The Gift Finally Given

Great American Road Trip 2011

2012-01-22T17:29:00.001-08:00

Please forgive the LONG post that follows. It was a LONG trip. And trust me, I've been discriminating in what I've shared... there's so. much. more.

From November 10-December 3 we went on a HUGE road trip. As is often the case, perhaps especially when traveling with a preschooler, picture taking decreased dramatically as the trip progressed, but... nonetheless we have several pics to share. In fact, all of us were equipped for photo taking. We wrapped up presents for every long driving day of the trip. These were various things that we thought could be entertaining for the car ride ranging from very small and insignificant to more substantial/significant. The very first present of all was Caroline's very own, genuine, kid-tough, digital camera. She was delighted. We have yet to download the pics from her camera and unfortunately she deleted the first sequence of pics. It was hilarious--- a series of interior shots of car interspersed with shots of the front door. What a kid thinks when waiting for parents to finish packing and closing up the house for the month we'll be gone. "Car, Car, Car, Car, DOOR, Car, Car, DOOR, car, car, car, DOOR, DOOR (WHERE ARE THEY???), Car, DOOR, Car, DOOR..." We don't have her pics to share right now, but you'll see several pics of her taking pics!Here she is all ready to go, camera in hand. No worries. She didn't ride sans carseat in the front seat!

Our first stop was at the Memphis Zoo. GREAT pit stop. It was a gorgeous day. We did take pics of the animals, but as this is C's blog... well... had to narrow down the pics somehow...

After spending a few hours (or maybe just an hour and a half) wandering around the zoo (and landing a spot as extras in a commercial for the zoo) we headed out to the parking lot for the first of MANY picnics on our trip out west. Daddy did a great job preparing salads and sandwich stuff and snacks and filling a great big cooler so we were able to eat out of the trunk of our car for most of the first week of our journey. Just one shot from our parking lot picnic.

And one from the picnic in the car at a rest stop later that night.

And then C got into pajamas and ate her very first oreo. She was pleased.

Our first overnight stop was with the Bartlow family in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Caroline got to sleep with a giant Dora doll. She was asleep when we arrived she she didn't know this until morning, but she sure was delighted to discover it then. Thanks Heather and family for a wonderful first night! (I thought I had pulled a pic of C with the kids to share, but not finding it now... and it is getting late... So here we are with Heather shortly before heading on our way.)

The next day was another LONG driving day. Our hosts in Tulsa warned us about the nasty potholes there, but we didn't think anything of it... until we hit one and thought something on our car exploded. This was minutes after leaving the Bartlow residence. I believe I was driving... We got right out and checked out the car and everything seemed fine. So we continued on our merry way. Our destination that day was Albuquerque, New Mexico. We took our longish rest stop/picnic at a rest stop in the panhandle of Texas. This was quite the rest stop. Lots of shots from there...

We arrived at the Martinez residence LATE that night. Caroline was, once again, sound asleep. David sweetly brought out a quilt in which to wrap C. She transferred sleeping yet again... hallelujah! Waiting on her pillow there was a little penguin puppet who quickly became her BEST friend. We were able to stay a whole morning through to lunch with the Martinez family and they treated us to much fun! Delicious breakfast burritos and other yumminess, followed by a visit to the botanical gardens which features giant fruit and veggies and bugs on which and in which to climb and crawl through. Olivia was a great playmate for C. Caroline was a bit cranky at the botanical gardens, but fun was had nonetheless. Such a cool place.

We had time so we thought we'd check out the aquarium right next door too. But first a snack break and attempts to get a shot of the girls together...

And then to the aquarium.

And then back to their place where Olivia introduced Caroline to Diego... which is now her FAVORITE show. She's seen every episode on Netflix. (On a side note, at these first two stops both of our hosts had a Roku box. We saw a few more as our journey continued. We now have one too... such a gift...

And one more great shot of Olivia for good measure!

Thanks, Martinez Family! You definitely made us want to come to Albuquerque again!Next stop? Grand Canyon... or so we thought... we had a fine drive into Arizona, a great travel day really. We stopped at a rest area in Winslow, Arizona after dark for a car picnic. Kev gassed up and then we parked to picnic. We were then about 2.5 hours from the Grand Canyon. We had great fun in the car and were excited about our upcoming stop. By this time, just 24 hours after meeting the small penguin puppet, Caroline had dubbed her "Dixie the Glue." First animal she ever named... and a rather mysterious name at that. Dixie is the dog next door. "the glue?" no clue. But she stuck with it. She was definitive and clear... and Dixie was her best friend and ours. If Dixie would eat something, Caroline would eat it. You get the idea. Anyhow. Here is Caroline with Dixie during the car picnic.

Moments later we tried to start up the car to get moving again. But when Kev turned the key in the ignition the car started shaking and the engine light came on. And then the car failed to start at all. Did I mention it was Saturday night? And we were in the middle of nowhere? So we called AAA. It turns our we were over 40 miles from the nearest AAA approved station. And we had only 5 miles of free towing. I was freaking out not just because of this, but also because we had hotel reservations for that night, in the Grand Canyon and it looked like an impossibility that we were going to make it and I didn't know where we would sleep that night. AAA scored big points as they overrode their typical policy requiring a 72 hour waiting period for an upgrade and got us a tow to flagstaff. C was thrilled at the opportunity to ride in a BIG truck, on mommy's lap. And we managed to get a motel room right next door to a AAA approved shop. So we settled in for two unplanned nights in Flagstaff. It turned out that the next morning we found a 7 day shop that offered free towing in town and had a rental car we could have for the day quite cheaply. Kev arranged with them to have the car looked at on Sunday morning, rented the car, and then the three of us found a Presby church to go to. During the service the phone rang and it was the shop. The car was fixed! "Good news for you. Bad news for us. Car is fixed. Only costs $87.00!" So before the day was through we had a fixed car. And it turned out that it was a TERRIBLE weather day so what was supposed to be our FULL day in the canyon would have been a lousy day to be there. The two nights in Flagstaff gave us an opportunity to catch our breath. Only one pic from Flagstaff. Our first meal out... Caroline building her own burrito...

Folks at Grand Canyon lodging were super accommodating. We got to keep our two night rate even though we ended up rescheduling our arrival time twice and only stayed one night. We stayed in a very comfortable motel there. And made the most of our shortened and delayed visit. Several shots follow... When we first got there Caroline was fascinated by a little bit of snow on the ground.

I'm not sure how much the views impressed her, but they were captivating to us. These first several were taken as we were catching our first views of the Canyon. (Again, we have LOTS of shots of the Canyon, but focusing on family shots here...)

Before exploring the Canyon further, we had a picnic at one of the picnic areas in the park. As you can see, Caroline and Dixie the Glue were quite the dining companions.

Caroline also enjoyed pushing Dixie around in her stroller.

And here she is with daddy after walking down some steps for a better view.

Shortly thereafter, after snuggling with mommy in an effort to thwart the oncoming tantrum, she fell soundly asleep, making for even more peaceful canyon viewing for mommy and daddy.

We had a fun stop at a gift store where we got our national parks passport stamped. Caroline bonded with a bluebird there and we thought we'd come back for Christmas shopping, but... that never happened. We'll get to why later. (It's o.k.. Caroline has FAR too many stuffed animals anyhow!)

And here is one of Caroline's last moments with Dixie the Glue... or at least this version of Dixie the Glue. Not a great shot, but an important piece for remembrance sake. We headed to Hopi Point for sunset, Dixie in tow. Dixie was great entertainment on this bus ride.

And then we saw the sunset.

And here are daddy and Caroline moments later blissfully unaware that mommy has dropped Dixie and Caroline's hat, perhaps when taking these pictures. Doh.

We realized it on the bus. Not a happy moment. For any of us. At all. Especially not for very guilty feeling mama. We had planned to see the sunrise as well. We were going to go to a different spot, but... instead... back to Hopi point... we had hiked up the day before so we rode the bus up, but hiked back so we could search for Dixie. We found the hat, but no sign of Dixie. Sigh. We think she was adopted by animals or is lining a condor's nest... The sunrise was lovely though.

All that Kev remembers from his childhood visit to the G.C. was that some woman on their ranger-led tour had a button on her hat that read "Life's a bitch." All Caroline remembers is that mommy dropped her baby penguin. And boy does she remember. (Just tonight she was looking at a puzzle she had assembled which depicts North America. She pointed vaguely towards the Southwest and said "That's where the Grand Canyon is. And that's where mommy dropped my baby penguin!") We bought her a baby wolf to soothe her grieving soul, but it wasn't a puppet and it just wasn't the same... Aunt Khaki got on it. Determined to have a replacement ready by the time we arrived in Portland a week or so later... Before getting to Portland though we had time to spend in California. But before getting to California we needed to get out of the Grand Canyon. We were planning to have a leisurely morning, checking out, some Christmas shopping at the aforementioned gift shop, etc... but en route to these plans someone flagged us down to tell us we had a flat tire. Sigh. We abandoned Christmas shopping plans and made our way to the shop in the park. They diagnosed us with two badly damaged tires on the passenger side (same side, interestingly, where the part that caused the problem before had been tripped)... we realized then-- THE TULSA POTHOLE. Sigh. Bit of rigamorole. As soon as C heard that we were calling AAA she said "Ride in a big truck?" Eventually, yes, we did ride in a big truck again, much to her delight, less so to ours, though we sure were thanking our lucky stars for the upgrade and were pretty darn grateful for a hundred some miles of free gas mileage.

We got new (to us) tires on the car in Williams, Arizona MANY hours after first having the tire issue diagnosed and shortly before sunset got on our way to southern California. In addition to the bright side of saved gas mileage, we also avoided L.A. rush hour. Hey, gotta count your blessings. Somehow I failed to take pictures of the tow rides... perhaps i knew we'd never forget... We arrived LATE at night at the Fleischman residence, Judy was my sixth grade teacher. She had a full meal waiting for us and most comfortable bed for which we were most grateful. We had a lovely visit in Ventura county, staying through the next morning, before heading on our way. One shot from before we left... SO grateful for our time with these beautiful people! (And in case I'm not saying it enough... we felt this way about EVERYONE we stayed with!!!!! SO GRATEFUL!)

And then to Fowler, CA, mid-state, near Fresno, to stay with long time friends of the Sanderson Family, the Arakelians. While in Fowler we learned that someone had stolen Kev's debit card number and drained our account. Seriously? Could anything else go wrong? We had enough gas in the tank to get us half way to Napa, our next destination... where our emergency credit card was waiting for us... and we had used all our cash on the trip out. The Arakelians fed us well, taught us a great new game, and the next day, when we learned this troubling bit of news, made sure we had enough gas in the car and cash in the wallet to get us to our next destination. Thanks be to God for them. A shot with them before we left. We are so grateful, still.

And then, a bit shaken, a bit weary... we made our way to Napa. To Tici's lovely home. Caroline LOVED it there. Big, gentle dog. Sleek black cat. And a mama whose kids are grown who showered her with focused attention. Lots of time puzzling. We were able to stay there five days or so (while I made trips into SF for AAR) and I think Caroline really thrived on being able to stay put for awhile. Here are MANY shots from this time N. Ca. Puzzling with Tici...

Visiting San Francisco, including a GREAT visit to the exploratorium, thanks Thomas J.

And a few more shots from Tici's house... sweeping up dog hair, and gazing into the garage with the sweet dog Charisma...

And then saying goodbye. This was our hardest goodbye. Caroline really wanted to stay with Tici. And seriously resisted saying goodbye.

She acted the most like a cranky, nearly three year old in the Portland visit that followed. We think the cumulative hellos and goodbyes really got to her by that point. Poor Aunt Khaki... she wasn't cranky the whole time, but... In any case, I think we were all super exhausted by the time we got to Oregon. Hardly took any pics at all... not of the marvelous feast we had at Sisters of the Road. Nor the splendid Thanksgiving festivities... nor of the discovery of Dixie the Glue all grown up at a toy store in Portland. (A bigger emperor penguin puppet that Aunt Khaki had scouted out. When first we saw it we said, "Look, Caroline, Dixie got all the way here from the Grand Canyon too and she's all grown up now." She rolled her eyes at me, and perhaps even put her hands on her hips, "Mommy, penguins don't grow up!" she said with a "don't be ridiculous" smirk on her face. "Yes they do," I replied, "There are baby penguins, and mommy and daddy penguins. You used to be a baby and now you're growing up, right? Penguins do too." And then she threw open her arms, "DIXIE!" and the new best friend was embraced.) We had a night in Khaki's yurt, Caroline LOVED sharing a bed with Aunt Khaki (and sharing her iPhone). And then transferred to a glorious house in the western hills where we spent the next several days, inclusive of the holiday. Khaki assembled a lovely crowd and we had a great meal. Twas a great visit to Portland. The babies Khaki was expected stayed tight until we left (their mamas were probably not so grateful, but we were!) Here are far too few pics from our brief sojourn in the pacific northwest.We visited a play gym with Caroline's new friend Moses. Here are a few shots from that visit.

One in the house where we spent several days, on our first night there, with Marcie and Aunt Khaki...

And one as we were saying goodbye to dear friend Jennifer after a great day of worship at her church (and participation in a spontaneous Christmas pageant) and then dining with them, and then hanging and puzzling at their place while C napped.

And two from when we were saying goodbye... (seriously? That's all I've got? No pics of the spontaneous Christmas pageant... and none of all the other great stuff I talked about before... Sigh.) WE LOVE YOU, AUNT KHAKI! Thanks for a great visit!

As we were driving away from Portland, soaking up the views of the Columbia River Gorge as we headed on our way to Boise, Idaho, I articulated my desire, once again, to land in the Northwest. May it be so... We stayed in Boise with Patricia and Byron, dear friends of Caroline's Godmother, Katie. They live in a house Patricia built (literally) with her sister. Amazing! And they have massive gardens, and chickens! This was actually the second time we stayed on a property with chickens. There would be one more such stop before we got home! Here are just a few shots of exploring the gardens and meeting the chickens (Caroline is wearing a vest of Patricia's...) and of a birthday party Patricia and Caroline put on for Dixie the Glue. Caroline's birthday was rapidly approaching and playing birthday party delighted her!

From Boise to just outside Salt Lake City where we stayed with Cynthia, the mother of a college friend, Laurie. Grandma Cindy doted on Caroline and we had a most comfortable night there. And then on to near Boulder, CO, where we apparently also took no pictures. The snow started to fall heavily while we were in CO, staying with my cousin Erin and her husband, Josh. We had a nice dinner with Erin, Josh, and Adam (Erin's younger brother who also lives out there.) And the next day, thanks to the wonders of facebook we were able to meet up with some college friends in downtown Boulder for a delightful lunch. Thanks, Eric and Jessica! And then we re-routed. Instead of heading to Norfolk, NE, where we had planned to spend a night with dear friend, Steve, we now opted to head straight into Kansas, get a motel room, and call it a night. And from there to Kansas City for the last night of our journey where we were treated to great barbeque, fireworks, and delightful company. Caroline refused to go to sleep that last night. Maybe she knew it was the last night, or she could just hear the happy conversation and didn't want to miss it. So we all had a very late night, and Caroline was loved on by our hosts. (You can catch a glimpse of the new Dixie the Glue in the last of these pics.)

And then home... with our ONLY stop (in C's entire life, let only the road trip) at McD's a few hours before getting there... in the hopes she would burn off some energy and sleep when we got home...) Thank you, thank you, thank you to EVERYONE who made our getaway such a delight (even with the hiccups- that's what memories are made of, right?) Caroline was an AMAZING traveler. We felt SO blessed. Twas good to get home... we had a tree to get up, a birthday to celebrate... we were just. in. time. Stay posted...

Caroline's room gets an overhaul

2012-01-22T08:30:00.000-08:00

Pa and Eepa moved to South Caroline and blessed us with some new (to us) furniture, including much needed bookshelves for Caroline's room. This prompted an overhaul of her room shortly before we left for our trip. Here are the results...

A Bit of Fall Fun 2011

2012-01-22T08:23:00.000-08:00

Most of our fall fun happened on the road... that's going to be a mammoth post, probably next up... and you already saw halloween pics, but here are a few other moments from before we left. We went to a pumpkin farm to pick pumpkins with our dear friends Jenn and Parker. Caroline used to see Parker all the time when Kev was his child care provider, but now she doesn't get to see him very often. She LOVES Parker. No great shots from the day, but a few passable ones.

One day I picked Caroline up from school and she said as we drove home "I don't have any friends." I'm not sure what prompted this statement... she does have friends... maybe it was a rough social day. In any case, when we arrived home Kev had picked up the 3 ft skeleton he intended to use in his halloween costume and it was sitting on our big red chair. I thought Caroline might be scared of it, but nope! She lit up when she saw it declaring "A FRIEND!" And then proceeded to play with "skeleton baby" as she named it, right alongside all of her other stuffed animals... even changing its diaper, wiping its bottom, putting it down for a nap with Pooh. Skeleton Baby now hangs in her room and is still a play mate. Strange...

We got out for a walk at one of our favorite parks at least once this fall...

Another Glorious Visit from Godmama Katie and Godsistah Abby

2012-01-22T08:01:00.000-08:00

Caroline's Godmother and Godsister came for a visit the weekend before mommy's exams began and stayed through the first exam. Katie helped me with final review and offered words of encouragement, and she celebrated with me after the first exam was complete- or she celebrated, I wasn't quite sure how I was feeling, not exactly celebratory with three more to go... We also spent some great time painting all together to relax on the day before the first exam. No pics of that, but here are several pics from their brief visit!

Summer Fun 2011

2012-01-20T13:14:00.001-08:00

Such a backlog of experiences and photos... here are a bunch of pictures from last summer (broadly defined!), when mommy was buried in books much of the time!

Several fun moments at home...

A present from Uncle Dan and Aunt Lauren... just cause... starting her early...

We had a couple of great visits with dear friends Matt and Jenn this summer. Daddy and Caroline made another trip to Mammoth Cave with them and this shot is from a meal on that trip...

... but they also joined us in Nashville for the fourth of July. No pics of them here... but first, C eats her first hot dog, and then she dances and tosses grass about... she wasn't afraid of the fireworks at all!

Daddy and Caroline had an excellent visit with Pa and Eepa at their (former! hooray!) home in Michigan... many shots...

Lots of coloring time with Pa...

Lots of dipping toes in water...

A first pony ride!

Lots of exploring outside...

Lots of playground fun...

Lots of time "cleaning" the bird bath!

And a great visit with goats!

Other nice moments with loved ones (and a frog!)

2 moments from bonfires in our backyard... enjoying chocolate milk with Jo An

and after being put in bed while a bonfire continued outside, she clearly decided she wanted back outside, but didn't make it very far...

Just one of many lovely visits to the pool at the Y!

Several Sunday moments...

A visit from Mamie (super helpful... mommy and daddy got to get away for a bit for our anniversary and c got lots of loving attention during the final press to exams...)

This was a moment from Mamie's visit too..

Three more random moments...

Halloween 2011

2011-11-05T18:47:00.000-07:00

I'll begin from the recent... and then work back... so much to catch up on... and soon SO MUCH MORE WILL HAPPEN!

But let me start with the recent cuteness of Halloween.

Mamie had the idea for the costume. Caroline LOVES to hop like a frog and does so very well. We have NO idea where she learned this, but she is impressive! My brain was consumed with exams so I was grateful for the idea from Mamie and for the wonders of Amazon... Kev has even better pics of C in her costume from a few weeks before halloween, but I don't have those on my computer yet. Here are a bunch though... first several from a day of the dead party at her school a few days before halloween.

When we arrived at the party one of her friends, Wyatt, said "Well, hello Caroline dressed like a frog!" (This was moments after the screaming fit she threw in the car about not wanting to wear her costume... though she'd be telling people for days she was going to be a halloween froggy!)

One of the moms brought sugar skulls and frosting with which to decorate them. Here she is working on the first skull she decorated, and a close up of her work!

And here she is doing some of her favorite things she does at school... biking... and swinging on the hammock...

And now the day itself. We went to a neighborhood trick or treating event with some of our friends, Alistair is the one dressed as spiderman and Wonder Woman is Ella, his big sister. Ali is one of the kids Kev has been taking care of in addition to Caroline the past two years. Here they are all ready to go! (A funnier version of this pic is up on facebook!)

First we went to the parking lot of a business where there were games to play, and face painting, balloons, etc. Caroline was pretty shy at first, MUCH more shy than I've seen her in a long time, but when she realized she could get candy she got a bit bolder. We took off from there to trick or treat on that street. Lots of folks were seated in front of their homes with bowls of candy. She would typically whisper trick or treat, but she'd forcefully shove her bag forward. Many people admired her costume... only one person thought she was a boy. : ) Many pics from the night follow.

Where we began...

And trick or treating galore...

I had planned for us to just be out for an hour... figured that would be enough and that that would facilitate decent bedtime and daddy getting out to a concert he wanted to attend (he went dressed as a bad dad, with a 3 ft skeleton in the baby bjorn!) But we ended up being out 1.5 hours. At about 1.25 hours we declared trick or treating done. C was insisting on riding in the stroller and Kev told her that we wouldn't keep taking her in and out. If she was done, she could get back in the stroller, if not, she should stay out. She opted in. And then TOTALLY melted down when she realized there would be no more trick or treating. Massive tantrum that went on and on and on... lovely end to the night. Ah... almost 3. But eventually we got to this... ah... now, that's a lovely ending.

blurb 4- cutting

2011-08-06T13:46:00.000-07:00

Caroline LOVES to cut. She discovered this passion at school. (She's now going to the homebased montessori program at which she started in the spring 3 days a week. And she seems quite happy to go. The drop offs, according to Kev, are getting easier and easier.) She will cut and cut and cut. She loves cutting lots of little pieces of paper. She's doing some collage making as well. Her teacher is an artist and encourages all sorts of artmaking. We bought Caroline some scissors a few months ago so now this is a favorite home activity as well. Sometime in the last month she asked to take her scissors and paper into the bathroom for potty time and Kev agreed. He then let her be as it was a long potty break and he had some things to do. When he came back in to help her wrap up this potty break he discovered that she had cut her shoelace. She has one very short shoelace... no attempted haircutting yet...

blurb 3- bodies

2011-08-06T13:38:00.000-07:00

For the last several months Caroline has become interested in primary bodily differences and in her former home inside my belly. A few cute snippets that suggest this dawning awareness...

On the way to church on Easter morning she declared that the Easter Bunny has a vagina.
At church a few weeks ago I was helping her in the bathroom and she said "I don't have a penis. Akil (a friend from church) has a penis. When I grow up I'm going to have a penis."
Quite regularly now she snuggles up to me and says "Mommy, I want to get back in your belly button. Can I get in your belly button please?"

Blurb 2- "You have a choice..."

2011-08-06T11:08:00.001-07:00

About a month ago we were blessed to have some time at Uncle Don and Aunt Debbie's lovely Kentucky cabin. It was a nice change of scenery for my studying and allowed Kev and Caroline some fun day trips and connections with Kentucky friends. We enjoyed having dinner on their screened in porch each night that we were there. Caroline spent a fair bit of time exploring the contents of the porch and she especially enjoyed moving the pillows from their porch furniture around, and, in particular, putting them on the floor and then laying down on them. She was always eager for us to finish eating and talking and to join her in playing. One evening she put the pillows on the floor and then urged Kevin to come lie down on them. He declined her invitation. She then looked at him rather sternly and said "Daddy, you have a choice! You can lie down on the pillows OR... you can take me to the zoo. Hey..." her voice turned from stern to sweet "You want to go to the zoo?"

When the child is the disciplinarian...

first of hopefully many blurbs to come- "She's my sister."

2011-08-05T14:09:00.000-07:00

It has been TOO long since I've made a written record of the developments of Caroline Grace As I read and take notes and prep for the biggest exams of my life I keep thinking of things I should get on this blog. SO, trying something new today. In a break between books, I'm going to write up one recent moment/story... hope I can do this a bit every day until I'm more or less caught up! I don't want to forget...

Yesterday was an election day in Nashville. We dropped Kev off at a meeting and then Caroline and I headed to our polling place, a Baptist church about a mile from home. I (shamefully) admit that I was a fairly uninformed voter this time around. I did a bit of research on the candidates for my district's council seat and had made my choice before arriving, but I didn't realize I'd have to pick 5 (!) at-large reps... first five on the list got my vote. Sigh. And I didn't know there was a proposition on the ballot. And I didn't know anything about any of the challengers to the mayor so the incumbent got my vote. Anyhow... this is not the forum for confessions of my democratic delinquence, but thanks for allowing me to get that off my chest. Anyhow... when we arrived at the polling place I said to Caroline "Would you like to help mommy vote?" She shouted "YES!" from the back seat. Not that she knows what voting is... She wanted to bring her little notebook, but leave her bag of almonds behind.

As we came to the corner we needed to turn to get to the proper entrance for voting, we encountered an older African American woman holding a sign for the candidate I had decided I wanted to vote for before arriving. It turned out she is his mother! Caroline took to her immediately and started babbling away about this and that, showing offer her bracelet, and her notebook. The woman, who had been outside in excruciating heat on behalf of her son ALL day (nearly 12 hours at that point) was absolutely tickled by Caroline. As we walked away, Caroline looked back at her and then at me and said "She's my sister!" I turned back and said "Ma'am, Caroline has declared that you are her sister." She gasped, "Well, that's wonderful!" She said, "I'm honored. I'd love for her to be my sister. What am I saying? She is my sister. We're one. You said it, child! You know! " I said "Are you a Christian, ma'am?" She said, "Why yes, I most certainly am! And so is my son!" "Well, then, we truly are sisters in Christ." "Thank you Jesus, yes we are!" (I love however, that she affirmed universal human siblinghood regardless of faith... I would never want to take that premise away from her... she knows something of Christ's intentions surely!!!!)

As we were leaving she delighted in Caroline some more... and said "Out of the mouths of babes... we are sisters indeed."

a tutu, a visit, a ponytail, fun with play dough, a birthday party...

2011-06-05T12:50:00.000-07:00

One last pic from our visit to the boat at the beginning of the month. I went shopping with Debbie one day and picked up this outfit for her. So cute.

We had a great visit from Godmama Katie and Godsister Abby early in the month. There were some aspects of having two two year olds together for a weekend that were exhausting for the parental units, but... others were quite delightful. Abby loves her bath so Caroline decided to love it too! And we haven't had bath issues since! They had a blast in the bath together.

Some post bath books...

Unfortunately I don't have any good pics from the puppet show we went to together at the library. This was the first time we went to a library show and Caroline stayed quiet and focused the whole time. She loved it! Abby was frightened by a loud moose that popped up early in the show so, unfortunately, she wasn't able to enjoy the show with us. She remained afraid the rest of the day that a moose was going to pop up and scare her. Poor dear. The girls had fun together while we were waiting for the show however.

I also don't have any pics from mellow mushroom or ben and jerry's. Two great treats enjoyed immensely! C's first taste of ben and jerry's. She wants to go back!

Saying goodbye...

Caroline's been having a lot of fun with the playdough kit Uncle Dan and Aunt Lauren sent along. She is very into cutting at the moment. She spends a good deal of time at school cutting paper. At home she cuts playdough. Kev thinks she's been making some delightful things so he took these pics.

A ponytail!

And just yesterday we helped to celebrate the first birthday of Caroline's dear friend, Alistair! Caroline is VERY into birthdays at the moment. She keeps wishing us a happy birthday. And talking about who's birthday is coming next. She asked if we could have cake for Uncle Daniel's birthday (next week) even though he lives FAR AWAY. That's the next family birthday, so surely there should be cake! Happy Birthday, Alistair!

As of today Caroline is 2 and a half. She (and we) had a rough night last night... she got sick in the night. Taking it easy today. Hoping she'll be well enough for school tomorrow. She's going three days a week now!

More updates are needed, but this is a start!

A Whole Bunch more Pics...

2011-05-09T18:41:00.000-07:00

Twirling in her new polka dot dress...

Random cute shots.

Score... out for dinner at a place just after a birthday party wraps up! Balloons!

First sushi and use of chopsticks!

Caroline is finally warming up to folks at church. She made herself at home with Ayinka this particular Sunday, to Ayinka's delight! Ayinka had a cool phone to play with during church...

Several sleepy shots.

Look, Ma, no cast! Cast removed Friday, May 6th, just in time for our boat get-away! Hooray!

All caught up! Phew!

First Shampoo at a Salon!

2011-05-09T18:34:00.000-07:00

Thought Lindsay was going to see a scarier side of C... as she is not a fan of having her hair washed. But... she's a smart girl and she quickly realized that this IS the way to get one's hair washed. She did great! And we can see her eyes again! Woohoo! Both of us were LONG overdue for haircuts.

First Protest!

2011-05-09T18:25:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we were grateful that our church worships at noon as we were able, therefore, to participate in a morning protest at the state capitol against a bill before the State Senate being called "Don't Say Gay." The bill would make it illegal for teachers or other public school employees (working in grades k-8 to talk about any sexual orientation other than heterosexual, under any circumstances. If a student were being bullied because s(he) was gay, can't talk about it. If a kid asks a question about someone having two moms or dads, can't talk about it. Etc. Etc. Ridiculous. Worth protesting. So we did. We met a nice mom with twin two year olds who joined C in decorating and then holding a sign.

Here's to a lifetime of witnessing for justice!

Easter 2011

2011-05-09T17:48:00.000-07:00

The Saturday before Easter I decided to take Caroline to the zoo for an Easter Egg Hunt. Daddy thought he had drum practice so it was just the two of us out and about on a gorgeous spring day. When I first pulled out this dress to put it on her (first time ever worn) I said "Do you want to wear this pretty dress with Pooh and flowers?" She said with wide eyes "Yeah! Sure!" She likes to show off whatever she's wearing or about to wear to whichever parent is not dressing her (actually, she's taken to a dramatic, slow prance out of the bedroom to show off her style. Pretty hilarious.) When she showed the dress to Kev she said "Look! It's Pooh in a field of flowers!" No idea where she even heard the phrase "field of flowers" before... ah the mysteries... Anyhow... LOTS of other people had the same idea as us and we sat in traffic for a LONG time and missed the first 2 year old egg hunt. So we had lots of time to wander the zoo. While wandering we ran into some friends of friends and had some company for awhile. In the first pic here C is with that friend of a friend. Others were taken during or after the egg hunt. There was also a bounce house/slide set up which thrilled C... until she got in... and discovered the pain of hot plastic under bare feet. She went back in in socks a bit later, but that was the first meltdown in an entertainment venue resulting in removal from said venue that we've experienced. I remember once screaming in a haunted house at the state fair until someone came to take me out. It reminded me of that moment.

The next morning C opened a bag of goodies from Mamie and an Easter basket from us. In the Easter basket was a large egg with a small stuffed bunny, a lightning mcqueen toy cell phone, several jelly beans and small malted chocolate eggs, and a reeses peanut butter egg. There were also many small eggs each with a few jelly beans and one chocolate egg each. Our hope was that she would enjoy the contents of the large egg on Easter and then one small egg a day until they are gone. I wasn't at all sure that such self-restraint would be possible for her. But... we figured it was worth a try. And guess what? She is GREAT with it. She didn't consume all the contents of the large egg on Easter and the next day she took several small eggs and placed them back in the basket each time saying "This is for later..." One egg even split open and spilled and she restored its contents, put it away saying "This is for later..." She even put the clear ziplock bag with jelly beans (from Mamie's bag of goodies) away saying "This is for later..." She then pulled out the large egg and finished the half reese's peanut butter egg and other candy she hadn't finished the day before. And left the rest for later. And she has been GREAT about just having one egg a day ever since. Last week she got home from school and I was in my office, where her Easter Basket is stored, she came through the front door saying "My egg! My egg! My egg!" And came into the office with Kev, retrieved the basket, and chose her egg for the day... and never noticed I was in there... (Oh, and she LOVES her new cell phone... it makes sounds like it is taking pictures and she has been making us say "Cheese!" a lot!)

And lest it seem like we forgot and suggested Easter is just about eggs and baskets, we did attend two church services on Easter (and services Thursday and Friday as well!) And here she is just before church... hat and purse courtesy of good friend Ella! The bunny was in her Easter basket and the little notebook she's carrying was in her basket as well.

Easter evening we went to Brad, Heather, Ella, and Alistair's house, joining several of their other friends, for a lovely meal in their backyard. The kids had a blast together. Here's Caroline with a little boy who is very close in age to her.

On the second day of school...

2011-05-09T17:25:00.000-07:00

...she fell off a hammock outside. And didn't calm down for 50 minutes. And was complaining of pain in her arm. And no one saw the fall... (quick look away on the part of the adult, we're not upset)... so a trip the e.r. was in order. I joined Kev and Caroline at the children's hospital after wrapping up a meeting, just in time to accompany them for x-rays. She was NOT happy about the x-rays. And apparently had not been happy with the initial manipulations done in triage. But as we waited in an e.r. room for word about what was next... she calmed down... and started using that arm again, bending it, reaching with it (this is her dominant arm). I thought for sure it couldn't be broken. Eventually someone said "The x-ray didn't show anything." Then someone else said later "Well, it didn't show a break, but it did show a lot of fluid on the elbow so we're going to splint her elbow, treat it like a break, until she can be seen by an orthopedist at the end of the week." She clearly had been in A LOT of pain, but I really had a hard time believing it was broken... especially when she'd put her full body weight on the wrist of that right arm without wincing... but, ah well, the orthopedist identified blood in the x-ray and suggested that was a sign of a break and casted it. She was totally unphased by the cast, save for using it as an excuse to resume loathing of bathtime.

Here's a self-portrait from our time waiting in the e.r. for word about what was up.

And here she is just after being splinted.

And in her dinosaur sling... she thought that was pretty great! At first, though getting her to leave it on at home was a bit of a challenge.

Because she was SO cooperative at the hospital we took her for a "special treat" (as she would say in her sweet little voice) afterwards. I took her to a bakery were there were all sorts of lovely chocolate delicacies. I thought for sure she'd pick a cupcake, but nope... she insisted on this... "lowfat chocolate decadence"... it was rather large... she was delighted.

We had a couple of special visitors shortly after this happened. First, before the cast, Katherine, a high school friend of Kev's, stopped by for an afternoon visit when she was in town.

Then a few days later she got her cast... she picked out the color... hot pink.

That night (Good Friday actually... penultimate Friday of the semester for me...) our good friends Matt and Jenn came down from Kentucky for dinner with us. Matt and Jenn are both musicians, but they also are experienced clowns. So they brought the makings for balloon animals to cheer the little patient. And she was thrilled with their offerings. We sure do love Matt and Jenn and are so glad that BOTH of them will be our (fairly nearby) neighbors so soon!

I was worried that the fall and break were going to turn Caroline off from her interest in school, but within three days of the accident she started asking "Are you going to drop me off? I want go to school. Drop me off." No hard feelings towards school whatsoever.

First day of school!

2011-05-09T17:06:00.000-07:00

There is a home-based montessori program just a few miles from our home. We've been interested in getting Caroline into it for awhile now and we took the plunge in April. She's going one day a week until June and starting in June, she'll go three days a week 8:30-3:30. Despite a mishap on her second day of school (ever) (as will be recounted in another post yet), she LOVES it. We only have a vague idea what she does when she's there. Mostly... she plays.... We know she plays outdoors a lot while she's there because she comes home utterly filthy (and content). We hope she's making friends, but we really have no idea. She's started talking a fair bit about Zoe, and there is a little girl named Zoe there... so... perhaps a friend. The first day we tried all sorts of strategies to get her to talk about her day... every strategy resulted in "I dunno." Sigh. Anyhow... she's happy. And we're happy she's happy.

I braided her hair for the special day. Just two half braids... really liked the results.

Looking coy shortly before leaving.

The requisite front porch pics. Twas a rainy day. She was ready. Blanket draped across her backpack for nap time after lunch.

So sweet... walking the beam before departing...

And here's the best shot of the school that I could get with the cell from the car...

And here she is minutes after being dropped off... I didn't even say goodbye. She was too absorbed and I didn't want to upset her. I was worried that that would create some sort of abandonment issues, but Kev assured me that he had said "See ya later," before she ran off. The teacher shared that it dawned on her at some point that we had left and she looked concerned for a moment, but quickly shrugged it off.

Wow. School.

A Visit from Aunt Khaki!

2011-05-09T09:34:00.000-07:00

We were blessed to have a weekend visit from Aunt Khaki early in April. Perhaps you've seen some of the pics from this visit on facebook. Here are a few more.

Khaki arrived on Saturday afternoon, just before our pastor's wedding. So Aunt Khaki and Caroline had some quality reconnection time, coloring with chalk on the front porch, and I'm sure plenty of other things... including looking at pictures on Khaki's phone, that was a favorite pass time while she was here! I had no idea Caroline knew how to work a touch screen until she took Khaki's iPhone and starting sliding pics around like a champ! Caroline took maybe 5 minutes to warm up to Khaki, max, in the car on the way home from the airport.

We went to the zoo Sunday morning before church. Caroline was especially colorful that day. Aunt Khaki inspires such brilliant color!

At church on Sunday, the guest preacher invited all married couples present to renew our wedding vows. Aunt Khaki posted a pic of that.

We had a bonfire Sunday night with some friends. No pics taken. Twas lovely.

Monday Aunt Khaki, Caroline, and I went to Monkey's Treehouse and the Loveless Cafe.
Aunt Khaki was great help with climbing.

And Caroline also did a fair bit of playing on her own....

Aunt Khaki and Caroline really enjoyed the biscuits at the Loveless Cafe.

We didn't take enough pics. My favorite pic from the visit is one I think I need permission before I post, so this will suffice for now. WE LOVE AUNT KHAKI! We're SO grateful you came!

Gardening Fun

2011-05-09T09:27:00.000-07:00

We put in a garden for the second time ever this year. We're working with good friends Sam, Ethan, and Fiona on this. Here are just a few shots from the work thus far this spring. The plot was a MESS when we first began... you should see it now! Must. take. more. pics.

Daddy's Birthday

2011-05-09T09:09:00.000-07:00

Most of these pics don't have daddy in them because we gave him the day to himself for his birthday. We met up for dinner before he went to the symphony (and hence the last pic), but C and I spent most of the day at the zoo with Klem-Mari who took several of these pics. Klem is a colleague of mine and it was the day after her birthday. She had never been to the zoo and was absolutely delighted with it!

We spent a fair bit of time in the play area of the zoo and on this day Caroline decided she wanted to run around the raised seats in the toddler area, and she would actually ask mommies and daddies to move when they were in her way... yeah... we worked to redirect that pretty quickly.

Unfortunately the cake pictures from the night before aren't worth sharing, but this cozy moment at dinner is fabulous!

We love daddy!

So much to catch up on...

2011-05-08T16:02:00.000-07:00

Hello? Anyone out there? Please forgive the long silence. I have now completed my coursework! Woohoo! And we're taking a brief break as a family before I begin my intense exam prep. Why don't I start with some very recent pics from this mini-vacation and then I'll put up many more photos over the next week from the last few months?

So, we are VERY grateful to Debbie, Mamie's best friend, who is hosting us on her houseboat for a long weekend. This is the houseboat on which Kevin and I honeymooned nearly 9 years ago! We didn't make use of the playground near the marina 9 years ago, but then and now we found and find this to be a relaxing place. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU DEBBIE!

Just arriving on the dock... not sure where she is or what she thinks...

Wearing the jacket she must wear while outside the boat and coloring with crayons and paper from Debbie!

Sliding fun...

Swinging fun...

A few more days... more pics sure to follow from this weekend... more pics and text definitely to follow from the last two months... something is better than nothing, right?

February/Early March 2011 Pics

2011-03-06T06:05:00.001-08:00

With Mr. Brad, Ella, and Alistair! Three of her MOST favorite people!

More first mommy french braid pics!

Great pics daddy captured on that evening of sidewalk chalk drawing! She loves to walk the planks in our yard!

Many Pics from that recent walk!

First she wanted to swing with daddy!

Swapping hats with daddy!

Truly fascinated with dirt on this walk!

Helping daddy in the kitchen just yesterday!

On the Go Pics Jan-March 2011

2011-03-06T05:14:00.000-08:00

With good friends Ethan and Fiona! Ready to go out on a winter's day!

FIRST PONYTAIL!

Bathtime Fun! Great time to learn letters! I forgot to mention that she's steadily picking up letter recognition!

Watching basketball players from the track at the Y!

On a carousel on the way home from Christmas break!

Watching folks working out at the Y!

Wearing a jumper mommy used to wear and a backpack mamie made and holding a bear mamie gave her and in the next one pushing the grocery cart mamie gave her!

Yet another hair appointment with Mommy! The owner of the shop took these pics because she thought it was the sweetest thing she'd ever seen and thought it would be a good pic to hang on the wall... We'll see next time we go!

With new friend Jenny who is moving here soon! Hooray!
First braids, not French!
Fun day at Monkey's Treehouse!
First French Braids (done by mommy! Nowhere near as nice as her FIRST french braids done by hair goddess Alisha!)

Up close and personal with the drummers at Pastor Andrew's, now Pastor Anyabwile's, African naming ceremony!

Big girl on the potty!

Cutie!

With the neighbor kids after coloring with sidewalk chalk!

Just cute.

Four Pics from a Sunday Morn!

Several Pics from that recent walk at Centennial Park!

What should I share?

2011-03-05T11:59:00.000-08:00

Sigh.

It has been too long since I've offered a newsy update about our beautiful ms. C. She is growing and developing SO quickly that it is truly hard to bring to mind the cute stories, or ways of saying things, or developments... But I'll try...

Nighttime- Pretty. Darn. Good. She has not nursed in the dark of night since we returned to Nashville after our winter break. She has asked once or twice recently, but quickly remembers that we are waiting until sun up. She often will sleep 9 or so hours in her own bed, but sometimes joins us in our bed at some point in the wee hours. A sign that she has assimilated the night weaning is that she most often heads to Kev's side of the bed right away. She like to cuddle, especially with daddy, now that night nursing is not an option. This is not always the best for Kev's sleep, but he's surviving. Some nights he's actually slept with her on the floor in her room. She loves to snuggle with daddy. She also loves to announce "SUN UP, MOMMY! TIME FOR MILK!" At first she didn't grasp that the sun was up even when she couldn't literally see the sun. Now she understands that dark means night, light means day- and light comes from the sun being up! I'm hoping that with the time change MAYBE she'll start sleeping a bit later... one can dream! We've made HUGE progress on the sleeping front. Definitely something to celebrate!

Happy Hour- Since returning from Michigan (where we spent the holiday with Kev's parents) we've been having happy hour Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays before dinner. Caroline LOVES this. I think I may have mentioned it in the pic post below. She may have either chocolate milk or juice at happy hour. She almost always picks chocolate milk (surprise, surprise), but as soon as she finishes the milk she says "Now I have juice?" And everytime we say "Tomorrow (or next week) you can choose juice." But always... chocolate wins. This is fine. It is a very special treat, marking this as happy time. As is the custom in Kev's family, we toast at the beginning of happy hour (C with her box of chocolate milk, mommy with her sparkling water/cranberry juice/lime/stevia mixed drink in a pretty glass, daddy with an alcoholic beverage of his choosing, usually in a short crystal glass.) We clink or clunk our beverages together saying "to a happy day." C LOVES this, she does it at least three times before beginning to partake! I'm on a pretty restrictive diet at the moment, trying to get rid of some long residing symptoms in my system (nuff said), so my treats at happy hour are pretty limited. My greatest indulgence is macadamia nuts, which C tries to grab and gobble up before I can get to them. "But Caroline, you can have EVERYTHING on the tray- the sesame sticks, the potato chips, the cheese.... things mommy would LOVE to have too.... why not eat those?" To which she responds by grabbing three more macadamia nuts! Ah well! She has good taste at least.

Eating- She tends not to be too interested in dinner after happy hour, go figure. And even sometimes unexplainably on other evenings. Often if we can get her to take the first bite of something she'll happily gobble up more. Often we bribe her... if you take three big bites of this, you may have some strawberries (or raisins... or other dried fruit... or something else she wants.) And then just a bit of the treat is given after three bites and she'll get more if she takes three more bites. She's on to us, now though. When she's not all that hungry at first she says she wants fruit, but then she remembers what that means and she says "I not hongry. I don't want dinner or fruit." Sometimes she says that RIGHT away. WE don't force it. She often eats a lot of breakfast and lunch. And she'll nurse for a bit when I get home at the end of the day, reconnecting time (we're down to two or three times a day max.) She LOVES mac and cheese at the moment- Annie's mac and cheese usually. But she's fond of a chick pea masala that Kev has been making recently (in which he brilliantly hid blended Kale recently!) And she's enjoyed a mommy made avocado smoothies once or twice. She can even tell you what ingredients to put in- C's smoothies are better than mommy's! She really enjoys watching and helping in the kitchen. She'll often drag a big chair into the kitchen and stand on it so she can see what's going on. She always listens when daddy asks her to move back because something is hot.

Discipline- As was suggested at the end of the previous paragraph, she often is a very good listener and is quite obedient. This is, of course, not always the case. But more often than not she will do what she is told, if not initially, eventually. And she responds pretty well to "by the count of three". Time outs are also working well, when needed. She can still throw massive temper tantrums, but these aren't usually related to being corrected on behavior- they are more related to exhaustion or having to do something (like take a bath, or sit on the potty) that she doesn't feel like doing at the moment.

POTTY- I bought days of the week underpants for C this past week. She's been using the potty on and off for MONTHS now. She has had several days recently when she's done all her pooping in the potty (not every day, for sure, but several days). And she's gotten to a point where she tells us right away if she's pooped in her pants. It certainly seems she knows what it feels like when she needs to poop and she knows when she's done and when she's not. She'll sit on the potty for a LONG time, and I'll think she's just playing around, but... eventually a bit more comes out and she says "I all done! I am not as convinced that she knows when she needs to pee. I think that using underwear, at least for part of the day, so long as she keeps the underwear dry, will help her to figure this out. We'll see. We'll have to get some pullups, At the moment she's getting such exciting praise for peeing and pooping in the potty that she excitedly announces when I get home at the end of the day whatever she's done in that department- including "I POOPED MY DIAPER, MOMMY!" Um, o.k.... but we KNOW you can do that! Glad you're happy about it. We'll see... She LOVES the underwear. I think they're going to be good motivation for her.

When treats turn sour- Earlier this week I got home late at the end of the day and wanted to make it to the gym. To pacify C and distract her from her desire for an immediate reconnect nursing at the end of the day, and to celebrate a very good potty day, I offered her a lollipop. This did the trick. No mommy's milk necessary (you must know, despite the chocolate milk references and the lollipop- sweet treats around her are usually fruit... ). She happily sucked and chomped away- she chews lollipops. So bad for her teeth, I'm sure... but daddy does the same. She comes by it naturally. When we arrived at the Y her lollipop was gone and her face was covered with stickiness. Her hair, in fact, was plastered to her face. It seemed important to detach the hair and clean her face. So I got out a wipe and set to it. Pulling the hair off was, apparently, AGONIZING. She screamed and cried bloody murder. The people in the next car over said "Is she going to be alright?" "Um, yes, she's fine." And then I explained. Well, a few days later we took a family walk at Centennial Park. This was a very toddler friendly walk. We went where she wanted to go, and more or less lingered where she wanted to linger (though, admittedly, we did try to keep her moving.) She spent a lot of time digging in dirt and picking up sticks, even very big sticks. She was filthy by the time we got home. So, though she had a bath (much to her disdain) the day before, another bath was in order... once again a treat turned sour! Ah, life's lessons.

Une Artiste- C has been having a great time with the easel that Uncle Daniel and Aunt Lauren sent her and with the playdough creativity set they sent her... and she's also been enjoying just scribbling on paper with a pen. We need to get some fingerpaints. Uncle Daniel tried to send those too, but they were out of stock. I think she'll LOVE paint. She's also had fun with sidewalk chalk on our front porch. The girls next door came by and colored up a storm. Their pictures lasted several days, until a major rain. Such a cheery way to greet the day. C also LOVES stickers. Should we need incentives in the potty journey... stickers it will probably be.

Sing, Sing a Song... Every now and then C just bursts into song. Unlike her friend, Fiona who sings whole songs with impressive accuracy, Caroline tends to pick a line or two and belt them out again and again, or to riff on just a few words. This morning I think she was doing an improv loosely based on the itsy, bitsy spider, but the spider was now characterized differently. She seems to be absorbing song lyrics. She'll often start singing Laurie Berkner songs even if she hasn't heard the song for days "We're not perfect, no we're not!" So glad that line is sticking! She also loves to sing "We are the dinosaurs, marching, marching, we are the dinosaurs, what do you think of that?" And sometimes she'll sing "Moon, moon, moon..." and will even do the sound effect for the light clicking off. Once when nursing and singing her to sleep she broke her latch and started singing the lyrics to "Everything Possible" with me. (If you don't know this lullabye- lyrics here. Great, great song. I've been singing it to her nearly nightly her whole life with the hopes that the lyrics would sink deeply in. Maybe they are!)

Our Little Helper- In addition to the kitchen help mentioned above, C, apparently, is a great help with the smaller babes Kev cares for during the week. She's sharing more and more freely and at one point this past week when Parker was upset she went to the fridge, opened it up, and got out his milk and brought it to him. Very impressive as this meant distinguishing between his milk and Alistair's milk! She also often helps with diaper changes, getting out whatever Kev needs and waiting patiently by his side and handing things to him. Of course there are days when she is exceedingly possessive, whiny, and clingy... but more and more she is an eager, little helper. And she just LOVES Alistair and Parker. When we say thank you prayers she thanks God for them at least five times.

speaking of praying- She has some great spontaneous thank you prayers, but Mr. Brad, and Ms. Heather (alistair and ella's daddy and mommy) are always near the top of the list! She frequently spontaneously gives thanks for each of her grandparents and for aunts and uncles. Sometimes she'll throw in something that happened during the day. It is very sweet.

speaking of giving thanks- While we frequently prompt her to say thank you at appropriate moments, she OFTEN says it spontaneously, at very appropriate moments. So endearing.

speaking of speaking- Wow. Wow. Wow. She tells long, elaborate stories now. Sometimes recounting events of the day, sometimes events of weeks or even MONTHS past... she shocked us in January when she started telling a story, in detail, about halloween last year. Mr. Brad got a full accounting of her trip to the doctor when she wiped with yellow stuff and peed in a cup. Must be very careful what we say around her these days... She has so many cute little expressions, but they're escaping me at the moment... she asks "why?" and "what happened?" all the time. And lately she has started saying "Because..." a lot, but there's nothing to follow "because." Oh, I know one of them- "I DO IT MY OWN SELF!" We were waiting for some version of this to arise... it is here. The "My OWN self" bit is pretty funny. Not sure where she picked that up. She still pronounces milk as though it has three or four syllables- it is the one sure sign she was born in the south. Everytime she says it it sounds SO southern. Occasionally she adds a few syllables to "mommy" as well, southernizing that! Again, not sure where she's getting that from. And Kev just reminded me that sometimes instead of saying "my own self" she says something that sounds for all the world like "my bad self." She calls the pack and play (in which Parker naps) the "plack and play." She calls piglet "Pliget."

School? In some very recent and exciting news... we visited a homebased montessori program that is just two miles from our home. We were hoping this might be a good fit for C perhaps starting this summer (maybe even sooner). A mother of three runs this out of her home. She's an artist and received her masters in teaching from Belmont University two years ago. She's working on getting state certification so to be able to open a kindergarten. C loved the space- lots of great wooden toys. I saw C work on puzzles for the first time ever (Kev has seen her do so before.) I really think this could be a good fit for her. And I think we can afford it! Woohoo! We asked her if she wanted to come back sometime and she said "I want to stay!" When we asked her in the car if she wanted to go back there for school she said "Yes." It sounds like the kids have two hours of fairly unstructured play in the morning, she observes and assists where needed, but wants the kids to learn to help each other. They go outside twice every day (and it appears they do gardening as well as other outdoor play things.) There is circle time. And quiet time. Two snacks and lunch. She usually has a kid help her with lunch- either a volunteer or someone who seems to need some attention. The teacher has a daughter who is just a few months older than C, about Fi's age. Fiona and Ethan might go there this summer too!

Gardening- This is the beginning of my spring break (hence the long- and long overdue- post) and the big family goal for the week is to put in a garden. We didn't garden last year and our lot is a mess. Sam, Ethan, and Fiona are also hopefully going to work on this with us, at least twice this week! Woohoo! I might pick all three kids up three days a week from the montesorri program and bring them back for gardening at our place! Crazy to think that the last time we put in a garden we could sit her in her bumbo next to the garden plot while we worked- we had to take turns entertaining her! Now she'll likely be able to help (more or less!)

Family Activity- I mentioned the family walk in the park, but we also went for a family run at the track at the Y last night. C and K would run a lap, and then I would sprint a lap, we alternated like this for a mile. I'm trying to pick up my running speed a bit so this was a good exercise. And C had a lot of fun with it. Daddy is not a fan of running, but he was a good sport about it! The gardening should also be great family activity and we've been trying to get out for walks on beautiful days. Good stuff. Gotta love the southland in the springtime.

Choosing her Clothes- Daddy is more encouraging of this than mommy. I like things to match... he just wants her happy! I try to let her choose from within a range of matching options! Sometimes I come home to very interesting combinations. She thinks they're beautiful though! Guess that's all that matters.

Braiding Hair- The past three Sundays I have put C's hair into two french braids. I'm not very good at it, but I'm getting better. It takes quite awhile so I let her watch a movie while I work on it... and I ply her with snacks. Her hair is getting really long! The ends still curl out nicely. She gets so many compliments on her golden locks.

Last Saturday- C and I went to the downtown library to return some signing time d.v.d.'s and hang out in the children's library for awhile. It turned out there was a marionette show of Alice in Wonderland in the theater there so we did that. We had SUCH a good morning. She was squirmy during the play, but made it through the whole thing. She played on one of the toddler computers for awhile. She listened, and cooperated, and accepted redirection. I picked up a cookie for her at the coffee shop attached to the library... I was so proud of her! It was SUCH a good morning! Alleluia!

Surely there's more, but surely that's more than enough. Pics will follow... soon, I hope.

Fun in January 2011

2011-02-06T15:47:00.000-08:00

Rocking with style...

Caroline's handiwork with one of her Christmas presents...

Best friends (Caroline and Fiona)...

A birthday party for Doggie! Happy to you, doggie! She LOVES looking at these pictures.

rediscovering the halloween costume and hanging with buddy alistair...

Happy hour at our house... first chocolate milk... she likes it...

First encounters with one of the fabulous presents sent along by Uncle Daniel and Aunt Lauren...

One of the outfits she picked out...

Caroline Grace- blowing. our. minds.

2011-01-08T10:00:00.000-08:00

So. much. to. share.

Let's see if I can remember it all!

Caroline's language acquisition is BLOWING our minds. When she opened birthday presents at Mamie's house the Sunday after Thanksgiving she said repeatedly "Ooh, Yook at dis! Ah, yook at dat!" That was DELIGHTFUL and thoroughly impressive to us. But by the time she was opening Christmas presents she was saying "Look at this! Look at that!" In one month she masters the "L"? Wow! She also recently started saying "I love you." Ah... so sweet.

Speaking of opening presents... I was up with Caroline early on Christmas morning not because she was chomping at the bit for Christmas, but because she is 2 and still has funky sleep patterns. I nursed her back to sleep and wrote an e-mail to some colleagues in which I said that she is too young to be anticipatorily excited about Christmas, but... when she woke up I said "Merry Christmas, Caroline! It's Christmas!" And she said "Open presents?" and then shrieked with glee! Too young, mommy? I don't think so.

She was delighted by everything in her stocking and everything under the tree. She didn't quite understand why other people were getting presents too. I think this is a function of her birthday being so close to Christmas, but she was relatively patient for other present opening. There was only one minor meltdown on Christmas morning, not bad.

As you can see in some of the pics below, one of the biggest hits this Christmas was a set of Duplo lego blocks that Kev and I got for her. She made huge progress in the week we were with Pa and Eepa at working with these (though she started off pretty strong!) She built towers and robots and all sorts of great things... she also likes using red blocks to make "lub mcqueen" (that's how she says 'lightning mcqueen") and blue blocks to make "Sally" (Sally is lightning mcqueen's love interest in the movie Cars).

This big box of blocks presented a good opportunity to practice the skill of cleaning up from one activity before moving on to another. Eepa taught us a song "Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere! Clean up, clean everybody do their share!" She LOVES singing this and sometimes she loves cleaning up while she sings it. We did a lot of putting blocks in the box, and then dumping them back out 5-10 minutes later.

Caroline also enjoyed tracing hands and feet on freezer paper (brilliant drawing surface, Eepa!) over and over again. "I make hands?" Or "I want make hands." These were the two phrases that would initiate a coloring session.

Caroline also demonstrated awesome dancing skills while we were staying with Pa and Eepa. They would put on music (usually the Strathdees) and play some of the marvelous rhythm instruments they gave Caroline for Christmas and she would dance and dance and dance. Eepa characterized her natural moves as "Native American" and indeed it did look like she was doing a Native American circle dance.

She learned many of the names of the children's books Eepa took out of the library for her visit and was asking for them by name in the last few days we were there.

We had "happy hour" every night of our visit. When Kev was growing up this was a Friday, Saturday ritual- juice and snacks and a toast and catching up with the family on the living room floor. Caroline LOVED, LOVED, LOVED happy hour. She would cheer when she heard it was time for happy hour. And she'd spin the tray of snacks around to position whatever happened to be her favorite treat of the night (honey roasted soy nuts? sesame sticks? cheese?) closest to her. We have decided to have happy hours on Friday and Saturday evenings at home since it delighted her so and when we suggested that we were going to do this last night she shrieked and then said over and over again "Hoo-ray! Hoo-ray! Hoo-ray!" (And she really emphasizes the "Hoo!")

She has been saying "Hoo-ray!" and doing a bit of a happy dance at several excited moments the last week. I'm not sure where she learned "Hoo-ray!" But it is terribly, terribly cute.

Caroline seems to be grasping a certain understanding of time... she uses "later" appropriately, and "after", and "in a minute" or "just two minutes." She'll often say "I want bath after dinner." Or something like that. She has SEVERAL phrases in her goodbye rituals now, among them is "See you later!" All this time talk developed while we were in MIchigan. It was amazing to see it unfold.

Caroline had her first night away from both of us. Pa and Eepa took care of her while Kev and I went to our favorite B and B for the first time in MANY years. She did very well. She did wake up in the middle of the night and Pa and Eepa let her be for awhile, but eventually she was calling out for mommy and daddy fairly intensely, I guess, so Eepa went and laid down with her and soothed her until she fell back asleep. Eepa stayed with her until morning.

Eepa gave so much time and attention to Caroline while we were there (so did Pa!) Caroline was usually ready to be done with dinner before the rest of us (partly because her belly was quickly full after happy hour!) And would beg Eepa to come play with her. Eepa would indicate that she couldn't leave the table until her water was finished and Caroline would keep coming back to the table to check to see whether the water was empty. By the last few nights Caroline asked to sit on Eepa's lap and eagerly helped with the drinking of the water. (This is pictured below!) She's one smart cookie!

Speaking of cookies... and cake... so many wonderful things start with C! Eepa has a tradition of making a sheet cake when loved ones visit and frosting it with chocolate frosting and then decorating it with colored frosting writing "Happiness is a visit with..." for us "Happiness is a visit with Kevin, Sarah, and Caroline!" Eepa also has a tradition of making sugar cookie people for each of the people who will be gathering in their home for Christmas which she then hangs on the tree. This year she made gingerbread people instead and had TONS of extra frosting from decorating these with some other friends before we came, so there were LOTS of extra decorations on the cake- a few Christmas trees for example. Another part of the sheet cake tradition is that people can cut their own piece, however big or small, whatever shape they'd like. Caroline, of course, was not cutting her own cake, but she was asking for particular parts of the cake. For awhile she was asking for letters. But then she set her eyes on the Christmas tree... She also very much enjoyed her gingerbread cookie- pic of that below.

Caroline also delighted in blowing out candles (also pictured below!) She isn't having as much luck with our candles at home, but she tries valiantly (and daddy helps her out and gives her all the praise!)

She hasn't quite grasped why she's no longer getting a Hershey's Kiss and a little book every night after dinner (these were our Advent rituals- one from Eepa, one from Mamie) But she's not too distressed about it.

Lest you think it is all sugar and spice and everything nice with our girl... we have started using time outs. We've used them enough that her stuffed animals are now getting them. She doesn't like them one bit... but they do seem to help. Mostly she needs them for a failure to listen and follow-through. It seems a bit early for them, but... I read somewhere that if children repeat your rules to you they're ready for time outs. She often barks rules at us or at other kids. She's ready.

Lately when we've been doing something with her that she doesn't want done (changing her diaper sometimes, changing her clothes sometimes, getting her ready for bed, putting on a coat or hat or mittens, insisting on clean up... the list goes on and on and on...) even if we are 10 ft away from her she'll yell "DON'T HIT ME!" What?! We've never hit her! Not intentionally anyhow. And we're usually doing nothing like hitting when she yells this. She has heard this from me when she has hit me aggressively. And she has heard regularly "No hitting. We don't hit." So the phrase isn't shocking... but it takes us aback every time. Often it is in response to being spoken to in a stern voice.

We think Caroline dislocated her elbow shortly before our Christmas trip. We were "1,2,3 weeing" with her in a parking lot after buying Papa and Mamie's Christmas present and when we went to put her into the car she started saying "Ow! Ow! Ow! Arm hurts. Ow!" She was very agitated about getting her car seat straps on. She was favoring one arm, holding it limply at her side. It seems to have popped back in on its own. She had a doctor's appt the next morning and the doc confirmed what our dear nurse friends (Debbie and Sam) had suggested "a nursemaid's elbow" that corrected itself. Needless to say, much to her dismay, no more "1,2,3 wee." But she'll survive. An elbow that pops out? Just one more thing she shares in common with the young Uncle Daniel.

Along with "Hoo-ray!" she has also been saying "I don't wanna." A LOT. Very strong will... no surprise there. You don't wanna wear a winter coat? Tough. We'll give her a choice about WHICH winter coat, but not whether to wear one at all.

We are working on night weaning because after two years I'm ready to have my boobs back at night. We've explained that after her bedtime nursing no milk until the sun is up. She had a few nights of 8 or so hours of sleep, still waking up before sunrise, and we held her off on further nursing until sun up. She's been waking in the middle of the night more the past few and eventually she comes into bed with us, but she isn't nursing until morning. She asks a lot, but I just say over and over again- "We need to wait for the sun. Look out the window if you can't sleep and tell me when the sun is out." She's pretty literal (as the "I can't see!" story below suggests so even when the sun is up because she can't literally see the "sun" she says "I can't see it!" Oh well... We've stuck to our guns all week. No middle of the night nursing. A fair bit of sleep interruption nonetheless, but... I think we're getting there. We bought toddler bedding for Caroline so we can tuck her in. She loved it at first, but now she resists her bed... back to sleep resistance.

Well, on the balance... she's still a GREAT kid. And we love her like CRAZY!

Was that everything? Nope, not a chance. But that's all I've got for now!

Edited to add two more things I should have shared-
Caroline is becoming quite the little capitalist. She knows that stores are for buying things and she regularly asks to go to the store. One of her favorite play time activities involves using her toy cash register to scan and buy several items of play food. And by several I mean LOTS. She also slides a play credit card in its slot when she's ready to pay. She asks for this activity by saying "Let's go buy things!" or "I want buy things." Great. (We are truly grateful for the fabulous shopping cart, play food, and cash register... just hadn't thought about how early this would introduce the capitalist mentality to our wee one!)

Speaking of working to remedy unintended mental consequences... shortly before we headed to Michigan Caroline started singing grace with us more regularly. When we learned the grace we learned it as "God our Father, God our Father, once again, once again, we bow our heads to thank you, we bow our heads to thank you. Amen. Amen." We quickly started singing it "God our Mother, God our Father..." Or the other way around, wanting her to have a gender balanced God image in her head. Well... when she started singing with us in earnest she was saying "Father" EVERY TIME- and aggressively. So... we aggressively went on a corrective mission and sang only Mother for a few weeks. Just today at lunch time she sang mother twice. I just read Elizabeth Johnson's "She Who Is" for the first time last semester and I am less convinced about the effectiveness in gender neutrality for the dislodging of androcentric, patriarchal God-images. I clearly DO NOT believe God is woman or a man... I just don't want Caroline growing up assuming one or the other... She'll get Father, He, Him... plenty of other places. God our mother at home, at least for the time being, seems just about right.

December 2010 (mostly lots of shots from our GREAT vacation!)

2011-01-06T18:30:00.000-08:00

She loves to brush her teeth or at least to suck the toothbrush! She also LOVES to wash her hands. Love the potty that doubles as a stool!

We didn't get many shots at her birthday party and the best shots we did get were with Heather, mommy to Ella and Alistair (Alistair is one of the babies for whom Kev is providing care.) Here she meets her sing-a-ma-jig bear for the first time. Not so sure about it then. LOVES it now.

In a super cute outfit from Aunt Janet! Aunt Janet picks out GREAT clothes for C!

En Route to Pa and Eepa's for Christmas we stopped to see dear friends Rebecca, Joshua, and Owen. They came to see us shortly before Caroline was born to help us get ready for her arrival, but had never met her! Caroline gave Owen a gift and Owen gave Caroline a gift!

We thought we would be taking Caroline to a winter wonderland for Christmas, but... there was more snow in Nashville than Southwest Michigan on Christmas day! Oh well! There was a bit though and Caroline LOVED the sled.

A few shots from Christmas Eve

A bunch of shots from Christmas morning

Lots of shots from fun with Pa and Eepa! They SHOWERED her with love and attention and she thrived on it.

We are SO grateful for and to Pa and Eepa! We had a WONDERFUL visit. Half way home C said "I want see Pa and Eepa." And upon arriving home "See Pa and Eepa now?" Aww... We miss you both and love you much!

All these pictures have stories that could be told with them, and there is MUCH updating to do on the exciting development of sweet Caroline Grace, but... first I wanted to catch up on the picture backlog... stories to follow... getting closer... (Sorry for a TOTAL lack of organization here!)

November 2010 Pics

2011-01-05T19:03:00.001-08:00

A November Outing with Daddy

A Nap with Best Friend Fiona

Getting Into Mommy's Shoes (November 2010)

Ready for Ella's Birthday Party

With Aunt Khaki (you can sort of see C's messed up eye!)

Watching Papa Play Snood

A Nap Before Uncle Dan's Wedding

With Daddy After Uncle Dan and Aunt Lauren's Wedding

Getting Ready for a Photo Shoot with Cousin Gracie (thanks for the beautiful headband Wendy!)

With Cousin Gracie

DANCING!

Nursing a Baby Doll Who Clearly Needs A Diaper Change

Playing With Haley

Enjoying an Early Birthday Cupcake (first one with Great Uncle Hugh) (The best shot from this sequence is in last month's post.)

Opening Presents "Yook at DIS!"

With Cousin Suzy on our Trip Home

Many more pics to come... and LOTS OF UPDATES. But for now... sleep...

Taste and See!

2010-12-14T19:37:00.000-08:00

When Caroline is the car and asks for "fruit, peez," she's asking for a dried fruit strip (like a fruit roll up, but just fruit and juice). When she wants particular types of fruit she asks for them by name.

A few days ago she asked for fruit and I wasn't sure if we had any strips in the car so I gave her some dried berries that were at the top of the snack bag (leftover from the road trip a few weeks ago). She looked puzzled when I dropped the berries into her hand. "Dis not fruit."

"Yes, Caroline, actually it is," said I.

"Taste and see, Caroline, O taste and see," said Kev.

Next thing we knew her mouth was wide open and she was declarig "I can't see." Not sure how to transcribe the wide mouth, full mouthed talking.

Though I believe in explaining things to kids, a figurative use of the verb "to see"? That's a stumper!

Happy To You, Sweet C, You're 2!

2010-12-05T06:31:00.000-08:00

First of all a handful of pics from the last few weeks. We haven't been great about taking pics the past month. But there are a few more good ones to share... later... perhaps when all the papers are written, the final is taken, the grades are submitted... for now just 5 pics. And then a lot of text.

AMAZING. That's what our girl is.

Frequently heard from her lips these days-
"What happened?" with a shrug of the shoulders.
"Where it go?" with the same shrug, hands up lifted.
"I wad oo." Her rendition of "I love you." Especially when I say "You know what?" For some time now I've looked at her and said "You know what?" Pause. "I love you!" Now I just say "You know what?" and she says "I wad oo!"
"Yook at me, mommy. Yisten to me, daddy." Often taking a chin in her hand and turning it towards her... she has been hearing this and so...
"OH! Yook at dat!" Repeatedly uttered when opening birthday presents at Mamie's house!
"Where's Alistair?" This little guy hangs with C and daddy four days a week and while we were in NY she was missing him. Several times a day we were asked this. Almost as frequently she'll ask "Where's Parker?" He hangs with C and daddy two days a week.
"Fi-o-na!" For the longest time she's called her best friend "Fio," which was awfully cute, but somehow Thanksgiving week she mastered all three syllables. She just reminded me she likes to say "Bubba" too, which is what Fiona calls her brother Ethan.
"Dr. Who" "Tardis" "Rabbit" "Klulu"- ask daddy.
"Want see Khaki. Want see Danel." Aunt Khaki finally has skype and so instead of just saying "want see doggies" on my computer now she says "want see khaki!" And as we wrap up a chat with Khaki she says "Want see Danel." Uncle Danel doesn't have skype yet... but soon. He was tickled to hear this because, for some reason, C was rather afraid of him last week.
"I too pitty." She frequently declares this to whoever comes to the door in the morning.
"I don wanoo." I don't wan't too... usually in a ramp up to a temper tantrum.
"Cahline" she says her name now! She even seemed to say "Doughty" once. Sanderson... not yet.
"Dis is Cahline's!" Especially when other kids are around.
"Dis is mine!" When daddy's flourless chocolate cake arrived after dinner at a restaurant earlier this month her eyes got big and this was her declaration. When daddy took a few bites without giving her any she aggressively commanded in speech and sign "Share!!!"
"I wan some more milk." Yup. Still nursing. Asked several times last week if I have a weaning plan. At this point... it is going to have to wait until we can have a reasonable conversation about it. 3 probably. Unless of course she loses interest sooner. That would be fine with me. I'm really ready to be done, but... she is showing no signs that she is ready. So... keeping on.
I need to take a go at that last one again because she has a very distinctive way of saying milk. It is the only thing that she says that evidences southern influence. She makes it a two or three syllable word sounding something like this "Meh-ilk."
"I need some chocate." Declared after breakfast at Mamie's one day.

Oh and she sings grace with us now, more or less, too cute. "God our Mother. God our Father. Once again, once again, we bow our heads to thank you. We bow our heads to thank you. Amen. Amen." For awhile she's sung the God and the Amen, but now she's getting most of it. Last night she even seemed to initiate a round.

She's signing more and more... all sorts of animals... she even, sometimes, signs "hippo." Somehow I don't even think I knew what a hippo was when I was two.

Oh... and she started grunting and talking in a grunty voice to be funny we think.

She loves playing pretend. Changing her baby doll's or stuffed animals' diapers- "Ooh... poopy! Need fresh dipuh." Or "This jus wet. Need fresh dipuh," She has started pretend nursing of late too. Priceless. She also loves putting her pajamas on her stuffed animals.

Mamie gave her a grocery cart and cash register for her birthday/Christmas. Aunt Khaki gave her play food. She will soon open up a play kitchen from us. We want to encourage this pretend play!

She travelled BEAUTIFULLY to Syracuse for Uncle Danel (and btw, intentionally mispelling to reflect her pronunciation) and Aunt Lauren's wedding. Thank God for portable d.v.d. players and a husband who is willing to drive all night long. She watched "Cars" repeatedly, and "Monsters, Inc.," oh, and "Finding Nemo" many times. She did watch some "Baby Signing Time" on the way, but Pixar was the big winner. And she slept A LOT in the car.

That said... she was sick before we left... and got sicker as we traveled, developing an eye infection of some sort. Her eyes looked grotesque by the time we arrived at the home of our gracious hosts. And then... within half an hour of arriving... she ran into the corner of a piece of furniture, cutting open the corner of her most infected eye. Brilliant. It was quite the arrival. Good family friend, Dr. Jim, took a look at her late that night. We picked up some antibiotic ointment from the all night pharmacy and she was much better within 24 hours. Apparently if her eye hadn't been infected he would have glued the cut closed, but... as it was we just applied antibiotic ointment to the cut too. By the wedding it was looking much better. The funny thing is that Uncle Danel got a black eye at a rugby game the week before the wedding. His bad eye was his left one. So was C's! She was just trying to be in solidarity with Uncle Dan, I guess. Both Danel and Caroline were looking much improved come wedding time.

Speaking of the wedding... at the rehearsal she would only walk down the aisle with Kev and then only rather tentatively. And then, when she'd get to the front she'd try to climb the stairs to me and when thwarted would TOTALLY melt down. She did this twice. So... we figured we had a pretty good picture of what would happen on the big day. The good thing was that her screams could hardly be heard over the sound of the organ. Well... when it came time for her walk down the aisle... she took off all by herself... and took her time... and paused occasionally to smile at people she recognized. In other words, she performed brilliantly. And when she got to the front... she just looked around like "what now?" Kev beckoned her over and they went to the play area on the side of the church and she played happily through the rest of the service with daddy and some other cousins too, I think. I don't know. I was a bit busy.

Even more impressive, perhaps, is the fact that Caroline had french braids in her hair for the wedding, two of them. Her hair started looking really scraggly while we were in Syracuse. Some folks blamed the climate, I'm not sure. In any case, I have no facility for doing hair and I didn't know what to do about it. So I called Alisha, wonder woman when it comes to hair! She came to the rescue and put in two beautiful braids while Caroline watched a d.v.d. and then while she nursed. Unbelievable.

So, we just had a few friends over today to celebrate her birthday. Alistair and his mommy, daddy, and sister Ella. Parker and his mommy. And Raine and her mommy and daddy. We had applesauce muffins with an agave sweetened cream cheese frosting. (She did get some chocolate today when she came to church with me- half a donut! And she had a very indulgent cupcake at Mamie's so... we went a bit healthier today!) It was a very low key affair. Between presents from friends and family at a distance and a few presents I managed to finally pick up just this afternoon she had quite a pile. And she truly seemed delighted with all of it. We haven't assembled her play kitchen yet, but I'm sure that will be a hit. Kev blew up some balloons and taped them to her eating chair and laid a few on the tray so they were among the first things she saw this morning. She was quite delighted. He blew up a bunch more when she was napping this afternoon and she had great fun with them during her party.

I was surprised that we got through a toddler party without a meltdown... but then we went out to dinner with Alistair and his family. And... worst public temper tantrum yet. Hello, two.

She had a low-grade fever when we got home. Not sure if it is because she worked herself up so, or if it is because she's fighting yet another bug. She and I both have been sick and can't seem to kick it. Tomorrow she heads to the pediatrician for her 2 year check up... so... we shall see. Very curious about her height and weight as she seemed to weigh as much or more than both a 3 year old cousin and a 4 year old cousin and wasn't that much shorter than either of them. I didn't think she was especially big until I saw those three playing together.

She continues to love to jump. She really wants to jump on the bed. We won't allow it. But it doesn't stop her from trying. I saw that you can buy your own bounce house at Toys R Us. Wow. That would be a dream present for her. But... where would we store it???

Well... the fever is now done. The busy girl who was falling asleep early after her total meltdown at the restaurant got a second wind and is still going strong though mommy is fading... fast. So this is all for now.

We love you, Caroline Grace. You are AMAZING.

23 months!

2010-11-05T12:49:00.000-07:00

Pictures from the last two weeks.

Beginning right where we left off... here is our big girl in her toddler bed, napping after the trip to the zoo!

Caroline may look a lot like her Uncle Daniel, but she just might have her Aunt Katherine's flair for style. She picks her outfits most days. Get a load of this one she put together one Sunday when I was preaching out of town and she and daddy were getting ready to go to our church. She insisted on the converse with the dress! It kind of works...

Caroline's favorite color is most definitely purple. If I ask her what she wants to wear without giving her concrete options she always says "a purple dress." She'll often dig around in her drawers and pull out different shades of purple and ask to wear them together. Such may have been the case on this day. She was definitely grooving on this outfit!

We had a surprise visit from a couple that I knew decades ago. My mom used to provide childcare for their oldest daughter who is my sister's age. C got to wear a purple dress this night! Thanks for dinner, Sue and Chuck! Great to see you!

Last weekend we headed to Georgia for the American Academy of Religion. We left Thursday night so we could see our friend Julie on our way to Atlanta. This turned out to be a great plan because I needed to draft a paper and Julie was happy to play with Kevin and C while I stayed back in her lovely home to write. Julie and I went for a walk in this park Friday morning, then the three of them returned while I settled in to write. Clearly C had a blast. This first shot catches the posture she assumes when she's asking "Where it go?" or sometimes "I don't know." C might have been a little precautious around the ducks outside Matt and Jenn's apartment, but not so in this park, apparently. She was running right up to them. She continues to appear to be generally fearless.

Thanks again for your hospitality, Julie! The white chili was FABULOUS! And from there we went to Caroline's godfamily's house where she set to playing with her Godsister Abby immediately- or, at least with her Godsister's Abby's fabulous toys.

While mommy was busy AARing and paper drafting, Caroline and Abby tried on their matching halloween costumes for the first time. They were twin pumpkin fairies! Great handmade costumes purchased off of Etsy- Caroline picked them out! Abby was not so into the wings, and only occasionally open to the head band. C loved it all. She called her wings her "buhfly" And wanted to wear the costume as much as possible.

Kev couldn't find where I had stashed the shoes we brought for her to wear with the costume so pink converse it was! Kev, Katie, Caroline, and Abby went to the zoo boo at "Abby's zoo" (so dubbed by Caroline without any prompting from anyone else!) It looks like they had a blast and I hear that they got plenty of compliments.

Two wiped out pumpkin fairies.

The 30th was Abby's grandma's birthday so they made a birthday sign and Caroline and Abby put on a little show. Some moments from that fun are captured below.

On halloween proper Katie and I took our fairies to a festival at a church not too far away. They were pretty cranky on our way out the door. Though I don't usually appease with sugar (occasionally, but not customarily) it was halloween so I grabbed a mini-chocolate bar and broke it into small pieces for the girls. It seems that Abby had never had straight up chocolate before. While C popped hers quickly into her mouth and then asked for more, Abby lingered over hers and got it EVERYWHERE. Oh well... twas halloween afterall!

The festival was pretty great (except for an obnoxiously loud youth band playing mediocre Christian rock). When we arrived Caroline saw a large, inflatable slide and recognized its inflation as similar to the bounce house she enjoyed so much a few weeks ago. She saw it as we walked up and said "I NEED TO JUMP!" And then she jumped in place! Fortunately the festival had bounce houses, and these were not time limited at all. C made a bee line for it, pulled off her shoes, and hopped inside. Abby was a bit more reticent, sticking close to mom, overwhelmed by the noise at first. Great photo opps of Abby while C bounced away.

I checked in periodically and kept finding C bouncing away. But one time I checked and she wasn't there. I asked the attendant if she saw a pumpkin fairy get out and she said "Yes." And I said "Well, where is she?" She shrugged. I panicked for only a brief moment and then turned my eyes to the toddler play area and saw her flitting about. Abby soon joined her there.

There were a few little slide in the toddler area that Caroline went down repeatedly.

But after the fifth or sixth time she had had enough of this kiddy business, apparently. She set her sides on the big, inflatable slide (that I am sure she would not have been allowed to go down) and took off running at quite a clip across the field, in stocking feet!

Eventually I got her turned around and she headed right back to the bounce house where I managed to get some pics of her ecstatic bouncing. We have a sweet video of her bouncing. Perhaps I'll post that later.

Other random pics of the pumpkin fairies before they were renamed...

The church had a costume contest. We decided to go in for the infant to preschool award time... why not? But it didn't seem like anything was going on... we didn't know where the judges were... the girls were getting antsy and cranky again. The finally started announcing winners and Caroline yelled out "POO! POTTY!" So... out we went. We never told anyone their names and winners were being announced by name so we figured they weren't in the running. It was a gigundo church so the bathrooms were a little ways away. We planted ourselves in the hallway by the bathrooms and dealt with cranky toddlers and prepared to go home. A woman came out with her kids a bit later and said "It's the butterfly babies! They won the prize!" I went back in to check and indeed they did! They were mistaken for twins and renamed the butterfly babies. Caroline picked a great costume, eh?

Just two more...

the girls in the bath together

and right before we left they insisted on putting their tutus over their outfits for the day... C wore hers almost all the way home.

Our 23 month old got her bangs trimmed today and did beautifully! No pics from today to post... but the last several are VERY recent.

Perhaps more text updates later!

Pics of Adventures from the Past Two Months

2010-10-15T17:22:00.000-07:00

In order to share some representative moments and cute outfits... I'm going to suck it up and let you see just how terribly messy parts of our house can be some of the time (sometimes much of the time.) You have perhaps glimpsed this from time to time. It will be VERY apparent this go around. Say with this first picture... I want you to see a big development since last I posted... that being that Caroline shares her daddy with other kids much of the week. Here she plays alongside Parker in the pack and play in my VERY messy office.

Caroline has adjusted beautifully to sharing her daddy. Some days she's a bit rough with Parker though... she has learned to say "i sorry." And now she says it ALL THE TIME. It sounds adorable, but... are we raising an over-apologizer? Wouldn't be surprised... her mommy and daddy can be such!

Here are two shots from a Friday trip to the zoo with mommy from late August. At the petting zoo and the alligator cove. I have a hard time getting good shots when it is just the two of us.

Another Friday trip with mommy, this one to Monkey's Treehouse. I think these were from the day after my birthday, just before she turned 21 months. She loves to push around the grocery cart!

The beloved wife (Jenn) of one of our groomsmen (Matt) has moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky for a teaching job. This is just an hour up the road from us. When Matt comes to town to visit (he's working at a university in Virginia for the year... bless them!) we try to catch up. They always plan GREAT things to do. They are fabulous friends who love kiddos. In early September we went to Mammoth Cave National Park with them. Caroline and Kev joined them on a cave tour. I sat outside on a beautiful day and read Barth and Bultmann, such is the life of a Ph.D. student. But Caroline had a great time with them and did really well on the tour. There was bit of a wait for the tour. One of the ways C stayed entertained was by racing Matt from a tree to a wall. She had a blast. She raced daddy at one point too and he ended up diving and sliding somehow, bizarrely breaking his cell phone. Ah well. He's not a fan of the cell anyhow! We love Matt and Jenn!

Mamie sends us stickers sometimes. Caroline has fun with them! Not a flattering pic of mommy, but... ah well.

We went to a free outdoor concert one Saturday afternoon in September. We met up with some friends from the div school. They had a great bubble wand! And a very cute baby!

I ran my first ever 5K race on October 2nd. Here's one of me at the start, two of how Caroline kept herself occupied in the half hour plus I was running, one of me crossing the finishing line, and one of us together. See her BEAUTIFUL jacket?! Thank you, Bryna! WE LOVE IT! So this is shortly before she rolled into 22 months!

The other big news on October 2nd was the arrival of our NEW CAR. New to us, that is. My Uncle Terry and Aunt Debbie drove it all the way down from New York for us. We spent Saturday showing them a bit of Nashville and campus. We didn't get that many pictures, unfortunately- none of uncle Terry. But here are a few from the day. Caroline LOVES the new car. Every time she sees it she says "NEW CAR!" Unfortunately, no pics of the car just yet.

Pig tails? Puppy tails? Whatever you call them, over the past month we've been experimenting with them. Isn't this outfit too stinking cute? I bought it almost a year ago. So excited she can wear it now!

O.K., now a BUNCH of shots from another VERY fun visit to Matt and Jenn. When we arrived at their apartment there were a LOT of ducks by the pond at their complex. Caroline wanted to go see them. So we took bread out and fed them. She got rather shy when the ducks actually came near. She was bolder as they walked away.

We went with Matt and Jenn to a harvest festival at a nearby orchard. FINALLY the requisite cute kid with pumpkins shots. The best we could get. Caroline has since picked out a halloween costume for herself on etsy.com. She's going to be a pumpkin fairy. So is her Godsister Abby with whom we'll spend Halloween. She will be SO cute. Stay tuned for pics!

Admiring roses outside where we ate lunch.

At the door of a play house she enjoyed.

And a FAST slide that descended from a hay bale! She LOVED this.

And a bounce house! Mommy had a hard time getting around in here, but I sure am glad I went in with her as there were two VERY rambunctious boys in there with her. She was, of course, unphased. She's fearless.

She also enjoyed the petting zoo which is where I first heard her say "Hi, buddy!' "Come ere buddy!" She especially liked the sheep. I didn't know she knew the word "buddy," but she learned this from listening to her daddy talk to Parker and Alistair. It is SO cute when she says it. She greeted Alistair the other morning with a "hello buddy!" She now says a full "hello" more often than not.

It was an orchard, so apples were purchased... and enjoyed.

We then went back to Jenn and Matt's place. I was SUPER tired so I stayed back and rested while the three of them went to a playground near their apartment. It appears a good time was had by all, including piglet, an increasingly special friend. This stuffed animal was made by Betty Schlieder, a dear parishioner in Lowville. If you're reading, Betty, piglet is a hit! She's also increasingly fond of a blanket gifted to us by a member of Pa and Eepa's home congregation. No official lovey, but getting closer...

And now pics from today. We went to the zoo this morning with daddy and Alistair. At first she wanted to ride in a stroller because Alistair was riding in a stroller.

Then she wanted mommy to carry her so she rode in the ergo on my back. Here we are looking at giraffes. Or- "juhjuhs" as she calls them.

But then she wanted to get down and get a closer look for herself. Good photo opps. This beautiful dress was brought back for her from Mexico from a friend of my mom's. It was WAY too big when I first looked at it and it ended up in the back of the closet! I just found it rotating clothes out and in and it BARELY fits. I'm glad we got one good wear out of this BEAUTIFUL dress. I wish we had used it this summer. Oh well. Maybe she'll wear it one more time.

Fun in the toddler bounce area at the jungle gym at the zoo.

Such a BIG girl. On a big girl swing all by herself.

Having a snack break on daddy's lap with Alistair.

Some more swinging in the sunshine.

Other big news? As of a few weeks ago she is now in her toddler bed. I do have a pic from today in her bed (she took a LONG nap!) But I haven't downloaded it yet. So, later. Sleep has been terrible again as she has enjoyed the freedom of the toddler bed (we transitioned because she climbed out of her crib in the midst of a temper tantrum! ah... 2's are a coming!) We're not sure if it is just the bed or if it is also the fact her 2 year molars are still making their slow trip to the surface. Whatever it is... I had JUST gotten used to semi-decent sleep, and this is ROUGH.

Another phrase we hear a lot these days- "I need help." Sometimes "I need help please."

She's blowing us away with the complete sentences and emerging manners.

Alright, thanks for your patience. Must get the girl to bed.

22 months!

2010-10-05T19:42:00.000-07:00

22 months ago today Caroline entered the world. And she is presently sleeping in a toddler bed! She is less a baby every day. She is still, very much, our baby.

Today Kev was an amazing, generous soul (everyday Kev is an amazing generous soul). On Tuesdays he typically watches Alistair, Ethan and Fiona. Alistair was returning home from Boston with his mom. And Ethan and Fiona's mom offered her midwifery gifts to a guest in this country from Cameroon. She got a call at midnight that Lia seemed to be finally in active labor (it has been coming all week). She didn't sleep a wink after that call. And by 6:30 she knew she needed to go. So Kev drove Caroline there and spent all day there. And a very healthy little boy entered the world, at the home of her host (a good friend of Sam's) with the support of other midwives offering their services for free as well, after much praying, in what sounds like an absolutely remarkable birth. Another home birth, 22 months to the day. And we played a little part in it! A fitting way to celebrate.

That's all for today. Still amazing. Over and out.

Mid-month blurbs about the amazing Caroline Grace

2010-09-18T20:46:00.000-07:00

Caroline learned this week to make farting noises and then say "uh-oh" or "i did it!" or "eww..." and then she laughs hysterically. Kev is wondering how she became a 12 year old boy all of a sudden.
Speaking of laughing hysterically, the other night I dropped something and said "oops" and she started rolling with laughter. So I said "oops" again and she laughed even harder. We kept this up for a good five minutes. I have video I really should post.
Is it normal for a 21 month old to be able to identify emotions? She regularly asks us to draw happy or sad (faces, that is) and she properly identifies happy and sad, not just in pictures, but in people. When babies are crying she signs and says "baby cying, sad."
She has been enjoying lots of quality time with the piglet made with love for her by Betty Schlieder. She especially likes piglet to join her for potty/story time. She has piglet turn the pages, or open the windows on hide and seek sort of books. Tonight she told me piglet pooped, turned him over, and pulled out a wipe to wipe his bottom.
Added to her favorite verb list is "feel"- she asks to feel the pages of books she reading... sometimes there are special things to feel. She wants to make sure piglet gets a feel too.
She seems to be going through an especially clumsy phase. Her face is covered in bruises. It looks dirty even when clean. One starts to heal and then she walks into a chair or a wall or spins in circles and throws herself at something hard. Are babies clumsier when going through growth spurts?
She REALLY loves "ring around the rosy" and really anything that allows her to spin in circles.
She's also currently big on saying "it huts" and signing "hurts" at the same time. She has plenty of boo-boos that likely do hurt. She's not quite so big on telling us where precisely she hurts, but we're making progress that she uses a word instead of just melting down.
She speaks in long and elaborate sentences now, though we can understand only about 1/3rd of what is in any given sentence. She's just adding vocab too quickly.
She seems to be saying "Kevin" a lot, or maybe she's saying "Caroline" not sure.
She put two of her bath toys on the side of the tub tonight and said "duckie sit, froggie sit, one, two, froggie." I almost fell over. I added the purple octopus to the side of the tub and asked her to count and she said "one, two, tee". Tried for more and no luck, but I didn't know she counted to three even!
She really likes the word "empty" though it sounds more like "atty." She kept filling and emptying cups in the bath tonight and declaring "blue atty" or "puhpuh atty."

She is amazing.

other random thoughts about C at 21 months!

2010-09-05T18:16:00.001-07:00

PUSH! She loves this verb. It means "to move an object any way I wish to move it."
She continues to be a GREAT eater. We ate out at an Indian place a few weeks ago (in lieu of our usual every other week Mexican because we were a bit Mexicaned out) and she was grooving on the tamarind sauce and eagerly gobbled up bits of both of our curries. Tonight she was eagerly eating veggies dipped in spicy peanut sauce.
Her favorite book at the moment is an old Colors book gifted to us by dear Mary Baird, in Wooster, Ohio. This was a book that belonged to her children. It has marvelous paintings in it and lots of words. It is a favorite potty read.
Potty time is story time.
She's fond of commanding people to "sit down!" Especially when she is seated on the potty. One of us should also be seated and reading at times such as this.
She still LOVES the outdoors, loves digging in the dirt, and loves making new friends she happens to meet outside.
She loves getting messy, but doesn't like being messy. After getting covered in dirt she ceremoniously wipes herself off. And she sometimes insists on getting her hands washed. Her face... well... that can ALWAYS wait.
She seems to be grasping the idea of "coloring in." She chose purple crayon and pen for decorating my birthday card and scribbled over every picture and word!
She's really into hugging now, especially upon saying goodbye. She says "Ag! Ag!" and stretches out both arms.
She's rarely distressed upon saying goodbye!
She is now fully capable of sleeping through the night and has done so frequently in the last month- not so much in the last week however.... the nap schedule being off has messed things up.
She is tall! Lately when she's been playing with 2 year olds, she's the taller one!

Tried to post a video... but blogger is not cooperating. Another time.

21 months!

2010-09-05T04:49:00.000-07:00

When I begin to type in the subject for these monthly updates blogger always anticipates the subject based on previous ones. So when I typed 21 what it suggested was 21 weeks. 21 weeks.... what was that... five months and a bit... wow. We were amazed then at how much Caroline had changed, but now... at 21 months... SO DIFFERENT!

The last two days she has been blowing us away with how cooperative she has been. I've been taking Fridays off thus far this semester, an attempt at sabbath now that I'm preaching most Sundays (actually need to hit the road in a few minutes, but thought I'd get this started.) My intention is to spend the mornings doing fun things with her and the afternoon resting. This past Friday first she and I went to the Y together. She was SO excited to go. When we said Y, she said and signed "friends" repeatedly. How fabulous! She helped push open the door to the Y and greeted everyone with an excited "HI!" and then made her way straight to childcare where she tried to open the door herself. Even before we left in the morning she kept saying "Parker! Parker!" Parker is the 8 month old son of our friends Jenn and Sean and is one of the two babies for whom Kev is caring on a regular basis this semester. Caroline is smitten. He only comes over two days a week which is disappointing to her. Alistair, a 3 month old baby, comes over four days a week. He's cool! But Parker moves! She was a bit sad that only Alistair and not Parker came over before we left. So imagine her delight when she found Parker in child care at the nursery! "PARKER!" There were LOTS of small babies in child care on Friday morning and apparently Caroline and one other toddler were being excellent little helpers with the babies. Aww... we were a bit nervous about how she was going to adjust to sharing her daddy, but she has been so excited to have babies around that it has been FINE. And clearly she's learning a thing or two!

When it came time to leave the Y she was happy to do so. She said a quick "Buh-bye" and, this time with prompting, "Tank you." And then we made our way to the car. The plan was to go to the Monkey's Treehouse (a great play area for which Pa and Eepa bought us passes) and then to an athletic shoe store to buy running shoes for me (birthday present to self) and then to Las Paletas for popsicles and then home for a nap. When we arrive at the treehouse her eyes widened as she realized ALL the fun she could have there. I realized that it had been awhile since we checked the cloth diaper so I said (externally enthusiastic, though internally skeptical) "Caroline, we need to change your diaper before we can play, but I promise that as soon as your diaper is changed we'll come out and play." She didn't fight or resist this at all. We walked straight through all the glorious play areas to the bathroom in the back. She helped put down the changing table as if to say "Alright, mom, let's get down to business." We changed her diaper. She happily waited through hand washing and drying (she still loves to do this!) And then off she went to play! And, for the most part, she played independently. She wanted to do some courageous climbing for which she required my spotting, but otherwise she flitted here and there, happy as a clam. I wanted to get pics, and I did get a few, but she was just moving too quickly. There were two little girls in dress up clothes who told me that they wanted her to be their baby for whatever pretend game they were playing. I told them that if she wanted to play with them that was fine with me... but... she wouldn't stay anywhere for more than a few minutes. The girls were disappointed, but I wanted to say "Girls, this is what it means to have a baby! Chase her!" In any case, she played beautifully there. She was getting a bit fussy/cranky after an hour or so, and I realized we better go if I wanted to get my shoes without too much drama. I thought the departure was going to be rough for her, but so long as she got to slide a few more times, and do other things once or twice, we managed to get out without a meltdown. She almost stole a turtle on her way out the door. She had be fingering through various small animal toys for sale, right at toddler height, right by the door. She kept picking them up and putting them down and I kept telling her to leave them be and to say goodbye to them that we needed to go. She seemed to finally absorb this and head for the door saying a triumphant "buh-bye tuhtul" and I thought we were escaping clean, but the woman working saw she was taking the tuhtul buh-bye. Oops. For $3.50, nope. I'd rather buy popsicles. But even putting the turtle back didn't trigger a meltdown.

She fell asleep on our drive to the shoe store. It took me awhile to find the store which was probably a good thing as it gave her more sleep time. I was wishing a friend were with me who could stay in the car with her so she could keep sleeping (napping has been an issue lately with Kev's childcare responsibilities- it's hard for her to settle down when she might be missing something!) but no such luck. I quietly tried to take her out of her car seat, hoping she'd stay asleep. But she woke right up- happily, in awe of the flowering tree under which we were walking. She sat up on the bench next to me in the shoe store and entertained herself with a little light in a bucket next to her. She was calm and patient. The salesperson encouraged me to take the shoes she was recommending out for a little run, but I wasn't sure what to do about C. I said "Do you mind watching her?" She said "No problem." I told Caroline I would be right back. I did a quick run, came back and she was still happily sitting there playing with the light. She did a bit of exploring of the store before we left, but we delightful from start to finish. Wow.

We then went for popsicles. I think I left her sippy cup at the Y or the Treehouse and she had been asking for water for awhile. She was actually MORE interested in drinking water than eating popsicles. That's my girl. She knows what she needs! But she did eventually enjoy the popsicles.

And then home... and she was even cooperative on a quick grocery stop. Wow. Wow. Wow.

She did quite well at the birthday gathering at our home. She crowded the babies that were there a bit, but our five year old guest crowded her a bit. In fact, the five year old, Ella, played BEAUTIFULLY with Caroline and we were able to enjoy adult conversations. What a concept! We will definitely be spending more evenings with that family!

And yesterday we went up to Kentucky to see friends Matt and Jenn, and join them on a trip to Mammoth Cave. I needed to study so I didn't do the cave tour, but Caroline did. And apparently she was a champ! She was fascinated exploring the cave on a two hour hike.

Though she has rough days, and though she continues to be an INTENSE child, she has SO MANY good days and this is SUCH a delightful stage.

She seems to add 10-20 words a day. She signs like a champ. She is incredible.

Exciting language developments- YES!; correct pronunciation of "broccoli"; saying her name more; more intentional about her use of language in general, and putting things together "more please" said with puppy dog eyes is a favorite; lots of animal sounds; LOTS of colors... oh I don't know. So much. She says so much. She likes to hide things behind her back and say in a very curious tone "Where it go?" She might have picked up a swear word... or maybe she's just emphatically saying "Shirt!" a lot.

That's all for now. Pics maybe later. 21 months. Wow.