Sweet Caroline

Prepare yourself... this is going to be a long post. After all, I have missed 3 months of updates. So, here we go.

MAY

Caroline moved to a new room with all new furniture. The transition went very well-- much better than I had anticipated. It was as if she had always slept there. I think it helped that we moved the furniture in and let her play in the crib for a week or so before she actually started sleeping there. She's still in a crib with no plans to change that any time soon.

Started seeing an interest in using the potty. She actually successfully did it 3 or 4 times. Some before bed and some after her nap, if I noticed that her diaper was dry upon waking.

Her vocabulary really expended, even saying some 2 and 3 words phrases. Too many new words to count but here are some that stand out:

brown, blue, red, green, orange, yellow, purple, black-- all the basic crayons

river, water, boats-- pointed out while in the car on the way to the gym in the mornings

vitamin-- said after dinner with gusto; it's a treat to her

medicine-- ditto comment for vitamin; she takes grape flavored Zyrtec

Curtis-- as in "what's your last name Caroline?"

Humpty Dumpty-- Nana gave her a stuffed one for Easter. It came out as "Dumpy Dumpy" at first. Caroline got a big kick out of me saying the rhyme and making him fall off the wall. And then I would say "poor Humpty Dumpty" and she would repeat "poor Dumpy Dumpy" and hug him.

coffee or mommy's coffee-- said when I'm holding my mug or standing at the coffee pot making it

shovel-- in her sand box toys

Elmo-- on her diapers; even pointed to an Elmo balloon in the grocery store without any prompting

lambie-- her lovey that she sleeps with; she started hugging on him and really loving him

good girl-- praising herself, mostly at mealtime for using her spoon

boogers-- no comment; children really do repeat everything they hear

crib-- when Chris or I are rocking her before bedtime and she decides she's ready to go to sleep she says "cwib" in the quietest little voice

song-- asking us to sing to her before bed or nap; sometimes its "more song"

hungry-- sounds like "honwy"; especially nice that she could communicate this now!

shopping-- she learned this when we were in Destin in April; it rained so much that we took her shopping to get out of the house; now she asks to get in the car and go "shopping"

"I love you mommy/daddy"-- part of the bedtime ritual

waffles-- sounds like "faffles"; she eats them for breakfast

porch, remote, clothes, diaper, basket, plate, fruit, garbage, barette-- others

We took Caroline to swim lessons at the Y for 4 sessions in May (1x/week on Tuesday evening). Chris was able to come too for 3 of the classes. They are parent-child oriented and more geared toward just getting used to the water than any real instruction. She really enjoyed it-- especially going down the slide and walking down the stairs into the water. She would do the stairs over and over and over after class.

Caroline has fallen in love with our yard man, Randy. Anytime she hears a lawnmower or blower outside she says "Randy" or "Randy here". If he is indeed at our house, then she MUST go outside to see him. She even learned to recognize his car, saying "Randy's car car".

She started pretend playing with her stuffed animals, feeding them food (cheerios) and juice. She also liked to have her animals sit at the table and watch her eat.

Her new favorite game "quack quack boys". This is with her Little People house and figures and a puppet washcloth duck. The duck (quack quack) holds the little people (boys) in its mouth and shoves them through the door of the house. I think maybe Nana started calling the Little People boys and girls and it morphed into just "boys".

"Nana's car car"-- One of her favorite activities is riding in Nana's car. Also, asks for "meow meow" (Nana's cat), "light" (the light in Nana's car), door (Nana's garage door)

Catherine arrived May 29th. Caroline came to the hospital that afternoon with Nana and Pop. At first, she just sat and stared at Catherine, with a look of obvious confusion. "Why is mommy holding this baby?". And then she just ignored her and went on acting like her typical self. We had bought a bath baby for Catherine to give to her, but she didn't really understand that the gift was from the baby. Not surprising-- it's a hard concept for a 21 month old. The first few days at home were filled with more staring in confusion and wonderment, alternating with complete oblivion to Catherine's presence. And, eventually, the jealousy started to set in..... and that's all I'll say about it.

JUNE

She learned to call Catherine by her name or call her "sister". Added "I love you Catherine/sister" to the bedtime ritual.

Started saying 4-5 word sentences. "Ride Nana's car car"

The independent streak starts...... "I do it!" or "do it self!". Putting on her shoes is a big one.

Pretend play begins to mimic being a "little mommy" to her stuffed animals. She grabbed a diaper out of the Pack n Play one day as I was changing Catherine and started putting a diaper on her Sock Monkey. It was astounding how accurately she could mimic the steps...... lift the legs and bottom, wipe the bottom, put diaper under bottom, dip index finger in (imaginary) Desitin tub, apply Desitin to bottom. And saying "sock monkey dirty diaper" or "messy".

Caroline's swimming abilities advanced very quickly. She started off in the baby pool using a bubble (a front and back float). She would venture out to the deeper middle and go under the fountain and then progressed to lifting her feet and floating with her legs out in front of her. Then, she discovered the big pool and decided it was much more fun. The first few times, she needed a little help to stay afloat, then the next few times, she would hold onto a noodle if she needed support and then in a matter of a few more days, she was swimming by herself using only her bubble. In fact, she would even push away our hands if we tried to help her.

For Father's Day, we had my family over for dinner. Since then, at almost every meal, Caroline has gone around each chair at the table and told us where everyone sat that night. I thought it was impressive that she remembered correctly. Her favorite thing is to say "Brandon sat here" and "touch Brandon's chair". Brandon is Caroline's cousin.

Started singing the beginning of the alphabet song-- A,B,C,D..... and stops there

Counting 1,2,3,5..... tends to skip 4

JULY

Caroline's swimmimg abilities continue to advance. She can lay on her back and kick and also, flip herself over from her back to her stomach. I have been floored by all of it. All bragging aside, she is leaps and bounds above all the other 2 year olds in the pool-- even a lot of the 3 year olds. She calls herself "water bug". A few weeks ago, she asked to go off the diving board. I went up on the board with her and dropped her off the end down to Chris who was floating under the board. She plunges all the way under and bobs up, asking to go again.

The big news of the month: Caroline started school!!!! I had been wrestling with the decision for a while. On the one hand, I wanted her home with me-- after all, that's why I stay home. But, I really began to feel like she was bored being home with me now. With all the time she has to spend tolerating me nursing, burping, changing diapers, etc., I didn't feel I was providing her with enough stimulation. So, I made a call to a pre-school that many of our friends send their children to and has a great reputation (not to mention it's 5 minutes from home), and they had an opening on Tuesday and Thursday for the fall. When I went to put in the application and deposit, they offered the opportunity for Caroline to finish out the summer program. So, she started the next Tuesday (7/14). She did great-- wasn't upset at all when I left and I called to check on her (her teachers gave their cell #'s and welcomed me to call and check on her) they said she was doing fine, playing and joining in like she had always been there. She has loved it! She always answers "Yeah" when you ask her if she had fun and if you say "school" to her, she will say "lion", talking about the big stuffed lion in the office. Every day, we have to say hi and bye to the lion, ride on its back, and give it kisses. She also talks about "popsicles" which I know they had on her first day. School hours are 9-2 (no nap), which is a long day for her. She typically naps around noon but has been able to make it until 2 every day so far. The summer program is more fun oriented-- magician show, goo and goop day, and this coming Tuesday is Water Day where they play in pools and sprinklers. The school is church-based, so they have chapel once a week and in the fall, she will have music and Spanish classes. The summer session ends this Thursday (7/30) and then we have almost a whole month off until the fall term starts on August 31st.

It is apparent that Caroline is learning things at school. After the second day of school, she came home singing A,B,C,D,mumble, mumble, H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P. And then the next week, added Q,R,S,T, followed by more mumbling with some correct letters interspersed. I think she has even added some parts of the "now I've said my ABC's...." correctly. She has also been more correctly identifying shapes-- like circles and triangles, as well as adding some numbers above 5 to her counting.

Some phrases:

"pictures Caroline 'puter"-- asking to see pictures of herself on the laptop

"car like Daddy's car car"-- sometimes when we are driving, she will see either a white SUV or black truck and say "daddy's car". And then I say, "No, that's not daddy's car. It's a car like daddy's car. " And that's how the phrase evolved.

"puppies long trip GiGi's house"-- Caroline and Chris took a road trip to see GiGi and then on to Nashville for Oliver's birthday party on July 4th. We have a DVD player in the Suburban and let her watch videos on long trips. Her favorite video is Baby Einstein Baby Mozart and there is a puppy in it that she really gets a kick out of. After the trip, Caroline started asking for "puppy", meaning she wanted to watch the DVD. So, we started explaining to her that the puppy video was only for long trips, like to GiGi's house...... not for short trips like to the grocery store.

"Tuesdays...... school. Saturdays...... Faffle Howse" ---- Some mornings, Caroline asks about school, and if its on a non-school day, I tell her that she goes to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays and that today is (fill-in-the-blank) day. She also sometimes asks to go to "Faffle Howse" (Waffle House) for breakfast. Somewhere along the way, I guess we have told her that she goes to WH on Saturdays (Chris has been taking her to breakfast at either Panera or Waffle House on the weekends for a while now). We were in her room one day last week, and out of the blue, she said "Tuesdays...school. Saturdays...Faffle Howse." I laughed. Yes, right you are!

Caroline is very aware of her surroundings and is very observant of details. For example, she recognizes where she is going in the car. Several months ago, soon after Chris started taking her to Waffle House for breakfast, Caroline spent the afternoon at my mom's house. My mom came to pick her up and while riding in the car to her house, Caroline pointed out "Waffle House". It surprised my mom that she could identify it. And then on the trip back home, as they passed Wal-Mart, she said "Wal-Mart" and then "Waffle House". Waffle House is a mile or so down the road from Wal-Mart and she was telling Nana that they would pass Waffle House next. Then, last week, she was in the car with me and I had told her we were going to the grocery store. As we made a left turn to go to Greenlife Grocery, she cried "Bi-Lo. See puppy. Drive car,car" She knew when I turned the car left, that we were not headed in the direction of Bi-Lo and was upset. There is a plastic puppy that sits above the freezer case at Bi-Lo that she likes and we "look for the puppy" while we are shopping. She also likes to drive the kiddie shopping cart car and thought she wasn't going to get to do that either. I told her Greenlife has cars but no puppy, and she was OK with that. Anyway, my point is that, I think its remarkable that she knows which direction the grocery store is.

She has also really impressed me with her memory of songs. She can sing along to alomst all the words of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and some of the words to "Rock-A-Bye Baby". She also sings small parts of "The People on the Bus". She has been doing the shhh,shhh,shhh for the wipers for months but has added "yak, yak yak", "up and down" and "all through the town". Oh, and also blowing raspberreis for the motor on the bus. Over the past couple of weeks, we have started hearing her sing to herself in her crib in the mornings and evenings.

Last but not least..... this is the final post of Sweet Caroline (sniff, sniff). I want to write about Caroline and Catherine on the same blog, and in fairness to Catherine, I am going to start a new blog with a new name. I will post a link here when I get it up and running...... with pictures to come.