Happy Halloween!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!

Tiny Tot Tuesdays and a Helmet Update!

This week, Laura and I took Parker and Caroline to Tiny Tot Tuesdays at the Arboretum. I did not repeat any of my rookie mistakes from the other day: Caroline was well rested, it was a beautiful COOL Fall day, and I had given Caroline some Tylenol for the teething pain I'm convinced she's been having this week. All of that made for a pretty happy baby and a fun outing. The arboretum was beautiful...I just LOVE that place.

Parker and Caroline (can you guess who Caroline is reaching for?? we're going through a slight mommy attachment phase right now :-)

Now, for some great, awesome, exciting, fabulous, wonderful news. We had another cranial scan yesterday and Caroline's head looks really good. Without giving you the confusing numbers and measurements, Caroline has met all the dismissal criteria to come out of the helmet. She has about two more weeks of growing room in the helmet so we're going to finish filling it out then she's DONE!! So two weeks from this Monday, Caroline will be finished with the helmet. Yay!!! We're so excited and so happy with how her head looks!!!

Wait, What Just Happened?!?

Caroline's New Sleeping Position

So this afternoon, during Caroline's afternoon nap, she woke up and pushed herself up from her tummy to sitting. What in the world? When did she learn how to do this? Anyway, she didn't know how to get back on her tummy so she just cried. I went in to get her because I didn't know what else to do. I know she's got to learn to get back down on her own so we might have some tough-it-out sleep sessions coming our way, ugh! Has anyone ever dealt with this issue before? Any advice?

We have also had some really rough days in general lately. Caroline is SUPER fussy a lot of the day and not herself at all. I suspect that she might be teething but I'm not sure. I will not be surprised if a tooth pops up sometime soon. If this is what teething is about, I want no part of it and would like my happy baby back, please!!

Caroline's smile quickly turned to a cry when she realized I was taking her picture instead of picking her up. Bad mommy :-)

Today, we went with our friends, the Smiths and Matthews, to The Pumpkin Patch in Flower Mound. Unfortunately, for sweet Caroline, it was a total BUST!!! Here are My Pumpkin Patch Lessons Learned from a Rookie Mom:

• DO NOT take your 6 1/2 month old infant, who doesn't like bright, hot, sunny days to a shadeless pumpkin patch on a bright, hot, sunny day!!
• DO NOT wear long sleeves and jeans to a shadeless pumpkin patch on a bright, hot, sunny day!!
• DO NOT attempt any big outing on a Sunday with your 6 1/2 month old infant who is sleep deprived because of church and a short morning nap.
• DO NOT ever visit a pumpkin patch with children if the temperature outside is more than 70 degrees!!
• DO NOT take your 6 1/2 month old infant to a really fun pumpkin patch filled with bounce houses, hay rides, hay mazes, slides, and a fun little train when all he/she can really do is sit up and therefore misses all of the fun of the pumpkin patch in the first place.

As you can tell, I made a lot of mistakes today and will definitely do some things differently next year. I hope we make this pumpkin patch visit a tradition though because it really did seem like so much fun. We just didn't get to enjoy it today.

The two pics below are the ONLY pictures I got of Caroline NOT crying. Here she is, all strapped in and ready to go. She still hasn't learned that it's okay to open up her eyes when she's outside :-)

Luckily, Caroline wasn't crying as long as the water bottle was in her mouth.
Obviously, you see what we were attempting to do. Uh, didn't quite work...
Cason, Caroline, and Parker sitting with Matt

One of the reasons we went to this particular pumpkin patch was because they have this ADORABLE pot to sit your baby in. I SO badly wanted a picture of Caroline sitting in there, smiling her sweet smile. No such luck. She HATED this thing!! When will the control freak in me learn that sometimes I don't run this show no mo'?!? Here I am pleading with her to cooperate.

This is the best picture we got :-)

Our fam

Cason, Caroline, and Parker

Parker sitting nicely in the pot...wish he had given Caroline the memo

Friday Photos

Halloween Preview

I couldn't wait until Halloween to preview Caroline's costume...it's just too cute!! Our little pumpkin is a pumpkin (sorry, I KNOW that was cheesy :-)

"YOU are funny, mommy!!!"

Is anyone surprised Caroline is eating her costume (sigh)??
Caroline and Lucy (the Strawberry)...I don't think she could stuff anymore of that pumpkin into her mouth!!
Our playgroup dressed up all of the kids. I couldn't fit everyone into one picture so I had to break it up into two pics (and I still cut off sweet Finn...sorry buddy). From Left to Right: Finn the Monkey, Ava the Kitten, Luke the Pea in the Pod, Parker the Pony, Ethan as Ethan :-), Stone the Penquin, Caroline the Pumpkin, and Lucy the Strawberry.

From Left to Right: Stone, Caroline, Lucy, Brady the Shark, Asher the Golfer (poor guy), and Hudson the Monkey. Dressing up babies in costumes is just too funny. All the moms had lots of good laughs yesterday!!

Pumpkin Patch Fun

On Friday, Christina, Laura, and I took Cason, Parker and Caroline to the pumpkin patch. Unfortunately, it was not the greatest photo session. Caroline wouldn't look up and open her eyes b/c the sun was too bright, Parker wanted his Elmo, and Cason wanted to move and groove. Plus, for some weird reason, my pics have a funny bluish tint to them. Even though we didn't get the best pictures, we had a lot of fun trying!!

Here are Parker (I think he might be gazing at his Elmo in his mom's hand), Caroline (with her hands stuffed in her mouth as usual), and Cason (smiling sweetly)

Next pic: Parker got his Elmo, Caroline (wanting Parker's Elmo :-), and Cason (about to take off)
Seriously, how cute is this kid?!?
Cason...the leader of the pack. He's starting to walk now, way to go, big boy!! Not one of Caroline's finer pictures. Here she is trying so hard to open her eyes and smile for the camera. Didn't come out so good. She really enjoyed the yummy straw cuisine.
"I'm gonna getcha" How funny is Parker's disgusted expression?!?
Fun buddies!! Caroline & Cason
And so concludes an exciting trip to the pumpkin patch with a 6, 10, and 14 month old :-)

Helmet Update

This week we had Caroline's first cranial scan since getting the helmet. We were really happy with the results. The helmet is doing its job and the flat spot on Caroline's head has improved significantly. It has been about 6 weeks since she got the helmet and we were told that we probably have another month to go before Caroline grows out of it. The time has flown and although we're excited to be in the homestretch of this helmet business, we could not be more thrilled with the way Caroline's head looks. The helmet still doesn't bother Caroline one bit. All of that worry for nothing :-)

Just in case you're wondering why there are a lot of pictures on the blog with Caroline NOT wearing her helmet, it's because we take it off a lot for pics. We didn't want all of her baby pictures between 5-7 months to be in the helmet. So we often take it off for a few minutes to snap some pics then back on it goes.

Weekend Review

We had a busy, but fun, weekend. Saturday morning, we woke up and played for awhile. Then Matt and I took Caroline on a loooooong walk. It was one of those beautiful, Fall mornings in Texas. You know what I'm talking about. Cool, bright blue sky, no clouds, etc...

Saturday morning playtime

Saturday afternoon, we went to our friend, James, 1st birthday party. Here is Caroline with the birthday boy.
"Give me that cell phone!!" Is it too early to start teaching this little girl that it's not polite to grab?!? How in the world do kids know to "fight" over toys at such an early age?
Happy birthday, James!!
After the party, we drove up to Plano to visit our friends, Kara and Aaron Acker. We got to meet their little girl, Kate, for the first time. She's so beautiful!!! Caroline loved meeting Kate and kept trying to hold her hand. Can you believe Kate is only 7 weeks old in this picture? Kara and Aaron are very tall :-)
Kara, Caroline, me, and Kate
Sunday, we woke up and headed to church. Here is Caroline, dressed (minus her shoes) and ready to go.

After church and a much too short nap, we took Caroline to one of our favorite restaurants (and definitely our favorite Mexican restaurant), Chuy's!!! Caroline really enjoyed herself although she would have enjoyed it more if she could have had some of that queso. Yum!!!
We had a relaxing Sunday afternoon. Caroline took another nap that was way too short (ugh!), then woke up and watched some of the Cowboys game with us while we waited for Kalo to come babysit. Matt and I headed off to bible study once Kalo came over and Caroline spent the rest of the night playing with her sweet grandmother (thanks for babysitting, mom!)

Caroline and Daddy watching the game (actually, Matt watched the game and Caroline played with the remote)