It's again my weekend to work (5 weeks go by so quickly!) and so Grammy and Papa are here to watch Carolyn. It's so much fun for me to have company because I love to have someone to share the delight I have in watching Carolyn grow- and who better than her grandparents! We're excited for Carolyn's other set of GP's to return from South Carolina where they've spent what must have been a really awful month playing golf and enduring 70-degree weather with lots of sunshine and fresh sea air! :) They'll be back in town next week.Carolyn's been practicing a new sound- the high-pitched Shriek. She does this whenever she's excited and though it does get a little loud, it is undeniably cute. :) She loves glasses! Beware- no glasses are safe! Hey, what's with this thing on my head? And is that bath water I hear?! Maybe in a few weeks I will be big enough to crawl toward the sound (just like my mommy did when she was little!) :)
Carolyn loves to ride in the laundry basket to and from the bedroom when we do laundry. She's just gaining so much personality and delighting us more and more each day with her antics.
For those who think I post too many similar pictures on this blog, I will return to the "It's my blog and I'll post what I want" claim. :)
This week Carolyn has been learning to clap. She gets so excited about stuff sometimes that she just starts clapping with delight- and now is learning to do it on command- so I was able to capture a cute moment on video yesterday. Enjoy!
While Carolyn's hair has begun to lay down at least somewhat most of the time... sometimes it still gets a little more creative... I thought she looked like a punk rocker with this 'do. As a side note, add Combs to the list of Things Carolyn Loves (also on the list: Hangers, Remotes, Phones, and Anything That Belongs To The Dog). :)
We spent the weekend with Uncle Bryan and Auntie eM in Chicago. It was a nice getaway for us! We all enjoyed being together. :) Carolyn enjoyed the slippery wood floors, but did not like bonking her head against them when her rolling and rocking became too enthusiastic. :) Carolyn loves it when people wave "hi!" to her from across the room. She gets so excited that I just have to do it all the time to make her smile like this. :) A wonderful time was had by all. But we missed Auntie Laura!!!
Her Valentine's sweater was a little big (12 mos already! Most of her clothes are 6-9 mos) but I thought it was too cute to pass up. I love dressing a little girl!!Lately, she's been into this funny scooting on her back thing. She likes to arch her back and neck and look at things upside down. :) Catching Cheerios is hard work! But success tastes sweet!! Finally! The "M" sound!!! After weeks and weeks of dadadadada... she's finally beginning to introduce the "m" sound into her conversation- yesterday she was making this silly face when she said "mmmmmm." This morning when I went to get her from the crib, she distinctly said "MaMaMa." I was thrilled!! :)
Daddy is my valentine!! [the careful observer will note that the availability of more than one set of darling Valentine's bows, a change of hair accessory was necessary halfway through the day. Thanks Grammy! :)] He always knows how to make me smile. :)
There was sort of a "baby boom" at our church in 2006- as a result, Carolyn has several little playmates all within 6 months of her age. Little Olivia is the closest one- just 17 days older than Carolyn (she can of course sit by herself, but last night she wanted very much to crawl around the room so her mama had to watch out or she'd launch herself back!)
She's starting to move forward a bit now! She has this really funny way of getting there- she'll roll a little to one side, then push forward with her feet, then roll a bit to the other side, push forward... she really doesn't use her arms to pull herself forward as much as her feet to push her along. It makes me chuckle...
She's been doing this for a week or so, but still really prefers to roll wherever she's going unless there's something truly toothsome awaiting her- like the phone- so if you ever get a random call from someone who just breathes into the phone and pushes buttons- it could be Carolyn! One funny thing (or maybe not so funny) that we've observed as we've been watching her learn to push herself forward is that she'll only try to do it if the object in question is quite close- she seems to need to feel some initial success in order to expend the effort necessary to keep trying. Gee, I wonder where she got that from?!! I just hope she doesn't pick up the "if at first you don't succeed, never try again" that Brad says is one of my mottoes in life- though I have been trying to overcome it!
We have discovered that Carolyn has a love affair with hangers. If there is a hanger within sight, Carolyn will find it and take it! No hanger is safe. Yesterday I decided to abandon my fear that if allowed to play with hangers Carolyn would somehow fall on one of them and puncture her brain (a fear that seems all the more ridiculous when I see it in print) and allowed her to enjoy playing with a whole heap of them at once!
If anyone wonders why there are so many similar pictures of the same event, ask my mother, who has accused me of not posting enough to my blog! Check out the piggies with their new bows!!! I got a great shipment of bows this week from my friend Heather whom I met on eBay- if you have or know little girls who really need to have bows for their hair (all little girls do of course), let me know and I will give you Heather's info. She does a great job! She turns the hangers around and around, enjoying the feeling of the odd shape of the hanger! I sing... because... I'm happy!!! Hangers with clips are especially appreciated! The curvy part is the best! Hog heaven!
Today we braved the scary driving conditions in our wonderful Volvo with an equally wonderful Winter Mode (no fishtailing for us thanks to the generosity of Grandma and Grandpa who traded our old Nissan for their Volvo when they moved up to a minivan this Christmas!) We went to see Kelly and Isaiah- a much needed break from the walls of our house- which, though warm and dry and cozy, were beginning to feel a little oppressive to me! It was fun to have a friend to chat with and Carolyn enjoyed playing with Isaiah's toys and especially liked watching their dog, Mya.
I think that Carolyn is beginning to try to communicate to us in "words." Over the last few days I've noticed that whenever something displeases her she says something like "nay-nie-nay-nie"- the exact sound varies, but it always includes "nay" or "ni." She rarely uses the "n" sound when she babbles- just when she wants something she can't have (in this case, the doggie) or I'm doing something she doesn't want me to do (cutting fingernails, reading a book not on her "favorites" list, etc). I'm afraid her first real word will be "NO!" :) Dinner started out as a very joyful affair tonight. She reveled in the sweet potatoes and oatmeal and wanted to be sure that everyone noticed her toothsome smile! :) Guess what we had for dinner tonight? See-food!!! Get it? See-Food?!!! Shortly after this, she vomited. I guess the exuberance was too much for her- or maybe I just shoveled too much in too fast. I feel guilty that I even took a picture of it, so I'm not posting it. But it happened- and if it weren't so sick, I think it might be kind of funny. :)
We've been under a blizzard warning all day! They estimate that up to a foot of new snow has fallen today- to add to to the 10 or 11 inches that was already on the ground! Brad shoveled our walk twice today to give Baggins a place to go potty (our house being an undesirable location for such behavior) and the snow had drifted in places up to about 3 feet! They say the temps may fall below zero tonight with wind chills between 10 and 30 below!
We're always up for company! :)
Since the weather was so repressive today, we spent the day holed up in our nice warm house with a fire in the fireplace. I think I would go stir crazy if every day were like this, but every once in awhile it's nice to just stay in. We feasted on a turkey we had leftover from the pre-Thanksgiving sales and took lots of pictures just for the fun of it.
Brad made this fun video so that you can see some of what little Carolyn has been up to lately. She's got so much to say now!
Yesterday while we were having exploration time in the hall, she discovered the vent and had a grand old time making noise with her fingers on it like a harp. Here she is today- glad to be nice and toasty warm inside! She's been making this face a lot lately because her bottom two teeth are coming in more and she feels the need to check them out with her tongue. Speaking of teething, the first of Carolyn's top teeth is coming in and seems to be causing her considerable discomfort. So we have been trying to soothe the pain a bit and today I tried to give Carolyn frozen banana spears... she wasn't a huge fan at first, but later decided they weren't so bad. We have been having all kinds of trouble with solid food lately because it seems that after the first bite or two, Carolyn wants no part of eating unless she can be the one to hold the spoon! Of course she's not yet coordinated enough to successfully feed herself- but we hate to squash her independent spirit, so each meal is pretty much a big mess. :)
So yesterday we went to Sear's and had some fun pics taken with Carolyn's first little friends- I've put some pics up on the blog of Aidan and Caimon before, but these I thought were especially nice. I feel a little guilty putting them up since they were professional pictures, but we did buy the rights to them on a cd- they just made us wait until we got the pictures before we can have the cd. So that's how I rationalize it. :)Carolyn was the one who didn't want to smile for the camera. As she grows, it seems to become more apparent that she often needs some time to adjust to a new situation before she feels comfortable enough to be her smiley self. :) There were two photographers making lots of noise and goofy faces, three moms, and all kinds of photography equipment all around- no wonder she felt overwhelmed. :) Yes, I'm afraid she has the widest hips of the bunch- sorry Carolyn- I think she gets this from me! Certainly not underfed!!! :) We got this picture for our wall. :)
Carolyn's been practicing a new sound- the high-pitched Shriek. She does this whenever she's excited and though it does get a little loud, it is undeniably cute. :)
She loves glasses! Beware- no glasses are safe!
Hey, what's with this thing on my head? And is that bath water I hear?! Maybe in a few weeks I will be big enough to crawl toward the sound (just like my mommy did when she was little!) :)
