Babies, Kites, and Bunnies

Welcome to spring and another fun-filled blog post. About three weeks ago Elizabeth Ann Gipe, better known as Libby, arrived in this world. She is the daughter of Sarah and Alex Gipe and the granddaughter of our neighbors, Chris and Sharon Chrisman. It is amazing to see a newborn. It seems like forever since Callie was that size. Everyone told us time would fly by, and we didn't believe it. Pictured below we see Callie, Sharon, and Chris looking adoringly at Libby.





It was so fun to watch Callie say "baby" over and over while looking at Libby. Meanwhile Callie's parents were saying "gentle" over and over. It was quite a scene.

Here is a picture of the happy family. Of course, if you look closely, Alex and Sarah look happy, while Libby is less than pleased with the situation. But we can guarantee that many nights the smiles you see here aren't so bright when Libby is exercising her lungs. In any case, they are a very cute family and it's been fun hanging out with little Libby and her parents.


This year we were able to make it to the Kite Festival at Jacobsen Park. The weather was beautiful and it was a blast. To be honest, we weren't really sure what to expect, but as you can see from this picture there were quite a few kites in the sky. And this picture definitely doesn't do the whole scene justice. Callie loved looking all around at the colorful kites.




We met up with Fiona, Charles, and Iain at the festival. Charles had prepared ahead of time by researching how to make your own kite. One piece of paper, a staple, and some string tied to a toothpick were all he needed to make it happen. It was quite impressive. Here, Callie and Sarah fly Charles' kite. Callie was quite pleased with the results.


We also met up with our friends Zac, Claire, and Niah. Niah is only a couple of months older than Callie, so we had three little ones all less than a year apart enjoying the kites. Pictured below are the three kids with their moms. The dads were manning the kite, holding the sippy-cups, and taking the pictures. All in a days work.




The kite festival was on Saturday and the next day was Easter. This year, Easter was a lot of fun because Callie enjoyed a number of different Easter egg hunts. The first occurred at church, which was fun, but not very picturesque. Fortunately for us, Callie was more than happy to have multiple reenactments in our backyard.


While John played with Callie inside, Sarah hid the eggs outside. Then we let the experienced egg hunter loose. She very much enjoyed picking each egg up and placing it in her cute blue bag with the duck on it. Then when she got all the eggs she promptly dumped them out.




As you can imagine, this provided a great deal of entertainment for Callie and her parents. It is possible we could have done this all day long. But we had to get ready for Easter lunch at the Chrismans.




Take a moment and go back to our blog post from last Easter. You will see a picture of Callie very similar to the one below. Similar in that she has on bunny ears and is holding a stuffed pink bunny. But wow, does she look different! It is crazy how much a year can change a kid. She is not a baby anymore.





Another important part of Callie's Easter experience this year revolved around sweets. Thanks to Nana Taffy and Grandpa Jay, Callie had the opportunity to sample a jellybean. Unfortunately, we do not have a video of that moment, so we will have to try and provide a brief description. Just keep in mind, up to this point Callie has had no candy and has only had ice cream or cake a few times. The moment that jellybean hit her taste buds she was overcome with joy. She started stomping her feet, clapping her hands, and yelling, "Yeah!" We were quite happy that we had already hidden the bag of the other jellybeans or it was going to be a game of tug of war.

In any case, the jellybean was not the last of it. As a special treat we decided to get Callie her own Easter cookie. It was a big cookie, but Callie was not intimidated. Sarah has titled the below picture, "Cookie Love".





After Callie had a few bites of her cookie and the rest of us had eaten dinner, it was time to relax and hang out in the living room. We could chat, watch the Masters, and watch Callie make the social rounds.


But Callie definitely thought Libby was the most intriguing person in the room. She wanted to look at her, touch her, and talk to her. Sarah Gipe was very kind in letting Callie have some time to bond with the little baby. It's pretty cute to see Callie looking intently at Libby.


But before we all get too caught up in the cute factor, we need to remember the rambunctious and crazy girl that resides within this 18-month-old body. I don't think we need to say anymore than that the title of the below video is "Jail Bunny". Enjoy.




We are definitely looking forward to many more sun filled days as summer approaches. And it's going to be a fun couple of months ahead as we catch up with both sides of our family. Visitors are on their way and we will be heading to California and Connecticut. Although this means more airport time, being able to see our family makes it all worth it.

Spring Break 2009!

For many college students spring break means travel to warm destinations. Well things aren't necessarily that different for the Bowes family. We packed our bags, got up far too early, and caught a plane to Los Angeles. Spring break - woohoo!!

It didn't take us long to head back to our old stomping grounds on the Hermosa Beach Pier. It was fun to walk down the strand, eat breakfast, and watch Callie chase the dogs and the pigeons. The picture below captures Callie at a rare moment of repose on that sunny day.




It was warm and in the 60s, so we also made sure that Callie spent some time in the sand. She had a lot of fun with the sand in between her toes, working on her farmer's tan.



During our time in LA we stayed with Gretchen, Scott, and little Josh. Josh is now five years old and Callie was smitten. She would walk into their house and say, "Osh?" Here the two of them spend some time building sand castles on the beach in Hermosa.




Josh also showed Callie and Sarah how to look for the good shells along the seashore. We had a great time just hanging out, playing in the sand, and enjoying the company. We also tried not to get wet and failed. And, as you can tell from this photo, we also sought to capture these fun moments artistically. There is something about the ocean in southern California that brings out the Ansel Adams in any person with a digital camera in their hand.


There were many important reasons for our spring break trip, and one of them involved Claire and Nora Leshney, two five month old bundles of joy who live in Pasadena. Callie was just as excited as we were to finally meet the Leshney twins.





Tyler, the twins' father, grew up with John back in Madison. They were also roommates for three years in Manhattan Beach. Boy have things changed since 2004. Tyler married Stephanie, they moved inland and have doubled the size of their family. Pretty impressive.


Here is proud papa with Nora. It is amazing to see Tyler and Steph as parents. They obviously have mastered their roles in a short time and Nora and Claire don't know how lucky they are to be their kids. It should also be noted how quickly these two little girls have their 6'5" father wrapped around their respective fingers.




Now, how can you resist this face? Seriously. And the hat? Priceless. It is so much fun to see how early the personalities of the two girls are coming out. It may not look it here, but Claire is the energetic feisty one of the crew. And Nora is the serious, no frills kind of girl.



Now what can be said about this next picture? How about this - six years ago the two men pictured below lived in a rented house in Manhattan Beach with a cat and a ping-pong table in the garage. It was common for them to stay up late playing video games. Now they still stay up late, but video games are seldom if ever part of the picture.





One thing we can tell you is that this group is going to have a lot of fun in the years to come. And as much as Tyler and John complain about being the only boys in the group, they are loving every minute of it. Stay tuned.





But our trip to Pasadena, while fun, was only for an afternoon and evening. There was still some partying to do. More specifically we had a birthday party to attend. You may remember that back in October Callie had a group of California visitors for her 1st birthday. One of those visitors was Kate Perrone. Well now it was time for Callie to hop on a plane to celebrate Kate's big day.



Our first picture finds the birthday girl posing with some of her guests. These beautiful women were only a few of the many who spent the afternoon in Manhattan Beach admiring how much Kate has grown in her first year.



Callie wanted to make sure she had some one-on-one time with Kate during the party. Kate showed off her four new teeth as well as her standing and almost walking skills. It's cool to see how much they enjoy each other's company. Each time time they have hung out they seem to enjoy each other more and more.


Of course a birthday party requires the star of the show to wear a special hat. Although Kate was not tremendously pleased with the feel of the elastic on her face, she wore the hat to keep her guests happy. And it is safe to say that she made the hat look good...she is just so darn cute!





Outside of the hat, the other mandatory activity of the 1st birthday party involves the consumption of a cake or other sugary substance.


Kate did not hesitate when confronted with a tasty cupcake. She used both of her hands to dig right in and within moments her face was covered with chocolate, frosting, and sprinkles. This is something that made her mother very nervous and a bit uncomfortable. For those of you who don't know Lauren very well, she is very neat, organized, and healthy. The toddler years could be a bit painful.



The party didn't end there. We then went outside to soak in some sun and play with some bubbles. It was so fun to watch Callie actually blow bubbles and say the word bubble. She had a great time showing Auntie Pi her new skills. Truth be told, she may have also sipped a bit of the "bubbly", so to speak. Although we waited for it, she didn't burp any bubbles the rest of the day.


To wrap up Kate's birthday and our trip the adults went out for dinner and drinks. These trips are never long enough and we always hate to see them end. However, as usual it was wonderful to catch up with everyone and watch their families grow. Hopefully we will see all of them sooner rather than later.

And remember, for anyone interested in visiting us, April in Lexington means the spring meet at Keeneland. All the Kentucky sunshine and horse racing you could ask for. The guest room still has some open nights for April and the following months. Take care.

Hanging Out and Having Fun

Technically speaking, we are still at the rate of a post a month. In reality, this post is way overdue and we are writing this with less than four hours left in the month of February. Quite a bit has happened since Christmas, so pull up a chair, take a deep breath, and enjoy.

Where to start? How about we start next door at our neighbors, the Chrismans. We have mentioned them before, but it is worth saying again how lucky we are to have them living next to us. And Callie loves Sharon and Chris.


But she especially loves when their daughter Sarah visits and brings her dog Claire. This is one of many photos that we took of Callie just squealing in delight over the mere presence of Claire in the house. Claire, meanwhile, was jealous of any attention her owner gave to Callie. It was quite a show to say the least.



As many of you know, some of our closest friends in Lexington are Fiona, Charles and their son Iain. Iain is now ten months old and it is fun to see him and Callie actually playing together. When we gather at our house, Iain and Callie get to hang out in Callie's play corner and Callie loves to share her toys. At times this means she dumps them in Iain's lap. We are working on the "gentle" share.

We're sure all you parents out there can understand that it can sometimes be difficult to get a night out on your own. Therefore we have negotiated a monthly babysitter barter with Charles and Fiona so that each couple gets at least one night out a month. January was all about both couples being able to go to the movies for the first time. So the following pictures are from the afternoon/evening Iain spent with us while his parents were enjoying "The Dark Knight".



Now that Iain can crawl, he and Callie can move around the house together. Callie is more than happy to revert back to her crawling days so the two of them can get some quality time together.

Fortunately, both kids love a good book. Here John points out some highlights from both children's parents' past through a dramatic reading of "Good Night Los Angeles". Nothing puts a kid to sleep like a parent talking about the good old days.




Many of you might remember a similar picture of Callie like this about a year ago. She certainly has grown a lot since then, but she is just as interested in looking out the window at the winter wonderland in our backyard.




January 2009 brought an ice storm to Lexington that closed both UK and EKU down. Indeed, EKU cancelled classes for 4 out of the 5 days of the week. When we first moved to Lexington, we heard a lot of stories about the "Big Ice Storm of 2003". Everyone talked about it, and quite honestly, we thought they were being a bit over dramatic. Oops.


Here's the front of our house after a half day of precipation. The first was freezing rain and the second was snow. This picture makes it look kind of pretty, but underneath the snow is about two inches worth of ice. Our poor trees were not happy. And with every passing hour the branches dipped lower and lower with the weight of it all. It really was crazy to watch. When the storm had passed, thousands of trees throughout Lexington and the surrounding areas were destroyed. We got extremely lucky and none of our trees lost more than a small branch or two.


This is our backyard. Speaking of lucky, we never even lost power. Again, that was pretty amazing considering we have really big old oak trees just hovering over our power lines. Most of the people we know lost power for a day, and some of John's colleagues down in Richmond lost power for a week. However, we were ready for any trouble because Sharon Chrisman (a.k.a. our local MacGyver) hooked us up with candles, matches, and safety tips for surviving without power in an ice storm. Thankfully none of those tips were necessary.


Of course, when all is said and done, there was snow on the ground and a hill nearby. We wanted to take advantage of the time together and introduce Callie to some sledding. Unfortunately, she did not enjoy the experience as much as we had hoped she would.



This picture does not truly capture Callie's general unhappiness with her time sledding. It also does not capture Sarah after her one run down the big hill where she caught air and busted her butt. Seriously, she was in pain for a couple of days. That is what we get for going sledding after an ice storm.

Fortunately the weather improved in time for a visit from Callie's Auntie Gret. Gret flew in from LA for the weekend and made the most of her time in Lexington.


Here are Callie and Gret at the water station in the Explorium in downtown Lexington. We bought a membership for the Explorium and it has been great, especially since all of the bad weather has made the outdoors less inviting. We enjoy it and were particularly pleased when even Gretchen gave it her stamp of approval. Gretchen is the director of education at the California Science Center, so she knows what she is talking about.


It was so wonderful to see Gretchen and Callie spend time together. We are excited that in just a couple of weeks, Callie will not only get to hang out with Auntie Gret again, but also with Uncle Scotty and Josh.



Knowing how great a job Gret and Scotty have done raising Josh, we can only hope that their parenting rubs off on us. It certainly seemed like Callie enjoyed having Gretchen read to her. Perhaps it just felt right because she instinctively knew that Gretchen was her first out of town visitor when she was born.


We have already been to the Explorium about a half a dozen times this year, and the slide is always one of Callie's favorite stops. She loves to make sure everyone is watching before she heads down the slope. Now before any of you make judgments about the length of this particular slide, I (John) would like to point out that Callie loves all slides - and that includes going down slides at outdoor parks that should frighten a girl her age. I (John once again) am both scared and delighted that Callie appears to have inherited the fearlessness of her mother. It's a good thing most of my hair is already gray.


So, apparently Callie is growing up and becoming a little person. We should not be surprised by this. And yet, every new development amazes us. She has been using some very basic sign language for quite some time now, so we have been communicating. But lately she has expanded her sign language and has thrown in some vocal work as well. It makes us happy to see her sign "thank you" to a kid who has given her a toy or "please" when she would like milk. But when she makes the sign for please and also says "please," we start to giggle. Is this really happening?


One of Callie's latest words is "baby". Auntie Gret brought Callie the baby in the picture to the left. And one day, Callie just started saying "baby" and going to get this little doll. What has been even crazier is that she keeps trying to feed the baby and give her milk. This picture was taken in the morning, and Callie had to have her baby sitting next to her for breakfast.


Before we talk about the last picture and end this post, we need to tell a story that captures Sarah's most frightening parenting moment yet. John was out of town and Sarah was cleaning the bathroom while Callie was playing in the hallway. As Sarah was finishing up she left the bathroom to grab some paper towels. In the moments she was gone, Callie entered the bathroom, shut the door, and managed to lock the deadbolt. When Sarah returned she noticed the shut door, went to open it, and realized it was locked. At this point her heart jumped into her throat and panic set in.

Her first instinct was to dial 911 but she wasn't sure what anyone could really do. So she tried to be as calm as possible and asked Callie to unlock the door. Then she ran to get a screwdriver to take the doorknob off. However this wasn't quite possible on a door in an eighty-year old house. The knob wasn't going anywhere. After a bit more panic, Callie continued to play with the doorknob and the deadbolt and happened to unlock the door. At this time Sarah opened the door, hugged Callie, and tried not to cry. There is now tape over the deadbolt to eliminate the need for future panic. The great thing is Callie never knew there was anything wrong. There's that fearless streak again.


This last picture was taken at the scene of the crime above, the downstairs bathroom. As you can see, Callie laughs in the face of the dangers presented by the aforementioned bathroom.




Callie truly does enjoy life, as this picture illustrates. We feel blessed everyday that she is our daughter. Even her current phase of screaming when you take her winter jacket off cannot take away from the fact that she is a wonderful little girl who constantly makes our days better.

We are looking forward to the spring and hope to see you all soon!

A Very Callie Christmas

We apologize that it has been so long since we have updated our blog. The year has certainly been off to a busy start and only now are we able to sit down and reflect on the final holiday of 2008. Because Thanksgiving was in Connecticut, Christmas was obviously going to be in California. It had been nearly 6 months since we had last visited northern California, and Callie was very excited to get there.

Pictured below are two of the big reasons for her excitement - Grammy Gayle and her partner in crime, Cheyenne.



As we have said many times, Callie loves dogs. But there is a special bond between her and Cheyenne. Now that Callie is fully mobile, she chased poor Cheyenne around the house, grunting and growling. And yes, that was Callie grunting and growling, not Cheyenne. But she was just so excited! Amazingly enough, the excitement never wore off. And before any relatives or "friends" get any ideas, at this point we only plan to visit people with dogs - so no surprise gifts for Callie for now.


Callie has started to enjoy the play areas in the middle of the mall, the airport, and any other place that has large foamy things to jump on and slide down. Here she is caught mid-slide at the wonderful play area in the Roseville Galleria Mall. Not pictured but also enjoyed on this trip was a great play area in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. We may very well write a book on such things by the time Callie is in high school.



After we hit the mall our first official visit was to Callie's Great Grandmother Lucas. She had just moved into a brand new place and we wanted to check it out and take some time to catch up. We definitely had a wonderful time and Callie especially enjoyed the Christmas decorations.



However, those decorations were nothing compared to the sweet ride that Great Grandma Lucas had. Callie was able to not only get Great Grandma Lucas to take her for a spin up and down the hallways but also had her parents taking laps after Great Grandma needed to sit down and take a rest.




Next stop was Great Aunt Teri's house where of course she had some activities lined up for us. In fact, Callie got the opportunity to make her first ginger bread house. Knowing that Callie has never eaten any candy, Teri thought it would be better to use different cereals to decorate the house. But even those cereals were more than Callie had ever been exposed to, and it was amazing that any of the cereal (Froot Loops, Apple Jacks, etc.) even made it on the house. And as you can see, instead of putting the sprinkles on the house, Callie just chose to stick the bottle in her mouth and would not let go of it. It was the like the first time she had sugar...oh wait, it was.(Okay, not the first time, but possibly the third)


Pictured below is the construction crew with the final product. If you look closely you can see the sugar rush in Callie's eyes.



All of the above occurred in the lead up to Christmas day. Callie had busy days and then when she went to bed her parents had busy nights driving around Sacramento making up for all of the shopping they did not do in Lexington. Unfortunately, the busy days, the long trip, her first molar, a cold, and as we found out later, a urinary tract infection, made Callie a little cranky throughout the Christmas festivities. However, she is a fighter, and she managed to enjoy all that came her way.


Here is Callie opening her gifts on Christmas Eve after our traditional dinner of chicken enchiladas. She is still a bit timid with the unwrapping process - her paper ripping skills need some work. Ironically enough, Callie's favorite gift was the dog toy given to Cheyenne. But she also enjoyed spending the evening with her Uncle Zac and cousin Keith.


She was also fortunate enough to get to open her stocking on Christmas Eve. Apparently Santa had Sacramento first on his stops this year. Her favorite gift in the stocking was the tiny snow globe that she loved to shake.




On Christmas day we visited the Lucas clan again. This time Haley, Ryan, Sara, Tyler, and little Brady were all there. Brady is so big and so cute. And as you can see in this picture, has a great smile. He also had pretty good unwrapping skills - Callie might need to get some lessons from him. It was great to see everyone and there is never enough time to catch up with everyone. And John wishes he could have bowled just a little more on the Wii with Tyler, Ron, and Ryan.


The next day we headed to San Francisco. Yes, that's right, on the day after Christmas we went to one of the biggest cities in California. And yes, we went to Union Square, one of the popular tourist destinations in the city. The day was a little hectic, but it was great spending time with everyone. And we got to spend some quality time with Christy, Zac's girlfriend. Here is the whole crew in front of the Christmas tree in Union Square. Quite a good looking bunch, if we don't say so ourselves.



And if that wasn't hectic enough, we also threw into the mix meeting up with Denise, Lauren, JP, and little Kate.


Here we see the girls in front of the same tree. Kate was enthralled with everything around her and spent much of the time outside looking up. Callie wasn't always sure which way to look or what to do. Unfortunately she was still soldiering on fighting a fever and a runny nose. When we look back at this we are pretty impressed with how much of a trooper she is.


So what do you do in this kind of situation. If you're us, you spend the night in a hotel in Fremont and then get up the next morning to drive to San Jose to go to a cool exhibit on Leonardo da Vinci at the Technology Museum. But that's not enough. You jump back in the car, go over the hill on Rte 17 and meet the Nice family for lunch near Santa Cruz. And as was the case with so many of our visits, it was great to see everyone and there was not enough time to really catch up.



Pictured above is the whole group enjoying a fine lunch. Even Callie is looking at the camera and smiling. It was a great day and we were back in Sacramento in time for dinner, which meant we got to fulfill one of our California trip necessities - a meal at In-N-Out. So tasty...even now I can still smell the double-double animal style.


This is a fitting picture to end our update. By the time we landed in Lexington all three of us needed the next week to recover. With that being said, we would do it all over again in a heartbeat to spend time with our family over the holidays. Well, everything except the molar, the fever, etc. You get the idea.


And now that a new year is upon us, we can only guess at what it will bring. Frankly, we can't wait. But we do hope it brings us, our family, and our friends, good health, happiness, and much laughter. Here's to lookin' fine in 2009!