8 to 31 months

At 8 months Cara is officially pulling up!  She first sat herself up on Oct. 8th then pulled up to her knees on Oct. 13th (I just realized as I was typing the date out that this would have been my Grandma Porter's birthday) and to standing on Tuesday Oct. 18th. She made it over the step in our den Friday the 28th and  started cruising around her crib Tuesday of last week, so I guess around the den is not too far off.   My mom seems to think that she will be walking by nine months, wow that seems so close, I just don't know that she could really be walking that soon but we shall see.  However she has let go a couple of times this week and just stood there for a bit before sitting down, she even figured out this past weekend that if she is in her crib and she turns her back to the rail she can stand there without having to hold on to anything.  She is way more active than Addie ever was, I think, or maybe it just seems like that since she is progressing into each stage so fast. 

She likes to click her tongue, blow raspberries, stick her tongue out and still just cracks up at her sister!  She still talks and talks a lot and now she babbles da, ba and la.  As a matter of fact she  has said Dada full on quite a bit in the past couple of weeks so I think I am going to go ahead put that down as her first word. She knows where the light is and will look at it if you ask her to show it to you, we are currently working on hand, I would say she gets that one about 40% of the time.  Today she sort of clapped, I just started working with her on that one like 3 days ago, so I didn't expect her to pick that up immediately, but in a moment of glee filled pride when she bent over and set herself down with out falling.  She put fist to open hand after she let go with a squeal and a smile from ear to ear.   She will wave bye bye uh, maybe 40% of the time and sometimes she will even say something that sounds like bye bye when she waves.  I wish I could say that she is getting another tooth in, but I seriously don't know when the next one is gonna show up.  It seems like she has been working on it forever, although I think I can see some white on the top but her gums don't seem too swollen! 

She now enjoys eating, somewhat, but still nowhere near as much as her sister.  Opens up wide for spoonfuls of food, picks up her puffs and her yogurt bites and brings them to her mouth even says Mmmm after each bite.  She is getting really good at chewing also which bring us one step closer to being able to eat table food.  Yet the table food that she has tried she hasn't liked so much so I think that that may still be a ways away.  She is also getting good at holding and biting her baby mum mums.  Nonetheless she is a chunk 18lbs 11.2 ounces of all chunk especially compared to her 29lb 4oz big sister. 

Sleeping, lets see, well she does good sleeping at night that is.  Goes down pretty well at 8pm and usually stays down till 6:30am.  Now every once in a while she will get hungry in the middle of the night or should I say early morning because it is usually around 3 or 3:30am, with a few sips of a bottle is down and good until the rest of us rise and shine.  So that brings me to daytime sleeping...wait is there such a thing??  Well lets see, we like to say it is because she has an older sister, yet her older sister just happens to be the very best at what she is and does quite well keeping the house quite during nap time or at least what should be considered nap time.  By this I mean she is the queen of shushing because "Baby Cara is sleeping".  Gotta love it, LOTS and boy do we!!


At 31 months Addie growing up so fast!  Literally,  she has GOT to be in a growth spurt right now!!  Tonight I think that she ate NONSTOP from 4-7pm(would have been till 8 but she crashed in the car, I mean all that growing has to need some good rest)!  It started Saturday morning and since she has eaten like it's going out of style not to mention she slept until 8 this morning. When I came home for lunch today, I looked at her and for a moment saw a whole-nother-child, so grown up, so mature, so beautifully graceful.  I just can't believe that my sweet little baby girl is no longer a baby. 

She is still doing well with her reading, she now helps me read her bedtime stories every night.  I will read the majority of the book and when she sees a word she knows she reads it.  I think that our next thing to work on will probably be writing.  Her dexterity is so good so I don't think that it will be too hard to teach her this skill.  She has always done real well with holding a writing utensil actually I never taught her how to hold a pencil she just kinda picked it up, I guess from watching us write.  She can now draw lines vertical and horizontal, she can draw circles really well and even smiley faces.  When she colors she really concentrates and pretty much stays in the lines.  She loves doing crafts and doing her "school work" so she calls it.  My mom had gotten her a kindergarten work book and she will sit at her table for hours working on her school work. 

She learned how to hop really well this month and that has been so much fun watching her be so proud of her accomplishment, not to mention that Cara cracks up everytime Addie hops through the room.  We have tried working with her on riding a bike, but she only seems to go backwards. I had hoped that Santa could bring her a bike for Christmas, but maybe that will have to wait until next year. 

Speaking of Santa she would like for him to bring her some chocolate cookies, because Grandma doesn't have any more of them as well as moon pies.  We were at the mall the other day and Santa has already arrived, recalling the time we had last year we thought it wouldn't hurt to do a trial run to see how everything would turn out.  Addie (after much contemplation she aggreed as long as Sara would sit with her)  There was no line so we walked right up and sat on his lap (Cara included, only she didn't walk).  And (drum roll please) though she did sit on his lap, she did not like it and when asked how it went she will tell you with much enthusiasm that she did in fact "freak out".  Even though we diffused the freaking before it actually happened by removing her from Santa's presence.  She said that he is a man and has a beard and that is why she doesn't like him (good girl Addie Mae, good girl).  That being said there is no telling how the actual Santa picture will end up going down, but I am trying to incorperate as many Santa movies as I can before hand so that she get a feel for how jolly and grand that Santa really is. 

She is still full on in the mommy phase wanting to take care of her babies.  She periodically will tell us that she is the mommy and one of us will be the daddy.  She still loves to cook and make "apple pie soup for her friend Booskers".  She is so grown up and it breaks my heart, lately she has been expirementing in what she calls us, so she has been calling me mom and Chris dad, I DO NOT LIKE THIS!  So in turn we call her ADD, she then will say  "call me Addie"  which I turn around and say "well, call me Mommy".  After a little while she goes right back to calling us mom and dad, hopefully that will get back to normal soon.  Also she has started this thing where she will make up a name and have us call her that.  Like last night she wanted to be called Fred, but surely that was just short for Fredricka, right?

OKI

Week before last we had the pleasure of bringing Chris' parents to Oak Island.  We really had a great time, Saturday we drove to Myrtle to eat crab legs and then came back to enjoy the beautiful weekend that God placed before us.  We had a great time and can't wait to take them back to show them around our beach a little more. 

Changes

As we move into the next stages of our lives I have to admit, I am ready for another baby, yep I said it! Chris however will not let me have this one small thing that I really really want, so I am more than happy with what we have here and now.  Maybe I can break him down in the near future...

• Anyhoo, our latest happenings consist of putting up gates because the smallest one is everywhere and fast! 
•  Dropping the crib because the littlest one also just recently learned how to set herself up and is currently trying to figure out the deal with pulling up. 
•  Looking for Word World on DVD because it has been ages since the oldest has been able to see her beloved show thanks to Netflix removing it from the instant queue. 
• So instead we are doing a lot of reading flash cards and reintroducing the your baby can read DVDs that she likes to refer to as the baby movie.  
• Experimenting with new hairstyles due to the increasing length of the baby's hair, we can now put her hair in a back ponytail.  
• Trying new finger foods out now that Caraline can pick small pieces up off of her tray and bring them to her mouth, what a sweet little eater! 
• Taking a step back as parents to let our big girl do it by herself, dressing, wiping her bottom, fixing her hair, brushing her teeth, spraying her nose, reading, writing her name, etc.  
• But most of all we are enjoying being in this stage where we have two of the sweetest little girls that are so in love with being sisters.

What starts with...

As we were sitting in a parking lot there is a car parked beside us with a West Virginia emblem on the window. So I asked Addie what the letters were and she told me. then I asked what starts with W, she said watermelon with out even thinking about it! I was so proud, satisfied, I left it at that when she decided to offer up more of her knowledge and tell me that  v makes the vuh sound. I told her she was right and how smart I thought she was. So when Chris got back to the car I was telling him the story and he asked her what starts with V, she thought for a moment and said vacation. Huh, yep, vacation starts with V. I didn't ask her to begin with because I didn't think she would know the answer, I mean V is a hard letter. Guess I learned my lesson, maybe V  is just a hard letter for me. ;-)


Later on down the road we stopped for a potty break and I asked her what her favorite letter was she thought a moment and said L, well with the previous happenings I asked her what started with the letter L, to which she replied lion.

So much for a 5th grader, anyone have any ideas on how to be smarter than your 2 year old?

You know I'm a dreamer

Every morning around 6 Addie gets up and gets into bed with us.  We are usually already up or we go back to sleep for a little longer.  This morning I put her in bed with Chris and I got up to take a shower.  When I got done they were still snoozing together so I jumped in the bed to cuddle with them a little longer.  As we are laying there I feel Addie jump, then she rolls over and says to me "my back hurts"  so I asked her why she said " because I fall down".  She then rolled back over and when back to sleep for a bit until I heard her whimper a couple of times, when she woke up she said "I saw Cinderella".  I said "oh you did, where?" after no response from her about that I asked her what she looked like and if she was pretty.  She replied "uh huh, she helped me find my Mommy and Daddy and Booskers"  I said "well that was nice of her"  she said (as she started tearing up) " uh, huh because I missed you" !!!


*TEAR*


Of course I told her that I missed her too and grabbed a hold of my sweet little girl and cuddled her SO TIGHT! 

This was the very first time that she has recollected a dream, I love that little girl so much!

As quoted

I am following this blog and have come across something that was put so well I had to share.  Well said Emily, well said!

But I AM seeing with some new clarity just how poignant and beautiful THIS version of "mama" is. My gosh, it's exquisite, when you stop to think about it. These are the times where hugs are the currency of the day, and sandwiches cut into fun shapes with cookie cutters can brighten an entire afternoon for that little person... These are the times when there is an answer for everything, and all your kids really NEED is security and consistency and love... with a LOT of fun sprinkled in. When they aren't being torn into a thousand pieces by the bigger, wider, often harsher world, and still only really know the things YOU choose to teach them. When forgiveness is immediate and completely sincere. When WE PARENTS are the ultimate superheroes to our children. What a magical thing. And I LOVE it. I love it so much I don't think my heart can hold it all in.

I couldn't have said it better myself!

9 of 15

~total words she can read consist of~

box, sun, bed, love, dog, cat, zoo, boo, ballerina, word, fish, pig, egg, ran, pie