Zippity Do Da!!!

Well, as usual for Fall and football season, we have been zipping in and out of town a lot.  Besides just going to games, we have been able to spend time in Richmond with Mimi and Yoo-Hoo and Nana and Papa.  My dad had a conference and Richmond that coincided with Dreama's birthday and a baby shower for my cousin, Katie.  So one extended weekend was spent celebrating and attending all those various events.  That was also the grand opening of what I am now tagging as "Zippity Yoo-Hoo Adventure Land".  Yoo-Hoo unveiled his latest invention -- a zip line across the backyard for Callie!  Callie loves it and woke up one morning while we were there and the first thing out of her mouth was "Car go fast."  I couldn't figure out what she was referring to, thinking she wanted to go somewhere, but finally realized she was asking to go out on her zipline because the swing attached to it looks like a car.  Again, like the slide that Papa built for the grandkids at the lake, this zip line is not adult friendly and even though I thoroughly enjoy watching Callie ride on it, I have to admit that I am a tad jealous!

Other weekend travels included a trip to Bburg for a game that Michelle was able to drive in for.  Callie enjoyed that weekend especially because Aunt Missy brought her dog, Wrigley, with her.  Callie and Wrigley loved chasing each other around Ma-maws house.  It was the weekend of dogs because Callie also got to see new born puppies that her favorite "mountain" dog, Princess Penny (our name for her) had just given birth to the week before.  And speaking of giving birth, Callie and I also drove to Roanoke that weekend for a baby shower for my cousin Ashley who is due to pop later this month.  It was great to be around some Worley's again.

Ready?

Set?

 Here she goes!

Yoo-Hoo gets his exercise because he has to run after her and hold the rope so that she slows down before hitting the fence on the other side.

 Then, he pulls her back across the yard and they start all over again!  Usually, Yoo-Hoo is dripping with sweat by the time Callie finally gives him permission to stop.

Going backwards slowly is not nearly as fun, apparently!

Still pictures just don't do it justice so here is a video as well:

Puppies!!!  If anyone reading this wants a good mutt (Shepherd-Dauchtsung Mix) these little guys will need good homes very soon.  And their momma is precious too!

 Cousin Ashley and baby Everly (in belly)

 A bunch of Worley-Girls!

 And...a more natural pose.

While at the shower, Callie got some Nana time but a whole lotta Papa time because he kept her occupied in the church playground for hours!

Today, a T-Rex, Tomorrow a Princess, but Always a Fun-Loving Little Angel!

Here is a collection of random events this fall and my update on Callie's favorite things as of late.  She still loves Mickey and she still loves Princess things but she now loves dinosaurs more than either, I think.  She sleeps with a very pointy and hard plastic triceratops toy that she named Sara.  She also has a new stuffed bear she named Fluffy and even more recently has rediscovered her Snoopy stuffed animal.  Her pacifiers are still her favorite things to hold in bed, unfortunately.  We haven't been successful of ridding her of those yet.  Besides watching dinosaur shows, Callie loves to wrestle or "eccercise" with Daddy and they take turns being a t-rex and triceratops.  Callie also loves to play hide and seek.  She counts only to two or three (but in her special number language) and then slurs out "ready not!  Here-a-come!" and so Matt and I have learned to be very fast hiders.  When it is her turn, we still have to pretend to not find her for a while but she is branching out into new hiding spots and finally getting the idea that a good place to hide is not where Mommy or Daddy just hid the time before.  Sometimes she gets very creative and sometimes she almost scares us because she hid too well.  Callie's verbal skills are improving daily and she can say almost anything she wants to now, it just isn't always understood by everyone but Mommy.  I seem to have the "gift of Callie tongues" if you want to put it in Biblical terms or you could say I speak "toddler-tongue" if you prefer a Harry Potter reference.  Either way you put it, I am the only one who understands her 95% of the time, but that is probably a normal mommy thing.  She is picking up all kinds of saying from us, TV and other kids and is constantly surprising us with new sayings.  She is also mimicking us and repeating things we say when we didn't even think she was listening, so we are having to be much more careful of what we say.  She is getting quite bold in her comments too.  One day she told Mimi to "hop to it" when she was running into the grocery store while the rest of us waited in the car.  She regularly tells me that I am a "silly mommy", and I don't know where she gets that from because I haven't been silly a day in my life ;)  Last night she amused us by yelling "yikes" over and over when Matt was chasing her.  And then, later that evening, she responded to his nagging of her to eat more of her dinner with "all right, all right!" in a very teenager tone.  But the best is that she is learning to say "I love you" or "I wuuv ooo" and no matter how it comes out, she melts us every time!

 Our little Callie Mae, looking very Ellie Mae Clampitt-esque in her hat and pig tails.

 Callie loves to play with binoculars, both real and toy ones.  Sometimes she takes them with her in the car and looks at other cars through them.  Thank God for tinted windows.  I just sit there laughing as she yells, "Ook, Mommy, a car!" and points to a car right next to us as we sit in traffic.

 One of her recent clever hiding spots!

 Daddy didn't fit as well.

 But he did fit under the bed pretty well!  (Notice the beer!  Nothing like opening up a cold one and squeezing under a bed after a hard day of work!)

Callie had no trouble finding him!

 Her old gym closed down but she is now enjoying a membership at the Little Gym thanks to Mimi and Yoo-Hoo.  They are much more gymnastics oriented and she is learning a lot of new skills.

 She likes to try out her new skills at home.  Fortunately, one thing they teach is how to land properly after jumping off objects.  Callie's preferred method is to land flat on her bottom which will hurt a lot more once she is out of diapers!

 These pictures were taken during a drizzly Sunday afternoon Pa visit for his birthday.

 Callie loves to go across the street to play with Savannah and Savannah needs the exercise!

 Helping Pa with his lotto scratchers.

 Callie loves to play dress-up now and is even trying to put some things on by herself.  She also likes to take her clothes off which means we are surprised by a little streaker at times.  This princess outfit has been passed on to Callie's friend, Sara and is her new favorite thing to wear.

This is Callie's t-rex outfit.  I think it is supposed to be a dragon.  It is an after-Halloween bargain from Mimi 

 Speaking of Callie's friend Sara, she and Callie have had some fun times together recently.  One of those times was a dress-up play date at our house.  This is what it looks like when a tiger and a t-rex try to hug.

 Callie greeted Sara at the front door by pointing at her and demanding, "Tiger".  But Callie did allow Sara to wear some other costumes too!

 Another fun time with Sara was when we took them both to see Elmo Live!  They loved the first half and then both broke down and cried or whined so much for the second half that we left early.  But the tickets were a gift from someone at Matt's gym so it was a fun outing.

If you ask Callie who her best friend is, she will say Sara.  They hug each other regularly and always have a great time.  We are blessed to have such good friends here.  They aren't easy to come by, that's for sure!  Incidentally, Mary and I get along pretty good too!  We don't share princess costumes, though.

And finally, Callie LOVES her cats, as usual.  But they love her more and more everyday.  I think I have mentioned before that Ollie meows outside her bedroom door when she is sleeping because he misses her and wants her to get up.  We call him "the rooster".  And even Chester is sitting still long enough for her to hug him now and then.  The other day, she told me she wanted her diaper off and said that she wanted to go potty in the litter box with Chester (or "Hecker").  I guess that is always an option if I can't convince her to go on the actual potty!

Safe and Sound in South Carolina

I am still back-blogging and I am determined to keep things in order because it makes it so much easier for me when I go back and make my blog books at the end of the year.  So everyone will just have to SUFFER through reliving our vacation to North Myrtle Beach in late August.  There was a little scheduling "mix-up" that resulted in Mimi and Yoo-Hoo having two weeks in a row at their condo (or should I say, "Callie's Beeps [Beach] House" because that is she calls it!).  So, Callie, Mimi, Yoo-Hoo and I went down for the entire two weeks.  It was so relaxing to know that we didn't have to rush to do anything and it was also very nice to not have to sadly count down the days.  It was just the four of us for most of the first week and then Matt picked Michelle up at the Richmond Airport and they drove down and joined us on Saturday.  Scott flew in a few days later and then we finally got to enjoy a few days of everyone being together before a VERY chaotic end to the vacation.  Overall, it was a great time.  The weather was perfect (besides the hurricane!) and it wasn't crowded because most schools had started back by then.  We did miss experiencing our first significant earthquake, which Matt was disappointed about.  There was a big one in Virginia that had several aftershocks with it and people felt it from Giles to Virginia Beach and up and down into other states.  But we didn't miss all the natural disasters.  Hurricane Irene came rolling in on the second Friday.  We were safer in SC so we stayed put and watched it from our perch on the 5th floor.  It was scary at times, mostly because of the wind, but it wasn't nearly as bad as what Matt experienced in Richmond (he had gone back early for his Fantasy Football Draft) or as what Pa experienced in Carson.  Those parts of Virginia had a lot of tree damage.  The hurricane also resulted in a very difficult journey home for Michelle and Scott.  Their flight out of Myrtle was canceled and they had to rent a car and drive straight through to Chicago to pick up their car before going home to Indy.  But everyone made it home safe and with no damage from the storm or earthquake.  We fully expected to return home to a week without power but our neighbor said it didn't even flicker once.  I was so happy to come home to a normal house after two weeks away.  

 This is the entrance to one of those cheapy beach stores that Callie loved!  We had to stop and get our picture made with it BEFORE Aunt Missy arrived because she has a little phobia of "big" things.

 Daddy and Aunt Missy arrived during naptime and Callie enjoyed that surprise very much!  

This year, Callie slept on her very own air mattress on the floor.  She decided she was done with crib confinement just weeks before this vacation so she now has this princess bed for her visits with Mimi and Yoo-Hoo.  Not that she always slept ON the bed...

 The Mall down the street from the condo had a train.  Callie got to ride it many times because we love the Belk in that mall!

 Callie loved driving around and looking at all the restaurants and putt-putt places, this year.  She always knew when we were about to pass a giant crab, shark, pirate ship or plane.  Her favorite was this dinosaur putt-putt place and so we took her one VERY HOT morning to play her first game of vacation miniature golf.  She lasted one hole and then spent the rest of the time trying to climb, run or sneak to where ever there was a dinosaur.

 She loved the colored water and thought it was hilarious to throw her ball in it.

Callie was her normal mermaid self.  She loved the hot tub and made Yoo-Hoo chase her in and out of it, alternating with dips in the cool pool water.

 She really enjoyed the waves this year and was able to be a tiny bit more independent in them because of her life jacket.

 The life-jacket also provided us with handles with which to catch her!

 Poor Uncle Scott had knee surgery the week before coming to the beach so he wasn't able to frolic in the waves or the pool.

 Callie got her first official princess dress-up costume.  She loved it, needless to say.  Mimi kept her very occupied with countless gifts and surprises!

She now thinks every dress is a princess dress.  When I put on a dress to go out on a "date" with Matt one night, she even called me a Princess!

 Her great-grandmother, Beulah Mae, would have loved Callie Mae's "earbobs"!

 Callie "helped" us work a puzzle.  She would force pieces together and cheer or hand one piece after another to me and ask where it went, expecting that I would find its spot immediately.

 She got to put the last piece in so that she could feel like she did the whole thing.

 That lobster claw turned out to be a her favorite toy!

 Callie got plenty of snuggles!

 She also got to compare boo-boos with Uncle Scott...

 ...and they both got a little work done.

 More snuggles...

 And then the bright skies turned dark and the wind got scary!

 I think I am ready to join Jim Cantore and the weather channel team.

 The water ended up covering the entire beach.

 These guys thought it would be fun to ride some waves.  They literally lasted five minutes before realizing it was a stupid idea.

 We all enjoyed some treasure hunting the next morning.  I naively dressed Callie in something other than a swimsuit since it was chilly.  But that didn't stop her from throwing herself into a little tide pool for a swim.

That's my water-baby!