Growing Up

This past week was a big week for Calleigh. There seemed to be a bunch of new things she was able to do or things she started doing on her own. Such as:

• Opening the doors. She finally figured out how to turn the door knob and open the door. Yes, this is a good thing but also a bad thing considering she's barged into Aubree's room a couple times while she was sleeping. Then another time she kept going into the food pantry to get treats for the dogs while I was nursing Aubree. The dogs loved it but I wasn't too excited.
• Putting on her sandals. She's put them on herself before but now she can put them on the right feet without asking and can do the Velcro part too. When she did it for the first time, I told her how proud I was of her so she then took them off and put them back on like three or four times in a row. I guess just to prove to me that it wasn't a fluke.
• When we were at Phelps Park on Friday morning she went in a regular swing, as opposed to the special baby one. She didn't want me to push her but somehow she knew to pump her legs to get going. She didn't go very far but the swing was at least moving.
• Also at the park, she climbed this big fake rock they have there all by herself. She was quite thrilled when she got to the top!
• She's been walking up and down the stairs by herself for a while now but somehow this past week she realized how quickly she can get up and down them so she's been making a lot of trips. It seems to have opened up a whole new world to her since she's figured out she can go upstairs while I'm feeding Aubree. We did have a gate up but it got loose so we took it off. Obviously it will eventually go back up when Aubree gets a little older but for now, Calleigh can come and go as she pleases.
• This isn't really an accomplishment but it is pretty new. Calleigh uses her little musical table to stand on so she can get in and out of her crib or Aubree's crib as the case may be. Usually she's going into her crib to get binkys. The scenario is typically me sitting on the couch with Aubree, Calleigh hightails it upstairs, I hear a lot of racket (as she gets her table lined up) and then a few minutes later, there's Calleigh peeking around the corner upstairs with her binky and blanket. She'll then walk down the stairs with her blanket covering her mouth so I can't tell she has a binky in it.

I don't want to leave Aubree out so I'll say she's growing up too! Duncan was amazed this weekend to see how good she is at grabbing things. If you put something in front of her, she'll reach out for it. We have a tray for her Bumbo so we can sit her in there and put things on the table for her to play with. I'm also happy to report that the non-swaddling has gone superbly. Better than expected, actually. She's continued to sleep perfectly fine through the nights and I would say falling asleep is only taking a few extra minutes if any. The only thing suffering is her poor little face which has a few scratch marks on it. I cut her nails a few days ago but she's still managed to nick herself up. Oh, and I've been meaning to say that I've taken care of her cradle cap problem. She's had cradle cap (dried skin on her head) pretty much since the get go and since scrapping it with my nails was driving Duncan crazy, I finally bought some stuff. I got it at Walmart and it's called "Cradle Cap Care" by Gentle Naturals. It worked like a charm so I highly recommend it.

Last week I took the girls to this new place in Casselberry called Amaya Papaya. Apparently it's the only one in existence and it just opened in July. It's this large room that's filled with a bunch of toys, games, activities, and even a sand box for kids 0 - 5 to play with. It's $9.99 to get in but it's half off on Mondays and Wednesdays if you wear an Amaya Papaya t-shirt so of course, I bought one (only $8). There were about 20 - 25 kids there and Calleigh had a really good time. She didn't want to leave and I practically had to drag her out kicking and screaming. The neat thing is that they have a bunch of tables you can use to eat and they allow you to bring in your own food. So one of these days Duncan will have to pop in for lunch. I think the whole concept is a cool idea and I'm sure we'll be frequenting it regularly.

Exercise is going great! I'm sticking with it. I've completed the first three weeks of my program and this is by far, the longest I've stuck with an exercise routine. Isn't it terrible to admit to that?? I'm hoping that my sticking to this will help other people in programs to do the same. You know who you are!

I'm going to end here so I can hit the tub. Here a couple of pictures to end. The first is Calleigh with Mrs. Potato Head that we picked up at a yard sale on Friday. It's been her almost constant companion since then. The second picture is Calleigh helping me make pumpkin pancakes last night. I made pumpkin chili and had to find something to use up the remaining pumpkin puree so there you go.