Caroline turns 18 months

This girl. I'm telling you, she has just about everyone in the palm of her hand, and she is only 18 months old! Could there be a sweeter soul out there? I think not.

This is my favorite stage of early childhood. She is starting to be so curious, and she is learning at lightning speed. Her little personality is showing through more and more everyday. And she is just a big sweetheart. One of my favorite things is hearing Thomas call Caroline his little sweetheart. It melts me.

The lady is still a thumb sucker! Any tips out there? She looks so cute, its hard to want to break her of it! And then she won't be a baby at all anymore! One day I wrapped her two thumbs in bandaids. She held our her hands, with a very sad expression on her face and said, "All gone?" 

Serious, serious caroline. That little face!

She has started learning names for emotions, and making faces accordingly. This is sad.

And this is happy! Caroline is a pretty happy little gal.  She has become quite good friends with Thomas, or TaTa as she calls him. Initially Thomas wasn't a fan of this. He said, "I am not called TATA!" But he has warmed up to it now, and its kind of like a little pet name. When he isn't around she calls out around the house, "TaTa? TaTa?" She started trying to say her name and said, CuCu (pronounced Cockoo) Of course Thomas thought that was hilarious! "She thinks her name is cuckoo!" So we coached her to say coco instead. So there you have it, my two kids, TaTa and CoCo.

She has been talking quite a bit. Her vocabulary is very impressive. She will say words I had no idea she knew. Like Broccoli, X-Ray, Cocoon, Pirate, Tunnel, Butterfly. I could go on and on. I have completely lost track of how many words she has now. Its well over 100 for sure. 

She has even started putting words together to form sentences. Her first sent ace, "Papa, See Moon?" How cute is that? Caroline LOVES the moon. She asks to see it every morning and every night. When she sees it in the sky she stretchers her little arms up and says, "Reach! Reach!" Yep. Adorable.

She also loves learning sign language. She picks the signs up really quickly. This is a picture of her signing, "Baby" but she knows several signs, and learns a new one almost every day. 

Caroline has also taken a keen interest in coloring and painting. When she see's the crayons or a pen or markers or whatever she says, very urgently, "Color! Color!" When we go grocery shopping she often takes my pen and my list away from me to color a picture. And she always ends up coloring on the milk carton in the cart too. :)

Of course she still loves her babies. That bed is packed like sardines!

This little girl is not all sugar, she has a little spice as well. She is getting a little sassy and she is also quite mischievous. Of course after raising toddler Thomas I can take just about anything this girl dishes out.

Silly lady! That doesn't go in the garbage. 

One of my favorite things Caroline says now is "Silly Papa!" she says it like "SeeWee PaPa" When she is looking for Clint during the day she will say, "Papa? Papa?" And I respond, "Papa is not home, Caroline, papa is at work" and she says, "Papa Sleep (and does the sign for sleep) Seewee papa!" So there you have it, apparently Clint is sleeping on the job. Everyday. 

There are no words for how much we love this sweet little girl. She adds so much joy to our home. Her spirit is pure, and good and kind. Her gentle mannerisms and her precious smile make us all so happy. While I truly wish I could keep Caroline at this age forever, I can't wait to see the person she develops into. She is worth so much and she is going to do great things. That is for certain!