Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Photos from Phones - April 2014 Round Up

April was a pretty fabulous month.  We tried to be outside as much as humanly possible in the beautiful springy weather that finally arrived in our area, taking walks and eating picnic lunches and getting out on our first official Monday Night Hike (MHN) of the season.  And then we went on a weekend getaway (slash conference for Gregg) to Breckenridge where it was still very much winter (15 inches of fresh snow while we were there!) - but we enjoyed the slopeside views from our room and we still got outside anyway for a walk through the town.  We also traveled to Utah over Easter for a quick Blanchard family reunion of sorts, but I'll post those pics in their own post since there are quite a few.  The last weekend of April we made a little jaunt over to Glenwood Springs (to visit Target - we're oh so exciting!) and on the way home we stopped at a rest stop in the canyon for a little walk.  Walking, gazing at the views, giggling at our Callikins - all in a month's work.

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More round ups here: March | February | January | December | November | October | September | August | July | June

Thursday, April 24, 2014

I Think the World is Glorious

I recently purchased the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Teach Me To Walk in the Light and other children's favorites album using some Amazon birthday gift cards (thanks, fam!).  The first song in the playlist is this one, and I love it:


It is titled I Think the World is Glorious and is apparently found in the Children's Song Book, but is one that I never learned myself as a primary girl.  I'm glad the MoTab Choir included it on the CD, though, because it has quickly become one of my favorites.  It puts into simple but powerful words (with a bonus catchy, lilting melody) my own gratitude for this beautiful earth that we get to live in and enjoy.  As I pushed Cal along in the stroller on this sunny April day, the lyrics kept running through my head.  Can you blame me for singing when I get to experience this while I walk?


I think the world is glorious


and lovely as can be.


The birds and bees and blossoms


bring sweet messages to me.


I sing, and sing, and sing, and sing a song of joy and love.


I sing, and sing, and sing, and sing my thanks to God above.


Thursday, April 10, 2014

10 Things I Love About You

Ten months.  Yep, it's true what they say about time flying.  Just last month, people started saying, "Wow, she's almost a year!" and I thought, "Whatevs, she's only nine months."  But now, now that she's ten months . . . well, somehow my mind has flipped the calendar and realized that yes, it's really been almost a year since she joined our family.  Sheesh.  But for now she's just ten months old.  And it's the perfect age for her.  Without further ado, I give you my latest list, 10 Things We Love About Callie.  (And yes, there will be 10 photographs, too - could I really make a post without posting pics?  No way.)


1) We love watching her learn to communicate through sign language.  She can sign "more", "all done", and "milk", though sometimes when she really wants something but can't quite remember how to say it (or maybe just wants to emphasize that she wants it), she just starts waving her arms doing all the signs at once.  We're working on "eat/food" currently.  It's been really fun to see the progression of her learning by first watching us make the sign, then mimicking our actions, and finally actually using it to tell us something.

2) We love watching her wave hi or bye.

3) We love listening to her grunts of concentration as she move herself to where she wants to go, still via the "sidewinder snake maneuver", which is getting more efficient, but still hilarious to watch, combined with some "steamrollin" and "bum pivots".  She has gotten herself up on her hands and knees only briefly, but I think she'll get there eventually.

4) We love seeing her read her books.

5) We love how excited she gets to be outside on a walk or a hike or a stroll.

6) We love the wet, slobbery, open mouthed kisses she plants on our cheeks when we ask for them.

7) We love seeing her curiosity and exploration of her little world - watching her unpack (and scatter everywhere) the contents of the diaper tote, or open, thumb through, and rip out single sheets of paper from our game-scoring notebook.  She's busy, busy, busy.

8) We love hearing her babble away, changing the tone of her voice and repeating sounds she hears from us. She'll fake cough if she hears us cough (and just last night it sounded very much like she mimicked a burp).  She'll repeat a "da-da-da" or "ma-ma-ma" or "la-la-la" after we say it.  She has a high squeaky voice that she uses specifically to talk to her stuffed animal friends, especially Minnie Mouse.  Sometimes she'll sing along when we are singing or listening to music.  And sometimes she'll sing just because.  That's my favorite.

9) We love playing peek-a-boo as a family, especially when Dad gets home from work.  And it's fun to watch her initiate a game of peek-a-boo by holding something up over her head.  The best part of that is when it's not something that actually covers her face, yet she's convinced that she's hiding anyway.

10) We love her bath-time antics: splashing and "swimming" and sitting back up, trying to catch the toys as they float by, grabbing the washcloth from our hands, and splashing some more for good measure.











Yeah, we love our little girl!




Watch Callie grow: 9 months8 months | 7 months | 6 months | 5 months | 4 months | 3 months | 2 months | birth