Back into the blog...

It's been a hard week and we have been overwhelmed about the loss of Chris and Sara's most beautiful Garren. It feels as if life kind of got turned upside down, and we know for sure we'll never be quite the same. It certainly has caused everyone who loves him (and even people who never met him) moments of deep reflection. At the beautiful service to honor Garren, we were touched by the following: "So long as we live, they too shall live, for they are now a part of us, as we remember them." (Roland Gittelsohn)

It is with mixed feelings that we get back into our blog. Looking at these pictures and video reminds us just how lucky we are, and definitely leaves a sad spot in our heart when we think about how Garren and Callie were supposed to grow up together.

Since the last update, Callie turned one and celebrated with friends, family, and cupcakes. Oddly, she actually hated the cupcakes, but other than that, she had a great time. Callie is now a full-fledged walker (almost a runner), a major babbler (she kind of says "hi," "up," and "mama/daddy"). She waves (although it's often backwards at herself), and gives the most hilarious open-mouthed kisses full of slobber. She loves to read (she has definite favorites that she reads over and over and over - Daddy tries to hide them sometimes), and one of my favorite things about her is how she will bring a book over when I'm sitting on the floor, then she'll turn her little body around and scoot back, sitting down on my lap.

She always amazes us when she responds to what we say... the other day, I had her shoes out and I said "Does your shoe go HERE?" and I put it on her head. She shook her head no. I thought it was a coincidence, so I said "Does your shoe go HERE?" and I tried her elbow, then again with her knee. She kept shaking her head no with each body part, until I asked if it went on her foot. She looked at me, smiled, grabbed the shoe, and tried to put it on her foot. How did we go from having this tiny little baby to a toddler who understands things and responds to us?! Calista definitely understands "NO," and usually listens when we say it, but is also dabbling in the art of temper tantrums.

The doctor is ready to refer us to an Ear/Nose/Throat specialist because of all the ear infections Callie's been having. Looks like getting tubes might be in her fairly immediate future. I am NOT happy about it, but I am trying to stay open-minded. Callie has 5 teeth, the corner of a molar, and several others that are on the verge of popping through. She's also in the process of leaving formula behind and switching to milk, which she loves (only if it's warm). She's eating much more successfully these days (thank goodness). We're having a lot of fun getting out and about now that she's so aware and interested in everything around her. We went to the Museum of Play the other day for the first time since she's been walking and she ran all over as if she owned the place. What a character.

Callie's basically been a no TV baby for the past year (with the exception of a couple cartoons a week), but now she watches a little more (occasionally even enjoying a sports show with Dad). Now, every couple days she watches an episode of The Backyardigans, Dora the Exlplorer, or a good show on Noggin (our favorite station these days). She doesn't sit still for long, though, so she usually only watches quietly for about 10 minutes... for every half hour show that's on, she's busy playing while she watches, or dancing along to the music. It's cute.

Today was Valentine's Day and we celebrated with the DeFeos at the Build a Bear workshop. Callie made a bunny, which Jack lovingly named "Poppy." She's snuggling with it in bed as I write this. As for Mama and Daddy, we are going on a little get-away for a couple days next week (we have the week of, wahooo) that Ken planned - it's a surprise; I have no idea where we're going!

Anyway, I have posted lots of new pictures on Phanfare in the January and February albums (http://albums.phanfare.com/lumblove) and below are some videos of what Callie does with herself these days.

Enjoy, and please keep Chris and Sara in your hearts.



"No way, Jose."
(Callie tries to eat a random piece of who-knows-what that she found on the floor)



"Strong Girl"



"Smushing Peas and Waving to Daddy"




"Hanging out with The Backyardigans"


"Daddy!" (the door opens at the end and Daddy walks in)


"No more babies jumping on the bed!"


"Chillin'"

Please pray.

It is with a painful and very heavy heart that I ask you to please pray for our friends Chris and Sara. Their son Garren passed away on Thursday very unexpectedly. Many of you know Garren or have heard about him as Callie's little boyfriend - they had the same due date... Garren turned one on January 25th.

No words in the world are adequate right now, so I will simply ask you to please pray.

Oops!

I have no idea how over a month has gone by with no blog action... well, that's not true. I DO know how. My laptop died, so if I want to use the computer, I have to bundle up and venture into Ken's freezing cold man basement to use his. Plus, Callie was really sick for a couple weeks and then report cards were due, a birthday party had to be planned, yadda yadda yadda...

ANYWAY, I'm not quitting the blog! Stick with me, I'll post soon (as soon as Ken starts believing in heat). :)

Until next year, Santa...

What a fun few days! It's hard to believe Callie's first Christmas has come and gone (AND that she turns ONE in a WEEK)!! She kicked off Christmas by being up for two hours in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve screaming and miserable. Yes, really, two hours! She barely even did that when she was a newborn. It appears she's teething (it seems like she's getting multiple teeth at once) and I think that was a low point for her - poor girl!

Needless to say, Ken and I were exhasuted when Christmas morning rolled around, but her little face was so happy and excited as she opened gift and toddled around in her Christmas slippers and PJs! She loved what Santa brought - especially the BOXES that contained the actual gifts. She climbed all over them and pounded on them like drums. She ripped teeny tiny little pieces of wrapping paper and handed them to us one at a time (that's her latest thing - handing us "stuff" over and over and OVER).

After spending the morning together in our house, we traveled to spend the rest of the day with our extended families - all six grandparents, Aunt Kristyn, Uncle Doug, Aunt Sarah, plus Great Uncle George and Great Grammy Lumb! Callie was a little crabby with all the commotion, but enjoyed playing and running around the house. With family parties on the 26th and 28th, we got to see all sorts of people and with her birthday only days away, Ken is worried Callie's going to expect presents all the time now. :)

Anyway, pictures are up on Phanfare ( albums.phanfare.com/lumblove ) and I'll post some videos below. Before we know it, it will be January 4th and our little girl will be a YEAR old. How is that possible?!

Opening one of her presents :)

Playing in wrapping paper!

This gift was a hit.

A little quiet time with a new book...

Kisses, High Fives, and Climbing Galore!

In the past week, Callie has learned how to do "real" kisses (no more open mouthed slobbers - she even makes the "smooch" sound - sometimes). I keep trying to catch it on video! She is also a HUGE fan of high fives! She likes to do like three high fives all at once (I keep forgetting to video that, too), but she will do it almost anytime you say "High Five!" Hilarious!

Speeeeeeeeeeaking of hilarious, check out this belly laugher... this isn't her "normal" laugh, but she was really "into it..." and DON'T ask what I was doing on the other side of the camera!

This video is a couple minutes long and gets a little boring in the middle, but the other night she figured out how to take her blocks OUT so she could climb IN... the only reason I didn't edit it to be shorter is because it has her new "bye bye" wave at the end. She used to do this giant arm wave, but now she does this teeny tiny little hand wave, which of course I think is adorable, even though I know it's probably not that big of a deal.

Climbing stairs!

Look who's climbing stairs! Every night, Ken takes Callie upstairs for PJs while I make her bottle. Last night I hear Ken going "WOAH!" I came running over and look what I saw...

Meeting Santa

Today we went to Breakfast with Santa at the zoo!! The food was absolutely terrible, but we had a fun time. It was in the "Rocky Coast Gallery" which is the room that has windows into the polar bear and sea otter exhibits. The sea otters were very playful, but the polar bears were uninterested in hanging out. Apparently, the zoo thought it would be a good idea to bring a hyper monkey and a ridiculously loud cockatoo into the breakfast room. It was obnoxious, but they both definitely captured Callie's attention. She was very quiet for a long time with these gigantic eyes that were checking everything out very carefully. She barely ate because she was so interested in everything going on around the room. Eventually, Santa arrived to a room of VERY excited kids. Callie was up on Ken's shoulders when he came in and she just grinned from ear to ear! Below is a video of Calista and Santa meeting for the first time! Lots of pictures are up on Phanfare. :) http://albums.phanfare.com/lumblove

Callie and Cameron... becoming BFFs??

Calista and Cameron might just become friends after all. Cameron has been permanently stationed under her high-chair for months now, but I think Callie finally discovered the joy of purposely feeding the dog. Sometimes she just flops her food over the edge and Cameron gets lucky, but tonight she realized she could hold her food out for Cameron and the dog would take it right out of her hand! I think she thought it felt funny to have the dog lick her little hand!

Callie has just recently noticed the photos on our fridge. She gets such a kick out of checking them out and she can definitely tell that it's people she knows! Soooo, I pulled out one of her scrapbooks the other day to see what would happen. I don't think she even bothered to look at the pictures because she was so focused on flipping the pages!

Lots of photos up on Phanfare! :)

Pants and Temper Tantrums

Last night Callie figured out how to open the drawers in her room. She seemed to enjoy discovering every SINGLE pair of pants inside her bottom drawer.

Eventually, it was time to clean up the mess. I kept trying to fold the pants and put them back, but she kept coming back over to pull them back out. I finally convinced her to play across the room so I could get everything put away... as soon as I finished, she was back over to tear everything back out again. At this point, it was time to get ready for a bath and bedtime, so I had to tell her "no" when she wanted to play in the drawer. I know, I know, it sends a mixed message that I let her pull out all the pants, then I told her "no." She was NOT happy (I know - my fault) and she chose this time for a temper tantrum. Normally, I would have tried to move her and get her involved in something else so she forgot how mad she was, but I let the camera roll because most of you have never seen this side of her. While she is normally the happiest baby on earth, I have to say, this is not even as brutal as she can get. When she's REALLY mad, she wants us to know. She arches her back, throws her head back, and screams like a maniac. Anyway, meet "Mad Callie:"

The Sandbox

So today we finally went to "The Sandbox!" It's an indoor playground in Fairport and I had heard lots of good things about it, but wasn't sure Callie would be ready for it until she was moving around a little better... Let me tell you, she had the TIME of her LIFE! She did nothing but giggle and squeal the whole time. She "ran" around like a maniac. It was hilarious and one of my most favorite moments of the past 11 months!

Here's a video of her on the "rollercoaster:"

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...

More walking... and the first-time troublemaker...

Everyone said once Calista took her first steps she'd be "off and running in no time." She's actually decided to prove everyone wrong and take her time with it, which is fiiiiine with us. Some days she is not really into it at all, and other days, she is willing to experiment with those little feet. Here's a video from last night...

In other news, Callie got "in trouble" for the first time the other night. She had Ken's phone and somehow kept pushing the buttons to connect it to the Internet. I managed to keep pushing "end" on the phone while she was holding it to keep it from connecting, but one of the times she started loading the Internet, her hand was covering the "end" button, so I took the phone away to push the "end" button. I was going to try to figure out how to lock his phone and give it right back to her, but then she SCREEEEEEAMED at me for taking the phone from her. It was definitely a scream that made both Ken and I drop our jaws. I mean, this girl has cried before, but this was very different. She was SO mad at me, and the angry, nasty scream shocked both of us.

I took her chin in my fingers and turned her head toward me and said "NO" in a firm voice. Well, that must have just been the end of the world, because the wail she let out when I told her "no" was soooooo dramatic and loud, you could probably have heard her down the street. She was just beside herself. Of course, she goes crawling over to her Daddy, sobbing (thanks kid), and I'm just picturing all the things she wants to say to him ("Mommy is the meanest Mommy in the world...").

In the end, we kissed and made up, and I'm traumatized for life, scared of the next time I have to tell her "no." I'm pretty sure next time I'll let Ken be the bad guy.

Walking makes you bleed...

This kid is walking more and more each day. Her prime walking time seems to be right after her bath... right before bed. She still only takes 5 or 6 steps, but she has started doing it (sometimes) without falling down at the end. The other night she even swiveled to change her direction while she was walking. I know, I know, only a mother could be excited about a "swivel."

Anyway, last night, she couldn't decide if she wanted to walk or if she'd rather play with an empty diaper box... as she took her last step and tumbled onto the box, she bit her lip and WOW was she upset! The poor girl was bleeding like crazy and was just beside herself.

This clearly didn't traumatize her for too long, as she was back to playing in no time. She did, however, drool like a maniac for the rest of the night. Poor little munchkin.

WALKING!

Lots going on here!!! Callie started "walking!"

It started with just a tiny little step every now and then (11/4)... only her right foot, almost always followed by a face-plant:


Now she's taking a few more at a time (11/9)!



Here are a few other fun videos of life in the Lumb house lately...

Calista LOVES to go for "bike rides!" I have no idea why it's showing up sideways...


Another sideways video... picking out a good book!


I'm particularly excited about this one... I'd been trying to teach her this for a few days, then all of a sudden she started doing it one night when I was carrying her up the stairs! Now she does it ALLLL the time!


Little giggles to make you smile!

funny lady

This kid is cracking us up!

Working on Walking...??

Callie is learning how to move her feet! Sometimes she drags them a little, but she's getting there. She decided to use her toy as a walker the other day...

In other news, Calista did her first Cystic Fibrosis walk this morning. She was such a good girl! The last couple days we've had to break out her winter coat, hat, and gloves! Here are a couple pictures, but there are a few more up on Phanfare...

Look Mom, NO HANDS!!!

Callie decided tonight was the night to start letting go of furniture to try standing on her own! She did it a few times... each time for just a few seconds, but it was so exciting!!

Blabbermouth!

Time is going so fast these days! We're settling back into a routine now with school and daycare and having lots of fun on our "down time" Ken reports that when he picks her up from daycare, he sees all sorts of cute things... some days she's playing by herself, other days she's goofing around with other kids. Most times, she sees him and gets excited and crawls right over to him!! Sometimes she's standing at the gate that separates her room from the "big kid" room and she's talking with the kids in the other room (they were mostly all in her room last year). Apparently sometimes she finds a corner spot where she can see clearly into the other room and just sits right down and watches the big kids. I think it's hilarious!

For those of you who haven't seen it (or heard it on the phone), Callie's becoming a real "blabbermouth!" She's VERY social and she loves to chat the day away. Below are some videos of her talking and of this new trick she's so excited about (balancing a ring on her thumb - seriously, she does it ALL the time now).

Anyway... enjoy...

standing

This girl went from crawling to pulling up to her knees to pulling up to a full-fledged stand in just a couple of days... this was from a couple of days ago, and she's even better at it now. She pretty much spends most of her playtime crawling around looking for places to practice standing. It still blows me away every time... how is it possible that she's growing up so fast?!

Back to School, and other things...

Well, Callie went "back to school" today. Ken and I had "teacher days" and the students come tomorrow. I may or may not have cried a little, but I tried to be a big girl about it... I took my cues from Calista who LOVES being back at TotSpot. It seems impossible that summer is already over, but we had such a carefree and peaceful time together so we made lots of memories. Check out our photo site to see lots of updated pictures! http://albums.phanfare.com/lumblove

Well, since the last semi-crawling video I posted, Callie is a FULL-FLEDGED crawler! In fact, her teacher today told us she's the "fastest crawler she's ever seen." It's hard to keep up with her these days, and now she's started pulling herself up! She mostly just does it to her knees, but the other day I walked in and she was STANDING UP in her crib! I couldn't believe it, and of course, before I got the camera, she was plopped back down. :)


Here are a couple fun videos for you:

*playing in her crib and a little more "mama"

* more playing/banging in the crib (with a little coughing for dramatic effect)