Yard Sales Make Calla a Shopaholic

TODAY we were on the go! Calla was our rooster this morning at 5:30, waking everybody up - including Daddy for work. Usually she settles back down to sleep, but she followed him upstairs when he went to get ready and stayed awake. He put a Barney video on for her before he left, and after it was over she came back down to wake me up (again). So I put ANOTHER Barney episode on (go ahead and judge me) which held her over until I was able to crawl out of bed at 7:30. Kelsey thought it was Saturday and slept in until 8:45! Wish I could have snoozed along with her!

As soon as Kels woke up, we piled in the van and, after making a pit-stop at Dunkin Donuts for munchkins for my munchkins, went stalking around the neighborhood for yard sales. I had plotted out my yard sale route the night before, so we followed it for the most part. It must have been a designated "yard sale weekend" for a subdivision nearby, because there was almost a yard sale on every block. I didn't feel like getting both girls out for each one, so we mostly just stopped at ones with kids' stuff.

Calla LOVED "yardsaling." I kept Kelsey in the stroller, and we'd saunter on up to the yard with our purses on our arms. Calla always thought it proper to introduce us to whoever was "selling" (or, in some cases, other patrons). She'd give them our names, her age, her spelling of her name, etc. It was very difficult for her to limit "her" purchases! My goal was to find an outdoor plastic table for the girls and a red wagon, and we struck out on both of those. But we did buy some good-as-new books for Kelsey for her birthday, a basket for myself, and a "treasure." Calla's "treasure" is her gift to Kelsey for her birthday - a princess-pink, plastic car that has a handle that you "push." I tried to convince Calla to go for the plastic sliding board, but she was completely transfixed by this princess riding toy. We pretended to "hide" it from Kelsey so she'd be "surprised" for her birthday.

After a while, Kelsey was tired of the yard sale scene and so we came home for an unusually early "afternoon" nap. Calla was tired from her early morning wake-up call, and both girls ended up falling asleep at 11:30! So we ate lunch AFTER naps, and then took advantage of the 80-degree weather by going to the park (where else?).

Today we met up with my friend, Ashley, and her son Robbie and daughter Ellie. Calla had such a great time playing with Robbie - she kept wanting him to "chase" her. There were quite a few older kids there (probably because it was mid-afternoon), so they stuck together! And Ellie and Kelsey spent most of the time eating! Ellie snacked on Kixx and Kelsey snacked on her sister's strawberries (she just holds them at her mouth and sucks on them, and then they end up falling and staining her clothes). Calla took a couple stumbles while we were there - I am wondering if her sneakers are getting too small. She's been wearing them since August or September. It's just so uncharacteristic of her to be such a klutz! And hard on her knees! (Lots of "ouchies" and bandaids.)

Well, as usual, parks have this effect on Kelsey:

below: playing at the park. She is wearing a "dress" that Grandma got Calla last summer.

below: I am saying "CHeese! Cheese, girls, over here!" As you can see, they are blatantly ignoring me:

below: Yay! One out of two!

below: Kelsey sees something she wants. Calla is wearing the same-size dress Kelsey has on, although this summer it will work as a shirt!

Well, once we got home from the park, I allowed Calla to "sit" in Kelsey's car while she napped. Then, once she woke up, Calla secretly stored it away in the office so Kelsey wouldn't see it. We are going to have to wrap it together. It is going to be hard for Calla to wait until Kelsey's birthday for Kelsey to "open" it!

Daddy went to a Cubs game with some friends this afternoon and didn't get back until 6:15, so at 5:30 one of his friend's wives and I met at McDonald's for dinner. You know you are a young mom when dinner at McDonald's makes for a fun Friday night out! My girlfriend, Leslie, came with her sons, Carson, who is six months younger than Calla, and Chase, who just turned one. You may recall we went to his birthday party a couple weeks ago...in fact, when I told Calla we would be seeing him at McDonald's, she said, "OH Chase! His face was full of birthday cake!" Haha.

Kelsey's favorite McDonald's meal is eating part of my pita (from the "big mac snack wrap" - I'd highly recommend it) dipped in part of my yogurt parfait. She likes to suck the yogurt parfait off and go in for double dips. Calla ordered a cheeseburger, which is highly unusual. She didn't seem to know how to eat it. She ate one half of the bun. Then she ate a few bites. Then she accidentially dropped it on the floor, so I confiscated the other half of the bun (which touched the floor) and handed her simply the meat and cheese. Which she ate. She didn't eat many fries, except I cut some in pieces for Kelsey and then of course she wanted them.

Calla's 5:30am wake-up call came back to bite us in the middle of the McDonald's playland. Now that Kelsey is walking, it was very hard to keep up with her. There is a colorful plastic slide in the middle that she insisted on climbing up (and falling off if I wasn't there), so I grew very weary of the whole place within, say, five minutes. Which worked out because Calla started randomly crying because her shoe became unvelcroed (is that a word?) and I realized it was time for bed!

Both girls were in bed by 7pm, which makes me wonder if another 5:30am wake-up call is due tomorrow.........

Callaism~

~ On our way to the park, "Mom, can we go to another yard sale on Monday?" (I am not sure why she decided Monday was the day...she usually refers to all days of the week as "Tuesday" so it least she is adding a day to her vocab. See - there is some value in watching Barney!)

below: Kelsey and I playing while we waited for Calla to wake-up from her afternoon nap:

Klutzy Calla

TODAY...well, this morning....was a repeat of yesterday, except a different park. One of my girlfriends emailed a bunch of us asking if we wanted a playdate at the park, so Calla and Kelsey and I headed out after Kelsey woke up from her nap. Calla loves the park, and I do too - especially over lunchtime. Kelsey's lunch is so messy, and it's nice not to have to vacuum when she's done!

Calla had a couple falls at the park. She must be going through a growth spurt, because she has been so klutzy the past couple days! (You may have noticed that in the last couple seconds of the video I posted yesterday!) At one point at the park, she just fall flat on her face. For no reason. She was very sad. )-:

Later on, she wanted to try out her friend Brooke's bike with training wheels. It's a pink princess bike, and attracts all the kids like a magnet. Calla could barely reach the pedals, but Brooke was so sweet and pulled her around on it while Calla struggled to get her legs moving. I think she'd get the hang of it if the bike was shorter. Anyway, they were playing so nicely until it came time to dismount. I watched as Calla smoothly swung her leg over, and then somehow wiggled and ended up in a sad heap on the ground. I'm still not sure how it ended so badly.

At any rate, both girls were very tired by the time we left and I glanced in my mirror and saw Kelsey like this literally two minutes into our car ride home:

below: I just have the biggest soft spot for a sleeping baby. She tucks her bottom lip under her top lip when she is sleeping (she also does that when we walk into somewhere unfamiliar).

After naps, the girls "helped" me clean the house in preparation for their baby-sitter....AUNT COURT! Ben, Mema and Opa are out of town and Aunt Courtney was so sweet to drive from work to our house to watch the girls while Jonathan and I went out on a date! She offered to spend the evening with us. So we set the three girls up with dinner and enjoyed a rare night out in Wheaton.

Aunt Court reported that the girls did good...she said Kelsey seemed to notice that we were gone about an hour after our departure. She said she felt like she was looking around for me and getting sad, so Courtney distracted her by taking the girls outside to play! That totally works! Kelsey has always been a sucker for the outdoors...even as a baby, taking her outside was our "trick" to get her to stop crying! I spent many evenings last summer walking around the backyard to settle her down (which often relaxed her enough that she fell right asleep). Kelsey was starting to cry again a little later, but we were just walking in the door. Phew!

I think she was a little hungry. Jonathan pointed out that her diapers haven't really changed too much (the contents of them, that is) since she started "eating." I guess she isn't really getting THAT much actually in her mouth. But she sure is trying, which is a start. The other day I tried spoon-feeding her just to see, and she got all annoyed at me!

Jonathan showed Aunt Courtney Kelsey's new trick, which is giving him a high-5. I was skeptical, but she really does slap him five everytime he holds his hand up! And Aunt Courtney showed us a new trick Kelsey pulled out while we were gone - drinking orange juice! She found Calla's orange juice cup and kept throwing her head back for swigs. She really liked it! The first couple sips, she would make this face (she's used to only drinking water), but then she kept at it and was smiling and giggling after every sip. I will have to video her throwing her head back with her cup - it's so funny looking.

below: Calla took some photos of Kelsey tonight:

below: she was getting closer...too bad we can't see her tiny little tooth (which is actually just the very itty bitty top of it)

below: nice form, Kels

below: slapping Daddy five!

below: look at that smile!

below: hugs after their trick

below: walking from Daddy over to Mommy

below: Calla took this family photo

below: and this one! She was very proud of herself!

below: sadly, my only photo of Calla from today. I was demonstrating how Kelsey likes to be with Calla ALL the time. She rushed over while Daddy was putting Calla's bedtime diaper on (you can guess what Calla is rubbing on her nose!)

Well, all the park weather has us tired. So g'night!

Callaism~

~ I told Calla that she would have to help Aunt Courtney baby-sit Kelsey because Mommy and Daddy were going on a date. "A date?" Calla said. "Yes, we want to spend time together," I said. "Yes," Calla said. "You and Daddy are friends."

~ This morning, I got Calla her bowl of Life cereal for breakfast and she watched me grab cereal for myself. I also grabbed a bagel. "Mom," Calla said, "You are going to eat two things?" I nodded and Calla said, "Mom, that's just like Pops eats two things! He eats his cereal and his toast!" HA! I could not believe she remembered breakfasts with Pops, which hasn't happened in 10 weeks or so! Kids have amazing memories!

Kelseyism~

~ Our time in the basement is limited to a couple seconds a day, because that's how long it takes Kelsey to make a beeline for the steps. She climbed the entire flight of steps yesterday (although if I hadn't been spotting her she would have taken a spill about 7-steps up!).

Routines

TODAY was our regular routine...Calla usually wakes us up, we head upstairs...eat breakfast (Kelsey had her new favorite food...strawberry cream cheese on a plain bagel), and then play until Kelsey gets tired. Then I put on a 25-minute Barney episode for Calla while I put Kelsey down for her morning nap and shower/get ready. I am not a very scheduled person, but this routine seems to work well! And Kelsey has caught on...every morning as I start to walk downstairs to her room, she starts to whimper because she is ready for bed!

Once Kels woke up this morning, we headed to a nearby park to play. We had it easy last summer at parks because Kelsey was little enough to hang out in the bjorn, but I have it pretty easy this year too because Kelsey is so independent. She loves the swings, and when she's not swinging she is exploring the park with her "walker."

below: playing at the park...Kelsey and Braden

below: she just strolled right up to him. big kids? not intimidated!

below: Sissy LOVES the stroller! Now that I don't use the infant seat, I stored the snap 'n go in the garage and brought out the single stroller and Calla LOVES it. I guess it feels "new" since we usually use the double stroller! She spent a lot of the park time sitting in the stroller...she ate her lunch in there, and chewed some ice in there, and just watched all the kids. She is so chill sometimes!

We hung out with Kate and her kids, Braden, Kelsey and Maggie, and with Jenny and Norah and Erik. I got to hold baby Maggie a little bit...she is only 6 weeks and it seems so long ago that I was holding Kelsey like that! Actually, sometimes it seems long ago and sometimes it seems like just yesterday! Time is so weird sometimes!

Well, on the five minute drive home from the park Kelsey fell asleep!:

below: Calla thought that was funny. As soon as she sees Kelsey asleep, she is always careful to whisper!

below: Ha! Calla wanted to take a photo of Kelsey from her perspective:

below: Then Calla took this picture of me. When she saw it, she said, "Oops! I missed!"

After naps, the weather was so mild that we spent the rest of the afternoon outdoors. I took the girls on a long stroller ride, which got a little violent when Kelsey learned that she could lean forward and pull Calla's hair. She actually got a fistful of hair! Poor Calla! She doesn't have any hair to spare!!

We made a stop at the playground behind the elementary school on our street. There were lots of kids there, in what looked like an after-school program. Calla is super intimidated by the big kids. She mostly stood right NEXT to my hip. Her eyes were busy following all the kids around. Kelsey loved crawling on one of those shaky bridge things and I kept having to chase her (which meant Calla was chasing ME). Finally I just got so tired I said it was time to go!

below: So we played at our house instead:

below: Kelsey hanging out in the car! She loves this car! Calla is laughing about something - maybe about the fact that she is wearing a pajama top from her nap?

below: I said "look at mommy and smile!" See how well they respond. Wait a sec.

below: Calla stood next to me to help get Kelsey to smile. "SAY CHEESE, KELS!"

below: Kelsey reacting to her sister.

below: LOL! I wish I had a better camera angle on this (Calla obviously thought I was getting pics of Kelsey). She has her tongue out and is doing "floppy ears" to get Kelsey to smile.

below: It worked!

below: more silliness

below: Calla is going into Kelsey's face to say "CHEESE, KELS! SMILE FOR MOM."

below: a look I haven't seen before...Kelsey determined to get out of the car.

Tonight was just dinner and baths. Kelsey had a fitful time falling (and staying) asleep - perhaps her tooth? - so Daddy and Calla had it least an hour of daddy-daughter time. They ate pretzels, sang songs, and "cuddled" according to Calla! We read books in her bed and she went to bed with no problem. It's on this nights that I am puzzled why other nights are such an ordeal!

Callaism~

~ Last night, we were headed to Luke and Jenny's and Calla gasped and said, "Shoot! I forgot my baby!" Today, on the way to the park, the same thing happened. "It's okay, Calla, she can nap while we are gone," I said. "No! She's crying! Baby wants to be at the park! She wants to go on the swings!" Calla said. )-: Poor baby. We did not go back for her.

Kelseyism~

~ For the most part, Kelsey likes to hang onto things when she walks - the walker, furniture, the wall. She usually just takes 4-5 steps at a time before dropping to her bottom and crawling.

Our Flowergirl Dress Collection

above: sisters! thirsty sisters...

below: sisters reading books...(I had told Calla to wait a minute before I sat down to read to her and she said, "well I will read to Kelsey then.")

below: it was a long book

below: Kelsey leans in for a better look

below: well, forget about it

TODAY the girls and I had a low-key day...we ran errands, straightened the house, and played at home. It was sunny outside, but looks were deceiving because when we went out it was really chilly! I think it's supposed to warm up as the week goes on.

We took some time to try on the flower girl dresses that Calla wore in aunt Kelly's wedding last year to see if it would fit for Aunt Kimberly's wedding this year...

below: Calla cried when she tried this dress on LAST year but this year she loved it! Here she is posing:

below: I think the sash is too high up now that she is taller.

below: twirling

below: the sash rides up at her waist

below: ....and the zipper is tight in the back

below: busting at the seams (well, not quite)

CONCLUSION: I think we have to buy a new flower girl dress for Aunt Kimberly's wedding

below: okay, next flower girl...Kelsey is modeling the dress Calla wore, at 9 months old, for Aunt Katelyn's wedding. The verdict is out...how does it look?

below: trying to get her to pause for a photo was next to impossible (as you can see, I was too lazy to take her undershirt off)

below: excuse the clutter....Kelsey wasn't a big fan of the tulle

above: her mobility in the dress seems good, so we know the tulle will not effect her dancing
below: her speed is about the same in the dress

Between the dress-modeling, I spent a lot of my day playing referee between the girls. Calla is not rough with Kelsey, but she sure likes to establish herself as "the superior." For instance, Kelsey was getting in a kitchen cabinet where the toaster was...just opening and closing the door. I was standing right there. Well, Calla must have figured I didn't want Kelsey in there because she said, "No, no Kelsey!" and slammed the door...on Kelsey's fingers. Thank you, Calla, for taking over.

Kelsey did some more walking (although if she wants to get anywhere fast she drops down and crawls!), and anywhere she went her sister was right on her heels (sometimes, literally on her heels!). It seems anytime Kelsey is happily playing, her sister intervenes to mess it up...oh no, Kelsey, not that toy. No, no, Kelsey, no crayons for you. Oh, Kelsey, I need a turn on that. Oops, Kelsey, you're too little for my stamps. I understand that little stamp pads and crayons do not seem appropriate for 10-month-olds, but I am of the persuasion that if I just let her touch them and hold them, she will satisfy her curiosity. In other words, if Calla and I keep hiding the crayons from her, then one day when she spots a random crayon hiding in the corner and I am not there, she will stuff in her mouth. Now, however, she is used to seeing crayons everywhere and they are no big deal. She doesn't even really pick them up anymore. Of course, that may be due to the 2-year old sheriff who is plucking them from her fingers.

The advantage of Calla's constant presence in Kelsey's face is that she is "my baby-sitter." This morning I was emptying the dishwasher and the girls were in the toy room, and I kept "tabs" on Kelsey by calling in for Calla's report. "What's Kelsey doing now?" I'd say. "Pushing the swing!" Calla answered. Or, "playing with the zebra toy" or "trying to read the books!" At one point she was "eating all the trash in your purse," so I investigated and sure enough she was emptying my purse, with a receipt in her mouth. It's good to know I can be out of the room and know that Calla will tell me if Kelsey is doing something she shouldn't!

I just realized this blog post is so boring I am almost putting myself to sleep. SORRY. Reading it is optional. In fact, I can't even track if anyone is reading this so don't feel bad (if you are, indeed, reading this).

Where was I? Anyway, after naps we played until Daddy got home, which is when our day got a little more exciting. Luke and Jenny called last-minute to see if we wanted to eat tacos at their house for dinner and thank goodness I hadn't started our dinner because we were happy to accept! Calla gets all exciting at the prospect of an "outing" - she instantly begins searching for her shoes and of course her tote, which is ALWAYS packed with the following: (1) two pacifiers (it least); (2) her plastic pink cell phone; (3) one of JOnathan's old castaway cell phones; (4) plastic lip stick; (5) Mommy's real lip gloss ("I have your lip gloss, mom," she told me); (6) Holly's bottle. And her baby ("Rinnie" came along this time - it varies). And her baby's blanket. And her pink blanket.

Kelsey didn't pack anything. We enjoyed tacos, and then dessert. Jenny gave Calla the choice between "candy" and a chocolate chip cookie. Norah chose candy, so Calla followed suit. But Norah wanted sour patch kids, which I reminded Calla she did not like. "Yes I do!" Calla insisted. So Norah offered her one, and before it even hit her mouth Calla said, "Mmmm! Yum! I like it!" Then she gave me a pointed look, like "see mom? I told you." I noticed later though that she opted for the chocolate chip cookie. Hmph.

Kelsey loves Luke and Jenny's house because of Cooper, their dog. Poor Cooper is banished to the backyard because Calla is so frightened of him, so most of the time Kelsey stood at the back patio door and watched him. We even set up the high chair at the patio, and she sat in there eating (or sucking) her dinner and staring at him.

Calla decided she wasn't a taco fan, so when we got home Jonathan made her dinner. Which threw her night off track. So she went to bed late, which is a wonderful thing in her mind. But not really in mine. So now I will say goodnight!

Callaism~

~ On the drive back from Luke and Jenny's, Calla liked to review the run-through of friend "status" updates: "Luke and Daddy are friends and Norah and Calla are friends and Jenny and Mommy are friends and Eriksen and Kelsey are friends and Cooper and (long pause) Cooper and Pedo are friends!"

~ Every day when I do Calla's devotions with her, I open her storybook Bible at the story we ended with the previous day. And Calla says, "No!" and opens the Bible to the very beginning. I think she thinks i am trying to "cheat" by starting in the middle of the book. So we've become very accustomed to the first like 15 stories of the Bible. We've never gotten past Jacob. Calla's Bible trivia is limited to the very beginning of the Old Testament!

~ Today we stopped at Target and I lifted Calla out of her seat and said, "Oh my you are heavy!" and she said, "THANK you Mommy!!"

below: This was what Calla wore to bed. She LOVES this Santa hat.

below: Tonight while we hung with the MOo's, Jonathan and Luke took the kids on a walk to a nearby park. Here are some photos from Jonathan's phone:

below: it was blurry at the park