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).

A Winter Cousin Reunion

As I write this blog entry, it is 75 degrees outside and feels more like a summer evening than a winter's night.  It is definitely an odd time to update the blog with more snow memories.  But picture of Callie and her cousins playing in the snow are cute no matter what the season or temperature.  Becky, Jon and the kids came up after Christmas this year and, after they spent some time in Williamsburg and after Jon flew back home, Callie and I picked them up and we all went to the lake for a week.  The first few pictures are of a quick outing to the aquarium that we went on a few days before heading to the lake, while Becky was still with the Schumachers.  They came to our house first and Brighton and Will immediately invaded Callie's playroom and took over all her toys.  She just watched from the side and wouldn't interact with them.  When Monday morning came, I asked Callie if she was ready to go pick up Will and Brighton and she shook her head vehemently and whined her little "no" sound.  But she quickly warmed up to them and missed them so much once the week together was over.  It snowed just an inch or so at the lake, but it was the perfect amount of snow for sledding as you will see.  We also celebrated Becky's 30th birthday, met up with our cousin and met their new little baby, went to the mall for a not so fun shopping spree with three whiny kids, visited Grannyroo and went on walks and "tractor" rides.  It was a great week full of squealing, tickling and chasing (the kids, not the adults!) and we all can't wait to get back together again.  

 One day these girls might be too scared to get right up in the face of this crocodile, but they weren't a bit afraid that day.

 Brighton's snowball eating had some rather nasty consequences later.  It wasn't always pure snow.  She seemed to prefer it to have leaves and dirt mixed in.

 This was how Callie preferred to be pulled back up the hill.  We called it "the injured skier" position.

 A big hug for Callie from Will.

Ready...Set...Go!  

Last time these girls were together, they looked like this...and they interacted but weren't quite best buds.

  

 Six months later, they really enjoyed being together and started what we hope to be a lifelong bond.  Brighton was very protective of Callie, holding her hand and shielding her from the wild, tickling Will-monster.  And Brighton regularly stated aloud that she loved Callie and even referred to me as her Callie-mommy.  Notice, in the bath picture, how different their skin tones are!

Here is a cute video of them chasing each other.  The growling noise is the garbage disposal.   When Callie started giggling, Brighton thought it meant it was time to chase each other.

 Grannyroo was having a very good day and enjoyed being near the girls.  Will has hit the stage of being frightened by older people and did not enjoy being there as much as his cousin and sister did.

Callie also learned a new skill at Nana and Papa's house.  She figured out that steps were best descended on her belly.  Brighton is at the bottom of the stairs playing with the light switch which explains why the light in this video keeps changing.