A New Chair from Santa

Santa brought Caroline a new chair with her name on it. It didn't take her long to figure out how to sit in it and read a book.

Curtis Christmas 2008

Meeting cousin Lily for the first time.

Daddy and Poppa

Aunt Julie

Cousins Catherine, Virginia and Lee

Santa Train

I took Caroline to the Santa Train up on Signal Mtn. last week. Hadley and her mom joined us. Caroline really enjoyed playing in the train-- pretending to drive and ringing the bell on the fire engine car and the hamming it up in the window of the engine car. It was VERY cold and windy that day, but it didn't seem to bother her at all. I think these pictures show her personality really well.

First Haircut

Caroline had her first haircut last Thursday. Her bangs were hanging down in her eyes, so I decided it was finally time. She did great! She sat in my lap and tried to grab the comb and scissors, but the stylist did manange to give her a good all-over trim. No crying, no tears. None of the horror stories you hear about kids' first haircuts. It was really very pleasant. The only bad part was that I forgot my camera. I was able to get one picture with my phone but have yet to attempt to transfer it to the computer.

Thanksgiving

Caroline is starting to want to wear our clothes and shoes. Here she is with mom's fleece on.

Caroline and Pop. She likes to take his glasses case out of his pocket.

First visit with Santa at Chattanooga Market.

Geez. Boys are such wimps! C'mon Sam-- it's just Santa.

Life Lessons

I often find that I underestimate Caroline's understanding of her world. The other night, we were having a particularly challenging time with her at dinner. She was just generally unhappy about what was put in front of her to eat, despite the fact that I had prepared some of her favorite things. It was a night of taking a few bites, crying, throwing food, yelping, howling and pulling her bib off. After about the sixth time she pulled her bib off, I decided it was enough, and that she must not really be all that hungry. So, I took her out of the high chair and put her down on the floor and off she toddled toward the playroom. I said to Chris, " Well, I guess she would rather play than eat." She disappeared around the corner and, no more than 3 seconds later, she turned around and made a beeline toward the kitchen. She went straight to her high chair and stood by it with her arms outstretched, bouncing up and down. I asked her if she would like to finish dinner, and I picked her up and put her back in her high chair. Much to our surprise, she calmly and quietly scarfed down the rest of her food. Of course, we prasied her and told her what a good girl she was for coming back and then proceeded to chuckle about the whole situation for the rest of the night.
I have always said that I would not be a short-order cook for my children. If you don't like what's put in front of you, then you can wait until the next meal to eat. I think Caroline realized that it was a really, really long time until breakfast!

Trick or Treat

Caroline was a ladybug for Halloween. She was so cute in her costume and had a lot of fun trick or treating with the other kids in the neighborhood.