Year in Review

It's SO hard to break thousands of pictures down into just 12, but here is my best attempt. Happy birthday, baby girl (1 day late for the blog, but trust, me the past year was well documented and well- exhibited with a slide show and video shown on her actual birthday)! I am working on sorting through 100's of pictures of the Big Day and hope to have a post for you later tonight. :)

June 28, 2006: Ready to pop!!! Get me outta here!!
Brand New: Falling in love with Mommy- and Mommy falls in love with me
1 Month: Naps with Daddy are so, so sweet!
2 Months: I have learned to laugh and I love to smile!
3 Months- I love to play with my Animals!
4 Months: I am such a sweet pea- and such a happy baby girl!5 Months: Found my feet! Just check out my chubby thighs!!!
6 Months: Yay! I can get my paci myself now! I think I'll start sleeping through the night now.
7 Months: I look like Master Yoda when Mommy dresses me in my snowsuit and hat and plops me down in the cold, cold snow for a picture! Next year, I think I will slide down this hill.
8 Months: Love that remote! Maybe Mommy and Daddy will get a new TV so I can enjoy the old remote (of course, then I'll lose interest in this one and promptly switch to the one that has more buttons... but don't tell them that)!
9 Months: Wahooo! I am the cutest baby I have ever seen!
10 Months: Look what I can do!
11 Months: Daddy throw me!!
1 year old! Yay for Cake!!!

Birthday Girl

Today is Carolyn's first birthday! The day started with balloons hand-delivered to Carolyn's bedroom by her singing mommy and daddy and we've had a great time so far. More pictures/updates to come. :)

Great Hair!

I've always felt that Carolyn had great hair! Recently it seems that Carolyn has discovered it and is forever attempting to create new styles. :) Daddy got some good pictures tonight while Mommy was working. :)

We've Got Three!

Last night I was feeling worried about our third robin egg because it looked no closer to hatching after at least several hours of sitting there with a hole in it... but this morning when I went outside to check the nest, I was relieved to see three small almost-naked baby robins inside. One is on the bottom of the pile. The egg and all its shards had been cleaned out (by Mommy and Daddy Robin presumably) and there are very weak cheeping sounds coming from the hungry babies. Look for more updates on our robin family as the days pass. :)

Little Bookworm

So tonight is video night. :) These two might be a little long for some of you but others (well, maybe just my mom :)) will enjoy seeing what Little Miss Carolyn is up to lately. She's really turned into a little bookworm (just like her mama!) She doesn't really have much use for the TV yet, but she will sit and listen to you read books until you run out of books to read!

Pulling books one by one (or sometimes several at a time) off the bookshelf is a favorite pastime each day. :)

She is even starting to recognize the titles of some of them! "Go Dog, Go!" is the current favorite. She actually retrieved this book according to its title twice today!

Ready for the Day

So this morning when I went in to get Carolyn, this is what I saw. She'd figured out how to take off her own pants! I had to get the camera to document this important occasion. :)

Why we don't go out to dinner anymore :)

Our family just doesn't fit in very well with "civilized" society. :)

New Residents

We are happy to announce that our house now has at least two new residents! Some robins decided to build their nest underneath our deck and two of the three eggs inside hatched today! The third egg looks like someone is trying to get out, but hasn't succeeded yet. I've never seen baby robins up close before and am surprised at how scrawny and completely helpless they look. I saw the mama (or daddy) bird bringing food to the cheeping babies tonight and I'm excited to watch them grow. Stay tuned for more updates! Sorry we don't have a "robin cam" :)

Little Swimmer

So today we beat the heat and spent some time at my friend Katie's neighbor's pool. The cool water felt so nice! Carolyn seemed to enjoy the chance to kick around in her yellow floatie and we girls enjoyed chatting together.

I've been doing a lot of "one year ago" thinking this week since we are approaching Carolyn's big First Birthday on Saturday... 6-26-06... this was the birth day I had picked out for Carolyn- Brad and I were both off work awaiting the onset of labor, I was 39 weeks pregnant to the day and soooo ready to be done being the size of a whale! Also, 6-26-06 sounded so nice! We went to Dr. Florido's and were disappointed to find that I still wasn't dilating! I had sooo hoped that she'd tell me that my cervix was so dilated that the baby was just going to fall out! :) No luck there. I remember being sad that there was no sign that we'd be having a baby anytime soon (and for all I knew, not until our induction date on the 7th of July, which Dr. F kindly arranged to make me feel better knowing that the pregnancy would indeed come to an end that was at least somewhat in sight!!) So we decided on this day that we'd do everything we could to try to encourage things along- LOTS of walking, everywhere! And instead of being sad that we weren't holding a baby during this week we had off together, we'd just enjoy being alone together for maybe the last time for awhile. I had it in my head that I wanted my baby on the 26th, but instead God gave me 4 precious days to spend alone with my husband. We went shopping, ate out at restaurants, took long nighttime strolls and dreamed about how our life would change. And on the 30th... it did... forever.

Our Weekend

On Friday night, we went out to a nice restaurant (where I had the best crab cakes I've ever tasted) to celebrate our anniversary. A week late since we had a work function to attend last weekend, but still, we had a great time and two hours passed over dinner in what seemed like just a few minutes! Every year I have made a scrapbook with photos of the past year (our "year" goes from June 15 of one year to June 14 of the next- which actually ends up coinciding nicely with Carolyn's year, too!) and on the night we celebrate our anniversary, we go out to dinner and page through our memories of the past year. It's always a highlight of the year for us and a great time to reconnect.
One of my favorite things that has evolved from this little tradition is that I always save the last page the book for a record of a special "discussion" that we have every year. One year, we talked about the current events of the year, another, we talked about things we would miss in Phoenix and what we were looking forward to in Michigan, last year we talked about our hopes and dreams for "Small" (since I was due to deliver 3 weeks from when we celebrated). This year in celebration of 5 years together, we went over the "highlights" of the last 5 years- year by year, the things that stand out as turning points, places where we can now see God's gracious hand leading us. It was a really neat time of remembering His faithfulness to us in the past, and to be confident of His continued grace for the days to come.

After our wonderful dinner together, we kept the romance going- since Grandma was babysitting, we snagged the opportunity to run some errands! We took full advantage of the delights of walking through Target without anybody in the front of the shopping cart! :) Maybe not exactly the way we would have spent an evening in years past, but it really turned out to be a fun time. :)

On Saturday, we attended another graduation party for the senior OB residents who are finishing up this week (these people really know how to celebrate! :)) We (minus Carolyn) floated down a river with a bunch of people Brad works with ending up at the home of one of his attendings, which is right on the river, where we enjoyed a great barbeque with everybody- cooked by Chef Grandpa! :) Carolyn of course, almost immediately found the stairs at the house and had a ball going up and down them. She is actually learning to go down the "right" way, for which we are grateful. :)


Our little gal is getting closer to being a "real" toddler"! More and more she's been practicing her walking and really depends on our support only for some added balance. It's fun to see her so proud of herself when she "walks" across the room.
My sister made a comment that I've not been posting enough video. So here's one for you- Carolyn's first Corn on the Cob. I got the camera out because when I first handed her the corn on the cob and told her it was a little hot, she kept saying "haaaa-t" over and over. Also, she's been saying this funny "mmmmm-ee" sound which I was trying to capture. Overall, you won't hear any of that (someday I'll be able to capture her sweet voice on the video camera), but you might see a cute little girl nibbling on corn, which is something, after all. :)

The Joy of Eating

So tonight I got a phone call at work from Brad saying that Carolyn was devouring grapes as quickly as he could cut them up for her! Here, indeed, is a girl after my own heart! I am sure my own mother will remember scenes from my childhood involving ingesting more grapes than was good for me! But oh how good they taste (especially when they are Hard Like Marbles- and these were)! Apparently Carolyn shares my sentiments. :) She ate about 4 or 5 this afternoon for lunch and then approximately 6 or 7 for dinner. Tomorrow should be a good day. :)

Scooping up as many grapes as possible with those chubby little hands!
Contemplating the joys of a full tummy and a sweet taste in the mouth. :)
Cheeking some for later... :)
The meal went from great to even better! Daddy got out the Yogurt- Carolyn's favorite!
Dad could even hide some veggies in the yogurt!
Cheeeeeeese!!!

Caught!

Carolyn managed to gain entry into the Forbidden Crate today. The pictures say it all.

Don't worry I didn't let her actually eat any- but it's not as if she didn't try!

1 Year Old Pictures

I took Carolyn to Sear's today to have "1 Year Old" pictures taken. I kind of feel like I've been swimming with the sharks. I couldn't believe all the stuff they tried to sell me on and all the little loopholes with every single deal they had going- all of course intended to get me to spend more and more and more $$$$ for pictures that, although nice because the lighting is good and they have different props, aren't really any better than what I could take at home! Besides, Carolyn always gets overwhelmed at places like this and staunchly refuses to smile, no matter how ridiculous the photographer makes him or herself.

But I beat the system. I came out with 2 wall portraits, a sheet of wallets, and a membership to their frequent photo whatever for only $5 and a total of only $13.77. I thought that was pretty decent. And I do especially enjoy the picture of Carolyn sittting in the little white chair. I think she looks so pretty (don't worry, they cropped it, and didn't even charge me extra for it! :)

Newsflash!

Carolyn "almost" took her first steps tonight! She was "walking" with me barely touching her under her arms to give her a sense of balance and she just almost took off by herself (I didn't have the camera ready so she's waiting for a more appropriate moment)! I'm so proud! She looks like such a big girl. Stay tuned!

One More Party!

Today we attended our last party of the weekend... Aidan was baptized this morning and had his first birthday party this afternoon! We have a break from parties for a couple weeks, then Carolyn's first birthday party will be on June 30. If you live nearby and want to come, let me know and I'll give you the details. :)

Since today was Father's Day, Rachel was spending family time and so celebrated in spirit, but Caimon and Carolyn came by to wish Aidan a happy first birthday! :) The bubble blower thingie was a hit.
Yum Yum! Cake is GOOOD!
Sprinkler time! Even Carolyn crawled over to check out the action in the sprinkler- though she didn't like getting wet.

Busy Busy Busy!!!

Wow, we have had such a busy, busy weekend!!! We're exhausted now, but it has been fun. :)
Yesterday we had lunch at Heather and Rachel's house with Lenore and Caimon. It was a fun "girl power" day since Aidan couldn't be with us (his gp's are in town :))



Highlight for Carolyn was tasting her very first chocolate chip cookie. I only gave her half- but how can I deny Carolyn one of the chief joys in life. The cookie met (predictably) with a favorable, but messy response. :)
Last night Brad and I went to a banquet to honor the graduating residents and interns at his hospital. The banquet part was good, but the speeches were a tad on the long side for me- we didn't get done with the "programming" until 10pm, and after that we didn't feel much like dancing, so we went home. Carolyn had a wonderful evening enjoying pizza, bathtime, and story time with our good friends Matt and Katie Miller (who are expecting TWO of their own in a few months!) We were so glad they could come over and watch her since the idea of asking an unknown teenager to watch our most precious little girl still makes me nervous!

This morning we went Out For Breakfast at a local diner to enjoy some delicious greasy pancakes and bacon (by my request :)) Carolyn especially enjoyed little tastes of Mom's orange juice from a straw. :)
And today was first birthday party day! We started at Rachel's party... Rachel was a bit apprehensive about Cake at first... she did more throwing than eating... but soon warmed up to the idea. It was funny to watch her chucking the cake everywhere. :)
Carolyn and Aidan enjoyed lunch side-by-side in their matching travel high chairs. If you have a small child, you really must run out immediately and purchase one of these! They are so convenient- we have already used ours several times and have only had it a few weeks.
Carolyn's favorite part of lunch was the Baked Beans. :)

Carolyn's Daddy has been training her in Walking Holding One Hand. She can actually do it! Her balance is greatly improving and so is her courage.
We're pretty proud of our little star, and she is pretty pleased, too. :)
After Rachel finished demolishing her cake, we left to drop by Caimon's party for awhile. We felt sad we couldn't stay long, but we did get to have some fun in the pool while we were there. We really might as well have just stuck around for longer because we left early in order to provide Carolyn with a nap that she flatly refused to take!
We went out to dinner tonight with some friends- a celebratory dinner for one of Brad's fellow residents, Kim, and her husband Brian and their kids Lily and Preston, who will all be moving to Ohio shortly so that Kim can begin her OB/GYN practice down there. We will miss her!

Carolyn missed a nap today so she was a little "edgy." But she did get a real kick out of banging the spoon against the plate and seeing what a nice loud sound she could make... when that got old she started knocking the plate to the ground to hear it crash... fortunately, she didn't break it, but after that, she didn't get to play with it anymore, either. :)
We did a lot of this, the floor at a restaurant being unsuitable for crawling. Our good friend Sarah was glad to pitch in with a couple of fingers for Carolyn to hold on to. Even just today with all the practice she got it, I could sense her improving! Maybe it won't be too terribly much longer before we have a little walker on our hands?! But I think probably we're at least a couple months away. :)

After a lovely dinner, we all went over to a local ice cream place which was a favorite haunt of ours in college days- Captain Sundae. Here are Carolyn and I with the Captain. I put this picture in because I so rarely get a picture of myself that I find suitable for allowing anyone else to see. :)
And now you've made it to the end, and I've saved the best for last! Our little stander is SOOO BIG!!! She stood tonight all by herself quite a few times- for up to about 15 seconds! I couldn't believe her balance! Good work, Carolyn! I'm so proud! :)