is very concerned about this and even put on his swim trunks and got in with her the other night.  I don't think I have ever loved him more than that moment when he was sitting in three inches of water surrounded by rubber duckies and wind-up sea animals and singing "I've Been Working on the Railroad".  I wish I could have gotten a picture to share!  She may be my little sidekick but she is a Daddy's girl all the way and he is the best daddy to her.  She had a really bad night of sleep last night (surprising after such an active day and which explains why I am blogging right now instead of sitting in church!) and I think he sang that song 20 times while trying to rock her back to sleep.  And when I finally just got up with her and let her play in the family room at three in the morning, she would yell "Da-da!" as loud as she could to try to get him to come play with her.   He is always there with words of encouragement or good advice when I am at my whits end or exhausted from mommy duty.  Sometimes he will even give me a little hug and groggily say, "good job" when I return to bed from one of the two or three night-feedings that she still insists on.  He might be doing that in his sleep but it makes me feel better none the less! 

Shoes and Shows, and Looking Purrr-ty!

I am not sure I have ever been so glad it is March!  (Well, maybe last year when I knew that I only had one more month left of pregnancy!)  We have endured some pretty cold, snowy winters in Blacksburg but this winter has seemed endless and we didn't even have the terrible weather that the rest of the state had.  Maybe it has something to do with trying to keep a very busy little baby occupied everyday that makes warm spring days even more welcome.  This week, Callie and I have really enjoyed walks outside and play-time in the neighborhood parks.  Which brings me to the main event of this post--New Shoes!  Since Callie is now walking outside, it was necessary to have her fitted for some quality shoes.  Michelle met us at the mall yesterday and we went to Stride Rite to buy two new pairs.  (They were having a sale, and what girl is happy with just one new pair?)  Callie loves her new shoes even though she really hasn't figured out what they are for yet.  She just really likes carrying them around and playing with the boxes.  She has a new pair of dressy white sandals and a pair of hot pink mary-jane style sneakers that are mesh so she won't get too hot in them this summer.  I can't wait to put her in them to go to the park, but today it is rainy, so I guess we will have to settle for an indoor fashion show.  And now for another segue...shows...last Friday night was the opening of the cat and dog art show at the gallery.  Costumes were encouraged, so I spent a good part of that day making cat ears headbands and tails for Callie and I.  Matt preferred to remain dressed as a human, not really sure what the fun is in that!  Callie was a huge hit, as usual, and she didn't even realize she was dressed up.  But when I put her in her tail and ears, she immediately ran into the hall and tried to get through the cat door.  I took pictures and video and hopefully will get to posting the video soon.  For now...enjoy the pictures!

Sorry, this kitty is NOT up for adoption!

Struttin' her stuff and swishin' her tail.

I guess it would be easier if she learned to use the cat door, feed herself cat food and use the litter box!

Petting a kitten from the SPCA (the art show was a benefit for them, and NO we didn't bring one home!)

Momma Kitty and Baby Kitty by my painting of Brother Kitty Chester.  (not pictured:  Daddy Kitty)

Another painting that I entered into the show - All Girls Love Shoes

It was painted from a photograph of Indey sleeping with my shoes.  She was so much like a cat!

I love those tiny shoe boxes almost as much as the shoes themselves!

The dance of the new peep-toe sandals.

Very Proud!

Telling me all about them...she is so talkative now--all babbling and dada sounds still.

I just loved this picture because it shows her gorgeous profile.

...and I guess this is one for the humane society --two levels of confinement.  We are so cruel to our babies!

Blog Alert:  I have posted my paintings for the "It's Raining Cats and Dogs" show at the gallery which opens tonight.  Stay tuned for pics of Callie and I dressed as cats!

http://catinthelapstudio.blogspot.com/

Quick Visits to the West of Here.

We spent time over the last two weekends visiting with family and friends.  The first weekend involved a Sunday trip to Pa's house in Carson.  Grammie and Grampie joined us and brought KFC.  The weather was warm for a change so we were able to get out a little and visit the ponies next door and Lynn, Walter and Savannah across the street.  Incidently, Callie does not like Savannah like she used to.  This time her squeal was one of terror rather than glee as she watched her through the screen door.  It was pitiful to see her so afraid.  The next trip to visit loved ones was much longer and involved.  We drove late Friday, after Matt flew in from Alabama, to the lake and spent time with Nana and Papa.  Callie had was thrilled to see them and was just as attached to Papa as she is to Grampie, not wanting him to get out of her site.  She is one fortunate little girl to have two sets of grandparents that lover her that much!  Saturday evening was spent visiting old high school friends in Roanoke.  It was great to see everyone and it made me very excited for 15 year reunion this summer.  On Sunday, we drove to Giles to see Ma-maw, Hunter and David at her house, then to Don and Laura and Andrew's house to spend the night.  Callie was definitely more excited to see Charlie the puppy than she was to see Savannah which was a good thing because Charlie couldn't get enough of her.  She shared her paci's (ick) and let him lick her fingers and face and he tried his best to stay by her side as much as possible.   Finally, on Monday, we went to Blacksburg and visited with friends until the afternoon.  I took Callie to BMS to see as many people as we could and Matt went to the Athletic Dept. to visit former co-workers.  We ate at El Rodeo with some of them and then stopped by my friend Alan's house on our way back to Giles to pack our things.  Alan has a dog named Goo that looks just like Indey but without the white.  She was just as sweet too.  Callie loved her and it made me very sad to see them together since I always wanted to give Indey a baby to watch over and play with.  Maybe one day God will send us another dog as gentle and lovable as Indey to be Callie's playmate!  So that sums up our very long two weekends of travel.  It was great to see everyone and, as usual, much too short and rushed.  One last note:  once you have lived out of Blacksburg for a while, it is amazing how much more cold and bleak it seems when you go back to visit!  Maybe I am not missing those winters as much as I thought!!!

 

Walking outside with Grampie --first time walking in the grass!

  

Enjoying some Pa time.

  

Reading with Papa (who makes up his own ridiculous version of the story!)

  

Very intently playing piano with Nana and Papa.

  

Me and some of my RVCS peeps (Robin, Jenny, Allison w/ Abigail, Amanda and Trimble)

  

Stair climbing was the activity of choice at Don and Laura's house.  Daddy wore himself out escorting her up and down, over and over.

  

Peeping through the rails.

  

With her pal, Charlie.

Charlie shares kisses with everyone! 

 

The Piano Trio

I am very behind on blogging because we have been out of town. I will try to get pictures from our visits with friends and family up on here soon, but in the mean time, enjoy this very quick video snippet of Callie playing the piano (one of her favorite things). The sound didn't kick in until late and it is VERY short, but still cute!