Our little shopper & swimmer

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a bunch of stuff from Old Navy for Callie.  Mostly swimsuits, but I couldn't resist some of their cute clothes too :)  I had it shipped to my parents, who shipped to us here in Japan.  It took awhile to get through customs for some reason, but when the box finally arrived Callie was really excited!  She just loved all of her new clothes :)

Callie and her pile of clothes

We also took Callie for another dip in the River Walk.  She just loves the water!  We have to put a time limit on her baths or she would splash around for an hour.  I think that we definitely have a little fish on our hands :)  

We went to a different spot than we normally do and it was a little bit deeper.  The new spot turned out to work even better.  We brought Callie's little float tube along, and she loved being able to float in the water.  It was just deep enough that she could touch her toes on the bottom.  She was bouncing around and trying to walk, it was so cute.  After we floated for awhile we moved to a more shallow spot so Callie could splash around a little better.  I think she liked this just as much, and there were a couple of other kids playing nearby and she had fun watching them play too.

"walking" in the water

Sitting & splashing with Mommy.  Please excuse my super white legs.  I think that Callie might have a better tan than me :)

It has been a little while, so I guess it is time for a new post.  We haven't been doing too much that is exciting, just trying to stay cool during the hot and humid weather.  

We did go to the local water park last week, and Callie really liked it.  It is about a 1 mile walk from the apartment, so it is really easy to get to.  There are a couple of water slides, a wave pool, a lazy river, and a kiddie area.  It was pretty hot and sunny so we didn't stay long.  We took a couple of floats down the lazy river and Callie sat in the kiddie pool area and really liked it.  We got her a little inner tube and she had fun playing with that too.

sitting in the pool

We have also been hanging out with the Ford family a lot more lately.  Callie really loves their two boys.  The youngest one is seven years old and is always so concerned when Callie cries or fusses.  He runs over to give her a hug or do something to make her laugh right away.  We had a Mexican dinner night at their apartment last night and it was delicious!!  It definitely made us miss all the great food at home :)  Scott and I also had our first experience with Dance Dance Revolution.  The boys have a Nintendo Wii and it is one of the games.  There is a pad that you stand on and then have to match the dance moves on the video screen.  There is also an arcade version and I have always wanted to try it out and see how hard it is.  It is definitely harder than it looks, and a workout too!!  Let's just say that the two boys kicked our butts!

Here are a couple more recent pictures of Callie.  We were out running errands and it was really hot, so Callie was cooling off on the couch when we got home :)

Well baby check

Callie had her 9 month well baby check on Monday.  It was a couple of weeks early, but it worked the best with Scott's schedule.  She weighed in at 16lbs and was 26.6 inches long.  I'm not quite sure where that puts her on the growth chart, but she sure seems big!!  Everyday she feels twice as heavy as the day before :)  She also got a platelet count, and it was 57,000.  This is just a little bit lower than her count before we left for Japan, but nothing to be worried about.  All in all, she is a very healthy little girl.

Callie also has her second tooth now!!  It is so cute when she smiles and you can see her teeth.  Because of her new teeth she has been experimenting with some new sounds.  The sounds she comes up with are pretty funny, and usually make her drool quite a bit :)   Not only does she have some new sounds, but for the past couple of days she hasn't stopped "talking".  She talks to her toys, the TV, to us, sometimes she even yells!

Not too much else has been going on.  We are just busy trying to keep Callie entertained :)  Here are a couple of pictures of one of her new favorite things to do, sit up in chairs like a big girl.  She has a funny look in a couple of the pictures because she blinks when the flash goes off :)

sitting at the table at dinner

sitting in the recliner with a great hairdo :)

Not a sitting up picture, but thought it was cute.  Callie's hair is courtesy of Daddy :)

Water time #2

On Sunday we took Callie down to the River Mall area again so she could play in the water.  It has been so hot and humid here, we were all happy for the nice cool dip in the water :)  I made it over to Baby Gap last week and found a couple swimsuits for her.  On the way to the water we ran into another American family that lives on Rokko Island and their kids.  The kids are so cute.  They kept asking us what Callie was saying and would laugh every time she splashed water at them :)  They all had so much fun playing in the water.

Callie sitting in the water

Playing with her friends :)

Standing with Daddy

Kobe Ogi Zoo

Today was an off day for Scott so we decided to go to the zoo.  Callie really seems to enjoy watching the animals on Animal Planet, and she has a couple of Baby Einstein videos with animals and she loves them too.  So we thought she would really get a kick out of the zoo.

The zoo is a short train ride away so it was easy to get to.  It's a pretty big zoo, but we only saw about half of it today.  It was another hot and really humid day.  All three of us were pretty sweaty by the time we made the walk from the train station to the zoo entrance.  

Callie really loved the zoo.  The first little area we went into was kind of like a petting zoo.  There were a couple of goats laying around, a rooster, and some of the biggest bunnies I have ever seen.  Callie was talking to all the animals and if we would have let her, she would have tried to touch them all.

The best part of the zoo was the Big Cats exhibit.  There were these windows that the cats were walking right up next to.  The Tiger looked like he was going to give us a big kiss through the window, he could get so close.

We will definitely be going back soon to see the rest of the zoo, we all had a blast!

Mom & Callie at the Zoo

The big tiger coming to say hi to Callie :)

big elephant

The baby elephant that is only two days older than Callie

Beer & liquor vending machine that is on the sidewalk in between the zoo and the train station