Caroline Goes Solo

Last night Greg and I saw Caroline's first steps. She's been cruising around holding on to things for awhile, but last night she took her first solo flight. It was very exciting, and cool that we were both there to see it! Caroline and I were in the middle of the rug in the living room and Greg was on the couch. She wanted daddy, so she walked about 3 or 4 steps to him! All by herself! She's getting braver every day, and I'm sure she'll be running around before we know it.

Hmmm, what cool trick should I learn next?

Caroline Gets a Snow Day

We're experiencing a lovely "fall storm" here in Colorado right now. It feels like we've already had an awful lot of snow for it still being October! We've easily got 6" here at the house, and it's slippery out! Earlier today we took a little trip over to the library, and when we got back home it took a dozen or so tries for me to make it up our driveway. And anyone who's ever been here can testify that our driveway isn't very steep or very long. I was finally successful after a handful of attempts in reverse. Reminded me of living on "the hill" when I was a kid...

Anyway, schools and stuff were closed today, and are tomorrow as well. It's kinda nice knowing the night before. When our daycare called to tell us they'd be closed tomorrow, they said they had 24" of snow there today! And the snow's not supposed to stop until maybe lunchtime tomorrow. So the 6+ inches we have doesn't sound so bad. But we'll see how much we have in the morning! I just hope we don't lose any more trees...a lot of the trees haven't dropped all of their leaves yet, so we're apt to have quite a few broken branches. I already know we lost one of our large evergreens. I was out earlier today shoveling and trying to knock snow off of the tree branches and saw that most of the evergreen had broken and was on the ground. So sad. That's two trees this year. :-(

On a lighter note, check out Caroline in her winter gear. Pretty cute, huh? She still hates wearing hats, but I somehow managed to keep this one on her for the trip. There's room to grow in coat and hat, so she was a bit like the stay-puff marshmallow man in her carseat. Her arms just stuck out sideways. But it couldn't have been too bad, because she fell asleep. I suppose it was handy that she was asleep as I did my slip and slide all over the driveway.

Today's Little Tid-Bit

This morning I had to tell Caroline not to put her spoon in her diaper.
I immediately realized that this was a sentence I never thought I'd say. :-) Gotta love kids!!!

Caroline's Second Radio Flyer

As promised, here are two more videos. These are pretty short because she can't really steer the wagon yet, and so I can only get her going and grab the camera so quickly! But you can see that she likes it. Lots of smiles, laughs, and happy screams.





So you may be wondering, why is this post titled Second Radio Flyer? Well, because yesterday Robyn and I took the girls to Cottonwood Farm, a local place with some animals and halloweeny stuff. And it's free. If you live around here, check it out! We had fun looking at the animals, pumpkins, and pretending to go through a corn maze. The farm has a ton of radio flyer wagons for kids to use while they're there. It was really cute seeing all of the little kids in wagons, and also wagons filled with pumpkins destined to be jack-o-lanterns. Check out some of these shots. I love the one of Natalie giving Caroline a hug!







The girls enjoyed looking at some kittens, goats, a donkey, a cow, sheep, and tractors. And of course, all of the other people! Caroline was just taking it all in the whole time we were there. It ended up being a beautiful day...almost too sunny for picture taking! Natalie also found another friend there too - Madeline, from our library storytime. There's always room for one more in the wagon!






So that's the second radio flyer. :-) We all had fun.
Caroline likes to walk around the house now with her wagon, and point at things that she wants to look at. She will point at a picture on the wall, and you have to pick her up and show it to her. She's getting to the point that she can communicate with us in ways other than crying! (which is nice for obvious reasons...) She will sign 'milk', and then the pointing is actually quite informative! She and I went out to dinner tonight (Greg's in WY hunting), and in front of her I had her water, carrots, puffs, and part of my breadstick. She would point to whichever one she wanted next. And yes...she did sometimes pick the carrots! :-)

Caroline's First Radio Flyer

This is the first of two posts with some little videos of Caroline walking. Apparently I can only upload so much video to one post...so that's why there are two.

Anyway, last weekend when we were stuck inside because of the snowy weather, we decided to see how Caroline would do with her Radio Flyer Walker Wagon that I had bought the day before. We had thought about getting this for her at Christmas time, but I thought she could really use it now, so decided not to wait. I was also pleasantly surprised to have gotten it much cheaper at our local toystore, Grandrabbits, than I would have at Target or Babies R Us. I love this place! It's all that a toy store should be, and it's not a big chain so it feels good to support the local guy. I feel like a little kid whenever I go in there.

This video is the first time she tried walking with it. It has a clicker mechanism in the wheels that gives it some resistance so it doesn't totally run away from her, but it will go fairly fast if you're not careful! :-) The first day we had to help her a bit with the speed, and keep her from going too fast. Check it out! How cute is she? Notice the smile on her face too...I think she was pretty proud of herself!



So that's her first time with it. We were amazed at how much better she did just the very next day! She didn't need our help at all. She realized she could use it for balance but shouldn't put her weight on it. Check out the next post for more videos! She's definitely been enjoying the wagon. She thinks it's pretty funny.

Caroline Rides a Lion

Caroline turned 9 months old last week. She's getting so big and learning so much. It continually amazes me. She's got at least 4 teeth now, and more on the way. She's walking a lot with the assistance of our hands, or the furniture. Once in awhile she'll stand unsupported for a few seconds because both hands are occupied with a toy or something - but I don't yet think she realizes she's doing it! She's also learned how to open the cabinets, so I think it's time to install the locks I bought.







At her 9 month appointment she was 16 lbs 4 oz - so still a skinny girl (10th percentile) though she was about 28.25" long, which is 75th percentile. She does really well with all of the new foods she's always getting. So far she is not a picky eater and I hope she stays that way. Her least favorite food seemed to be bananas (believe it or not!) though she's starting to come around on that one I think. She sees me eating it and wants some too! Fine with me!





Caroline also likes hearing Greg play the guitar. It has a nice calming effect! :-) She will put her hand on it and feel the vibrations, or will bang on the strings because it makes a cool sound. It was so cute...the first time he played for her she took her little maracas and was shaking them along with the music! I wish I'd gotten that on video.





Mimi (my mom) was visiting us last week and we had a good time. When we went to the zoo Caroline liked watching the hippo eat, and still likes to watch the ducks and geese. There are a lot of peacocks roaming around too, and she liked to watch those. She also went on her first carousel ride! It was so cute. She sat in front of me, and held on to the little pole with both hands. She enjoyed watching everything move and all of the colors. We were riding a lion, and sometimes she'd reach forward to "pet" it.







The kitchen is also done. Hooray! All that is left to do some day is paint the walls a different color, but I don't think we'll get to that for a bit. We need a break. :-) We are really happy with how it turned out. Just to show you how much better it is, check out the "before" pictures. I think Auntie Karen would be proud. :-) She'll have to come visit us again and have a glass of wine in our fabulous space.

BEFORE (yuck!):




AFTER (we didn't have the stainless switchplate covers on yet in these pictures - though you can see my celebratory beer on the counter, haha):

Caroline Plays "Baby Godzilla"

I know, I've been a slacker at posting. We've been busy with all of the normal stuff along with our kitchen "remodel" or whatever you want to call it! That is almost 100% complete, so hopefully I will have pictures of that soon.



Caroline's been doing great. She'll be nine months old in a week, which in a way is hard to believe. But when I think about the baby blob she used to be, and what she's like now, the difference is incredible! She's a speedy little crawler which is allowing her to get into more mischief than ever before. She loves standing up and will now walk a bit if we hold her hands to keep her steady. She also hates having her clothes changed now. The way she screams when I put her clothes on would make you think I was beating her senseless. So hopefully that's a phase that ends soon. On that note, when I'm changing her clothes she likes to "escape" and go out to the railing by her room...she looks down into the living room like a little naked prisoner.





We had Greg's parents out to visit a couple of weeks ago and Caroline and the grandparents definitely enjoyed each other's company. Here are a couple of fun shots of her with them.





Here is Caroline playing what Greg likes to call "Baby Godzilla" with Grandma and Aunt Lisa...this is where we stack some blocks or whatever else is around, and she will come over and knock it down. This goes on for quite awhile. Good, clean, fun.



Lastly, we have a little video of Caroline enjoying some hugs and kisses. She was laughing way harder before we got the camera out, of course. But you still get to hear her giggle a little bit.

Caroline Gets Teeth

Things have been going pretty well here lately. Caroline has two bottom teeth now. They finally seem to be bothering her less and not interrupting her sleep, though when I picked her up at daycare yesterday, they told me that they thought they felt one coming in on top now. Great! :-) Anyway, this picture is a little blurry since she was moving around, but you can see those little chompers!

She's now crawling like a champ, and getting pretty quick too. She also pulls herself up on anything that she can. She definitely likes standing, though she isn't really walking with assistance yet. Soon, I'm sure.

This is random, but a week or so ago, I was in the kitchen and noticed this owl in our tree right outside the window! It was probably only 5 or 6 feet from me, and definitely saw me staring at it. I tried to take a couple of pictures, but they're not so great since they're taken from inside. I thought if I went outside it would scare it away. It hung out at our house all day long....I couldn't believe it!

I think that's about it! Not too much else going on here besides us starting a kitchen remodel/facelift. As typical for any house project, our refrigerator decided to die the day after we ordered a new one. The new one wasn't supposed to be in for about 5 weeks, so now we have an apartment sized rental fridge in the meantime. So it's worked out ok, but man...it's always something! The fridge lasts for 10+ years, and craps out on us when we only need it for 5 more weeks! Oh well.

A Weird Thing Happens at the Zoo

Yesterday we took Caroline to the zoo for the first time. We'd been wanting to go for most of the week, but the days had been chilly and rainy so we didn't go until Friday. The Denver Zoo was bigger than I expected, and prettier too. I can see how people would go there just to stroll around for a bit and enjoy all of the big trees.

But...speaking of trees...as the title of this post suggests, we had a weird thing happen. We were in the "hoofed animals" section of the zoo and had taken Caroline out of the stroller so she could see the animals. The cement walls and railings in this part of the zoo made it hard for her to see the animals if she was in her stroller. We were under the shade of a large tree, when I heard leaves rustling and then this soft "thud" sound. A baby bird fell right onto the seat of Caroline's stroller!!! The poor little thing was dead - I don't know if it had been dead and so the mommy bird pitched it out of the nest, or if it fell out and the fall killed it. It was too tiny to have been trying to fly.

I can only imagine what would have happened if Caroline had been in the stroller. It would have fallen right in her lap! I'm sure she would have picked it up and tried to stick it in her mouth. Then I would have had to make a weird call to the pediatrician's office. :-) So anyway, we had a good time. But we just couldn't believe that! What are the chances?

Here are some pictures from the day...at one point it started to rain for a few minutes, so I put her little yellow hoodie on her. What a cutie! I think Caroline's favorites were the ducks/geese and seals. The last picture is of her watching the birds in the water.

Waterslides and Baseball Games

So much has been happening lately! We have lots of pictures to share. Caroline keeps doing well at the pool. And, despite having a bad experience on her first trip down a waterslide, she still enjoys being in the water. We have a little video of the waterslide fiasco. Greg took her down, and at the end hit his feet on the bottom when he went into the water...which sent him tumbling forward...and sent both he and Caroline under water....and then when he emerged from the water with a startled baby, his forward momentum launched him into some dude that was there. Anyway, check out the video. We watched it in slow motion once, and our friend Audra was at the bottom and her mom-instinct kicked in...she immediately started going for the baby when things went awry! Thanks Audra! :-) The camera work is a little like the Blair Witch Project at the end because when I saw what was happening I stopped focusing on filming it!





Caroline is also taking baths in the big tub now, which she really seems to enjoy. She splashes a lot and plays with her little squirty toys. We have a few funny pictures of her eating her toys, and with a nice bath-mohawk.

We also got to take Caroline to her first Giants game on Sunday! It was a lot of fun. The Giants were in town playing the Rockies, so we got tickets. She did awesome....she wore her Giants outfit with pride, and was such a good girl the whole time. There were so many people to look at, and all of the music and stuff kept her quite interested. She has recently learned to clap as well, and practiced that new skill quite a few times at the ballpark.

In other big news, she's officially learned to crawl. She was very close last week, and then started moving one "step" at a time, but now she's totally crawling. Her movements are very deliberate right now, so it's kind of funny to watch, but she's doing it! And she gets better every time she tries. I posted a short video below...I was using the remote to try to bribe her, but honestly she just likes to go to Greg or I, so bribery isn't actually necessary! Soon she'll be zooming all over the house. Yikes. She's also able to get back to a sitting position if she's laying down, so that's nice. She's figured out how to do quite a few things lately! She likes to stand up too, and I think soon she'll start pulling herself up. Right now she likes to stand with Greg or I holding her. She's learning so much!