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. :)

See These Teeth?

One of Carolyn's favorite things right now is to "show your teeth!" I don't know why she always shows the bottom ones but I think it's so cute. :) Thought you'd enjoy this picture. :)

The Chicago Marathon- by Carolyn

This weekend we went to the Chicago Marathon because my dad, my sister Laura, and my brother-in-law Bryan (Michelle's husband) were all running in it. The day held many surprises, pleasant and unpleasant and the whole thing has been thoroughly documented HERE on my mom's blog and HERE on Shelly's blog. Uncharacteristically, I am the third person to blog about this- typically I get there first since I have this strange idea that until I blog about something, it hasn't really happened. :) I suppose since my mom and sister both had husbands in the race, the push to get it "out there" was most likely stronger. :) Here I present a slightly different point of view. Since no one else has focused on this particular aspect of the race, I hope you will find it interesting. So, without further ado, I now present "The Marathon- in the Eyes of a Toddler.
We arrived in Chicago the day before the Marathon, and while everyone else went to the Expo to register, I went to Target with Mommy and Grammy to get poster-making supplies (which we sadly never got to use). I was completely fascinated by these large red spheres. "Ball! Ball!" I exclaimed! I just had to touch it.
There were several of these balls and I just had to visit every one, signing "more" and saying "mo ball" at the same time.
The runners came back from the Expo with lots of cool stuff that I got to sort through. My favorite thing was the small tube of some sort of liquid for racers. I thought it was Tylenol. Since my mommy is a good pharmacist, she made sure a drug name was one of my first words. "Lo-Lo! Lo-Lo!"
The night before the race, the runners had to "carbo load."
I did a little carbo loading, too. I love spaghetti! :)
Bright and early Sunday morning, we got on the train to go downtown for the race. I loved riding on the train! We need to have one of these where I live!
Here's Auntie Laura, Papa, and Uncle Bryan, ready to take off!
And here's the Crew, in our matching yellow shirts with the names of our runners on the backs. My shirt coordinates, though you can't see it from here, with all the names written in bright yellow on the back and "Chicago Marathon 2007" on the front. Thanks "Auntie" Terri! :)
Little people in orange vests held back the crowd of runners until it was time to start. Then the horn sounded and they were off!

My mommy tried to take pictures of our runners severeal, but this proved too difficult and she got kind of grouchy, so she didn't take any more pictures for awhile. It was much harder to follow three runners this year than last year and our crew was twice the size it was last year with the wonderful contingent of Scheffers (Uncle Bryan's parents and sister and brother), so we got separated a few times. But our runners still felt supported, and that was the most important thing.
Grammy and Mommy and I raced ahead of the others at one point to try and meet Auntie Laura at the halfway point. I fell asleep for much-needed nap! Auntie Laura was only supposed to run the half marathon (since her longest run before the event was something like 10 miles!) so we wanted to congratulate her as she came off the course... but she decided to keep going and we missed her!
We caught up with Daddy at Mile 17, where we finally did see Auntie Laura- though we didn't get any pictures. We jumped up and down and were all excited- and she said that was what inspired her to do a very stupid, but very plucky thing. :) That silly Auntie Laura decided she was going to finish the race!
All together now, we crammed into another VERY crowded train to ride to the finish line. I think I had the best seat in the house. Everyone else had to be snuggled right up next to another smelly stranger!
I think walking around at the finish line might have been my favorite part. As long as I had my trusty cup of snacks ("kacks") I was happy. The family behind me in this picture was very friendly and let me walk on and off their blanket over and over again.
I got dirtier than I ever recall being before! The Cheetos at the end just did it for me. Mom had to take a picture, and I got a much needed bath as soon as we got home!

We waited at the finish line a very long time. Mommy was kind of scared because people kept talking about how the race was canceled because of the extreme heat and people were saying that a person was getting CPR on the side of the road (sadly, that person ended up passing away which really sobered the celebration that's usually part of this day). Papa Craig finished the race in good time (3 hours, 52 minutes!), but Uncle Bryan had a bad experience with cramping that slowed him down and Auntie Laura wasn't supposed to be finishing the race at all, so we didn't know where they were! Auntie Em and Bryan's sister Kristin went down to the race course to find them and finally we got the call that they were both on their way in- and still running! They'd made it! We were all so happy to see them!
Congratulations to our three brave MARATHONERS!

Riding with Daddy

Carolyn rode with Daddy on the lawn tractor for the first time today. Brad went outside to mow the grass and she heard the lawn mower start and immediately started fussing- "Daddeeee! Daddeeee!" I took her outside and she wanted to follow him! She started saying "Whee! Whee!" so I plopped her up with him and she went for a little ride. She wasn't quite sure what to think, but no doubt it won't be the last time she rides with Daddy. :)

Tea Party

Another Friday... another fun day with friends. :) We went to the Gardens again today. Every time I go I see something new and fun to do. Today my favorite part was the little tea party the kids got to have at this kids' size table with fun plastic dishes. :)Carolyn loves sitting in a chair her own size!
We managed to get everyone to at least look in the general direction of the camera (this involved, as usual, lots of Heather singing "If You're Happy and You Know It").
And here's a candid shot- didn't take them long to switch positions! :)

Who Needs Sleep

I've been struggling for the past few weeks with trouble sleeping- I'm tired, but I just can't get my mind to relax enough to fall asleep and the slightest motion in the bed or noise in the room seems to irritate me to no end and I end up frustrated and fuming hours after I went to bed... or I try to take OTC sleep aids (which don't seem to work half the time) and wake up in the morning feeling like a zombie... or, like tonight, I just give up and get up and try and do something useful with my time- like updating my blog. :) Any tips or advice would be so helpful. It's really very frustrating not to be able to get the rest I know my body needs. I've cut out caffeine after noon, started exercising for 30 minutes every morning, and stopped eating sugar at night- and I still have this problem about 3 or 4 nights a week. I hate it!

But I love these pictures I took today so I'll share them with you.

Carolyn has a pair of pink glasses I got on a super duper sale last year sometime when she was too little for them and she loves to wear them! Well, more specifically, she loves to have me put them on for her, wear them for about 15 seconds, then take them off again, only to bring them back to me about 15 seconds after that to be put back on. I haven't figured out exactly what word she is using to refer to the glasses- sometimes it seems to be "eye" but other times it sounds like something else. Her language is improving daily. Just in the last few days, she seems to be starting to incorporate her words into "sentences." I'll understand a couple of the words in her long strings of sounds, but instead of being random sounds or individual words, she seems to be speaking in structured series of sounds that sound like sentences. I love watching her learn to talk! It's probably my favorite thing about this stage.
Tonight we let Carolyn try some strawberry shortcake. Mostly she just grabbed handfuls of Cool Whip and ate it with berries (she calls all berries "boo" because her first introduction to the delights of berries was with blueberries). The picture doesn't do her justice- and I cropped half of myself out of it because Carolyn convinced me earlier to model one of her hair bows and I didn't realize I still had it in until I downloaded the pictures!