Snow Day Pictures

After Greg came home and shoveled the driveway (which took an hour!) we bundled up the kiddo in her little snow suit thing, and headed out for a few quick pictures. I realized we had no mittens for her...we never needed them...so I just put some socks over her hands. :-) Hey, they're basically like mittens, just without a thumb! So it worked out just fine. And this might be the last snow we have til next season anyway so we'll get her some proper winter gear for next year. Here we are getting ready to head out! Isn't she adorable? I love the little bear ears on her hood. (And notice the sock-hands)

She didn't care for being outside...it was kind of cold and breezy!

We brushed some of the snow off of the patio table, and sat her down on it so you can see how high the snow is! The snow comes up to her nose!!! We took her inside after this...she'd had enough.

After our five minutes of fun in the snow we came inside to warm up. After a bit we put her back on her tummy to see if maybe she'd roll over so daddy could see. Much to our amazement, she rolled over (from tummy to back) three times in a row!!! Two times going one direction, and one time the other direction. So that was exciting. I decided to press my luck and get the camera to see if we could get four times in a row...check out the video below to see what happened!

A Bit O' Blizzard

I guess this little spring blizzard we're having is somewhat unexpected. The forcast called for snow, but I wasn't expecting this! When we got up this morning there was only a small amount of snow...but then it started snowing really hard and we easily got 3" in an hour. It's continued snowing pretty hard all morning and lately the wind picked up too so it's pretty nasty out! Greg had gone to work, but after getting Caroline fed and dressed for daycare, I had decided it wasn't worth trying to go out in this mess so I was going to stay home (today was supposed to be a work day for me). I called her daycare to say we wouldn't be coming and it turns out that they decided to close - so today's her first snow day! Later on, my company sent out a message urging everyone to go home ASAP. And Greg's on his way home now...his company decided to close down at noon. I think there's about 9" on our patio table right now, though I'm not about to bust out a ruler to check for sure. I think the first thing Greg will do when he gets home is shovel the driveway. And then I'm sure we'll need to do another pass later on. This storm is supposed to last until tomorrow morning. I'm lighting the pilot on the gas fireplace in the living room just in case we'd lose power! Luckily, when we do lose power around here it's not usually for more than a few hours.

Here's a picture I took about an hour ago. The pile on the table has grown even more since then! I have some pretty purple flowers and grape hyacinths near the patio that are under that snow somewhere. I do hope they survive!

In stark constrast to the weather here today, we had a wonderful weekend with temperatures of almost 80 degrees! So we took the wee one out for a walk both days. We put her in her Belle Baby Carrier, which she has grown into recently, and she enjoyed being able to face out and look around. This picture was from Saturday...it actually started to sprinkle so we cut our walk short. But not before we were able to go over to our little playground here in our neighborhood and do some swinging! On Sunday we went for a longer walk around the lake and Caroline happily drooled all over the carrier as she took in the scenery.

Here is a breakfast burp over the weekend. I love these strawberry PJs! And see the quilt behind me on the couch? Caroline LOVES to stare at the star that you see there with the orange flowers, and there's one beside it with little kids on it. It's hilarious how much she likes looking at them. Every time she eats she laughs at the quilt. She just smiles and coos and babbles at them...it's very silly. She really likes looking at things with interesting patterns these days.

Here's Caroline hanging out with her moose toy while mom makes pancakes on Sunday. Grandma Mary got her this outfit from Gymboree (the pants are a Target add-on since it was cold), and it just so happens that I already had the matching socks for this outfit! They're striped like the shirt. Go figure. Gotta love Gymboree clearance sales!

And last but not least, here is a video of Caroline having some tummy time. She's getting so strong! Just a couple of weeks ago she struggled with getting her head off the ground when she was on her stomach, and now she can not only hold up her head, but push up with her arms too! Last week she rolled over at daycare...from her back to her belly. And yesterday when I had her on her tummy she rolled over to her back! She just dropped that shoulder and rolled on over. Greg missed it of course because he was at work, and she hasn't done it since, but I think she will soon. She's making quick progress! I took a couple of videos of her this morning on her tummy...hoping that in one she might roll over and I could capture it on video! But no such luck...

Another First...And We Missed It

I think my transition back to work, and Caroline's transition to daycare went pretty well this week. We only did a half day on Wednesday, and all day Thursday. For me, it was as if I never left work. My leave went so quickly. And from what people tell me, nothing really changed while I was gone! And Caroline's doing better at daycare too. She's eating for them better and napping in her crib too. So that's good. Though so far, every time I pick her up she gives me the silent treatment for about an hour. She refuses to look at me. Even when I'm basically right in her face! It's weird. It's like she's ticked off - but who knows. Hopefully she'll get over it at some point - I thought she was supposed to smile and be happy to see me when I picked her up! :-)

On Thursday when I picked her up, I walked in the door and as soon as the one teacher saw me she said, "Caroline rolled over today!!!" And I said, "really?!?!?!?" And in my head I'm thinking - man, I missed it! They said she was hanging out on her back, and just rolled right over. I've never seen her do this before - I've seen her go from her back to her side, and hang out there, but she's never taken the next step and rolled from her side to her belly. So anyway, I'm sure this is the first of many things that she'll do, and that we'll miss. So that was a bummer. I called Greg to tell him the news, and his response was an emphatic "Well THAT sucks!!!" followed a few seconds later by the same thought I had..."and we missed it." Obviously it's great that she rolled over. But it's still kinda depressing when someone else gets to see it before you! We'll have to see if this was a freak occurence, or something she'll start doing every so often now. I put her on the floor for a little while last night and today to see if she'd roll over again, but so far no luck. But you can bet we'll be watching for it now!

I didn't work today, but a bunch of the people I work with wanted to meet the baby so we met them at Ozo this morning - a coffee shop near work. Here's a picture of her in her cute little fuzzy jacket that Christy sent us - I love it - it's so soft! And the second picture is of Steve getting some baby time - he's got at least one fairly new grandbaby so he's used to the little ones. It was kinda fun to have everyone meet the the baby. She just sat there with wide eyes looking at everyone and taking it all in. There's a lot of stimulation at Ozo! Plus, there were also about 8 or 9 people staring at her too. :-) But she did really well. She's been to Ozo twice now!

Caroline's First Cold

...which is not a "first" that's very fun. A couple of weeks ago I got a bad cold (I think I caught it in the waiting room at the pediatrician's office) and then last week Caroline started to get sick just as I was feeling better. So it's been a not-so-fun couple of weeks. She was supposed to be in daycare for a half-day today, but I kept her home. I was also supposed to go back to work tomorrow, but luckily since things are so slow at work, they said it was ok for me to come back later in the week. So the new plan is to do a half-day of work and daycare on Wednesday, and a full-day Thursday. I think she'll feel a lot better by then. I think today she's finally feeling a tad better, though the poor girl still has a bad cough and lots of congestion. I feel so bad for her! But at least it seems as if we may have turned the corner and are on the way to recovery. The only bad news is that now Greg's starting to feel sick. Great.

But in other news, not too much is new here. Our colds have kept us from doing too much lately. But about a week ago we tried to put Caroline in the bumbo since she holds her head up really well now. Every once in awhile her head bobs a bit, but overall she holds it up quite well. I don't know if she liked the bumbo, but she didn't seem to dislike it either. The first picture is just the first time we put her in it. And the next, though kind of hard to see, is her having a staring contest with Mallory the Monkey.

Here's a picture of her just chillin'....looks pretty comfortable to me!

And here she is hanging out with dad. I hate to admit that I think she was watching tv before she looked at the camera. I could be stoned in Boulder for letting my child see tv before she's 2 years old. Some of those Boulder moms are a little crazy (and judgemental). I mean, feel free to have your own opinions...I don't care! But don't judge us if our little one sees a few minutes of Sportscenter. :-) (We definitely don't use the tv as a babysitter...just for the record! Anyone who's been to our house knows that she's almost always positioned with her back to the tv. haha...)

Nothing else exciting to report. It was very nice here over the weekend and is supposed to be a great week as well. Spring is definitely on it's way! And other than the colds that we've had, we're all doing well.

Caroline Loves Chicken

...no, not chicken like what you'd eat for dinner, but "chicken"...her little fake fowl friend.

Chicken snaps into the side of her little chair. She stares at it for a long time, and sometimes smiles at it (which is actually pretty cute). Chicken doesn't do anything, but she is mesmerized by it anyway. She even reaches out and touches it with her little fingers.

What else is new? Well, we finally had a daycare tell us they had a spot available. Whew! Crisis averted. We're taking her to Homestar, which is a place that I liked a lot. The location is pretty inconvenient (it's on the southwest side of Boulder) but all of the daycares seems to have inconvenient locations. But they'll be taking her three days a week, though the days they have available vary month to month, until August when I can have whatever days I choose. I'm just glad we found something; I was starting to stress out. Just goes to show that you need to get on the infant care waiting lists before you even know you're pregnant. Crazy! We start her transition into the daycare this Monday. They have you ease the kid into it....by staying for a hour with me there too, then the next day an hour alone, then 3 hours alone, then half a day, then all day. I really think the transition is more for me than for her. :-) At this age I think she'll do just fine with the daycare. At least I hope so!

Another good tidbit of news is that I found out I will have a program to go back to when I return to work (I'm going back just three days/week). The program I've been working on for the past few years found some stuff to keep me busy until May. So that's good. But it looks like 2 of my work days will be in Broomfield working on classified projects, and one day will be in Boulder for unclassified stuff. So that'll be a little inconvenient as well, especially with respect to daycare, but we'll figure it out. At least I have something to go back to. My first day back is March 17th...St Patty's Day!

Caroline keeps growing...she recently stopped wearing the newborn sizes but she's already not fitting in her 0-3 month onesies very well because they're too short in the torso and it's hard to snap them over her diaper. The next size up is long enough but is baggy on her because she's skinny! Luckily she looks pretty cute in whatever she wears - even if it doesn't fit well. (PS- shirts with collars are bad for babies. They always flip up in their face since their necks are so short. I keep remembering this mom I met that said that collars made her baby look like a vampire. haha...)

A lot of her hair has fallen out and she's getting that bald spot on the back where her head rubs against things, but what hair she does have is getting longer. I think it'll still be a long time before she gets her first hair cut though.

The munchkin is awake now and probably wants to pound a 6 oz bottle so I better go. Here are some of my favorite pictures from this last week. ...by the way, she's sitting here in her chair, smiling at that stupid chicken again! :-) Too funny.

Packin' on the Pounds

Caroline had her 2 month appointment today. She's busted through to double digits and weighs 10 pounds on the dot (25th percentile). She's also 23" long now (65th percentile). I recently got all of her newborn clothes out of the closet because she's too long for them now. But they said she's doing just fine. Then came the vaccines. She wailed through the oral vaccine, which made it hard to give it to her, and then wailed even louder through the three shots. But minutes after application of her rock star Snoopy band-aids, she had calmed down and was asleep. Poor girl! She seems to be doing ok now. Here are some smiley pictures of her from the other day.

She also has a new trick! Sometimes she holds her own bottle. I think it's cute. She eats 5 oz now so we had to switch to the big bottles, which look huge compared to her. She likes to put her hands on the bottle...sometimes her fingers and sometimes her palms. She can't hold it up herself at the beginning, but about halfway through she can. We have proof - look at the picture!
PS- I feel old when I see that my t-shirt is from '98. But oh well...it's good for sleeping in and getting spit-up on. :-)

Lunch "Downtown"

Today we met Robyn and Natalie for lunch at Zupa, a soup and sandwich shop in Erie's tiny downtown area. We tried the soup of the day, called Zurek (I think that's right). It was an herbed broth with chunks of bratwurst in it, served over mashed potatoes. It was really tasty. Even Natalie tried a bit! I've been to Zupa a few times now, and it's always really good.

Natalie was the official greeter for the establishment. Everyone who came in was greeted with a two-handed, full-body wave. And of course everyone thought she was adorable - and that's because she is! Natalie will be 1 year old next month.

Caroline was awake half of the time, and asleep the other half. When she gets older she can help Natalie say hi to everyone. For now, she just blows spit bubbles.