Zoo!

Caroline and I went to the zoo today with our friends Katie, Emmet, Maryn, Jesse and Lars. I LOVE the zoo and I think I was more excited about it than Caroline was. I mean she had fun but we could have seen a goat and a chicken and she would have been just as excited. She was definitley interested in the animals but I think a dog is still her favorite. Weather wise it was a perfect day for the zoo, and it wasn't too crowded. Remind me never to let my kids go on a field trip to the zoo without me, there were all these school kids there and they were OUT OF CONTROL. The monkey's are always my favorite, there was a chimpanze that was right up at the window waving at people, I thought it was so cool and carried Caroline over to see and she freaked out trying to get away from it. Oops. This is neither here nor there, but when I worked at McLean Bible we took our Junior High kids to the zoo one year during summer camp and it was mating season and seriously every animal at that zoo was mating. It was super awkward to try to explain and the kids were definitley fascinated and asking lots of questions that I would have prefered not to answer. I mean the prarie dogs, the monkeys, the peacocks, the hippos the galopagas turtles (that you could hear the turtles through the whole zoo). It's funny now but at the time I was dying. The entire rest of the week kids were imitating noises the turtles were making, I have never heard anything quite like it. I am happy to report that there were no awkward mating moments today.

This video is from the end of the day, 2 hours past naptime, kids were getting sloppy. And I know that the floor of the elephant is not the cleanest place to let your baby play, but honestly this one licks tires and the toilet. My cleanliness standards have gone way way down.

Easter

I am shamefully behind on blog posts, but that seems to be a theme. We have had a lot going on the past few weeks, both of my grandmother's died within a few weeks of each other, various family members have been in town. Caroline has been a little sick, and I am tired all the time which is to be expected but I thought I remembered being full of energy during my second trimester last time. Oh well, luckily my sweet husand encourages me to rest and be lazy while he cooks and cleans and tends to the baby. He is seriously the best husband ever. And so hot:) Anyway, here are some pictures from our Easter, we spent it with my godparents and it was so fun. Caroline loves their dogs and they tolerate her quite well. We went out on their deck for awhile because it was a beautiful day, but a little chilly so I put some pants on her under her dress and by the time we left she looked like a little homeless baby, she was all dirty (from the deck) and covered in food (this girl loves to eat) and wearing mismatched clothes to keep her warm. She is so much fun, and everyday with her is a gift. She still won't walk, but totally could, crawling is faster so she is sticking with it. This girl is stubborn and does things her own way. She is becoming very affectionate, gives kisses, hugs and pats on the back. She is going through a mommy stage that is really annoying. I mean I love that she loves me but she wants to be clinging to my neck 24/7 and freaks out if I put her down or someone else tries to take her. She is all about other people though (as long as I am holding her) when we are out she fake laughs to get people's attention, she loves to be noticed. She makes a moo sound if you ask her what the cow says (she actually makes it no matter what animal you ask about but we try to set her up for success and pick the cow) she talks to herself all day long, straight jibberish and sometimes laughs at the end of a "sentence" she dances and sings and hums to all music and no matter how bad of a mood she is in she almost always snaps out of it if you start to sing "if your happy and you know it" she loves to clap. We love her so much and while I think we may be in for it with this one, I still want to wake her up and play with her about an hour after we have put her to bed because I miss her. Not to say that some days aren't hard, I am still overwhelmed at times by the fact that I am responsible for someone else 24 hours a day. Especially on the days when I am tired and feel pregnant and just want to lay on the couch all afternoon. Not happening. But the fun times far outweigh the bad and I am very aware that someday soon I will really miss these days with her.

Last week's swim lesson

Look at Jacob waving to the lifeguard, that kid is so sweet and good natured. Last week definitley was better than the first week, the pool was a little warmer and Caroline was less squawky. We have another lesson in 2 hours, lets hope she will let go of my neck long enough to do some kicking or blow some bubbles.

Is this normal behavior for a little girl?

In the first picture she is literally doing a pull up (which I could not do to save my life) and in the second one she pushed the rocking chair over to the desk so she could climb up to reach the top of the desk. Pretty clever in my opinion. And what does she want to do once she can reach the top? Pull down, destroy, eat, rip, throw, etc. My little destructicon, she spends all day pulling the house a part and I spend all night putting it back together. Good thing she is so very cute.....

Swim lessons

My friend Christine found swim lessons for babies at Claude Moore Recreation Center in Sterling and we signed Caroline and Jacob up. Today was our first Friday (the lessons started last week but Caroline and I had a prior commitment) and it was very fun. For me anyway, I think Caroline was really cold and confused about all the other babies, some of which were crying and she always gets upset if she can hear a baby crying. Anyway I didn't get any pictures of all of us but I will next week, oh and I did get a few of Caroline and I but there is no way I am posting any of those. Me 10 weeks pregnant (thought it was 12 till yesterday when they knocked me down 2 more) in a swimsuit looking like I am about 20 weeks along is not making the blog today!

bunny ears

Caroline and I went shopping at target today and bought these bunny ears, she won't keep them on her head for very long but they look so cute on her for those 2 seconds. This picture was taken approximately 1 second before she ripped them off. On a side note, Caroline is starting to get so whiny which I wasn't expecting for at least a few more months. Not only did she want me to hold her at target she wanted to touch everything and just whines and whines if she doesn't get her way. I finally bought some goldfish (crackers) which kept her busy and quiet until we left. I know that isn't the best way to manage whiny behavior but I am not sure how to curtail it until she starts to speak and understand english. Any tips?

A few from Kappa (Brian's dad)

BIrthday Pics

I need to get some of the pictures that Brian's family took, we didn't have great ones on our camera. But here are some of them. I'll post more once I get them! Still need a good tutu shot.

Caroline is 1!

My babycentercom update this week read "your toddler week 1" how in the world did we get here so fast! Everyone tells you that the times flies so fast with a little one and I couldn't agree more. This past year has been the most challenging, rewarding, scary, hard, joyful, fun, exhausting one of my entire life. I have really tried to enjoy every minute of it (even the bad ones) because I know that one day I will really miss these times with our sweet baby/toddler and relative to the issues that come later these are probably the easy times. I mean I can deal with loss of sleep and a cranky baby, but when she starts rebelling and liking boys those are going to be tough times. Anyway, for Caroline's birthday which was this past Saturday, we had a few of our closest friends over and Brian's parents came into town. I thought the party was going to be more a sort of celebration for Brian and I, that we made it through the first year and all 3 of us lived to tell about it, but I think Caroline had a BLAST and could tell the day was for her. She played hard with all of her little friends and was laughing and having such a great time all day. She loved opening her presents and she LOVED eating her birthday cupcake. My friend Courtney made her a birthday tutu and she wore it for the party and it was the cutest thing I have ever seen. Seriously. I will post pictures later, once I get them off of Brian's camera but for now I have a video of her eating her cake. I still just cannot believe that year 1 is over, and I feel bittersweet about it. While it is true that each new stage of her life is so fun and I love watching her learn and discover, I feel sad at the end of each day that another day is over and we will never get it back. Is that normal?

Caroline at 1:

She is a really happy baby, she laughs to herself while she is playing and rarely fusses unless she is hungry or hurts herself

She gives the grossest sloppiest kisses that Brian and I love to get, but she does not dole them out easily. Food seems to be the most surefire way to get one.

When you pick her up to hug her she will pat you on the back

Brian taught her how to stick out her tongue, which I am sure won't be cute in a few years (maybe even months) but for now is just adorable

She "talks" to herself non stop

She loves to be the center of attention, as you can see from the above video. If we are out and some stranger is not paying attention to her she will find a way to get their attention and then smile and be charming till she gets a reaction.

She has too many teeth for her maturity level, and she bites. We are working on that. She puts everything in her mouth and I am not exagerating, I mean she licks the floor, the tires on her stoller, she sticks her fingers in the toilet and them licks them, she sucks on the handle of the shopping cart at the grocery store, pretty much anything you would not want your baby to touch much less eat/lick - she goes straight for. I try, but at some point there is nothing you can do. She has got to be building an iron clad immune system.

She LOVES to eat, which is funny because she is not a chubby baby despite our best efforts, but seriously this one pounds food. When we eat out and split a meal she eats way too much for my liking, since I love to eat too :)

She is obsessed with our great dane Molly, who is so sweet with her. Caroline follows her all over the house and pats her and pokes her and tries to feed her at meal times (which we are also working on stopping) and basically provides lots of entertainment for Caroline throughout the day. Sweet Molly deserves an extra special spot in dog heaven for her patience with our babys "love".

She is going through a mommy stage which is both sweet and annoying.

Aside from the Lord and Brian, she is the best thing that has ever happened to me and I can't believe how much I love her, and how much she has added to our lives.

hair drying

So last night I dried Caroline's hair for the very first time. I cannot believe she is big enough that her hair needs to be dried. Side note: I don't have time to dry my own hair most days. Anyway, she LOVED it, laughed the whole time, I think she thought it was a fun game. She loves when it is windy outside, and always goes over to the fan in her room and sticks her face close to it so it blows on her, this probably is 10 times more fun for her since the air is warm.

christmas

my new header picture is from thanksgiving, and these pictures are all from christmas a few weeks later...I feel like Caroline looks so much older which I both love and hate at the same time. My baby is almost 1, how did that happen? This past year has literally flown by, there have been several times when I have been getting ready in the morning and I literally started to pull out a tee shirt from my closet, because I thought it was June and then realized it was actually december. Most days I end up wishing there were more hours left to spend with Caroline and Brian, and I am alarmed at how quickly the time is flying by. I am trying to cherish every minute and not be looking ahead to the next one, which has always been hard for me to do but I am learning. I wouldn't trade a minute of this past year for anything, and I still look at Caroline and can't believe she is mine. She is so very fun and sweet, her personality comes out more every day and it is a great little personality! She is full of life and curious about everything, she is super active and into everything all day long. She has 8 teeth, has not met a food she doesn't like, would put down an entire chicken breast if we let her, and loves to feed herself. She just learned the sign for all done and does it for everything, which is super cute, but tricky when she signs all done for something like diaper changing or nose blowing, and we aren't all done yet. She gives sloppy wet kisses all the time now, which is my favorite thing ever (although they are kisses only a mother would want) and waves hello to everyone she sees. She smiles all day long and brings so much joy into our lives. We spent christmas in blacksburg with Brian's family and between Brian's parents, Gavin, and the 2 of us, probably took about 200 pictures.

Template...

is there something everyone but me knows about finding new blog templates?? everyone's blog backgrounds are cuter than mine. also I can't figure out how to link people's names to their blogs. one of my new year's resolutions is to be a better blogger. I only have 2 so hopefully I can deliver...