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!

Calista 11 Months Old

Now that Calista is 11 months old I feel like I am trying to stop time as the days tick off before she turns one.  

I think her biggest milestone this month is that she got a tooth!   Her very first one!  I was so excited for her and I didn't notice any differences in her temprament when she was teething.  Just one day no teeth and the next I could see a slime clear/white sliver on the top of her bottom gum.

 Calista is also now a pro at scooting and she loves waving!  One of her favorite things to do is to eat the at her high chair!  I really think she likes to eat food like everyone else.

We had an incident with the robot vacuum bumping into her and lets just say she does not like the vacuum.  She will intently watch it, but if it gets close to her she will try to hit it and gets upset.

Check out that tooth!

Mint containers are always a favorite of hers.

This is the adorable face I see staring up at me multiple times a day.  "Mommy, pick me up.  I love you and I want you to hold me."

I love Calista!

Calista 10 Month Photography

The last two months she did amazing for her pictures but that was not the case today!  Now that this girl can move she won't stop.  For this picture I set up the sign, put her down and dashed to my camera which I had ready and then snapped the pic about 10 seconds before she slammed the sign down knocking off a third of the letters.

Calista likes scooting, getting things, army crawling, yogurt, and eating crumbs off the floor.  She will scoot all around now and is so happy about it.  Once in a while she will fall down after which she will proceed to army crawl around.  I don't think she minds either but she seems to prefer scooting and the girls are quick to swoop her up when she falls so I'm not sure if she will get much better at crawling.  She thinks it is funny to scoot away from us.  She spent one of Tucker's entire basketball practices trying to scoot onto the court.  Everytime she got passed the line I or Scarlett would pull her back and she would take off again, looking over her shoulder smiling at us to make sure we were watching her.

She also likes to eat any crumbs she can find on the floor and with four older siblings she finds plenty.  One time I found the kids "accidentally" dropping big pieces of their brownies on the floor and then laughing about how much she liked them. 

I've found she doesn't like to eat green beans, I'm not sure why but she pushes the mushed green beans out of her mouth even though she likes pretty much everything else.  She also doesn't like showers.  She has this bad habit of pooping a ton in her crib.  So much that it is pretty much everywhere and she needs a shower right away.  She hates it and it isn't fun for me either.  This probably happens at least once a week.

These next pictures aren't that great but I wanted to share them because they show a little bit about how things went.  She scooted around and wouldn't hold still for the camera.   

I even took things away so she would have nothing to play with but that didn't stop her.

I love this girl and  I'm not going to lie, she is getting more and more fun the older she gets.