The past year: a Calista retrospective

The last year has definitely been an interesting one for me and Kyler. We both quit our jobs, moved to a different city (in a different country), Kyler started grad school... Obviously, the biggest change was Calista being born into our family. We are so blessed to have this beautiful baby girl in our care. She has brought us so much happiness... and some heartache. But the good far outweighs the bad.

Calista is definitely starting to have quite a personality. She has definite likes and dislikes. Here are some of her favorite things:

Books - these are the ones she pulls out almost every day, and always smiles when you begin reading them:

• Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?
• Blueberry Girl

Toys - the ones she pulls out of the toybox again and again:

• Saxophone
• Balls of any sort
• Monkeys in a Barrel
• Stacking Rings

Color - as learned on her birthday, while we played with a wire block maze at the mall and she repeatedly reached for the blocks of just this color:

• Orange

Food:

• Spaghetti
• Bananas
• Goldfish
• Cheese

Inanimate objects:

• Shoes
• Kitchen utensils
• DVDs (pulling them off the shelves)
• Remotes and computer mice

People:

• Mom
• Dad

Chore:

• Laundry!
• Sweeping

Words:

• Dada
• There

Pooping positions:

• Standing up, shoulders scrunched
• The Plank pose

Animal:

• Puppies
• Gryphon

Activities:

• Dancing
• Reading
• Playing piano
• Nursing
• Eating!
• Bathtime

Park play structure:

• Swing
• Teeter-totter

Calista dislikes:

• Crawling on grass
• The vacuum
• Being "abandoned"
• Shots

And, now, the year in pictures:

First month:

Second month:

Third month:

Fourth month:

Fifth month:

Sixth month:

Seventh month:

Eighth month:

Ninth month:

Tenth month:

Eleventh month:

Twelfth month:

What a year it has been...!