Callie is "Twooooo"!

If you ask Callie how old she is, she will enthusiastically answer, "Twoooo!"  She will also hold up her two pointer fingers or attempt to hold up just two fingers on one hand.  This is an improvement from the first few times we tried it and she would hold up eight fingers each time.  I don't think she understands what being two means but she definitely understood it was her special weekend.  She was deep into wrapping paper from Friday (her actual birthday) through Saturday and then enjoyed opening all her birthday cards on Sunday.  Saturday was the especially festive day.  We had a barnyard themed birthday party for her and invited a bunch of her little friends.  We had eight kids and about 12 adults crammed in the house Saturday morning.  It had rained the night before and it was cool so we decided to keep everything inside and it all worked out just fine.  The kids enjoyed exploring the house and playing with Callie's ridiculous amount of toys.  Callie enjoyed seeing people in her house, although I think she was a little confused about why they were all there at first.  We had BBQ (thanks to Grammy!) and pigs-in-a-blanket and animal cupcakes that I made and animal-shaped cookies that my friend Mary made.  We ended the party with a very messy art activity which the kids seemed to enjoy much more than the adults.  All the mommies had trouble understanding my relaxed attitude towards paint messes!  Callie was sad and exhausted while saying goodbye to everyone but she had a great nap and woke-up later to another big surprise -- Daddy had put her swing set up in the backyard during her nap!  She is really enjoying her new outside toy and I will enjoy it much more when it is not covered in yellow pollen every day!  Callie is, so far, a pretty composed two year old.  No major terrible two moments yet (knock on wood!).  Here are some pictures of the fun weekend!  My parents weren't able to join us but Grammy, Grampy and Aunt Missy were there.  We just said a tearful goodbye this morning to Missy.  She is off to her new life and new baby (puppy) in Indianapolis.  We were glad that she was able to stick around for the party and we will miss her terribly!  I will post wedding pictures once I finally have a chance to sift through them all.

I spent an embarrassing amount of time online shopping for these balloons!  But they were worth it!

Mrs. Potato Head

 A football, emphasis on the word "foot".  She is trying to figure out why it is called that.

 Finally!  The present she had been snooping around and begging for since I bought it at a consignment sale --The Wonder Pets!

 A tiara from Aunt Missy

 ...and now for the big box!  Mommy's proud consignment shop find!  A village complete with a house, church, coffee shop and tons of people, plants and cars...all for just $30!

 Little Mermaid slippers from Grammy and Grampy!

 A princess soccer ball (we bought a lot of sports and outside toys this year.)

 Demonstrating for everyone how she says her prayers.

 A big girl basketball goal!  Pink and purple, of course!

 Time for the party...

Sara finally got a chance to wear the random costume that her Grandmother sent her.

The farmyard cake.  My first attempt at artsy cupcakes.  A lot of planning and sketching went into these!

 Pigs, sheep, purple cows and chickens.

 My friend Mary made these yummy cookies.

Callie got a new barn and animals for her birthday as well.

 What is happening???  Why are all these people in my house?

The balloons were a good source of amusement.

 My kitchen staff was a life saver!

 Callie's basketball goal was popular.

Callie stole away to her room and played by herself in true only-child fashion!

Matt stole away to his room and got out the "boy toys" for Matti and Noah.  We will have to invite them back to play with Matt and his action figures more often!  

The birthday girl is ready for her cupcake and birthday song!  (She also enjoyed some birthday Doritos for lunch!)

Digging right in this year!

 Playing with her horse cookie.

Noticing that other kids have different cookies and cupcakes.

"Maaamma, Maaaamma, Maaaamma" -- begging for what she didn't get!

Art Time!

Callie had no reservations about making a huge mess.

She was very sad to see everyone leave.

This is her special friend, Sara.  She reminds us so much of Brighton in her looks and her goofy personality.

The aftermath...

An empty and quiet house during nap time but...Daddy was putting together the swing set so more fun was in store!

Callie's reaction to seeing it for the first time.

Grampy got her a Clifford swing like they have at Tumbles.

 What a fun birthday!  She also got a trike from Nana and Papa, but I will save those pictures for another day!

A Smiling and Tumbling Tornado

Most of weekly fun this winter has taken place at J.W. Tumbles, a children's gym near our house.  We joined shortly after the holidays thanks to generous donations from both sets of grandparents to cover tuition and joining fees.  Callie attends a "Wigglers" class there on Thursday mornings and also goes to at least one open gym a week.  She LOVES it!  I researched and asked around for a few weeks to try and find the perfect place for her to get some of her energy out during the cold months.  One visit to Tumbles and I knew we were in the right place.  She could barely wait to get her shoes off when we walked in the door.  Over the last six weeks or so, I have noticed many positive results from the physical and social opportunities that this place offers.  And, surprisingly, she has gone this long sharing slides and germs with other kids and hasn't had a bad cold yet.  Another apparent love for Callie this winter is shoes.  Well, I guess this isn't new, as I reported last spring, when she was dancing around and showing off her new shoes.  But now she can say the word shoe and she does so OVER and OVER in the stores.  She says the word with a very prolonged "sh" sound at the end.  She loves to try them on and loves throwing them in the cart if we are in a super store.  Just last night we were in Rack Room with Aunt Missy, trying to find some shoes for the wedding weekend.  I tried on practically every pair in the store while poor Michelle chased a hysterically happy and extremely destructive toddler around the store.  Occasionally I would see a little blur and hear a high pitched squeal as she ran passed my aisle, wearing shoes on her hand and pulling boxes off the shelf as she went.  I am not sure the employees of Rack Room thought she was as cute as the trainers and Tumbles do.  Here are some pictures of Callie at Tumbles.  Incidentally, she is also getting a reputation for always traveling with a posse because Grampy, Missy or Daddy are usually in tagging along to watch her in action.  (in addition to Mommy, of course!)

Singing during circle time with "shaky eggs".

There are several slides and she runs back and forth between all of them.  She just this week conquered the large climber with the high, bumpy slide.  Now she is a pro at all of them!

When she isn't on the equipment, she runs in circles and squeals.  I am regularly asked if she ever stops smiling or if she is always that happy.

She loves the zip line but hasn't tried the rock climbing wall yet.

She doesn't really like to sit still for circle time but she is always the first one wanting to try the skill of the week.  This week it was flipping.  And, as you can see, she liked it!  This is her face after landing.

She is also getting a lot of interaction with kids her age and older.  The older kids enjoy her because she always follows them around and laughs at everything they do.  One day she was literally being tugged in three directions by older kids wanting her attention.  We do, however, have a little problem sharing balls.  She seems to think they are all there for her and will just walk up and take them away from other kids.  She likes to drop them all in this blue tube and she won't stop until they are all in there.

The trainers set up a new obstacle during each class like scaling walls, or running and jumping.

Callie's absolute favorite time of each class is when they get out the swings.  When she sees the trainers enter the closet to get them, Callie will run over to the area where the swings are attached to chains hanging from the ceiling and she will point and direct the trainers on where to hang them.  She always has to be the first one in a swing and she doesn't want to stop until it is time to put them away.

She enjoys Mr. Crab (the ball pit) a little but once the puzzles and books come out she could care less about the other toys.  Her books and puzzles are definitely her favorite things to do at home.

Winter Wrap-Up

Well it is definitely spring here and it is about time to finish up blogging about our winter events.  Michelle gets married in a week so there will be a whole lot of photos to share after that.  The only other family events that I haven't posted pictures of are our "Christmas" with Pa and the Spiers/Lastovica side of the family and Steve's (Grampy's) birthday.  Those two events coincided this year.  We celebrated Christmas with that side of the family and his birthday at the end of January.  Here are some pictures from that weekend and then many more from other things that we did or that happened in the last two months.

Callie helped Pa open his presents from us and he helped her open her presents from him.

Callie got to try on a pair of antlers and I got a very detailed description of how those antlers were removed from the deer and how the remaining scalp is dried to prevent it from smelling and then how the skin is sewn up and attached to the plaque.  Pa repeated commented that he thought I would be good at that particular skill!

Yep, that is one exciting birthday party!

Callie helped Grampy open his presents too, but I think she was usually disappointed in what they turned out to be!

 Her "stinker" face!  This expression means, "I know I have Grampy wrapped around my finger!"


And here are some of the random photos...

As if she didn't resemble Daddy enough, this particular morning I caught her sitting in his chair, wearing his hat and, of course, watching TV!  That's Daddy's girl!

Callie's hair is so long now and I would love to put it up in cute do's all the time but she won't sit still for much.  This particular day I was able to braid it for the first time!  Hopefully, there will be many more braids to come!


For about a week, her favorite activity was playing librarian.  She would beg for me to put the side of her crib down and then she would spend about 30 minutes throwing books over the rail.  Once she was satisfied with the pile, she would ask to be put in the crib with the books and then she would sit on the pile and read her pile of "ocks" [how she says books]  for a long, long time!  It was a nice break for me but the clean-up was a little annoying!

Callie loves any restaurant that serves fries but she especially loves going to Friendly's on Tuesday night for Kid's Night.  She gets to eat free and most weeks her "boyfriend" Ryan, the balloon guy, is there.  This particular night he made her three balloon sculptures because she kept smiling and making animal noises at him.  He could barely get through sculpting the monkey because her monkey impersonation was making him laugh so hard.  She remembered the ducky that he made her on a previous visit and so she looked right at him and quacked until he made her another!  She is already planning on asking for an elephant next time.  We went one night and he wasn't there and she kept looking at the place he usually sets up and doing her elephant sound and arm (trunk) motion.  She was very disappointed that he wasn't there.

I put this picture in here just for Janice.  I wanted her to see how I used the snowflakes she made me to decorate our mantel for January and February.  It worked too, we got lots of great snow!

Callie also got her first official hair-cut recently.  It was just a little bang trim but I wanted to make sure they were professionally cut before the wedding.

Whew, that was a lot of catching up!  We had such a fun winter that Callie still begs to put on her snow pants, even when it is warm outside.  (She also spends a lot of time in her Tigger costume from Halloween).