Caroline Update

Caroline is 20 months old now.  She is so much fun and is learning and growing so quickly.  Here are some of her new tricks.

• When saying goodbye to anything, for example the school bus that drives by, she says, "bye bus.  I love you bus."  And this includes the greeter at the grocery store, dogs, trucks, planes, friends, etc.
• She went to nursery this Sunday without crying for the first time!  This is huge!  Usually every week she cries like I'm about to drop her off and will never return.  She clings to me and screams.  This week when we walked in her there were already kids sitting at the table with playdough.  There was a seat open by her friend Ebby, she went right in and sat down and started playing.  Also, usually by the time I pick her up she's crying.  But this week she was pushing a baby stroller around and playing.  The nursery workers said she only cried once the whole time!  It was awesome.
• But, she still tries to get out of it.  Halfway through sacrament meeting she handed me my keys and said, "Keys, mommy, go, go, car, keys, mommy, go!"  Also, as soon as the closing prayer is said she starts crying.
• She now takes bubble baths without eating the bubbles.  Thank heaven for the dollar store bubbles.  I love our dollar store.  Everything is a dollar!  We love to get snacks, toys, gift bags, and now, bubbles.
• This week, she's been waking up about half an hour to an hour early.  Mommy is not happy about this.  I keep telling her I don't do things before 8, but she's not getting the message.  
• She is starting to understand directions and consequences.  For example, "If you eat your rice you can have dessert."  She's also starting to try to outsmart us.  For example, she ate three big spoonfuls of rice, then when she thought I wasn't looking, she spit it out into her lap, then asked for dessert.
• She loves to color after breakfast with me now.  She always asks me to draw an airplane, Elle Mae (grandma and grandpa's dog), Josh (Eli's brother), and snow.  She loves to draw.
• She loves to read books.  Her favorite books right now are The School Bus, How are you Peeling, Butterfly's Bath, and A Child's Treasury of Best Loved Poems.
• She loves to play with her daddy.  She always comes up to him, grabs his hand, and says, "come on daddy," and leads her to whatever fun activity she has planned.                                           

Here are some pictures for you.  She is so much fun and a joy to be around!  We love you Caroline!

Some of her best friends are Reese and Ebby.  They love to jump together in her bed when they come over.

And share elmo slippers.  They wore those for about forty minutes. 

She loves for me to line up all of her stuffed animals on the couch and sit beside them.  It's really cute.

wearing elmo slippers and reading books. 

She was crying, she was given those boots by our friend, but refuses to wear them.  I just wanted a picture to document how adorable they are. 

My grandma made me that rabbit, and Caroline loves it.   It makes me happy that she likes it, I know if Grandma was here she'd love to make one for her. 

October Fun

So, in my previous post I said we were all better.  Not quite.  I ended up getting bronchitis and the beginnings of pneumonia.  Luckily we are better now.  Or at least we were, this week is Eli's big test week, and he always gets a bad cold the week he studies his butt off.  Last test-time was when he got pneumonia.  But, I think it's not as bad this time though.

Anyway, we had a great October, despite the sickies.  We had a visit from Eli's step-mom Karen.  It was so much fun!  We had a great visit with her.  We did a lot of fun things with her: went to the beautiful Cave Hill Cemetery (which sounds creepy, but it is a beautiful, old, historic cemetery with lots of historic trees and beautiful scenery), walked along the river, watched movies, and the best part: went to our favorite pumpkin patch!  Thanks for making the trip Grandma!  It was a beautiful  fall, and Caroline really loved playing with her Grandma.  She kept giving her hugs and kisses, and loved to have her take care of her.  She even let Grandma get her up in the mornings and after naps, which means I got to sleep in and nap most morning!  I loved it, especially since I had bronchitis and didn't know it.

Enjoy the pictures!

At the petting zoo, this was the "animal" she kept wanting to come back and pet.

She only kind of liked feeding the animals.

The goats were funny

The turkeys were in that cage, and without any prodding she started walking like a turkey and making turkey noises.  It was hilarious.

Her other favorite part was the playground!

She liked the swing too.

She seriously loves playing basketball with Eli

She loved the tractors

All of us on a wagon ride around the farm

Going out to the pumpkin patch

She kept sitting on all the pumpkins!

This is my favorite

And she kept trying to pick them up

My other favorite!