hey all!

I think I’m gonna dedicated this blog to the trials and tribulations of bringing up a lil girl. Callia is almost 18mths old now, and we’ve been through quite a bit. So hopefully it’ll give other parents, grandparents etc some insight and maybe some solution to something they’re going through.

..stay tuned, cos over the coming week i’ll start getting this blog organised

She’s finally done it.. only 13mths young, Callia has now started taking steps on her own.. and she’s loving it!

She’s been able to walk whilst holding onto our hands since she was 7mths.. but over the last few weeks she’s been mastering the art of standing on her own.. and being able to pick toys up and put them down without anyone’s help.. protect herself from smacking her face into the floor when she loses balance.. etc

we bought her a ride on thingy for her birthday.. yet she gets more joy outta walking it around the flat.. lucky for her we still have a lot of ‘play space’ which wont be there much longer..

Now.. we’ve been trying to catch her on film.. standing, walking ‘n whatnot.. like we have this one shot of her standing on her own, taken a while back, which reminds me of the photo of that sighted yetti.. ‘everyone says its there.. and its apparently caught on film.. but noone can be quite sure if it’s real’.. kinda feel to it..lol, hard to explain, but I guess you’ll see what I mean when it’s posted *smiles*

We’ve managed to get her walking a few steps whilst filming.. but she gets this ‘shiny box with flashy thing syndrome‘ and starts posing when it comes into her view.. lol ..so when DP sorts that ickle snippet out I’ll post it online as well ..*adds it to the list of the 50 million other things I hafta post*

We just bought Callia her first pair of Dunlop Ace Volleys last night to celebrate the milestone… she also got her very own pair of pink wellies! .as always pics will be posted as soon as i get around to it..

..now all we gotta get is some walking wings so we can keep her from running too far away

Our lil girl is no longer a baby… she’s moved on from infancy.. to toddlerdom.

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We were going to plan her a party.. but with work taking up quite a lot of my time.. and leaving me no sane hours to actually put something together.. we opted to do something really simple.. and just put together an ickle display of her pressies in the front room for her, so when she woke up and wondered into there.. she would be in for a surprise.. and needless to say she was

We also got her an ickle cake and some 1st b’day hats, of which she wore the entire day and the following day when we went out to dinner with her Grandy.

If I was allowed I would have spent thousands on her.. but we did pretty well.. got her clothes, toys, billabong rashsuit, books, a swing, her first ride-on thingy and a hi-lo chair.. for under $500

Callia did alright considering tho.. she got a pretty dress from her Nan ‘n Pop Martin in the UK.. an outfit, books and dvd from Great Nanna Inkson.. some money (which we used to open up Callia’s first bank account) from Great Great Gran in Scotland.. loads of clothes and toys from Nan ‘n Pop O’Connor.. and a Trust Fund set up for her by Grandy.. also loads of cards from family and friends in Aus and UK..

So now she’s 1.. she’s not quite walking on her own yet.. but she’s well on her way.. it wont be long before we’re chasing her around..

* she’s talking a helluva lot more.. has soooo much more to say.. and seems to understand us a lot more now.. so far she saying words like ‘dada’.. ‘mama’ .. ‘no’ .. ‘nanie’ (banana) .. ‘yes’.. ‘bot-bot’..

* she refuses baby food… so now its turned to hand feeding herself.. its the only way we’ll get her to eat.. independent ickle thing!.. she has a funkeh way of letting us know she ain’t interested anymore as well.. nothing quite like throwing your food over your head like its a toy thats simply stopped entertaining her.. soooo below her..lol

* she’s been attending Kindergym for the last 6mths.. altho the last couple of weeks have been rough with DP being ill and me working a crapload.. she hasnt made it mostly.. poor bugga.. sure she misses it..

* she’s taken to switching the tv on and off.. changing channels.. turning the volume up and down.. she’s learing what each button does and I actually caught her tonight turning the volume back down after she blasted it.. think she scared herself..lol

* she reboots our computers quite often.. and also tries to surf google.. she’ll be hacking in no time..lol

I can’t believe how much she’s grown! ..she’s not our lil baby anymore *pouts*

Anyways.. we’ve posted some pics.. hadta put them in Koobcafe.. so here’s the link:

Callia’s 1st B’day Pics

here’s to watching our beautiful girl go through another year of accomplishments and discoveries.. *cheers*

ok.. so its now 4:14am.. and I’m curiously going through my blog posts and have realised its been over a month since I last blogged about Callia.. time seems to escape ya when ya trying to just get through the days.. and omg!.. she’s growing so quick… just last week.. ‘cos I had some awkward shifts.. I didn’t get to hold my lil munchkin for over 24 hours!! O.O .. she was sleeping when I got home.. and I was outta the flat before she woke.. once I did get to catch up with her.. it was like I missed so much! *pouts* ..not to worry.. this easter weekend has certainly made up for it

Anyways.. Callia’s almost into her 10th month.. and quite a bit has been happening..

* she now has 6 teeth.. with very possibly another 2 on their way (she has been incredibly grizzly this arvo.. a lot more than usual)

* she’s eating more now.. as in quantities as well as new foods… she can get through a whole banana.. and almost have an entire piece of toast.. she’s also taking in more Heinz baby foods.. ooh! we also got her started on Heinz Little Kids Strawberry Fruit Bars.. and Heinz Little Kids Honey & Oat Bikkies… she loves them!!

* she’s flying about the place as far as crawling is concerned.. she’s got that mastered.. she also has, in the last couple of weeks, gained a lil bit of confidence in standing.. and has managed to stand unaided for over a minute (not holding onto anything for balance!).. she’s attempting to take her first solo steps.. which is amazing..

* she has said her first word!!! .. and it was ‘mum-mum’ *beams* she said it over a week ago.. but with not having much time to get on the pute, I haven’t been able to get on here and brag about it all ..needless to say daddy was a lil disheartened that mum-mum came out before ‘da-da’..bless him.. hehe

* she has started to clap along to music and dance.. this is something that’s started happening in the last week and a half.. and what’s even more amazing.. is she actually claps to a beat!.. our girl has nice timing hehe ..she now understands the word ‘clap’.. and 8 times out of 10.. when ya say ‘clap’ .. she’ll start clapping.. she’s sooo cute!!

* for the first time.. we’re finally seeing her really.. as in really really.. respond to music, tv shows and whatnot… and she lurves ‘Dorothy the Dinosaur‘.. she goes mental when it comes on.. I’ve never seen her get so excited

* she went for her first swim today.. and loved it! ..we stayed overnight with Lee ‘n Tiff @ Tiff’s dad’s place.. (he lives in an apartment block which also houses a gym ‘n swimming pool etc) ..we have pictures.. but seeing as I’m using Lee’s laptop at the minute.. I have no access to those pictures to post just yet.. but they will be posted

Callia amazes me, she’s so clever.. so happy.. it’s refreshing.. and it’s so incredibly rewarding to watch her grow every single day.. I’m sure she’s done more.. but its now 4:40am.. and we’re meant to be meeting dad for lunch tomorrow @ 11:30am.. so it’s best I get some rest.. plus Callia will be awake for 6am.. her ickle early-morn drinky-poos.. *chuckles*

..we adore her.. our gorgeous lil muffin, bless her

..stay tuned for further updates and recent pics!

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about how our wonderful lil girl is going.. time runs away from ya when all ya do is work, eat, sleep and attend to ya kid.. so here’s whats been happening..

[singlepic=169,200,200,,left]* Callia’s eating solids now.. we have a nice lil routine going on where between 6am-9am she has a full bottle.. 11am-2pm she has some Heinz Organic Fruit Muesli.. 4pm-6pm she has toast/banana/apple and finally between 6pm-9pm she’ll have some Stage 2 Heinz Dinner.. at the moment, she’s liking Cheesy Pasta, tender beef and mashed vegies and chicken and vegie risotto.. she isn’t keen on the pumpkin and sweetcorn, she takes to pulling faces when it’s put in front of her.. worse still when it actually reaches her mouth.. hehe

* Her two top teeth have come through now.. we’ve had a few days of consistent grizzliness and overtiredness.. so with these two.. she now has four teeth.. we’ll take pics when you can see them better..

[singlepic=160,200,200,,right]* Kindergym returned last week.. so we’ve enrolled Callia in 2 classes per week.. DP took her last Thursday whilst I was working and managed to get some pictures of her, they’re in Callia at Home, Feb 2008 and Callia at Play, Feb 2008 within my gallery, or alternatively, click on any of the pictures in this blog to see larger pictures…

* Crawling.. crawling.. crawling.. she’s on the go now.. there’s just no stopping her! ..she’s getting more confident every day.. so much so.. she walks only holding on with one hand as well.. and today whilst watching her play in the front room.. she managed to stand on her own for about 20 seconds twice!! ..she was concentrating on chewing the toy in her hand and balancing herself at the same time.. unfortunately, DP couldn’t get pics.. he didn’t get to us fast enough when I called him in to see her..

* Callia see… Callia do! .. she’s started mimicking us.. well she’s been doing it for quite a while.. but its more instantaneous now.. when we turn our head sideways at her.. she’ll follow.. same when we turn our heads the other way.. she follows.. its amazing to see her picking it up so quick.. she’s also started saying ‘mum-mum‘ and ‘da-da‘.. not too clearly just yet.. but we’ve noticed she will say it in our presence.. (she’ll say ‘mum-mum‘ when she wants picking up and is grabbing onto my leg or when she’s woken up in tears ‘cos she dun know where we are.. she says ‘da-da‘ when she’s in an excitable crawl to her dad..lol) ..nothing really worth screaming about yet.. but we can see she’s getting there

She’s growing up so fast.. I’m still getting used to being a parent, let alone dealing with the fact that it won’t be long before I’m telling her that she’s not going out wearing that!! hehe

DP has decided millions of pictures of Callia splashed all over the web just isn’t enough.. so he’s been filming her play time, so he could send clips of her to family and friends..

..keeping in mind we dun actually own a video camera.. we’ve just been using his Goodman’s Digital Photo “brick”, simply ‘cos it records sound.. unlike my slick Olympus which only does great silent movies ‘n takes fantastic photos

So anyways… here’s Callia’s debut on the world wide web… enjoy

This year we weren’t exactly planning on doing anything.. everyone felt generally crappy and Callia was having a couple of really grizzly days.. so taking her out was kinda the last thing on our minds.. yet, at the last minute with an impromptu decision made by me.. I accepted an offer for us to join some mates down @ Semaphore Beach to celebrate the new year…

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It turned out to be a pretty decent night.. we went with our mates, Jase, Naomi and their kids.. along with another mate, Wayne.. cosy, yet fun

Callia got the opportunity to dance in the sand… and dangle her toes in the ocean (with DP’s help of course) ..cept more than her toes dangled.. after the exciting event.. we ended up having to change her ‘cos she decided dangling wasn’t enough.. she wanted to plunge.. not to worry tho

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Once it had got dark.. we retreated from the surf ‘n sand and found a nice grassy patch to drop our things and chill whilst waiting for the ever exciting Semaphore New Years fireworks..

It was good we all got to catch up, and DP got acquainted, whilst our mate’s kids ran riot.. and their youngest sympathetically cried as Callia had a grizzle every now ‘n then.. cute!

We successfully managed the knacker the crap outta Callia.. so it was almost effortless getting her to bed when we got back around 1:30am

The only downfall was later finding out that our mate, Jase, hadta start work @ 5am that same morning.. works sucks like that sometimes I guess

Anyways.. we had a goodun.. here’s hoping yours was a good.. if not better..

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND ALL THE BEST FOR THE YEAR OF THE FROG!

Seeing as it was Callia’s first xmas, I was inclined to buy everything I could get my hands on for her… but practicality won out, thanks to DP, considering the fact that she’d prolly not touch half the pressies that I wanted to get her.. so the thousand or so pressies she _was_ gonna get.. was reduced to only a few

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We ended up getting her a couple of outfits.. a couple of rompers/jumpsuits and some toys.. basic stuff to at least entice her to interact.. we’ve got a pic of her lil goodie bundle in our Xmas 2007 album

It took her two days to get through the unwrapping alone… TWO WHOLE DAYS!! .. Seems she obviously didn’t sense the excitement I was experiencing at the thought of her ripping apart carefully wrapped gifts..

So far.. she’s worn her outfits.. and played with half the toys we’ve got her.. she’s still trying to figure out why she can’t fit the gigantic ‘donuts’, from her rockin’ stacker, in her mouth ..

We got a gift card from dad.. which had a value plenty enough for us to grab Callia a few things.. which we’ve yet to spend.. and she got some really cute pressies from family and friends..

Plainjane sent over a gorgeous dress & Nan sent her a couple of outfits.. spoilt!

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Xmas day seem to pass like any other for Callia.. apart from the fact that she got to interact with these 4-legged fluffy things that wanted to lick her at some stranger’s (Grandy’s) place.. whilst watching mummy and daddy’s first (and last!) experience in eating oysters… raw.. -_-

All in all I think she enjoyed the day.. even if it just was another in her eyes..

bring on next year… *looks around* err, this year.. I can go nuts.. cos she’ll actually wanna tear things apart next time

First of all.. before I begin,

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!

So, despite the sh*tty nappies, food being flicked around the place, the attention span of a gnat and the night grumbles.. Callia decided to delight us with gifts this xmas.. quite important milestones we think..

Her third tooth began cutting yesterday..

she was a grizzly lil thing last night, so I decided to give her some Bonjela Gel, only to find when I was rubbing it into her gums there was a nice new set of sharp edges in her gums..

She began crawling with confidence at dad’s place yesterday as well..

DP was helping to begin with.. cos she’d rather walk on all fours than kneel down and crawl.. but having the dogs around, I guess, encouraged her a bit.. as they too, in her mind, were crawling..hehe

And on xmas eve.. she stood up in her cot on her own, holding onto the sides..

I had just got home from work.. popped in to give her a quick lil kiss, she was dead to the world.. I took 2.5 steps away.. turned around and there she was standing there with a massive grin on her face.. followed by a raspberry *chuckles*

…Amazing times

We, of course, got her pressies, of which she hasn’t opened all.. but I will be blogging about that when DP sorts our pictures out.. and I’ll blog about how we spent our xmas day.. Cheers