Sisters

I usually take my first awake child in the other's room once the second child awakes. Emma Grace loves to go in Caroline's room when I tell her Caroline is awake. I don't think Caroline really cares much at this point, but she sure does light up when she sees Emma Grace. I took this picture of my two girls in EG's bed while we were reading books after waking up.

Rolling, rolling, rolling

This sweet girl is a rolling machine these days! As soon as we put her on the floor, she flips to her stomach. Sometimes she gets her arms stuck, but before too long she's on her back again!

I put her on the floor today and took pictures of her progression.

From the above picture, she rolls over to her side...



then she tucks in her head and gives it a big push...



and finally it's stomach time!



As fun as that is, it doesn't last too long...



before she rolls to her back again and starts chewing on her blanket.



But then she decides she wants to be on her belly again, so she grabs the blanket and rolls again...



And then we cry for help. Mommy saves the say, rolls her over, and we start again!

Daddy

Some days I think I have this Mommy thing figured out. And then Jereme comes home and does stuff like this:

Buddies

Toddlerhood

Toddlerhood means going from happy...


to sad...


to silly


in mere seconds. But, boy, is she cute doing it.

We have a roller

Caroline had been rolling from her tummy to her back for quite some time. She was getting SO close to rolling from her back to her tummy that we knew it was close. Those silly arms just get in the way!

I was picking up Emma Grace from school and Dee Dee, who is visiting us, kept Caroline for me. When I got home, she greeted me at the door with a picture on her phone. This one, to be exact.



She left the room with Caroline on her back and returned to find her like this! She quickly snapped a picture for evidence! I'm so proud of my roller. She is getting so big so fast!

Caught!

I think Emma Grace has hit another growth spurt. Or she has a tape worm. I can't keep her satisfied these days. She will eat an entire meal, and ask for a snack 30 minutes later. The day this picture was taken, I caught her red handed in the pantry not too long after lunch.



Notice she didn't even stop eating once she was caught.

I also caught Sir Charles on our sunroom furniture the other day. He's not supposed to get on the furniture, but we do put towels down because we know he does. I peaked out the window and caught him in the act. Again, he doesn't even care to get down once he was caught.



What am I going to do with these people?

Happy 4 month birthday, Caroline!

My sweet Caroline, today you are 4 months old!  Happy Birthday, baby girl!

Your current schedule has you eating 7 ounces (I just increased you from 6 ounces this week) at 8:00am, 12:00pm, 4:00pm, and 8:00pm (or right before bedtime).  This schedule seems to work great for you (most important!) but it also works really well for our family schedule.  You generally take a nap around 9:30 (or when we get home from preschool drop off on school days) and 1:30 (or when we get home from preschool pick up on school days).  Sometimes you take a catnap around dinner time.  You sleep 12 hours at night (or close to it!).

You continue to be laid back and easy going.  You give us lots of smiles and little laughs.  You enjoy your exersaucer, play mat, and bouncy seat.  Your sister lived in the swing for a few months, but you just use it from time to time.  You like it fine, but we just don't use it as much.  Also unlike your sister, you don't constantly have a paci.  I only give it to you when we are in the car or when you go to sleep.  During the day, you generally don't need it.  You prefer a toy or your fingers.  You have started stretching your head to watch TV.  I have to watch you carefully, otherwise you are watching TV when I thought you were playing!  You have rolled from front to back and are so close to rolling from back to front.  You get really far on your side, but you're just not there yet.

Your eyes are still blue and your hair is blonde in most places (except for your old man section of hair at the bottom of your head (right above your neck).  I still put you in 3 month clothes, but a lot are 3-6 month.  I love this stage because you are fun to interact with but you aren't all over the place yet!

We are so thankful for 4 months with you, Caroline!  You have made our family so happy.  Daddy, Mommy, and big sister love you!

One year ago, she was here

One year ago today, Jereme had just started his new job in Georgia, and I was still in Raleigh waiting on our house to sell.

Around 9:30am, I sent Jereme a text message.  The message had a picture of a pregnancy test.  A positive pregnancy test, to be exact.  She was here.

I got a call back in a matter of seconds.

For the next 15 or so weeks, I asked Jereme over and over what he wanted...boy or girl.  His answer was always the same, but I continued asking because I wanted him to feel the freedom to be honest (because, surely he wasn't...haha).  His answer, every time, was girl.  He wanted another girl.  Little did he know, she was here.


Deep down, I just wanted a baby.  A healthy baby.  A baby I got to carry to term and bring home from the hospital and love.  But, if I HAD to pick, I would have picked a boy.  Let me be clear.  I LOVE being Emma Grace's Mommy.  I had long prayed that God would give me a girl, even if only one, just so I could do all the fun girly things that I had always wanted to do with my daughter.  I just felt like I was a girl Mom.  And it has been wonderful.  But I guess I thought it would be nice to give the other side a try and see what these boys are all about.  Too late.  She was here.


I felt different during this pregnancy.  I liked and disliked different things from my first pregnancy.  I even took one of those drug store tests that predicts the sex of your baby, which was accurate with EG, and it said I was having a boy.  Imagine our surprise when we went for our ultrasound appointment and found out SHE was here!


Let me just say, in that very instant, the thought of a boy fled from my mind so fast.  It was like it never even happened and I had wanted a girl all along.  All I could think was that I was blessed, once again, with another baby girl and it just felt....right.  I was so incredibly happy.  And do you know why?  It's because God gave me what I needed and not what I thought I wanted.  God, in His wisdom, gave our family the perfect missing piece to the puzzle that a boy simply couldn't fill.

Sweet Caroline, one year ago today you were here.  Each day I grow even more thankful for you.  You are a precious gift and I am so glad you are here.  Thank you for keeping the pink alive.  Blue?  What's that?

C's new toy

I bought this for Caroline a week ago because I don't want everything she ever has to be handed down from her sister. I didn't know if she would like it, but she really does! I think it's easy for her to hold and get her mouth around, which are really her only requirements.

Valentine Celebration

We had a nice, long Valentine celebration.  It started on Saturday night when Jereme and I went out (alone!!) after Dee Dee got to town to keep the girls.  We had dinner in Buckhead at the Buckhead Diner.  We first visited this restaurant when we were house hunting, so it's a little special.  Our realtor said it's not uncommon to see a celebrity there.  So far, no sightings, but fun nonetheless and always very good.  They have these appetizer chips with blue cheese that are heavenly.

Jereme got some sort of fancy BLT with fried egg and he was very pleased!






Although I generally make it my rule to not order seafood this far inland, I threw caution to the wind and ordered a fish sandwich and it was delicious!






Then we headed off to a movie.  I took this while driving through Buckhead.  Sometimes I can't get over that we live here.



On Saturday morning, I made pink pancakes with chocolate chips that were a hit.



Jereme left bright and early Monday morning for Ohio.  We were sad to see him go.

After Emma Grace woke up, we made Valentines cookies.  She was a big helper!



Watch out, Martha Stewart!



Of course, the sprinkle application was her favorite part.



I finished up Emma Grace's Valentine treats for her class...



and her teachers.



Tuesday morning, I had the dinning room table set up with all of the girls' goodies from parents and grandparents.  Cee Cee and Granddaddy sent cards and gift cards and stickers.  Nana and Papa sent cards and gift cards and teddy bears.  Jereme and I gave them recorded books where we were able to record us reading each page.

 I decorated the dinning room with lots of hearts that Emma Grace enjoyed.

The girls on V-day morning.

I fixed breakfast and we ate before heading off to preschool and Mom's Group.

Emma Grace was a little wired when she got home from preschool.  She had a party at school and I have a feeling she consumed lots of icing-covered goodies.  They did a Valentine exchange and she had fun going through her loot.

To the mom who gave the class these pink whistles....really???

After naps, we headed to Chick-fil-a.  It was kids night (free kids meal!) and they had little activities for the children.



Caroline, during dinner, was not phased by all the noise.



When we got home, Dee Dee gave the girls their gifts, one thing being these adorable matching aprons!  Looks like we have many more kitchen dates in our future!


It was nice having several days of celebration and, although we missed having Jereme here on the actual day, we are looking forward to having him home very soon!

Picture Dump

It's time for another phone picture dump!  In no particular order:

This was taken after Emma Grace's 2.5 year check up when she got a shot in her leg.  She had to fall asleep with her pant leg pulled up and it couldn't go under the covers.  You know, because she got a shot in her leg and she HAD to have band-aid visual at all times.  Listen, I'm not knocking a little shot drama, I just think it's funny.




Have I mentioned we live in a very diverse place?  Because I'll go ahead and say I've never been to an Asian grocery store until we moved here.  It was an experience, because everything looks like this:



Reminds me of my summer in Europe when I relied ever-so-heavily on pictures.  And charades.

This is just the happiest little baby I know.  I love her so much!




Oh, have mercy.  This was at the end of a particularly long day.  We ran out of toilet paper in our downstairs bathroom and I lazily just put a new roll on top of the empty roll instead of actually changing it out.  Then Emma Grace had to go potty.  And she reached for the toilet paper, but lost her grip on the roll.  But, wouldn't you know, she held tightly to the end piece.  So as the roll moved around the bathroom floor, she kept grabbing and grabbing, thinking she would eventually get to the end of the roll.



Full disclosure: I piled the toilet paper up in the corner and we just pulled, as needed, for the next two weeks.  You didn't think I was rolling it back up, did you?

Sometimes Emma Grace will think she is doing something picture worthy and will ask me to take her picture.  She did this the other day and as I was doing the count (1--2--3--cheese!), this was her pose.  Hand on Caroline's head.  Definitely worthy of a frame, right?




Atlanta traffic...oh, it's a nightmare.  This was at 10:30 one morning, so it's not just the morning and evening commute.  This particular day, I was really wishing I was driving Jereme's car (my old Jeep) because it has our Peach Pass, which would have allowed me to drive in that nice empty lane.




I love Caroline's smiles.  Sometimes it looks like she knows something I don't.  She probably does.




And I love my big girl, too.  Seeing how sweet she is to her baby sister melts my heart.




Emma Grace thinks it's so funny to get in Caroline's toys, but she got in the exersaucer for the first time the other night and I couldn't help remember that sweet baby of mine who was in it 2 1/2 years ago.




Caroline likes to hold her bottle now.  She has to be in the right position to make it comfortable for her, but she's such a pro!




When Caroline wakes up from a nap, Emma Grace loves to go in the nursery with me and often asks to get in the crib.  I usually let her get in and it gives them some play time together.  Caroline happily shares her bed with her big sister.




You know what I miss about being pregnant?  Food.  Don't get me wrong, I tried not to over-indulge, but it was nice to be a little free.  I have a major sweet tooth these days, and I never felt bad about grabbing a cookie (or five) after dinner when I was pregnant.  These days, I'm trying very hard to eat better and exercise more (let's be honest... exercise period!).  This was my plate the other night and it just looked so pitiful to me!  But I can't claim baby weight forever...sigh.




Emma Grace had an appointment with a Pediatric Dermatologist downtown last week and we killed time in the waiting room by taking pictures of ourselves!




Caroline loves to chew on her toys, hands, anything she can get her hands (or mouth!) on.  She will stay occupied for 20 minutes if I just give her a little toy ring to chew on.  This was while I made dinner one night.




Learning to keep a tight grip on things she doesn't want Big Sister to take.




I love being a girl Mom for so many reasons, but nail painting on the bathroom floor ranks pretty high.




She was SO happy to have pink nails!  Her Daddy acted like I had pierced her ears.  It's hard being a girl Daddy....




My husband is pretty much a man's man.  So when I came downstairs to find this on our counter, I was a little shocked.  Temps have been so unseasonably high around here, stuff is already blooming.  We have a camellia plant in our backyard and he picked off several blooms and put them in this bowl of water.  It is so pretty and I was so proud of him for thinking of such a thing!