sentences

The other day I suddenly blurted out "Ernie fell down" when my Ernie doll fell off the table.

The shape of things

Yesterday I figured out how to put my shaped blocks through matching cutouts. I have this set of pots and pans and the lid has the cutouts for the blocks. There are circular, triangular, and square blocks. I don't know why I didn't figure this out sooner!

Right now my favorite book is called "Color Carnival" and it features Elmo and his friends. I can identify each friend by name including Zoey, Abby Kadabby, Rosita and Telly. The book also has Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and Ernie. I can also name most of the colors of each friend. For example, I know Elmo is red, Zoey is orange, and Grover is blue.

This reading thing isn't so hard!

19 months, 8 days today

This morning I ate a bowl of cheerios all by myself. That's with milk and a spoon!

I think my favorite food that I can eat by myself is white rice. The stickier the better! I love it when my parents get chinese takeout. I like fried rice too, but not as much.

Yesterday I continued my exploration of two word sentences including: "Daddy home" and "no mine!"

This morning I went to my room, picked up the basket of clean diapers, and brought them down the hall to Daddy. I held up the basket and told him "poo-poo." Daddy was relieved to discover I only had a diaper full of "pee-pee" instead. Oh well, how was I to know? This toilet training thing will be fun!

Getting some attitude

I recently (in the past few days) learned out to say, well scream, "No, Mine!" whenever somebody attempts to take something away from me. For example, if I'm munching on a snack bag of corn pops and Dad tries to take one, I yank back on the bag and holler "NO! MINE!"

I did the same thing to my big sister, except I had ahold of her iPOD.

Vocabulary

Today I pointed to my Halloween shirt and said "Boo." My teacher Miss Lisa thought that was hilarious! I'm also getting really good at saying "No" when Mommy and Daddy want me to come in the house and I would rather play.

One thing that is really fascinating to me right now are buckles. I LOVE TO DO MY OWN BUCKLES! In fact, I can't stand it when grown-ups try to help me. LET ME DO IT BY MYSELF DANGIT!

Barack Obama

Everyone seems to get a huge thrill every time I saw "Barack Obama." I'm not sure what the big deal is. I mean, the other side is embarrasingly unable to clearly articulate their proposals!

Vocabulary

Yesterday I said "Me" and pointed to myself. I also tried to say "newspaper" but it came out something like "new pay pay."

First Day of School!

 

Today is my first day of school! I wore a red gingham dress just for the occasion. My school is at Trinity Presbyterian Church and I go 3 days a week! I'm hoping to make lots of friends. One thing I can't wait to try out is the eating table that holds all of us kids at one time. My teacher seems pretty cool so far also.

Party Time!

 

Here is me with my brother and sister and their Papa at her family birthday party. It was awesome! The chocolate on chocolate cake was dee-vine!

Sissy's 15th birthday

 

Here is me with my big sister and her dumb friends. They came over to wake her up and decorate our house with junk. The balloons were pretty cool though.

Balloon Mania!

 

Me with my sister's birthday balloons!

473 Days -- or -- 67 Weeks and 4 Days

My vocabulary lessons continue. Tonight my dad taught me to say "Pee-Pee" and "Bi-Ka." Pee-pee means "pee-pee" and "Bi-ka" means "bike."

Its been a hard couple of days of falling down. My knees are covered in scratches and scrapes. Yesterday I stumbled and caught the edge of the coffee tabe with my chin on the way down.

I can also say "Bee-bee" (Bertie) and "Ja-Ja" which means "John" and not Jar-Jar (as in Binks.)

I'm also learning to play JOhn's drums. Every now and then dad lets me sit on the drum stool and beat away with John's sticks or brushes. It's great fun!

 

I don't get no respect.

Bathing Beauty

Holden Beach, 2008!

We just got back from what seems to be becoming our annual pilgrimage to Holden Beach. Caroline is now 14 months old and has been walking, by herself, shakily, for a couple of weeks now. She's really taken off in the past week though, able to cross rooms and go from room to room with ease.

At the beach she encountered stairs for the first time. There were several sets of them both inside and out. She didn't know how to approach them the first time, trying to crawl up with her hands and hoisting up a leg. After showing her how to step up once and holding her by the hand, she figured out how to bend the knee and lift up the foot. It was off the races then!

Her command of speech is improving every day and is almost hard to keep up with. Jus the other day, June 23rd, she began saying "Cra-craw" for a cookie or cracker. She also says "buh-buh" (bye bye) and "baw-baw" (ball.) Yesterday she tried to make the "Juh" sound to say "John" and "Chuh" to say "Champ" (our dog's name.)

Walking Walking

I found a way to make riding in the car quite tolerable. What I do is demand that my parents put on the "Baby Songs" DVD and I immediately go into a state of complete relaxation. I don't know why I love to watch that video over and over...but I do.

Lately I have been making a beeline from the backyard patio straight to my sandbox. Mom says I sure am determined and single minded.

My walking continues to improve every day as well. Right now I can walk over to Mom's purse, rummage around for something nice, then walk around the room with it. And its only getting better!

My first steps

I've been able to stand and take 1 or 2 tentative wobbly steps for about a month now. However, I've been reluctant to go any further because I keep falling down on my rear.

I think I'll note May 20th as the day I started taking several steps at a time. It's very liberating to be able to cross the distance between the couch and my firetruck without having to crawl.

I can go about 8 steps at a time now. Any day now I'll give up crawling altogether. After all, that's for babies!

Day 365! Happy Birthday to me!

My first birthday party was today! Everyone was there including my grandparents and friends and neighbors. We had fruit, sandwiches, drinks, and birthday cake. I got a lot of new toys including a fire truck and another walker. I got a book and a wooden puzzle. I got some pretty new outfits including a party dress. It was exhausting!

 

Today was a very busy one. We started off with the ritual jog/run to Starbucks followed by our semi-monthly big shopping visit to Wal-Mart. We got home by noon then Dad mowed the lawn. By 2 pm we were off to John's tennis match which was rained out by 3 pm. We all went to the Harris Y so I could try out my new flotation swim suit.

The suit was pretty nice, but I'm still a little too small for it. (I think I'm weighing in at around 22 el-bees these days and the suit is for 20 to 35 lb babies.)

 

We finished up around 4 pm and headed home for a short nap. Then I got up around 5 for a few more hours of craziness. Finally, I crashed out for good around 7:45 pm. Mom and Dad seem really tired today for some reason.

Day 358

 

 

I'm going to take over for Daddy since he's not doing a very good job of keeping this up-to-date.

We went on a short hike at Crowder's Mountain today. Daddy and Mommy took turns carrying me around in my new backpack carrier. Dad said it is a Kelty Tour model, whatever that means. We got it at Jesse Brown's Outdoors on Friday and they couldn't wait to throw me in it and get out of town.

16 more days til your first birthday!

What have you been up to lately? Let's see.

You can go from the floor to a standing position with almost no effort. You can stand up for 10 seconds or so, teetering back and forth. Today you took a sip of my smoothie while standing up.

You're saying "DaDa" and "MaMa" upon request. Although I'm not sure you're identifying us with those terms. You can also say "Baby" but you say it "Day-dee."

Here is a little video from this morning:

March 25, 2008 - Great Grandma's Funeral

 

Your great-grandmother, Sylvia Beauregard Banks, was buried today. It's too bad that you never got to meet her in person. She was an incredible person. She was one of the hardest working people I've ever known along with being the most positive. She was always working on some project, or volunteering, or traveling. Even well into old age, she kept up a vigorous schedule. She crocheted a yellow blanket for you which is one of your favorites. We'll probably take it away from you in a few months to preserve it for you in good condition.

You started off the day by feeding one of the horses in the backyard of Grandma's house. You weren't scared of them at all. I guess to you they seemed like big doggies. Doggies that ate grass. When they discovered we didn't have any treats they took off, but I think they made an impression on you.

Your cousin Sylvie loves horses! She has one of her own. Her mother, your great-aunt Susan, must have infected her with the horse-loving gene. Maybe someday you'll get to ride it.

 

Tooth Number 7!

You got another tooth all the way through. It happened this past Saturday. It is the third tooth on the bottom. It's on your left side, just left of the two center incisors.

You're a lot happier now that it's broken through!

Another milestone

Yesterday Mommy showed me that you know how to clap upon request! Now you can turn our lights on and off!

301 Days

Well you are quite the crawler now. The last couple of days you've also started to imitate people doing a "nose breathe" sneer. You wrinkily up your nose, squint your eyes, and breath in/out through the nose. It's quite funny!

I put you behind your push/walker and you stand there babbling. Then you will squat up and down while babbling. Your thigh muscles must be getting a lot stronger as you can now go from a full squat to standing by yourself.

The other amazing thing you can do is walk while I am pulling the walker. You have to go slow, one tentative step at a time, but it's pretty amazing. You can walk across the room while someone pulls it.

You are also quite social! Last night we went to the mall (Southpark) and you thoroughly enjoyed yourself. You call out to other babies and kids ("Ayyyh!") You also love the elevators and merchandise displays. There is so much to look at!

297 Days - Crawling and standing up

a few minutes ago you crawled across the floor to the fireplace hearth. After a couple of minutes you pulled yourself up to a standing position.

292 Days -- or -- 41 Weeks and 5 Days

You started to crawl today. That is, you've been able to get up on your hands and knees for weeks now. This morning you woke up around 5:30 am and were on all fours in your crib. But this afternoon you made definite forward movement by lying flat on your stomach.

You've been able to work your way around objects also. Here is a picture of you after getting 75% of the way around the coffee table.

 

John's Birthday

 

John turned 13 the day before this picture was taken. For his birthday gala, he took 5 friends to a paintball range in 32 degree rainy weather.

You hung out in the car and went to a McDonald's to get post-battle provisions for the crew.

260 Days -- or -- 37 Weeks and 1 Days

Well this week you've been fighting a cold. It makes all kinds of nice things come out of your nose. It wouldn't be so bad if you would let us wipe it off before you do the job yourself.

Seriously the pediatrician also said you have an ear infection in the left ear and prescribed Amoxicillin. I remember that stuff. You actually seem to like it...at least more than you like Tylenol.

You haven't had much of an appetite since getting your cold and you have a slight fever every now and then. But you're still OK most of the time.

Today you were able to lean forward from a sitting position and actually get your knee back under you. This is what's been keeping you from crawling. We think it will be any day now when you figure out how to move an arm or leg forward. No rush though since we haven't baby-proofed the house yet.

Champ had surgery on his next one week ago today. They put in staples to close the incision and of course there is no bandage. So he looks pretty gruesome. We've nicknamed him "Franken Champ." The staples will come out maybe next Wednesday. He's much happier now that he doesn't have that fatty lump under his neck skin.

What's going on in the world? Let's see. President Bush is in the Middle East. John Kerry endorsed Barack Obama for President yesterday. Hillary won the primary in New Hampshire on Tuesday. All of this will be in a history book by the time you can comprehend it.

 

This was taken on 12/27/07

Although you haven't started to crawl yet you are on the verge. You can stand while holding on to something such as your walker. Right now you are standing with one hand holding on and the other hand holding a cracker. You stand with your knees locked which is tiring I'm sure. Once you figure out how to bend the knees and shift your weight you'll probably be more mobile.