The Summer Finale

It's September already and the summer has come to an end.

We just returned from a short trip to the Bay Area over the Labor Day weekend.  Matt's mom celebrated her retirement with a big party, Kalista started her first day of school last week and Bella had a blast at the doggie hotel.

Grandma Evelyn's retirement bash at the Cliff House

 Bella enjoying playtime and making new friends at the pet resort

We got this emailed to us from the pet resort on Labor Day...Bella is too cute!

 Kali enjoying her last few days of summer vacation before her first day of school

Kalista also sat on the airplane for the first time over this past holiday weekend.  She did a great job on both flights.  She said "whoa whoa whoa" upon take off and then slept for the remainder of the flight. Whew...we were so glad that we did not end up a victim of those crying kid airplane stories.  She did a great job!

Here are a few pictures from our trip up north visiting friends and family:

 Having dinner with Great-Grandma (Jen's Grandma)

 Hanging out with Great-Grandpa (Matt's Grandpa)

Kali borrowed Auntie Jeanette's Barbie mobile with Grandpa's help

 Kali had to show off her new bathing suit. It hides her belly bump well!

 Enjoying pool time with dada

 Poolside party with the cousins

Because we haven't updated our blog over the past few months, we have plenty to talk about now.  Kalista is growing leaps and bounds.  Her speech and vocabulary has expanded and she talks non-stop.  her new favorite phrase is: "What is.....????"  So she asks us all the time: "What is a bird?  What is Brobee?  What is Muno? What is dada? "  Kali is still a big lover of Yo Gabba Gabba and asks about Brobee and Muno on a daily basis.

Bella has adjusted to life without Joey and is enjoying all the attention she gets from all of us in the house. She loves cuddling with Kali and I think the feeling is mutual from Kalista too. We will sometimes find Kali laying on Bella as if she was a pillow.

 Summer chalk art classes for Bella - Kali is a good teacher!

 Mastered the pursed lips pose for blowing bubbles

Enjoying plenty of time outdoors

We just celebrated our five year anniversary and will celebrate the monumental milestone in the next few weeks while we are on a long vacation.  Matt is working hard at the Marriott still, but Jen has decided to leave private practice after almost 7 years to join the optometry team at Sharp Rees-Stealy, a larger medical practice, as their pediatric specialist mid-October. It has been exciting news and a big change!

Update on Kali's medical status: We have been placed on hold from any surgeries until we wean her 100% off her g-tube.  Which might be a good thing since she is so petite.  We have seen the GI department and our nutrition team quite a bit over the summer because we were not gaining weight as quickly as we should have.  With a little adjustment in the calories and quantity of tube feedings, we are back on the growth chart with good progress. We had to bump back up to Boost 1.5 formula with some extra calories from Duocal, but we broke the 20 pound mark FINALLY sometime in mid-August.  Yay!! 

We have a feeding team evaluation coming up in the next month and a half to assess where we are and figure out our next plan since we are at a standstill with oral feeds again. Kali will get hungry...stuff food in her mouth....but won't swallow it and then gets frustrated and taps her belly for her tube feeding. She is too smart for her own good!  

We are just blessed that she is doing well overall and growing into such a little woman.

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.