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!

Merry Christmas to All…And to All a Goodnight!

 Christmas has come and gone. My how time flies. We had a great time and it was magical watching the kids experience Christmas at this age.

 A tiny helper or two helped us decorate our tree. Caroline had less interest in decorating the tree than Thomas had around her age. We had less re arranging of ornaments than I expected.

 One of our favorite traditions is doing our chocolate advent calendars. The kids get really into it. We tell them to cover their eyes and we bring them out every night.

 Thomas loved seeing what chocolates they got each night, and he counted all the little windows every night.

 Our neighbors had this little Santa in their yard that the kids loved to go visit. Caroline especially loved that it was just her size. She would point to Santa's nose, and then to her nose. And Santa's belly and her belly. So cute.

  Caroline and Thomas both loved looking for our elf, "Olaf" every day. Caroline found Olaf nearly everyday before Thomas :) She would wave to him and say, "Hi!"

Christmas eve we had a big family breakfast at my dad's house. He has this cool riding train the grand kids went nuts over.  The kids were all really wild and crazy, and the day started out a little stressful for me. It was a little overwhelming having so much going on, with contrast to how our previous Christmas's in Ohio have gone. Part of me really missed our quiet, intimate little Christmas's we have had the past 4 years. 

After my dad's party we went to my mom's where the kids were a little less crazy, and they decorate cookies for santa. Had Santa actually consumed the cookie Thomas made for him, he would have gone into a sugar coma that night. But it is the thought that counts :) 

Keeping with tradition, on Christmas Eve night the kids opened their first present, new pajamas. 

 I love snuggling babies in their jammies. And those faces??? So cute I can't handle it.

 Clint read the kids "The Night Before Christmas" the kids were captivated.

 Christmas morning, Thomas was in the bed with us and when he woke up we told him to look out the window. He jumped up and peeked out the window and saw the freshly fallen snow. He excitedly said, "Its Christmas Day!" It was so cute. Then we watched the nativity video and headed out to see our Christmas loot. 

Santa brought the little girl a cradle for her babies

And between Santa, Papa Mackay and Grandma and Grandpa Allred Thomas got an entire construction site.  Not all equipment is even pictured! Someone is spoiled! He was a pretty darn happy boy. 

 These pics are so cute I had to include them. He got a little doctor kit as a prize at my dad's party. He's had a fun time checking people. A little chip off the old block.

 The kids really enjoyed opening their presents.  One thing that was really fun-I had Thomas do some extra chores to earn some money. I took him to the dollar store and I had him pick out presents for Clint and Caroline. Being the little sweetie that he is, he also wanted to buy me a present. He was very specific and made up his mind exactly what he wanted to get them. He picked out a little mermaid dolly for Caroline to play with in the bath and he got Clint a puzzle with a little cartoon doctor on the picture. He said, "Maybe Papa will let me help him put it together." The cutest thing was Clint bought Thomas some puzzles as his gift. These two boys think alike.

 And this baby of course got a new baby. She was pretty pleased about that.

Christmas evening Grandma and Grandpa Allred came over and had dinner with us and played games. It was a nice quiet night and the kids loved having them over. I didn't get any pics of their visit though! It was such a nice treat to have our family around us this Christmas. And while there were moments that I felt a bit overwhelmed by splitting time and the noise and chaos, I also really feel blessed to have so many generous and loving family members around that we could spend time with. Christmas is a lovely time to reflect on how much you have and the wonderful people that are in your life. I am glad I was able to see them all this year.