Caroline 6/23

Just a happy little camper one week shy of 9 months. We look forward to getting her stats - she seems like a little chunk! And mostly without non-Mama milk! The rolls don't seem to slow down her crawling, walking (behind the walker), or general motion. She is quite fast, in fact, with a penchant for eating whatever specs of dirt she can find on the floor (she likes these better than baby food!!). Hmm...maybe we should just lay out what we want her to eat on the floor and let her graze...nah. ;-)

First cheerios

...Caroline didn't gag on. At 8.5 months she has learned to eat off a spoon and 'chew' Cheerios. Friday June 25 she gummed us and Saturday June 26 she started to bite ever so slightly. So - first tooth on the way! It is the bottom left. Perhaps more will be quickly following...

Zach and Caleigh are great helpers. They would stuff many many Cheerios in her mouth at once if allowed.

Her other new trick (June 24) is walking behind the walker! She laughs and laughs as she slowly concentrates on putting one foot in front of (well, not the other yet as they mostly stay in front of themselves) ... We clap and she smiles that BIG Caroline smile and tries to keep her balance and walk as she laughs, so proud of herself. Caleigh moves things out of her path and opens the door into the kitchen for her to make use of the whole first floor. So brave!

Reading

A lot of mornings the older two will snuggle up in the A/C of the living room and 'read' for a shockingly long time. Zach loves to page through books, especially his truck/tractor book and his Tonka book. Caleigh is trying to sound out words in a story (instead of just random one-off words). The problem is she has memorized so many books so I can't tell when she is actually reading sometimes! She'll say entire sentences/pages of some books exactly right.

But we love this booky time - not only because they are quiet and peaceful - and hope they continue to love books (the feel, the pictures, the look of the words...).

Train ride

Zach found his speed of a ride - the choo choo train. He was quite pleased with the locomotion.

Look at that little smirk!

WHEEEEEE!

No need to worry about Caleigh's having ride-anxiety. Mama was starting to have some issues, though...

Look at her hair fly!

Little hat was driving the boat (not really) while sis and Daddy rode silently, deep in contemplation.

Riding in style

In the sky or on water - we enjoyed our rides.




I just love how Zach says 'princess.' He was just as excited as Caleigh to have the princess read him a story.

More from DW

We are glad Dan had an extra day to take off and we spent it like this. The kids had a good time at a park exactly the right age for them. They enjoyed the rides and the water park aspect. Caroline was a trooper. She took a great nap in the shade by the water park. We took turns taking Caleigh and Zach to their size appropriate water areas. Zach was very comfortable with the little water spouts and small animals in the water. Caleigh liked the water slides (big tubes and smaller) and getting drenched.

The family posing with Duke.

Zach is driving and Caleigh is pressing the pedal. Mama is just acting silly.

Caroline warming up to the adventure. ;-)

Caleigh was SO EXCITED to be at the park and her smile was infectious. On the larger roller coaster we were able to sit through to ride a second time. Caleigh told me, "Mama, isn't it great we have this time to talk just the two of us?!" She had nothing 'special' to say, but she hugged me with a large grin on her face and we talked about how fun the ride was and what a fun day we were having all together. So sweet! She is getting so old and mature!

A Dutch Wonder-ful Day!

Caroline was a little skeptical at first. ;-)

But we jumped right into the day. Dutch Wonderland is a little over an hour away from us in Lancaster, PA. Right off Rt. 30. You can see lots of farms and Amish behind their teams of horses from the park. Friday was hay day as we saw a dozen teams of horses out working the fields.
We found out that Caleigh LOVES adventure and amusement park rides. Zach rode some things but mostly then said, "Me not like that." He wasn't complaining...just giving us his opinion. ;-)

Dan and the kids on the water ride nearly first - it was a hot day in the mid-80s as a high. Caleigh looks mushed and Zach like he was ready for it to be over. We are thankful Dan kept his hat.

Lori and Caleigh rode the two larger roller coasters (multiple times!!). I had as much fun as Caleigh! At first I was concerned how she would like the lift-you-out-of-your-seat ups and downs...not to worry. She would say that was the best part! She also was screaming out of enjoyment where I was more just screaming when we went down the pitch black water tube - open or shut your eyes...no difference!

Zach wanted this horsey to GO! and was a bit disappointed that it didn't.

The Franklin Institute

One early (for us) Saturday morning in June we five headed out to see the Franklin and the special exhibit, Cleopatra. After finding great parking on a nice, clear day we entered the exhibit early and enjoyed the artifacts and audio tour.

Then off to the rest of the FI. The kids and I had just visited the previous Tuesday with friends so they were excited to 'show Daddy' all the cool stuff they knew about and could do. We headed to the third (sports and art/design) and fourth (big telescope) floors. Then a quick stop in the water/fire/air/earth hands-on room.

Caroline and Zach were quite taken with the motion of the large-as-our-living-room glass encased ball roller coaster thing (first three pictures). Caleigh stayed for a bit before running off to make patterns in the sand, make things go in motion, and stare at optical illusion boards.

There is Dan testing out the pulley system and using Zach as his weight.

We pretty much had the sports room to ourselves. Surfing, rock climbing, spinning like a figure skater, throwing balls, jumping, trying to stop soccer balls from going in the goal. Funny times. All five of us participated in the soccer shoot out (not real balls...). Dan said I was the lapse that allowed the opposition score so many goals. ;-)

I like the fifth picture here - it shows all three kids around the room having fun!

Zach didn't get far on the rock wall, but he tried and pulled up on one rock. Caleigh got up pretty high, but it was a bit more challenging than the PTM rock wall.

Zach and Caroline

Zach's hair...let's just say...was a bit fluffy this day. ;-)



They enjoy being together and making each other laugh.

I love how they will put their hands on the other one's knee or head or (in Caroline's case) try to use the other as a ladder.

Zachary clearly remembers this as 'his' room and bed. He is finally saying he even has a room (poor thing) as before he would talk about the baby's room and Caleigh's room. I love the way he says "Caroline." Actually I love the way he says "i" within a word - nice and long and drawn out. ;-)

Caroline knows she is loved and knows her big family is watching out for her. Even today Zach warned her about not touching the hot oven (but it was just the stove top that was hot). She listened when he said, "No baby!"

Caroline at 8 months

She waves with her smiles. So funny to walk in when she starts talking from her nap and find her waving and smiling to be picked up. She is a QUICK crawler. And she is starting to pull up in bed in addition to on everything else in the house. She is punching buttons, rolling balls, and is continuing to 'eat' anything she can get her hands on. She is working on her finger pinching skills, but not on Cherrios (which still make her gag even in 1/4 size pieces)...she enjoying finding and pinching up dirt from our floors (gasp!). ;-)

Picnics and hanging out on the blanket outside are harder now with the crawling and desire to eat grass...

The kids all get along so nicely (most of the time). Zach likes to "tickle in the pan!" on Caroline's tummy. Caleigh likes to tell her all about being a good girl and encourages her to stand and walk. Caroline is playing more independently and tires herself out quiet easily. She is getting to two longer naps a day and going to bed around 6:30/7:00 p.m. She is still waking up about 4:00 a.m. to eat, but then goes back to sleep until 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. The next hurdle is completely sleeping through the night, which we 'made' the other two do at about 9 months, too.

She is doing better opening her mouth for the spoon at meal time. She is quite healthy!!