Callie and Jesus (Callie's First Christmas Vol. 3)

Today Callie is nine months old! It is just a few short months before she turns one and is no longer a "newborn". Just as a quick update on her development, she is not yet walking on her own but will walk holding on to something or someone. And as of this week she has really started babbling and adding new consonants to her vocabulary. She has said "Dadadada" several times but she doesn't know what she is saying yet, so it doesn't count. I am still rooting for her to say "mama" first! Callie has a cold today but she is smiling through it and thinks sneezes are hilarious.

Now on to Christmas. This Christmas was amazing. I have dreamed, for years, of what it would be like to celebrate my baby's first Christmas and the dreaming was only half as wonderful as reality was. And it is also amazing how having a baby around for Christmas helps everyone to focus even more on the reason we celebrate the season in the first place. It is hard to imagine Christ and his humanity or the emotions and struggles of Mary and Joseph, but having your own baby really helps make it real. The only thing that could have made the day better would have been if Becky and her family had been there to share it with us. Our celebration of the official event started on Christmas eve. We bundled up and went to Michelle's condo for a wonderful dinner. My favorite part was the Pear, Blue Cheese and Candied Pecan salad. Maybe I will push for that to be an American Idol viewing night tradition this winter! We opened a few gifts at Michelle's house before heading back home to await the arrival of Nana and Papa who got there around 10pm. Christmas day was spent opening presents and eating - all day! Callie had so many gifts to open that Matt and I put some of hers away for her birthday. We had a wonderful breakfast, provided by Dreama and Michelle, who brought food over for us. Lunch was the Taylor traditional Chicken Roll-ups and Pea Salad by Mom and I. And we had more sweets to conquer that we could manage. Callie had a great time opening gifts and wore herself out! Thanks to everyone for helping make the day so special. And thank you also for all the wonderful gifts to Matt and me. We all had some great surprises!

Christmas Eve at Aunt Michelle's house.

All bundled up! It was cold. Nana and Papa had to leave earlier than planned to avoid driving in more icy whether.

Getting into the presents under Aunt Michelle's tree.

First present of Christmas morning - a new crib toy!

She loved ripping the paper! Look closely at her little face.

She would even stop to read the card.

"Wow, I know I have been good, but I am not sure I was this good, Santa!"

My little angel!

Ripping so fast her hands are a blur!

The box was a bonus present!

A random photo taken by Grampie (Steve). Apparently all Papa wanted for Christmas was a cell phone like Callie's. I guess we will know what to get him next year!

She loved her vacuum from Uncle Jon and Aunt BB. Grampie might sue the company because they apparently stole his cleaning songs to use on the toy. "I'm going to clean the house today, Do-dah, Do-dah!"

She also loved what I call "The Very Needy Puppy" from Aunt Michelle.

Her drum, bell and cymbal set were a huge hit. She new just what to do with the drum, thanks to Ms. Rebekah and Kindermusik class!

Watch it, Papa! Those are my penguins!

Nana pushing her around on her favorite toy from Grammie and Grampie. Grampie is still losing sleep trying to figure out how to make the princesses on the front spin.

Her favorite toy from Nana and Papa. She starts every morning out playing with this one. She rings the doorbell constantly!

Callie's First Christmas! vol. 2

Christmas for Callie officially started the Sunday before the actual day. After church, we drove to Pa's house for the Spiers/Lastovica family gathering. Last year, Logan made his Christmas debut at this gathering and this year he had little Callie to keep him company during the present opening chaos. There was another special new comer this year. Santa (cousin Luke) made an appearance. Callie really didn't seem to care for him much but she did like grabbing his beard. Logan also had a mixed reaction, but both eventually cooperated for pictures. Thank you Luke for putting that hot costume on in an already extremely warm house! Callie's next "Christmas" was the following Tuesday (the 22nd), Matt and my ninth wedding anniversary. Grammie and Grampie arrived for the week and came over to keep Callie while Matt and I went out to eat. It was our first time away from her together. It seemed very weird to not have her in the car seat behind us. Once we returned, Scott and Michelle joined us and we opened any presents that included Scott since he was leaving the next day to go to his parents' house. Callie thoroughly enjoyed opening presents, preferring the wrapping paper, as expected. Uncle Scott gave her her first cell phone which she loved and a soccer ball to start her sports training early. Scott and Michelle also gave her a beautiful silver engraved bracelet that they bought for her in Charleston to match one that Dreama had bought for Michelle when we were there a few years ago. I don't have any pictures of Callie in the bracelet yet because she doesn't let me get it on her. Scott and Michelle were surprisingly excited about the snuggies (slankets) that we gave them. It was a nice evening and just an appetizer for Callie since she had three more "Christmases" to go!

Callie fit right in with the tradition Christmas mayhem at Pa's house.

I think that is the same reaction a pre-teen would have to getting a cell phone for Christmas!

Callie's First Christmas! vol. 1

Sorry, blog stalkers, for taking so long to update this site with Christmas photos. We had a very busy two weeks of celebrating and we are finally home trying to recover and reschedule our lives. I will have to blog in several installments to get all the important events and photos uploaded. To start, here are some pics from our Christmas card photo shoot that I didn't want to share earlier because I didn't want to spoil the card surprise. Callie has grown so much since these picture taken on Dec. 7th.

Callie is being much nicer to her fuzzy brothers lately, especially after she got a warning scratch from Poe. Ollie seems to like her the best rignt now and is much more patient with her

.

Non-snow Day

Today I mourned the lack of snow in Hampton Roads while regularly viewing facebook pictures of Roanoke and Blacksburg's 15-20 inches. I would have loved to have had some snow to watch fall but I can't complain too much. I had Winter Storm Callie to watch instead and she was very entertaining, plus, she doesn't melt or get slushy and brown. (Enter your own diaper joke here.) She finally decided today that she couldn't wait anymore to get her hands on her Christmas gifts.There have been presents under the tree for weeks but I moved them out closer to her today and she was happy to get her hands on them.

Rudolph with your nose so bright...

Looking for trouble...

and I found it!

Oh, was I supposed to wait on these?

You won't tell Santa will you?

The family room tree and a little elf (imp).

The living room/study tree. It has all our really nice ornaments on it. Here is a close-up. This tree is full thanks to Matt's aunt Lynn who has given us all the beautiful Lenox ornaments over the years.

Cuz I Know Grammy Can't Wait!

Matt, Callie and I went to the gallery Christmas party tonight. Callie got to wear her special fancy Christmas dress that her Grammy had bought for her. I know that Grammy is very anxious to see how it looked so here are some pictures. I am also throwing in one from this weekend. Janice came to visit, along with Dreama and Steve. They all stayed here and we really enjoyed the visit with Janice. She hadn't seen Callie since early fall.

Watching Polar Express with Grammy and staying up WAY past her new bedtime.

Cat Water, Crib Wedgies and Reindeer Butts

I think the title is pretty self-explanatory. Enjoy the pics of Callie's latest antics!

(look closely at the amount of water on the floor that wasn't absorbed by her jeans)

If you click on the photos to enlarge them, you can see the water all over her face.

I had removed the crib bumpers because she kept getting stuck under them. After finding her like this I quickly put them back on and tucked them in as much as I could!

No Christmas tree is safe this year!

Deja Vu and Thanksgiving and Deja Vu

It has been a while since my last post and there are two reason - one being Thanksgiving and the other being that I have a very mischievous crawler on my hands now and have had no time to blog! Matt has been out of town all this week and I have spent almost every second with Callie. She has even slept with me most nights. I am eager for him to get home today so that I can have one complete thought and maybe even sit at my art table for more than five minutes. Callie is crawling and pulling up and she has amazing stamina. She barely naps unless I nap with her, adding to the issue of me not getting anything accomplished. I feel like my day is full of lapses of deja vu. She is a very determined kid so I am constantly pulling her down from one precarious position, removing her little hands from the cat water, pulling her back down from the previous precarious position, pulling her little hands out of the cat water, and so on. I can't wait until Christmas for new and bigger toys! I think I am just about as excited for her to get some new things as I was about getting new things as a child. I just hope that at least one of her presents can guarantee to occupy her in one spot long enough for me to run to the bathroom or check email!

She is still working on those bottom teeth. One is popping through a small amount and I can see the impression of the other one. She is eating much better, preferring her strawberry yogurt and puffs at every meal. We are working on expanding that menu. She even got to have Thanksgiving dinner at the table when we went to Grammy and Grampy's house. She was very good throughout the entire meal and was all smiles the whole holiday. It is important to mention that part of the table decorations were the plastic pumpkins from last Thanksgiving that I wrote her name on to surprise everyone with news that we were having a girl. We all had a great time but were very sad that Nana and Papa couldn't join us as we had planned. Nana has not been feeling well so we are praying that she heals up quickly and can enjoy Christmas with her littlest granbaby. Here are some pics of Thanksgiving at Grammy and Gramps.

Center of the table and the thing we are all most thankful for this year!

Drooling all over Grampy's head!

Helping in the kitchen

Jaw exercises!