Out of Little Mouths

Some things said tonight in our house:

Addie: (as she pushes me out of her room) Mom! This party is for little girls only, your not a little girl.
Me: (being pushed out of her room) Okay :(
Addie: (right before she shuts the door, with me outside) Mama, you call me if I need you...then she pauses as she thinks about what she just said and changes it to...you call me if you need me.  And shuts the door.



As Cara ran up to eat another one of Addie's strawberries only to discover that they are all gone I handed her the bowl and told her to take it to Daddy and ask him for more please.

Cara: (as she walks over to Daddy and hands him the bowl) mo!
Cara: pea!
Chris: Well, okay since you asked so nicely
Cara: Mo, mo, mo (as she simultaneously signs for more)

As Chris gets up, she jumps up runs to the gate opens it and runs into the kitchen saying "mo, mo!"

While she was impatiently waiting on Chris she got the crackers out of the pantry and brings them to me.  As she hands them to me she says "Ka(crackers)!" and signs more. So I opened them up and after she takes one she looks at me and says "Ta!"(Thank you, which she has been saying all afternoon with no prompting)

Man I can't believe she is so polite already!

Food for Thought

http://itsalmostnaptime.blogspot.com/2012/04/better-me-than-you.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FElTI+%28It%27s+Almost+Naptime%21%21%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

12 Months

It is so bittersweet to see your youngest turn a year. You know that sad feeling you get when on one day your little baby needs you no longer and the next you are beaming with pride because she met like 3 milestones just in that day. That's how watching Baby Cara turn one has been for me. Every time I look at her she has grown a little more. She is doing really well walking and has even started to run some, she still climbs on everything and never stops getting into stuff. She is learning fast how to step up steps, she has been climbing steps on her hands and knees very well for a while now but this week she has been actually picking her feet up and stepping up sometime not even holding on!

At 1 yr she has a pretty good list of words that she says, I would say somewhat comparable to what her sister was saying at a year. Year to date on our word list is kitty, mama, dada, Addie, ball, balloon, Minnie, milk, cheese, boo(for playing peek-a-boo), boo(in reference to Booskers, but mainly she sticks with kitty), bubble, sissy, more, baby, doll, tickle, belly, bye bye, uh oh, star and turtle. Since this list is YTD, I would say that there were about 6 less words that she was saying at her year mark. She will do the sounds for monkey (of course, bc that's what she is), kitty, doggie and pretty much whatever sound we make at her (she copies everything)! She is right on when it comes to mocking us, any sound that we make she will try her best to copy it, even whistling. She adores her big sister and now that she can keep up with her she does! Addie has been into cooking a lot lately and being mommy so Cara does as well. She will take a spoon and a bowl and stir just like Addie! She likes putting things in holes, buckets, Booskers’ water bowl, toilets…. I have always had a feeling that she was going to be the one that put things in the toilet and then she confirmed it…the other day we were at one of our friend’s houses and Cara was following the other girls around (all the while eating a breadstick) when Emily said “the bathroom door is open” as I run in there, to find both little girls in the bathroom and Cara looking in the toilet where she had just dropped her breadstick. Wait, that’s not all did I mention how good of a colorer she is?..... Yep, you guessed it she is ALSO the child that will color on my walls(mark my words.)

Ok so back to the art, really though, Addie didn’t actually start picking up a crayon to color with it until way later, but I was watching Cara color(on paper of course) the other day and what she did with the crayons(each and every one that she picked up) just amazed me. [ A little history- We never taught Addie how to do most things (e.g.- how to hold a writing utensil or eating utensil correctly, how to open the cover to her straw cup) she just did them and did them right] Cara would pick up a crayon in one hand upside down, take her other hand, turn it around and color with the point end of the crayon. Without any prompting, it is just amazing to me that she would know that she is supposed to color with the point end vs the flat end.

She sings whenever we sing or she hears music of any sort, she will sing along, *so sweet* she will also twist and dance along. She loves balls and anything soft, Addie never really cared to much for stuffed animals except Lovey of course(but we all know that Lovey isn’t just a stuffed animal), Cara LOVES all of her stuffed animals! She has Hootie that reigns supreme, but Pearl, Dottie, her heart pillow and pretty much anything else that is soft and lovable will get a little snuggle time with her. Now although she is a SUPER lovable Caraboo, she is not a snuggler I would say she categorizes more as a wiggler. She has the most amazing personality, she is so funny with the way she will cut her eyes and then sneakily do something that she knows she isn’t supposed to do, or if you tell her something she will bend over like you can't see her. She’s my pay back, hands down…but let me clarify that I am in no way shape or form unhappy about that! I love her more than any other Caraboo that has ever crossed my path. She brings me so much joy and I am thrilled that I have a little girl that is so full of fire and spunk!

Both girls are loving the weather lately, being able to go outside and pay on the deck every afternoon with each other has been wonderful for their relationship. It is so awesome to see their bond starting to form so soon! They are so in love with being sisters with each other. It makes a mama happy.

As far as her well visit is concerned, Dr. Wiley's words were "looks like her sister has got a run for her money." So true, Dr. Wiley, so true. Cara weighed 20 lbs .2oz (Addie 20 lbs .6 oz), she was 30 1/4 in tall(Addie 29), with a head circumference of  44.5cm (Addie 45 3/4). Not bad for comparing, huh?

What a wonderful year, Happy Birthday Baby Cara!

11 Months

My little Cara-boo how I love you!  In the last month she has really found her personality and that laugh is such music to our ears.  Her giggle rings through the house when something makes her happy and by something I mostly mean her big sister.  Or when she knows that she is doing something that makes you laugh and she continues to do it repeatedly, while looking out of the side of her eyes just to see you happy in a way that just absolutely melts a mother's heart.  She still just has just the 4 teeth but is working SUPER hard on some more, she does really well with letting us brush them too, I think it feels good on her gums.  Dr. Wiley recommended that we use a spin brush with her to try and keep the iron in her formula from building up on her teeth and it seems to be working pretty well.  She is the most photogenic child I have ever known and she knows it, always smiles or poses when the camera comes out!

She still has eating issues and I am sure now that they probably won't be going away like we had hoped, but we shall see what Dr. Wiley says next month.  OH-MY-GOODNESS  NEXT MONTH!!!!  I can't believe that we will have ourselves a one year old NEXT MONTH!  She eats puffs, crunchies and yogurt bites like they are going out of style, but most anything else solid doesn't stay down long...Now don't get me wrong, she will and can eat solid foods and we have fed solids to her on many occasions, but most of the time that easy gag reflex gets the best of us.  We were told at some point that she should grow out of this, and just within the last week she has done pretty good not gagging on any solids that she has eaten( peas, nutri-grain bar, banana, cheese[shredded], macaroni, bread, and red velvet cake, vienna sausages) so we are praying that this is the light at the end of the tunnel.  She drinks pretty well out of a straw, she didn't have any problems whatsoever learning how either, good to know that she isn't too far behind.   Her reflux seems to be at the wayside now, thank you Lord, we haven't raised her dosage since she was 6 months and she hasn't had any problems with that, so hopefully at her 1yr well visit they will just go ahead and take that out of the equation especially since she out weighted her dosage months ago. 

Did I mention, she walks?  Oh yeah and 11 days before her sister did at her age!  She is fearless, yet she is the most easily hurt.  Addie fell out of a chair on her face the other day in Target, jumped up and said "I'm okay!", Cara, yeah if she is standing and just falls back to sitting, she screams.  But there is NO FEAR when it comes to climbing, crawling/walking on uneven surfaces(meaning the floor and the step that goes in between our den and dinning room) did I mention climbing, attempting to run(forgetting that she doesn't know how to do that yet) or even trying out new places to sit.  She has no trouble bending over and standing back up, she even stands-squats-stands with no problems, she is working on standing from floor up and almost did a couple times over the last few days.  Her walking gets better everyday, and she just amazes me at how she "just knows"  how to do things that took Addie months of working on to get like climbing up steps, or when standing in front of a step to lift her leg to "step up".  Who needs a boy when we have a Cara, and we LOVE having this Cara!  With Addie I could sit her in the floor and trust she wouldn't go anywhere, Cara is gone before I can turn around, yeah we will definitely be using cabinet locks with this one!

Daddy(Dada) is still a dominant word in her vocabulary, I was starting to get worried that she wasn't going to be a talker (like her sister, I know I shouldn't compare)  but then Monday night her and I were in the den and Booskers walked in(Remember this was one of Addie's firsts also) she got very excited, and started pointing at him, I said "kitty" and she started chasing after him pointing and saying "ii-ee, ii-ee".  Now every time he walks into the room she exclaims "ii-ee!"  This morning her and I were sitting in the bed playing and she tried to get something off of the nightstand, I told her no and moved her, she immediately snapped back saying "deh" and sharply nodding her head, as to say "yes".  Then tonight when Grandma was leaving I said "say bye-bye" and she without any hesitation says "bye-bye" (as clear as day) then turns and waves to her!  All in one day, whew!  So I would say we have about 4 good words in the vocabulary, not too shabby for my little 11 month old.  She knows where the baby, the light, and Santa are and she knows how to bounce. She is gaining knowledge so fast and is getting smarter every day, I can't wait to see what Dr. Wiley says about her development next month!

Family Rules

Family Rules

She Walks!

She has worked on it all week, but I think she's finally got it!

Holiday Catch-up

Well we have been rather busy since my last post (which seems to have been ages ago).  So where to begin... 
Cara had her 9 month well visit and she measured right with where Addie was at 9 months just about.  27 3/4in tall and Addie was 28in, 19lbs 3.7oz and Addie was 17lbs 12oz, and 44 1/4cm head circumference and Addie was 44 1/2cm.  Dr. Wiley said that Addie has a contender for being the only perfect child now. 
She is cruising everywhere these days and I think that I had mentioned in my last post that there were a few times where she would stand without holding on to anything for a short period of time, well this new found talent of her has definitely gotten stronger.  Even just over Christmas weekend (honestly I really had a feeling that she would start walking on Christmas day) she has been pulling up to standing and standing alone, balancing really well on her own.  She has taken a step a few times, but falls right after so she isn't quite there yet, but I think that this too should be right on track with her sister's development.  We will know for sure in about 3 weeks, but when I went home for lunch the other day she did take 3 steps towards me!  However since then, we can't get her to take more than 1 step by herself without holding one to something.  She has really learned her voice, she will shriek and scream like no other just for fun, then just stands there and laughs about it.  She says Dada constantly, yay or yay yay is right up there.  She has said Mama, bye, and ba ba(ball), and light on occasion, but those were just flukes I believe.  She loves dancing and clapping, and seems to have become a speed crawler these days playing games like runaway and stuff.  She has mastered crawling with items in her hand or stuck under her belly, lol.  What a ham! 
She waves bye when she hears you say bye bye, she will grab Pearl or Hootie and start loving on them when you say "kissyhootie" or "kissypearl", it is really the cutest, also when i make the sound "blub, blub,blub"  she will take her fingers and do what Chris refers to as"blurbles" and just last night she started popping her lips.  I think only a video would better clarify her super cuteness, I will try and get one of those posted soon, *TRY*
Changing her diaper is definitely an Olympic sport, she will twist and turn those chubby little legs all over the place!  The other day when I went to go pick her up from church Mrs. Kristen was telling me about how everything had gone and she goes "we changed her diaper.....God bless you."  LOL!!!!  You have NO idea!!!  But one of the cutest things I have ever seems is when I can get her to lay still she will pull both legs up to her face and put both feet, flat footed on her cheeks and she will wiggle her toes, kinda like she is tickling her face with her own feet.  It is so funny those little fat cheeks just jiggling to the rhythm of her toes.  Last night she was laying in the floor playing and she pulled her leg up to her head and it looked as if she was scratching her head with her toes, this child cracks me up! 
She has acquired right many nick names over these past 10 1/2 months, Chris has always called her Cara-beaner and I have always called her Cara-boo which both always end up being shortened, so for most of the time Chris willl refer to her as Beaner.  Well Addie has picked up on this and taken it as her own, walking around talking about Beaner doing this and Beaner doing that. 

Addie is simply amazing. There is just so much that she knows and can do that make me think that she is advanced for her age.  See, I get these weekly milestone updates on both girls and on the ones that I get for Addie she is so far a head of them.  Lately she has really been into playing Mommy and Princess and yes sometimes those two go together.  Last week my mom sent me a picture of Addie in her Cinderella dress, feeding her baby before she went to the Ball.  She speaks better and more complete than that of any 2 year old I know as a matter of fact she told Grandma the other day that she "would appreciate it if she could call her Grandpa to come over and color with her."  Really.  And that isn't the half of what comes out of her mouth.  I know that I have mentioned before how attentive she is with what she says, but this child amazes me when she says something wrong she will immediately correct herself and then apologize for speaking incorrectly.  It really blows me away sometimes how quickly she picks up on  things.  She is polite beyond compare and is getting to where she no longer has to be prompted every time to say ma'am and sir when referring to us.  On Christmas while we were opening our gifts she stopped what she was doing (organizing her newly acquired things) walked up in the middle of the room and said "Thank you, Mommy and Daddy for my presents; I love them!"
Speaking of Christmas I have to tell, she has always had a thing for robots, but Wall-E in particular as been her personal favorite for a while now.  Well, Cara got her the Blu-ray for Christmas and when she opened that and say what it was she literally "jumped for joy" and bunny hopped around the room for a bit, needless to say we have watched Wall-E just about every night since.  But we don't mind because it is so heart warming to hear her giggle with glee every time he or Eve or M-O come on the screen.  She even gets excited when the little Pixar desk lamp (Luxo) shows up on screen, I'm telling you, anything robots! 
It is so neat to watch her develop her own likes and dislikes and to be able to express them.  It's not often that she doesn't like something, because she melds so well to things (she is just like her Daddy) but you do know when she doesn't like something and she is adamant about that (just like her Mommy).  :)