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

Updated Gallery

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).