6 months

Callie Allie (that's what we call her) is 6 months old today.  The time has gone by very quickly but at the same time it seems like it was a lifetime ago that I had to go visit her in the NICU.  She is turning into a little person and she is wonderful!  She is such a happy baby.  She has this huge open mouthed smile and loves to use it all the time.  It is my favorite thing about her.  All I have to do is smile and I get one in return.  Sometimes when she wakes up in the middle of a nap she'll have a huge smile waiting for me when I go to put her binkie back in, like she just wanted me to know she was glad to see me during her nap, then its right back to sleep.  It's the same first thing in the morning.  As soon as she sees you walk in she smiles at you.  She is so sweet!  I could kiss and hug and squeeze her all day long.

See, totally kissable!

 

 

 She is 13.1 lb (4th percentile).  She dropped percentiles for weight, but that is explained by her jump in length.  She is 25.5 inches long and in the 35th percentile for length.  She jumped up 12 percentiles.  Maybe that is part of the reason she is looking so grown up lately.  

Callie is super ticklish all over her body but is kind of a stingy laugher.  She smiles and squirms and grunts and sometimes if she's really tired you can get a laugh out of her.  She is starting to laugh more often and is beginning to enjoy a good game of peek-a-boo.  I can usually get her to laugh for that.

Callie loves faces.  If you get yours close enough she will reach up with her little hands and grab it.  She is getting really good at grabbing things and I love the intense look of concentration she gets when she's trying to get something.  It's cute because her arms still do the flailing thing and she still hasn't quite figured out how to control them.  As soon as she gets what she wants it goes right into her mouth.  She chews blankets, fingers, toys, phones, tags.  I think she'll be getting some teeth soon.

 

She is starting to grow out of her reflux, I think and is spitting up a lot less.  We tried rice cereal a couple days ago and she HATED it.  I'm not even sure she swallowed any.  She just made a very disgusted face and spit it all out. 

 

 How could you do this to me!

Callie is a champion stretcher.  As soon as you unswaddle her, her little arms pop straight above her head, she arches her back, and makes the stretchy face.  She has also found her toes with some help from her big sister who has been shoving them in her mouth for her.

Callie is quite chatty and it looks like she's on track to talk just as much as her sister, which means my life will never be quiet again.  The funny thing is that Callie will growl in addition to talk.  She seems to growl mostly when she is upset about something, like when she is starting to get tired.  It's really cute.  I actually think she is expressing discontent.

Kenna and Callie love each other very much.  Kenna lights up when she sees that Callie is awake and Callie will strain to look for Kenna whenever she hears her.  I'm glad they are getting to the point where the can play with each other.  It's fun to watch.

This is at the doctor yesterday-

That is all about our little Callie girl.  I already said it and I'll say it again.  I could kiss, and hug and squeeze her all day long.  She is wonderfully smiley and I love her!

And just because...Kenna has this empty kitchen cabinet she loves to hid in. She look the light bright that Laura and Annie sent and will stay in there for hours.  The other day she told me, "I'll be in the cabinet.  Call me when Daddy gets home."

Happy Valentine's Day

Our Valentine's celebrations started out yesterday on what Nate woke up calling "Jimmer Day."  Jimmer used to play for BYU and now plays for the Kings.  Nate found out the Kings were playing the Mavericks here in Dallas the day before Valentines Day and he told me that was how he wanted to celebrate.  We went to dinner and the game with some friends and had a great time.  We were out much later than we were used to and I think we both woke up this morning with a Jimmer hangover. 

 

Callie has been sleeping in a swing in our room and for some reason I decided to give her through last night with the babysitter before giving her the boot.  So the poor kid today had to sleep in her crib.  After two 30 minute naps she finally slept for 2 hours in her crib.  Huzzah.  She did pretty well for her first night.  After letting her cry for a bit I went up to rewrap her and calm her down.  The first time we went to see her in the NICU after she was born she was crying hysterically and the only thing I could do to touch her was to let her hold my finger.  She did that and stopped crying immediately.  Ever since then she has always loved to hold things in her little hands.  She holds your finger while she's eating and playing and if she can't get a finger she'll hold a blanket or toy.  Anyway, as soon as I got up there to calm her down she grabbed a finger in both of her hands, pulled them into her chest, took a deep breath and calmed right down.  It was really sweet.  I love that baby.

Kenna celebrated Valentine's Day in style by taking cookies and a card to the gym with her for all of her gym friends.  They love her and she loves them.  One of the workers was talking to us as I was packing Callie up to leave and he said, "Kenna you're so cute" to which she replied, "Yeah."  We all got a good laugh out of it.  She's still super shy there but she's getting better at talking to people and even gave a "Happy Valentine's Day (insert name)" to five or six people and only got one name wrong.  Pretty cute. 

After Nate got home from work we had a little party.  I put up some streamers and balloons and when Kenna walked in and saw them she said, "Mommy they're perfect!"  Everyone got some candy and a little present and Kenna thought it was awesome.  And as if the night couldn't have gotten any better Kenna got a letter in the mail.  My grandma has been sending her cards with five one dollar bills in it on holidays for a while and now Kenna recognizes her handwriting and gets really excited when she gets a card in the mail.  She went and brought the mail in with Nate and knew right away she had a card from Meemaw. She ripped it open before I knew what she was doing and then ran to me screaming "Meemaw sent me a fairy card with five dollars!" And then told me "This is an awesome day!"  Unfortunately she then ripped open Callie's card before I could stop her, put Callie's five dollars with hers and said, "It's ok. Callie won't mind."  We straightened that out and told her she couldn't have Callie's money.  She settled for carrying around Callie's card instead.

 

 

It was a great Valentine's Day.

 

 Kenna wiggling her nose.

 

Kites, Broken Brakes, and Princess Parties

 It is starting to get warm again in Texas, which means our normal life of outdoor park-going is in full swing.  My Saturdays with the girls are the highlight of my week.  Last Saturday, we invested two dollars in a Barbie kite and I am happy to report that I got a full return on investment.  Kenna was running around the soccer fields pulling her kite behind her.

I took my car to National Tire and Battery last week because my brakes started squeaking and after speaking with the representative he gave me a 800 dollar estimate to replace my brakes.  I am not a handy guy with cars.  In fact, I remember McKenzie having to teach me and re-teach me how to jump start a car - ironically enough she taught me jumping Bruce's lawn mower which I am no longer allowed to touch because I have broken it so many times - but that is another story...

So 800 bucks was my breaking point.  I didn't want to spend that kind of cash on such a dumb thing so I got on the phone with my on call mechanic.  For any unfamiliar readers, my father-in-law grew up on a farm before the great war when you had to do everything yourself.  This is not only great fodder for jokes, but it also really comes in handy when you have questions about building things, fixing things, or livestock.  Another amazing plus is that he has a son who works for Delta so he can paratroop in anytime for free.  He laughed when I asked him if 800 bucks was too much for a brake job and decided that after he finished evicting his son and his family, by way of driving to Kentucky and offloading said son, he would simply hop on a plane and fly to Texas.

Best Father-in-law ever.  He arrived on Tuesday afternoon and Kenna was ecstatic to have him here.  She adores grandpa and loves spending time with him.  I love him to the tune of 800 bucks.  I tried to commit him to serve in a purely advisory role for the brake job, but Brig finds it impossible to keep his hands clean.  He talked me through a full brake job and showed me how everything works.  I am happy to report that I changed the brakes for 43 dollars, 3 of which were spent on a hello kitty key chain from Auto Zone (I bet you can't guess who went with us on our trip).  During the install, I couldn't help but wonder why Brig didn't teach this kind of stuff to McKenzie so that she could be out there fixing my brakes, but I figured I would cut him a break.

With the brakes finished, I figured I should give it a try before cruising to work at 70 mph the next day.  Brig was inside washing his hands so I thought I would just back it out of the driveway and wait for him before cruising around the block.  I started the car, put it in reverse, and pushed down on the brake.  Nothing happened.  I pumped it 4 or 5 times and nothing.  I thought, maybe I should have just paid the 800 bucks as I started rolling backward but finally the brake fluid built up pressure and I was able to stop the car.

The rest of grandpa's trip was spent playing tennis with Kenna, riding scooters with Kenna, feeding ducks with Kenna, and doing anything else with Kenna.  Jarom also heard of my brake consultant and decided to take advantage of such expertise.  We were out in the garage the next night fixing the brakes on his car.

I am lucky to have such great in-laws.  I know I slander them quite often on OMGmyin-lawsrcoming.blogspot.com but they are really good people.  I am lucky to have them.

I also took Kenna to her princess party this weekend at the mall.  I showed up and there were 20 moms, 30 kids, and 0 males.  I stayed for the whole party though and Kenna had a great time.  I got to chat with all the moms about how tough it is to run kids around, complete errands and tasks, and still have dinner on the table when your spouse comes home from working.  Being a mom on Saturdays is a fun perspective that makes me appreciate how much Kenzie does each day.  All of the moms thought I was doing a great job though :-)

 

Back to Life

I'm happy to report that I am sane again.  After 4.5 months Callie is done crying all the time and now goes to bed at 7 and stays in bed until 630.  She was definitely a very hard baby but she's doing her best to make up for it now.  Now that she is 5 1/2 months old, the only time she cries now is if she is really, really tired and she smiles all the time.  All you have to do is grin at her and you get a huge smile in return.  She's also on track to be just as chatty as her sister.  She is starting to laugh more.  She has a very adorable giggle.  She loves to play and reaches for anything she can get her hands on.  She is practicing her rolling.  She can roll from her back to her stomach like a champ but for some reason has stopped rolling from her stomach to back.  So if we leave her on the floor after about 5 minutes we hear her yelling for us to come flip her back over.  Once or twice though we've left the room and come back to her across the room from where we left her.  She getting bigger and is out of the new baby phase and starting to play and be fun.  She loves to grab faces and if you get close enough she'll fish hook you.

 Kenna still loves to have all of Callie's attention and if Nate or I are talking to her Kenna will run over and wedge her way between Callie and the parents and begin parroting whatever we were doing to Callie.  At least she loves her sister.  She is getting very good at recognizing letters and numbers and is excited to learn to read.  She loves to play outside and go feed quackerson (the local duck).  She can now pedal her big girl bike and if we take her out for a scooter ride we have to run to keep up with her.  She is very fast on that thing.  The other day she invented a game - scoot all the way up the hill in our neighborhood and then scoot herself down as fast as she can yelling, "Catch me mom!"  It's pretty funny to watch and yes, I made her wear a helmet.

Kenna asks to play outside every time it rains regardless of how cold it is.  She takes her gardening gloves so she can touch the mud.

 

Jenna was gone on her semi-annual month long vacation this past month and Kenna experienced some withdraws.  Every once and a while she would be talking to another person and accidentally call them Jenna.  She constantly told us how much she missed Jenna and asked at least once a day when she would be home.  She even missed Bo and was excited to play with him when he got home.  Their first full day back they all played together for 3 hours in the morning.  Then, later that afternoon Kenna wanted Jenna to come play again. 

I'm still working most Saturdays which means Nate gets to spend the day with the girls and Saturdays have officially become "donut day."  He is great at being a stay at home mom and even somehow manages to get the house cleaned while I'm gone.  He told me once that he worked really hard to get everything done so he could tell me "I don't see what the big deal is about cleaning and watching the kids" but then when I got home he admitted how frustrating it was to try to clean while a tornado was coming behind you and undoing everything.  And now he know why I just don't bother until the end of the night.  With two parents home you can tag team the tornado.

 Kenna and Callie now bathe together which Kenna thinks is awesome.  She asks to take a bath with Callie every night and when Callie gets out, Kenna gets in the blue tub.

 

Nate and I didn't do much for Christmas this year and instead we waited until after, hired a babysitter and went on a date to Ikea.  It was awesome.  Our house now has some furniture and is starting to look more like a home instead of an over sized house with nothing in it.

  We finally got some chairs for the toy room so we don't have to sit on the floor.  They're not great but hey, they were cheap.

 

 I made shadow boxes for both the girls withe their baby stuff from the hospital.  Callie's is much larger.

 Callie's Room (which gets no use at the moment)

 

 Kenna's Room (it was done a long time ago I just never put pictures)

One day we will get all the house painted and put together and I'll put up some pictures, but don't hold your breath.  For now it is coming along slowly, but looking good.