The Grahams

What a wonderful first Christmas!! Callie was spoiled rotten by her grandparents, great gram, and aunts and uncles - and she, of course, was in heaven. We had 3 days to celebrate Christmas - and all of them were packed full of family and smiles. We started Christmas Eve off by heading to church - Callie was quite intrigued by the glow sticks that were handed out during the service, then Preston and I made our traditional Christmas Eve dinner - sushi - YUM! We spent Christmas morning in our pjs and opened a few gifts. Then we headed down to see the Knowles side of the family. After a wonderful dinner of ham, we headed down to Vancouver to spend a few days with the Graham side of the family. A great time! First present - she was a pro at opening it with her mouth Hanging with Daddy in pjs Cousin shot - Callie got to lounge on all the others Presents sure are exhausting! Callie's new favorite person So, Callie is normally VERY shy with people but the second she met Gram she w...

Officially, one of my new favorite pictures!

Wow! Well, Callie is officially four months old - amazing how quickly time can fly. Here's some updates on our little bug: She weighs in at 14 pounds (75 percentile) and is a whopping 26 in long (95 percentile) She has great control over her hands now. She purposely reaches for toys and put them in her mouth - she has just started grabbing her feet and rolling over on her side - can't quite make it all the way around but we are getting close! She smiles all the time (at least in settings she feels comfortable in) - she is a bit shy in new settings and just kind of looks around and tries to take it all in. She has just started giggling! SO EXCITING! She continues to be a great sleeper (don't worry Amy and Sarah, she still gets up once a night) and gets up once to eat. Although she continues to be a power napper - only napping for 20 - 30 minutes each time. Her legs are super strong - and now prefers to stand when in people's laps. Here's some recent pics of...

So, this year, I was a bit overwhelmed by the idea of bundling Callie up and heading to the mountains to pick out the perfect tree.....we opted out of the mountain trip this year and headed to the nearest Christmas tree farm. Not much to complain about - free hot chocolate, mini train rides, and kettle corn - yet, it took a lot for Preston to decide to pay SO much for a tree! (it took him days to deal with the cost - in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it comes up again!) Callie enjoyed it so much that she slept the entire time - o well....there's next year. We ended up with a beautiful (cold) Seattle day. It doesn't get much better than this! Clara all bundled up with Grandma Cheese!!! Cousins helping cousins find the perfect tree Laurel was much more excited about the tree hunting than Callie How much?!!!! For this?!!!! Time to decorate the tree - Callie stayed up for the whole decortating time! Yay! Is this what I do? Cuddling with mommy The finished product!

This year, for Thanksgiving we had the opportunity to do it at our house. It was so nice not to have to pack up the car and head out. Preston cooked his first turkey and we had a great time drinking Old Fashions and fighting our way through the 50 lb newspaper ads. It was wonderful having Katy and Kristine come and help us celebrate the holiday with us! The turkey officially weighed more than Callie. Preston claimed it was the smallest turkey he could find - really?! Callie was a bit overwhelmed by the competition! Hanging out with Aunt Kristine

So Callie is a very easy one to put to bed - always has been. We put her to bed anywhere between 7:15 and 7:30 in the evening and if we catch her right it takes only about 10 minutes of rocking and she is asleep. Normally we have the occasional pacifier pop-back-ins (normally its about 3, it's funny, never more than that - I think 3 is what it takes for her to know we are serious and it's bedtime) and then she gets up around 4 for a feeding then back down until 7:30 or 8. The last two nights, we didn't hear a peep (besides the pacifier pop-ins) ALL night! Next thing I know, I look at the clock and its: WAY TO GO GIRL! She slept the whole night for us! I am hoping this is her new routine and not just a tease for mommy! She has officially found her voice, so we get to wake up in the morning to an extremely smiley, talking, happy girl!

So Callie and I joined a local PEPs group that meets once a week. Here's a pic of all of Callie's new friends - I have to say, not a bad picture for a bunch of infants! The funny thing is Callie just sat there the whole time, happy as a clam, while all the other babies were squirming and moving around. In fact, once all the other babies were picked up, her and Audrey (2 babies over) just sat there waiting for more pictures!

Holy cow! I can't believe that she is three months old already! Time really seems to fly - I am already dreading going back to work.... Here's some updates (not too much has changed since last month): We didn't have a doctor's appointment this month so I have no idea how much she weighs or what her stats are, so let's just say - she's getting heavier, longer, and chubbier (does that work?) (this shows how long she really is!) She has started to control her arms and hands and can now reach and grab for toys on purpose. She has started grabbing onto toys and moving them to her mouth so she can suck on them She smiles a lot - especially in the morning and if she is well rested! She hasn't laughed yet, but she REALLY wants to - right now you see the huge smile and you hear something that kind of sounds like a cough She continues to be a fabulous sleeper - not the best napper but I would take a night time sleeper over a napper anyday By far, she prefers ...

So, Callie had this adorable, cute, girlie ladybug costume to wear for Halloween. BUT we realized there was no way she was going to fit into it - she is still a bit small so we had a "make it work" moment (hopefully there are other Project Runway fans out there!) and she was..... A HUNTER (ah, such a proud momma) This was her pre party outfit - I didn't make her wear the hunter outfit all day! We had a great first Halloween with Callie - too bad she didn't really know what was going on :-) Clara was not too fond of her pea pod costume - didn't last too long....what a bunch of cuties!

Well, we have not learned to suck our thumb yet, but we can officially put our entire fist into our mouth!

How do I look for my lunch date with Daddy?! (I have to confess, not the best picture I've taken of her - looking a little chubby in the face....don't tell her I said that)

We lucked out and got some beautiful fall weather on Sunday and headed to the pumpkin patch. Although Callie, slept the entire time, we like to think she enjoyed this first Halloween activity :-) Preston, of course, found the "perfect" pumpkin for Callie! Kind of funny having all three of us girls with carriers - too bad Sarah wasn't in this picture! Laurel sitting on her pumpkin pick A lot of time was done evaluating the pumpkins to find just the right one Can you feel the excitement?! :-) The favorite mode of transportation

So for the last week or so, Callie has decided that she is not super fond of tummy time. This Monday she decided to do something about it: ( I had nothing to do with it) What a big girl! I also have a video of her doing it, once I figure out how to convert the file I will upload it :-)