Safari Zoo

Hmmm..where did we leave off ?

Kalista and Jen made it to the Safari Park (aka San Diego Wild Animal Park) to meet up with some friends and their families.

This is good!

We spent a good part of last Wednesday afternoon watching the gorilla momma and her new baby boy. It was too cute watching her hold him in his arms. His name is Monroe and was born sometime this past June. Kalista found great interest checking the little guy out.


Kalista had a blast playing in the Fisher Price play area. She got a chance to stretch her legs and run around with some other kids. Her favorite animal was the lion, but the rhino came in close behind.


We made it to the real rhinos and lions eventually, but the best kept secret was the "Cheetah Run". We waited about half an hour to get a good view of one of the park's cheetahs sprint down this 330 foot grass runaway. It took him about 6 seconds to run the whole stretch at 60 mph plus. Crazy!!!!

Party Party Party

This is the week of visitors and parties!



This past Sunday, Kalista went to her friend Rocco's first birthday celebration. It was a pool party to say the least. She just watched from the sidelines with some of her other friends as the daredevilish kids took to the mini inflated pools. It was definitely the best inflated kids pool we have feasted our eyes on since it had it's own mini slide.

Grandpa Greg, Grandma Susan and Uncle Bill took off today and headed back home. Bill got his annual fix of Comic Con and got autographs from his favorite celebrities. Grandpa Greg finally got his chance to see Coronado and the Coronado bridge. Grandma Susan got to play with Jen's Cricut Expression and Cuttlebug machines to create some cutouts to take home for scrapbooking and card making. The last few days have gone by so quickly...it's one big blur.

And yes..that is a bruise on her right cheek. We had a little mishap last week where her cheek met up with our bedframe. Poor thing got left with a battle wound.



Matt had to work overtime this weekend to tame the crowds downtown that came just for Comic Con. Plenty of celebrities were spotted hanging out throughout the town.

Can't believe it is almost Wednesday again, we have another 1 year old party that awaits us this upcoming weekend. There must have been something in the Marriott water that had us all having babies at the same time. It seems like Kalista has more events on her schedule than we do.

Visitors Galore

Por Por, Gung Gung and Uncle Bill are visiting for the next few days. Kalista has been showing off her walking talents and babbling skills.

The weather has been fantastic down here and all the summer fruits are out and on display. Kalista has taken on a new liking to honeydew.

Speaking of honeydew....Cutest thing happened yesterday, we had a plate of sliced honeydew and Kalista wanted one of the pieces. She had trouble picking up the slice she wanted, so she rested her chin on the plate and started sucking on one of the slices. She figured she would officially claim HER piece. If only we had it on video...it was so cute and probably the highlight of our day.

Comic-Con is also in town and has brought along some of our die hard relatives. Maybe we'll be able to catch up with them this weekend. If we get to go...we'll definitely include some photos in our next posts.

Beach Party

We spent this past weekend at Breakers Beach on Coronado for two birthday parties. Kalista experienced an actual beach for the first time and sand between her toes. At first, she did not like it one bit and refused to walk in the new texture. It took awhile for her to even like walking in grass. But by the end of the day, she was a veteran and walking freely in the sand.

Kali getting her toys ready for the sand

Thank goodness for the dogs, we were able to use their tent as a safe house for Kalista and all our non-sand friendly items.

Kali was well covered and playing with the sand

Kali and her friend looking at something on the ground

We had some good eats, good company and an awesome time. Even Kalista had a few friends her size to hang out with too. Matt got a chance to take the stand up paddle board in the ocean for the first time. Evidently, it is a lot harder in the open water than in the bay. Jen is waiting for her chance to take the board out on the water, but she'll most likely stick to the bay.

Chubby Cheeks

We had our nutrition appointment yesterday and it looks like the Duocal powder is working. Kalista gained half a pound in two weeks. She is back to her 16lbs, 8 oz and getting back on to the growth curve. Yahoo!!!!


Kalista also met her new occupational/feeding therapist, Lauren, today. The two hit it off well, but we are sad to be leaving Adriana, our past therapist. We had to do some recapping and updating during our therapy session today, which made us look at the big picture and how far we have come. When we look back to last September, when Kalista came home, she has made some really good progress. She will pick out her favorite foods (ugh...Slim Jims and Cheeto Puffs) and put them in her mouth all on her own, compared to not wanting anything in her mouth at all. We still have a long road ahead of us, but we are definitely proud of our little angel and all the progress she has made.

What's S.U.P.?

Oh yes...we have a new, less expensive toy to replace our Nissan 350Z that we sold last month. That car was Matt's baby...so he had to fill the void and decided to get a new thing to take its place. Uh huh...he purchased a Stand Up Paddleboard (SUP)!

We took to Mission Bay this morning and took it out for a ride...more like Matt did and Kalista and Jen watched from ashore.

Kalista was eager to see what this board can do

Watching papa set everything up

Enjoying the view of the bay and seeing papa ride for the first time

Matt is already mastering the sport

Time to come in for the day

Kalista fell asleep, since we were probably out there for about 2 1/2 hours

Fireworks and Cupcakes

We had two special events this past weekend.

Number 1: HAPPY 4th of JULY to you!

and


Number 2: Our Joey turned 13 years old!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JO-JO!

Secret Weekend Getaway

You guessed it....VIVA LAS VEGAS!

We got into Las Vegas around 1:30 am on Sunday morning since we didn't start our drive out there until Matt got home from work. It was his surprise weekend excursion for us since we had talked about doing something cool for the Fourth of July weekend. Kalista did so well and slept for most of the drive, but woke up when we got to the hotel and wasn't very happy to find her new sleeping arrangements.

Kalista and Violet (her sleeping buddy) in their new "crib"

When we were well rested, we ventured on to the Vegas strip to do a little sightseeing, eating and shopping. Kalista walked a little bit on her own and explored the hotels. We made a grand tour of Aria, Caesar's Palace, Paris, The Cosmopolitan, Mirage, Bellagio and of course the JW Marriott, where we stayed. We even timed it perfectly to watch the water fountain show at the Bellagio.


Kalista took to the pool for the first time. Doesn't she look so cute in her pretty bathing suit?

She had a good time splashing around and watching all the other kids in the pool. Luckily, the weather wasn't too bad...meaning it wasn't 115 degrees, but more like 102 and overcast. We even got stuck in a torrential downpour later in the day and had to run from the Bellagio to Paris to get to our car. That was an adventure and a half. Kalista was in her stroller and kept peeking from under the cover to see what all the commotion was about. Needless to say, she was the driest one out of all of us when we got to our car.




Joey and Bella did well on their own since we loaded them up with plenty of food and water before we left. They were so happy to greet us when we came home. They must have really missed us!

Off the Growth Chart

We had our GI appointment this week to address the leaking g-tube issue. It looks like a new g-tube button swap is due and we might have to slip some gauze in between the tube button and Kali's belly to keep the tension tighter.

At our visit we found out that Kalista is off the growth chart....but not in the proper direction. Somehow between the last time we were weighed and now, she lost a little over a pound in body weight. It is probably a combination of her new found skill of walking plus the leaking from her g-tube that made her drop off the growth curve. Poor little thing weighs in a bit under 16 pounds now.

The remedy.....super soluble Duocal...essentially weight gaining powder. We have been instructed to buff up her calories by 100 everyday until we have our nutrition appointment mid-July. We hope that will throw Kali back on the growth curve and plump up those skinny arms.