Calista's 1 Yearly Video

I finished another video!

Calista's Birthday

 Calista had a lot of fun on her birthday this year.  We didn't do anything special, but she was thrilled to finally be allowed to open her presents.  She pre-opened the one from my parents a couple times before the big day and I kept taking it away from her, which was devastating.  That particular present had some candy in it so she was really upset that I kept taking it away.

The kids each picked out some things from the dollar store for her and Bob and I gave her a bike that the other kids outgrew.  She was really happy to have a bike of her own, but I still think the candy she got was her favorite of all.

Ever since Leon's birthday she has been singing her own version of the birthday song.  It pretty much sounds like she is saying "Happy Ooo ooo."  It is cute and she does it every time she sees a fire or a cake.  I knew she would be happy when she saw her very own birthday cake.

I love these little family birthday parties we get to have with the kids. 

Calista's Two-Year-Old Photography

Calista is two!  

What can I say to describe her???  There is so much!  That is it actually.  Calista has so much life squeezed into her tiny body.  She has the energy and passion of three people put together.  

Calista is nonstop all day, except for nap time, and that can be difficult because she is into everything!  We had to put a lock on our pantry door to stop her from dumping flour all over the house.  It didn't help much though because she finds plenty to get into.  It is like the toilet is her personal splash pad.  She especially loves dunking whole rolls of toilet paper into the toilet and then carrying them around the house drenching literally everything.  She dumped out an entire bag of powdered sugar around our house and we have been sticky for the past few days.  We've moped a total of four times but the stickiness just seems to stick around.  The sad thing about it is that this isn't her first time dumping the powdered sugar around.

Calista really needs 24 hour supervision, which is difficult when you are a mom of six children.  Good thing she has lots of older siblings to help out.  I'm sure God sent her to us after the four others for this exact reason. 

 Calista loves, candy, mints, sugar, marshmallows, and did I mention sugar?  Seriously, it is a problem.   She refuses to eat normal food half the time and goes around starving until she can get her hands on something sweet.  She will push a chair all the way to the pantry, if we accidentally leave it unlocked and help her self to a bag of chocolate chips.  And then cry like she is loosing her arm when we take it away.

Calista also loves her dad.  She is so excited for him to come home everyday.  I can't really figure it out.  I am with her all day.  She was pretty much attached to me for the first 18 months of her life. Yet she wakes up every morning in her crib and shouts "daddy, daddy, daddy," until I come and get her.  Sometimes when I can't get her to calm down I will show her a picture of Bob and we we will say, "where's dad?" and look around for him with our shoulders shrugged.  Then we conclude that he is at work.  It usually calms her down for a couple minutes.  Sometimes we have to call Bob so she can facetime with him on the phone.

Calista also loves Beatrix!  She is so happy to have a baby.  She isn't quiet and will scream "BABY!" right in Beatrix's face making her cry, but she really does love her.  She is always trying to hold her, or lift up her shirt to feed her. 

I'm so glad we get to have Calista in our family.  She brings a lot of joy, among other emotions, to all of us.

Calista's Baby Year Video

This video compilation of Calista's first year was so fun to make.  I had way too much footage but she is so adorable I really couldn't help it.

Calista 18 Month Photos

I really think 18 months might be the hardest age to photograph.  They just won't hold still for one second and are not the least bit interested getting their pictures taken.  That being said, we did manage to get a few nice pictures of Calista last month.

She has been going to nursery, these past few weeks, and I think she is finally getting used to it.  I guess it didn't take her that long, but probably a little over a month.  I would spy on her and see the primary workers holding her on their laps while she sucks her thumb and looks sad.  Even now, she does cry when she first goes in, but they said that only lasts for a minute and then she is fine.

Calista loves babies so we got her a couple baby dolls and they are her favorite to play with.  She loves to carry them around and point out their facial features.  It is cute.

Calista knows who she is and everyone else in our family.  She loves to point at everyone when we ask where they are and when she sees a picture of herself or looks in the mirror she pats her self on the neck.  I love it!

Speaking of her neck, she is obsessed with touching skin.  She will almost always have one thumb in her mouth and her other hand trying to touch skin somewhere.  Either down her own shirt, on her stomach, sometimes down her paints, or if she is being held she will go for your neck.  I guess that is comforting to her.

This next picture she is doing her really excited face.

Calista doesn't have many words but she can say a few.  I would say her first words are, dada, mama, tucker, up, and bubbles.  She is also very good at shaking her head no to us.  It is ver clear and easy to understand when she doesn't want what we are trying to give her.  Most of the time that is food.  She is a really picky eater.  Somethings she will love and will be a staple in her diet and then she will change her mind and refuse to eat them ever again.  For example, bananas, bread with peanut butter, and string cheese.  It is frustrating because I never know what to feed her.

She was cold in this next picture but happy that we made it to the park.  Calista loves going to the park.  Slides are a particular favorite of hers and she has plenty of helpers, maybe even too many helpers, when she is playing.

We are really happy she is in our family!  Calista makes big messes for us to clean up, but she is also so fun and makes all of us laugh several times a day with the randomness of what she tries to do, things like putting our shoes on to filling a water bottle with rubber bands.  It is just so fun to watch her learn and grow.

Toddler Alert

I love this girl, but she is really into ev-ry-thing!  I feel like the kids and I just follow her around all day cleaning up after her.  I think she finds it her mission to take everything out from where it goes and to put it on the floor.  It seems worse than with my other kids, but maybe I just don't remember, or maybe our house was better baby proofed than it is now. 

Just the other day Bob was telling me about how he moved everything in the pantry that she might want up a couple shelves so it wouldn't be a problem anymore.  Then the next morning I looked over and saw this.

 I guess Bob didn't go high enough.

Konami

Tucker started a new job a couple weeks ago and it is perfect for him.  He is saving money so he can buy a dog when we move back to the states so a dog job is just what he needed.  Everyday he goes to our working neighbors house and takes their puppy, Konami, outside to go potty.  He plays with Konami for about a half an hour in their yard and then comes home.

 The dog is really cute and very tiny.  I think they said he is a toy puddle. 

Calista and I go with Tucker quite a bit and she loves it as well.  She isn't scared of him even though he does softly bite.  In fact she learned to go and get her shoes to put on around lunchtime everyday to go see Konami.  She gets sad if we don't go.  If we are busy Tucker will go alone, or with Leon.  Leon also does a great job with Konami.

I'm not sure how long this job will last.  I assume that once Konami is older he will be able to stay home all day without someone taking him outside.  But for now it is a lot of fun.  Tucker hasn't even spent any of the money he made.

Calista's First Steps

Ok, so this feels really late now but here is a video of Calista's first steps. They took us by surprise and it was funny how many steps she took all at once on her first try.   She really wanted that drum and seemed unaware that she was walking.



This happened when she was about 13 and a half months old.  She then went a few more weeks of mostly scooting around.  While we were gone in the states though she transitioned from mostly scooting around to all walking.  So now at 15 months she is full on walking.  She seems so much older, I cannot even handle it.

Smash Cake

We had a little birthday party for Calista after Bob got home from work yesterday.  All the kids were envious that Calista got her very own cake.

I love how the cake turned out!  I waited a couple days to get the right tip to frost it.  I've done these roses before but with the wrong tip and doing it right was soooo much easier. 

Calista was pretty happy that we sat her down in front of the cake.  She did a lot of poking her finger in it and then licking her finger.

At one point it fell over.   We tried to put it back up but at that point she was done with it.  She never really got handfuls of the cake part.  She didn't take big bites or make a mess.  She was done though, she just scooted away uninterested.  I even left the cake out on the plate for a couple hours until bedtime and she never went back for it.  Right before bed I fed her some more bites with a spoon and she ate them, but she wasn't extra excited about it or anything.

We also lined up some items to see which she would go for.  We have done this with all the kids and like to predict what their future occupation will be.  Calista was kind of funny with this.

She grabbed the scissors first, and then the pen right after that.  So maybe the scissors could be a hair dresser or online they said fashion designer for scissors.  The pen could be a writer.  Calista, quickly moved through the items picking up each thing before dropping it and grabbing the next.  Maybe that will be an indicator of her career path.

Lastly we gave her some presents.  Tucker and Leon both picked out one of their toys to give her.  It was sweet because they did this all on their own.  We also gave her a couple things from the 100 yen store.  I honestly give her things all the time but I didn't have any specific birthday presents planned for her.

She is waving bye to you!

One Year Photography

My baby turned one!  How did this year happen so quickly?  

Calista likes standing, she can now pull herself up and does it all the time.  She also loves to give kisses.  Big wet open mouth kisses.  It is adorable.  She drinks water from a sippy cup with a straw and thinks it is the best.  Any food we eat, she usually wants and crackers she really loves.  She also likes her family, and it's a good thing too, because she demands a lot of attention and has a lot of people to give it to her.  I also wrote that she likes my wallet.  It has got to be her favorite "toy."  Anytime she catches a glimpse of it she reaches and cries until she gets it!  She loves to pull all my money and cards out of it and throw everything around.  It is an issue every time I go to pay for something or try to get my base ID out.  I wrote that she dislikes pooping because she struggles with it and only goes about once a week.

I just love her so much at this age!  She is all smiles and waves, with a little bit of snuggling and clapping thrown in there.  The most mundane things are very interesting to her and it is so cute to watch her just stare intently at things.

She is pretty good at scooting now, and is wearing out the bum on all her pants.  I don't mind though, I hope she never learns to walk.

We've been stretching her wake up time so now she sleeps from about 8 at night to 6:30 in the morning.  It is awesome! 

Happy Birthday Calista!  We love you!