Half-Birthday on the Fourth of July!

Happy Half-Birthday, Callie!! Can you believe our little munchkin is six months old today?! Would you believe all the surrounding towns are having parades in fireworks in her honor?? Okay, okay, maybe not, but we'll let her think that for now. :P

This morning we went to a parade and Calista LOVED it. She liked the bands the best, but I think she mostly loved people watching and seeing all the kids scramble for the candy. :) This afternoon we went to a picnic and there were TONS of babies there, so she had a fun time playing with them. Thanks to a bit of an incline in their backyard and some dips in the yard, Calista had her first experiences sitting up all by herself!! I was totally excited, but I don't think it made much of a difference to her.

Callie had her six month check-up earlier in the week... her stats are in: 14 lbs 9 oz, 25.5 in. She's doing really well, and now she gets to eat fruits and vegetables, AND she eats solids three times a day, so she's really becoming a "big girl."

We have a new website for photo sharing... It's really easy... you just have to sign up with your name and email address and then we "connect" as either friends or family and you can see all our photos. You can automatically get notified when we add a new album. I am working on adding music to it, but having some trouble... ANYWAY, apparently, it's the new "cool" thing to do, so we're trying it out. I signed up about a month ago to view someone else's photos and I have ONLY ever received emails notifiying me of her pictures, nothing else! Check it out: http://albums.phanfare.com/lumblove (by the way, when you're there, click to "start slideshow...")

I'm including a couple videos... one is her first time in the pool, and the other is of her playing.

There are more videos on our Phanfare site, but here are a couple from today:

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day! It's Ken's first and Callie is so excited! She got him a gift certificate to golf, a poem with her handprints and footprints, and she's most excited about the "Guys' Night" we arranged for him this upcoming weekend. :)

Things here are going well... Calista's been sick on and off now for about 6 weeks (belly problems, then a cold, then an ear infection), but it looks like she's finally healthy again! During her "sick time" she forgot how to sleep through the night, so we're hoping to refresh her memory sometime soon....

She's eating like a champ, weighing in at about 14 pounds, and she is TEETHING. The doctor thinks we'll see teeth any day now, and you can tell they're getting close to coming out. She's handling it pretty well, but does enjoy her teethers.

We have her six month check-up coming soon, so we'll update you more after that... for now, here are some videos...

This one is her talking away this morning... she does this all the time now,
and we get such a kick out of it!

This one is from dinner the other night. She is really wanting to be more involved, and she constantly grabs her spoon, so Daddy had the smart idea to give her her own spoon to keep her happy while we feed her. Good thinking! (I have no idea why this is showing up sideways)

This was the other morning while we were getting ready for work. She was rolling around and having a grand old time. She rolls both ways now, sometimes doing a complete 360. She has so much fun... it's so cute... crawling will be here before we know it!

She LOVES to "talk" and discover all noises her mouth can make... even when it's full of food!

Below are some Father's Day Pictures! :)

Covered in grossness!

So Callie barfed her brains out at the end of her feeding today... something just went down the wrong pipe... ANYWAY, it didn't phase her one bit... check out how gross she is! hahaha

Giggles!

So Callie's been giggling for a few days now, but only here and there, and we haven't been able to get it on video... until today! We are enjoying my day off together and we got a little silly. :)

Oh, AND... she also rolled today from her back to her belly for the first time! Okay, so it was more like her side to her belly, but it was very exciting! :)

Happy Mother's Day!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! We celebrated Mother's Day on Saturday with all six grandparents, Aunt Kristyn, and Uncle Doug... today, we relaxed as a little family of three and enjoyed each other's company. If you'll believe it, Callie let out her very first giggle this morning - it was amazingly cute - Happy Mother's Day to me! Ken and Kristyn were both in the room, but neither of them heard it and I'm pretty sure they think I'm making it up.

It's been a while since our last post. Apparently, being a working mom keeps you busy. Who knew? :-P Our little munchkin turned four months old last week (5/4). She celebrated by getting sick and staying sick for four days! Looks like we finally have a handle on it, but it's been hard on her! She's officially weighing in at 12 lbs 14 oz (as of last week) and she's finally starting to enjoy her cereal (especially oatmeal)! Here's proof:

How can you not start your day with a smile when you wake up to this cuteness??

This is what happens when Ken is left alone with the camera... he teaches Calista how to crawl... or something...

And this is what happens when Ken and Kristyn are left alone with the camera... they teach her how to walk... and how to DUNK herself like a basketball (AKA how to give Mom a heart attack when they later show her the video and she's certain Callie's head is going to split open):

Mother's Day Photo Shoot (just pictires, no video):

A New Normal

Well, here we are at the end of our first week of day care for CallieBug and back to work for me. It was so hard to leave her and I cried like no one should ever cry in front of people. Here's us leaving her for the first time (yeahh, I know, I'm a puffy-eyed mom):

It's a challenge juggling the new life of being a "working mom," but so many people do it, so I know we will, too. I returned to my classroom to see total cuteness:

So for now, we're going to just enjoy EVERY second of our weekends and count down to summer! Here are a couple fun videos of Callie learning some independent play:

Sunny Days Sweeping the Clouds Away

Callie had her first trip to the park! In reality, it lasted about 4 minutes because it was SOOO hot and sunny (it got to 85 degrees here yesterday!!), but we played a little and had a good time... here's a video and some photos.

In other news, we had our first video request... for some dancing... the details were that it had to involve some kicking and silliness... so this one's for you, Michael. ;)




Tomorrow is the big day... I go back to work and Calista starts at Day Care. I'm sure you can imagine how I feel about all of that, but such is life, and now we'll just count down until our time together this summer!!

Photo Shoot!

Callie got all "summered" up for a photo shoot in her nursery last week! I happen to think she looks pretttttty cute. Our friend Morgan is starting her own photography business. She's really fantastic and captures perfect little moments... If you go to her website and click on "Client Gallery" you can look at Calista's pictures at your own pace. You should totally call Morgan to take pictures for you so you can brag about it when she becomes rich and famous.
http://www.morgandawson.com/

daddy makes an appearance

Don't get your hopes up, it's still me writing the post, but Ken has been caught on video and I thought I should pass it along to everyone who's been requesting some daddy time on the blog! :) I'll do my best to catch Ken more often so you can see his daddy skills!

Soooo, first, Daddy battles Callie in the "Rice Cereal War of 2008."

THEN, Ken has no idea I have the camera on him and starts singing to Callie... I wish I hadn't stopped it... it got WAY funnier after the camera stopped rolling!

In other news, Callie had a photo shoot today with Morgan... you all know how fabulous Morgan's work is, so you can imagine how excited we are to see how they turned out! I'll be sure to post some for you all to see!

Oh - one more thing... has anyone been able to "subscribe" and get updates from this blog? I've had a hard time figuring that all out...

spring break should last forever

Ken's been home on Spring Break this week and it's been soooo nice to all be home together. It's hard to imagine that when school starts back up on Monday I won't be a "stay at home Mom" anymore... I went to school today to get myself organized and Callie had some daddy time. I can't believe it's already time to send our little Bug to daycare. Here's some of today's cuteness.

Apple Juice

Don't worry, we DO know we're only supposed to introduce a new food every five days. We know we just started the rice cereal yesterday, but because she's been having it in her bottles for a long time now, the doctor said we already know she isn't allergic to it, so she told us to try infant apple juice. Soooo, check out her hilarious little face:

rollllllllllllling.....

Our little munchkin is learning to roll from her belly to her back...

such a rookie!

Okay, so the doctor tells us yesterday to start rice cereal. I have been waiting for this and couldn't wait to try it!! Soooo, instead of waiting until the morning, I decide we simply must try it at her next feeding. BIG mistake. She was crabby and screaming before we even started, so what reasonable person tries something new (and difficult) with a baby who is already freaking out? Anyway, it was a huge disaster and we gave up.

Today... take two. It was again, a total failure... at first. THEN we decided to do her bottle first (we're supposed to still do bottles in addition to the rice cereal). MUUUCH better. She was full and happy and more ready for the challenge.

So we went from this:


... to this:


And in the end... maybe 75% of it ended up on her bibs (yes, bibS - plural), but for now...
job well done, Calista!

Old Video! Learning how to use the pacifier!

Here are some old videos for your enjoyment... more coming later...

Learnning how to use the pacifier (Jan. '08)!

Learning how to smile (Feb. '08)!

Here goes nothing...

Hi everyone! Welcome to our attempt at a family blog. I use the word "our" loosely because you all know Ken won't come anywhere near this thing... soooo, welcome to MY attempt to share some Lumb Love. I thought this would be a great way to post some videos so you can see the Lumbs (well, Callie specifically) in action. Let's see how this all turns out... I think there might be a way to "subscribe" to this blog so you can be notified if we add a new video or something, but I'm still trying to figure everything out. I like to think I understand technology, but this might take some practice. Here goes nothing...