It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

And it's a challenge to get Caroline to SMILE for a Christmas card photo...

First date!

Caroline recently went on her first car date! This is her friend "E" who is our neighbor and is about 1 month older. Miss Independence decided that SHE would drive, so she picked him up and they drove around the yard together. During their date, they stopped for pizza and juice boxes. They both had a lot of fun until she pushed him out of the car because she wanted to drive solo... :-0

Go Terps!!!

We took Caroline to see the Terps beat up on Wake yesterday and had an absolute BLAST! She had so much fun clapping and cheering with the crowd and dancing when the band played. The day's BIG WIN made the day perfect - GO TERPS!

Fall Hike

In early October of each year, we head up to Thurmont, MD to enjoy the great outdoors. This is now Caroline's third year - although the first time we took her, we had just found out that we were pregnant, so that didn't really count! Last year, she was only 4.5 months old. Now she's 16 months and can REALLY enjoy everything: hiking, Aunt Karen's awesome camper, the playgrounds, the Cactoctin Mountain Orchards, etc. The weather was perfect and we had a fantastic day playing outside!

After we hiked and played at the playground, we headed over to the Catoctin Orchard to pick pumpkins and explore some more fall fun!

We almost lost her in the hay bale maze - her hair blended in a little too well!

12 Month Photoshoot

It's always so hard to choose just one shot! Here are 3 of the 20 or so that we selected!

Haircut

Caroline's mop finally got to me and we made an appointment to have it cut yesterday! I've been putting it off for too long (mostly because i didn't want her to look like a boy with a shorter cut!) Here is the before - pretty bad, huh?

We both donned capes, and then she sat very quietly and watched herself in the mirror:

And the after shots (which I forgot to take as we were leaving the salon so this is a few hours later.) MUCH better! Only slightly boyish, no?

Biker Babe

Another awesome hand-me-down from Aunt Karen - a bike seat! We have been having a blast riding now that the weather is a little more tolerable!

Dress up

Contrary to popular belief, Caroline DOES own several dresses, including this very pretty green one. (This post is for Linda G. (Jen's mom) who thinks that I dress Caroline like a boy all the time! But hey, it's hard to run around in a dress! :-P)

After a bath...

Its fun to be wrapped up in a towel with velcro rollers in your hair!

Pool Party!

Caroline decided to invite her baby friends over for an end of summer POOL Party! She sent a text message with all the details to her buddies Olivia, Caleb, Jonas, Nathan, Becca and Jackson:

And miraculously, EVERYONE made it! You can imagine the logistics of getting together this many little ones. Between schedules, 2 pregnant mommies, daycare germs, daddies falling off ladders, and long distance travels, this was no smal feat! We took some time for a group photo (we did this same picture earlier this year: http://sweetcarolinebrown.blogspot.com/2008/02/gathering-of-babies-and-mommies.html)

And then it was off to the pool for some fun in the sun!

And in other news...

We finally repainted the interior of our house! GONE is the retina-burning, albeit sunny/cheery/happy golden glow of the entire interior. It's been replaced by some nice calming beiges and reds.

Outbreak!!

Last week at daycare, Caroline contracted a very contagious virus called Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. (Why they call it a disease is beyond me.) But she was banned from returning until the bumps (true to the name, appearing on her hands, feet and mouth) were completely gone. This virus is very prevalent in centers and schools. And while she's been exposed to it several times over the past year, this is the first time she contracted it. And thank goodness it was a VERY mild case. Normally babies have a fever and experience very painful drinking/swallowing, generally feeling just awful. Caroline's ONLY symptom was the bumps. So here is how we spent our "sick day":

Watching a little Sesamie Street:

Dancing around the living room:

Playing a little LAX:
Unrolling TP (now this was really fun!)

Practicing self-feeding skills (spaghetti probably wasn't the BEST choice here:)

And finally, hanging out by the pool. She looks really sick, doesn't she?

Happy 4th of July - boy do I need a haircut!