2!

Mommy is so far behind in blogging that the 2 year post is actually being written 6 weeks late. Bad mommy! So, this is really a 25 month update as I don't exactly remember what you do now that you weren't doing then.

One of the biggest recent changes is that you have moved into a big girl bed in Katherine's room. You like sleeping in a big girl bed better than in your baby bed but your favorite place to sleep is actually in mommy's bed (when I let you). You still nap most of the time in the crib because mommy has not had the energy to fight that battle.

You have not figured out how to climb in and out of your crib but you can get in and out of a pack and play. It is just a matter of time before you try it with your crib so we need to take it down soon.

This summer you really seem to have become a big girl. You talk all. the. time. You are stringing together long sentences of 8-10 words. I laugh because at your 2 year appointment they asked if you say 2 words together.
You also love to sing and dance. Your favorite songs are "Jesus Loves Me" and "Twinkle, Twinkle". You also love to play the piano while you sing.
You are every independent right now. You want to get dressed by yourself, put on your own shoes, change your own pull up and buckle your own car seat. You get really frustrated if you can't do it by yourself or if mommy tries to help.
You can be stubborn (as can any 2 year old) and our biggest battles come at buckling the car seat and staying in your booster seat at meal time.
You are still a pretty good eater but are becoming more picky, especially when Katherine says she does not like something. You copy everything she does. Sometimes this if good. Sometimes this is bad.
You have really started to make your own friends and you know them all by name. This is your friend Violet who has moved out of town. Your other friends are Elizabeth, Abi, Rylan, Emory and Julia. It is a fun age to see you playing with your friends.
Of course your best friend is still Katherine. You all love to play dress up, baby dolls, and family. Most of the time you all get along but if you both want the same toy, watch out, you can fight. I keep telling her to be nice to you because before long you all will be the same size.
You have started to say a lot of our names more correctly this month. You now call Katherine "Kafrine" instead of "yaya". You call yourself "Cayine" instead of "nine nine" and you call Hooligan "Hoogan" instead of doggy. You also know that my name is Christy and you think it is so funny to call me Christy, especially when you are mad.
At your doctor's appointment you weighed 25 pounds (20%) and were 35 inches tall (90%). You are tall and skinny. You are 3 pounds heavier and 3 inches taller than Katherine was at this age.

You love the water and think you can swim. With a floaty on you can motor around the pool. Without the floaty you are down right dangerous. You will jump into the pool or try to swim off the step but you really don't know how to swim. We have a lot of fun though.

It has been a hard summer for our family. Daddy has been traveling a lot with his work. You really miss him a lot. It has been hard for him to miss out on so much with you. Caroline, you are such a sweetheart.

23 months

This month has flown by. It seems that we have been busy but not doing many big events so there are not many exciting pictures. Oh well. Here are a few things you are doing.

You love Hooligan and all dogs. You are much more into animals than Katherine ever was. The other night Daddy was rubbing Hooligan's belly and you were jealous. You laid down beside Hooligan to have your belly rubbed too.
You are certainly a climber! You are fearless when it comes to playgrounds. You love to climb over the furniture. Lately you have tried to climb into your crib and today you tried to climb out. I think we will be moving you into a toddler bed soon.
You love the water and have had a lot of fun this summer at the pool and spray ground. You are pretty fearless if you are wearing your floaties. You will jump off the side and have even gone down a waterslide by yourself and off the diving board!

You are beginning to have an opinion on what you wear and have put together some fun outfits.

You are being disciplined a lot lately. Some of the more common offenses are throwing food from the table, playing with Hooligan's water and food and hitting mommy when you are frustrated. You do not like discipline but you know that there are consequences. I have even heard you put your baby in time out for hitting.
You have recently enjoyed singing. Daddy and I had just talked about how for some reason you would not let us sing to you. Finally you are and I will even hear you trying to sing songs while in the car. Your favorites are "Jesus Loves Me", "ABC's", "Twinkle Twinkle", and "Itsy Bitsy Spider".

You are talking up a storm. There have been some days that it seems you are adding a new word to your vocabulary every hour. You are also stringing words together to form sentences. It is wonderful that you are able to communicate and be understood more.
At night we always read books and then pray. You cannot get enough books. I think you would read forever. You don't like it when it is time to read the Bible though because you know that we turn out the light next. We ask you who you want to pray for and it is always fun to see who comes to mind. You are starting to really remember names and which people are together in families. If I tell Katherine that her friend Grace is coming over, you immediately mention Violet. Same with Emma and Julia.
You are getting better at doing crafts. You don't eat play-doh as much and the markers mark on paper more than legs. It has been fun to incorporate more crafts into our summer.

You and your sister are fighting more which is not fun. I think you have learned that you have a choice as to if you follow her lead or not. She has also learned how to push some of your hot buttons and she often provokes you on purpose.

22 months

Well, once again, mommy is so busy and I am more than 2 weeks behind in posting your monthly update. I almost thought I would skip it and just wait until 23 months but then there would be a gap in your scrapbook and that is not acceptable is it? I am sure that you would notice that Katherine's book has a 22 month post and yours doesn't and you would wonder why I love her more. Oh, sweet Caroline, you are truly such a sweet girl. You have the best smile and laugh. You actually have several smiles now, the full out laughing smile, the shy smile and the mischievous smile.
You are still absolutely in love with your sister. Luckily the feeling is mutual most of the time. You want to be with her all of the time. It is really challenging at nap and bed time because you want to read books and nap in her bed, not yours. Soon, Caroline you all will be sharing a room but not yet.
You still call Katherine "Yaya" and you cannot say her name. If we try to break it down and get you to repeat you will come closer but on your own it is always "Yaya". You call yourself "Nine nine" and we have all started calling you that from time to time.
I say that you are in the "Monkey See, Monkey Do" phase. You want to do anything that you see your sister doing. If she raises her hand, you raise your hand. If she starts to sing, you start to sing. Here you wanted a ballet bun because she had one. I sometimes use it to try to motivate you to do something. For example, if I want you to brush your teeth, I just ask Katherine to brush hers. Of course if she does something wrong, so do you so we are continuing to work on her example.

Here you are choosing what to wear by the "eenie meenie, miney moe" method that I taught Katherine. It is pretty cute when you try to do it. You are finally having an opinion on what you wear and that is a battle I hate trying to fight. Most of the time I really don't care what you wear as long as it is weather appropriate. You especially enjoy choosing your own shoes and have quite an opinion on which ones you want to wear.

Your vocabulary is continuing to grow by leaps and bounds. You are getting much better at making your desires known. You speak in phrases of 2-4 words putting together thoughts like, "Yaya, Emma here" to tell Katherine that her friend had arrived. Of course with that communication, you are also getting good at communicating your frustration when things do not go your way. Can we say tantrum?! You can throw a good one. We are working on self control but I see a year of "two's" with a lot of work ahead of us.
You are starting to sing parts of songs like "Happy, to you", "Twinkle Star", and "A C D G". You also just hum and sing your own songs.
You just finished your last day of this school year. The year started off rough with a lot of separation anxiety but by the end of the year you loved it. I can't wait to see what the next year holds.

You are still a great eater and will eat most things. You are having some issues with sleeping and we have fallen into a bad habit of letting you sleep with us when you wake up in the middle of the night. Your naps are all over the place. Some days they are barely an hour and other days they are more than 2 hours.

You are still quite the daredevil. You love to jump off the furniture, swing on the big kid swings and climb to the top of any jungle gym. On our swing set you think it is fun to swing from the railing.

Caroline, you are so fun and I can't wait to see what the next month brings us.

21 months

This is over a week late. Life has just been busy! Really though, as you are getting older, there seems to be not as many things to report on your monthly post. You are not learning as many new things as much as you are just getting better at what you already know how to do.

You are getting better at running, climbing and swinging on the playground. You amaze me at your bravery. You have no fear.

You are really growing up. You love to play with Katherine and search her out when she leaves your sight.

You are getting much better at tantrums. Here you are on Easter Sunday, ready for church throwing a full tantrum on the floor. This is not my favorite part of parenting for sure. You are approaching 2 though and hitting that stage where your knowledge, interests and desires do not match up with your capabilities, language and what mommy allows. It can be so frustrating for both of us. I am trying so hard to nip these things early.

You love to be a helper and are hitting the stage where you want to do everything by yourself. This includes getting dressed, putting on your diaper and buckling yourself into your car seat. All of these things create frustration when you are not actually able to do it by yourself of if mommy tries to help.
Speaking of diapers, you are ready to not wear them anymore. I planned to work on potty training in August, between all of the craziness of summer activities and the return to school. You, however have other plans. Every diaper change is a battle that ends in discipline. You want to sit on the potty all. the. time. Yet, you don't really get the process. You are up and down several times. I may give potty training a shot in June when we are done with school just to make sure I don't miss the window of opportunity.

You are great at making new friends. This is Asher, the son of a close friend from high school. They were in town and we met at a park. Asher is about 8 months older than you but as you can see, you all became friends.

You took a fun music class this semester. You really enjoyed it. I wish we were able to do more activities like this but it is so hard with Katherine tagging along.
I tried to get Katherine to sit to the side and do quiet activities but the two of you just wanted to be together. It was so sweet.


You and Katherine really do adore one another. I have loved having 2 girls. You follow her around and want to do whatever she is doing. I am working with her on always being a good example. Bath time is a lot of fun, especially when mom puts in too much bubble bath.
You still love to play dress up. You and Katherine had a lot of fun playing with my wedding veil.
You and Katherine both love to go out to the workshop when daddy is out there. You love to play in his truck. He is determined to pass on skills and interests of his even though they may not be what girls normally love. So far you all really enjoy it. You both got a lesson in screwdriver use.
Your vocabulary continues to increase. You are putting a few words together to form more complete thoughts. We rarely use sign language any more since you are so verbal. You have graduated out of the high chair and are now in a booster chair. I still like the high chair with the tray that is easy to clean but for the sanity of meal time we needed to move you to the table. It was becoming a battle field as you wanted to sit in the same chair as Katherine. She actually was sitting in the regular chair but we have convinced her to get back into the booster to be an example. It has been working nicely.
Your biggest milestone this month is that you are fully weaned. I went out of town for 4 days so that was my goal. For the 2 weeks prior you were down to just nursing once a day, first thing in the morning. I nursed you the last time right before I left. It was rough for a few days after my return and in the last 2 weeks since you have nursed, you have asked to every day but one. The funniest part has been Katherine's response. When you are crying, she will say, "just give her your milk mommy!"
You are doing great at school and no longer cry when I leave you. I hope that with a long summer break you still do as well next year. You have started to really enjoy the art projects and time with friends. Every day that the weather is nice we stay on the school playground with friends for over an hour. I love seeing you play with all of the big kids.
Caroline, you are such a joy and we adore you.