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.

4th of July

July 4th was on a Sunday this year so the girls dressed patriotic for church. We went outside for a little photo shoot and they brought their fans and flags from yesterday.




That night we gathered with our Community Group to watch fireworks at a country club. It was past the girls' bedtimes but they did well and had a lot of fun with their friends Emma and Julia.

While waiting we have fun with some sparklers.
I tried to get Katherine to write her name for a cool picture but instead we got a cool circle.

Happy 3rd of July

I love our neighborhood. The celebration of Independence Day is one of my favorite things. First off we go to the parade that ends at the high school. There are all kinds of community organizations that participate-cheerleaders, football players, boy scouts, elementary schools. . . Afterward there is a small carnival for the kids.

Waiting for the parade to come by.

Caroline enjoyed the candy that was thrown from the floats.
After the larger neighborhood parade, we go to our small neighborhood parade and picnic. This has been a tradition in our subdivision for a long time. All of the kids decorate their bikes and wagons. This year the crowd was much smaller, I think due to the rain in the forecast.
Katherine rode her big girl bike and her friend Grace rode our tricycle. I think she has outgrown it.
Sam carried Caroline and her friend Violet in the wagon. Caroline wanted to ride her tricycle so she was not happy.
Our crew of 4 kids was a disaster. For some reason they were having a hard time. The parade goes around a circle so after a few houses we turned around to meet the parade back at the beginning.
The local fire truck always leads the parade.
The girls were only slightly curious about the fire truck. I could not get them to all look at the camera at the same time.
Katherine and her sweet friend Grace enjoyed spending the day together. Grace moved out of state the next week so we were soaking up all the time we could get.

Blog Break

I have taken an unplanned blog break, probably the longest between posts ever. It is not intentional and it is not due to a lack of content. I have not blogged about July 4th, Caroline's 2nd birthday or our trip to California. It is because I have run out of space on blogger to post photos and I have not had time to figure out how to solve this problem. I guess I need to either purchase more space, figure out another place to host my photos and how to get them onto blogger or start another blog on another platform. It is frustrating to say the least.

Berry Picking

We spent a Saturday at an orchard and farm not too far from our house. It was HOT but that did not deter us. First we ate at their grill. Then we went to pick blackberries. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work. Did I mention that it was HOT?
There were rows and rows of berries. The girls each had a bucket and had fun picking them. They were not the most discriminating and we had a lot that were too red to eat.
We saw a few of these HUGE spiders. One I did not see until I was reaching to pick a blackberry and it was merely an inch from my face. I did find out from the farmer that they are harmless. Still, I think it would have been quite a shocker had I gotten any closer.

Before long the girls were ready to quit. Combined we filled about half a bucket with blackberries. When we got back to the store and I went to buy them (along with a lot of other produce) they told me that the blackberries were free that day if you picked them yourself. I guess they felt sorry for those of us who braved the heat.


The store has great homemade peach ice cream. The girls waited outside with Sam while I went in to get it. Poor things are so flushed from the heat.

We all enjoyed the ice cream though I did not get any photos. I guess I was too busy enjoying it.