24 weeks!

Oh my goodness! It feels like so much has happened with Caroline this week that I should have blogged all that she was experiencing as it was transpiring... maybe I should Twitter. Sigh. Let's see if I can remember it all!

Caroline spent lots of good time with Mamie, of course. Mamie was determined to get her into as many of the outfits we have for her as possible. We tend to be content with onesies unless we're going out, but not Mamie! "You have all these beautiful clothes! She should wear them!" So she did. And Mamie uncovered a very special item I had forgotten about, monogrammed p.j.s that she is now just about too big for. She got in one good wearing! You'll see it in some pictures below. Mamie also reminded us of the marvelous McLeod kilt (just like Kev wore in the Wooster band, and appropriate because Kev's family is in the McLeod clan!) and lovely blouse that Aunt Janet, Uncle Doug, and Cousin Elliott sent along. They fit perfectly at the moment and so they were her Sunday wear. Isn't she adorable in this outfit?! I mean, she's adorable in any case, but still...





After both church services, we headed out to Debbie and Bruce's houseboat for a delicious meal! Caroline's first time on a boat! She was entranced with Debbie's husband Bruce. I've never seen her quite so taken with somebody. She would just stare and stare and stare at him. You'll sort of get a sense of that in the pics below. In one of the shots below with Debbie you can see what a good stander Caroline is. She loves standing (with assistance of course). Kev has noticed this week that she will start to pull herself up to a stand when we hold on to her hands, she comes part way up without our help.





On Monday Caroline took her first trip to the zoo. Mamie has a zoo membership at home and so could get into the zoo for free here. I decided to go with and just review flashcards as we walked about as I needed to do something calming the day before my exam. I was getting wound up. We LOVED the zoo. And Caroline did great there! She's big enough to ride in her stroller without the car seat and she did quite well like that. Mamie and Grandpa might get us a zoo membership for Christmas and even though daddy is not a big fan of zoos, he is open to this. It is a beautiful place to walk. And certainly is a good place for Caroline to learn. So, I'm looking forward to Christmas. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera to the zoo and mom didn't have a cord for downloading pics from her camera. I think, perhaps, the best pics I took of Mamie with Caroline were on her camera! Sorry, mom, not to have captured a really great shot of you two on my camera... I was so preoccupied this past week... wonder why?!

Caroline did wonderfully through my exam on Tuesday morning even though the 6 oz I had pumped bit by bit in the preceding days and refrigerated spoiled due to a broken fan in the fridge (which got fixed on Wednesday- after we had to dump other milk too!) All Mamie had to work with for 4 plus hours was 3 freshly pumped oz. They took a LONG walk together and stretched that milk out and Caroline only melted down 20 to 30 minutes before I got home. And calmed right down once she got to the breast. That afternoon we had a lovely lunch and Mamie and I got our toes done. Caroline was a champ through it all. We had our new friends over, the midwife, Sam, and her family for a fire in the backyard. It was, once again, utterly delightful to see Caroline and Sam's daughter Fiona interacting. Ethan, Fiona's big brother, was also delightful and the three of them together... priceless. We shared our delicious chicken pot pie with them, and all enjoyed, and Ethan really got a kick out of making S'mores. The chicken pot pie was so good I wasn't too sad about not getting any S'mores. Caroline and I might go spend some more quality time with Sam and Fiona tomorrow to give daddy some practice time. Mommy is preaching and daddy is playing at the same church on Sunday. Wow. It has been awhile since that has happened!






Fiona is a BIG talker- no words yet, but lots of babbling. She is a bit older than Caroline, but apparently she's been this way for quite some time. Caroline was quite silent in their interactions. But, the next day... it was like a switch was flipped. She has been babbling so much more. Her babble was picking up earlier in the week, but by Wednesday, and since... strings of "da, da, da" and some "guh" sounds and maybe even a "luh". She uttering more discernible syllables, and realizing that she can make fun sounds if she plays with her hands in her mouth while she babbles. I am excited about language development. So... this is very cool! Thanks, Fiona, for inspiring our girl!

Caroline's teething pain seems to have backed off. Mom did make her some apple juice popsicles and she seemed to enjoy them- though i think she got a bit of freezer burn on her cheeks... that is hanging on. Mamie got Caroline's feeding system set up so she'd have a good place to munch on the popsicles.



For the last few weeks she has also discovered a way to click with her mouth. If we click back she almost always giggles.

She has been sort of pushing up for awhile, but this week it is like she has mastered the skill. This morning in bed with me she was more interested in showing off her skills than eating. She kept pushing up on her arms as if trying to end up eye to eye with me. She'd push up and GRIN. It was adorable. (More adorable than the kicking of me she was doing while nursing first thing this morning. She was kicking hard and steadily. I put a pillow between me and her and she contorted her body in all sorts of ways to get around the pillow to kick me! What is up with that? Then she had a big poop- sorry Jack, if you're still reading! And I remembered that other times she had behaved similarly pre-bm. Her will to kick this morning was certainly impressive. We have a STRONG girl. I think we might end up as soccer parents!)