Weekend Wrap-Up

Another busy weekend is coming to a close.

Fall is definitely in the air.

Winter is definitely around the corner.

Which means so is the big 2-Year-Old Birthday.

I found myself answering the "How old is she?" question a lot this weekend.  And the fact that every time I said, "She's almost 2" or "She'll be 2 in December" makes me a little crazy. 

Once again, I ask, HOW DID THAT HAPPEN???

Anyway, we had a really fun weekend. 

Friday
I took Friday off because Chris' cousin Sarah was getting married so we had another wedding (3rd wedding in a month!) to go to in Mankato.  Before we left I spent the morning keeping Callie busy and getting her tired in hopes that she would sleep the whole car ride.  We went to Southdale and rode in the Choo-Choo.  It was a hit, despite how she looks in the picture.

And it was successful because she slept the whole 1.5 hour car ride.  Whew.

The wedding was so much fun, and went MUCH smoother than the rigamaroll Callie put us through at the last wedding from a couple of weeks ago.  Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for the help so we could enjoy more of the festivities without chasing a crazy one around every second. :)

Wakelyn likes the pretty new dress!

Family

The happy couple

Dancing with Mommy

Dancing with Seamus

Dancing with Grandma and Grandpa

As you can see, Callie was a dancing machine and made it til about 8:20 (1 hour and 20 minutes later than the previous wedding) before Daddy put her to bed.  Mommy got to stay and dance with the Gosselins.

A fun time was had by all!

Saturday
Callie actually slept til a little after 7am (awesome) so after breakfast we went swimming with Grandma and Grandpa before heading home.

We had an uneventful trip home, followed by a good 2+ hour nap.  After the nap, Callie was getting pretty stinky with lots of "tooties" so I offered her the chance to sit on the potty-chair again, and she actually agreed to do it.  It has been a few weeks since she has even considered it, so I jumped at the chance to give her an opportunity for potty-chair success (plus, I'd rather have her poop in the potty than deal with an Auntie-reserved blowout!).  So...she sat.  And she sat.  And she sat.  And she sat.  And she read books.  And she played with Mommy's toiletries.  And she sat.  For 40 MINUTES.  Yes, you read that right.  Our active little almost-2-year-old sat still on the potty-chair for 40 minutes while waiting to poop.  And, after 40 minutes, poop she did.  I'll leave it at that, and say that she definitely deserved her Oreo Cookie.

Saturday night we headed to the condo for dinner with our dear friends the Suurmeyers.  Dinner was delicious (thanks Boom!), as was the chocolate cake (thanks Suurmeyers!).  I did a bad job of taking pictures, but managed to snap one during dessert.

Sunday
This morning we went to church with Andy, Jenna and Charlie, and then headed out for lunch after the service.

Those two are something else. We are excited that Charlie is going to get a little brother or sister in mid-May, so Callie will have another little Held to play with!

Tonight we stopped by Grandma and Grandpa's house for a little bit to get a change of scenery after naptime.  Callie and Auntie Cat read one of Callie's most favorite books together.  We've seen them read it a few times before, and it is so adorable so I couldn't resist getting it on film.


That's about it for the weekend wrap-up.  I've been waiting for over a week to hear baby news from my friend Casey, who was due with Ciri's little brother or sister on November 4th.  As far as I know, still no baby, but I am anxiously awaiting the news!

Cousins and Aunties

Callie may not have any first cousins, but she has a lot of second and third cousins!  She got to see a couple of those cousins today.

She hung out with her second cousin Ayla this morning at Grandma's house (Ayla's mom Hannah is Chris' first cousin).

Barbies!

Monkey faces!

Then tonight Callie got to hang out with her third cousin Donald (Donald's dad Andy is my second cousin).

Passies

Passy war!

Kona and Sasha got to play too!

Now, onto another (stinky) note: Auntie Laura beware!

I already mentioned on the last weekend wrap-up, Callie had a really good blow-out for Auntie Mari.
Today she had an enormous blow-out for Auntie Cat that required some time in the bathtub!
The only logical conclusion for this is that Auntie Laura is next to experience a blow-out of epic proportions...maybe Thanksgiving weekend? Watch out! :)

Cereola and Cinco!

I REALLY wish I could have some sort of video camera on Callie at all times because she is HILARIOUS.  And BRILLIANT.

I can't even tell you how many times she has said something and I'm like, "How do you know that???" or "How did you come up with that??"

Here are just a couple of examples of what I am talking about.

#1: This morning as I was changing her diaper and talking about Cookie Monster, she all of a sudden looked at me and said, "What happened?"  I had no idea what she was talking about, but it was adorable.

#2: She is a pretty picky eater, so usually whatever she asks for to eat, she gets.  This afternoon she asked for "cereola", which is usually reserved for breakfast.  At our house, cereola refers to rice cereal (yes, the same rice cereal that people feed their 6-month-olds) mixed with whole milk and yogurt.  Sounds delicious, doesn't it?  Anyway, she usually likes to add a couple of extra syllables to cereola when she talks about it, so I had to get it on film. 



#3: Later,  when we were reading a counting book, she began spouting out Spanish numbers.  All of a sudden I heard "dos! dos!" over and over again.  So then I started counting in Spanish and she continued by saying "cinco! seis!"



I like to take credit for lots of what she says because I'm the teacher and am constantly telling her random stuff to say.  But I give Dora all the credit on this one!

Weekend Wrap-Up

This week's weekend wrap-up will be filled with cute little anecdotes, pictures and videos, because THIS weekend, a certain toddler was so unabashedly adorable.

Friday
I had the day off on Friday, so we took advantage of the free time to get some things done.  Like get Callie a flu shot.  I kept calling it a "poke" to try and make it not sound scary, and the name stuck.  She got a cookie after it was done, and kept talking about the "poke" and the cookie at random times the rest of the weekend.

We also FINALLY scheduled the hair cut that needed to happen.

That afternoon, we met Kylie and Calvin at Edinborough for some heavy duty play time.

Sitting on the ducks (well...almost...)

Jumping!

Photo-op spot...sort of...

Saturday
After a much needed check-up at Dr. Stewart's for all of us (Kona included!) we headed to the condo for some time with Boom and Bops.

They made it up the big hill!

Rolling down the big hill!

Mari and her boyfriend Josh came over on Saturday night to babysit for us.  We were invited to go to a family friends' 50th Birthday party.  After the disaster that was last weekend, we decided to go to the party toddler-free so we could actually enjoy ourselves.  We had a great time and got to hang out a little with our Goddaughter, Christine, who is now in 3rd grade!

Before we left for the party, I warned Mari that it had been a couple of days since Callie had pooped, so to beware.  At around 8:00, the following text exchange occurred between her and me.
Mari: Yes major poop explosion.  I put her clothes in plastic bag and opened her window.  Your upstairs reeks.  I washed my hands 4 times and still don't feel clean.  I just put her down.
Me: Haha oh no...but kind of hilarious. 
So kudos to Mari, for changing her first ever poopy diaper.  Lucky her, it was a blow-out the first time.

Sunday
We took it easy on Sunday.  There was a little morning cuddling:

Daddy's Girl

And a walk to the park:

During nap time I went to do some scrap-booking with my friend Amanda.  It felt SO good to get back into it, and I'm re-energized to finish Callie's baby book.  Looking back at the brand new baby pictures was fun and crazy and a little weird. It feels like a LONG time ago. :)

Tonight we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for play time and dinner.  Callie was REVVED up.  She showed off her new vocabulary words that she has been working on with Auntie Cat:


Then she was all about answering the cell phones.

(The videos were taken on my cell phone, hence the crappy quality, but you get the idea!)

We decided to take a chance and go to the 7pm church service tonight.  Boom was playing her flute, so that is always great entertainment for Callie.  She loves clapping quietly after each song or hymn.

As usual, we brought Callie up with us during communion tonight.  After giving Chris and me each a piece of the communion bread, Pastor Ben marked her forehead with a cross and said a little blessing to her.  As he and my dad (who was helping out with communion) continued on to the rest of the row, Callie held out her hand and said, "Callie chip?"  No, sorry babe, you're not quite ready for the communion "chips" yet!  But we all got a chuckle out of it at the end of the service.

It is All Saints Sunday today, so I lit a candle in memory of my grandfathers- Grampy and Grandpa.  I really wish they could have met Callie.  But I know they are loving her from heaven.

Once again the weekend went way too fast, and I am mentally preparing for another busy week.

Happy Birthday Nana!

We hope you have a great birthday!  It has been awhile since we've gotten a good picture of Callie and Nana, but here is one that I found from April with Nana, Everett and Callie.

First Haircut!

As you have probably noticed, someone was getting a little shaggy.  Time for a hair cut!  Luckily, we have a kids place right by our house, so Cal and I went this morning.  She did great!  Thank goodness for Elmo on the little T.V.

Before- A little leery of the blue cape.

Oh, Hey Elmo!

Snip Snip Snip!

Such a good girl!

Blow Dryer...just like Mommy uses!

All done!

With a certificate, sticker AND a sucker!

Then we had to go show off to Grandma!

And Boom too!

Wuv You Family

Callie has had a N-A-S-T-Y nasty cold the past couple of days, and due to her extreme crabiness this morning, Chris and I decided to tag team today instead of putting Grandpa through a day with a grumpy toddler.  She slept with us for part of the night last night because she was coughing so much in her crib.  Minimal sleep was had by all.

But by 9:00 we already needed a change of scenery, so despite the possibility of massive meltdowns, I decided to get out of the house and run some errands (errand #1: coffee shop).

Anyway, we survived public meltdowns (just had ones in the car, I can handle those).  But during a time in the car when she WASN'T throwing a massive fit, she melted my heart.

A little background information: We've been working on her saying "Love you Mom/Dad" back to us when we say it to her.  She said it to Chris on Tuesday night without being prompted.  But I haven't been lucky enough to have that happen yet.

So back to the car ride.  I was working on the "Love you Mom."  I said "Love you Callie", with no luck with the response.  So I said, "Say 'Love you Mom'".  And she did. 

And then continued this (with only minimal prompting from me):
"Wuv you Daddy.
Wuv you Boom.
Wuv you Bops.
Wuv you Pa.
Wuv you Gamm.
Wuv you Cat.
Wuv you Uka Dan
Wuv you Wawa.
Wuv you Wawi.
Wuv you Kona!"

So there you go, family, we wuv you.