Walking!

Caroline has been teasing us this past week by taking a step here and there, but it was nothing that would constitute real walking. That was until Sunday night! We managed to catch her second run across the living room here! As you can see, she's QUITE proud of herself!! And so are we!! Her technique has vastly improved in just three short days, but we are so excited that we caught this early attempt!

Ride Caroline Ride!

As a lifelong equestrian, I have been DYING to get Caroline on a horse! She enjoys her stuffed ponies and her ride-on ponies at home, but we needed to experience the real deal. Some of our neighbors told us about a great place called Clarkland Farm up in Howard County. http://www.clarklandfarm.com/

When we heard that they had pony rides and a petting zoo, we couldn't wait to visit!

So here it is... drumroll please... Caroline's first pony ride!

So far so good!

What??? The ride is over?? Nooooo.... Please don't take me off!

Now, it's a good thing we took her for a pony ride when we did. All great equestrains are usually quoted at some point in their riding "career" as saying, "I was riding ponies before I could even walk..." Caroline actually started to take one or two independent steps that night. So someday when she's an accomplished rider (no pressure!) she can say the same thing! :-)

After the pony ride, we went to visit the rest of the animals. We were able to pet some goats, ducks, chickens, cows, sheep, an emu, two pigs, a donkey and then... some more ponies!

Here's what we've been up to since turning ONE!

Splashing around in the baby pool:

Climbing all over my indoor-but-really-supposed-to-be-outdoor playground:

Riding my new train around the house:



Going out for daily jogs with mom in our new jogging stroller:






Playing baby ballerina with the tutu I got for my birthday.
Look at my hands - I'm a natural!


Whew! We've been BUSY!

Beach baby

I've been a little behind with the blog lately; between our recent vacation at the beach with our friends the H family to Caroline's weekend birthday celebration, it's been a little hectic! Here are some pictures from our beach trip! (You can see more in Baby C's blog as well...)

Caroline really enjoys "walking" now:

Snuggling on the beach with mom:

And with daddy:

I love the sky in this picture:

The babies chased each other up and down the stairs:

Caroline picked out a Raggedy Ann doll - she hasn't put it down since!

Sneaking some Thrasher fries (YUM!):

Mom relinquishes the camera for once:

Caroline LOVED riding C's bulldozer!

They both liked to play with the beach ball:

We went swimming in the indoor pool almost every day:

The babies played nicely together, but I don't think Caroline

has ANY interest in a brother or sister of her own:

They even took a bath together one night!

Let's bust out of here!

Beach baby:

Happy Birthday Caroline!

Caroline's first birthday cake:

A little taste...
I think she liked it!!!

One year ago today, at 8:03pm, along came Caroline. Our beautiful Sweet Caroline. I think back to what our little family has been through these past 365 days and it just blows me away. Scott and I drove to the hospital as merely a couple on the morning of May 22nd, 2007. We left a few days later as a newly formed family. This past year has been an exausting, amazing, emotional, anxiety-filled, terrifying, gratifying journey, and such a completely joyous experience!
We've measured this past year in so many ways: Our first weeks of learning how to care for her, the 36 hour hospitalization for Jaundice, nights of waking her every two hours to feed, recording everything that she took in and put out (yes, we saved those charts!) her growth every few months to a larger size diaper, learning to sleep in her crib, starting to fit into clothes that once looked HUGE on her, cutting her first teeth, shots and about 8 zillion trips to visit the pediatrician, the night we rushed her to Nightime Pediatrics for a 100 degree fever (ha!) and then later the 105 degree fever that landed us in the ER, her first days at daycare when I literally thought my heart would break from having to leave my baby in the care of strangers, the fun family vacations we've taken, her interaction with our family, and all of the amazing milestons of smiling, rolling over, sitting up, eating solids, crawling, babbling, etc.
Scott and I are completely CONSUMED (really, that is the best word to descibe it) by this little person and we know our lives will never ever be the same. And for that we are eternally grateful. Happy birthday little girl!!

Daddy ROCKS the goal!

Caroline, her grammies and I got to watch another GREAT lacrosse game Friday night! Scott did awesome in his 2nd game in 12 (cough cough) years and was actually able to walk without limping the next day!

The munchkin and her MUNCHKINS

Caroline snuck into the box of munchkins yesterday morning! Although she made a HUGE mess, it was terribly amusing. She ate 2 or 3 but could have easily had more. Hence it very very VERY hard to get her down for a nap afterwards! ;-)