Candles and cousins

This weekend Shelley and Genny were in town to celebrate James and Catherine's birthday!  We joined everyone at the Nanas' for lunch Saturday and birthday brunch today.  We may have overstayed a bit on Saturday though because I had to keep this sleepy girl awake on the way home to ensure she took a good afternoon nap.

SO sleepy. Anyway, the cousin time was fun.  The bigger girls are very patient with Caroline as she takes their toys and eats their food.  Oh and Uncle Johnny got lots of attention from his nieces!

Today's brunch brought a cousin photo opportunity.  Amanda has better pics than I do but it was quite a show.  C loved the rocking aspect of the seat but not the sitting still part.  Rhys was sleepy.

Par for the course I think.  At least for Caroline.  Genny and O are great smilers.  Then C had some slide time.  She loves it!

Giggles all the way.  We are home tomorrow together because of Hurricane Sandy, so I am sure I'll take lots of grainy, poorly lit indoor pics.  May be time to locate the flash.  At least we have lots of water (thanks Mr. Nichols) and food!  (insert my DHS plug for www.Ready.gov!)

Thankful

Eight months ago I purchased this:

I was returning to work and I got some good advice to have it on hand in case of an emergency.  

I never opened it. 

I am so very thankful that my workplace is accommodating to the needs of pumping moms ("strapping" as my coworkers lovingly call it).  I am thankful that my husband is so supportive.  I am thankful for all of my friends near and far that encouraged me to stick with the feeding, strapping, and all that goes with nourishing my baby in the way we chose.   I am now an encourager.  It can be done.

Today was my first day at work since her birth that I didn't visit the expression suite.  Caroline is healthy and strong.  She loves her food and her milk (even though she is starting to have priorities other than nursing).  It is a change for me, for us.  But change can be good. 

11 Months Old

Caroline is quite the character at 11 months.  She is becoming more vocal and has a number of new sounds.  She can also sign "more" and "milk", the only problem being that she signs "more" when she wants anything.  Or a different food.  Or help.  So it is sort of confusing. We are figuring it out.

Caroline is much more confident when we are out and about too.  She is learning to navigate stairs, though I need to teach her to go feet first. She won't let those stairs hold her back from wherever she is trying to go.

She is also quite a silly girl.  

Caroline also started to bring me books and even sits in my lap for seconds at a time!  I love it of course.  She likes rhyming books and really only likes turning the pages.  And she finally got the hang of the tunnel!  She got confused because she couldn't stand up in it.  She is too cute.

And again, she eats.  Here dad shared his reuben.  She thought it was tasty and salty so she also needed water.  Then just another photo of her enjoying some food and her gap tooth grin.  I'm looking forward to her birthday party in a few weeks!  Cannot believe we're approaching a year.

My iphone pics, lately

Quick summary of our week.

As you can see, we ate a lot.  But Caroline also had some fun getting into everything at the Westfields Golf Club fitting studio, and playing in her ball pit.

And man, does she enjoy apple butter.  (center pic)

11 month old post coming sometime this weekend!

Always the big stuff

We had a pretty low-key weekend and spent a good amount of time outdoors.  I didn't take many photos of Caroline, but I did catch a moment when she was lugging around her big stick during mum planting.  Her eyes are bigger than her little arms!

Stay at home mom

These last two days I got to stay home with my sweet baby girl!  I loved it.  We didn't do much, though we did get to go out to lunch both days with Auntie Misses and Rhys, and once with Uncle E.  Other than that we played and wandered.

I splurged on these ridiculous balls for the girls to play with.  Caroline wasn't really interested in the ball pit method of fun, however, she did like lugging all of the containers around the basement.

Then we took walks and went to the park.  Not too shabby!

Our days recently

Brunch with Marisa, her mom, and Dan after her race last week, a visit to the Gaylord, and some of our goings on this week!

Pumpkin patch

So our trip to the pumpkin patch was less successful than that of our cousins on both sides.  There were too many people and Caroline is still too young to enjoy these types of activities...hard for me to remember since she is so mobile.  She was definitely not interested in a photo shoot.

It was very sad.  But then she wandered around a bit while dad payed for our two pumpkins.  She basically went after the other kids' snacks.

So many people! So many pumpkins!

So we returned home and played on the porch while dad tried to mow the lawn.

That is Caroline looking at the airplanes!  We just don't know what is wrong with the mowers.  The old school one did okay, but couldn't tackle the thick stuff.  Sigh...

All in all, a pretty good Saturday!