Family news...

We are officially moving to Oceanside, California! We are really excited and looking forward to making this our new home. There was kind of a bizarre twist last week and orders actually arrived today for Jacksonville, but we know with certainty that orders have been revised and Camp Pendleton is our destination. It's hard to think that Caroline won't remember NC or Ohio, but will probably think of herself as a Californian (that's a little strange for this southern mama). But we're looking forward to becoming beach bums and hope that we'll get LOTS of visitors. Here are a few cheesy local photos to hopefully entice you...



The only other thing to report is that Caroline has a new ride. I now drive a minivan! I NEVER thought I would say those words (and keep repeating them to myself to try and make it sink in), but this thing has all the bells and whistles and I'm really excited about it. The stars all aligned with Josh not being happy with the Volvo and a really good deal presenting itself here on the Honda, hence the timing. Plus, it will be great to be able to get our family plus visitors in one vehicle since all of our guests will be flying to see us. And no, I'm not expecting any new addition to our family at this time, so let's just put those thoughts on hold for a while. :)
Here's the picture of the new wheels... I don't typically park it on wood floors, but this was easier than walking outside and taking a photo myself. ;)

Visit to Nashville

Caroline and I are in Nashville right now visiting with my family while my sister is back in the U.S. for a few weeks. The weather has been fabulous and the pear trees are in full bloom. We walked Caroline down to my parents' neighborhood playground yesterday for a little play time.
Later we went out to dinner and on the way home, Josh called my cell phone to talk to Caroline before her bedtime. Caroline talked the whole way home and another 5 or 6 minutes once we were in the house. Joy took a short video (the "latest" video) of Caroline talking on the phone. She misses her daddy terribly so she had a LOT to talk to him about after our dinner out last night.

Barack O'Boh-ohm

Caroline says new things every day, but some of them really surprise me. Yesterday we were enjoying the spring like weather and went for a walk. I put on a hat before we left and she said "Nice hat, Mommy."
Then this morning, she really got me. I had just turned on the today show and one of the first stories was on the primary elections. Barack Obama's face pops up on the tv. Before the newscasters can even get started telling the latest, Caroline points to the tv and says "Barack O'Boh-ohm?" It completely took me by surprise. (I think she thinks his name is Barack O'Bottom, because that's how she says bottom - kind of in a british sounding way - she swallows the t's).
With the primary elections tomorrow in Ohio, the political commercials are constant, so I guess that's where she picked it up. When we got home from swimming lessons this morning, we had our third Barack Obama door hanger of this week waiting for us and Caroline brought it in. I captured her saying his name on video.


On an unrelated note, Caroline went completely under water for the first time today at swim lessons and did great... we're making progress!

the thaw

I think it's finally starting to thaw out here... today is the first day I've seen our lawn not covered in snow since my last blog entry and we're going to be in the 40's today! Josh just laughs at me by how amazed I am at the winter weather, so to be true to form, I thought I'd post a picture of the snow mounds that are in all the parking lots. I've just never seen anything like this firsthand and know we certainly won't be seeing this next year! This picture is from our grocery store lot... they have plowed all the snow in piles throughout the lot next to all the buggy returns. Cincinnati is still 2 inches shy of their normal snow accumulation for the year too.

Snow Day

We got our biggest snow yet early this morning. Caroline enjoyed exploring the yard with Maggie and was much more adventurous than past times. It was a complete disaster getting her to come back inside though with a full blown tantrum. I think it took me as much time to get her calmed down as was spent outside... still weighing if it was worth it or not. She's definitely a two-year old!

Swim Lessons

We had our first swim lesson today and I think we're going to really enjoy them. Caroline was very excited to go swimming today and jabbered all about swimming on the way to our lesson this morning. It was a little strange putting on boots and coats over our swim suits, not to mention driving through snow to and from, but the indoor pool was nice and warm and our instructor is great.
Miss Monica taught us how to hang on the side of the pool, we worked on getting out of the pool using our elbows and knees, bobbing in the water until it came over our mouth, kicking, and she even went down a small slide into my arms several times. We ended the lesson with fun songs and Caroline did not want to get out of the pool. All in all, a successful first swim lesson.
I obviously couldn't take pictures and be in the water with her, so I took one to mark the occasion once we were back in the locker room getting dressed. I had just told her what a good job she did swimming and then snapped the picture - so her expression shows she was very proud of herself!

Two Year Stats

Caroline had her two year check-up this morning. She is 34.5" tall (50-75%) and 26 pounds (25-50%) fully dressed. All is well, and the doc said we could continue to give her whole milk if we want since she's such a string bean and would live off dairy and fruit if we let her. She's still not a big fan of the doctor's office (other than getting stickers at the end) and was very happy to get back home to Maggie and her remaining balloons from the birthday bash.