Whew! What a Month!

Matt just accused me of giving up on this blog, but I assure you, that is not the case!  It has been a whirlwind of a month since I last posted.  October is not quite over yet but I can't believe it is almost time to get out Christmas decorations.  (I like to start in November!)  I skipped over fall decor entirely because we have been way to busy with the activities of this season.  So, get ready for an onslaught of fall photos of "All our Fun this Fall" !!! (Note:  In case you want to save or develop any of the photos, some of these photos are only "email quality" right now.  I will replace them with full-size versions once I get the originals from Paparazzi Steve.)

Callie's first haircut!  Just the bangs, I wouldn't dare cut those beautiful golden curls in the back.

 Callie busies herself around the house doing many things.  One of them is dress-up.  She is constantly getting in my drawers or overturning the dirty clothes hampers looking for new "outfits".  Unfortunately, many of them include hats made out of dirty undies!

She also still spends a good amount of time loving on her furry brothers.  They patiently lay there while she hugs and sometimes even kisses them.

 Callie has even invented some new sports -- Baseball Ballet!

 Wednesday nights are Aunt Missy nights because I play on an indoor volleyball league now.  Michelle comes over to help entertain Callie.

 We have had several celebrations at our house this past month.  Happy 88th Birthday to Pa!

 And I hosted a lingerie shower for Michelle as part of her Bachelorette Weekend festivities.

 We have also done some traveling and visiting this fall...

 

One such visit was to Nana and Papa's house for a beautiful autumn boat ride and several crisp evening walks to see some of Callie's new friends.  (She says, "Boo" instead of "moo" but they seemed to be able to understand each other despite her thick accent.)

 

These guys aren't Callie's only recent four-legged, hoofed acquaintances.  We spent a little time at my friend Sarah's house where Callie got to pet and sit on one of her very favorite animals --Horsey!    She loves to nay and whinney!  And Sarah has generously offered to teach her how to clean out stalls once Callie is old enough!

 

 

This is Callie on Lady.  She's already riding bareback!

                   

 Callie has had some practice with riding already which brings us to our last bit of recent adventure --HOKIE Football.  What would Fall be without that!

 

This is Callie cheering for the first touchdown of the Tech vs. Central Michigan game.  Unfortunately, she was cheering for the wrong team!  Daddy was proud of her anyway! 

 

 She eventually got the hang of it but then decided it was time to explore.  We only stayed the first quarter.  That was about the length of my football attention span too!

  

She found tailgating to be much more fun because there was gravel and rocks!

 

All this tailgating, traveling and visiting has been tough on the waistline and there are only five more months left before the big wedding.  This is Callie's interpretation of what Mommy will feel like trying to get into her bridesmaid dress if she doesn't get busy exercising!

 

And finally, the most noticeable thing the last month has been how much Callie has changed from being a baby to a toddler with occasional glimpses of big girl.  I love watching her learn and grow, I just wish she would slow down just a little!

Summer's Last Surf

I have been without my computer for a grueling two weeks!  It is all fixed and good as new so I can now get caught up on the final pictures of summer.  There are good things to blog about today and one very sad thing.  Callie's second cousin Logan passed away last week (Sept. 21st)  He was 21 months old and had been in the hospital battling leukemia for the last five months.  We are heartbroken for Matt's cousin WJ, his wife Lauren, and Logan's grandparents, Lynn and Walter, and of course, Pa.  It must be horrible to bury a child, and I imagine it is even worse when that child is a cherished grandchild and a great-grand-baby as Logan was.  We rejoice in the fact that Logan is with the Lord and that his great-grandmother, Ann, is holding him close.  But we are weeping for the grieving, empty arms of family members that are so dear to us.   Please pray for the Lastovica family in the coming weeks and months.

Now for the photo update for the month of September.  Most of the pics are from a visit by Nana and Papa and a trip with them to Sandbridge for the day.  It was fun to enjoy the ocean one last time.  Now it is time to start on those fall memories and football pictures.

 Callie got bitten by a mosquito on her eyelid.  She was swollen like this for a full two days.  The doctor said it was nothing to be worried about and that it is just an allergic reaction to them that she will eventually outgrow.

 Callie continued her attempts to catch a sea-gull...

 Someone on a nearby blanket brought their two adorable Boston Terriers.  Callie loved visiting them and getting puppy kisses

. 

 My little sand crab!

 

It was a cool day and that water was COLD!  But she didn't care!

Below is a video of Callie running on the beach.  She would run right to the end without looking back if we let her.  She really thinks she owns the world!

Callie on the Loose!

Bye Bye Alligators, Bye Bye Turtles, Bye Bye Pool

I had a minute so I decided to post these pictures before they are weeks old and we are long into new fall memories.  Today was the last day of pool season, so we took Callie to say goodbye to her summertime friends (not the other kids but the water spitting animal statues).  Callie loves this pool and fortunately, there is one almost as exciting inside for her to enjoy all winter.

Matt had his hands full trying to keep her from running everywhere.  She fell and hit her head as soon as we got there but recovered quickly and still had a great time. 

She doesn't understand that she isn't big enough to ride the slide and she continually runs over there to it.  She would do it if we let her.  Maybe next year!

I will miss that open mouth excitement face if she is out of this stage next year!  It always coincides with splashing water.

Finally! Beach Time!

Here are the beach pictures that I promised.  We had a wonderful week, complete with amazing weather that we didn't expect.  I had packed all kinds of movies and games in case we were rained in for a few days.  The week went by extremely fast and we are all sad when it was time to leave.  By the end of the week, we had finally figured out the best sand, salt and baby eyes combination so that Callie could stay out longer without getting something in her eyes and then needing to go in for a bath and nap.  She loved playing in the sand about as much as she loved playing in the water.  And chasing seagulls with Grampie was probably her most favorite thing.  We enjoyed lots of good eatin' out, although some nights we had to take turns entertaining a restless Callie.  Matt and I also got to enjoy a date night dinner out and I am not sure Callie even noticed we were gone!  On our way home, we stopped for our traditional after beach visit with Pa.  And then we traveled home to our three fuzzy boys who seemed mildly disappointed when we came through the door.  I think they were hoping it was Miss Ginny and her cans of tuna instead!  It was a great week for all!

Inside activities included building blocks with Grampie...

...repeatedly emptying her drawers...

...and looking at the pretty girl in the mirror!

Here she is last year trying to look in the mirror.  She has grown so much!

Outside activities...well, they are pretty obvious so I guess I don't need to narrate them all!

All that fun makes for one very sleepy girl!

And a quick stop on the way home makes for one very happy Pa and Callie Mae!

Adventures in Callie-land

 (The Enchanted Forest at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens)

This is yet another blog entry that does not include beach pictures!  They are coming soon...I promise!  I had it on my mind tonight just how smart our little girl is and I decided I better write about it before I forget.  We are just so proud of her daily achievements.  I don't think that I have mentioned before that she now says "Poe" (sounds like "BOW" but she says it when she sees Poe).  And for several weeks she has put slurred words together that have the same syllables each time.  She will say things like, "Here you go, Daddy" when she is handing him something.  It is all jumbled together, but we are finally able to translate some of these babblings.  Besides her new verbal achievements, she is also learning to identify and kiss things.  She can point out most of her bath toys when asked where they are and then she will pick them up and give each of them a big open-mouth kiss if asked.  She will also give each of us a nice slobbery kiss on occasion.  And today she was able to impress Daddy with her new ability to point to her nose, mouth and belly when prompted.  We had worked on it while he was at work.  And shortly after, she pointed to an ear thanks to some extra coaching from Daddy.   It is just so nice to know that she understands what we are saying even though she doesn't have much of a vocabulary yet.  She understands when it is time to eat, bathe, drink a smoothie, brush teeth, watch Mickey, and go to bed (which she is now getting whiny about and runs from me when I mention it!)  Bath time is particularly amusing because she will drop everything and just take off running for the bathroom and then try to climb in fully dressed.  And she loves to read and be read to as the following video post illustrates!   I am also posting a very random photo of a rubber ducky made from balloons.  It is just so cute that I had to share it!  It was made for Callie by a balloon artist from Friendly's Kids Eat Free night. (Fine dining for us now.)  Callie doesn't get to play with it because she just tries to squeeze its head and pop it!

Callie Reading

I still need to update the blog with beach pictures, but in the meantime, here is a cute video I took today.  Callie loves to go to her room and "read" her books to herself.  She will stay in there babbling for 20 minutes or more.  Some books she is just not even in the mood to open and others she finds very exciting, as you will see.  She loves to make a huge pile around her and then wallow in it.  The spots on her legs and arms are mosquito bites.  She doesn't handle those very well yet.