It has been awhile, so here is a picture post!

As always, life is crazy at the Costello house. Before the Holidays officially start, we wanted to update the blog with some recent pictures of Callie. We were lucky to have a lot of family time in Novemeber, so here are pictures from our trips to Canton, Burlington and Thanksgiving weekend!

Fall school picture!

Cal playing with Grandpa!

Cal with her Grams!

Cal and Pa snuggling!

Kisses with Great Grandpa Jones!

Great Grandma Jones and Callie!

Kisses with Grampi!

Puzzletime with Jack!

Watching Mickey Mouse with Auntie Kim!

Riding her horse Callamia!

Meeting Callamia!

Cal and her Grandma!

Cal and Pa!

Callie meeting Asher for the first time!

Cal reading to Ash!

and holding Ash! (he wasn't too thrilled!)

Callie playing outside with Uncle Alex!

Fishy faces with Mommom!

Cal and her Poppop!

Costello girls!

Callie and Oma walking Riley!

Playing with Aunt Brenna!

Upside down Callie!

Big girl Callie!!

World Prematurity Day

Today is the first ever World Prematurity Day. It is a day to raise awareness to the many babies around the world that are born too early. Lately, I have found myself reflecting more and more on how truly blessed we are to have Callie in our life. I keep searching for the strength to write about the emotions that were involved in her birth and the first year of her life, but I am not quite ready yet. I do know that she has defied the odds and continues to amaze everyone that knows her and her story. When Callie was born, she weighed only 1 lb 5.3 oz. She was so sick that the NICU didn't think she would make it through the night and we were brought in to say good-bye to our little girl. Then a few weeks later, after she suffered the worse grade brain bleed a baby can have, they said the likelihood of her ever walking or functioning normally were slim. We asked if we could have hope and they said "you can always have hope". Callie has endured 6 surgeries and has faught through more health scares then most people face in a lifetime. The strength she has shown amazes me.

Callie is now coming up on her third birthday in February and is thriving. She is doing well at school. Learning to be more assertive and communicate more effectively. Over the weekend, she was putting together a puzzle with her cousin Jack, and Jack kept trying to help her with the pieces. Callie leaned across, put her hand over the puzzle and said "Jack, I told you NO...I can do it myself." The clarity and tone in which she spoke was so appropriate and bold, that my Grandmother and I actually took a step back. She is doing the things a two year old should be doing and we couldn't be any more proud. Cal is a determined little girl and knows what she wants. I tell everyone I know this is why she survived. She is our little fighter through and through.

Halloween Pics!

Happy Halloween everyone!! Our little bumble bee had a great Halloween this year!

It started two weeks ago with the annual neighborhood Halloween parade. This year was a big change from last year!

Last year, we pulled Callie in a wagon and this year she walked with her friends!

Last year, we carried her around to see the different activities, this year she participated on her own! The picture above is her in a circle playing a creepy version of hot potato!

Last year, she would eat anything and this year she was digging through the candy basket for chocolate!!

At school, they talked about trick or treating and call Callie could talk about when she got home was going trick or treating!

Such a big girl walking out of the house on her own! She definitely was little miss independent this year. At one house, I grabbed her hand to help her down the step. She turned to me and said, "No Mommy, I do it myself!" And she proceeded to turn around, step back up the step and step down all by herself!!

And she was so excited running down the street exclaiming that she was going trick or treating!

Callie was so excited to run into her friends Sydney and Alyssa. I think it is cute that she bends down in the picture too!!

Callie's friend Riley was also dressed as a bee! I think Callie was more excited about Riley's dog barking inside the door!

And for the second year in a row, Callie and her friend Ashley went door to door together!

What a difference a year makes!

Fall Fun

Again, we apologize for taking so long to post, but it has been a busy fall!!

We spent a fun filled Labor day in Ocean City, NJ. Callie loved playing in the sand and the water and copying her Uncle Alex!!

We decided to include a picture of the pups-we haven't done that in a while!! Callie loves when they "fight" and loves to chase them around the house and even tries to dance with them!!


We have had a lot of visitors this fall. Grandpa came down for the annual trip to the pumpkin patch.

It was VERY different than last year! She was running around and trying to climb on the big pumpkins!

We also spent a nice family day apple picking!

Callie really enjoyed picking and eating the apples. She damanded to "do it myself", she is quite the independent one!

Callie loved the hayride-especially throwing the hay in the air and everyone's hair!!

Callie has been doing really well in school this fall. She is really adjusting to the older kid classroom. Her infants and toddlers teachers are really trying to work on her confidence and communication. In the last few months, we have seen a big change in her. We watch her play and participate...it is a wonderful site! The teachers keep telling us they don't like to discipline her because she is so cute, but we repeatedly tell them they need to do it...today she had her first "time out" in school! Is it weird, that it makes me happy? She is acting like a normal toddler and we couldn't be more proud!

End of Summer

I am sorry we have been so bad at updating lately, but life has been busy! Our beautiful little girl is as active as ever!!


We try to be outside as much as we can, but the weather this month has been challenging with all of the rain! It is fun to watch Callie in our neighborhood. The big girls that used to come and want to look at her when she was a baby, now come and play with her. Callie loves to do somersaults with them! She really looks up to them, it is so cute to watch!!
Callie has made a few trips to Ocean City this summer...she absolutely loves the beach!! She loves to roll around in the sand and run right into the ocean! She has no fear, which scares us a little!!

We have also made fun trips to the zoo and Inner Harbor, all of which Callie loves to do!!

Callie had her first Grocery shopping experience with her own cart this summer! She now refuses to sit in Mommy's cart and demands to push her own! It is adorable, but can make a quick trip to the store extremely long!!

Callie had her first official haircut this summer! She was such a big girl sitting in the chair! The only thing she didn't like is having her arms restricted by the drape.

Callie's eating habits are still a struggle for us, but she is definitely eating more and has come off of the failure to thrive diagnosis, which means no more weigh in's with her Pediatrician! The picture above was taken after her first haircut when Mommy took her to Buffalo Wild Wings. Callie had one of her favorite meals, chicken wings!! And yes, that is her trying to drink the blue cheese!!

Callie moved up to the Giraffe room at school with the bigger kids. So far, she seems to be doing well! The kids are great with her, but she is still a lot smaller. She is a little quieter than her friends, but the teachers are working with her to give her time to answer and participate with the other kids. She is just building her confidence. It is so amazing for me to walk in to her classroom in the afternoon and see her sitting in a circle with the other kids...it seams like such a simple thing, but to see her keeping up with kids her age just warms my heart!

Infants and Toddlers started up again for the school year and Callie has a new teacher. We are really going to miss Ms Sue...she has been such a blessing for Callie and our family. I know the new teacher will be just as helpful!

As part of this school year, Callie is also starting out with some speech therapy/evaluations. She qualifies for six sessions, and they will be working on her strictly at school. Callie talks up a storm at home, but tends to be much quieter at school. A big part of what they are working with her on is communicating effectively in that type of setting. Again, this just plays into her shyness at school and hope as her confidence builds, this will also improve!

She Continues to Amaze Us!!

Over the past couple of weeks, Callie has had most of her major follow-up appointments. Most of them tend to be on the 6 month rotation!! In all of them, Callie impressed the doctors, nurses and as always, us, in how far she has come!!

Callie had her second Dentist appointment and the they were happy with her teeth! Callie wasn't thrilled with the appointment, but all in all it was a success!

Callie also had her follow-up with her Opthamologist. We informed him of a little drifting that we are seeing when Callie is tired or not focusing. He was also able to see this, but said since she was able to focus and move them together, we would just watch them over the next 6 months.
Neurosurgery was very happy with Callie's progress. These are still one of Mommy's favorite follow-ups because they are always so amazed at how far she has come! It is so great to see a once somber man lighten up when talking about our daughter! They said they don't want to see her again for 9 months and will do a MRI at that point since they haven't done any scans in over two years.

Callie's final appointment during the last month was with the Developmental Pediatrician. The fellow at the appointment could not believe that Callie had had the brain bleeds that she had at birth. He actually looked in her chart, because he had never seen a baby with that severe of a bleed do so well. This is the same baby they once told us would never walk or function "normally"-well....look at her now!!! Across the board, Callie tested at least at her adjusted age while scattering well above her actual age in other categories. The other exciting news was that Callie has made it back on the growth charts for her actual age at the 1%!!

On the weekends, we continue to spend most of our time in the pool, either lessons or the kiddie pool in our backyard. Callie continues to love spending as much time in the pool as she can! At her lessons, the instructor uses Callie for all of the demonstrations since she is so comfortable now in the water!! And every morning, Callie continues to ask us to go to the pool and if we say no, then we at least have to show her a video of herself playing in it!! We think she may be a swimmer some day!

Last week, Callie had her NICU Grad Party at Johns Hopkins. It was so nice to catch up with all of the wonderful Doctors and Nurses that took such great care of Callie during her months there. We know part of why she is doing so well is all of the love and attention they gave her! Below is a picture of Callie and her Primary Nurse Mary, we love you!!

Callie continues to develop her personality every day!! Below is a picture of her stealing Mommy's spot in bed! She thought she was hysterical!! Her vocabulary continues to grow every day and she is talking in complete sentences. Her new thing is to commentate everything that she does...it is too cute!!

School continues to go well! The picture below was taken when they did Old Time photos at school! The summer is filled with fun activities at Goddard, like Spash Days and Moon Bounces. Callie falls in between two groups of kids at her school. At the beginning of summer, they gave us the option to move her up with the older kids or keep her down with the younger kids. Callie had been doing really well developmentaly with the older kids, but was extremely shy with them. With the younger kids, Callie really becomes a leader and lets her personality shine. We decided, with her teachers, that they best thing for Callie for the summer is to let her develop her social skills with the younger kids and move up at the end of summer.