The Big ONE!

We had a small party to celebrate Caroline's first birthday.  My parents and sister were also able to come to DC to help us celebrate.  While it was only about 15 adults and 6 kids that's a lot for our little house.  It was quite hectic and a little overwhelming for Caroline, but I think that most people had a good time and we enjoyed celebrating with family and friends.  We missed Grandpa, Meme and Uncle Brad!

Caroline got lots of wonderful gifts from her grandparents, friends, daycare and "aunties" including her first real doll, shoes, cute outfits, zany zoo, helicopter toy, block shape sorter, stacker toy, piggy bank and dollhouse. 

At the doctor's appoitment, she weighed in a t 17 lbs, 12 oz and 27.5 in (10% for both so moving up on that growth curve).  Besides her party - the social event of the season - other notables from the past month include:

- Crawling correctly and getting quicker

- Cruising everywhere and pretty fast - cruises along walls, couches, the fireplace, cabinets, appliances, tables...everywhere...

- Started on Cow's milk and transitioned pretty well

Here are some pictures from her birthday party:

 

 

Enjoying her cake (I think that she would have eaten the whole cupcake if I hadn't taken it away from her):

Opening her presents:

 

Arkansas over MLK weekend

We went to Arkansas over MLK weekend to visit Grandpa, Meme and Uncle Brad.  Caroline was a bit shy at first, but eventually warmed up to everyone.  She was really starting to cruise well so showed off her new skills all around the house (and up and down and up and down the airplane aisle).

 

Just making ourselves at home in the airport - what I returned to after turning in the rental car:

 

 

11 Months

Caroline is almost one year old!  The big notables from her last month include:

- First trip to Texas
- First Christmas
- Starting to cruise around while holding onto furniture (and getting pretty good at it)
- Better able to scoot around a bit on her bottom - really wants to crawl, but just can't figure it out (gets ones leg stuck of if she does get to her belly, she can't get up on her knees)
- At 10 1/2 months, she weighed 16 lbs. 2 oz. - it was a trip for an ear infection so we didn't get the percentile, but definitely still a peanut

And one in her cowgirl boots (it was taken about a week before she turned 11 months - we did not have our Christmas tree up until the 16th of January):

 

Christmas Card Outtakes

Most of you should have received a Christmas card from us - if not, it's probably because I don't have your address so send it to me!  Anyways, below is the picture that we used for the card:

And here are some of the outtakes that didn't quite make the cut his year:

Waylon is totally oblivious and just staring down Spanky to get that treat that he's using to bribe him to sit still:

 

The only one where Waylon broke his concentration:

 

This was the best of the two of them, but not the best of Caroline so we decided that Waylon wouldn't make the cut on this year's card (as long as he got that treat, he really didn't care):

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.