Da da da da

That's Caroline's new babbling phrase...and Caroline's "Da Da" sure does love to hear it!

Reunited!

GiGi found Bug!! My mom called me over the weekend to say that she was shopping and found bug in a store. Guess which one? Big Lots! I knew I loved that place! :-) Caroline was reunited with Bug on Monday night and her expression was priceless. She lit up and you could just see the recognition spread across her face into a big smile. She even gave Bug a kiss! Whenever we press Bug to play her "twinkle twinkle" song, Caroline breaks into the biggest smile. So sweet! Thanks GiGi for bringing bug home! I wish I could have captured the moment she saw bug on camera, but here's a picture of Caroline from yesterday, playing with her long lost friend.

Bookworm

Caroline LOVES books. Seriously, the girl would rather read than do anything else, including eat. We have all of her books in a basket beside the rocking chair where we feed her, and now she thinks she needs a book read to her after every few ounces of her bottle. She'll stop eating, push the bottle away, and lean over the side of the chair toward the books. She will even choose the book she wants! No kidding! If we hold two books in front of her and give her the choice, she will touch the one she wants us to read. And if we read one she doesn't want to hear?.....she either starts to fuss or slams the cover shut! She's a hoot! She definitely has her preferences. It is lots of fun to see her little personality blossom each day. In other news, the growling is finally making an exit and has been replaced by babbling! Ma,ma,ma; ba,ba,ba are so nice to hear! She still growls once and a while, but it's not her primary "language" anymore. On Thursday, she learned how to go from a lying to a sitting position on her own. Still nothing on the crawling front yet. She rolls and wiggles herself around wherever she needs to go. Although just this morning we noticed that she is getting closer than she has ever been to being on her hands and knees. So stay tuned....we may have a crawler soon!

Here are some pictures of our little bookworm and her favorite pastime:

Hemangioma update

Caroline is still taking propranolol, and is doing great with it. We stopped the home health nursing several weeks ago because Dr. Prose felt that since Caroline has had no problems with her blood pressure up to this point, there is no reason to think she will start to have problems now. I haven't really updated much with pictures of the hemangioma because, well, there's not much to update. There has not really been a dramatic change overall. The hemangioma is definitely smaller, and lighter in color, so it has certainly helped; it just hasn't been the "magic bullet" we were hoping for. Truth be told, my expectations were probably very unrealistic. I had just hoped that somehow the medicine would just magically make it disappear. That's unlikely to happen. Some of the pictures I have seen from other parents whose children have been on it have truly been remarkable. Dr. Prose has said that we probably will not see the same dramatic effects due to Caroline's age and the growth stage of her hemangioma. It stands to reason that she would not respond in the same way that a much younger child would whose hemangioma is rapidly growing. Makes sense. I really wish we could have done the propranolol from the beginning and skipped the steroids altogether, but that was not an option at the time, so I've got to try to let that go. All that being said, I'm so happy we made the decision to start Caroline on the propranolol. It definitely stopped the growth and made it smaller, and the hope is that it will jump start the involution phase (when the body reabsorbs the hemangioma). I'm hoping we can keep her on it at least until she's nine months old (I think Dr. Prose will agree) to make sure the hemangioma is done growing before weaning her off. Then the plan is to wait and see for a while.

Little Show Off

Zack and I went to Babies R Us over the weekend to get a baby gift and, of course, a few things for Caroline. She was in the best mood while we were there, smiling and happy. While I was browsing, Caroline and Zack walked around a bit and Caroline had a lot of fun sitting in a child sized chair that was in the middle of the store. Zack took the picture above on his blackberry. I caught up with them and saw that Caroline was attracting a lot of attention from passersby. She was adorable; smiling, clapping her hands (her new favorite trick), and babbling. We were admiring her when a lady who had stopped to speak to her said "bye bye" and waved to Caroline. Zack and I looked at each other in amazement when Caroline lifted her hand and waved back! That's the first time she has waved "bye bye" appropriately. We have been practicing with her but had never seen her do it in the correct context. Of course, we were so proud. I mean, the kid's a genius! And I'm not at all biased.

Blogging slacker

I know I have been such a slacker with updating the blog. Some days it feels like I have been shot out of a cannon....I'm going full speed ahead and there is always too much to do and not enough time to do it. Even working just part-time is more of a challenge than I thought. I try to squeeze as much quality time in with Caroline as possible amid all the other necessary things. Anyway, I'm going to try to be better about updating. I'll be posting more in the next few days, so keep checking back. In the meantime, here are a few recent pics of our girl. We've been enjoying the slow warming trend in the weather, and the longer days. Caroline has discovered that she really likes the swings at our nearby park. Once she even cried when Zack and I tried to take her out of the swing. She thinks it's great!

A Caroline Funny.....

Caroline has a Fisher Price rain forest mobile hanging on her crib which she LOVES. It's probably the best money on a toy that I've spent. It still captures her attention and sometimes will calm her when she's fussy when nothing else will. At 4:30 this morning, I hear the music from her mobile playing over the baby monitor. I ask Zack if he turned on Caroline's mobile and he says no, but gets up to investigate. He quickly comes back and says, "you've got to come see this." We peek in her room, and there she is, wide awake, watching her mobile go round and round. Obviously, she had maneuvered herself enough to reach up and push the buttons on the mobile to activate it. I guess she thought since she was awake, she needed some entertainment! Too funny! Hmmm..... guess it's time to take down the mobile or move the crib mattress down a level!