Smiles!

Sweet Miss Callie has been smiling and coo'ing so much lately! Mornings are her smiliest time(just like Ben, when he was a baby). I was finally able to capture her beautiful grins. Enjoy!

Daddy's Day Off

We all look forward to Dan's days off, but no one more so than Ben. He asks Dan every day if he has to go to work and becomes very sad when the answer is 'yes'. We try to fit a lot in on his days off and we really make the effort to spend some quality family time together, in addition to all the errands and appointments we take care of.
We found a great, little park not too far away(much nicer, shadier and in a better area than our neighborhood park!) and Ben and Emily liked it so much they asked to return the next day. I think they especially enjoyed it because Daddy played with them the whole time=) Here's a few pictures from our fun trip to the new park!


We weren't too sure what this thing was. My guess was a merry-go-round? It was awkward to ride on, and they'd invariably fall off when we tried to spin it.

Three of four of my favorite people

Emily has officially crossed over to the Swing-Lovers side. She even told me, "My(I) love to swing, Mommy!". She's using 'my' in place of 'I', lately=)

We're still working on converting Benjamin. He asked to swing, but got scared by daddy's over-zealous efforts and pushing him.

Falling In Love

Being that she is my last baby, I'm really trying to make the effort to savor and enjoy every minute of Callie's babyhood. It's hard to put into words how quickly and completely she has captured my heart. She is both so familiar, and yet, completely unknown to me at the same time. I love everything about her; from the top of her dark, silky head to the tips of her tiny, little toes. Staring into her big, beautiful eyes brings me so much giddy happiness. It's like your sweetest, most innocent school-girl crush and the best part is that you know they feel that way, too. Gazing down at her sleeping face as I hold her warm little body, snug in my arms is like taking a Zanex. It's total and complete contentment, for both of us.

I love this new-baby euphoria and how peaceful it is the third time around! Everything was so new and exhausting when Ben was a baby. I groped my way through his first year, constantly watching and waiting for him to hit the next stage. So much of Emily's babyhood is a happy blur to me because the focus was split between her, Ben and Hazel. But Callie? She will be the one I sit back and enjoy the ride with. I'll still watch and wait for her to reach those bittersweet milestones and I know so much of this next year will be a happy blur, too. But, I'm armed with so much more experience, if not patience, and I have her three biggest fans to keep me company as we watch this sweet girl change and grow. I'm determined to cherish every moment, and with a baby as sweet as Callie, it should be pretty easy!


This is how she spends most of her waking hours=)

She also spends a fair amount of time doing this!

The rest of her time is spent eating and sleeping. Babies have the BEST job. I'm sure that's why no one remembers their own babyhood. If you recalled how great you once had it, you'd be too depressed to carry on into old age!

Baby Powder

Ben and Emily have become awesome playmates lately. This is great timing, what with much of my time taken up by Callie. On the one hand, it's such an incredible joy to listen to and watch them play together. There are few sounds I cherish more than that of my kidlets laughing together! Yes, they fight(a lot!), but it's such a special thing to see two little people you love so much interacting with each other.

On the other hand, Ben and Emily playing together can often lead to screaming fights, owies or HUGE messes. The other day, I mistakenly thought I could nurse the baby on the couch while Ben and Emily played in my bedroom(with the door open). First, the door closed partially. Then, silence ensued. I called out to them and got no response. Uh-oh, I though. This can't be good. I yelled for them to come to me, and got ignored yet again. Then I smelled it. That tale-tell scent of baby powder. OH NOOOOOOOOO.

Officer Ben/Builder Ben

Ben has a new found love of wearing costumes. I made the mistake of showing him a very expensive children's catalog that has awesome Halloween costumes. He saw the Jr. policeman costume and begged us incessantly to buy it for him. Mimi ordered it and Ben became the happiest little boy in the world 5 days later, when it arrived by UPS. He tried it on instantly, and wore it all day long for two days straight. On the third day, my mom's friend gifted him with a construction-worker set! He's thinking of becoming a one-man Village People tribute band;)

Callie's Fairy Godmother

Mimi bought Emmie this beautiful princess costume and doesn't she look lovely? She tried it on and showed it off to her baby sister.



Callie gazes adoringly at her, as if to say: "Who is that beautiful creature?"

Are you a good witch? Or a baaaad witch, Emmie?
The face she makes as she pokes Callie in the eye makes me wonder!

"I was just pointing out her nose, Officer. I swear!"

Month One Comparisons

Here's all my babes at one month old. They all look alike, but so different! Sigh...aren't they sweet? Good thing I got my tubes tied;) Nothing brings on Baby Fever like pictures of my newborns!

Hazel Turns Two!

We've been missing Hazel like crazy since I stopped baby-sitting her. Her mommy, Heather, gave birth to Baby Gus on July 8th(just two days before Callie!) and Hazel has been staying home with her family! We were so excited to get an invitation to Hazel's 2nd birthday and had a blast playing at her house. The theme was crazy hats and they had hats for everyone! We enjoyed some great food and delish cake while the birthday girl and her friends frolicked.



The Birthday Girl, rockin' her Rhinestone Cowgirl hat

Emily, trying on a fetching Peter Pan hat

Chicken Little, sporting a chicken beanie

My little party animals playing together

One Month Old!

Holy crap. My baby is one month old today! If this first month is indicative of how quickly time flies with three small children, I'm pretty sad. I feel like I just brought her home yesterday, but low-and-behold, 30 days have passed us by. I'm happy to report that we've survived our first month of life with three kids! We didn't kill any of them, each other or ourselves;) Yay!

She had her 1 month appointment today and here are her stats:
Wt: 9lbs, 8 oz.
Ht: 21 and 3/4 inch

She had one shot, and according to daddy(who bravely took her to the appointment), she was not a fan:( Poor girl! He changed her reflux medication and we're hoping it will offer her a little more relief. Over all, she's doing great and looks perfect! Here's her very first chair-picture on her very first One Month Birthday. Happy One Month, Callie! We're so happy you were born!




One Month--August 10, 2009

Ben wanted to get in on the photo shoot. Callie didn't appreciate his attempt.

Already perfecting her dirty looks=)

Bittersweet Big Sissy

Emily is an excellent big sister. She is affectionate, helpful and seems to really enjoy having a new baby sister....most of the time. It's hard to remember that's she's only two and this is a HUGE change for her! For the most part, she seems to love having Callie around, but it's quite obvious when the novelty wears thin for her! That's when we start to hear "No hold Baby Caggie! No feed Baby Caggie!" and when she starts to claim the baby's things for herself(pacifiers, blankies, basically anything the baby is using!). She hugs and kisses her all the time, but has gotten a few hits in recently, too. She's testing her boundaries, learning impulse control and trying to figure out her place in this family now that her role as 'baby' has been usurped:( It breaks my heart to see the range of emotions on her face sometimes, but I do my best to spend one-on-one time loving her up!

Best Big Brother

I knew Ben would be a great big brother to Callie because of how he is with Emily. He really loves his younger sister and often says she's his best friend! I had no idea just how fully he'd fall in love with his baby sister, though. We spent much of my pregnancy trying to garner some excitement for the new baby and he wavered between ambivalent and down-right against the idea. He was so young when Emmie was born that he didn't really remember what it was like to have a new baby sister in the house. From the minute he first saw Callie in the hospital, though, he's been head-over-heels. She is the first person he asks about in the morning and he spends his days talking to her, about her and begging me to hold her. He loves to help change her diaper, feed her the occasional bottle and he's even tried to pump breast milk for her from his 'bo-bies' as he calls them=) He thanks me for bringing him his baby home from the hospital and always tells me how much he loves her. I feel so lucky to watch first hand as the love between them blooms. She smiled at him for the first time yesterday and he's even more enamoured=)

Steve Guttenberg

Much to my alarm, Callie has crazily curly hair right after her bath. It's like, poodle-curly. The first time I bathed her, I almost had a panic attack and was furious with the nurses at the hospital for combing it out and tricking me(um, post-partum hormones anyone?!). It straightens out when it dries, thankfully. Curly hair is lovely, but very hard to manage.

Now, you might be wondering what the title of this post is referring to. If you look at the picture of Miss Callie-Cakes apres bath I think you'll notice a hilarious resemblance to a certain '80's actor. That's right...my fave and yours: Steve Guttenberg. It's that curly hair! See for yourself!

Callie gives me the finger for laughing at her hair=)

The Gutte, in all his glory!