More reminiscing

Caroline at two days old. (cell phone picture)

Here Caroline is snoozing at only 2 weeks old. (One year ago today.)


Caroline a few weeks ago.

It's hard to explain how much my love for her grows with each passing day. I cherish every minute with her. (Even when she throws her carrots when she is finished eating. Even when she screams at the top of her lungs during church when I stop her from eating all of Canaan's Cheerios.)
Things I do not want to forget:

• Thomas puts his hands up in the air and says, "What happened?" Caroline responds with her hands high in the air and says, "I don't know!" (Of course it sounded more like "dohno," but we heard it.)
  
• She has been extra "huggy" lately. She'll hug her stuffed animals (and us!) and give them love pats. She grabbed my face with her two hands and patted my cheeks twice today.
  
• Her dance moves are amazing. She can moonwalk and side step. She sways slowly to Paul Potts music with one arm held dramatically in the air.
• I say, "Are you hungry?" She will nod emphatically yes. (One time in a conversation not directed at Caroline I said the word, "hungry" and she came up to me shaking her head 'yes!')
  
• Each night after her bath we go tell Dada, "night-night" and give hugs. He asked her if it was time for night-night and she shook her head yes.
• I love the way she finds a book she wants read to her and she comes directly over and plops down in our laps ready to be read to. Other times, she's content to read on her own, reading to herself

• Her favorite board book at the moment, Goodnight Gorilla, has gone missing. I brought my soft back copy from school and put it upside down with a bunch of her other toys on our ottoman. A few moments went by and I watched as she scanned the items and her eyes landed on the back cover of the book (it featured a few of the animals from the story.) She quickly ran around the ottoman, grabbed it, handed it to me, and sat herself in my lap. She had me read it to her three times in a row. On the third time, I thought to myself that I would read it to her a hundred times in a row if she wanted to me to. When we finished that third time, she turned around and put a hand on my cheek and put her head on my shoulder as if to say "thanks." I could cry right now thinking about it.

I love that I can post these memories here. I also love that no one is forced into reading it, unlike those who have the pleasure of hearing my daily commentary of the adventures of Caroline (Aunt B!)

Ham it up

Caroline's laugh is so adorable. She continues to amaze us every day with what she is learning. Here's some things I do not want to forget:
"Hi dada"
"Hi A-yee" (Aly)
"dah" (dog)
"Woo-woo" (woof-woof)
"Moo" (like a cow)
"Wooo" and "Wow" at things she likes.

• She can hold her hands in the air and "Woooo" to call the Hogs.

• And once I heard her say "Hi Aunt B" when talking to Aunt Becky on the phone. That has yet to be repeated.

• I can tell her to go get things (her car, juice, shoes, pacifier, etc.) without pointing at them and she will do it, even if they are out of sight.

• She still dances and bounces at any music or even just a good beat. She has three or four moves now, with twists and bouncing to the beat.

• She loves it when we chase her! She will run (yes, run!) away and laugh hysterically when we catch her.

• Thomas was talking about outside and she turned all the way around in her high chair to look outside at what he was talking about.

• She brings us her shoes, sits and sticks out her feet to have us put them on her (Thanks, Grandma Tracy for the squeaky shoes!)
• 
  
• In the bathtub I can put up several of her bath animals and ask her which one is the cow and she'll hold it up for me. She can do this with the horse, too.
  

She still has yet to cut a tooth. Everyone assures me that this is normal and fine, but when all of her baby friends have a full set of chompers, I wonder when she will get them! A friend joked about getting her "baby dentures." So funny.
We love her so much it is unbelievable.

It's Party Time!

Caroline went outside to greet the party goers as they arrived. I grabbed my camera to capture her with her pink "bah-oon!" This immediately reminded me of a post that my precious friend Tara had of her daughter back when she turned one. Here's a link to that post.
We had a such a blast at Caroline's party. We had yummy Mexican food, watched a slide show of Caroline's first year made by Daddy, opened presents, had cake, ice cream and delicious Slushy Punch all while enjoying time with friends and family. It was adorable watching as she opened her gifts and said, "Wow" and "Oooh!" It was awesome having so many people who love Caroline in one room together! The only thing that could have made it better was to have ALL of the extended family and friends here, too. We are working on a plan as we speak to have room for everyone next year at her 2nd birthday!

Four generations! We love you Grammy and Great-Grandma Betty!

I really thought Caroline with her spunky personality would go crazy with the cake eating. Not so. She gingerly picked at the icing, taking her time. She really enjoyed eating the purple polka-dots. She was a real lady.

Can you even stand this!? I know Aunt Becky's barely contained herself with having all of the babies together! (From L to R: Tennille and Lakyn, Robyn and Aly, Bonnie and Caroline, Autumn and Sara, Tara and Canaan-behind the red ball. Canaan was such a gentleman all evening. Thanks for enduring all of the pink decorations!)
(Blog links to the girls' sites are to the right...Tennille we'll have you up and running soon!)

By the end of the evening Caroline changed into comfy clothes to match Lakyn. In the top picture the are enjoying each other sitting on the hand made wooden unit blocks made with love from Da da and Bahpa (Thomas and Grandpa Bill.) I'll try to get a good picture of them posted soon. They even stamped her initials in each block! In the bottom picture Caroline is giving Lakyn a hug. Caroline tries to give hugs to everyone she loves. It's so sweet.


These pictures are from the next day. She wore her party dress to church since she decided she wanted to stay comfy for her party in her overalls. As you can see by the bottom picture, the blurry brown thing is a very hard, very wooden block being thrown. (My knuckle has healed. I hope Grandma Tracy's mouth feels better today.) I can understand how in a one year old's brain it is tough learning why we applaud when she throws balls, but scold her when she throws blocks. We have worked most of the day today to show her how to stack the blocks and set them down gently. We are making progress!

Happy 1st Birthday, Caroline!

What a gorgeous day for a 1st birthday!
How do you sum up in words the first year (and 9 months!) of life for our daughter? We love her so much. We are blessed.
Thank you to all of the family and friends who have sent birthday wishes for Caroline.
I will post pictures of the fun we had at her party as soon as possible. Until then enjoy a look at then and now.