Lions and Tigers and Bears and more

My intentions are to post regularly, but…you know. As I get behind I’m steadily snapping new pictures, so there are still a few on my camera awaiting their turn. We recently got through Thanksgiving break and I forgot to take my camera to the family gatherings. (Hopefully someone will provide me with a few…) Here’s what’s been going on: We took a trip to the zoo last week. Immediately after entering the zoo, Caroline asked for the “treasure map” and proceeded to plot our course. She enjoyed seeing the monkeys and the birds and daddy inside the cages (she insisted that he was in the cage with the parrots for some reason). She must’ve been watching Diego earlier because she was all about saving the baby jaguar. Haley liked the zoo, too. She sat patiently in the stroller most of the time!

the treasure map

a bear hug

I didn't know Caroline knew the word "ancestors," but she was sure talking about daddy's.

Part of the cool new insect exhibit.

best friends

Loonbug's new magnetic dress-up Hello Kitty. She looooves magnets.

We used some time during the break to make Caroline’s first gingerbread house! She helped put on all the candy, but she also helped eat most of the icing before I could get it on the house. She kept saying, “Split some icing on my finger.”

Haleybug slept all night last night. Didn’t want to nurse even once. You’d think I would have enjoyed the full nights sleep, but I spent a lot of the morning hours worried that something was wrong. We checked, she was still breathing. But boy, was I anxious. I am so ready for her to sit up by herself. She’s doing everything else so much earlier than Caroline, so that’s next. She got a taste of a teething biscuit tonight, so I’ll post some pictures soon. Anyway, its late and I’m about to fall asl…………….zzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…..

Haley Update

Its very rare that Haley gets a post to herself, so this will be it and all the pictures of Caroline will have to wait until…tomorrow? That baby girl has grown like a weed (only, the beautiful kind that people consider wildflowers). She’ll be six months old in a couple of weeks and she can’t wait–primarily because then she’ll get the go-ahead to start eating a few more things. She tries so hard to get our food now. She pulled my drink down all over me and the floor at Pizza Hut the other day. She’s so ready to grow up and in ways we are, too, but I really love my little baby…

Haley is also on the move, bigtime. She can army crawl across our living in about 15 seconds, and she’s trying to use her knees. She is a busy body all the time and really hard to keep entertained. Currently, she is crying about her bedtime, which is way too early in her opinion. Not in mine. We need a rest from that girl! Oooh, but I want to go pick her up and squeeze her and gobble up those little cheeks! And those big brown eyes!

I’ve stopped pumping at work now, so Haley’s been getting more formula these days. I’m going to try to nurse her for as long as I did Caroline (13 months), and I hope that it works out well. At this point, nursings the only reason to have a third! Anyway, I know you want pictures.

Still to come:

-Random pics of Caroline

-Making a Gingerbread house

-Our trip to the zoo

-And more!

Papaws

We made a trip to Dubach the other day with Abby in tow. We were on our way to see Papaw Burgess and Papaw Sammy (who was celebrating a birthday). At Papaw B’s we met up with Aunt Dianne who called over Justin, Jamie, and Kailyn. So Papaw had all four great granddaughters there! It was nice to catch up on things and great to see Kailyn who’s grown so much! We left there to go to Papaw Sammy’s (my dad’s) house where we met up with Phillip and Emily. It was a good trip overall!

Kailyn, Caroline, Haley, and Abby

Justin (my first cousin)

sweet

Papaw deserves it.

Papaw Sammy

Pat the baby.

Uncle Phil

Caroline loves her new magnetic silly faces book. But she does not love when the eyes don't match...daddy!

Mom and Dad both got me money for my birthday with the specific purpose of buying woodworking tools. I’m starting my first project since high school this week–look forward to that post!

A Post Divided

There were just way too many pictures to post, so I stopped at 17. I’ll make another post soon that details our recent trip to Dubach to see the Papaws there. This post contains pictures from around the house and at MawMaw’s 80^th birthday party in Rosefield. But first, I have to write my memories of the following events for my own records.

Caroline is completely potty trained, even wearing panties at night. She has an accident during her sleep very rarely and so we don’t invest in Pull-Ups, we just wash the covers. A while back I went to wake her up in the morning and discovered bad news as I pulled the covers back. I said, “Uh….oh.”  She awoke and said, “Haley spit up on me and spit up on my covers.” I asked her how that could happen when Haley was in her crib all night, but she had no answer. We became convinced, however, that she believed this to be the truth because she kept up the story all morning. Chris suggested the idea that she must have dreamed that when she peed. That afternoon she tried to mess with the covers I’d set aside to wash, and I said, “No, baby! You peed all over those.” And she was completely bewildered.  Poor Haley’s name was never cleared.

BIG NEWS: Haley has started on some “real” food. I think it was when she was about 4 1/2 months, we gave her some cereal, then waited a couple of weeks and gave her more. I think I’m too lazy to start making it regularly, and I’d much rather nurse, but this girl wants our food so bad. She even wants our drinks. In fact, the other day at Pizza Hut she spilled my drink all over me and the floor in an attempt to get it into her possession. This girl is too cute. Way. She’s great for Mrs. Linda and is always so happy. I. LOVE. HER. SO. MUCH. That reminds me: I asked Caroline the other day, “How do you know I love you?’ And she said, “So much.”

Gimme.

Box Car Child

Mom's attempt at keeping me quiet: suffocation.

New ballerina

Helping MawMaw open presents at her 80th!

Snuggling with Katie

Textbook hiding for a toddler: If I can't see you, you can't see me.

What Fairies eat for breakfast.

Caroline and Reagan

Easy entertainment

Ski Jump on Wii Fit

 

The Cupcake She Wouldn’t Be

So Halloween rolls around and the tradition is carried on: the one Caroline started when she was a baby where she would cry anytime I dressed her in something I made. She did NOT want to wear her cupcake outfit. Luckily, what she did want to be, we had hanging around the house. So she was a princess.

The burned cupcake.

A happy Princess!

The cutest giraffe you've ever seen.

Haley's "Pre-Halloween" outfit.

New night gown that she loooooves.

At Playhouse Disney Live, where Chris sang louder than the kids...

What? It tastes like chicken.

the new coat

Big Dad and Nana finally came back from their Niagara Falls trip to see that Caroline was moving into the dorms and Haley was driving. Seriously, see the picture with Big Dad? Haley wasn’t sure if she should know this fella or not, it’d been so long. I guess we should just be thankful they came back at all, since Mom got them on the nation’s Bad List. Criminals. FYI: If your not supposed to travel out of country without proper documentation…don’t.

Sorry Mom. Just had to preserve the memory.

Quick Update (while the girls are cooperating)

I know, its November! Sorry for the spaced out posts, but life has been passing me by and I’m just trying to catch up! We haven’t had a shortage of fun times, though. Chris and I took Caroline to Playhouse Disney Live the other night, and she was super excited about seeing Mickey. Yesterday, Lindsay and I took her to see Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, and she was so cute with her little popcorn box. She kept asking, “What does __________ mean?” She doesn’t have a movie theater voice, but gosh, she was so cute! Right now she’s playing a  game I downloaded for her on my iPhone. She says, “I wanna play a game on you phone, Mom.” She does a great job on the colors and shapes quiz. Haley is just as cute as a bug. She laughs and smiles 96% of the time, cries the rest because she’s not getting attention! She wants to be “doing” all the time. She can army crawl across a room in 3.2 seconds! Seriously, she boogies!

Pictures aren’t loading correctly, so they’ll be another day or so…sorry.

 

 

Breathe.

Yay for time! I know its been forever since I’ve blogged, but whoa–this has been a busy week! School is taking a good bit of my time, sports are taking Chris’, and our to-do list just never seems to dwindle. I had my first of two official LATAAP observations this past week, and now that it’s over I can b-r-e-a-t-h-e. It went well considering my lesson was over 15 minutes early because the kids wouldn’t say a word! Anyway, lots of things have been happening: Wes and Lindsay have been stickin’ around since their apartment was robbed a little over a week ago. Caroline’s really enjoying them being around, I think. I’ve really appreciated them being around, too. Caroline got sick this week and they took her to the doctor so I wouldn’t miss my observation. She has a bacterial infection that could lead to strep throat, so we’re trying to knock it out with antibiotics. Oh, she was pitiful! She threw up about 7 times Wednesday night. Things are looking up now. Haleybug has been growing up. Really. She acts like a big girl. For a while she was giving Mrs. Linda trouble, not eating well, sleeping well, or wanting to be left alone. She’s doing a lot better now, though, eating like she’s in a competition. We gave her a little rice cereal the other night. I was surprised it wasn’t quite as exciting as with Caroline. Maybe it’s the second kid thing, but I got pictures, of course. So that’s how things start: pictures of happenings around the house. Then pictures from the Balloon Festival in Vidalia. Would you believe there was not a single balloon there? Caroline had a blast though, and she got to see Granny, Aunt Shell, and Chelsea!

"Mom made me get a shot."

The hat Mrs. Lisa made last winter.

"Mom! She's touching me." (I swear!)

I love(d) this dress-with little elephant smocking. She got to wear it once.

Haley, meet Mally. And love her.

At the Festival:

Caroline loved riding this!

A family portrait!

(Square Root of 16) Months

Thats how old Haley is today! And, of course, Dr. Bimle said she was no less than perfect, just like her big sister. Her stats were 13 lbs 4 oz and 26 inches long (90th percentile for height). For those of you who’ve been comparing her growth to that of Caroline’s, loonbug was 14 lbs and 25 inches at her 4 month checkup. Here’s that baby girl:

My friend Angie’s little boy Shaun had his 4th bday party Saturday. Here are the pics:

Shelli is a baby lover.

Cheeto teeth

Birthday Boy

Ryan and Anne came over last night for a much  needed catchup visit. Caroline was full energy.

flirt

Kids +

We had fun at the West Monroe game Thursday night. We were plus one with Wes! My students must have had so much fun they couldn’t get out of bed the next morning. Attendance was slight Friday. Caroline rooted for the Rebels, which must be the reason they won, and she was cute. By halftime, though, she was really thirsty and took turns asking me, Chris, and Wes if we had some juice. I’m an awful parent, not thinking ahead. After an unofficial 130 yard touchdown, Caroline clapped and said, “Yay! Can we go home now?” So we left. And Caroline wore her WM shirt two days in a row!

"I'm not tiyad."

This is what I get to look at.

Last night, we kept Nathan and Reagan. We all paired up: Caroline and Reagan played, Chris and Nathan played, and Haley and I played! And the night went by pretty quickly.

The Big Picture

(The Big Picture Update) I have a lot to show: Caroline now goes to the potty all by herself—we never have to ask her anymore!, she’s learning the value of money, and we’ve been a little crafty.

So Caroline is officially potty trained. I know we’ve been saying that, but we’re sure this time! Even out in public and sometimes overnight, we can trust her in big girl panties. Since she’s so grown, I had an idea the other day to start teaching her the value of money…and reinforce counting. I bought her a cute little green purse (pictured below) at the consignment shop and printed out little dollar bills. When she wants something, Chris or I will determine the amount we think she should give and let her actually pay us. She can earn money back, too. We haven’t worked out all the details.

They said they were the Three Amigos

Yes, this will embarrass her one day.

I had to take a picture before they were too little!

She did this all by herself.

Loonbug made these.