Happy 3rd Birthday!

First a few stats (Weight: 28 lbs (25%) and Height: 35.5 lbs (25%)).  Interests right now are trains, puzzles, Olaf in Frozen, Doc McStuffins, Minnie Mouse, pretend play, make believe, hiding and monsters (i.e. we often have to hide from good/bad/funny monsters).  She knows all her letters, is obsessed with the letter "C," knows numbers 1 through 10, counts everything (prefers things in 3s), has memorized several books that she reads back to us (two favorites are Berenstain Bears' Picnic and Where the Wild Things Are), and is starting to learn how to spell her name.


Now on to the birthday celebration: Caroline celebrated her third birthday with about 15 friends at JW Tumbles.  Her Nana and Pop were also able to come into town to celebrate.  Caroline unfortunately had a bit of a fever on the morning of her birthday party so wasn't quite herself, but I think that she still had a great time.  She was really aware of her birthday and knew that she'd be 3 in February (and talked about her birthday and party a lot).  For her party, she requested many balloons and cake as well as strawberries, blueberries, oranges and cheese.  She also really wanted people to sing "Happy Birthday" to her, but when the time came, I think that she got a little overwhelmed and didn't like the candles and that they'd turned out the lights to sing.  A few pictures from the party including those many balloons and cake:

Caroline received some wonderful gifts for her birthday, including train accessories (station, tunnel and more tracks), a pink train, sticker, paint and coloring books, several puzzles, sidewalk chalk, an outfit for her doll, an American Girl corgi puppy, a pink stuffed anteater, and several cute outfits.

Christmas in Texas

We were in Houston for Texas and Caroline had a great time playing with Nana, Pop and Tia Jo.  The trip included a trip to the Children's Museum, Natural Science Museum and Zoo along with the Texas Bowl (Go Hogs!). 

Caroline received a dollhouse and lots of stocking stuffers from Santa, more train tracks, an outfit for her doll, a Little People nativity, a Razorback shirt, and pink cowboy boots from Nana and Pop and musical instruments from Tia Jo.  We also brought a few gifts from DC for her - magnatiles, Bear puzzle, and Thomas the train engines.

Checking out her dollhouse from Santa:

With her stocking from Santa:

Christmas dress before church:

Helping everyone open their presents:

Fun with Tia Jo:

Christmas in DC

This was the first year that Caroline was really into Christmas.  She loved all the Christmas lights, trees, wrapping presents, songs and rearranging all her presents under the tree.  We celebrated in DC before we went to Texas and opened our family's presents and presents from Spanky's family.  Caroline received Legos, a play doctor's outfit, a Razorback outfit, Minnie Mouse puzzle and calendar and play food for her kitchen from her Meme and Papa and more Legos from her Uncle Brad.  We gave her a scooter while we were in DC since we couldn't easily get it to Texas.

Rearranging and rearranging all her presents:

Zoo Lights!  Ride on the carousel and watching the Thomas train (loves the model trains):

Opening and playing with her presents:

Fall Fun

Just a few pictures from the Fall with the customary trip to the Pumpkin Patch and the Halloween costume - Minnie Mouse this year:

We traveled to Arkansas in mid-Nov to visit family and attend the AR-LSU game.  Playing with Uncle Brad, cooking with MeMe and Papa and visiting with friends in Fayetteville:

New School and other September Fun

September brought a new preschool for Caroline. So far, she loves it.  I think that they must sing all day long since she knows about twelve new songs.  I've had to google the lyrics for a few of them.  The school is farther from our house, but only about 10 blocks and on the way to school.  

We also visited our friends, RD and Kati, who live outside Charlotte at the end of September.  She did great on the drive and loved playing with their kids, Hunter and Riley.  It was a fun visit.

She also got her first haircut.  The mullet was just getting a little out of control.

Other highlights (and mostly I just note these here so I don't forget since I haven't quite gotten around to that baby book).  She still loves puzzles, but she's starting to get into make believe play.  She pretends to cook pizza and go to the local restaurant, La Lomita, which really shows how much I don't cook.  She's up-ed the counting skills to 19 - twenty trips her up for some reason. She definitely knows the letter C (which is always C for Caroline) and she's pretty consistent with recognizing about 10 - 15 other letters.  Her language skills are growing by leaps and bounds every day.  She cracks us up with some of her phrases - things are yummy in her tummy, if she doesn't want to do it then it's "next time," everything happened yesterday, all sleep is naps and "it happens sometimes" (i.e. potty accidents, falls on the sidewalks, etc). 

Most notably, she is wearing underwear!  It was very rough going at the beginning, but we're starting to see notable progress.  She's also started the Why? stage - oh so fun. She wants to do everything by herself, which does not always help get us out of the house in the morning.

Last day of the old school:

First Day of the New School.  My sister was still in town so she of course wanted a picture with Tia Jo.

Pictures from her first haircut:

Fun with the Davis family:

Summer Fun

We finished out the summer with lots of fun activities and wonderful visits from family.  Meme (Spanky's Mom) visited in early August and Nana, Pop and Tia Jo (my parents and sister) came to DC in late August while Spanky and I went to Montreal and Quebec City for a few nights.  The summer included lots of time at the Yards Park Friday night concerts, trips to splash parks, the zoo, fun in the backyard, and Nationals' baseball games. I'm missing a few pictures of activities that are on Spanky's phone, but here are a few highlights:

Cruising Eastern Market over 4th of July with her friend, Zinn:

Safety First!  Fun in the backyard:

On our way to a Nationals' game:

Watching the Big Heads (aka President mascots) at the Nationals game - her favorite part of the game.  I think she attended about 4 - 5 games this year. 

Fun with Tia Jo and Nana:

Watching the otters at the zoo with Daddy: 

Watching the chimpanzees at the zoo with her friend, Emmy:

Dancing at the Yards Park Friday night concerts.  She really got into the dancing this year.  It's a great free activity where you can bring all your own food and drinks plus it's really close to the house.