A few cute ones to start your week

Callum has grown quite fond of his hat
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One of Andy’s colleagues hosted a work family picnic.  Callum got to hang out with his friend, Reese, and the best part is that another of Andy’s colleagues takes beautiful pictures.  He said, “you won’t even notice; I’m like a ninja.”

I think these photos deserve their own post.  Enjoy!

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. . . so we might as well get on with the blog posting.  A photo essay.

These are old.  The goal is to get up to date quickly, so stay tuned for more!

At Jackson’s birthday party, we went on the merry-go-round!  Callum was a little scared.

But then he cried when we got off!  Here you can see Jackson (right) and Jayden (background)

C was trying to learn how to walk, so we got him this walker, which he promptly used as a seat. . .

. . . and a bus for the parlaiment.

Thank you for the wheely bee, Uncle Thaddeus, Aunt Ronda, and cousins!!

oooOO oooOO

We posed for this one.

We got a new computer, which required a new computer desk.  Callum helped Daddy with the desk.

Sorry – no room for printers here.

C plays a little gee-tar.

Daddy time!

Mommy’s birthday started out PERFECTLY.

I’ll take that camera, please.

Daddy and Callum like to play crazy rough-housing games.  You should hear the laugh that goes with this one.

Swingin’ with our friend Reese

Callum often surprises us by ramming several handfuls of food in his mouth at once.  There are about 4 pieces of banana in there.

C demonstrates his fine motor skills in this delicate pea-balancing act.  Not sure if he ate any, but he moved several from bowl to bowl.

After a contentious few years, Kermy and Toby are friends again.

Obviously we’re behind, but here’s a picture of Callum yesterday, eating his first whole apple (he ate about half in the end).

And click on this photo for a little video of him clapping at the baseball game two weeks ago.  It was very hot and sunny!

As I mentioned in another post, we were lucky enough to find our way down to Florida for Callum’s birthday.  We got to see Papa, Grammy, Aunt Amber & Lux.  THEN, we got even luckier when we learned that Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Lauren and Chi were able to come down and see us, too!  

We had a really wonderful time, and Callum loved spending time with his family in the sunshine.

Here are some (well lots, really) pictures. . . 

Grammy’s birthday is two days before Callum’s.  The grocery store must have known, because they gave us a free cake with an backwards J on it, for “Jenn!”  Weirdly, when you turn the cake upside-down, it looks like a 1.  

Aunt Lauren with the boys.

Grandpa and Chi getting ready for bed at the hotel.

Back at Papa’s, it’s bath time!

Birthday kisses from Grandma!

Happy birthday boy

Hanging out with Aunt Amber

Lots of fun happened. . . some of it was upside-down.

Cousins having a chat

The peanut gallery

WOW!  CAKE!

Whoa.  That was intense.

Grandpa manned the grill.

Chi and his mom seem to find each other pretty funny.

Family shot!

Daddy and Callum in the pool – we had to get that frosting off somehow!

Mommy opens presents while Callum reads his new book.

Handsome.

The next day, we went to the beach – Chi flew a kite!

Relaxing in the sunshine.

The boys dug a very big hole.

Andy, go stand with your sister.

Hi everybody – here are some pictures from last month. . . not including the birthday.  Our pictures weren’t too great, so I’m going to get some from the grandparents to post up here. . . 

In the mean time. . . 

Story time with mommy – can’t remember why he was shirtless. . . 

Callum feeds himself most of the time now, which can be VERRRRY messy.  This is cereal which Callum ate with his right hand while  clutching his spoon tightly with his left hand.

The overhead view shows some of the damage to Callum’s clothes and the floor.

The cats taking a nap with Andy.

Callum & Tiffany at Alexandre’s birthday party.

Callum and his birthday buddy, Jayden, on a fun toy!

Jayden giving Callum a ride.

Boys on the alligator. . . it may have been even harder than last time!

Callum climbed into the shower with Tiffany one day.  He cried at first (he was surprised to land in there after so much effort), but then he LOVED it.  He has tried to get in every day since then.

Bed head.

It turns out that having a challenging full-time job AND a spouse with a challenging full-time job AND an 11-month-old baby and some cats and oh I don’t know some semblance of a dinner and washed dishes and clothes. . . is pretty darn time consuming (to our pregnant friends . . . uh. . . ignore this bit – babies are awesome.  fact).  PLUS, there’s all that time Andy has to spend discovering one-octave songs to play on Callum’s new xylophone.  Apparently it’s all in the wrist.  Anyway, we want to show you folks some pictures.

Callum likes to help us pay the bills.

See?!

We went to visit Chris & Crystal in Phoenix, and Callum went on his first bike ride!  He liked going fast, and he kept playing with Andy’s back while they were cycling along.

Andy and Callum hanging out while we were on a break from our bike ride.

A nice picture of some of our favorite friends.  I like it because it somehow conveys what’s wonderful about them.  

The C-man is getting better and better at standing up while he’s holding on to something.  He likes to stand and watch the bath fill up.  Sometimes – when the floor’s too cold – he stands on one leg like a flamingo.

Callum needs a LITTLE more practice with the spoon.  Unless the goal is to fling it at the wall.  Yes, on second thought, he may be an EXPERT with the spoon!

So that’s it for this month, but we’re nearing in on the big birthday, and we’re planning a fun trip to Florida for the occasion!  We’re so excited to see our families there and to spend some time in the sunshine and warmth.  AND to take a couple days off from those crazy jobs I mentioned.  Callum has TWO bathing suits to try out. . .

We’re a week late, but that’s not so bad.  We had a busy month, and last weekend (when I should have been posting pictures), we decided to rent a car.  On Saturday, we drove up to Sonoma and beyond to check out the town and do a little bit of wine tasting.  We couldn’t return the car until Monday, so we took advantage of the opportunity on Sunday to drive to Target and stock up on baby supplies.  It was a very expensive trip, but it was all on things we needed anyway, and it will save us LOTS of carrying big bulky things back from the grocery store.

This week, I’m going on a business trip, so Andy has to be a single dad for a few days – what an adventure for the boys!

Close up!!

Callum & Andy on Tank Hill – you can see GG bridge if you squint.

How did all of those donuts get down there?

Jayden’s mom took this photo of our playdate in Golden Gate Park. C was showing his CTC pride!

Callum likes wine-tasting.  

Playing on the grass at a winery.

The grass was a little spikey, but Callum didn’t mind.

Callum & Andy at Hop Kiln winery.

C enjoying wine-tasting number 2.

So by now you all know that Callum has a beautiful and infectious smile, and we have gillions of photos to prove it. What you may not know is that Callum has a ridiculously wide array of dramatic, cute facial expressions to offer. Sometimes, when he’s feeling particularly animated, he even displays several of them in rapid succession, Calvin & Hobbes style. Fortunately, Andy was lucky or skilled enough to catch a bunch of them the other day, and they were all so cute that we couldn’t pick one. . .

As one does, we reflected on 2008 over the past couple weeks, and we came to the realization that Team McNeil had a very big year.  Obviously we had Callum, but in addition to that, we both turned 30, we celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary, we both changed jobs, and we had our biggest and most complicated move ever (which is saying something).  It was very challenging, but very wonderful, and we can’t wait for more!

As for Christmas, we had a great one.  We didn’t leave the house all day, and in fact we didn’t get out of our PJ’s, either.  We just hung out, opened gifts, created and ate yummy meals, and hung out some more.  I think Callum had a great first Christmas, but he definitely didn’t really understand it.  He loved all of his gifts, but he was consistently more excited about the paper than the gift.  He can officially say that all of his gifts were deliciously wrapped.  

So now that the little one has reached another mini-birthday (9 months now!), here are a few pictures.

By the way . . . I asked Nancy about my supplies the Tuesday after my last post.  She had completely forgotten to order them and was SOOOOOO apologetic it’s silly.  Then i found out that she used to support 1 VP and about 12 people, and now she supports 3 or 4 VPs and about 45 people, so yeah – she’s a little maxxed out.  BUT I think you’ll find that I always said she was nice . . . just a little scary.  

Anyway my supplies arrived on December 30th – officially less than a month after I started, and Nancy and I are buds, so it’s all good.