Caroline's Quick Getaway

Caroline had her 15 month appointment on Friday. As expected, there was a lot of screaming and crying. Not very fun for anyone. But....she's doing great and that's the important part. For those interested in her stats, she weighed in at 19 lbs 5 oz (5th percentile) and about 30" long (45th percentile). She got three shots and they checked her hemoglobin - the results for that were exactly where they should be. So all of that is good.

As anyone with little ones knows, the kid is only in a diaper for the majority of the check up. After the doctor had left, the nurse returned with the needles. I had put Caroline's pants, socks and shoes back on her so that all we had to do was put on her shirt and coat before we left. I had also brought her in the umbrella stroller which was sitting next to us with the diaper bag and blanket on it. After getting the shots the nurse left the room, I put on Caroline's shirt and coat, and she literally hopped off my lap and started throwing the things off of the stroller seat. She was saying to me "go! go!" It was hilarious actually. She wanted out of there, and she wanted out of there NOW! When I set her in the stroller she even started to try to buckle herself in. And she continued to say "go" just to make sure I hadn't forgotten. Poor girl. Anyway, we left promptly (after making the dreaded next appointment and picking out three cool stickers - one for each shot) and I thought she deserved a treat after that. And so did I. :-) So we went to Starbucks and she had some pumpkin bread while I had a coffee. And all was well in the world again.

She's saying a lot more words. And she's having fun playing outside. We learned how to go down the slide at the park recently, and we're going to do that again this afternoon when she wakes up from her nap. She's got six teeth right now, but I see about four more coming. Two more on the front top, and two top molars. Those might be the reason for her fussiness lately. Her separation anxiety has kicked in lately though too. There is usually quite a bit of crying when I drop her off at school. But she gets over it pretty quickly. Though they tell me that whenever another parent comes to the door, Caroline gets kinda upset and says 'mama, mama'. But overall she's doing awesome!

On a side note, Congrats to our friends Maia and Rich who had their second baby on Wednesday morning! Little Evan might be the fastest birth ever - 39 minutes from start to finish is how we've heard the story. They just barely made it to the hospital in time. Yikes. We're sure that Lainey will be a great big-sister too!

So here are some pictures. Can't have a blog post without pictures. These next few are ones from Greg's parent's camera when we were out visiting. Some are a little fuzzy, but they're funny just the same.

Here she is, leading the charge! See that little finger pointing in the air? Onward, ho!

Chasing bubbles

Being silly

Saying "cheese" with Grammy

She insisted on wearing her new sunhat and coat inside...and she's waving hello.

Trying on mommy's shoes...it was hard to get a picture of this but it was pretty funny.

Eating spaghetti. Super messy.

Caroline Heads West

Caroline recently took a voyage to California to meet some of Greg's relatives. Here she is - preparing for the flight. Luckily for us, our pilot was never face-down on the ground behind our plane. Well, at least not that we saw.


She did well at the airport and on the flight. Then we got to grammy and grandpa's house. She did really well there too, except that her sleeping could have been better. But she had a great time with her grandparents, and meeting loads of other relatives every day. She squealed at grammy's cat through the windows and got to run around in the backyard. She had fun walking around, chasing bubbles, and kicking the ball.










We had an early morning flight to come home, and here Caroline is checking out the big fake sequoias that they have in the Fresno Yosemite airport. This was a new addition since we had been there last. Mom and Dad had some Starbucks, and Caroline had a banana and milk.








Asleep on the last half of the flight. And it's a good thing too, because it was really turbulent as we were descending over the mountains into Denver. It's usually pretty bumpy, and so it was just as well that Caroline was asleep for that part. Just in case!



That's all of the pictures I had from our trip. So here is a mix of other random pictures from the past month or so.








We call her Popeye when she sticks her pacifier out of the side of her mouth like that.






Last weekend it was nice out and we went over to our park and played a bit. She's still trying to get the hang of the shovel. Yesterday it was very nice again and we took Caroline back to the park. This time we taught her how to go down the kiddie slides. She loved it. She kept saying "up, up" (put her back up on the top) and "more"!






This last picture is of her asking me "please" can she have more chocolate? Notice that little brown line of chocolate under her lip.


Caroline and I went to the zoo last week because it was so nice. She had a good time. Besides looking at the animals, we rode the train and the carousel. We look forward to more fun trips to the zoo. Spring is here, and I'm so glad! Our first music class also ended, but the next one starts in 2 weeks. So that'll be fun too.
In daycare news, Caroline is scheduled to move to the toddler room in May. She's ready to go now, but they have to have a spot open up first. So for now she's teaching the smaller babies all of the tricks of the infant room and getting ready to join her friends in toddlers! And speaking of toddlers, Caroline's little friend, Natalie, is turning 2 tomorrow and so we're looking forward to her birthday party. Lots of fun things going on right now.
Stay tuned for a post in the next week or so with Caroline's stats from her 15-month appointment that she has coming up this Friday. I am NOT looking forward to that! Oh, the screaming...

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!