New School Year

It has been a little disorienting for me not to be stressing out at school with everyone this week! I am missing (just a little!) the excitement and nerves that go along with a fresh new school year. On the other hand, I am very much enjoying my time with Caroline. It is really fun not having a set schedule for our time together. Last year I always felt I had to rush (literally) everywhere so that I would have more time with her. My blood pressure must be better this year!We have been spending time at the Farmer's Market, Baby Bookworms at the library once or twice a week, playing outside with her house, car (thanks, Lakyn!) and slides, dressing up (thanks, Bailey!) and going to church. I can't believe she will be moving up with her Sunday School class next Sunday! She's getting so big! Here is Canaan and Caroline waiting to pat their bibles! I hope to have more pictures from their last class this weekend.

She has added to the body parts she can name. I point to them and she says, "nose, eye, ear, knee, bel-bow (elbow, obviously!,) hair, beebow (belly button, not so obvious!)" She can recognize toes, mouth etc. if I say them.

She now says, "Ewww!" when something is not to her liking.

The biggest accomplishment right now is I can hold up any two objects of different sizes and without any prompting she will point to the larger one and say "Big!" and she will point to the smaller one and say, "Little!" in a high-pitched voice! I am so proud of her.

Grammy's name has turned into "Me-me" and Grandma Tracy is "Dee-dee."

Slumber Party!

(The picture above has nothing to do with this post, but I had to post it! Thomas took this in our garden last week! I have never seen a caterpillar that big in my whole life!)
Thomas had a three day workshop that took up his days and most of his nights, so Caroline and I tagged along on his trip and was able to spend time with our dear friends Tara, Billy, Bailey (and Boss!) Tara so graciously let us stay at her beautiful home with her day and night for three days! We were able to catch up with each other and let our precious girls get to know each other!I think for the first day and a half Caroline stayed really quiet trying to take in Bailey's bubbling personality! I feel like I keep up with Bailey through her blog, but getting to hear her intelligent, creative thoughts verbalized in person was amazing! She is a very bright little girl!Bailey REALLY wanted Caroline to converse with her! She talked to Caroline like a child her own age, "Caroline, do you want to see my school?"...pause as Caroline watches Bailey..."CAROLINE, do you want to see my school?" I finally had to tell Caroline to say, "Yes!" They were adorable together. They both shared toys with each other remarkably well! Bailey would take Caroline by the hand and show her things in her house. (I also realized how difficult it is to get two little girls to pose for pictures together. The pictures do not match my captions, but they were the only ones I took!)Caroline also got to go to her first real movie! A local theater showed a Veggie Tales movie for free. She loved it! She sat in my lap and commented to me about the movie ("Moon!" "Night-night" "uh-oh!" etc.) We all four shared yummy popcorn. I was overprotective and tore off pieces just to be sure there weren't hidden kernels. It helped to slow me down from eating a whole bucket myself! We also enjoyed playing dress up, feeding ducks at a nearby pond and singing along to songs in the car. (I think Bailey knows every children's song by heart!)
One of the highlights of our trip was getting to meet Tara's amazing friends she has made through her church. They were all super nice and welcoming to Caroline and I. I loved seeing such a large group of women connected to each other through God and their children (and there were a LOT of children!)

Cooking With Caroline

Pick out your cupcake and a frying pan.

Listen to the sizzle as the icing fries.

Place cupcake in refrigerator to cool. Enjoy!