Callie's promotion and tenure review

Although Callie turned 1 nearly two months ago, the bureaucracy at the Bowes household has taken a bit longer to review her paperwork. The results finally came in this past weekend, and based on the information that follows, two decisions have been made. First, we will allow her to turn one and maintain that age for the following year. Second, we will keep her for another year at which point we will conduct another evaluation. The following addresses the highlights, and some unfortunate but correctable lowlights of Callie's recent development.

This is a recent photograph of the subject in question. Notice the confident smile she had when submitting her materials.






We'll start with the basic numbers and medical reports. At the beginning of November Callie visited her pediatrician. They found that she weighed 19lbs 9oz and stood at a grand 30 1/2 inches. That means she is the 75th percentile for height and the 20th percentile for weight. Still tall and a little bit heavier than in the past. Her noggin is still tracking large, and is in the 75th percentile.

Unfortunately, Callie also had another first-year medical evaluation. This one entailed a catheter, x-rays, and an ultrasound. All of this was to monitor the progress of the kidney reflux that had been diagnosed even before she was born. The good news is that the level of the reflux in her right kidney has decreased. The bad news is that they found evidence of reflux in both kidneys. Prior tests had led us to believe that only the right one was effected. As you can imagine, this was hard news, especially since we had grown to rely on the idea that you can live with one kidney. At the same time, it is important to note that both of our doctors are positive and have told us multiple times that this is a problem that can be easily repaired if Callie's body doesn't take care of it naturally over the next several years. Just as important, this has had no impact on Callie's day to day life. She takes her antibiotics every night without complaint and beyond that, shows no physical discomfort.

So with that aside we can now move onto other matters crucial to this review. They fall into three basic categories - daycare, development, and social skills. In daycare, Callie has now transitioned from the busybee to the waddler classroom. Unfortunately they gave us limited time to prepare her for the skills necessary for waddler survival, a.k.a. sippy cup use, finger food, and designated nap time. Needless to say, there was a period of adjustment involved. It took about three weeks for her to accept the sippy cup, and she still expresses some reservations from time to time about the absence of the bottles. Up to this point she has still had two bottles a day at daycare, although we just used the last of the formula, so that ship has sailed. Finger food has gone much better. She loves noodles, bananas, dried fruit, and obviously Cheerios. Unfortunately the finger food veggies have been less of a hit.

In the new class, everyone is supposed to sleep from noon to two on little cots. Callie has a hard time following suit. This has resulted in a few days without naps entirely, and a few discipline notes home. Our nurse called Callie petite, but Miss Donna at daycare has had to inform us of Callie "bodyslamming" a classmate when she was supposed to be napping. Our little nutterbutter has also apparently put her six teeth into not such productive use by attempting to bite a classmate on the forehead. We still think she was trying to give a gentle kiss. Finally, Callie's production of fine art has skyrocketed since entering the waddlers. Since the end of October she has come home with a number of fall-themed art pieces. Quite impressive, Miss Donna.

Now for Callie's general development. Her level of communication is on the rise and indicates some of the most important aspects of her life. She is beginning to verbalize, but has some trouble finishing. Duck becomes "duh" and dog becomes "do". Ending consonants appear to be low on her priority list and we have suggested that she do a bit more work on that.

Callie's sign language has also improved, and she now signs milk, eat, more, all done, bath, book, and ball with some regularity. Some have equated Callie's sign for bath with the universal sign for the chicken dance, but we know what she means. Outside of those signs, Callie also likes to give high fives, hugs, and kisses. She even blows kisses. The main place for improvement here is she needs to close her mouth when she goes for a kiss. She shows every sign of self-confidence, and has taken to clapping for herself any time she does something deemed worthy of praise. Fortunately she is not skimpy with such praise for others, and even clapped for every item her father removed from the dish washer and put in its proper place this morning.

There are few things that fall into the social skills category. She continues to be very comfortable with people and enjoys spending time with just about anyone who will pay attention to her. She has also shown increasing comfort in the house the more she walks around. Callie goes to her own cupboard to get her sippy cup and knows just where her play corner is and what toys are there.

Overall, Callie has shown clear signs of progressing towards becoming a little girl. Even her fits of crying and frustration normally are due to wanting to be more independent. We continue to be overwhelmed by how much we love her and love spending time with her. And we can't wait to have you see the above developments for yourself as we begin our annual holiday road trip.

Callie for Change in 2008

We are not the people in your neighborhood with signs in the front yard even though we are passionate about politics. But Callie is a different kind of political animal. She was not going to be satisfied until she made her feelings known on the blogosphere. So we have this post.

It is a gorgeous day here in Lexington. Not only is the sun out and the leaves are in full autumn display, but it is also much sweeter because John and Sarah have the day off. So we had a leisurely breakfast, got dressed, and walked to our polling station. Here is Callie, making sure we know the right direction to go to vote.




We left the polls to head to our local Starbucks for a free tall coffee, and along the way passed numerous signs indicating support for the various candidates. Callie could not resist striking a pose next to her favorite sign.





Now, Callie is obviously the type who wants everyone to vote regardless of who they are voting for. But she comes from a long line of strong women on both sides of her family who have never just sat on the sidelines, so why should she?

Lions, horses, and ducks, oh my!

Happy November/day after Halloween! There was a bit of a disagreement over the best way to open this post as you can see. At this point Callie is so active that we can barely keep up with her. October was filled with many events here in Lexington. We will start with Callie's first official Halloween. As you can see, she was an adorable little lion.




Although we worked on it for several weeks, she never really perfected the roar. She did manage a sort of angry cat sound, but we still need some time to make her a proper queen of the jungle. We had a wonderful Halloween night. We trick or treated at the houses of some neighbors we know and had dinner at Buddy's, where all the waitresses oohed and aahed over Callie.


Now Halloween was not the first time Callie showed off her costume. The previous weekend while John was on his way back from Salt Lake City, Sarah and Callie went to a local park for a harvest festival. It was a really cool event where we got to play games and trick or treat along a trail through the woods.






You can see from the last two pictures that Sarah took every opportunity to photograph Callie in her costume. Unfortunately we did not capture Callie as a lion at her daycare Halloween party where she and four of her tiny classmates sat around a table and celebrated the day by eating fruit and whipped cream. It was so cute to see a little Scooby Doo, two princesses, a devil, and our little lion enjoying their time together. In fact, Callie was having such a good time she was sweating too much and Miss Donna had to take the hood off her head for a bit.


October isn't complete without a trip to the local pumpkin patch. We visited the same orchard we went to last year when Callie was only three weeks old. We must admit that it was a totally different experience this year. Callie was so into riding in the wagon, playing with the pumpkins, and just looking at all the people. Here we see John and Callie heading to select our pumpkins.


Of course Callie is walking all over the place these days, so she was also happy to get out of the wagon and stroll through the pumpkins. Unfortunately she had an attraction to the pumpkins that had either started to rot or were damaged in one way or another. Fortunately she is still young enough that we could easily lead her to the ones we liked.


Callie is developing an independent streak and wanted to help out. Some of the pumpkins proved a little too big for her. But that didn't stop her from doing her best to put her arms around each one she saw. We finally found a little one that she could carry all by herself.





Once she had her own little pumpkin it was time to try and get the ultimate picture that would combine cute child with classic autumn setting. At the very least we wanted something different from last year where the pumpkin sat next to a screaming three week old baby.



We are pretty happy with the results. Callie was much happier this time around and was willing to sit on the hay bales and hold her pumpkin. Mission accomplished.


Although Callie had already made the requisite trip to Keeneland's fall meet on her birthday, the family still needed to go for breakfast with the works. Nothing is better than heading to Keeneland at 7am on a Saturday morning for some eggs, biscuits, gravy, and sausage. Oh, and you also get to watch the horses training.






John loves the breakfast, Sarah loves the biscuits and gravy, and Callie absolutely adores the horses. It was so fun to watch Callie's excitement when she would see a horse run by. And a horse ran by about every five seconds, so she was excited most of the time. Pictured here is one of the rare quiet moments of the morning, most likely because her back was to the horses.





Now that we have been in Lexington for over two years, we are definitely getting into a seasonal pattern of sorts. And we also have some favorite spots. Below you see the whole family at a spot where we have often taken pictures of Callie. It's the Bowes clan and the jockeys of Keeneland.



One other thing to point out. The adorable hat that Callie is wearing was a gift from her Great Aunt and Uncle Teri and Ronnie from their trip to Australia. Nothing says love like lugging a gift home from halfway across the world.


We have reached a point at which Callie gets excited when she hears the water running for bathtime. In fact, she does the sign language sign for bath and starts walking toward the bathroom. The downstairs bathroom also has a mirror, and Callie is able to combine two of her great loves. Bath time and looking at herself in the mirror. Here's a perfect example of her love affair with her own image.






Now it's time for yet another video from the vault. It's almost silly for us to remind you that Callie likes ducks. But in case you forgot, she likes ducks alot. In this video you will not only see her playing with her numerous ducks, but you will also see perhaps the coolest duck of them all. Take a peek.




Seriously, have you ever seen a duck that lights up, quacks, and spits water like a fountain? Callie owes her Auntie Lauren big time for this thoughtful and generous gift.

How many duck pictures and duck references could be considered overkill? No one knows for sure, but we are positive we passed that threshold a long time ago. However, we conclude this post with duckie overload, otherwise known as Callie's heaven. Enjoy.




And now we enter the holiday season, which will mean cross country flights in both directions, catching up with friends and relatives, and lots of good food. We can't wait to see you and Callie can't wait to show you all how much she has grown.