Thankful

Dedication Day

Sunday we had Caroline dedicated to the Lord at our church.  It was a very sweet time with family and close friends. 

We took these pictures at home on Sunday before church.  Caroline is wearing a cross necklace that my sister and I wore as babies.  I was struck by how much she looks like a little girl in these pictures.

 

She did really well on stage, despite the fact that she came down with a cold over the weekend and wasn't feeling her best.

The verse we chose for Caroline is also our prayer for her life, that these words would be imprinted on her heart as she grows.

Psalm 86: 11-12

Teach me your way, O Lord,

and I will walk in your truth;

give me an undivided heart,

that I may fear your name.

I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart;

I will glorify your name forever. 

Some pictures to brighten a gloomy day!

It's dreary and rainy in our part of NC today, so thought I'd share some pictures we took of Caroline at the park in October.  She's wearing a precious outfit from Strasburg given to her by her Godmother Melissa for her first birthday.  She's been begging to see pictures of her in it!  Here you go, Melissa!  :-)

 

 

Halloween Fun!

Last Friday Caroline and I joined a group of other mom's with toddlers at our local park for cookie decorating and fun in costumes.  It was pretty hilarious to see all the kids toddling around the playground in their costumes.  I'm not sure they knew what to think about all of it, but they had fun.  Of course, Caroline was more interested in playing with the mulch on the playground than any of the kids, despite the fact that her best buddy Caleb was in attendance.  She's too funny!  Here's the pretty little butterfly:

 

On Saturday, the weather was overcast and gloomy but the rain held off long enough for us to visit a local farm we discovered just a few miles from our house that had all kinds of fun activities for kids.  There was a small pumpkin patch, a haystack mountain to climb with fun tunnels underneath, a mini corn maze, silos full of corn to play in, and a cow train.  Caroline had a ball.  The girl just loves being outside and she had lots of fun exploring everywhere and everything.

Playing in the corn was a new experience:

She loved running from one end of the tunnel to the other

She discovered hay is as much fun to play with as mulch!

 

Caroline thought she had to demonstrate her strength at the pumpkin patch by trying to pick up every one

Here is Caroline and Daddy on the "cow train."  Basically they were gallon drums with seats inside pulled behind a tractor.  Seeing Zack squeezed in with all the other kids was pretty funny!

 

We had lots of fun and will definitely go back next year! Despite the fact that a week later I am still picking corn up off the floor and finding it in the laundry!

Learning something new every day

Caroline has recently discovered that when she goes into a room, she can close the door behind her.  Luckily she doesn't close the door hard enough to latch it, because she's not near tall enough to reach the door knob!   Last night she started playing a game where she would run in her room, close the door, then open it again and run full speed ahead down the hallway into my arms.  What fun!

Officially a Toddler

Well, I think it's official. My baby is not a baby anymore. That is probably pretty obvious to everyone else, but to me it seems like this happened overnight! And apparently with this new title of toddler, comes an opinion. A strong one. About everything. My toddler is not at all timid about sharing her opinion- and she does so often. Some things she is most opinionated about-
* Disagreeing with the idea that we can not play outside when it's raining.
She doesn't mind getting wet and does not understand why we do.
* Stopping to take a bath, eat, or have her diaper changed. To her these are all very unnecessary things that are quite frankly a waste of her time.
* What she eats. Caroline must be the pickiest 15 month old I know. We have a short list of things that she will accept, and she absolutely refuses to try anything new. She essentially eats the same things everyday, with the exception of fruits and veggies (she will only accept stage 2 baby food varieties!), which we vary.
* Taking a nap. Sometimes this is under protest, sometimes not. It all seems to depend on whether or not she thinks it's a good idea at the time.
* Being told "No, we're not going to watch Elmo right now" does not go over too well either.

So, with this new stage comes a new skill set we must master to respond to this new opinion about things. She is very strong-willed about making sure we know what she thinks, but luckily her protests are pretty short-lived. Frustrated and upset one second and sweet, loving, and charming the next. Ah, the life of a toddler.

Not My Child Monday

Welcome to Not My Child! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Remember "Not Me Monday"? Well this is "Not My Child Monday"-same concept except this time I get to blame it all on Caroline. Because I of course did NOT do anything embarrassing or funny at all this week.

It is most definitely NOT my child who adamantly refuses to eat anything new presented on her high chair tray but will eat anything off the floor.

It is also NOT my child who has learned how to operate the buttons on the DVD player and can restart her Elmo DVD in a split second even after she's been told "we're only watching it one time!"

It is definitely NOT my child who after coming in from playing outside hears "lets wash your hands" and immediately places her hands in her mouth because she knows that's exactly what you don't want her to do.

It's also NOT my child who I have to literally chase down every night to take a bath because she simply does not want to stop moving long enough to do it!

It's NOT my child who is so charming and precious that when sitting in the cart at Wal-Mart waves to everyone we pass by like she's Miss America on parade!

And, it's NOT my child who gives the sweetest hugs and kisses, and is the most loving 15 month old I know!