Pumpkin Patch

We visited Guthrie's Pumpkin Farm in Riceville. TN today. It was a great trip. The farm had lots of activities-- several different types of mazes (corn, hay, etc.), petting farm, hayrides and, of course, the pumpkin patch. Caroline loved playing with the pumpkins, trying to pick them up, roll them around and pull on their stems. She also enjoyed the hayride with the wind blowing in her face and hair. We had a really fun day and hope to make this an annual event.

Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkin Patch

Pretty Dress

This is one of my favorite dresses on Caroline. She wore it to mommy's friend Ms. Lesley's birthday party last weekend. We got new shoes from Stride-Rite last week too (see second picture). She had already worn out her first pair of Pedi-Peds that we got back in August-- and she needed something sturdier. Caroline likes to hold the hairbrush and try to brush her hair (see third picture), which is a big help to Daddy who sometimes forgets that little girls need to have their hair brushed (see first picture). She is a VERY busy little girl these days. She learned to say "belly button" in the bathtub last night and will look down and point to it if you ask her where it is. Her favorite game right now is to go all around the house opening drawers and cabinets, taking things out of one and putting them back in another. It also apperars that she is working on her sixth tooth, which will probably appear in a few days.

Cottage Cheese Face

Caroline's favorite food is cottage cheese

Caroline and Grammie. She visited last weekend.

Waking up from her nap. She loves to play with her pacis.

The end

I nursed Caroline for the last time tonight. And I'm sad. I have thoroughly enjoyed nursing her, and I'm proud that I have made it to over a year. There is a lot of satisfaction in knowing that I gave her the best that I could for the entire first year of her life. She has never had formula and that's something that I feel really good about. When Caroline was born, and I decided to nurse, what I didn't know is that nursing is so much more than just a way to feed your baby.

My approach to weaning was a gradual one-- slowly cutting down from three to one sessions over the past month. We have been down to one session, bedtime only, for a week now. And so I decided a week was enough time to not make the transition too abrupt.

We went about our normal evening routine-- dinner, bath, pajamas and nurse-- before bed. As Caroline finished nursing, we were sitting in the glider with the light dimmed. She turned her head and looked up at me with the sweetest, angelic expression. I stroked her cheek, and she smiled at me with her little four-tooth grin.... and then the tears started rolling down my face. What a precious gift it has been to have this relationship with Caroline for a year. To see it come to an end is bittersweet. I'm ready to be done, but I know I will miss it terribly for a little while.

Funny Day

I found myself laughing out loud at several things that happened today.

First, something that made me laugh at myself. Today, I put Caroline in a cute little dress because we were going out to lunch to meet a friend of mine. When she woke up from her nap I got her dress out of the closet and grabbed a pair of her monogrammed diaper covers out of the drawer and dressed her in a big hurry. I started to put her in the car seat and had a hard time getting the straps tight enough around the dress. We had lunch, came back home and she was sitting in my lap. I had my hands around the waist of the dress, which felt odd, like there was some extra material inside the dress. I put my hands up the dress, and, to my surprise, there was the matching diaper cover that came with the dress, still attached. I wondered to myself-- haven't I washed this? I clearly remember washing everything before I put it in the closet back before Caroline was born. And then I looked at the diaper cover and still attached to it was the tattered price tag that I had also left on when I washed it. They always say pregnancy causes you to lose part of your brain function, as well as motherhood causes the phenomenon called "momnesia". I think this is clearly a case of both!

Now for a couple of funny Caroline stories......

Caroline got a Little People airplane from Aunt Helen for her birthday. I have "helped" her play with it, by making it fly through the air and adding airplane sound effects. This morning, she picked up the airplane and started carrying it around, making the "whoosh" sounds that she had heard from me in the past days. I thought it was funny that she remembered and then exactly repeated the sound.

She also happened to get a hold of Chris's cell phone charger. She was playing with his suitcase and the charger was in the pocket. She pulled it out, held it up to her ear and said "hello" and proceeded to have a conversation. Then, she held it up to my ear. I was really laughing out loud at that one.