Memories in the Tulip Patch

Wednesday is Eli's day off, other than Sunday. It's been really nice to have him home in the middle of the week. We had a really nice day this week. Caroline loved snuggling with her Daddy. She took two naps on him for a couple of hours each. I went and got a haircut, I stole my sisters cut, and I like the bangs a lot. We went to the park, and walked through the tulip patch. That tulip patch is really special to us. After Eli and I had been dating for a while, we decided ( in the hall outside of his apartment) to get married. We went and picked out a ring. Eli told me they told him the ring would take two weeks to get. The next day we went to a friends wedding. On the way home he suggested we stop and see how the tulips were coming. We had been coming to the park for the past couple weeks when we could to see if the tulips were blooming. We walked into the patch and they were all open and beautiful. All of the sudden I turned around and Eli was down on one knee with the ring that I thought we wouldn't get for another two weeks. He proposed in a very sweet way and the rest is history. It was so much fun to go over on a beautiful day, three years later, now with our first child. The tulips were lovely and we had a great time. Eli is so great and I am so grateful to have him in my life!

Happy Baby

Caroline is a smiler now! After she eats she loves to smile at her mommy and daddy. She loves it when you talk to her and she makes her sweet little baby sounds back to you. She is the sweetest little girl. Doesn't she have the prettiest smile you've ever seen? I think so.

Caroline and Friends

Caroline has got to meet lots of friends and family lately. She met our friends babies Mattix and Chloe. She met her Aunt Teri, Aunt Ronda, cousins Eden, Quincey, Ever, and Romey, her other cousins Rustin and Tori, Aunt Ronda's friends daughter Jasmine, and her uncle Gabe. The seven hours of sleep was a fluke, but she's getting a consistent 5 hours at a time, and she's napping really well. She is also starting to smile more! Enjoy the pictures!

Caroline the Wonder Baby!

Caroline decided to celebrate being 5 weeks old today by sleeping for 6 hours and 45 minutes last night! That's right! Almost 7 hours straight! Then she woke up to eat, but only ate for 5 minutes and went right back to bed. I can't believe it! I am so happy and excited, and rested, that I got up after she ate (6:40) and cleaned the bathroom and started some laundry! She really is such a good baby! She eats well, her digestive system really works, she's sweet, cuddly, and so cute! She always sleeps in her car seat or stroller, and now sleeps through the night, in her own bed! I am knocking on wood when I write this because just watch, this sleep thing will be a fluke and tomorrow it will be only 3 hour increments. But I don't think that's the case because this past week she's been steadily sleeping longer and longer. Two nights ago it was 5 hours, then eating, then 4 hours. But she is the best baby around!

Yesterday was Eli's day off. We went to lunch together. Then we tried to take a nap together, but it didn't work so well. First of all, Caroline wasn't tired. So, Eli fell asleep first, and slept for about 1/2 an hour before I got Caroline asleep. She slept for an hour on me, then I put her in her bed and she woke up. So Eli took her. I fell asleep and Eli let me sleep for 3 hours! I couldn't believe it. And I didn't want to waste time on his day off sleeping! But maybe that's why I'm so energetic this morning. Eli's back to work today and we miss him. But he had fun holding his baby so much yesterday. And I think he's happier than anyone that she's sleeping longer now. He does not do well when he doesn't get good sleep.

We'll see how long she sleeps now. I'm guessing until at least nine. That would be sleeping from 11:30 p.m. to 9 a.m. with only a ten minute interlude of diaper change, feeding, and burping. She is the wonder baby!

How to Share a Room with a Baby

So sharing a room with a baby has not been as hard as I thought it would be. I guess it helps that we have a very big room. The trick is to stay organized and not let the dirty clothes and clutter build up. That includes making the bed everyday, doing laundry constantly, putting away clean clothes, keeping little things off the floor and off the shelves, and making sure all of her things are clean and ready for use. How could you not mind sharing a room with such a cute baby though! It's been fun having her with us, but I am looking forward to the day of a two-bedroom apartment. Hopefully it has a washer and dryer with it!

I Love My Aunt

Caroline's Aunt Cindy gave her this little onesie, but it applies to all of her aunts. Caroline is very lucky and has 7 aunts, not including great-aunts, friends that are aunts, or other kinds of aunts. All of her aunts love her. If you're an aunt of hers, this one goes out to you. (re-reading this I realize that aunt is a very strange word. Go ahead, read it again and look at the word aunt. It's weird, right?)

A Daddy and his Daughter

Eli makes me so happy. He is such a sweet daddy. He loves to be with his little Caroline. He can't wait to hold her when he gets home. He loves to sing to her, and she loves it when he sings to her. He is great about changing diapers and bringing her to me at night for her to eat. I love watching him with her. I know that as she gets bigger and interacts with him more she'll have him wrapped around her finger even more!

I've been meaning to write about this for a while because it makes me laugh so much. So, not unlike my own father, Eli usually doesn't know the real words to songs. So he either makes up his own or gives his own interpretation of what he thinks they are singing. Here is one example. I like the Paul McCartney song "Maybe I'm Amazed." There is a section of lyrics that Eli likes to give his own version of. The real words say "Baby I'm amazed at the way you pulled me out of time." Eli thought he said, "Baby I'm amazed at the way you poop me out at night." Now I hear that every time I listen to that song , and hopefully you will too.