Today is a pretty low key day...a day for cuddling with Caroline and catching up on a million things while she sleeps...like my blog! Caroline has been sick since Saturday. We went to her Gymboree class Saturday morning. When we came home she took a 4 hour nap!! I should have known something was up because she never sleeps that long at once during the day, but I just thought she was tired from her class. When she woke up we went to Target and on the way home she just cried and cried. Shortly after we got home she threw up all over Daddy. He handled it surprisingly well! I was very impressed. Shortly after that she had a fever and has had one since. I've enjoyed cuddling with her though. We've watched lots of movies and colored. Hopefully she will be better soon!
Caroline turned 16 months on November 28th! She is turning into such a big girl!
*She has started to talk so much! She tries really hard to repeat whatever we say. It's so cute. She watches our lips and thinks about it....sometimes she repeats what we say right away and sometimes it's a little while later that we here her quietly sitting by herself, practicing her new word. Some of my favorite things she says are: "I love you", "pizza", "spoon", "bye-bye shoes" (she says this whenever someone is leaving, complete with a wave. It's so cute), she says thank you and signs it in sign language at the same time, "tree". I just love how she walks around talking/babbling to herself all day. *She still loves to give 5, play peek-a-boo, and play with shoes all day long. *She can put her shoes on all by herself and has started to put her pants/skirts on by herself...sometimes she gets it and sometimes she doesn't. *She really loves to watch Baby Signing Time. I think that's where she has learned so many things. It's so cute to watch her as she does all the signs. It's even better when she uses the signs to help her communicate. Today we heard a car beep outside and she started signing car. *Her 15th and 16th teeth are starting to come in...16 teeth for 16 months! *She likes to look at her books or for us to read to her. She can point to things in the book when we ask where they are. *She gives hugs and kisses much more now, although she is still not very mushy. *She loves to play outside, jump and to climb on everything. It's getting really cold out so I signed her up for Gymboree this month and probably the next couple months. She loves to play there! *She really loves her baby dolls. She likes to feed them, dress them, kiss them, hug them...she is going to be such a wonderful big sister. *She can feed herself with a spoon or fork. *Some new foods that she likes: pomegranates (weird, huh? She eats the whole seed and drinks the juice), whole apples, cheerios with milk, chips and humus...she goes in the kitchen and helps herself to the bags or boxes of cereal, chips, pretzels, etc. *She likes to stir with her bowl and spoon and pretend to eat. *Tom and I have to be very careful to teach her good habits because she copies us. This morning my back was hurting so Tom gave me a back run with one of those massage balls. Caroline was watching and has been rubbing my back all day. We really need to teach her more things like that.
I love watching her learn and grow. Being a mom is the best job in the world! Love you sweet Caroline!
Trying on a hat
Helping herself to the Captain Crunch
She turned her bowl into a hat
mmmm....apple.
Monday, December 06, 2010
16 Months
Posted by Sarah at 2:23 PM 0 comments
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Trip to NM
I'm getting behind on updating this. Life seems to get so busy around the holidays. November 12-16th I went to NM for my sister Kim's baby shower and for my grandmas funeral. It was a good trip celebrating the circle of life. I actually forgot my camera card, so I am going to steal the pictures that Kim took off her blog :-) Thanks Kim.
Friday, November 12th, Caroline and I flew to Atlanta and then to Albuquerque. Caroline was NOT happy on the flight from JFK to Atlanta! She did nothing but whine and try to squirm her way out of my lap. Not easy when you are pregnant, but we made it! All the other flights we took throughout our trip were just fine. She had her own seat and I was able to get the laptop running with Baby Signing Time and she fell right to sleep.
Here are some pictures from Kim's baby shower
Caroline really liked this gift that Kim got for her baby. Probably because she has had the same one on her bed for a long time.
She really enjoyed helping open the presents.

Not at all a good picture of me...in fact, I hate it....but it's the only picture I found with me and my two sisters...Jeanine and Kim.
This is the blanket I made for my new nephew...his nursery theme is John Deere. I am also making a bumper and curtains, but at the rate I'm getting things done these days it will be a while before he gets it. ;)
My cute prego sister opening her presents.
We had a couple dinners over the weekend with the family. Since grandmas funeral was also the same weekend my Uncle Ray and Aunt Maureen were in town from Arizona and my brother Robert with his family from California. Robert brought a 40 lb turkey from CA for us. It was delicious! Here are some pics I stole from Kims blog.
Caroline loves "Bampa"! It took her a little while to warm up to him, but they were buddies by the end of the trip. She even learned to say "Bampa" before we left. She saw a picture of him a few days after we came home and said "Bampa Bampa". We will have to not let too long go by before we see him again so she doesn't forget.
Grandpa introduced Caroline to his dog, Heidi. After a little while she warmed up and even fed the dog some treats. Both the dog and Caroline had to be held when they were near each other because they were both a little scared of each other.

She even warmed up to Uncle Ray
Showing us all that she knows where her ears are. It's funny...she can point to a lot of her body parts, but once you ask about her belly, that is it! She is obsessed with her belly and will walk around showing everyone her "ba bu"...belly button. Don't you just love her cute turkey dress?
My daughter is also OBSESSED with shoes! The first thing she does in the morning is look for her shoes. Here she is balancing on her head to get her shoe on. The dress was in the way when she was sitting so this was the next best thing.

I love her bear bottom tights!
That's all for now. Thanksgiving pictures to come! Plus I just realized today she is 16 months so I will have to make a new post for that too :)
Posted by Sarah at 10:31 AM 1 comments
Friday, November 05, 2010
Grandma Ruth Frances Kelly Haggard
Grandma passed away this morning at 2:15 am. I'm sure we will all miss her witty personality and wonderful sense of humor. Grandma was 99...and a half. I don't know if I can even count how many grandkids, great grandkids, and great great grandkids she has. Something like 15 grandkids...16 great grandkids with 3 more on the way and 1 great great grandbaby?? Does anyone know the exact #, I'm sure I am forgetting someone? Anyway, we will miss grandma a lot, but I'm sure she is happy to be with grandpa again. I wish she could have held on just one more week for when I come home, but I am glad I will at least be able to attend her services and see more of my family than I had anticipated.
Grandma with Caroline Ruth (4 months old) Caroline's middle name is after grandma. I believe this is the first and last time Caroline met her great grandma.
Me and my Grandma

Tom and I with Grandma. This was when we went to NM for my moms funeral.

Some of our family with Grandma.

Grandma with her great-grandson Allen (6 weeks old).
PS: If anyone would like the video that Uncle Ray made a few years back on DVD let me know. It is a great video of grandmas life with a video of one of grandpas sermons on love at the end...I plan to go get my VHS copy put on DVD this week and will gladly make more copies if you would like. It's a great way to remember both Grandma and Grandpa.
Posted by Sarah at 12:56 PM 3 comments
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
Another Fall Festival
This is a little out of order (this was 2 weeks ago), but I better post these pics before I forget. They had a free fall festival at Sagamore Hill (Teddy Roosevelts home) so we headed there for the afternoon. It was pretty small and they had really bad food which ended up making my pregnant self puke that night. But, it was a lot of fun for Caroline to just run around and see the animals.
Posted by Sarah at 2:06 PM 0 comments
Trick or Treat!
Caroline had three chances to dress up for Halloween...this means I have about a hundred pictures of a very cute little duck. I will try to narrow it down to just a few...like maybe 50? We had so much fun! She actually really loved her duck costume and even learned to say "QUACK QUACK" by the end of the weekend. Although, she will not say that on demand...she will just quietly say it when she thinks nobody is listening. Funny girl!
So in the morning we went to our neighbors, Stefanie and Mikes, house. They have a little girl named Isabella that is just two months older than Caroline and she was also a duck for Halloween. Of course we had to get some pictures of our twin ducks!



Isabella really wanted to hug Caroline....
Caroline doesn't like hugs so much!
Saturday night they had a Halloween party at church. We had a potluck dinner and the youth had decorated rooms and planed games for the kids. Also, each family was welcome to decorate a classroom and pass out candy to the kids. We didn't decorate a room...lol, we just took candy. Caroline didn't really get it but she had a lot of fun just running around and grabbing all the yellow candies and candy that you could shake (like nerds).
Halloween afternoon we went trick or treating and had dinner with her 5 Gounaris cousins! It was so much fun! Caroline was a little overwhelmed when we first got to their house. She's not used to the noise that so many little boys make! Plus, they have two dogs. Even though they were outside Caroline would just look at the back door and then run to me screaming and holding on for dear life. Yes, my child is scared of dogs, cats, any loud noise, leaves blowing, garage doors opening, lawn mowers, toys that make noises...not quite sure why. I've tried getting down with her to play with a dog or cat, but the second they move she gets so scared. Oh well, maybe she will grow out of it? She eventually warmed up and played with her cousins. Christopher is 3 and he really liked to kiss Caroline on the lips, haha. Caroline did not like that so much! I wish I had gotten a picture of it.
Here are some of my pictures of the kids trick or treating. They all had a blast!
Posted by Sarah at 12:56 PM 0 comments

