Coming into her own...

All of a sudden, Calista's doing a million new things...

She's walking like a maniac now. Before, she was just experimenting, but now I think she really sees it as a way to get around. It really started just last night when I turned away to pick something up and when I turned back around, she was waddling over to me. It was very, very different than any walking she had done before. She'll suddenly walk totally across a room to come see us or get something she wants. It seriously blows my mind! Ken and I keep looking at her, seeing this little tiny baby, and all of a sudden she stands up and walks over to us or to her toys and we don't understand how this mini human is learning to do all of this!

She's also started throwing her hands to her face when one of us does something silly... I'm pretty sure if she could talk she'd say something along the lines of "you guys are seriously embarassing me" or "you're giving me a headache." It's hard to catch on video, but I'll keep trying.

She is doing a little "ta da!" thing when she's proud of herself. It doesn't take much for her to be proud of herself, and it's hilarious. She throws her hands back behind her body, palms down, in a very dramatic fashion and expects excitement from everyone around her.

We're convinced she's saying "hi" although I'm sure no one else buys that. She did, however, get her first "report card" from day care and they ALSO think she can say "hi," so maybe we're not totally crazy.

She learned how to shake her head this week, too. We're not totally convinced she knows it means "no..." seems more like she just figured out something else her body can do... but we'll take it for now (it's kind of funny) as it has to be better than the screaming "NO" tantrums I'm sure will soon come our way.

She definitely waves "hi" and "bye" and it's one of my favorite things. A few minutes ago, Ken and Callie left to run errands and she waved "bye bye" to me on their way out. Even though I've seen her do it so many times, I still can't believe it.

Anyway, I put up some new photos on Phanfare, and I'm posting a bunch of videos below... enjoy!

Singing and waving "bye-bye!"

Do YOU think she says "hi" to Aunt Kristyn? (Okay, perhaps this is not a good example)

This was some of her walking last night, but I feel like today it's even better than this! Maybe TODAY she decided to really "buy in" to the whole walking thing...

She loves to "help" with the laundry... last night she found her puppet in the laundry basket.

After that, for the first time, she decided to help "clean up her mess" (a girl after my own heart) by putting everything back in... at least until she got distracted by her pink skirt and decided to be done picking up.

Here's another video we made for Aunt Kristyn and it shows you the "you're giving me a headache" thing she started doing...