Happy 2nd Birthday Caroline!!!

Today is Caroline's 2nd Birthday! We had a little party for her on Saturday afternoon. All the grandparents, Aunt Amy, Uncle Rob, cousins: Haley, Mary Pat & Madeline, her friends Sanjay and Joey and their respective parents all joined us to celebrate. It turned out to be quite a crowd and with that many little ones, you can imagine the chaos. The decibel level in the family room reached a new high, I think. We had lots of fun though and Caroline has been asking us to sing Happy Birthday to her every night since then.

Here are a few pictures from the party....




Some of my favorite things she's doing these days are... Singing lots of new songs - Itsy Bitsy Spider is very popular right now as is Ring Around the Rosey. Saying "No Ma'am!" really loud when she's out of my sight and doing something that she knows she's not supposed to do (like stand up on a chair to look out the window) - which really cracks me up because I probably wouldn't catch her doing it if she weren't telling on herself as she did it. Saying "Com'ere" with hands waiving upward when she wants one of us to pick her up. Constantly telling Maggie that she's a "good girl, Maggie" like in the video. Also, she likes to tickle you and when she does she says "giggle-giggle-giggle" because that's how "tickle" comes out when she tries to say it really fast continuously.

Winter Outings

The winter weather has pretty much kept us indoors the past 6 or 8 weeks, so we've had to be creative in finding fun things to do with Caroline so we don't get too stir crazy in the house. Fortunately, Cincinnati has a lot to offer in this department and we are taking advantage of it all.

We have made several trips to the children's museum, once last week and I took a few pictures.


It's the perfect size for a toddler because you can pretty much play with everything in a few hours time and get home to crash for a nice long nap! Some of her favorite things to do there include the toddler-only play area complete with a slide, playing "house," overseeing the construction zone, and trying out the musical instruments.

She made me laugh when she was playing house because when we arrived at that particular area, no other children were in there. She promptly rocked all the babies and put them ALL in one crib, covered them up with a blanket and then sat down for a little break for herself (after all, it's hard work tucking in four babies at once!).




You can see in the next picture, another little girl entered that area and pulled all the babies out of the crib - just check out Caroline's expression.... she was not pleased about this.


Today, we went to the zoo for a "Singing Safari" class. The instructor was wonderful and had them all very engaged in singing and dancing like different zoo animals. We got to see (and touch!) a lizzard, owl and rooster during the class too which was a first for Caroline. She was very interested to touch them and didn't cower at all like some of the other kids (and her mother!).

SUPERbowl

We had a little super bowl gathering last night. Caroline represented the family's true colors and we weren't disappointed (even though it was the other Manning holding the trophy)!

Latest Video: Furry Pillow

Caroline discovers how warm and cozy a pillow Maggie can be. Maggie, as always, is tolerant to the end.

Caroline's friend

Caroline has spent a lot of her social time, during our stay in Cincinnati, with one of Josh's co-fellow's son, Sanjay. They have become fast friends. We get together with them about once a week - so he's a constant part of her life these days. During Saturday's playdate, she made an effort to become more affectionate. Caroline told him that she was going to kiss him and when he offered his cheek (like a gentleman), she went all the way around for the lips. In time, I'll be sure to teach her the art of BEING chased... in time...
Here are some pictures of them. They are very cute together and it's her first friend that she actually asks about on a regular basis.

Catch!

Caroline's favorite game these days is catch. She was given a ball, glove and bat set for Christmas (that is pink with all the Disney princesses on all three parts) and has gotten really into playing catch. She insists that her catch partner wear the glove. Josh taught her to throw overhanded but her aim is still a little better underhanded. They were practicing last night and I couldn't help but take a picture... the pink glove just makes me laugh.

Catching Our Breath

Whew! What a whirlwind month. December is always busy but somehow this one seemed even more jam-packed.
We had a wonderful Christmas! Josh was on call Christmas eve, but fortunately it was a quiet night, so we enjoyed being home. This was our first Christmas playing Santa in our house and my parents got a play kitchen for Caroline which we (well, Josh) put together.

Christmas morning with a toddler in the house did not disappoint. She was really excited to see her new kitchen by the tree and opened gifts with much anticipation of what would be unveiled. After we opened our gifts, we loaded up the family, Maggie included, into the car and headed to Indianapolis to spend Christmas with Josh's parents, sister, brother-in-law and girls. With all the little girls, it was like a pink explosion in the living room after all the present opening. We spent the rest of the week in Indy and headed home on Saturday.



On Sunday, Mimi & Pappy came to visit. We went to the zoo that night for the "Festival of Lights" since it was a fairly warm evening to walk around outside. We all enjoyed the lights and Caroline was completely tuckered out after walking all over the zoo by the time we got home.
We rang in the new year at home with my parents - I think it's the latest I've been up all year! - and they headed back after New Year's Day.
Sadly, later that week, Josh's grandfather passed away, so we headed to Memphis that weekend to be with all the family and attend the funeral. We managed to squeeze in a little Memphis BBQ while we were there and heard some live music at the Blues City Cafe. Caroline loved the music - she was dancing on the make-shift dance floor and the band noticed her and invited us on stage. Uncle Mike took a picture of us, but I don't have it to post yet... It was definitely an experience!
Hopefully now that things have calmed down, I can keep up our blog a little better - maybe as a new years resolution.
New things Caroline is doing at 23 months old... she sings lots of different songs now (most of which are fairly recognizable) - like Row, Row, Row Your Boat and many, many Wiggles songs. She's gotten really good at her puzzles and she loves to play catch (and can actually catch the ball about a third of the time). She's very into pretend play - particularly with dolls and stuffed animals and her kitchen, of course. And she's working on her two year molars, which have not seemed to pose too much of a problem so far. Here's a recent picture of her.