Merry Christmas

Santa and her grandparents managed to find a few gifts for Caroline for Christmas.  Here are a few ton of pictures from our time in Texas and opening presents in DC after Christmas:

Christmas Eve

 

Christmas Morning (opening gifts from Santa):

 



Every Texas girl needs her own cowgirl boots:

And a demin/bandana bib (she's holding a box with toothpaste, which probably held her attention longer than anything else that she got in her stocking):

 

My Dad got her a Razroback pillow pal - she loved playing with his hair:

 

Opening her pop-up book from her Great-Grandma:

 

Opening her gifts from her Tia Jo, including a Texas counting book, shirt from Boston, and monster pajamas:

Opening gifts in DC from Meme, Grandpa and Uncle Brad:

 

 

Opening her Little People Noah's Ark:

 



 

 

Spanky was taking off the packaging and she was crawling over him to get to her new toy (patience is not her virtue quite yet):

Playing with her puzzle from Uncle Brad - she loves taking out the pieces and banging them together - putting them back in is another story:

Zoo Lights

We went to Zoo Lights at the National Zoo with our good friends, Frank, Kirsten and Zinn.  We had a great time and wondered why we waited until we had kids to go.  It had lights and a few exhibits and other items for the kids and adult beverages for the parents.  Will definitely need to be an annual tradition.

10 Months

The most exciting news for this month is that Caroline can now feed herself (and she has decided that solid food is pretty fun when we can do it by ourself)!  She has also started to want to move.  Before she was quite content to just sit and play, but towards the end of the month, she started reaching and scooting a bit.  Other notables include her first Thanksgiving and two road trips to Pennsylvania and Delaware (so she now has been to more states than Spanky had visited at the time he graduated from high school).  Here are a few pictures from her 10 month photo shoot:

You may have noticed the addition of the stuffed duck as a prop. Without it, I got a lot of pictures resembling the one below where she's reaching for the camera - no more sitting still for her - we're in trouble...
 

Stache Bash 2012

THANK YOU to everyone who donated to Mustaches for Kids!  Spanky was awarded Most Fundraisingest Stache and raised over $11,000.  In total, the group raised over $30,000 for Children's National Medical Center.  The Stache Bash was on December 14th and Spanky dressed as Cliff Clavin from Cheers.

All the growers with the check to the hospital:

 



The winners including most fundraisingest, sweetest and creepiest stache:

 

Enjoying a celebratory drink from the trophy:

 



 

Top fundraisers - both raised over $11,000!

Weekend in Pennsylvania

We went to a resort in Bedford Springs, PA with our friends, RL, Jennifer and Emmy Condra the second weekend in December.   We had a great time at the indoor pool.  We also tried to visit with Santa - you'll see how successful that one was below.  Of course the weather was perfect for the guys' golf game in the morning then turned ugly when Jennifer and I wanted to head into town for some shopping.  Nevertheless, it was a nice weekend away and great to spend time with friends.

Tia Jo's Visit and Thanksgiving

We had another fun family visit in November when my sister came down from Connecticut for the weekend.  We really showed her all the sites of DC - Trusty's, La Lomita, the local Thai restaurant...  At least we did make it to the Kennedy Center for the San Francisco Ballet's performace on Romeo and Juliet.  We were terrible about taking pictures and only got one that was taken right before Caroline headed off to bed on her last night in town:

We decided not to fight everyone at the airports this year so stayed local for Thanksgiving.  Luckily our friends, Mike and Sandra, invited us to their house outside of Wilmington for the feast.  We went up for the day and it was great to spend the holiday with them and eat wonderfully delicious food.  Again, terrible with the pictures and have one from them of Caroline relaxing after her Thanksgiving meal:

Three Quarters

It's hard to believe that Caroline is already 9 months old!  She had a doctor's appointment this month and weighed in at 15 lbs 10 oz and 25.75 inches tall (both are in the 5% so she's a little peanut). 

Notables this month:
- Improving her wave (so less straight arm salute and we get some movement)
- Imitates almost all hand movements so can clap and do the "rolling" for Patty Cake
- Shakes her head "no" a lot and does an occasional "yes" nod
- Loves to stand, but not too fond of her belly and really not interested in crawling yet
- Talking more and more - again, mostly "dadada", "yayaya" and "bababa," but we occasionally get a "mamama"
- Responds to her name
- Still not fond of solids and much prefers the real food over the pureed stuff - really likes pears, peaches and watermelon
- Introduced the sippy cup, but still getting the hang of it
- Has 5.5 teeth - the last one is barely poking through

Here's a few photos from her 9 month photo shoot: