Summer Fun 2011

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

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

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

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..."

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."

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."