Oversharing at its Best

It's the moment you have all been waiting for. BATHTIME BABY!!!

Three Years!

Soooooo, this post is a day late, but whatever. Yesterday was our three year wedding anniversary. It was about as great as a middle-of-the-week anniversary can be!

We met for a delicious lunch at Vertigo Burgers & Fries AKA the most amazing "fast food" burger place OF ALL TIME. We both got the Triple Throwdown (beef burger, applewood bacon &  blue cheese, horseradish sauce, caramelized onions) and split an order of sweet potato fries (SO MANY FRIES). It was absolutely delicious and a great anniversary lunch. 

We then went to the mall to order Josh's anniversary gift. Yes, we ordered it together, because I didn't want to screw it up! We ordered him a Name Plate with his office nickname on it (Josh "Eight Names" Brian) with "Attorney at Law" underneath. He is SO EXCITED about this gift. I'm pretty much the best wife ever for thinking of it. Unfortunately, they are out of the name plate he likes, so he can't get the gift immediately, but he's still very excited!

We had a super romantic frozen pizza for dinner and then Josh went out to buy my gift (he has been busy at work, so he had not yet had a chance to purchase it) while I snuggled on my couch with my sleep-fighting baby. We had a good snuggle session and watched Netflix together. She finally nodded off in the swing literally as Josh walked back in the door. 

We exchanged cards (he got me the card I almost got him) and then I got my gift. He got me a new point-and-shoot camera to replace the one that broke while at Clearwater Beach. It was an absolutely perfect gift! I think we did pretty awesome choosing gifts for each other this year.

Just for fun (and because I have no motivation to do any work at the moment), let's take a little walk down memory lane. Here are some old pictures of the two of us; can you believe we have now known each other for nearly ten years? WE ARE SO OLD, GUYS.

College was fun.

Life in the "Real World" was fun.

Getting Married was Fun.

Life after marriage is fun.

Being parents is THE BEST.

An Overdue Post!

I apologize for the lack of posting. I am quite the slacker!

Please forgive my mommy <3

Last weekend, we were actually social. We got invited to a party of one of Josh's law school classmates. Their house is beautiful and the party was really nice. I think I forgot how to be social; it has been so long! We met some fun new people and Caroline had so much fun and was so well behaved. We were there for three hours and she did not fuss once. She made friends with some older friends and pretty much sat on the floor the entire time playing with her crab and alligator toys. It was a good time and it was nice to break out of our routine and hang out with our peers!

Last week was no fun because we had to deal with a sick baby. I got a call at 11:30am Wednesday that Caroline took a 90 minute nap (so rare for her that they actually worry when she naps), didn't have an appetite, and had two nasty blowouts. Poor little thing got sent home sick from school. I went to get her and she spent about an hour in my office and then we headed home. She had two more nasty incidents and was SO UNHAPPY. She was screaming. Not crying, screaming. I tried everything to calm her down, texted Josh that I needed help, and finally got her to calm down while he was on his way home. How? I got in the bathtub with her (which usually makes her instant happy baby) where she continued to scream. However, I put her on my chest to sleep and she instantly calmed down and fell asleep. So, we laid in the tub for about half an hour. The water got SO COLD but she was SO CONTENT. I guess that skin-to-skin contact is still soothing to them even at nine months old. Due to her tummy issues, she wasn't allowed at daycare on Thursday (24-hour policy), so I took the morning off of work to take care of her and Josh took the afternoon off work to take over. She was feeling so much better on Thursday, so it was a very enjoyable day!

We had a nice, relaxing weekend. We had an Outback feast Friday night. Caroline was so good the entire time and was watching and talking to the people around us. She almost fell asleep in her highchair while eating her bottle, which I'm sure was hilarious to people around us. Caroline fell asleep on the drive back home and we put her straight to bed - Outback is exhausting :)

Saturday, we went to the mall, where I got two new belts (mine are slowly dying). We then went to Babies 'r' Us where we got Caroline a new changing pad cover (her changing pad is also slowly dying). After that, we went to the new Dick's Sporting Goods where we bought nothing, but scored a free beach ball! A note to my food friend: it was a lazy eating day... Dunkin's for breakfast, Chickfila for lunch, and frozen pizza for dinner! We enjoyed a three-way video chat with my parents and my sister - technology is amazing!

Sunday was the ideal lazy day. I watched Caroline in the morning while Josh did yard work. Unfortunately, it was cut short when he got bit/stung by something, so for fear that it may have been an ant he took a bunch of Benedril and slept for a few hours. Luckily, he didn't have an allergic reaction, so it must have been something else. Caroline and I watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame and played on the floor. It was fun :) Once Josh woke up, I went to Target and Publix. We then watched Tucker and Dale v. Evil on Netflix; to any friends who enjoy dark comedies, we definitely recommend it! We then gave Caroline a bath, ate some dinner, and watched the, for lack of a better term, shitshow that was the MTV VMA's. Food friend, we once again had Dunkin's for breakfast, I ate popcorn for lunch, and I made beef stroganoff for dinner.

Yesterday was Caroline's nine-month birthday! At nine months, she loves clapping, says "mama" repeatedly, can stand unassisted for about five seconds at a time, loves spinning in circles while sitting down, can pull herself up, and can crawl very slowly (she's the tortoise, not the hare). She's outgrowing her 6 to 9 month clothing and fitting into her 12 to 18 month clothing. She has her two bottom teeth and has a lot of hair; it's just so blonde she still looks bald! She still hates her vegetables and loves her fruits. She can now pick up and take bites of food (pancakes are super fun). She is very happy, laughs when we play peekaboo, and loves her furry brothers and sisters. I adore my sweet nine month old!!

Here are some more pictures of my Sweet Caroline on her nine month birthday!

Road Trip!

This weekend our little family took a roadtrip to Clearwater, Florida. The furry members of our family stayed behind. It was a fun weekend... until you get to paragraph #7. I will leave you in suspense until then.

The trip down wasn't bad at all. I sat in the back with Caroline the entire time, so she could get a bottle whenever she needed one. She slept for about two hours of the trip and only got fussy about half an hour before we got to Clearwater. What calmed her down? Disney videos on my phone. She loves The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King. She would cry every time I took the phone away to pull up a new video.

Once we got to Clearwater, Caroline saw her great grandma, and met her great grandpa and uncle. She adored everyone; I think the feeling was mutual :) We ate some delicious baked spaghetti, and hung out until bedtime.

Saturday, we woke up and ate eggs and sausage. Then, Josh, Caroline and I joined Mike at the Tampa Bay Buccaneer training camp. Caroline had so much fun watching the football players. She had more fun watching (more like creeping on) the five-month-old little girl behind us. Her first football experience was definitely a success; I know her uncle was thrilled.

After that, we went to Clearwater Beach. I had never been there, and it's really nice! The area reminds me a lot of Virginia Beach. There's no boardwalk, but the streets and stores were a lot like Virginia Beach. Caroline had A BLAST. Unfortunately, my camera decided to break as soon as we got to the water, so I only got a couple pictures. Luckily, Mike took some pictures with his phone. Caroline had a blast playing in the surf with her daddy. She took some dips in the water, as well (mostly to wash the sand off of her) and LOVED playing with the sand. Luckily, none of it ended up in her mouth. She had an absolute blast. Unfortunately, we didn't get to stay very long; didn't want a lobster baby!!

Later in the day, we went to Josh's Aunt and Uncle's house for a nice gathering. I had a delicious strawberry daiquiri! Caroline got to go swimming with her daddy and uncle and had SO MUCH FUN. She is such a water baby. They just pushed her all over the pool in her baby float and had a grin on her face the entire time. She also LOVED their two American Bull Dogs and kept smashing her face into theirs. She is a fearless little thing! We had a great time hanging out. They made delicious food and the company was great.

You know that not so fun thing? This is the paragraph where it begins. I left the gathering with Caroline early because 1) it was almost 9pm and past her bed time and 2) I felt like absolute crap. We got back, it took her forever to go to sleep, but when she finally did I literally collapsed into bed. Everyone else got back like half an hour after I went to bed and all was well. 1am hit, I wake up, I feel SO BAD, and had to run to the bathroom and, yeah, I got sick for the first time in recent memory. Like, really sick.

A few hours later, I'm sleeping and hear Josh run to the bathroom and, you guessed it, he's sick, too. He was back and forth between the bathroom for the rest of the night, so we of course got no sleep. When we had to wake up (due to a very happy, but awake baby) I felt better than Josh so I had baby duty. I felt like absolute crap, but he felt worst. So, he slept all morning (with frequent bathroom trips), while I did my best to take care of the lady while feeling ick-tastic. LOVELY STORY, HUH?

We said our goodbyes, and managed to make it on the road around 2:00. The trip was surprisingly uneventful. Caroline was, once again, amazing. I got my appetite back, so we made a pitstop at Chipotle. We made it back around 7:00, so we made great time. Josh fed Caroline when we got home and then went to bed. I hung out with her in the living room and we watched the Teen Choice Awards (AKA the TV program that makes me feel REALLY OLD) until she finally dozed off around 8:45. I then collapsed in bed and slept great.

Somehow, we were both back at work yesterday. I think we have concluded we finally got some sort of food poisoning from either beef jerky or lettuce. PS: I wanted to add more photos to this post but technology hates me! Oh, wellllll.

Holy Milestones, Batman!

We had a wonderful weekend, which makes Monday that much more evil for interrupting it! So, let's see what we did this weekend and talk about all the freaking things Caroline learned this weekend.

Friday, Josh left work early to take Wrangler to the vet. I left at 3:30 (I love Fridays) and Caroline and I went straight home to hang out and offer a very upset Ellie some support (she freaks out when her and Wrangler are separated). Ellie was so sad and Caroline kept trying to pet and hug her. Cutest girls ever. Caroline and I did a lot of crawling practice in her nursery; she was having so much fun exploring! Note to my food friend: I think we were boring and ate a frozen pasta meal for dinner.

We woke up really early Saturday morning to take Caroline to the park to go swinging! We learned last weekend that the park becomes a sauna, since it sits in the sun all day, so it's best to go in the morning. Josh made us sausage and eggs for breakfast (delicious!) and we headed to the park. Caroline had so much fun swinging. She rocked her polka dot sunglasses and smiled the ENTIRE time. It was the cutest thing ever. Then, we went down the slide together, which was unimpressive considering the slide was not sleek at all and I had to shimmy us to the bottom. Oh well, it was still fun :)

We then headed to the mall to take advantage of tax free weekend. Caroline has outgrown nearly all of her pajamas, so we were on a mission to find her new ones. Guys, the only pajamas that looked long enough for her were size 18-month. Our baby is a lanky little thing. We got her two sets of pajamas at Children's Place and another set at Dillards. Behold the cuteness:

This is how she rides in her stroller at the mall.

And these are two of her new sets of pajamas.

After our mall adventure, we came back to the house for lunch (dear food friend, Josh ate bratwurst and I ate shrimp with vegetables from a Chinese take-out place). We played with Caroline for the rest of the afternoon. She did SO MUCH in one afternoon, guys:

1. She learned to clap.
2. She pulled herself up from sitting to standing, which she has been doing for a while but never that well.
3. She took some assisted steps using her fancy lion.
4. She rode on the lion and had SO MUCH FUN.

I mean, holy milestones, batman! She has been behind some of her slightly younger "Facebook baby friends" (babies of my Facebook friends) in terms of crawling. I have never been worried about her; she's definitely on track with all of her milestones (except, my gosh, this girl's lanky arms are forever in the way when she tries to roll over). However, I know that she wants to be mobile so she can properly attack Parker's tale, give Wrangler hugs, and chase the balls from her dinosaur toy. So, I am super proud of her and her new-found mobility!

Saturday night, we grilled some steak shish-kabobs (you're welcome, food friend) and just hung out some more. Caroline was exhausted from all of her activities and fell asleep on the couch at 8:00. However, when I tried to put her to bed shortly after, she decided sleep was totally uncool and decided to attempt crawling on my stomach while I watched Supernatural. I then put her on my lap and she fell asleep instantly. Goofy child seriously thinks she's missing out whenever she sleeps!

Sunday, Joshua made us bacon and pancakes for breakfast. Once again, Caroline decided her pancake was a toy and ended up ripping it to pieces and throwing it on the floor (the dogs love her). Every toy we give her goes directly in her mouth, but food rarely does. What a goof! We didn't really do much on Sunday. We bought coffee, stocked up on baby stuff at Target, crept on the neighbors, ate leftovers, hung out with Caroline, and basically had a super lazy Sunday.

Caroline was quite styling all weekend; 

her Memaw has excellent taste.

Oh, and food friend: for dinner I had lobster and cheese bites from Target. They were okay; not good, not bad. I just knew you would want to know.

I hope everyone had an amazing weekend!! Hugs and kisses from Florida :)