I haven't blogged in a while, oops! I don't really have much to talk about, so lets just chat about what sweet Caroline has been up to. Here are some of my favorite recent moments and tidbits about the star of my blog.
My new favorite word to hear her say is "bobby" (kind of mixed with boppy), which is her word for coffee. She points to our coffee (and sometimes even beer) and says, "bobbyyyy." She also likes singing her ABC's ("bee bee beeeee"). She likes walking to the refrigerator and requesting juice ("bbbbbb" - that's a hard sound to explain), especially apple juice ("app-lllllle"). Her favorite color is to say is yellow ("lellowww"), so everything is yellow to her. She knows tons of other words: cat, dog, no (that's her favorite), hi, bye, TV, pizza ("eezaaa"), ball, , goodnight, please, thank you, cheese, daddy, mama, hello, and many more.
She likes being in charge of the pets. She loves helping me feed them; she holds their food bowls while I put food in them and then puts them in the proper spots. She likes letting the dogs inside. Yesterday, after playing outside, we came inside to see Parker on the coffee table. Caroline walked over, hit him in the butt, and said "no no" while shaking her finger at him. It was amazing. She also tells the dogs to "sit down" when they beg too much at dinner. She still loves Ellie most of all and is constantly hugging and kissing her.
She has become slightly opinionated on what clothes I put her her sometimes, but is extremely opinionated on what shoes I put on her. If she wants a certain pair, she'll bring them to me. If she doesn't like a pair I chose for her, she will let me know. She also decides what days I put her hair into ponytails. She knows where I keep her rubber bands and will go point at the drawer when she wants a ponytail.
She knows so many parts of her body and loves pointing to them. She knows her head, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hair, elbows, hands, belly, and feet. She loves to dance. Yesterday, I was dancing like a ballerina and she was imitating me and it was the cutest thing ever. My favorite dances of hers are her "nakie baby time" dance (she raises the roof and runs to the bathroom" and her "head, shoulders, knees, and toes" dance (she gets fixated on the toe part). She loves imitating our motions, our words, and our faces.
She understands SO MUCH. She can't talk much yet, but boy does she understand what we're saying. When we ask questions, she always respond with yes ("da" accompanied with a nod) or no. When we ask her if she's ready to feed the dogs she runs to the door, if we ask her to throw away her trash she instantly opens the trash can, if we ask her if she's ready for a bath she does her dance and runs to the bathroom, if I tell her I need to go potty she runs to the bathroom and opens the toilet lid for me.
Speaking of going potty, we have not started potty training her quite yet but we're beginning to teach her. Like I said above, she loves helping me potty. She runs to the bathroom and opens the toilet lid. She then grabs me some toilet paper and hands it to me. Sometimes she tries to, uh, use the toilet paper on me if you catch my drift but I tell her that mommy knows how to do that… she's so adorable.
She loves giving kisses, which often involve teeth these days when she is really excited to kiss you. She gives amazing hugs and squeezes sooooo tightly. She says I love you ("I luh ya") back to us. She hugs our legs and kisses them while we cook. She is just the sweetest little girl ever.
Yes, the terrible twos (they come earlier than two, trust me) often rear their ugly head, but timeout has really helped. If she acts up, we threaten to put her in time out and she usually stops immediately. If she continues acting up, we put her in timeout (we place her against an empty wall and she stays there until she calms down). It's a great way to teach her wrong from right without yelling or spanking and works great for us. We usually give her a hug and kiss after timeout and tell her we love her because, let's face it, we're softies who love our munchkin.
Oh, and she loves making animal sounds. Her favorites are dogs, cats, monkeys, lions, and horses. Often, I'll pick her up from daycare and she'll start neighing, which I know means she wants to practice her animal sounds.
She loves sleeping curled up in her quilts, with her mermaid in one arm and her giraffe in the other arm. She rarely wakes up at night and when she does she usually ends up snoozing up in our bed (spoiled rotten bed-hog, she is). She takes one good nap each day (around 2 hours in the afternoon). She will put herself to bed (with our help, she can't climb into her crib surprisingly) if we ask if she's ready for bed.
She likes wearing her belt as a necklace, likes using a my-little-pony as a telephone, and loves throwing leaves all over herself and laughing hysterically about it. She likes tucking in her toys (not only stuffed animals, sometimes brushes or trucks) and saying "night night," still won't say "bye bye" to someone until we have left a room, and likes blowing kisses and waving at cars driving by our house. She hates when the house is neat, loves "helping" fold laundry, and thinks parties under the kitchen table with Ellie are the greatest thing ever. I love writing these random quirks about her because years from now I can go back to this blog and remember when my girl was a crazy toddler.
Disclaimer: I wrote this blog super quickly in whatever order things opted into my head - it's not proofread at all, so don't hate on me if stuff sounds crazy!
