Fun at the Beach

A couple of months ago, we went to the beach for a week with Zack's parents.  It was Caroline's 2nd time being at the beach (although I barely count her first time as she was there for only an hour).

We had a great time!  I think Caroline was pretty much exhausted the whole time from all of the activity and from not sleeping in her own bed, but she had so much fun!

The weather did not cooperate for us to be on the beach everyday but we found lots of other things to do.

We went to the aquarium one morning and Caroline enjoyed looking at the fish.  Or "shish" as she calls them. 

Actually, her favorite thing to do that week was to run up and down the long interior hallway of our hotel and look out the big windows.

There was a small boardwalk beside our hotel and we took lots of walks in the evenings.

I love the look of adoration she's giving her Daddy in this one:

Finally we had a great beach weather day our last day there.  Caroline LOVED the beach.  She had absolutely no fear of the ocean or the waves.  In fact we had to really rein her in to make sure she didn't run out too far.  This girl loves adventure and is not afraid of much.

Playing in the sand with Daddy

 Watching the waves with her Papa

Dancing on the beach because well, a girl needs to dance wherever she is.

Our last evening I decided to dress up Caroline and try to get some pretty pictures of her on the beach.  We traveled further down the beach from our hotel to a more isolated area.

These are some of my favorites:

For about a week after we got back home, Caroline would think about our trip and say "bye beach!"

We can't wait to take her back next year!

Happy Birthday Caroline!

Two years ago today you came into the world!  Since that time you have filled our hearts with such joy!

We have loved watching you grow and change from a precious baby to a beautiful little girl these past two years.  We love your tender heart and free-spirited personality.  You are so social, saying "Hi" with a smile and a wave to anyone you come in contact with, whether you know them or not.  You naturally gravitate to wherever people are, often dragging us down the street when we are outside in the evenings, to join whatever neighbors are outside at the time.  I think you are going to be an extrovert!

We love how you are so active and adventurous, wanting to try new things (except for food, that is) and you love going places.  You never sit still!  Daddy says you have two speeds:  running or asleep, and that's about right!

We adore how loving and affectionate you are, giving spontaneous hugs and kisses to those that you love.  It is so sweet to watch you nurture your "baby" and your beloved stuffed animals.  You often carry around as many as your little arms can possibly hold, give them adoring looks, and sometimes try to share your sippy cup or food with them.

We love how you are so affected by music.  Your little body simply can't be still when music is playing!  You have to dance!  It is so much fun to see you dancing and twirling around arms outstretched in careless abandon.

We hope that we are growing you towards knowing and loving the Lord.  You keep us all accountable to saying the blessing each night.  As soon as we all sit down you put your little hands together and look at us to indicate, "it's time to pray now," and you always end with an enthusiastic "Amen!"  Your favorite bedtime song is still "O How I Love Jesus" and you are able to sing more of the words with us now.

You are such a precious gift from God and I hope that you know how much you are loved!  Happy birthday, sweet girl!

The little parrot

Lately Caroline has been trying hard to repeat a lot of what she hears us saying.  Which means we have to be even more aware of what we are saying around her (although the language in our house is pretty much G rated already).

A few evenings ago, I was a little flustered as Caroline was hungry, fussy, and insisting that I hold her while fixing her dinner.  As I was scrambling around the kitchen I stepped on a half-eaten something crunchy under my foot, no doubt dropped by a little person that then went unnoticed.  "Nice!" I said with a lot just a tad bit of sarcasm in my voice.  Immediately Caroline exclaims "Nice!" with the same tone and sarcasm.  I had to laugh out loud at the instant levity she provided the situation.  Hmmm, a nice reminder that I have little eyes and ears tuned in at all times!

Smartie Pants

The three of us were playing outside one evening this week when Caroline points to a car's license plate and says "M" "mmmmm."  We come over to look and sure enough, there is an "M" on the license plate.  We decide to test her knowledge of the other letters on the plate and she identified the other two correctly as well.  Zack and I just looked at each with surprise.  It always amazes us what sinks into that brain of hers on a daily basis!

What's More Fun?

What Is

more fun

than

splashing in

puddles

after a 

summer afternoon

rain?

Not much!

The good news is, she cleans up well.

This my friends, is why we have PLAY clothes!

Busy, busy, busy

So here it is almost two months later between blog posts (sigh).  Someday Caroline is going to read this and want to know why there are months of her life not documented!

We've had a busy couple of months; playing, working, adding a new landscaped bed in the backyard, starting our first vegetable garden, refinishing the deck (that's still not finished), and last but not least a week's vacation at the beach!  I'll be posting beach pictures soon, I'm still working on editing and weeding through them all.  We took over 600 photos!  Thank goodness for digital cameras :-) !

Caroline is growing like crazy.  If I had the time I could truly blog about something new everyday, that's how fast she's changing.  Her vocabulary is really taking off and she is repeating and learning new words constantly. 
Her favorite phrases right now:     
"Hi, ___________(fill in the blank with a person or object)
"Night-Night"
"He -Go"  ("Here you go" as she hands you something)
 "Oh No!"  or "Oh Man!"
She says a host of other words as well, often pointing to the object and naming it.  She is pretty obsessed with pointing out all the "lights" everywhere.  It seems to be a word that she is particularly proud of.

Her favorite thing to eat right now is a scrambled "gegg" (egg).  She pretty much gets up every morning and immediately asks for one.  She seems to enjoy her GiGi's "geggs" best of all.  We laugh though because sometimes we think she just likes watching the process of making the egg more than she really wants to eat it.  She likes to be held by the chef and reminds us of the ingredients we need: gegg, cheese, milk, butter, bowl, pan. 

Her new love is playing in the backyard kiddie pool.  It is by far her favorite activity these days.  She loves the water.  She usually squeals when she sees it and says "Hi, Pool!" 

More updates and pictures of our spunky little one soon.....

Graffiti Artist

Caroline has developed a love for anything that will make a colorful mark, namely her crayons, sidewalk chalk and bath crayons.  When outside she carries around several pieces of sidewalk chalk clutched to her chest, and writes on everything she can.  And I mean everything.

Yes, this is our front door.  Adds a bit of character, don't you think?

Bath crayons have become a big hit each night too.

I won't say how many days and layers of crayon this is...........

Zack walked in while I was giving Caroline a bath the other night and said it looked like a crime scene.  Like the teletubbies were murdered.  I laughed and said, yeah, it kind of does!

Easter Fun

The weekend before Easter, we took Caroline to her first egg hunt at a community park close to our home.  It was a small crowd in her age group, just perfect for her first time.  In her age group, they just threw the eggs out onto a soccer field, so there wasn't much "hunting" going on, but that was ok with us.

I think Caroline was a little confused at first about what in the world the point was, but she caught on pretty quickly.

She was hilarious with the Easter bunny.  She liked him, and was very curious, but didn't want to get too close.

She followed him everywhere and would wave to him and say "Hi!", but from a safe distance!

We spent Easter weekend at my mom's house with my sister Tracy and her husband Jon.  Caroline absolutely adores her Aunt Tracy and Uncle Jon, and she doesn't get to spend as much time with them as she does with GiGi, Mommy and Daddy, so she was thrilled to have two days of undivided attention from them.

She had a great time playing ball outside, her favorite place to be!

We went to church Sunday morning.  Unfortunately, by the time we had our little Easter photo shoot after church, Caroline was a hungry and tired little girl, so she doesn't look too thrilled in the pictures!  She looked so pretty in the dress her Nana sent her!  We had a fun and relaxing weekend!

Hemangioma Update

 I know that there are some parents who have come across our blog looking for information about hemangiomas, so I thought I would share about Caroline's treatment progress, since it's been awhile.  If you have stumbled across our blog this way and are now checking in with us regularly, I'd love to know who you are!  Leave us a comment!  I always find it helpful to know other parents following a similar path with their child.

Caroline is still taking propranolol (a prescription blood pressure medication) to treat her hemangioma.  She has been taking the drug off and on for about a year now.  Since she has been taking it, we have seen slow but steady change in the appearance of her hemangioma, mainly in the color and size.  It is lighter than before, and has more of a "broken" appearance on the surface rather than a bright solid red.  It is also shrinking in size.  Overall we have been very pleased with the results of the propranolol.  To our knowledge, Caroline has had no negative side effects from the drug.  Her blood pressure is monitored closely, and has always been within the normal range.  The drug certainly has not been the "magic bullet" for us as it has been for some children, but Caroline didn't start taking it until she was 6 months old, after the period of most rapid growth for her which was in the first few months of her life.  Unfortunately, treating hemangiomas with propranolol was still so new it was not even something our doctor was willing to consider for Caroline when we were first looking for treatment options when she was 8 weeks old.  Now it is used extensively and in many case seems to be the first line treatment of choice by many specialists.  Modern medicine moves quickly!

At our last appointment with the pediatric dermatologist, he suggested we move ahead with a consultation with a plastic surgeon.  Caroline will at the very least need a series of laser treatments which will take care of the red area of her hemangioma and cause it to fade.  Because the laser will only treat the first layer of skin, she may also need an additional surgery to actually remove the vascular tumor underneath the red area (this tumor is what causes it to look like she's got a small walnut under her skin).  The appointment for the consult is scheduled for early May.  So, very soon it looks like Zack and I will be facing some decisions about WHAT treatment Caroline will have and WHEN she will have it.  The tricky thing about treating hemangiomas is that they are all different.  Yes, this should go away on it's own eventually.  The question is when?  The statistics are that 50% go away on their own by the time the child is 5, and 90% are gone by age 10.  We have no way of knowing where Caroline will fall in this range.  What we do know is that Caroline's hemangioma is particularly aggressive.  She experienced rebound growth after being weaned from the steroids and the first round of propranolol, showing that her hemangioma was still growing well after the first year, which is not the usual course that hemangiomas take.  My intuition tells me that hers will likely not be gone by five years old.

The decision to treat or "wait it out" is so individual, and I don't think there is a right or wrong choice.  Parents differ widely on what they decide to do and there are a lot of different ideas about when and whether to treat.  For us, our concern has been mainly for Caroline's psychosocial development, and because the hemangioma is on a very prominent area of her face, we want to be sensitive to the affect this might have on her.  We almost can't go anywhere these days without someone asking about or commenting on her hemangioma.  Most questions are very sensitive and I really don't mind providing the education.  Unfortunately, we have also gotten some very rude comments and questions.  Some days it seems that wherever we go we are destined to run into all the proverbial "foot-in-mouth" kind of people who say the dumbest things.  It's these kind of days that I just want to rush her home and keep her there forever and protect her little heart.    Caroline for the most part still seems oblivious.  Our hope is that with treatment her hemangioma will be gone by the time she starts elementary school.

One thing I have learned is that when your child has any type of need that requires medical treatment, there is a decision to be made around every corner.  In my professional life I've worked with parents who have had to make such monumental medical decisions for their children that it makes the choices we are faced with for Caroline pale in comparison.  But I think that regardless of the magnitude of the decision, we as parents still agonize over all of them.  It's our child.  We love them beyond words.  And we want to make the best choices we can that will affect their lives in the most positive ways.  In the end all we can do is pray, ask for guidance, and hope we have made the right decision.

Pucker Up

Caroline is a very affectionate little girl, and her newest thing is to greet everyone and everything with a "Hi!" and a kiss.  This morning upon wakening, she said hi and kissed her stuffed animals, ball, sippy cup of milk, medicine syringe, and magnets on the fridge.  She continues this all day.  She will try to kiss anything, although I draw the line at her shoes and the garbage can.  Believe it or not, she has tried to kiss both these things.  She keeps us laughing all the time!

Welcome, Spring!

We are excited you are finally here!