Lincoln City and Update

For Memorial Weekend Auntie Leslie invited Calleigh and I to Lincoln City for a little girls trip.  It was a lot of fun!  Leslie took us to all the fun places.  The Oregon Coast Aquarium.  Calleigh loved the seals and all the fish.  We stopped to see some crazy sea lions.  Spent some time on the beach playing and ate nummy food!  Such a beautiful place :)  Calleigh did great in the car.  It is close to a 6 hour drive so I was a bit worried.  Thanks Leslie for everything!  We will for sure have to go back!

Calleigh is doing great.  June 1st she turned 16 months!  She is so dang grown up these days.  Her favorite thing to say is "no" lately.  Ask her anything and she will shake her head no.  Even if you ask her if she is cute!    Books are still her favorite past time :)  She loves to find things in them.  Along with all the great stuff comes the not so fun stuff.  She is learning her limits (and mine.)  I am trying to teach Calleigh to take deep breaths when she gets upset instead of throwing a tantrum.  She has done it a few times with my coaxing.  I can honestly say that she is a good little girl.  She is very well behaved and listens most of the time.  But...she has also taught me what real patience is about.

2 weeks ago Ben and I started talking about when we were going to buck up and be totally done with the bottle.  Calleigh had no problem giving up every other bottle during the day except the 2-4 AM one.  Yes I know she is 16 months and maybe we should have done it a bit ago but we didn't for two reasons.  One she was going to sleep by 8:00 and would sleep until 6:30 (with the middle of the night bottle) That is a long time and we really thought she needed it.  Second, well you tell me how you feel at 3:00 AM!  It was just easier to give her a bottle and she would go right back to sleep.  But now it is time.  We started last night and it went pretty well.  She woke up twice and I was able to get her back to sleep with just rubbing her legs and back.  But them 5 AM came and she wanted none of that.  She didn't even want me to pick her up.  So after a bit of crying Ben came in to rock her.  She kept crying.  I tried a sippy cup and she pretty much threw it at me.  But we were not giving in.  It was not a great start to the day but I am proud to say we got through the first night!  Hopefully tonight goes even even better.

We are busy getting things ready for our trip to Hawaii at the end of this month.  Very excited but I am still a little nervous about the long plane ride with Calleigh.  But most excited to see Calleigh in her little flower girl's dress and for Melanie's wedding.  It will be a fun trip with a lot of relaxing time on the beach with great friends! 

After the Sharks

Oregon Coast Aquarium

Looking for the seals

She loved all the fish

Auntie Leslie & Calleigh

This guy obviously thinks he is top sea lion!

Just a random finger up the nose shot!

Going to the beach for the first time

She could have played for hours and hours

Cold water!

Building Sand Castles

My pretty little girl :)

All grown up!

Gorgeous!

May is here already!

Just some random pics of our Seattle trip.  We didn't take too many of anyone else because Calleigh is just so dang cute!  LOL 

She is growing up so much each day.  She has learned where her eyes, ears, mouth, etc are.  Even on the dogs.  She is saying lots of things these days too.  My favorite is when she points at the dogs and says "up" when they bark.  I guess she might have heard me tell the dogs to say "shut up" a few too many times.  Now anytime a dog makes a noise she tells them to "up."  Reading books is one of her favorite things to do these days.  She gets attached to one and we will read it at least 10 times a day!  Right now "Biscuit finds a friend" is her favorite.  She has a blast playing outside and the weather has been so nice.  She loves the bike trailer so we have been going on nice long bike rides each weekend.  She is just a really active and fun girl!

Ben, me and the weiners are doing good too.  Scooby and Phoebe are both happy the sun is back.  They spend the majority of the weekends outside sunbathing.  Ben, Calleigh and I will be going to Hawaii soon and we can't wait!  It will be the first long vacation Ben and I have ever had.  At first we were a little scared about taking Calleigh on the plane but I am sure she will be fine.  She is going to be a flower girl in a friends wedding and I cannot wait to see her in her little dress!

Calleigh and me at the Petrified Wood Place

Ben, Calleigh and some wood

At Green lake waiting for Mommy

Calleigh and Auntie Jessica

Calleigh with Cousin Chloe

Chasing the ducks at Green Lake

Learning how to throw rocks at Alki Beach

Green Lake

Calleigh and Grandma

Calleigh and Makayla (they had a little fight right before this) 

Calleigh looking at the Columbia River

Easter

We started off the Easter Weekend with dinner at Poppa Jim and Grandma Billie's house Saturday. They had a cute littel "hat basket" with goodies along with a new chair for Calleigh! She loves the chair! Daddy hid eggs out in Poppa's big back yard for Calleigh and Cousin Sydney to find. It was her first time searching for eggs and she did awesome. She was still looking it flower pots even after all the eggs had been found. After the hunt we stayed for Tacos and then headed home.

Easter morning Calleigh had to find her basket and the dogs had to find their toys that the Easter Bunny left for them. I made eggs in a nest for breakfast then we had another easter egg/dog treat hunt in the back yard. Scooby is a pro at the dog treat find. I have done it for him every year! Phoebe got the hang of it. Calleigh knew just what to do!

We finished off the day at Auntie Lis house and Calleigh did another egg hunt. By this time she was done. She was bored with it! Above are a few pictures of her Easter Hunt at our house and a few randoms from the last couple of weeks.

Big girl at the Dentist

Calleigh had her first dentist appointment last week. She was such a good girl! She walked in with her little purse all ready to get to it. She sat in the chair all by herself and let the doctor. look at her teeth. She got a new toothbrush, tons of stickers, a carebear figurine and tons of "oh my goodness aren't you just the cutest thing ever!" I swear every person stopped to see Calleigh and the doctor even wanted to kiss her. Very good time. I did not take a picture because I didn't want to seem like a weirdo! But now I wish I would have :( Daddy was getting his teeth cleaned too so then we went to visit him. His visit was not as fun and I don't think the hygienist gave him any sticker and told him how cute he was :)

Little Big Girl

Ok ok so I am not so good at updated this blog anymore or taking pictures. But the reason why is that Calleigh is on the move constantly. If I am not chasing her I am catching up on work, house work and sitting on my butt doing nothing! I am not complaining at all because she is at this great stage. She is a true joy to be around. Even when she is throwing a huge fit at the grocery store she is cute. Yes she had her first fit. I got through it don't worry. I cried she cried....we are past it and I am prepared for more!

I am so thankful for the weather being so nice in March. It gives me a little break. Ben takes Calleigh outside every night while I cook dinner. I know what you are thinking. Cooking dinner is a break? For me yes! I love to cook and I love it more when I am not distracted and I can try new things. It is my relax time each night.

So with the weather being nice and Calleigh playing outside more you are bound to see more injuries. Below you will notice a nice sore on her eyelid and nose. That was her first face plant on our driveway. She got another big scrape on her arm tonight from it. She also picked up a big handful of dirt and shoved it in her mouth. When I told Ben about it and how disgusted I was by it he said "oh yeah she did that the other day...she eats the dirt!" That just proves that my little princess is not girly princess. She knows what she wants and isn't afraid to get dirty getting it! I was a big tomboy and followed my dad everywhere when I was little. I suspect Calleigh will do the same.

Weird but she looks so much like her dad..and my dad here.

I love this little playboy shot. Daddy didn't like it so much!

Attack Daddy

Her favorite book right now is 10 little lady bugs. Thanks Sydney!

1 Year Photo Shoot

I am not sure what else to say about this little girl! Everyone says how beautiful she is and I try to remain modest. Not like I had anything to do with it anyway. But....look at this beauty! It is not only her stunning outside it is her unique "inside" that captures you. I am going to sound like every other mom out there when I say the following so just bare with me.

Calleigh is excelling at everything. I don't mean she can count to ten yet or that she has mastered the potty. I mean she is becoming herself and she is so comfortable with it. It is a new adventure everyday just to see what she discovers in life. We have one beautiful little girl

Well it came and went. Calleigh had her 1st Birthday and it was a great one! We had a little get together at Hubby's the night before. Her actually birtday we had a nice little dinner at home and she had a birthday cupcake!

At her 1 year doctors appointment she had to of course get some shots but the thing that made her the most mad was the head measuring. She hates things on her head. Her doctor of course told us what we already new she was going to say. Calleigh is underweight. She is almost 18 pounds and apparently for a 1 year old that puts her in the 5th percentile. Although she is skinny she has no problems eating. She is not picky just busy. My mom said the same thing about me when I was little. The doctor told me to give her pediasure. Which she does not like. So we just decided to keep going the way we have been. She is going to be slow at gaining weight but as long as she doesn't loose it I don't have a problem. She is a very healthy and active little girl!

If you didn't notice she is walking! She has been since the beginning of her 11th month but has really taking off these last 3 weeks. All she wants to do these days is play outside. She finally is saying "mama" again but only when she is upset about something. Otherwise everyone is "dada" She understands directions very well. She knows what no means and sometimes thinks it is funny. Especially when she walks over to the wine glasses, looks right at me, smiles and then bang! They make such a pretty sound! She is still going through the hitting mommy stage. Not as much as she use to but still enough that it hurts my feelings :( I know every mom gets this treatment. She is just testing her boundaries.

We think Calleigh is growing up to be such a beautiful, fun little girl. We are still enjoying every minute of this whole parenting thing (even when we think we are not!) It can be overwhelming and exhausting at times but it is all worth it. Especially when you get a big, wet open mouthed kiss! Those make it all worth it!

Her Birthday Cupcake

Her Birthday Party Cake

Num Num Yummy!

Before the cake

She is silly like Daddy!

Just out walking around

Checking out the neighborhood with Sister Dog

She looks so much like Ben these days

She likes to sit on the fireplace and play

She is a little skinny but tall