9,10 & 11 months

Emma Kate, in three weeks you will be 1 year old! My my how time flies!  With all the busyness of moving, I got a little behind on posting your pictures. Better late than never! In the past 3 months you have perfected your crawl and are on your way to walking any day! You are always on the move these days unless you are looking at a book. My favorite time of day is reading you books before nap time. It's my way of luring you in to being still and cuddling on my lap :)

You are getting to the age where you definitely have more preferences, you pick out the books you want to look at, you pick out shoes you want to put on, and you are starting be tight lipped towards squash and spinach. (We will work on that one! ) 

You love going to the park in the mornings and crawling on the playground and playing with the other babies.  You absolutely love and sometimes demand when mommy and daddy hold your arms up to walk.  

You have always been my chatty girl, but the last few weeks you have definitely added to your vocabulary. You love to mimc animal sounds and names of objects in your books. Whenever we ask " Emma Kate what does the duck say?" You reply "quack quack quack" in a kind of whisper. Melts my heart every time. I know I'm your mom but I think you are just the cutest little spitfire ever! We love you sweet girl and cant believe you will be 1 so soon! 

the octobers....

Dear October, thanks for keeping things interesting!!  With the change of summer to fall, you always bring a life-change for the Callaways :) Let's see what it will be this year! 

OCTOBER 7, 2009

We carved pumpkins and started dating...done and done.

OCTOBER 9, 2010

We said "I do"

OCTOBER 12, 2011

Our little Bean made her debut!! 

OCTOBER 1, 2012

The Callaways are moving from here....

to here!

That's right! We are headed back to my roots :) We are planning on staying with my family in San Antonio for a few weeks while we search for a little nest of our own in Austin. Why the move? Well well well, you would never guess, my raft and backpacking guide of a husband is taking on a new adventure...opening his own business! That's right, we will be opening an Urban Mattress in South Austin and we are so thrilled! I'll share more on the company and our decision to start our own in another post, but in short, we love the company & the impact they have on the community, and are excited to put down roots for our little family.

Quick plug: 2% of every purchase goes to local non-profits and I am currently looking for 3 non-profits that are meeting needs in the Austin community that we can partner with in this way.  Let me know if you have any non-profits you'd like to give a shout-out for! 

the pool

Four swimsuits, two sun hats, and an almost empty bottle of sunscreen later, the pool is closing for the summer on Sunday!   My secret plan to make Emma Kate love the water as much as I do will have to wait until warm weather and long summer days return to us once again.  What started with a fun little family swim class this spring, turned into a standing appointment with the outdoor pool in our neighborhood almost every afternoon this summer.  Sweet sweet pool, you will be very missed!

getting her swim lesson certificate- so proud

swimsuit #3

naps on the way home from the pool are the best!!

making friends

swimsuit #4

waiting out the afternoon storms

finally befriending sunscreen

giving up the sunhat battle in late july :) phew!

two happy swimmers :) 

7...8...going on 9 months

After some technical difficulties our laptop is up and running again and I can finally catch up on some posts!

Emma Kate, I can't believe in 3 days you will be 9 months old! These last few months have been some of my favorites. It feels like every day you are learning something new! Now that you are crawling, we have entered the new phase of baby proofing! Corner bumpers, plug covers, cabinet latches, door stops, etc... who knew one tiny little house could have so many safety hazards!

Your favorite skills of the moment include waving hi, playing peek-a-boo like a pro, eating puffs all by yourself, and as of two days ago- standing up on your own!  This morning you fell over and bonked your head on the floor, which led to a few tears, but you rebounded quickly :)

Your eyes are still dark blue but now they have a little brown in the center and they are beautiful! You still have your rosy round cheeks and the prettiest and brightest smile that stretches from ear to ear and makes your eyes squint. I love it! At about 7 1/2 months you had a big growth spurt and you outgrew your 6-9 month clothes! Even though you are getting long and lean you still have the sweetest little chubby thighs I have ever seen! You look great in a swim suit ;)

Now that you are more independent and able to do things on your own, I love watching you crawl from room to room, talking as you go.  I love when you take a break from your toys to crawl into my lap for a quick hug and squeeze and then crawl back to your toys for more play. I think my favorite time of day is reading books before naps and bed time. Its the only time of day you are ever still!  I love how you lay your head against my chest and rub the inside of my wrist with you chubby little fingers as I turn the pages. My heart just melts every time :)

....And some 7 month photos 

  

great outdoors

Last weekend we took a little family day trip up to Rocky Mountain National Park to show Emma Kate the great outdoors. She surprisingly did great in the car!  After a stop for lunch and a swing session at a playground, we finally made it to the park and bought our annual park pass! (We ended up exiting the park and going to this little lake where we didnt even need the pass. Oops! Oh well. Good motivation to go back right?)  We also got to try out our hiking backpack, which Emma Kate loved.  I remember persuading Adam to come with me to the cloth diaper store while I was pregnant. But somehow, instead of walking out with cute and colorful cloth diapers, we walked out with a brand new baby hiking backpack? If you know Adam at all, you know this shouldn't have surprised me at all :) Hiking packs are way up there on Adam's list of basic needs :)

Adam and I have been under a pile of stress for the past few weeks and there is something that is so good for my soul about getting in the mountains.  I love the space it gives me. Space from my routine, space from piled up laundry, space from my phone and email, space to breath and think and watch and rest.  

to the swings

On most afternoons, I put Emma Kate in the BOB, with bunny and her wubbanub by her side, and we start our walk to the park.

As we walk down our street, the smell of burgers and fries coming from Park Burger makes me all of a sudden feel incredibly hungry.  I tell myself, "tonight Amy...tonight you should totally get fries, a cheeseburger and a milk shake for dinner," and by the time I walk another block, I have talked myself off the ledge of that calorie mountain :)  

One of the things I love about my neighborhood is that even though we live just a couple miles from downtown, anytime of day I go for a walk, I pass at least 5 other moms with strollers, if not more. It gives me a sense of camaraderie, like somewhere just a few houses down, another mom is changing diapers, pureeing sweet potatoes and convincing their 6 month old that naps are really fun. Sometimes, if it's been a hard day,  I'll swing by Pajama Baking Company and get myself a well deserved Almond Latte...delish.  Then, we turn right and head on to the park where Emma Kate's favorite activity awaits her!!

  

Swinging! Pure J-O-Y. She squeals and laughs and people watches (a trait she got from yours truly ;) and loves every second. Adam has tried the slide with her a few times but, she doesn't seem too impressed yet. Garage sale season is around the corner and one of my goals is to find one of those swings we could tie up to the plum tree in our backyard. She would be in swing heaven! Wish me luck! 

then and now: spring

Emma Kate has been a marathon napper this past week! Yesterday I took advantage of the extra down time and crawled back in bed, cup of coffee in hand,  and sorted through old photos from the past few years.  I came across our engagement photos and realized they were taken this time exactly two years ago.

Spring 2010:

 Don't we look so young, rested, and in better shape? I got a big grin on my face looking at these pictures because we just had no idea what the future had in store!

Spring 2011:

Spring 2012:

Now instead of wedding planning and awaiting our little Bean's arrival, our days are spent with less sleep and more early mornings watching the sun rise, less showers and more diaper laundry, less happy hours and more crock pot cooking, less reading and more experiencing, less time working out and more walks with Emma Kate, less nights out and more time in our back yard, less adult conversations and more goofy sounds and funny faces, less researching and more realizing that parenting is kind of a guessing game: some people are just better at looking like they have it all together :), less assuming and more communicating, less fancy and more simple, less control and more prayer, and for this soul- less restlessness and more contentment.

contentment |kənˈtentmənt|nouna state of happiness and satisfaction:

what I see in my backyard