11 month update!

Eleven months old? Seriously? I'm not even going to elaborate on how incredibly weird that sounds to me.



Caroline is all over the place at this age! I can hardly change her diaper without her attempting to be a little escape artist. Her crawling is a LOT faster now. She can zoom across the room in seconds -- especially if she sees something she wants (a favorite toy, string cheese, a bottle).

And speaking of bottles I'm currently attempting to transition her to a sippy cup. The process has been a little frustrating so far. When she was about 7 or 8 months old, I bought some small sippy cups with handles - she doesn't like those. A couple months later I bought some Elmo-themed larger sippy cups - she doesn't like those. Today I bought the Nuk sippy cups with the soft spout, the kind that's more similar to a bottle. I've tried giving it to her and few times today and she screams bloody murder. Not sure what's going on with that, but we're definitely not going to give up! It's time for her to give up her bottles and be a big girl. *sniff sniff*

She only has a few more weeks of formula and then we'll start her on whole milk. She's still eating very well -- eating pretty much any table food she can get get hands on! She's also loving fresh fruit this summer -- watermelon, cantaloupe, apples, bananas. Big fan of fruit!

One thing I am VERY proud of is the fact that Caroline hasn't used a pacifier in approximately a month! Pacis were always a take it or leave it kind of thing for her, so we just phased them out - no big deal. She's so awesome. :)

Birthday party planning is still underway -- invitations have been sent, cake has been ordered, and now I'm working on all the fun details! I know she'll never remember her first birthday, but I definitely want it to be a special day. She is the best thing that ever happened to me & it's the perfect day to celebrate that! :)

Here are some new pictures of my little munchkin.....





























































- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Little Miss Independent

At 10 months old (easing closer and closer to 11 months.. wow) Caroline has officially decided that she is so over baby food. She'll swat the spoon away when I try to feed her now! She absolutely loves feeding herself though. Some of her current favorites are: string cheese, Earth's Best teething biscuits, scrambled eggs, mini rice cakes, peaches, bananas, cooked carrots, Cheerios, frozen waffles, and pancakes. She is getting so independent!

We decided that Caroline's first birthday party will be October 2nd. I originally has planned on having it in our big, beautiful backyard but I was afraid it would rain - our house is tiny and it wouldn't work moving the guests inside. So we just went ahead and rented a shelter house near Mesker Park Zoo. I'm still working out all the details but we decided on a monkey themed party!

I have so many ideas floating around in my head, I can't wait to get started on them! My mom is coming with us on Friday to start picking out party supplies. And Thursday is our smash cake photo session with our favorite photographer. I'll use one picture for the invitations & then try to implement some more at the party. Everyone that knows me well knows I live for this kind of stuff, lol.

Here are some recent pictures of our little monkey.








































































- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Double digits...

How is my precious little girl 10 months old already? She'll be a year old in just two short months.. impossible! I refuse to believe it.







I think Caroline is pretty much on track when it comes to her development. She crawls around the room very quickly now & will pull up on anything and everything! She will let go and stand sometimes for like 5-10 seconds. She officially has 8 teeth, 4 on top and 4 on the bottom!

She still babbles "da da da" and "ma ma ma" all the time, but she's always developing new sounds. My mom, Brad, and I swear up and down that she said "birthday" the other night when we were talking about her party. She must be getting excited! ;)

And we've moved her up to size 4 diapers! She's not really in the suggested weight range for them yet but she takes after me & has quite a caboose! They seem to fit her better. It was just another milestone that was hard for me to accept.

Favorite foods at the moment are bananas (we just give them to her cut in half - it's usually quite a mess but hilarious), noodles, cheese in any form, pureed apples with cinnamon, pureed carrots with brown sugar, and MumMums (a cracker-like baby snack that allows them to self-feed -- we call them surfboards). She also tried cherry Jello-O a couple days ago and fell in love!

She loves finding the air vent in the room and crawling to it. She's the best shopper ever - she loves sitting in the shopping cart and looking at everything/everyone! The best moment of the day for her is definitely when Brad walks through the door after getting home after work. She always gives him the biggest smiles!

Both her hair and eye colors are both kind of a mystery at the moment. She has very little hair - as you can tell from her pictures. But the little that she does have is kind of light brown/dark blonde/reddish. And her eyes are like Brad's - the color changes a lot! Sometimes they are charcoal gray, other times kind of a honey brown, and sometimes they have a hint of green in them. All I know right now is that she's the most beautiful baby I've ever seen!

Here are a few more recent pictures of my little munchkin:




































Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street? Caroline can.

Over the past few weeks, Caroline has developed a new obsession... Sesame Street! I can put other shows on - Dora the Explorer, Baby Einsteins, etc - and she has absolutely no interest in them. But as soon as she hears the Sesame Street theme song her head whips toward the TV and she smiles. She is especially in love with Elmo right now. The last 15 minutes of each episode is usually dedicated to a segment called Elmo's World and she goes crazy for that!

It's kind of cool that this is her show of choice because I used to watch it when I was little, too! And it's actually a show that I can tolerate watching with her. Today Amy Poehler was on there and they also did a segment featuring Oprah's voice -- "You get an oboe! You get an oboe! Everyone gets an oboooooooooe!"

Caroline in her Sesame Street gear! She has a third shirt (which we could only find in 2T - she's been wearing it to bed) that says "Everything I know I learned from the Street," lol.

 Tomorrow my munchkin turns 10 months old -- how is this possible?! But I'll post her monthly picture and some updates on her development. She's growing up way too fast.

Caroline's First Pageant

I watch "Toddlers & Tiaras" on TLC all the time and I'll admit it, I judge those mothers. I don't have anything against pageants. It's the extremes that some of those moms go to -- especially when the child isn't interested in participating, that's what really gets under my skin. But for some reason, I can't help but watch that show when I see it's on. Go figure.

Last night Caroline participated in the Vanderburgh County 4H Fair's Tiny Tots Contest. It's for ages 0-4, but they divide the age divisions up by 6-month increments. So she competed against other 6-12 month old babies. I was very surprised how much effort parents put into their kid's costumes and props! One little girl was decked out in peacock feathers and several came on stage on their own floats.

Despite the fact that our costume wasn't very detailed, Caroline was freaking adorable and I was so incredibly proud of her. She wore a red, white and blue tutu, bow, and onesie with a flag on it. Her music (that we got to pick) was "American Woman" by Lenny Kravitz. I honestly believe (although I'm slightly biased) that if she would've smiled at the judges on stage, she would've won - hands down!. She gave us some of her beautiful smiles before and after going on stage, but there were a LOT of people in the audience and I think she got a little overwhelmed. We will definitely be participating again next year.. and will be kicking it up a notch (or two)! We've already been throwing around some ideas... :)

Here are some pictures of my munchkin all decked out in her patriotic gear...

We finally got a video camera this past week - something I've wanted since Caroline was born. We decided on a Sony Bloggie and I love it so far. It's the same size of my iPhone, has a 12 megapixel camera, and tons of internal memory. Here's a short video of Caroline on stage last night...

I honestly think the judges from last night should schedule an eye exam ASAP because Caroline is the most beautiful baby I've ever seen. We did get a ribbon (that we will display proudly in her room) and a voucher for a free outdoor photo session at Straub Photography (where I got my senior pictures done) that is a $52 value. That will definitely get used.. I can't get enough pictures of my little beauty queen!

Caroline's First Trip to St. Louis

We spent a few days last week in St. Louis. Although it wasn't Caroline's first vacation - we went to Florida in March - it's so much fun watching her experience new places and new things! Brad and I both want her to be a well-traveled little girl and she's definitely starting out on the right track. We spent an entire day at the St. Louis Zoo (amazing!), went to the top of the Gateway Arch, and did some shopping.




At the zoo with her new pal, Louis the penguin!




The view from our hotel room.




Right before her first ride on the subway!




Playing in the pillow cave daddy made her in the hotel room.




Reading the morning paper with daddy. I love her face, lol.



The Arch! So beautiful but the trip up it was really disappointing. We paid $10 each to be crammed like sardines into an observation area. They really need to limit the number of people they allow up to the top at once. Not so much fun with a 9-month-old!




On her way up to the top of the Arch.




Looking down on St. Louis from the top of the Arch.




Absolutely exhausted after our day at the zoo! We were there from 9:30am-5pm and still didn't get to see everything. We'll definitely be going back!




Doing some shopping at St. Clair Mall on our way home. She's such a happy shopper.. just like her mom - and dad! ;)

We definitely had a good time - it was a much needed getaway for us. I know as Caroline gets a little older she's going to love our family vacations.. and they are definitely memories that we'll treasure, too! We're planning on making our spring Florida trip an annual tradition for us. In the next few years we also hope to go to Boston (gotta introduce her to Fenway Park!), Chicago, and California. Pack your bags, Caroline - we want you to see the world!