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

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.