Christmas Presents areStill Here

Callie has been working on opening her last Christmas present for several days. It is a car seat, and we just haven't gotten to installing it in the car yet, or even unwrapping it. So Callie has decided to help us out. Now that Christmas is over, she is showing an interesting in opening presents. A little more paper is taken off every day. I think I am going to give in and take the rest off today so I can install it as the old car seat it getting a little difficult to buckle.

Balls, balls and more balls!

Callie LOVES balls of all sizes. So we bought her 250 ball pit balls for Christmas. Tonight was the first time she was able to play with more than about 5 of them at a time. When they were first poured out, her eyes opened wide. After that, as is the usual Callie fashion, she had to move the balls from where they were to a new place. When they were on the floor, she just threw them, but as we started putting them in the basket, she helped empty the basket.
Here is the link the the video of her playing with all her balls.

Fun Times

We have recently discovered the Tacoma Children's Museum. Although Callie is too little more most of the stuff, it is a pretty cool place. And free is you check out the pass from the library :)
On one of our recent visits, Callie fell in love with the baby in the mirror.

Hello there!

Just who are you?

I think I will kiss you!

Crazy things happen when Dad is in charge of bath time. As in we go through the soap much faster. Dad's philosophy is the more bubbles the better. And Callie doesn't seem to mind at all.

All things Christmas

Not that Callie is old enough tell us, but I think she would descide December as her favorite time of the year. All because there are these amazing things called Christmas Lights. And yes, we have found just about every set of lights in close distance to take her to, and have a few more planned. It started with the Tree Lighting Ceremony at the Piazza in Renton. We were going to try and see Santa there, but while waiting in line, she quickly went from happy to exhausted, as is often the case. There is no warning that she is about to become seriously cranky because she needs to go to sleep, it just happens. Usually it is around bedtime, but sometimes she mixes it up and crashes way earlier. None the less, she had a great time at her first Christmas light experience.

Just smiling at all the lights.
Callie loved that ball thing. She starred and starred at it.
The three of us.

"Helping" put the candy canes on the tree. She has not shown any interest in our tree, but loves taking the ornaments off Grandma and Grandpa's tree. I think this is because she rarely plays in our living room.

Zoolights was also a success. Not only were there lights, but there were also all the cool animals in the aquarium to see. Her octopus friend, which is her favorite animal in the aquarium as far as we can tell, was even out and moving.

Candy Cane Lane was the most successful so far. Could also be that it was the last one we have done. But she was pointing at all the lights and saying "Ha dat" over and over.

She also loves the lights on our house. When we come home, she stares at them. As we walk up onto the front porch, she keeps looking up and eventually is laying backwards trying to look behind her. It is pretty funny looking. She doesn't quite realize that it might be easier to turn her head around rather than keep leaning backwards.
We still have a few more Christmas Light trips in mind. We plan to go to Clam Lights at Coulon, and just might have to take Lindsay to Zoolights when she is here.

Screaming!

The other day on the car ride home, Callie discovered that she could scream. So she continued to happily test out her new found screaming skills the rest of the way to swimming lessons. I got to enjoy her screams from Federal Way all the way to the Y on Pearl (which is off of Highway 16), and traffic was bad, so there was a lot of screaming. It took us a few days to be able to catch a scream on video. We swear she knows what the camera is and will stop doing what ever it is we want to catch on video as soon as the thing comes out.




Her other new skills include fake coughing and nodding her head yes. The coughing started out in imitation to someone else, and for about a month now she has continued to fake cough on her own. She also started nodding her head about a month ago, and at that time we didn't think it meant anything. Now we think it means something along the lines of "Yes" and "Yes, I want more!" When she is in the high chair, if the food doesn't come fast enough, there is some very violent head nodding until she gets the first bite. The other day, Grandpa would tell her "no" as she started towards the Christmas tree. She would stop long enough to look at him, nod her head yes, and then proceed directly to the tree to grab ornaments. When I came to pick her up, he said "She was stubborn today."

SNOW!!!

Making us very happy, we discovered Callie likes the snow. The weather was icky, so I got to come home early and we headed out to play in the snow. We tested out the "Baby Boggan" and there were no tears. No smiles either, but that is standard with anything new. It is as if she needs to take it all in before she can smile and just enjoy it.

Riding along in the "baby boggan" watching the kids throwing snowballs.
Just too cute!
What is this stuff?
Still enthralled by the kids throwing snowballs. Guess I know what we are in for in a few years.

Pumpkins!

Callie had so much fun that we just had to go back to the pumpkin patch, and this time we took along Dad, Grandma and Grandpa. Even though it was raining, Callie enjoyed it as much as the first time, and the adults had a pretty good time too. I think Callie's favorite part about pumpkins is standing and hitting them. We think her "hitting" is a sign of affection, or at least happiness. She only hits things when she is happy, and when she hits something, she hits it over and over and over. This time we bought some pumpkins to carve.
After much careful deliberation about which pumpkin Callie would be able to stand in, we picked a big one and a smaller one. We also purchased and assortment of small gourds for Callie to play with. She loves all the different textures. The bumpiest one is her favorite. And on the way out, of course Grandpa and Dad had to try their skills at the pumpkin sling shot. Needless to say, they did not win another pumpkin, even with multiple attempts.

And then the pumpkin carving began! Callie was in just a diaper (and yes, we know it is a little too small and looks a little bit like a string bikini, but it was all we had for disposables, and washing a cloth diaper covered in pumpkin guts just didn't sound like fun) and we let the good, messy times begin. We quickly realized that Callie did not like cold pumpkin guts but as soon as they warmed up she was all about feeling them. She enjoyed the ice cream scoop that we were using to scoop out the guts most of all. Now it was the part we had all been waiting for, putting Callie in the pumpkin. We had already learned our lesson about cold pumpkins, so Mike put some warm water in it for a few minutes, then dumped it out the the bottom wasn't so cold. She stood in the pumpkin for about 15 minutes having a blast. Then she decided to sit down. Not only was the pumpkin not big enough for her to sit down, we had only warmed up the bottom of it. As soon as her back touched the inside of the pumpkin, she started crying. Stood up, and tried it again. Still that cold pumpkin touched her back, and at this point she was really crying. We stopped laughing long enough to get her out of the pumpkin, fill it up all the way with warm water, and give it another try. She still couldn't sit down, but was happy to squat and chew on the edge of the pumpkin.
Standing in a pumpkin is pretty cool.
Not so sure about trying to sit.

I'm sure now, I don't like this.

Fall is FUN!

Our weekends have quickly gotten REALLY busy. And Callie is loving it! We are back into swim lessons. And of course the class we got into was Saturdays at 11:30. Right in the middle of the day. I was worried about how it would affect our day, and so far it is working well. She still loves to swim, and class seems to be even better than just swimming with Mom and Dad.

We have still been able to visit the park regularly. Now that it isn't hot, the park isn't so crowded. Callie got to play with the water features at the spray ground.

Last weekend we took Callie to the Puyallup Fair. I don't know which she enjoyed more, looking at the animals or looking at the rides. The rids had lights, so I think they may have won. The whole time she had her serious, intent look on her face. The look when she is taking the world in. I don't think we had a smile the whole time. But non the less, she had a blast.

Looking at the goats.

This weekend Callie and I went to visit a farm on Saturday. Mike had to work, so it was a girls day. Callie spent over twenty minutes standing at the pumpkins and feeling them. A few more smiles with the pumpkins, but mostly the serious, taking the world in look.

Feeling all the different textures of all the pumpkins and gourds was very enthralling.

A pumpkin for each hand!

This pumpkin was serious business! She kept going back and worth between the pumpkin and the corn. Both held her attention for a while. Until she tried to chew on the pumpkin stem and I decided it was time to move on.

To a New Week

So this was not the best week in the Krisel household. It started with me getting the flue Monday evening and was quickly followed by Callie getting it in the middle of the night on Monday. Needles to say, we spent most of Tuesday on the couch sleeping. And a good portion of Wednesday too. We were on the road to recovery in time for Mike to get it on Thursday. And then we were all so kind as to pass it onto Grandma Mary who was watching Callie this week. And she shared with Grandpa Stu. We thought Callie was better, so we were off to a new session of swimming lessons when she got sick in the car. And then a really long night on Saturday that had us a little nervous. She hadn't had a wet diaper in over 12 hours, but the nurse line said as long as she wasn't throwing up or having diarrhea, she would be fine until the morning. And then she threw up...a lot. But she also had a wet diaper, so our stress level went down. We did continue giving her pedalite in a medicine dropper because she won't swallow it otherwise. Every 20 minutes. Good for her, bad for my sleep. Fortunately she was a very a happy girl when she woke up on Sunday and was full of energy and wet diapers, so she did not need to go into the doctors. Crossing our fingers that she is really better this time.
All this happened in a week I really should not have missed at school. We needed to move kids into new classrooms because there are too many 1st graders. Starting Monday, I will be teaching a 1/2 split, which means I had a little bit of work to do. And it didn't happen. So I went in on Saturday and will be putting in some late nights this week.
So here's to a new week. I know it is going to be a good one!

Our Little Explorer

Exploring the World-Also Know as Our Backyard

A while ago we bought Callie a used "swing set." There is a slide, a swing, and a little fortress with a steering wheel. So far, the primary use has been as a place to quickly put her (and confine her) when we eat outside. She likes the swing, but it isn't near as cool as the swing at the park. Tonight Mike out her in the fortress standing up and she had a blast. She hung out in there for over 30 minutes.Callie is going places. She loved playing with the steering wheel and even chewed on it a few times. Her balance has greatly improved as she was able to move the steering wheel and hold on with one hand at a time.

Here she is legitimately trying to climb up the steps.

Then we decided to help her out a little. And it was just too cute not to take a picture.

We walked over to the park. The spray ground isn't turned off yet, so Mike got it going and explored it with Callie. She was fascinated with the water.
Mike took her to a jet that shoots water from the ground. It is a little more forceful than the previous one. I missed the first time she reached out an touched it and both her and Mike jumped backwards. So this is the second time, but still a good expression.

Right before she touched the water

And she felt it again!

Our last adventure for the night was having Callie "walk." We just discovered that she is able to take "steps" with us holding her hands. Three by herself, lots initiated by us leaning just a little to get her started. Here are the three steps.

And then Callie fell apart because she was exhausted from all this exploring and it was time to go home and go to bed.

Eating is MESSY!

Callie started eating solids (or purees to be more exact) about a month ago. She was not to interested for a while and would only eat about 2 bites. Now she has decided food is good and loves it. She is no longer passive in the eating process. She will grab the spoon and pull it towards her mouth when she is ready to eat. Often this is accompanied by her leaning forward to get the food into her mouth faster. Sometimes she is so eager to eat, that she grabs the food, not the handle of the spoon. She has not mastered getting the whole spoon in her mouth before she closed her mouth, so the back half of the spoon if left out, leading to any food that is there falling off most of the time. Then there is something new on the highchair tray, so she must feel this to investigate it. Now there is food everywhere, but she is happy and starting to learn to eat.
We have also been introducing a sippy cup with water. I don't know how much she has actually drank from the sippy cup, but she loves to chew on it. All parts of it. The nubby part where she is supposed to drink from, the handles, the bottom, the corner of the lid, or any other place she can find.

First Vacation

We flew to LA to visit Lindsay and Callie was such a trooper. She loved the plane ride. So many people to look at and then she just stared out the window during landing. Even though our flight back didn't land until 10:00, she was wide awake almost the whole time. But she was happy, squealing and playing the whole time.








Callie also had her first trip to the beach. The first thing she did was grab a handful of sand and put it in her mouth, which she did not like. She also did not like us trying to wipe the sand off if her face. Once we got the sand out of her mouth, she decided warm sand was pretty cool. She kept running her hands through the sand and picking it up. But she learned her lesson and never put it in her mouth again. The water was still pretty cool, so we just dipped her feet in, and didn't get much of a reaction. There were showers at the beach, and we had totally slathered her up in sunscreen, so we went to wash her off. She did NOT like the cold shower at all. But it was entertaining for the people around to watch. She got lots of laughs.




















We stopped at Sprinkles on the way back for some cupcakes. Even though Callie didn't get to eat any of the cupcakes, she sure was excited about them. If you notice Mike is holding on to her arms for dear life because she was reaching for the cupcake and already had gotten some frosting! She is definitely eager to try one. It may be hard for her to wait another 6 months until her first birthday.

Callie's favorite part of the vacation may have been the Long Beach Aquarium. She stared at all the fish and animals in the tanks. She loved it so much that we now have a membership to Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium.The first tank we looked at.
With Lindsay and the Jellyfish.
Trying to eat the Jellyfish. It is a good thing she couldn't reach them!
Pure amazement at all the fish.
There was no way we were going to get her attention for a
picture when there was sea life to look at and admire.

And lastly, some random pictures while we were relaxing around the beach and hotel.