Caroline Turns 2

Caroline's 2nd birthday was an extended affair. With a family visit, a school holiday, and orchestra rehearsals, we had a trouble finding the right night to celebrate. We used it as an excuse to eat cupcakes all week. It didn't help that Caroline's bread, rice, and apples diet had caught up with her and on her true birthday she was too uncomfortable to eat anything . A 450-serving bottle of Benefiber from Costco came to the rescue and now her morning juicy cup has as much fiber as 64 bowls of Colon Blow.

Even some new chef accessories couldn't put a smile on her face

and this cupcake didn't get eaten.

Grandma and Grampa visited in order to see Mom's orchestra concert

Even though it's winter it's not too early to try on a bikini

Erin spends a good deal of time asleep in the carseat

and when she's in the bouncy seat Caroline sometimes reads her stories

More and more books have started appearing in Caroline's bed in the morning. We soon figured out that after we leave the room she crawls out of bed and brings book back to read to Elmo and Tigger. Here we caught her in the act of reading to Elmo the Five Silly Turkeys.

Erin liked the stuffed animals at the Mall

Big sister and little sister

Home with Erin

Three months have passed and now Erin starts daycare and Heather goes back to work. Most of the time Erin is a joy, sleeping or awake. There's still a fussy period in the evening, and the only way she sleeps at times is propped up next to Heather. But during the day she's usually content to watch the world in front of her, and last week she started cooing at Mom & Dad. Heather's going to miss her daytimes with Erin!

In January we went to NY to see Lyla, Brad, and pregnant Katy.

Lyla showed off her dance moves to Caroline

The lake wasn't skateable, but the ice was hard enough to drag Lyla around. Caroline again was too scared of the slippely ice.

Back at home, Erin spends a lot of time in the bouncy seat

Caroline's nighttime lovies keep expanding. Initially it was just Tigger and one blankie. Then one day she found the backup blankie and had to have it, too. Elmo and Big Baby Doll joined on at Christmas. And just this week the two Curious George books became mandatory. The board books can't be comfortable to sleep on, but every time we take them out of the bed she brings them back in.

Heather's been able to see Mira's son Nick and Lori's twins. Here are the quadruplets all in one crib.

Heather found that playing Guitar Hero soothed Nick and Erin.

Another Sunday night and time to make Caroline's lunch. What toddler doesn't love a ham hock? Actually, Brad kindly gave us this country ham to satisfy one of Heather's Southern cravings. We cooked it up with biscuits and green beans and it was delicious, but Caroline wasn't keen to try it.

Caroline wanted to hold baby Erin

We don't know how long this cooing phase will last, so we wanted to catch it on film. Caroline never did it all.


Finally, here's a video of Caroline "helping" us fold laundry