The Show-Me State

A few weeks back (all right, almost a month ago now) Calista and I went to Missouri to see one of my best friends and help her with her brand new baby boy. This meant I flew... alone... with a 2-year-old... on my lap... while 30 weeks pregnant.
Honestly, it wasn't that bad. Exhausting, definitely. But Calista did better than I feared, and as well as I could possibly expect - she is 2, after all. We lost a stroller in Dallas and nearly missed our connection, but we made it so it doesn't matter now.
What does matter is the time we got to spend with Liz and her baby! Little Pace is adorable, and Penny the Puppy was also a big hit with Calista. I was so glad I got to see Liz (the first time in more than a year!) and spend some time with her. I wasn't as much help to her as I'd originally planned, because the babe was 11 days late! I had planned that I'd get there the day Jake, Liz's husband, went out of town for a month, but because of Pace's tardiness, Jake stayed around for most of my trip. Oh well. Seeing Liz was so nice!

I was a little anxious for how Calista would respond to Pace - this was kind of like a trial run for a couple of months from now when she becomes a big sister - but she did great! It'll be harder when it's my attention that needs to be divided, but she was great! She loved helping change his diaper, putting the pad down and getting a wipe out and unfolding the clean diaper and throwing the dirty diaper away. Calista actually would try to insist that Pace needed a diaper change, when really he didn't. She wanted to help that much.
She also loved to hold him, and mostly did pretty well at it. Calista would climb up on the couch, sit down nicely, and then pat her tummy/lap and say, "'old Pace, please." She'd repeat it over and over, begging to hold him. And when you tried to take Pace back, she'd try to grab at him and hold on to him - yeah, that wasn't ideal, but she's 2.

Every time she heard Pace cry, Calista would say "c'ying, c'ying!" and point in his direction. She absolutely would not let me ignore it, even if, say, Pace was crying because he was hungry and Liz already had him in her lap and was preparing to feed him... no, he was crying and someone should do something about it!

As I previously said, the dog was also a big draw for Calista.

Penny got walked twice a day, and Calista insisted on going along. She even got to be the one to hold the leash on occasion, which meant those walks had no real leader, since Calista has no idea how to lead a dog.

Penny kind of enjoyed the chaos, but didn't like when Calista tried to use her as a pillow. For that matter, neither did Pace. I think we're going to need to break her of that habit (because we are sooooo in love with it when she does it to the cat!) before our baby boy comes.

Oh, and we had barbecue, because, you know, we're in Missouri.

All in all, I'm glad I went, and I was also glad when I got home and wasn't travelling alone with a 2-year-old any more.

Second Year Calista Retrospective

Now that Calista is two and I've posted about her birthday, I thought I'd post a little about her growth this last year!
One year ago... Calista couldn't walk, could only say a handful of words, and still was not sleeping straight through the night without nursing. I am pleased to report what a difference a year has made! She is fantastic at sleeping (most of the time) and goes to bed/nap without a fuss (though we are still nursing right before bed/nap 1-2 times a day. If you are going to even think about judging me on that or telling me it's "gross" to nurse a 2-year-old, you can shut up now), she can tell you about her black pants or insist that she has socks, shoes and we GO!, and she can walk, run, jump, dance, spin, and fall over with the best of them.

A list of her likes and dislikes...

"Toys":

• DVDs - she loves to pull these out of the cupboard, and sometimes even put them back. And sometimes we let her watch them.
• Puzzles
• Wooden train set
• The cat

Bedtime items:

• Pacifier
• Two trout
• Alligator
• Orange blanket
• Green quilt
• (yes, she will look for and insist on all of these at bed)

Colors:

• Purple
• Green
• (or maybe these are just the ones she likes to say the best)

Food:

• Spaghetti
• Enchiladas
• Yogurt
• Cheese
• Peanut butter
• Milk
• "Cake" - which to her, is any special treat
• Fries

Animals:

• Hippos
• Lions (that roar!)
• Peacocks

Activities:

• Coloring
• Going - it almost doesn't matter where, as long as we go.
• Going to the zoo
• Reading
• Watching alphabet/numbers/colors/shapes/etc videos on youtube
• Jumping on the trampoline at her cousins' houses

Movies:

• Spice World
• Bride and Prejudice
• Pride and Prejudice
• The Avengers

Dislikes:

• Green bell peppers
• Peanuts

The year in pictures:
August 2012

September 2012

October 2012

November 2012

December 2012

January 2013

February 2013

March 2013

April 2013

May 2013

June 2013

July 2013

She's getting so big!

And, for the true gluttons for punishments, a (hopefully) complete list of all the words Calista can say at 2 years old. It appears to be about 180 words, give or take.

Turning Two!

Somehow, my baby girl has gone from this to this:

And so we get to celebrate! First on the list, presents!

With her haul.

Not quite sure what to do with this stuff still.

Stickers from Aunt Loradona!

I want that one, Dad.

Sticker on the hand!

Loving the card from Grammie and Grandpa May.

She likes the bike and the thought of her new "hat"...

...but isn't so sure about being forced to wear it.

Hanging out with just Dad and the bike (sans helmet... for now) is pretty great, though.

Going to be a while before she is able to peddle on her own, but that's all right.

And trains! Yay! Choo choo!

Her birthday dinner ended up being take out pizza and wings, rather than homemade enchiladas, as planned, but oh well.

She enjoyed it.

And the carrot cake, too!

She's 2!

Happy birthday, Calista!

Zoo Talk

In honor of and sadness about the Calgary Zoo being flooded and thus closed the next two weeks,* I present "Conversations with Calista:"

'Po! 'Po! Two 'po!
Yes, there are 2 hippos at the zoo.

RAAAAH! Ohne, two RAAAAH!

Yes, there are two girl lions in front of us. And what's over there?
RAAAAH! Ohne, two RAAAAH!
Yes, 2 boys lions! How many does lions does that make?
.........
Four! 1, 2, 3, 4! Can you count to four?
........

Keacock! Keacock! KEACOCK!
Yes, that's a peacock.

Calista loves the zoo!

*Yes, Calgary is flooded! Downtown and about 25 neighborhoods got evacuated - about 75,000 people. We are fine since we are further away from the river. The zoo, which has a bridge spanning the river connecting the two main areas, was not so lucky. All of the animals are fine and uninjured, though. Oh, the zookeepers, too! Exhausted, I'm sure, but fine. So in two weeks or so whenever the zoo opens again, we will go and celebrate/support them!