Callie's not much of a drinker. She won't drink juice, couldn't drink milk for quite awhile without a reaction, and would only take water in her sippy cup and wanted regular bottles (not that the lack of juice or excess water is a bad thing!)

She's taken a sip of whole milk in her sippy here and there, and drinks it off my spoon when I give her cereal, but today I filled her cup all the way full with milk and gave her some animal crackers, and wouldn't you know my big girl drank ALMOST the whole cup! IT had to have been at least8 oz. She had a bottle last night around 1:00,and nothing since then, so I know she was thirsty but that was GREAT! It was cold from the fridge and everything, and she just puttered around the living room sipping at it like a toddler.

It's SUCH a great step because milk is far less expensive than formula, and around 1 year old most pediatricians like to see the babies weaned off formula. We switched back to milk-based formula from soy a few weeks ago and she hasn't had any diaper rashes or extra spitting up, but her moving to real cow's milk is more than I could hope for this soon.

She's had a TON of developmental strides lately, several since Grandma and Grandpa Davidson came up from California on Saturday night. The most notable change has been her mastery of not only tearing UP the stacking rings, but now she has figured out how to put them back on and enjoys doing so. We're not talking the big, fat plastic ones. This is a 1 inch rubber dowel with snug wood discs, they are MUCH harder to pull off and take precision to put back on,especially since she bent the dowel somewhat in the middle and the rings catch a bit. Callie sat for around 20 MINUTES last night taking them off and on repeatedly and rearranging the patterns. This morning she proved it was a fluke and did so again for about 10 minutes, and with a lot of success and dexterity.

She's gotten much better with object permanence as well. Not just peekaboo, but realizing things in bags can be taken out, even days later locking something away means it's still there, and remembering where she puts toys a good ten minutes later. She has a flip up book from Great Grandma Giessel and Aunt Cathy that she recently figured out how to operate, and was quite excited every time the object she *knew* was behind the flaps popped up. She definitely was making the logical connection, and it was very cute to watch.

She's SO close to walking and just hasn't made that step away, though she can free-stand for a good five or ten seconds and bend down to get a toy.

Unfortunately all she wants to do is go, go, go all day long, which is making diaper changes and donning clothing increasingly difficult. She's also having a hard time settling down to sleep because her little brain doesn't want to turn off, but overall she is doing VERY well and is extremely healthy.

She was 21 pounds almost on the dot and 30 inches at her 1 year appointment, which puts her right around the 50% percentile for both measurements at her age. The doctor was pleased with her development and she is ahead in several areas, though not much of a talker yet (she babbles all day, especially when she's playing alone, and she understands pointing, commands with hand movements, and a lot of everyday words... she just won't repeat them!). She's mastered clapping and waving in the past few weeks, as well as climbing on everything she can get her short legs up.

She had a LOT of shots done at that appointment and was quite the sick, unhappy baby for a few days afterward. I really will look into getting a delayed schedule for the next baby, I think it was a lot at once for her. 4 shots with a good 9 vaccines in them, she had raised welts on both legs and we woke up last sunday to spaghetti vomit up and down the entire crib. She was looking pretty pale and had a fever the night before, though the puke, itself, didn't seem to bother her.... but she was definitely not her normal self. Fortunately after Sunday she was looking and acting much happier and she's been fine since. Somehow she picked up a croupy, gunky cough in the past few days and woke up this morning with green snot plastered to her nose and hand, but such is the life of a baby.

New pictures will be forthcoming, I think that's all the updates we have today!