Caroline's Second Christmas

I think Caroline had a really good holiday this year overall. She had her first birthday and a party with friends and cake. She had her first real Christmas with all four grandparents. She got bombarded with gifts and balloons. What more can a little girl ask for?

To give you some perspective, last year on Christmas day we brought Caroline home from the hospital. Here she was in her little Christmas outfit, that was a bit too big at the time.

I pulled that outfit out for a comparison shot. She's a bit bigger now, don't you think?

Here she is wearing one of the Santa hats that my mom brought. And playing with her new monkey puppet. Also notice the Christmas bib.





Caroline got a big-girl chair all of her own this Christmas. It didn't take her long to figure out how to safely get in and out. She likes to sit in it and read her books.



Grammy pushing Caroline on her lion. Caroline is supposed to push herself around on this, but instead, she insists that you push her around. No wonder Greg and I have back aches. :-)

She also got some musical toys. She has learned to how make sounds on her recorder. And speaking of music, Caroline entertained the grandparents by dancing to the Traveling Wilburys CD I got for Christmas. It was funny - picture all of the grandparents sitting around shaking maracas or tambourines, and Caroline doing her "dance" in the middle of the carpet. I have a dancing video...I will try to find time to upload that soon. But just trust me, it was hilarious! We actually listened to that CD quite a few times because as it turned out, it was music everyone liked.



Fun with legos. Greg really wanted Caroline to have legos. I think Greg wanted to play with them himself. :-)



What's in this big box? Caroline didn't really get into opening the gifts very much - we had to help her quite a bit. This box had a Little People Farm in it. Little People toys are fun. It's helped her to learn her animals.



The jolly grandparents: Papa, Mimi, Grammy, and Grandpa.

After everyone left, we got some downtime. Here's Caroline enjoying some time alone in her chair with a good book.

We had a wonderful holiday with everyone and Caroline definitely enjoyed her grandparents while they were here. I had so many pictures from Christmas - it took awhile to sort through them. I'll try not to get so behind in my blogging from now on. :-)

Caroline's First Birthday

Here's Caroline's belated birthday post! She loves balloons so I got a bunch...the star of which was the big cookie monster balloon. She kept pulling him down (as you see in the 2nd picture) and trying to hug him.

Now we skip to the cupcake. It had a little candle and she was getting very impatient as I was taking the wrapper off of the cupcake and taking out the candle so that she could have it. She had never had cake (or chocolate) before, but she knew she wanted it, and wanted it NOW! There are a lot of pictures here, though trust me when I say that this is only a small fraction of how many were actually taken. Needless to say, she really seemed to like it and made a fabulous mess. She also seemed to enjoy everyone looking at her and singing happy birthday. If I remember right, she clapped at the end.

Here she is with grandpa.

And playing with her new ladybug ball.

And now we flip back to party pictures - this was before the cupcake! We only had over a handful of little friends, but I think they all had a good time.

Where's Natalie? I can't see her behind the balloons! By the way, poor Natalie broke her little leg yesterday! She's gotta be the toughest little girl we know. She's not even 2 years old yet, and has already had a bunch of stitches above her eye and now a broken leg! Poor girl! But she's always very brave.

The twins: Izzy and Lola.

I love the look on Caroline's face in this picture. I don't know what she was looking at, but she was obviously very excited about it because she's doing her "OOOO!!!" face. Alex was enjoying the balloons too.

Caroline's birthday present from mommy - matching aprons (from Anthropologie)!

This was later that evening, with Papa and her new monkey puppet. She likes to put her pacifier in the monkey's mouth - but he can't keep it...she always steals it right back. But apparently it's hilarious because she does it over and over and over....

And back to the party. Here is Lola with some balloons.

Alex and Izzy getting acquainted.

I love this picture of Alex. So cute!

Playing with Mimi and Grammy.

Chillin' with dad before the party started.

When she had her 1 year appointment a couple of weeks after the party, she did something I hadn't been prepared for. She started screaming the moment we took her into the exam room. I hadn't thought about it, though it made sense that at some point she'd start to remember the place, and have a very strong opinion about it. So that was super fun. But, she's doing great. She was 18 pounds (8th percentile) and just over 29" tall (50th percentile). She's doing everything she should be so that's always good to hear. She's running around, eating really well, starting to drink cow's milk regularly from her cup (instead of chucking the cup on the floor), and has started talking too. Her vocab consists of words like door, ball, dada, bow, moo...you get the picture. She tries to say 'cheese' and 'woof' but she basically just deletes the vowels. Either way, I know what she means. :-) And her new thing is turning on/off the lights. She likes pushing the light switch. Hey - whatever makes her happy!

Stay tuned for a Christmas post. And then I'll almost be caught up!

Caroline's 2009 Catch-up

I know it's been a long time since I last blogged....but hey, the holidays got crazy and I'm only now getting a few spare moments during Caroline's nap time to sort through the massive quantities of photos and videos and post them. So bear with me as I catch up on all that has happened. By the way, does anyone else find it coincidental that this huge gap in blogging followed my last post where I mentioned that Caroline had started walking? She is now not only walking, but running and keeps me extremely busy.

So here are a bunch of photos from Thanksgiving on. This will be the first post of 2 or 3...so stay tuned for the birthday and Christmas editions. Hopefully I'll have time to do them sooner than later.

Kiss, Kiss!

Seriously, how adorable is she in this little Ralph Lauren dress and pigtails?

Blueberry Pancakes: A Great Way to Start Thanksgiving!

I Want YOU to Have a Great Thanksgiving!

Check out those teeth!

Practicing "Opening Gifts" by Opening an Early Birthday Present from Daddy

Three foot tall stacking cups - Score!!! Daddy chose wisely...she loves these things.

Admiring the Christmas Tree - She loved looking at it, and it also helped her to learn the word "tree"

Every so often she'd sneak near the tree and snatch a present...

Little thief!

Pictures with the Macy's Santa...these pictures were before she started screaming!

As an attempt to keep her from crying, we decided to try a group shot...she's still not very happy about it!

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?