Caroline...Caroline... Caroline! My where has the time gone?! My little girl has grown into quite the young lady! She has lost all signs of her "baby-ness" and no longer has the chubby fingers or round tummy that identifies a baby. I look at her and honestly could not be more proud of who she is today! She has such a kind and warm heart and just loves to be around people! She welcomes all of her friends with open arms and just can't wait to give them hugs the moment we see them. She runs right in to school and waves bye to me and Cooper like it is nothing and all along the way she never stops talking! She asks question after question and is always learning!!
1. No more sucking our finger!
Most of the recent pictures I have shows Caroline with her index finger in her mouth. Well, she is now only doing it occasionally and hardly at all!! What a blessing and a definite answer of prayer!! Over Christmas, she basically had her finger in her mouth every single second. I was getting pretty worried that she would never stop and this would be a crutch for so long. How do you take away a finger?? We were all constantly getting sick and I was convinced that it was because every germ entered her mouth. Once we were home from Colorado, we attended several birthday parties and were seriously sick for weeks straight! Well, I kept telling her that tons of germs were getting into her body from her sucking her finger. I picked up some big heart marshmallows at the store and placed one on the coffee table. Them I told her that if she didn't suck her finger through an entire Mickey show (yes, I know, tv is probably just as bad, but I'm not giving up that crutch!) without sucking her finger, she would get the marshmallow. We did this for about a day and a half and after that, she really just stopped. It was pretty amazing!
I picked Caroline up from school one day about 2 weeks ago (6 weeks ago now) and started talking to another mom about potty training. Her daughter is a month younger than Caroline and is already potty trained. She has an older son and started telling me how she thought the best way to potty train them was to just put them in panties and go cold turkey. I was impressed, but thought Caroline was far from ready. That afternoon we ended up going to the park with some friends and because we just walked there, I didn't take any diapers. Well Caroline had a dirty one. We had to leave and she had to ride the whole way home in the wagon sitting on her diaper. Right after that I just decided to put panties on her. She has had several accidents, but has done SO well and I am so impressed!! And I'm also SO happy that we did it! The last two days have been completely accident free and she's learning so quickly. She gets two marshmallows every time she goes and she is quite proud of this fact! One morning she had 6 before 10 am. Oops! At the least, it is good motivation!
Every chance she gets, Caroline will tell you a story! She loves having everyone sit in a circle and begins every time with "All right Boys and Girls, you have to be quiet". She's just so funny and will talk to whoever will listen. Most times this ends up being her bunny and stuffed animals. Her favorite story of all is Jesus, Mary and Joseph and that is exactly how she refers to it. Her Bible is her all time favorite book and she carries it around everywhere. When Josh tried to take it and read her another story out of it, she said "Daddy, the whole book is Jesus, Mary and Joseph!! And it's all true!" I have had to tape the front cover on several times because it is so worn. Her teacher even told me she taught the whole class their Bible story because she knew the whole thing. This child is definitely not shy!
4. Dance Class
We started a Mommy and Me dance class in the middle of January. Because it is Mommy and Me, it definitely has me working too! It takes quite a bit of work to keep 4 little 2-3 year olds entertained and on task. But it is a lot of fun and we enjoy dancing like animals, playing air instruments and learning new things every time! Cooper is such a little trooper and gets to sit against the wall and just watch. So far he has been great! I'm not sure how much longer after he really starts moving that we can keep doing it, but so far he has been wonderful! Daddy even came and surprised us for one and watched while Caroline danced. Although she wasn't too happy during that class, she was still so excited he came!
Poor Coop is such a good sport! He just sits in the corner and watches quietly. Who says not being able to move is a bad thing? :)
Caroline had been sleeping in her toddler bed for quite some time. We decided to move her to a regular bed the first week of February. Her room is pretty small and twin size really fits the best. If we end up moving at some point, I would like to get her something bigger, so I just did not want to spend a lot of money on a bed. I had been looking on craigslist for daybeds and one morning one popped up that was exactly what I had in mind! $250 later and a random trip to Frisco and we had a new bed!! Thanks to Amanda for helping me pick it up! I don't have a picture of the finished product, bedding and all, but here is Caroline's all time favorite place to hide!
Aww her little leotards and tutus are so cute! What a big girl!
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