Bring It 2011!!

In 2010
~ Carly learned how to walk,
~ Dave ran his first 10k, which was then followed by the swimming portion of a sprint triathlon, another 10k, and a 5k pushing Carly, and
~ Sharon ran her first 10k, which was then followed by a 15k and half marathon.

In 2011
~ Carly will loosen up her stiff running stance,
~ Dave will run another 10k and his first half marathon (and maybe his 2nd half marathon), and
~ Sharon will run another 10k and her first marathon (and maybe a 2nd half marathon)

So bring it on 2011, we are ready!!!

2010 Photo Review...Part One

Here are the pictures and memories from the start of 2010

Full Screen Slide Show

The Second half will be here soon.

All Done!

It is official! (I think) Carly is finished nursing. I have been fretting this moment since she was about 10 months old. I wanted her to wean herself, but I also was not very excited about the idea of nursing her for another 10+ months. I loved the bonding time she and I had with each feeding, but also longed for a nap or evening when someone else could put her down calmly and with minimal tears. By Carly's first birthday she was only nursing before nap times and bed time. By Thanksgiving she was only nursing at bedtime. She had chosen not to nurse December 19, but was very adamant that she would nurse the next evening. However, on Christmas Day she decided she didn't want to nurse anymore. Dave and I bathed her and got her all ready for bed like normal; however, when she and I sat down she immediately put her head down on me and made herself comfortable. She and I sat like this for a minute before I picked her up and held her. We swayed in front of her pack 'n play, with her head resting on my shoulder for a few minutes before I put her down.

The next night Dave and I got Carly ready like normal, but wasn't too sure about how our routine would progress between getting Carly in her pajamas and putting her down in her bed. Again, she wasn't interested in nursing, just going to bed. On December 27th (night 3) we decided Dave would try to put Carly down, again - no nursing, no tears. The following night wasn't quite the same. Carly had "run" on the beach and was VERY tired. I was anticipating needing to nurse her to help her settle down; however, Carly had a very different plan. Dave and I got her ready for bed, and as he turned to walk out of the room, Carly began to fuss. As soon as he turned back around and walked towards her the fussing stopped and she nose dived for him. Obviously, she wanted her daddy to put her to bed again.

We returned home tonight from our Christmas travels, so I was again curious about how our bedtime routine would go. Would she revert back to our "home" routine (which included nursing) or our "traveling" routine (which hasn't been including nursing)? Dave and I decided we would let him put her to bed again, to help her not revert back. However, she again showed us how she is slowly becoming an independent little girl. Once in her pajamas, Carly fussed a little bit for Dave, dive bombed for me, sat on my lap to finish her cup of milk from dinner, and then went to bed fuss free.

We are officially on night number 5 of no nursing, at this point there really is no going back.

I am completely blown away that the books were right (again). When Carly was done nursing she would just stop. I never in my wildest motherhood dreams thought she and I would have nursed for 14 months and 2 days, and that she would never be served formula. There were days/nights when it was VERY difficult. I pumped exclusively for 2 months to increase my supply, until Carly went on a bottle strike, eventually was able to create quite a freezer stock that was going to be used when I returned to work; however, is now being used on her cereal and morning cup of milk, and avoided having to give money to the formula companies!!

12 Days of Christmas

Okay, so maybe our Christmas wasn't 12 days long; however, it also wasn't only 1 day.

Our celebrations began on Thursday, December 23 as we travelled down to Columbia to visit with my parents and brother. We spent the afternoon celebrating my dad's birthday, but then loaded up in the car to begin our Christmas celebration by looking at spectacular Christmas lights in nearby neighborhoods.

We awoke on Christmas Eve and celebrated Christmas with my family, just like it was Christmas Day. A BIG breakfast (which included pancakes in the shape of Mickey Mouse's face) and a few presents. We then reverted back to our Christmas Eve traditions and packed up to head out to my grandmother's home in Blackville. There we were able to visit and celebrate with more family, eat our traditional Christmas Eve's spaghetti dinner, and watch Carly run circles around the house.

Unfortunately, our visit in Blackville was very short. We packed up again that afternoon to head down to Seabrook Island to begin our Christmas celebrations with Dave's family. During our visit we managed to spend a lot of quality time with family, take a trip into Charleston, walk the dogs on the beach, and spread out our Christmas gift opening for 3 days. (Apparently that is what happens when there are 3 children under the age of 3 celebrating together, maybe next Christmas we will synchronize their naps a little better.)

Our family had a FABULOUS Christmas vacation and are very grateful to have so many family members to celebrate with during the Christmas season; however, we are also very thankful to be home safe and sound tonight and ready to sleep in our own beds.

Overall Christmas Statistics:

Trip Length - 7 days, 6 nights

Cities Visited - Columbia, Blackville, Seabrook Island/John's Island, Charleston, Mt. Pleasant

# of Family Members Visited: 22 + 1 dog

Dave has posted many of the pictures from our big adventure on our photo website. Click here to view these photos.

Merry Christmas

The Christmas Marathon is half-way over and it is only getting started. Here are some pictures to tide you over until Sharon can put up a proper post.

Full Gallery

Merry Christmas

Discovery Place Kids (Again)

David is "off" of work for the next two weeks, so in celebration we headed to one of our favorite family spots - Discovery Place Kids.

During this trip we explored many of the same exhibits, yet every trip still seems to be uniquely its own. This time Carly and David decided to explore the Club House to its fullest by climbing all the way to the top. The Club House is an inside playground connecting the first and second floors. Kids (and adults) can climb, slide, crawl, and explore through this playground as they travel between floors. David and Carly chose a more direct route, climbing the platform stairs to the top, stopping only once to wave to me from a look out point.

Carly also spent a lot of time playing in the house. She made a meal in the kitchen area, took care of the baby, and picked up (aka moved around the play ware) the area.

Christmas Baking

Tis the season to bake, and bake we have! Today our friends Jason and Kelly came over for an afternoon filled with sugar! We began our baking extravaganza with Gingerbread Men (and other assorted gingerbread cookie shapes). We gathered around the dough as David began cutting out the first shapes, encouraging him to make more of one figure or to do something else. With anticipation as they cooked and cooled, we pulled out boxes and bags worth of decorating fun (thanks to Kelly). We had icing in many different colors, sprinkles, colored sugar, and some candy. We sat there and diligently worked, admiring each other's decorating skills and eating any mishaps.

About the time we transitioned from decorating our gingerbread cookies to using the cookie cutters on the sugar cookie dough, Carly awoke from her nap. When David brought her downstairs she was in complete awe. When she went up for a nap, the kitchen had been clean and I was the only one home with her. Now there were cooling racks and cookie sheets all over the kitchen and a breakfast room table that was filled with many bright colors and "stuff." She took a few minutes to warm up, but giving her a fresh baked gingerbread snowman really jump started her afternoon.

I really didn't eat it, Daddy decorated it that way.

Tasting the homemade sugar cookies.

Family of bakers and tasters.

Our fun continued with the decorating of sugar cookies and an attempt to make miniature cakes and brownies using different form pans. The sugar cookies were a yummy success, but I think we might have been on too much of a sugar high when it came to baking the miniature cakes. Either way we had a lot of fun.

Our afternoon of Christmas festivities continued into the night and we took a group trip around Jason and Kelly's neighborhood to look at Christmas lights and the NASCAR inflatables. Carly actually stayed awake during the car ride, but I think that had more to do with Kelly sitting next to her than the lights outside. Jason and Kelly's neighborhood even has a home who's lights match music played on a FM station, a truck with a Santa tied to the front grill, and more inflatables than even Lowe's carries. It was a fantastic way to end a fun day with good friends and their neighborhood is really quite a sight.

Rest of the pictures here

Imagination

Carly and I stayed inside ALL day today. I was slightly nervous that my plan to keep her in our warm home during our current cold snap may make us both a little stir crazy; however, after yesterday afternoon I should have known this would be far from the case.

Yesterday afternoon Carly's imagination had her trying to put a diaper on Elmo. Unfortunately, she wasn't working with a diaper but rather a burp cloth I was carrying around as her handkerchief.

After breakfast this morning Carly decided to clean out her cabinet and look at all the neat things she and I were storing in there. In the way back she found a bag of old bottles. I watched in anticipation as to what exactly she would do with them. It had been a while since her last bottle and was really hoping she wasn't interested in drinking from it. To my surprise, she stood up, walked into the family room and pulled her baby doll out of her toy bag. I assumed she was going to try to feed the baby doll, I was mistaken. Instead she went and got the lunch tote that I have always used to transport her milk and now solid foods. She then attempted to walk around juggling all three items before stuffing the doll and bottle into the bag.

Later on in the day Jake and Gertrude were playing. Carly attempted to "walk" into the action, but wasn't having much luck getting their attention. So, like any 13 month old she stepped back, watched for a few moments, and then crawled into the situation. I can only imagine she was pretending to be a dog too. She crawled between the two dogs and then circled them. This did manage to get their attention, so she quickly stood up and starting petting at both of them and waving profusely. (The petting and waving took up many points of our day.)

Carly also took time today to "cook," "shop with her shopping cart," and "read" to her doll. I continue to be amazed with how much she is soaking up by sitting back and observing her environment.

WAHOO!!

Wahoo!! I did it!! I ran 13.1 miles. Okay, so maybe I jogged. But I didn't walk, I didn't stop, and I did the entire 13.1 miles in 2 hours, 6 minutes, and 55 seconds. If you had told me a year ago today that I would ever participate in any type of running event, I would have laughed in your face and probably put a large sum of money against those odds. It is funny how life plays out.

When I started running this fall my goal was never to participate in a half marathon, simply to run a 10k with David (and if I beat him, then that would be the icing on the cake). Well, that first race led to a 15k a month later. The 15k led to a half-marathon about a month and a half later. I never understood when others explained that participating in these races was addictive, but now I do. I'm hooked. Part of the addiction is the anxiousness I feel the night before and morning of a race. I also really enjoy the sense of accomplishment I feel when it is all over. I am still in complete awe that by 11:15 yesterday morning I had gotten up, gotten all 3 of us out of the house, gotten to uptown Charlotte, waited "patiently" in the warm convention center, run 13.1 miles, come home, showered, and was busy playing with Carly.

Now that I'm hooked, I'm also at a bit of a loss at the moment. I'm not sure what to do next (a marathon is NOT the right answer). I plan to "maintain" my running through the winter, meaning I will run about 3 miles two weekdays a week and 5 miles once on the weekend, then begin training for another race in the spring. At the moment, David and I have plans to participate in the Cooper River Bridge Run (a 10k race in Charleston) this spring and the Kiawah Half Marathon next December.

In the Spirit

I have noticed more or more often that Carly is really getting into the Christmas spirit. She is jamming and dancing to the Christmas Carols Sharon has playing. Unfortunately her song of choice right now happen's to be Marriah Carrey's new hit.

While I don't have any good pictures to document the jammin', I did capture her "reading" Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

I have been reading it to her and I tried to watch the old 60's cartoon version of the book, but it was a no go. Instead she ran around playing while dad watched the show.

Imagination

Carly's imagination has really started to become apparent over the past few weeks. The first thing we noticed was her holding up play phones and babbling into them. She especially gets a kick out of doing this when we play along and talk into another play phone or one of the phones in our house. Since her birthday she has also really enjoyed pushing around her grocery cart and stroller. Although now she goes and gets her purse, places it on her arm, then proceeds to push her doll or stuffed animal around.

On Saturday morning she even copied her daddy in the kitchen. While I was out running the two of them worked together in the kitchen. David making yummy eggs for our breakfast, and Carly stood at her small table and copied her daddy in a small pot and spoon we recently had placed in her cabinet.

It is a lot of fun to watch her play pretend. It is really showing us how much she is observing each day, even though it may not be obvious in our day to day interactions with her.

Peas

Back History:
Carly still has no teeth popping through. As a result she didn't start putting everything in her mouth around 3 months, which led to her not being as interested in baby food early, and slowed me down in introducing her to table food. Dave and I would let her try soft foods if she asked for them. During a sick visit around 11 months her doctor asked how her progression into table food was going, I mentioned her lack of teeth and was reprimanded (nicely) for not having her on mostly table food. So home she and I went, with me feeling bad. David and I quickly realized that Carly was eating a lot of table food, just not pasta or vegetables. She would eat cheese, fruit, and bread products all day long if we let her. Meat was hit or miss, depending on her mood. However, she would eat almost any vegetable if we blended it. (Which the doctor was fine with at her 1 year visit, mentioning how most parents would be happy if their children ate a vegetable

any form.)

Since this doctor's David and I have really focused on finding table foods Carly will try and can be successful eating without having even one tooth. Her stubbornness at times has led to some frustration and pretty boring meals. A lot of food has ended up on the floor and fed to Jake. I have tried to hiding peas in her fruit cocktail, hiding green bean pieces in her pureed green beans, calmly putting corn on her tray and walking away (at least in her mind), etc. Nothing has worked. I've read books and online articles about to just keep trying and she would just start one day. I was starting to have my doubts and was thinking we should look into investing in a Smoothy King franchise so Carly could drink her meals when in high school and college. Then tonight's dinner came.



Tonight's Dinner:
David and I sat down with Carly for tonight's dinner. We weren't having any bread, so she was able to start her sliced ham (her first course) when we sat down. As she finished her ham she began pointing and grunting towards my plate. I offered her a piece of pork chop, she pushed it away. I then put a few peas on her tray and into her mouth they went. So, I put a few more. Same thing. She was shoveling these peas into her mouth like they were mini sugar/candy balls. By the end she ate more peas than David and I did combine. We were both completely shocked.


I'm not confident that she will eat peas again for me tomorrow, and that's okay. I have had a glimpse of the light at the end of the pureed veggie tunnel, and we will get there eventually. At least I'm not currently have to puree veggies and hid them in not so healthy dishes (there is a whole book now out in the stores about this topic).

Dancing with Daddy

Christmas Carols were playing so Carly and I decided to cut loose.

A little Dip


Some Box Step


A bigger dip




Having some fun


And now she is bored of her old man already.

Uh-Oh!

Don't worry, nothing is wrong and no one is hurt, this is just Carly's favorite little saying at the moment. Since turning 13 months she has really begun to communicate with us. Sometimes using parts of a word, pointing, motions, grunts, etc. However, she knows the meaning of Uh-Oh! now as well as she knows the word "dada".

Recently Carly has been having a lot of fun with this word. She will drop a book/food/toy (on accident and/or purpose) and follow it up with an "uh-oh!". This saying is then followed with a quick smile.

I'm not really sure where Carly picked up this saying. David and I didn't say it with any frequency prior to Carly saying it. However, now that she says with regularity we seem to be saying it more and more.

Hugs

Recently Carly has turned into a hugging machine. During Thanksgiving week she would "run" towards you if you got down to her level and extened your arms out (inviting her to come hug you). David and I both thought this was wonderful. Now she has stepped it up a notch. If he or I say the word "hug" we typcially get a similar reaction, without have to open our arms first. This type of hug mostly happens when we are already holding her, yet her back is very straight and pulled away from our body. If we ask Carly for a hug, she grins, extends her arms, falls into your chest, and nuzzles on your shoulder. Or she grins and dive bombs in the other direction.

Because these hugs are so much fun, David and I tend to be requesting them quite often throughout the day. We have to take advantage of these free hugs before she is old enough to run up stairs, and scream about how she hates us slamming her door.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Carly had a very enjoyable and busy Thanksgiving week and weekend. It all started with a visit from her Aunt Julia.

We made yummy treats, introduced Aunt Julia to Discovery Place Kids, and had a wonderful time. (David and I were able to even sneak away for a date night to see the new Harry Potter movie.)

After Aunt Julia's visit we ventured down to Columbia to see my parents and to eat many Thanksgiving goodies. Carly had a wonderful time playing with a "new" push and ride toy my mom found.

Carly even enjoyed rocking in my old rocking chair. She used it to "watch" the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (a whole minute or so).

The next morning I did a little shopping (not as successful as I had hoped) before we loaded up and headed down to Seabrook to visit with more family. Carly really enjoyed playing with her grandparents and great-grandparents.

After such a wonderful weekend, she was quite exhausted.

PIctures from Fall

Happy Thanksgiving Play Date

Carly attended a Thanksgiving themed playdate today, and really enjoyed herself. During this gathering the kids ate a variety of snacks, made headbands, and played. Carly decorated her headband with Thanksgiving stickers and I added 3 feathers before she walked around wearing it for a few moments. She also really enjoyed playing with all the many kids. They played magnets on the refrigerator, ran (or walked quickly in Carly's case) in circles around the downstairs, and ate as many snacks as they could get their hands on.

As a result of such a fun filled day, Carly took at 2.5 hour nap while our neighbors had a few trees cut down.

Stairs

Carly has been crawling up our stairs now since about the middle of July. Recently she has really started trying to use the rail to walk up the stairs and contemplating how exactly to come down the stairs. Dave and I would really like for her to either sit and scoot down the stairs or to crawl down the stairs backwards. However, her little short legs aren't allowing us to work on that skill quite yet.

Today, Dave went to participate in a flag football game and one of my favorite parks/playgrounds. Carly and I had an errand to run before venturing over to the park to watch him. Unfortunately, Carly had different plans when we arrived at the park. She was VERY interested in the two different sets of stairs. They had a nice double rail on each side that was the perfect height for her to use to walk up the stairs and then side step her way down the stairs.

I was able to get video of her walking up the stairs. Unfortunately, I didn't trust her new found skill of side stepping down the stairs enough to video it.

Big Kid

Today Carly and I took Dave to Discovery Place Kids. Carly showed him around to a few places, but then he was gone. I knew that Dave would really like this place, but I had no idea how much. He was in awe with the large water table, brick making area, and many other aspects that are currently above Carly intellect. I tried to tell him to go off and have fun, but apparently he thought there was something creepy about a grown man playing in a toy area without a kid he knows with him. Oh well. Eventually, she will be old enough to play with all of the different parts of this wonderful museum.

Dinner Time

HD version here

Twice

Carly has had quite the past 24 hours. Last night Dave started to sing the alphabet song (A-B-C...Z. Now I know my A, B, Cs next time won't you sing with me?). While he was singing this song, Carly walked over to the table with all of her books and pulled out Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. (An A-B-C book that has the alphabet printed on the back pages, which we sing to her after the book.) I thought this was just a coincident.

Tonight, while we were playing before dinner I began singing the alphabet song. And she repeated last night's action. She walked over, got the book, and brought it over to Dave to read. As a result, we repeated this book many, many times this evening. (Although, I'm still thinking it is a coincident, even though she has done it twice now.)

Carly also used her spoon independently twice today. She used it to feed herself some peach yogurt this morning and then some green beans and chicken noodle dinner. She is still quite messy, and needs help holding the dish while she is "dipping" the spoon into it, but she can complete the motion for a few passes. We are a long way from her feeding herself an entire meal using utensils, but we are taking big girl steps in the right directions.

Update (11/10/10) - Carly fed herself some at all three meals today with her spoon, and went and got her Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book on two different instances from two different places today when someone began singing the alphabet song. (She also ignored me once when I sang it, there were some blocks that were a lot more interesting.)

Year 2

Back by popular demand is the One a Day gallery for year 2. I have added a slide show on the side bar for the new year, but here it is in all it's splendor.



If you missed a day the first year, here is a link to the gallery: Carly Year One

Discovery Place Kids

Carly and I made a much anticpated trip over to Discovery Place Kids today. It is a hands on museum currently geared towards children 1 - 5 (although there overall plan and proposal was for birth - 7, so I'm expecting more as the center matures and more donations flow in). I was very excited that this museum would be less than 10 miles away from our home, but slightly skeptical about how my one year old would do and what the crowds would be like this inital winter. I went knowing that more than likely Carly and I would go through, enjoy ourselves, and I would walk out applying today's admission to an annual membership, I was absolutely surprised that when Carly and I walked into the first exhibit of the museum I was ready to turn around and go sign up for our membership immediantly.

The museum is set up as a huge Play Town (think of a play house on a town size scale). There is a fire truck, medic truck, veternarian's office, doctor's office, grocery store, theater, airport, farming area, cafe, bank (with a car pulled up at the drive through teller), car mechanic's shop, and art studio. There are also many other exhibits that represent our area - a small scaled NASCAR car and boat for kids to play in. Along with two HUGE water tables, one for kids to walk around, and a smaller one for toddlers to walk/cruise around and with highchairs attached to it for younger babies. There is also an area fenced off (with a cute white picket fence) for babies 0 - 36 months. This has a small cottage style place house, small ride on toys, the smaller of the two water tables, and a mat area for non-mobile babies.

Carly had an absolute BLAST playing in almost every exhibit. She wasn't interested in the dress up clothes that were at each exhibit, and we did skip over some of the I CAN exhibits (like brick making, car mechanics) that she wasn't tall enough to investigate. There were also some that she cognitively wasn't ready for that we bipassed, but that made me very excited about being able to explore this new museum for many years to come. (It would have been a disappointment if she could have done everything.)

Carly working as a veternarian.


Grocery Shopping


Now I'm a chef!


Cleaning up my mess in the kitchen.


Weighing the baby!


Walking on the "sunken ship" in the "underwater" exhibit.


Driving through the bank with her BFF (although the car doesn't move).


Flying the helicopter.


Water Table #1


Water Table #2


Ready for the rapids!

There are a lot more pictures on SmugMug. Unfortunately, my camera battery did begin to die so I had to choose my photographic moments wisely during our last 45 minutes.

Happy Halloween!!

Carly seems to have really enjoyed her second Halloween! She celebrated on Friday night by going to Davidson's Halloween March (a parade down Main Street where the kids trick or treat at store fronts), then went to a party on Saturday, and Sunday did the real deal. On Sunday afternoon we introduced Carly to her orange plastic pumpkin and tried to mimic what would be happening later on in the evening. Later in the day we gathered with our neighbors in the pool and dock parking lot for a pizza dinner and socializing. It was great to see so many of our friends and all the cute costumes. After Carly came home and had a quick dinner (she didn't seem interested in eating much, she must have realized she was missing out on the fun), she and Dave were off. They ventured around the neighborhood trick or treating. Carly in her lion costume, riding in her wagon, and Dave pulling her from drive way to drive way. They didn't hit every house in our neighborhood, just many of our friends who would enjoy seeing her. Until - Dave went to help Carly get out of her wagon and she grabbed for his drink and spilt it all over her. The cool night, cool drink, and a soaking wet lion ended their trick or treating fun.

Practicing


Front Steps Decorated


Ready to Go!

Happy Halloween, Then and Now

One Year Ago Today:


Today:

Big Girl Morning

Carly had a "Big Girl" morning today. I needed to help with Sunday School this morning and Dave was still in Charleston, which meant she and I both needed to be out the door and in our respective classes by 9:15. (We were close to being on time.) This was also going to be Carly's first Sunday in the 1-2 year old room. I was slightly nervous about her being in this new room and not knowing any of the other teachers or children for the first time she needed to be left for both Sunday School and the church service. (Typically, she and Dave just come for the service and not Sunday School.) With the help of another teacher I ventured over to Carly's classroom between the two hours and observed Carly being played with by a high school student and smiling widely. When I picked her up, the high schooler did tell me that Carly only fussed at the very end of the time. (Honestly, this didn't surprise me. Our service ran over by about 15 minutes and was cutting into nap time.) I have to admit that the lead teacher and I were both surprised that Carly was able to stay in this new room for the entire time. When I dropped her off she did mention that typically kids may need to float between the nursery and 1/2 year old room initially as they warmed up to the idea of a larger room with many new faces. I truly believe Carly didn't see the room as a larger room with new faces, but rather a larger room with a whole lot more toys. Either way, she did beautifully in the new room. Hopefully next week will be just as successful.

Precious

Carly was absolutely precious tonight! She and I went to a Halloween party, and this little lion melted my heart. She was very cute walking around looking and playing some of the different games set up, trying to convince someone that she needed something off of the food table (in particular a mini-cupcake), and running around with the big kids. But what really melted my heart was when she wanted to "check-in" with me. She would roam around with the kids, then start going up to every female that had some similar attribute to me, brown hair, jeans on, etc. She would look them square in the face or request to be picked up once it became dark and she couldn't see the faces clearly. She would get a hug or be picked up by this other woman, play with them a few moments, and then request to proceed on her merry little way. This would continue until she found me. Once finding me, she would "run" over to me, give me a BIG hug, then want down to go play with the kids some more. While I thought this was really cute, the precious portion came when she got tired. She found herself closer to a group of men and began doing the same game she had done earlier with the women. However, this time she wasn't looking for me, she was looking for Dave. She had forgotten (probably in her tiredness) that he had not gone to the party with us. (I'm sure she didn't understand that he was in Charleston visiting his grandparents, but at the beginning of the party she did seem to understand that he wasn't there.) I could see the frustration rising in her as she couldn't find him, and she ran just a little bit faster towards me than she had earlier in the evening once I was able to make eye contact with her. I felt really bad for her that it would be another day before she would see her dad, but I did find it absolutely precious that even though she hadn't seen him in over 24 hours she was tired and wanted to be held by him. Thankfully, I would do and tears didn't erupt - but it was apparent, her first choice tonight wasn't me but her daddy!

False Sense of Security (again)

Last year I posted about how I thought the flu shot was a false sense of security. While I still feel that way, we are all set and vaccinated against the flu. Dave was able to get his shot at work last week and Carly got the first half of her's yesterday (she will get the last portion of the vaccine in four weeks. While we left Carly's doctor's office yesterday Dave reminded me that I was the only one not protected, so feeling left out - I went and got mine today. I know these shots are supposed to protect our family from the flu, and they probably will. For that I am thankful. However, the flu is not the only nasty germ floating around during the fall and winter months. I don't plan to let my guard down and invite some other illness into our home. The throw ups, earaches, and overall yuckiness can steer clear of here... it isn't welcomed this holiday season.

12 month visit

Carly had her 12 month visit today. She is currently 22lbs, 2 oz (50th - 75th percentile) and 30 inches long (75th - 90th percentile). She also felt very comfortable with her doctor during this visit. Typically she stays around Dave or I during her visits; however, this time she was reaching for him to hold her and overall quite social.

This visit did include 4 shots, one of which was a flu shot. We discussed her progression with table food - at the moment she is eating all table food, except for pasta and vegetables. She prefers to have her vegetables pureed or blended. Dave and I both have decided we'd rather not overly push the issue since she does eat her vegetables this way, and many toddlers just flat refuse vegetables. Her doctor thankfully didn't seem concerned. His advice was to keep trying, and know that many parents wish their kids ate a more balanced diet. (At least we know Carly's is balanced, as long as I blend/puree those veggies for her.)

In the past few weeks she has added strawberries, beef, cake, pita, fruit cocktail, pear slices, and peanut butter (only once or twice) to her diet. She continues to eat meats on occasion, cheddar cheese with some regularity, but will eat fruit and bread until she is about to POP. She has also been doing really well with using a sippy cup. Today we drank over 6 ounces. She is continuing to nurse before each nap (most of the time) and before bedtime. We are continuing to work on increasing her milk intake from a cup prior to going upstairs for a nap or bedtime, so she will continue to nurse less and less before these times.

Overall Carly is doing well. She is healthy, happy, and now officially a TODDLER!!

Celebrations

Carly has had four straight days of celebrations. While they haven't all been for her, she has been partying right through them all.

On Friday we celebrated Carly's birthday with her friends. We invited a few friends over for cupcakes and playtime. While the kids ranged from 4 years old to 7 weeks old, they all seemed to have an enjoyable time.

Cupcakes


Carly's First Bite


She ate it all!

After the celebration and a nap the party continued with a pizza dinner out at Brooklyn South and home for Carly to open a few gifts.

Shortly after opening these gifts Carly crashed hard for the night. This put Julia, David, and I to work. David got to work putting together Carly's new wagon, while Julia and I got to work decorating Carly's birthday cake and cupcakes for Saturday's celebration.

On Saturday Carly celebrated her birthday again. This time it was with her grandparents and "adult" friends.

"Smash" Cake made by her Grandpa.

Sarah thought the cake was yummy too!


Playing (Carly needed an outfit change after feeding herself cake.)


Going for a ride in the new wagon!

Saturday's festivities were followed up with another party on Sunday. This one was not for Carly, but rather her BFF who is only 5 days younger. The girls had a wonderful playdate and were able to enjoy even more cake!


Our celebrations didn't end on Sunday. Monday we attended Carly first Halloween Party!! She had a blast. She made a ghost, played with toys and other children, and tried fried Cheerios and Jell-O for the first time. She did try to weasel her way into getting more cake (four days in a row wasn't happening under my watch). She very nicely walked up to another mom who was enjoying a cupcake and raised her arms up. (Very much like Oliver in Oliver Twist... "Please sir, may I have some more?") The mom politely told Carly she didn't think I wanted her to have any cake at the moment, so Carly sat down and tried her request again. When this didn't bring about the outcome Carly was hoping for she really turned up the cute factor. She stood up, gave the mom a great big hug on her leg, then sat down and repeated the begging position. Thankfully this series of events did not end with Carly getting cake or with a tantrum!

I think all of this celebrating has finally caught up with Carly. Yesterday she was not interested in napping, I'm sure she thought she would miss another party or opportunity for cake. Today she has SLEPT! She didn't wake up until 10:15 this morning and went back down for a nap around 12:30. Life will be low key for the remainder of the week, so hopefully we can get back on schedule. But I'm sure as soon as we do, this weekend's Halloween festivities will start up and mess it all up again.