2011 Photo Project

I have an adoption friend who took pictures of her daughter every week last year and called it "Watch Me Grow"! I loved seeing the pictures throughout the year and looking at how her daughter had changed from the beginning to the end and kept thinking that I should have done that for Calen. I never started it last year, but did decide to do it for both kids this year (what a good excuse for a blog each week, right?) In classic Amanda fasion, I started off not taking a picture in the same spot each week (which just makes sense if you want to see height differences and such- but I have pictures from both weeks of 2011 so far- so that's what counts! I thought along with the photos each week I could add a little something about the kids from the week too so that way I can remember what they said/did/were like for that week in time... For this week only, I'll post both week's picture in one post.

Watch Me Grow 2011- week 1
(these pictures were actually taken on New Year's Eve 2010- but I think it's close enough to 2011 to count, right???)

Miss KatieJoy-------> The funniest thing KatieJoy did this week was eat an entire hamburger all.by.herself! yes, that hamburger is in the picture with her- I had to take a photo of the girlie going after it like she'd never eaten before! She had tried hamburger several times before but had always spit it out at me. Not this time, she took one bite and then grabbed the burger and downed it. Just to see if it was a fluke, we tried it again later that week for dinner and again she ate the whole thing! Crazy little girl!!!

Calen-bug------> Yes, we still call him our Calen-bug and so far he still answers to it and tolerates it. This week was a bit rough for Calen, he had a very hard time sleeping. Allen got sleep duty with him because he would play me and would stay up for hours if I laid with him. One night however, he came up to me to say goodnight and very sweetly laid in my arms for a hug. He then gave me a kiss on the cheek and took my face in his hands. He looked me straight in the eye, brought out the tears and sad voice/eyes and then said "Mommy, you know sometimes you have to lay with me too. *sniff sniff*" I gave him a hug and sent him to lay with Allen and then died laughing! This kid- sometimes he is just too much and boy can he turn on the mommy charm!

Watch Me Grow 2011- Week 2

Miss KatieJoy--------> our daughter has a very sweet side to her. One way she shows that sweet side is around her "babies". She has one baby that she loves beyond the rest and carries the poor thing around by her hair. As of this week, KatieJoy HAS to sleep with this baby and will cry out "bebe, bebe, bebe" over and over again if she has lost her. It's seriously adorable and while I fear for my future niece's head of hair, I look forward to watching KatieJoy around a real baby!

Calen-bug---------> Calen is all boy right now. Rough housing, trains, cars, and NERF guns! Allen couldn't resist introducing Calen to nerf guns about a month ago and it's been shoot out after shoot out since! I love it though- the squealing laughter from Calen when Allen and him are "fighting" just cracks me up! He gets so excited when Allen gets home so they can play. So much for my rule before I became Calen's mom about "no guns in the house"- I was so silly! Boys need to be warriors as that's how God created them and I love watching Calen become the child God created him to be...

The beloved doll (notice her hair!) and gun...

~Mandy~