Peekaboo, Playing, Pigtails, and Punkins

Carolyn's favorite game right now is Peekaboo- any permutation of the classic game pleases her to no end. Yesterday I was working in the kitchen when I looked up to see her folding herself up inside the cabinet. Of course I ran for the camera (which is never far in our house :))Just in time to see her burst forth and say "BOO!"
She also likes to play peekaboo from behind the curtain of our front window. She thinks it's fun to smash her little face into the glass- we were in stitches over this picture. :)
Today I tried a new/old hairstyle. Her hair has gotten so much longer that I tried to put it all into pigtails (instead of just the top pieces) with great results. She pulled one out a couple times but overall, it went over really well. I think I might have to get some more bows for her hair so we have more sets of two. :)

This picture shows how smart she's getting- she's really starting to put stuff together. Today she grabbed the Kleenex box below and told me it was a "Bock" (her word for box). Then she pretended to pull something out of it (it's empty) and attempt to wipe her nose, saying "No" (her word, in this context, for nose). Here she points to show me what the Kleenex are for. :) We've had a lot of drippy noses around here lately. :)
Bench pressing with Daddy. One thing we've noticed in the past few weeks is how the bond between Carolyn and her Daddy has been growing. She's so playful and interactive now; she just loves the rough and tumble play with her dad. :) It's fun for me to see them together. :)
Today was a day of Pumpkin Adventures. I learned a few things today about this National Holiday we have coming up tomorrow. Apparently it is becoming the second biggest holiday, right behind Christmas. I seem to remember it being a sort of "secondary" holiday when I was growing up- but maybe that's just the parents I had! Halloween is BIG business these days! Here is what I learned today.
1. If you want to buy a pumpkin, you should buy it in August when they start selling them. If you wait until October 30, you will be very frustrated and disappointed because no one will have one! I went to four places today before I finally found a pumpkin!
2. If you plan to get candy to pass out to kids, you should also do this well before October. The stores stop putting the candy on sale the week of Halloween because they know that there will be lines of women who waited until the last minute hoping for a good sale and are desperate enough to pay full price because they don't want to disappoint the cute kids who come knocking on the door!
3. If you're stupid enough to go looking for pumpkins and cheap candy on the day before Halloween, don't take your 16-month old! She will not have a good time and you will not have fun chasing after her!
4. Suckers in the store do work to stave off a meltdown on the part of both mommy and child if you have asked for trouble and brought your 16-month old against the common sense of every sane person you know.

That's all I have to say about my Adventures today. There were some stressful moments. But we did have fun carving pumpkins tonight. I thought it would be fun to introduce Carolyn to the different texture and feel of the inside guts of a pumpkin. She was initially curious.
But then let me know that it was yucky. What made you think this was a good idea, Mom?
Bathtime went over much better. :) I love the crazy hair from the pigtails!
Auntie Laura was over tonight for dinner. Carolyn honored her with a name- she was very disappointed when she had to go to bed and leave "LaLa." Laura stayed long enough to help me carve my pumpkin. It was initially supposed to be a Carolyn pumpkin... but it doesn't look much like her. :) Still a cute pumpkin though. :)
Brad made a much more complicated design with his pumpkin- it's a panda bear! I thought his looked great! :) He says he'd like a nice pumpkin carving kit for Christmas if anyone finds one on sale. :)

Weekend with Grammy and Papa

We drove to my parents' house for the night Friday night since Brad has to work this weekend. Had a great time catching up with Grammy and Papa and it's nice for me to get out of my own house sometimes. Carolyn loved seeing the puppies, listening to lots of stories, and being generally doted upon. :) She learned several new words this weekend (sadly, "Grammy" was not included; apparently this is a hard name to say). Perhaps my mom should have chosen something like "meat" as a name for her granddaughter to call her- evidently, this must be much easier since she said it perfectly the first time she tried!

She also learned to tell the dogs to get "DOWN!" in that command voice. My parents have two Yorkie-ish dogs (one is a mix) and they are quite energetic and loud. The love to jump on people. Carolyn started telling them to get "Down! Down! Down!" when they were all over her. Go Girlie! Be the pack leader! :)

It had to happen sooner or later (and in my family, sooner!). Carolyn has her first computer! Frankly, I'm astonished it's taken this long since my dad, the famed CEO of WebBasedSystems, LLC (his very own company for developing- you guessed it- web based systems for other businesses, etc)- has given every member of our family at least one computer. Given the fact that he's in the computer business and needs to stay on top of developing technology, there are a lot of retiree computers from years past that still work well- including this Apple Mini (so cute!). So our family now has its first Apple.
Carolyn is a bit on the young side to do much with it yet than bang on the buttons- but this she does with gusto and great delight (her mother having checked several times that it is indeed okay for her to drool, bang, break, or otherwise incapacitate this machine- what a sad retirement for this poor little guy!) Papa found a fun drawing program that will grow with her- as soon as she gains the motor coordination to use a mouse (which is happening earlier and earlier in our computer-driven society), she'll be able to "paint" on the screen. For now, she can bang on the keys, delightedly yelling "Butties! Butties!" (her word for "buttons") and watch me draw sometimes. I'm not anxious for her to have much "screen time" at this age anyway- this will come all too soon, I am sure.
She loves the present! Thanks Papa and Grammy!
Please, Please, can I have some more?! It was another day of firsts for Miss Carolyn- she got to try my very favorite "down South" (where my roots forever lie) chicken fried steak- which we refer to as "Minute Snakes," in honor of my youngest sister who didn't say the word right at first. :) Carolyn loved it! Especially slathered in ketchup- she kept asking for more Ketchup, please!
And finally, here are Grammy's flowers, not quite as flashy as earlier in the year, but the impatiens are still awash with bright color, even at the end of the season, and Carolyn loved touching them and then "washing" her hands with the water that got on her hands from the wet flowers. :)

Bits and Pieces

Yesterday I put a bunch of Carolyn's little snacks into the sections of a washed egg carton and she seemed to really love playing with it! It kept her occupied for about 20 minutes (the same amount of plain snacks would have been good for about 5 :)) and she greatly enjoyed opening and closing the lid and taking the snacks one by one out of the carton. :) She's starting to smile a great cheesy smile for the camera (sometimes).
Later we got out our matching aprons (thank you Auntie Chandra!) for the first time and Carolyn "helped" me cook an applesauce cake.

She liked stirring the bowl of dry ingredients (and tasting them).
She also liked eating applesauce by the handful. She has not, however, discovered the joys of licking a bowl. She is funny about texture- she doesn't like the way cake batter or cookie dough looks- she says "ucky!" and won't try it. I'm sure she'll get over that one of these days- she is my daughter after all, and cookie dough is one of the chief joys of my life!
We had a great time together until she fell off the stool. :( This was a sad moment for Carolyn- and me! She bumped her head and required much soothing. When she'd calmed down a bit, she started saying "Daddy! Daddy!" as if Daddy would not have allowed something so dreadful to happen to her. I felt bad that I wasn't able to stop the fall- I'm sure it won't be the last time... She must have gotten over it because today when we were doing something in the laundry room where we keep the stool, she indicated quite decisively that she would like me to get it out again so she can stand on it. We'll try the cooking thing again soon- but I'll watch more carefully to make sure she doesn't lose her balance! Live and learn... I'm glad she wasn't really hurt. I hate to hear her cry- today we were at a baby food demonstration and another little girl bit her- I know that the other child doesn't know better- but Carolyn looked like she'd lost all confidence in the kindness of the world as she stared at the offending child and tears poured down her cheeks. I wish I could spare her from any further demonstration that the world is not as nice a place as we might wish it to be... sigh...
But Grandpas are always good for fun and snuggles. Since "Nana" is down at their new house in South Carolina, we cooked for Grandpa Thar last night to keep him company. He enjoyed reading to Carolyn. She is very "into" books right now (though she's quite choosy about which ones she wants to listen to). She goes to the shelf, selects a favorite story, and brings it to whoever is sitting around, saying "Book, Wree!" I put the "W" in Wree because she says the word as if there's a W before the R. It's kind of a mixed sound. You might have to hear it to understand.

Boo at the Zoo!

So today we went with our playgroup to the annual Zoo Goes Boo event (obviously at the zoo :)) We got an excuse to dress the kids up in their costumes and ooh and ahh at how cute they were. :) Carolyn wasn't sure about the costume at first. But isn't she cute?Here we are all together- two ladybugs, one elephant, and a bunny (I think)...
We walked with several hundred of our closest friends in a line past several "haunted" stations where zoo volunteers handed out candy and other treats (thankfully there weren't as many of these stations as I feared). Here Carolyn enjoys her first Twix bar. She learned quickly that the tables with stuff on them meant something tasty and started saying "psss" and rubbing her tummy whenever we got near one (the sign for "please").
We finally gave in and let the kids go in the petting zoo part- although we carefully scoured their hands afterwards. After our last barnyard-type experience, I expected Carolyn to be scared, but she really seemed to enjoy seeing the "Baaa"'s and "Moo"'s up close. :)
My little love bug. :)

Yesterday we FINALLY had a Fall Fun Day at the apple orchard/pumpkin patch. We've been waiting to do this for about a month now- at first we wanted to wait until the unseasonably warm weather passed and then stuff kept coming up. Well, we got fall weather for sure- it was kinda sprinkly and blustery and halfway to cold and we almost didn't go, but we ended up deciding to brave the weather since there won't be another opportunity this year- and we were all glad we did it!

I went to a consignment sale yesterday and found this awesome sweater for just #3! It was perfect for the weather yesterday, though we did have to keep pulling it away from Carolyn's eyes!
They had these great wagons for pulling apples/pumpkins/kids... we thought the kids looked so cute in the wagons! But it was hard to get them to all look at the same time... but somehow I think they look even cuter in their toddler-ness all over the place!
Finally, all looking... but not all looking so happy! :)
We rode in a giant pumpkin in lieu of a hayride out to the orchard and pumpkin patch.

I sure wish this photo hadn't turned out blurry because it's so rare we get a picture all together!
I love this picture of the other girls and babies walking into the orchard.
Carolyn, meanwhile, lagged behind, having seized the first apple she found on the ground. She immediately began to try and bite into it. I wiped it off before I let her have it... but after it fell on the ground several times had to adjust to the notion that she'd be getting rather more dirt than usual. Christi comforted us all by telling us that it was "country dirt" not "city dirt." I guess that's better. :)
She had no interest in picking apples off the tree, but I thought it was fun. :)
She was quite fixated on her "appo."
See Mom, look what I have! This is my favorite picture of Carolyn from this occasion. :)
Next time we will do pumpkins before apples- none of the kids wanted to leave the apple orchard, or put their snacks down long enough to search for a good pumpkin. So we just got a close by pumpkin. :)
I know this is supposed to be a blog about Carolyn, but these pictures of her pals eating apples were just too good to pass up. :) Here's Rachel.
And Caimon.
And Aidan.
After our adventures with apples and pumpkins, we warmed up inside with some cider and donuts. Carolyn loved trying to put Aidan's hat on. :)
And that's the end of our fall day of fun. Stay tuned, we went to the "Zoo Goes Boo" event at our local zoo today and got some fun pictures of the kids in their costumes. :)

Little Talker

Those of you who know Carolyn mainly "virtually" are missing out! She is really entering the prime of language development and her attempts to communicate keep us in stitches! Even I can't understand it all, but I love that she is beginning to be able to tell me about her wants and her world. It's hard to catch on video since she typically clams up as soon as she sees the camera, but I got a few little snippets of "typical" conversations. Nearly every day, she requests both "gookies" (cookies) and "gook" (milk) . We are also beginning to teach her "please" and "thank you." She's been pretty good with please (frequently signing and saying it) but just starting to "get" thank you. If you listen carefully, you'll hear/see both. :) Enjoy! Or better yet, come and see us! :)

Every Day Is Fun

Our life has been fairly quiet this week, but each day with Carolyn is fun. She is adding new words to her vocabulary almost daily now- it's hard to keep track of them! This week, she's added thank you ("a-too"), purple ("puh-puh" and used to refer to grapes, not anything else purple), and, our personal favorite, Jesus ("Jeshush"- kind of smushed together and only distinguishable because the song that we were listening to was a song that said "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus... OOOOOH He is the King!) Since my mom kept track of my vocabulary development and I apparently said "Jesus," "God," and "Bible" by the age of 13 months, we were feeling a bit behind because at 15 1/2 months, she had yet to say any truly religious words. I guess we're safe now. :) Ha ha ha... if only that was all there was to it to teach your kids all about what is right and true! :)

Yesterday we went to an indoor playgym called Playworld with Garrett and his mom, Krysia (pronounced like Trisha but with a K). They have a great little kids' area with rows and rows of these plastic play houses and several little cars for the kids to climb in. Carolyn loved the car so much! She couldn't quite make it move forward, but she scooted backwards and beeped the horn, saying "beep beep" and "vrooom!" I am told that "realistic" sound effects while playing are early signs that she is beginning to use her imagination.
There was also a ball pit just for little ones. Carolyn was fascinated with all the balls and kept saying "Ball! Ball! Ball!"
I think Garrett had the best time of all, though. I have never seen him so ecstatically happy! :) He was just thrilled with all those balls!
Here Carolyn practices driving the fire truck. I love the look on her face in this picture! :)
She loved the cars at Playworld so much that we got out the one we have at home- a friend gave us the one her kids were done playing with and we've been storing it until it Carolyn got big enough. Well, she's certainly big enough to enjoy it, but after our experience yesterday, it was clear that she isn't mature enough for car ownership just yet. She was just delighted to see the car when she got up from her nap and immediately started playing with it to the exclusion of all else- I've rarely seen her so singularly focused! She was very intent upon getting in and getting out of the car- and most especially the delights of closing the door! The problem was, she couldn't control the impulse to shut the door long enough to get both legs in or out, so she kept shutting her legs in the door, which just infuriated her! And on the rare occasion that she managed to get all of herself in the car, she was further frustrated to realize that she could only push the car backward... so then she'd try to get out, get stuck, and start crying again. After about 20 minutes of this, we rescued her by putting the car away again... maybe in a few weeks/months! :)
I haven't taken a "morning face" picture in awhile and as she was stretching herself to consciousness this morning (if I didn't wake her so there would be some structure to her day, I am sure this child would sleep until 930 or 10 every morning, especially now as it stays dark so much later in the morning!) I just had to snap a photo of her morning "do."
And our final two photos are of one of Carolyn's new joys- walking the dog! I am quite impressed with how Baggins behaves when he realizes Carolyn is on the other end of the leash- he seems to instinctively know how hard to pull so that he doesn't pull her over! She loves walking with the leash. Here you can sort of see one of her favorite outfits- she loves to wear anything that has a "moo" on it. :) I'm starting to let her make some of her own clothing choices and this is what she chose to wear yesterday. :)
Today we took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather and went for a blustery afternoon walk. She wasn't sure what to make of the wind in her hair- kept shaking her head and waving her arms around in the breeze.

Bits and Bobs

Friday we had playgroup at Rachel's house... Carolyn thoroughly enjoyed bouncing on this fun bouncing/spinning Zebra. :) And Caimon and Carolyn had fun playing with Rachel's little choo choo car. :) It was all girls on Friday, but I didn't get a picture of everyone together.
It was my weekend to work, so Grammy came to watch Carolyn (Papa was in North Carolina this weekend, so he missed out... :() Grammy brought her doggies and their leashes, and took these fun pictures of Carolyn, who apparently became quite fascinated with one of the leashes. :)

She also taught Carolyn how to dip little Teddy Grahams in yogurt- she made a big mess but had a fun time.
The best part of my whole weekend was coming home after being gone all day Saturday to hear "Mommy! Mommy!" and Carolyn came running as soon she heard my voice. :)