6 months and counting...

So six months have come and gone. And as miserable as those first few months were, I knew I would miss them once they were gone.

Calla had her 6 month check-up and was 26 1/2 inches long and weighed in at 18 lbs 3oz. She's at the 90 percentile in both. So, she has slowed up considerably in her weight gain and is a full pound less than Leslie was at 6 months. A large part of this is probably Calla's love affair with actual food. I think she'd give up her bottle entirely if we'd let her. She got in a bit of trouble with the doctor for not drinking more formula, so we have to work on that. They also suggested a different formula to try her on so we can get her off the liquid gold she now takes. They were very impressed that she can already get up on all fours and rock back and forth. I know physically she's ready to crawl, I'm just hoping it takes her a little while to figure out how to move her hands independently. I'm not ready for her grow up just yet.

She's already developing such a personality... She was all smiles at her check up for the nurse- until the shots came out. So she got her vaccinations and she cried and I picked her up and calmed her down. While I was holding her she kept watching the nurse cleaning up and making notes on her chart etc... The nurse turned around a couple times and tried talking to her and every time Calla would turn her head and start wailing again as if saying, "I'm not talking to you! You're not my friend anymore!" It made me laugh. She's going to be a handful for sure.

I just can't believe how old she's getting. Barry can tell you how much I complain about my arms aching from lugging her around all day, but I know they are going to ache even more when she no longer needs me to. I pray God gives me the patience to enjoy Calla for every day she is still my baby because like pregnancy and infancy, regardless of present difficulties, I always miss it once it's gone.

more 4th of July Celebrations...

Here we are at the picnic after the parade. It was getting really hot. I think the high was only supposed to be 98, but it felt so much more!







Here's my beautiful girls. There were better pictures of Calla, but getting a decent picture of Leslie is few and far between. I don't understand why looking at the camera is such a hard concept for her!

We went home, and Calla took a nap while Barry and Leslie played outside in a couple of her pools. After the swimming, Barry made s'mores on the stove for snack. Ever since their campout, Leslie wants s'more all the time, so he gave in and made her one today! Isn't he a good resourceful daddy?

We cooked out for dinner, and then I colored some icing, and we squeezed it on to graham crackers for dessert...

I'm sure you can't tell, but it's raining sideways and hailing outside!

Calla is such a loud baby. Unless you are actively talking to her, she will gripe and yell endlessly. So, to give our ears a break during dinner, we decided to give her a teething biscuit which she loved. However, she had a little bit of trouble aiming at times...

It was a really fun day. It's nice to know that we can go out without Calla having a complete meltdown in the middle of things. We survived this year, next year we will have to do some serious celebrating. Hope y'all had as good a holiday as we did!

Children's Parade

We had so much fun on the forth! I was worried that we wouldn't have alot to do or the girls wouldn't have fun because all my family was out of town (yet another summer vacation without me) and we don't really have any friends to hang out with in town. But we ended up having a great time just the four of us!

There's a children's parade in town every year, so I decided we could start our day with that. Here's me and Leslie decorating up her bike the night before...



It was pretty last minute, so basically she just had crepe paper, but it was something special. She didn't care that it looked a little ghetto:)

Calla, of course, got a little flair on her stroller, too...

And here we are parading through the streets...

It was hot, but fun. There was a little program afterward where we said the Pledge of Allegiance and sang the National Anthem. It was a fun start to our day for the kiddos!

Why it's all worth it...

Dance Recital

Here's a few pictures from Leslie's dance recital. Like I mentioned before, she only got a fraction of the time the other girls did, but she did extremely well any ways. She's a cute little girl and she absolutely loved it! We got some good video, too, but we haven't got in on the computer yet. I'll try and get it up soon!

Sweet Leslie Moments

Leslie has always demanded to sleep with no less than 2 blankies (burp cloths) on her face. However, this caught me by surprise the other day... I turned a Word World on for Leslie to watch in the morning while I fed Calla breakfast. And afterward, I found Leslie sitting on the couch with her blanket on her lap and blankie on her head, just as normal as could be.



PS: Word World is a PBS show that is absolutely phenomenal! I find myself singing the songs all day long, and Leslie has learned so much from it. She knows all the letters and sounds and can sound out words really well. And, she can spell a ton of words! It's just rote memory, but that's alot of what spelling is, and she has to start somewhere. Hopefully, she'll be a better speller than her mother. All you mothers with little ones should DVR it for those moments in the day you need a time-out!


Leslie caught the last couple weeks of a summer dance program. Turns out it starts right after school's out and then the studio takes July off. Oh well- she absolutely loved the few classes she had. Here she is showing off a few of her new moves...

I've caught her "friends" watching TV a few times lately. It always surprises me and makes me laugh that she lines them all up facing the TV. Thought you might get a good laugh from it, too...