Water Baby

Caroline has always loved the water.  She never cried during bath time and we started to take her to the pool at 3 months.  She likes being in the water so much that she cheers and giggles when we have to run through the rain.  This summer we have tried to give her more opportunities to swim and get wet and I thought I would share some pictures and videos of these fun times we have had.

During two weekends in June both sets of grandparents came to visit.  We decided to take Caroline to the new splash pad in town and she of course loved it.  Caroline has been a late walker and couldn't navigate the splash pad on her own so we had to jump in and get wet with her.

The local aquatics center offers swim classes for infants and with Caroline's love of water, we knew we had to get her into lessons.  The class was 30 minutes a day, 4 days a week for 2 weeks.  The goal of the class was just to get the kids comfortable with going under the water and teach them to reach to the side of the pool if they are to ever fall in.  I would still love for Caroline to take ISR (Infant Swim Resource where they learn to float on their backs and yell for help) but that requires a much larger time commitment.  If we move into a place in the future that is on a body of water or has a pool then we will definitely get her enrolled in that program.

Everything in this swim class was done to a song.  The "going under water" song was Ring Around the Rosie.

In July we went with some friends to Gulfport, MS to enjoy a weekend at the beach.  Caroline loved swimming in the pool and playing in the sand at the beach.

Playing in the sand with her buddy, Owen

Now we wish we had a pool so we could beat this summer heat and let Caroline swim around in the pool.  Maybe in a future home!

Caroline's 1st Birthday

It is hard to believe that it has already been over a year since Caroline entered this world.  It sometimes feels like it was a lifetime ago since so much has happened for us in the last year.  We were living in Singapore and enjoying Asian life and culture.  Half way through her first year we moved back to the US but to a new city for our family.  With these big changes, it can feel like a long time but she has grown so fast and we just want to savor every moment with her.

She is still our little lady and weighed in at 18lbs, 11oz and 28.5in long.  She still fits well in her 9 month clothing but we are starting to move into the 12 month stuff.  We are certainly getting our full wear out of everything.  She has not started walking but will cruise on furniture and is really good at crawling and climbing.  She just does not seem interested in walking right now and thats okay as we know she will when she is ready.

She is really learning to communicate and we have been teaching her some sign language to go along with the few words she knows.  She says "what's that (wassat while pointing)", "mama", and "dada" when she wants to.  She has been signing for "milk" for a while and has now added "more", "please", "thank you", and "all done" to the vocabulary. "Milk" has also become her universal sign for wanting something, especially something to drink. It is so fun being able to communicate with her and she is so proud of herself when she says something and we understand.

She loves reading books, swinging, baths, walks around the lake and to the park, watching Maddie, and music. Her favorite song is definitely Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride from Lilo and Stitch and just about anything by Phil Collins.  She still does not get to watch any TV so she listens to lots of music while she plays.  She is staying at home with the nanny and her activities currently include Gymboree, Mommy and Me Spanish Class, and story time at the Library.  We are looking forward to swim lessons in July because she loves water!

Despite her small size, she eats a lot of food!  She loves to eat berries, peppers, spinach, cheese, yogurt, and almost all meats. She does not like cows milk or any of the other milks we have tried yet so she is still getting mama's milk.  She loves healthy food and I hope she always will!

We celebrated her birthday at home, just the three of us.  We let her try a cupcake at lunchtime to make sure she would not be hyped up on sugar at bedtime and she was not very interested in it.  She liked the cake okay but wasn't really into the icing (just like mom).  We ate sea bass veracruz and mac and cheese for her birthday dinner.  I know sea bass is a strange choice but the first time I made it I split the fish into 3 equal pieces, one for each of us.  I expected her to eat half of her piece for dinner and half for lunch the next day.  Well she ate the whole piece for dinner so it is certainly one of her favorites and I wanted to make it for her again.  After dinner we opened her presents and reminisced about her birth back in Singapore.  We love that little girl so much!

I don't know about the icing Daddy 

Oh my goodness, sugar!

Getting to the good part, the cake

We traveled back to South Carolina a week later to celebrate her birthday with both of our families and attend the Aiken Steeplechase.  It had been years since we had been and it is a fun tradition for my family.  We attend the races and then have an oyster roast and birthday party after.  Caroline's cousin, William, has a birthday very close to hers so we celebrated both of their birthdays together.  I also went out to Hopeland Gardens and did a smash cake photoshoot for Carolina.  As always, my mom did an amazing job on the cake.

Beautiful cake by Patti Cakes!  You can find her on Facebook: PattiCakes Custom Cake Design

Wassat?

Giggling as Derek tickled her

 And then Steeplechase and the oyster roast:

Thanks to Aunt Katie and Uncle Adam for coming to see us!  My friend Teresa also came but I can't find a picture of us.

9th Annual Family Oyster Roast!

Looking forward to many more birthdays celebrating Caroline!

Christmas 2014

Keeping up with my 3+ month delay on blogposts, I bring you Christmas 2014.  I have had a few ongoing projects that have kept me busy but now that I am done, I will hopefully get caught up.  I have so many pictures to share of the last few months including Caroline's 1st Birthday and I just can't wait to get those up!  My engineer brain can't skip around so we are going to keep going in chronological order.

With this being Caroline's first Christmas, we wanted to start some of our own little family traditions.  One thing that was important to us was to be able to do a Christmas morning at our house.  Since Caroline wouldn't realize if it was actually December 25th or not, we did it a few days early so that we could make the drive to GA/SC to spend some time with our families.

Looking at her Night Before Christmas book

Checking out her pull toy owl 

So excited to get Baby Stella 

Yay Baby Stella!

Merry Christmas. One of traditions is new pajamas on Christmas Eve.

I did a little photoshoot with Caroline before we hit the road 

First we drove to Derek's parent's house where we had lunch with a good friend, visited the lights at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, and took a trip to The Children's Museum of Atlanta.  We certainly kept ourselves busy and enjoyed our short stay in Atlanta.

Lunch with Teresa!

Out past bedtime for the lights

Lights at ABG

The sky had a strange orange glow and this statue had its hair flowing in lights.

Learning about the piano at the Children's Museum.  No doubt lessons are in your future. 

Daddy showing her how to play 

Playing with the kinetic sand.  Paci was necessary so she wouldn't stick it in her mouth.

I think Derek may have enjoyed the Museum more than she did.

Checking out the tractor

Family photo after Christmas Eve service

Caroline with Derek's parents

Opening presents on Christmas Eve in our matching pajamas Derek got us for Christmas

On Christmas day we drove to Spartanburg to have Christmas with my whole family at my oldest brother's house.  Unfortunately I didn't really take any pictures.  The following day, we drove to Columbia to spend some time with Caroline's godparents, Katie and Adam, before driving to Aiken to stay with my parents for a couple nights.  After that we drove all the way back to Louisiana.  It was a whole lot of driving for one week but we are glad we got to spend the holidays with our families this year!

Caroline and her cousin Lauren in their matching outfits