the connors family: monthly updates

Showing posts with label monthly updates. Show all posts

Caroline's Twenty-third Month

>> Wednesday, July 1, 2009 – Caroline, monthly updates

SO close to TWO... and enjoying all the things that two year olds do! She is very aware that there is no baby left in that little body, and she wants to do everything by herself. This independent little girl is not afraid to make sure mom, dad, and everyone else knows that she has an opinion - and that it should be taken seriously!

Perhaps the most hilarious development this month is the ongoing internal dialogue that Caroline expresses verbally. She asks herself questions (out loud) and then answers them! As in:

"Want to watch Einsteins [Baby Einsteins] or... Rocket? Einsteins! Okay, Einsteins."

Or,

"Want some corn or... applesauce? Corn! Okay, Corn."

She has also developed into quite the caretaker (such a good future big sister), and loves to play "naptime" with mommy, daddy, and all of her animals. She wants to comb mommy's hair (complete with hairdresser dialogue), give us medicine, and help "clip" our fingernails.

So so sweet...

Festival time at Glen Echo Park

Check out her cool shades on the carousel

Beautiful at the park

Swimming with Daddy

Smile guys!

She tried to skip her nap

Sweet Caroline is 23 months old

Caroline's Twenty-second Month

>> Friday, May 29, 2009 – Caroline, monthly updates

As we inch toward the big 0-2, we continue to be reminded of what a big girl we have. In addition to carrying on full conversations with us, she has begun to make up stories and songs. We like to think she is putting her own little twist on life.

Perhaps our favorite of these scenarios involves the "What does Sesame like?" game, where C asks Sesame (in the womb) if he/she likes something, and mommy is expected to respond affirmatively (jumping) or negatively (turning). A typical conversation goes something like this:

C: "Sesame like sommmme... spaghetti?"
Mommy: [jumps up and down]
C: "Sesame like... ducks?"
Mommy: [jumps up and down]
C: "Sesame want sommmmme... meatballs?"
Mommy (who doesn't want meatballs put into her mouth by a helpful C): [shakes belly from side to side]

She is very sweet to her future bro/sis and usually ends the game with a kiss for Sesame. And sometimes some milk, offered through mommy's tummy. Yeah, I have a couple of wet shirts.

This month brought her first car trip (to Georgia for a wedding), a visit from her Connors grandparents, and 2 trips to the hospital. It was mostly wonderful though, and as you can see from the photos below, she is as happy and healthy as we could have hoped for.

05-02-09 A fun game of "walk on daddy" ('s face)

05-09-09 C helps Elmo go potty

05-16-09 Ready for swimming lessons. Check out the jelly shoes!*

05-10-09 Seriously - she LOVES corn. On the cob. Only.

Being 22 months old is hilarious!

THERE'S Mommy's favorite grin

*Jelly shoes courtesy of Grandma Beaumont. It should be noted that no jelly shoes were purchased for Caroline's mommy, even back in the early '80s when all the cool kids had them. In fact, Grandma B was known to say that they were "tacky" and it was the only thing that couldn't be purchased with my $1 at Target (they were $0.99). My, how times have changed.

Caroline's Twenty-first Month

>> Wednesday, April 29, 2009 – Caroline, monthly updates

Once again, a busy month meant lots of activity for CEC, including our trip to Tallahassee, and the big Easter celebration.

Updates for the month:

Though we never really doubted it, that independent streak is apparent more and more these days. She has an opinion on everything and is not afraid to speak her mind, especially if it involves that toddler favorite, "No"
She continues to talk talk talk, and basically amazes us (and lots of other people in the know too - this isn't total parental bias, just mostly) with her HUGE vocabulary and her grasp of complex concepts. We are in full-sentence, full-conversation territory.

She is literally the talk of her school - everyone we meet/see talks about how smart and talkative she is (and yeah, we beam when they say it).

The talking streak has also meant more of mom and dad's favorite: spontaneous "I love you Mommy" and "I love you Daddy." Can't ever get enough of that.
Her favorite activities are swinging, singing, and making up stories and scenarios for baby dolls and bath toys, and spinning round and round and round.
That said, her grace unfortunately seems to have come straight from mom. That is to say, there isn't a lot of it. As she gets more adventurous, we also see more bumps and bruises. Just this month, she managed a black eye and a huge knot on her head (visible in the 04-04 shots below).

The photos:

04-04 Party at the Polsons!

Cupcakes are serious business

04-05 Result of skipping her nap

04-12 Easter wore her out

04-17 Rockin' Dad's Red Sox Hat

04-17 Picnic and the park with mommy

21 months old!

Caroline's Twentieth Month

>> Wednesday, March 25, 2009 – Caroline, monthly updates

Though the weather still was characteristically still un-Springlike (for her wimp of a mother), CEC did manage to get outside to enjoy a few warm days during her 20th month. And the time spent indoors was fun, too!

The updates:

She knows all of her colors!! not only their names, but she can actually identify them correctly, too! She even demands particular color cups for milk and water (demands, people. I am not exaggerating).
She is a good eater - favorite foods include meatballs, rice, black olives, pickles, and mushrooms. We like to say that she is a fan of toppings - and a trip to the pizza parlor shows that it's true. Poor pizzas never knew what hit them.
She is still talking up a storm, and can express herself in pretty-darn-near-complete sentences. In fact, sometimes we can't believe the things she says, like, "Where Anthony's car?" or "Daddy is driving." She's going to be talking circles around her mom and dad at any moment.

In addition to photos capturing our star enjoying a late-winter snowstorm and the warm-up the next week, a trip to the zoo, and St. Patrick's Day, we got a few of Caroline just being Caroline:

Silly Caroline

Sweet girl & her hippo

20 months old

Caroline's Nineteenth Month

>> Friday, February 27, 2009 – Caroline, monthly updates

Caroline continues to grow in both body and spirit, and continues to amaze her rapt audience (aka Mom and Dad) with every move she makes. Undoubtedly typical of first-time parents, we are consistently struck by even the littlest of details that she picks up.

Month 19 saw an increased interest in putting together phrases and sentences, including the oft-repeated:

want to stand by mommy
go show daddy
I see... buses, dogs, cars, etc
Caroline hold it?
Here she comes! (said while running from one room to another)

It is important to label objects as belonging to a particular person (e.g., Mommy's shoes, Daddy's jacket, Caroline's hair), and to show us us that she knows how to pretend to cry and laugh. Now we know what her fake cry sounds like (though really, it wasn't hard to tell)! Put a checkmark next to ABCs - we're moving on to learning colors (currently, everything is purple or green). Fun!

Another best-month-ever for sure...

On to the photo highlights:

02-01 Sharing a trashcan(!) with Dani

02-03 Boxes are fun toys, too

02-10 Hiding amid the laundry

02-14 Helping with dishes

02-15 Stuck in the stroller basket

02-16 Reading is serious stuff

02-21 New transportation

02-23 Making frittatas

02-24 Our favorite 19-month-old grins

Caroline's Eighteenth Month

>> Friday, January 30, 2009 – Caroline, monthly updates

CEC is Halfway to THREE!

This month saw us celebrating C's second Christmas and starting a New Year with excitement in possibilities.

Our little talker continues to surprise everyone with her verbal abilities, which this month includes sentences. No soliloquies or anything (yet), but it all started with "I see Scarlett" (her infant room teacher at school) and "these my babies," which technically isn't proper grammar, but we're going to count anyway. And it took off from there.

Other words of the month included:

caterpillar
Big Bird: "What's going ON?" (from Where are the Ts?)
what Zombies say (BRAAAIIINS), and
what Pirates say (ARRGGHH).

She sings and counts and dances, and generally cracks us up.
This milestone month also brought a trip to the doctor, where she showed off for "Doc-y Hawk-y" (Dr. Hawkins), who acted appropriately impressed :)
The stats: