New Toys

Today was a great day. Sharon and her Mom left the house early this morning to go to a couple consignment sales and see if they could find any nice items at great prices, all while Carly and I got to sleep in until almost 9 am. Little did we know as we slept away, mommy and Grandma would be bringing home awesome TOYS!!!!

They also picked up some great clothing items at great prices, but it was the new toys that really got Carly and me excited.

They picked up a Little people car wash and garage that makes nosies and has a couple cool car ramps, a Tonka dump truck that talks and a little people barn with animals to play with.

Check out the videos' and pictures to see them in action.

Updated Birthday Pictures

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Turkey Sausage

Add turkey sausage to the list of table foods Carly will eat (at least for today!)!!

She is slowly, but surely making progress. Maybe Dave and I won't be needing to invest in a smoothy franchise to feed her through her school age days. :-)

When the Cat's Away...

...the mice will play! And that is exactly what we've done.

Yesterday, Carly and I went to a park in the morning and to a different park in the afternoon.

Today, we went out to Discovery Place Kids in the morning. (Unfortunately, our afternoon wasn't quite as much fun because I had to get a run in... but Jake got to come too, so Carly was happy.)

Driving the Tractor

Cooking in the House

Happy 16 Months!

Carly is now 16 months old and really starting to show her independence.

Last Friday I took her to the park and she climbed up some of the equipment and even went down the slide by herself. This was a piece of equipment that I hadn't coached her through previously, but in watching others she figured out what to do. She would occasionally glance around to make sure I was still in sight before proceeding to another section of the equipment.

Today we ventured out to a different playground area and her independence continued. This park is really just an oversized sand box and plastic toy track with some grassy areas to run and play on. Carly tried out many of the plastic cars that have been donated to the play area by families, played in the sand box, and copied her friends with the use of a new slide.

Along with her budding independence, Carly is also starting to communicate with me better. Yesterday she put the sign for "more" and "please" together to ask for more crackers and again for more strawberries. She points out every dog insight, along with fences (because a dog MUST be behind the fence, right). She will also point out babies with some regularity (however, doesn't quite understand that every child in a stroller isn't a baby). She occasionally says her version of book and ball and is still saving "mommy" for those very special circumstances.

At 16 months Carly is obsessed with...

dogs

fruit

books

climbing onto chairs

being outside

Carly at Snack Time

Sometimes I think I have WAY too much fun with Carly. Today's snack time is one of those moments. While watching this video and editing it to shorter length I couldn't help but think, "Carly want a cracker?" I wasn't bribing her to use her sign language, but was only giving her one cracker at a time so that I could get a least one good use of her sign language on video, honest!

Carly's Chore

Carly now has a "chore." For the past week or so she has been helping Dave and me with Jake. She follows one of us to the pantry, closes the door behind us, then follows us to Jake's bowl. She patiently watches one of us dump his food in the bowl, and then she carries Jake's scoop back to the pantry, waits on one of us to open the pantry door before putting the scoop away and closing the door behind her. She then goes on her merry little way.

Tonight Carly was playing with Dave in the family room. She heard me starting to feed Jake and got up, climbing over Dave to come help. As soon as she finished putting the scoop away and closed the pantry door she when straight back to playing with Dave (after she crawled back over him, of course).

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy 30th Birthday to Me! My birthday started with a 9 mile run and then progressed with a normal "Wednesday" routine. Carly and I went off to story time, played outside during the afternoon, and took Jake for a nice walk.

Our evening was slightly out of routine for my celebration. Dave took me out for Sushi. (Carly went too, but wasn't interested in Sushi. She did eat Cheerios from our chopsticks, which eventually resulted in her being tricked into eating a few pieces of rice.) We then came home for some cupcakes from a local cupcake store.

Carly was quite excited about this portion of our evening!

Happy Valentine's Day

While Sharon and I don't prescribe to the notion that you should be extra nice or do something special just because Hallmark wants to sell you a card, we did take Carly out for a photo shoot around the neighborhood a few weeks ago with a decidedly V-Day theme.

And here is a quick one from yesterday.

The Rest Here

Too Cute!

Classic Scarlet Valentine's Day

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Sunny Sunday

The weather was beautiful in Cornelius this weekend. Carly was really able to get out and enjoy it this afternoon. After nap time, we ventured outside to play until her butternut squash was done roasting in the oven - this was around 2:15. Carly played a little bit in our front yard before walking down to play with a few neighbors. While with our neighbors she got her first power wheels ride and Dave and I got a glimpse into what her high school years may look like... SCARY. Her first ride was with Cannon. During this ride in the Corvette convertible, she changed the radio stations, got her "gangster" lean on (Dave's words not mine), and performed the classic stretch move to touch Cannon's back. Cannon was a stud of a date and took Carly to the "car wash". During one of the trips to the car wash, Cannon got out of the car and Fallon got in to take Carly for a ride. Dave was able to catch a part of this ride on video. The sound in this video isn't very loud, but there is a part where Carly is dancing to the music playing on the car's stereo.

We finally ventured back inside just before 4 for a snack of strawberries.

After dinner, Carly continued her dancing upstairs. We didn't catch any full body dancing, but her hands were going!

Copy Cat

Carly is becoming quite the little copy cat. Two weeks ago she and Dave got out her Duplo blocks while I was at church. When Dave plays with the blocks he lays down on the ground. Carly recently began doing the exact same thing. I didn't realize she was copying Dave until a few days ago. Dave asked her if she wanted to play Duplos, she shook her head yes, and they both walked over to her quilt, laid down, and began to play together.

Yesterday afternoon she also copied Dave's dancing. She was in her highchair eating a snack and Dave was on my laptop playing with a few of our downloaded songs. The next thing I knew, they were both dancing while sitting down. It was very cute!

Terrific Tuesday

Carly had a terrific big girl Tuesday! She slept in until 8:35, which was slightly stressful since we were meeting her BFF at Discover Place Kids (DPK) at 9:30. This late wake up led to a banana in her highchair, and then finishing her breakfast of dry Cheerios and a cup of milk in the car ride.

Carly had a fabulous time at DPK with her BFF. They shopped in the grocery store, played in the house, worked in the cafe, and walked all around the place. Carly even climbed about 1/2 way up the indoor playground equipment. She was completely exhausted after almost 2 hours of playing hard, and was hungry.

Afterwards I decided to test my luck with her eating of table food. We stopped by Chick-fil-a and ordered Carly her first kid's meal - a 4 piece nugget meal with fresh fruit. I didn't order anything for myself expecting to eat Carly's chicken pieces while she ate the fruit. Boy was I mistaken. She ate all four pieces of chicken and her entire fruit cup. As she was finishing her meal Dave called to see what we were up to for lunch. I explained about Carly's lunch and how I was still needing to get something for myself. So, Carly and I picked up a to go order and met Dave at home.

Carly took a wonderful nap this afternoon after Dave left to return for work. After waking up so refreshed we ran a quick errand before heading outside to play. We played with her toys, took a walk with our neighbors, and then played some more. After about an hour we ventured back inside for more play time. This play time some how also led Carly towards Dave's running shoes.

All of Carly's playing resulted in a later than normal dinner and very hungry Carly. I decided to try table food again for dinner. She tried and ate grilled chicken that had been marinating in a soy sauce based marinade. She rejected the asparagus we were having with the chicken, but eating table food chicken for lunch and dinner is a HUGE step for Carly.

Carly did have the occasional crying spell, shaking her head "no," and moments she chose to do something she knew was wrong (like stand in a chair); however, today's positive moments made all of the non-positive moments disappear in my mind - making today terrific.

Pajama Mornings Don't Mean Lazy Mornings

Carly wore her pajamas all morning and it wasn't out of laziness on either of our parts. She did sleep in a little this morning after all of last night's Super Bowl excitement (she made it to half time), but when she did get up a little after 9:00 she was the little Energizer Bunny. She helped feed Jake (her chores are to shut the pantry door after I get Jake's food out and then to return the scoop back to the bag of food and shut the pantry door), ate breakfast, and then played until lunch. She played blocks, with her plastic farm, and in her kitchen. She also "ran" around pushing her shopping cart and stroller, pulling her frog, and dancing with Violet. She did stop long enough for a diaper change before lunch, but expressed that she wasn't stopping long enough to change out of her pajamas. All of this playing did result in a nice LONG 2 hour nap! After which she was willing to get dressed, but only to immediately venture outside. We ran one errand before spending the next 1 hour and 20 minutes playing outside - walking, chasing a neighbor, playing with balls, and using sidewalk chalk.

While Carly's clothing this morning may have implied that we were having a lazy day; however, Carly's actions today were anything but lazy.

Super Saturday

I know that tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday; however, today was a super Saturday. I was delayed this morning on leaving for my 12 mile run due to thunder. I finally got on the road a little before 8 and came home to a QUIET house. Typically I come home to Dave and Carly finishing up breakfast or playing. Both bedroom doors were still shut and my depart note was still placed where I left it on Carly's highchair. Carly ended up sleeping until around 10:15, which allowed Dave to sleep until he woke up on his own at 9:40 (all of which makes me VERY jealous).

Our day continued on this lazy streak - we ran some family errands together (after a slow family breakfast of cereal), went and each got a slice of pizza (yes, Carly ate table food at a restaurant! a slice of cheese pizza), played with Carly's Papa (Dave's dad) and had a lovely dinner with him (where Carly ate a few bites of beans!!), and Carly shared her kisses with other people besides me! I asked her for a kiss, which she finally agreed to give me. Then she gave her Papa and Daddy one when they each asked for one, and for a second. All of these little things made for a Super Saturday in our home!

Daddy's Sick Day

Unfortunately Dave became ill on Monday night and had to spend Tuesday at home recovering. I felt really, really bad that he caught a similar virus to the one I had two weeks ago. However, I really hated that Carly didn't understand. She could tell that Dave was home from his occasional movement upstairs. She did not understand that he was sick and really did not feel like playing. This was really bothering her in the afternoon. Anytime she would hear movement upstairs she would run to one of the baby gates while yelling "DADA" and press her whole body up against the gate. Eventually I had to ask him to come down and at least sit in the recliner to appease our little girl.

I thought these little actions by Carly were adorable until this afternoon. Dave left for work this morning before Carly was awake so they were not able to see each other. When he called this afternoon during his drive home Carly eagerly held the phone, waved "hello", blew kisses, and informed me a few times that he was "Dada." Once he walked through the door she was all grins and thrilled to be picked up by him. She leached on and didn't let go for quite a while. They walked around, threw the ball with Jake, hugged, and spent a lot of quality time together. This fascination with Dave lasted the entire evening. She performed for him all night. She danced, sang, and strolled around all for him. At bath time I asked Carly if she could kick her legs, and was told "no." Then I said, "Will you show daddy how you kick your legs?" Immediately she began kicking and showing off for Dave. Our evening continued like this through bedtime and really was cute (but humorous) to watch.