Christmas Song-A-Day Countdown [5 Dec]

This morning, Cal and I were adding a cow to my nativity advent calendar and I tried to sing the verse of The Friendly Beasts about the cow but couldn't seem to remember the words right. A quick google search for the lyrics led me to two awesome discoveries: 1) a picture book illustrated by Tomie dePaola (which I promptly ordered from Amazon for $7.13 - yes, totally an impulse purchase!); and 2) this version of the song by Peter Paul and Mary, who I love with all my heart. (I think my favorite version ever is still the one by Brian Stokes Mitchell and the MoTab Choir (seriously, check it out!), but this one was a delightful little find.)

Christmas Song-A-Day Countdown [4 Dec]

This one seemed appropriate since we got our first big snow of the season last night (and it's still snowing!). Welcome to Vail, Suzy!

Christmas Song-A-Day Countdown [3 Dec]

Another classic voice for Christmas tunes. Love it. I remember singing this back in the ol' Adams Elementary days when we'd carry our little chairs to the lunch room for a big group Christmas carol sing-along. Those were the days. :)

Christmas Song-A-Day Countdown [2 Dec]

Such a fantastic voice for classic Christmas tunes.

Christmas Song-A-Day Countdown [1 Dec]

It's December First and that means it's time for my 4th annual (can you believe it?) Christmas song-a-day countdown. (Lucky you!)  Up first, Sissel and the MoTab Choir. Hooray for Christmas music!

Photos from Phones - November 2013 Round Up

I have tons of random photos of Callie on my phone and they never get seen by anyone (including me) unless I text them to someone.  But I don't always text them and sometimes it's only one or two lucky folks who gets a happy Callie picture message.  So I decided to make a little round up of said photos and post them in a gigantic photo dump each month.

I wish I would have decided to do this after one or even two months of her life rather than waiting till the end of November when she's nearly six months old (that's a LOT of pictures, by the way).  But, alas, I did not.  I did, however, "schedule" each monthly round up as if it had been posted on the last day of each month, so you may or may not have them show up in your list of new posts from me.  So feel free to check out the round ups here from June, July, August, September and October for a quick recap of the life of Cal.  

Note that not all these pics came from my phone - many are from Gregg's or stolen from other family members (thanks fam!). And some aren't from phones at all; I've included a few that I took with my actual fancy-pants camera that I thought fit in the the theme of random-photos-that-didn't-quite-merit-their-own-post-but-still-ought-to-have-some-view-time.

Phew.  That was a lot wordier than I intended to be to explain this whole shenanigan.  Let's look at some pics from November, shall we?

11.1.13

11.1.13

11.1.13

11.2.13

11.5.13

11.7.13

11.7.13

11.10.13

11.10.13

11.13.13

11.16.13

11.17.13

11.17.13

11.20.13

11.21.13

11.23.13

11.28.13

11.29.13

More round ups here: October | September | August | July | June

Five Senses

Five months Callie-style looks a little like this:
> big smiles and chubby cheeks and sparkly eyes
> slobber (always slobber) on her chinny chin chin
> toe munching in the evenings during "kicking time"

Five months Callie-style sounds a little like this:
> squealing and shrieking (happily) and the hollow thumping of her little feet kicking the mattress in her crib after she wakes up
> giggling (more like courtesy laughing) at her parents' vain attempts at 5-month-old humor
> crazy splashing (involving all arms and legs - at the same time) during baths

Five months Callie-style feels a little like this:
> oh-so soft skin to nibble and kiss on
> a fuzzy head nuzzling into your neck again (we had a couple month hiatus on this due to her thinking she was big stuff and wanting to hold her head up all. the. time.)
> little pinches and scratches and pulled hair that are quite surprising (and surprisingly painful)

Five months Callie-style tastes a little like this:
> mostly breast milk, morning, noon and night
> a taste or two of rice, oatmeal and squash (until the parents backed off due to tiny tummy troubles)
> absolutely NO bottles (Cal's choice) but a newfound (as of yesterday, so far) love of the sippy cup (even when it had formula inside - shocking!)

Five months Callie-style smells a little like this:
> whiffs of Johnson's Baby Bedtime Bath when she is unwrapped from her swaddle or when you kiss her head
> slightly sour spit-up spots on her shirts
> shockingly potent farts and poops from that tiny, squishy bum

Watch Callie grow: 4 months | 3 months | 2 months | birth