Oh, hello!

I realize I haven't blogged in a LONG TIME. Oopsies!! Here's a quick update on all things us (well, mostly all things Caroline because I know that's who everyone really cares about). I haven't blogged since late May, holy moly! Since May, we have had many adventures. 

In June, we took a trip to Clearwater, where Caroline got to spend time with her Nan and great grandparents. For once, we actually visited Clearwater when we were all healthy! (One time we visited Josh and I both got food poisoning, and another time we visited we both had horrible sinus infections and I had no voice). Caroline loved spending time in Clearwater, going to the beach, going to the aquarium in Tampa, and hanging out with Josh's Aunt Lori's awesome dogs. 

Tampa Aquarium with Great Grandma and Nan!  

We also celebrated Father's Day in June! I made Josh a Shutterfly photo book filled with pictures of him and his girl. He says it's the best gift he could have gotten. WIN! We had a great Father's Day lunch at BJ's Brewhouse (want some inappropriate humor? BJ's Brewhouse is in the same parking lot as Dick's Sporting Goods, hardy har har!). 

Father's Day lunch with fatty food and a pitcher of beer!

Caroline also experienced a very important milestone in every girl's life: her first Starbucks drink! She had a very berry hibiscus refresher (or whatever that darn drink is called) and clearly loved it. She was more excited that there was a mermaid on her drink.

Another not-blogged-about-holiday was the 4th of July! Caroline did great marching in her school's 4th of July parade. She spoke for weeks about "I march, mommy, I march." We skipped fireworks this year because 1. the traffic is always awful afterward and 2. it was past Caroline's (and let's be honest, mommy's) bed time.

 I can't stand the cuteness.

Caroline had swim lessons in July and August and was very "eh" about the whole thing. I think she likes swimming, but not being told how to swim. Mommy did the first two lessons with her and, well, it didn't go so smoothly. Daddy did the third lesson, and mommy had to sit on the side of the pool because apparently Caroline missed me so much when I was all the way in the lounge chairs. Daddy did the fourth lesson solo, which was her best lesson yet but, unfortunately, was also the last lesson. We'll do more lessons next year for sure, and hopefully her mermaid instinct will kick in.

She may not have enjoyed her lessons, but she looked freaking cute.

Some super exciting news is CAROLINE IS POTTY TRAINED! Well, about 95% potty trained because the pooping on the potty is still an issue at times (TMI, I know), but potty trained enough that diapers are a thing of the past (except for bed time to be safe, though she never goes in the diaper so that will soon be in the past, as well). It took a while and a lot (A LOT) of patience, but she got it and we are super proud of her. 

That is the happy face of a girl who pooped in the potty.

In August, Josh and I celebrated five years of marriage. In other words, holy cow WE'RE OLD. I remember our wedding like it was yesterday, so it's crazy to think it's been that long. We have done a lot in those five years.... adopted a puppy, bought a house, had a baby, bought an awesome Jeep, and rocked at being parents (if we do say so ourselves). We had a very nice date at a local restaurant, Cypress. It's upscale, so we have never dared bringing Caroline there, and it was AMAZING. 

Just a couple of old married folk out for a super early dinner followed by coffee.

Earlier this month, Caroline had her first ballet class. I have been so excited for this day. I grew up going to dance classes and loved it so much. Her first class went great... once we got her in the door! Thank goodness Josh came, too, because he's the one who managed to get her in the door (she is super mommy-clingy sometimes, so getting her off of me was a struggle. Then, once we got her in, one of her friends had to go potty, she spotted me when the door opened, sprinted out of the class, and Josh had to get her to go back in again. She loved the class, though, and the second week went MUCH smoother. She tried to break into the big girls' ballet class because she was so excited. The blinds were open the second week and we loved watching her. She was following directions, checking herself out in the mirror, and looked so big. She's one of the youngest in the class (mostly three and four year olds), but one of the biggest ones. She's a beautiful ballerina.

She was actually super fussy and daddy magically got a happy photo - mad skills, bro.

SO, those are our "life events" since my last post. So, now let's just chat about how AWESOME our munchkin is.

She is so smart, guys. She knows her colors, knows her shapes, can count to ten (and beyond when she's feeling brave), knows her alphabet, and knows just about every animal I can think of and what sounds they make. We're working on helping her recognize letters and numbers, so hopefully she'll rock that soon, too. She knows tons of songs and can sing some, like twinkle twinkle little star, perfectly.

Just being big and not needing mommy's help anymore (tears).

She is still enormous. I no longer shop in the toddler section; she wears child's XS and S, which is really big for a kid her age (I mean, I buy her clothes where the training bras are WTF). When we tell people she's two we get crazy looks and they say, "she's really only two?" as if we're lying or forgot how old she is. When I took her to the dentist, they asked if she needed a slip for missing kindergarten that morning. I love my giant.

Best friends.

Ellie is still her best friend in the entire world. The love this girl has for her dog is incredible. She loves all our animals so much, but Ellie is her favorite and is SO patient with her. It's amazing. 

Caroline loves princesses (currently obsessed with Mulan and Pocahontas), My Little Pony, mermaids, DRESSES (anything not a dress is "pajamas), lego castles, watering our plants, bath time (with a million toys surrounding her), making mommy and daddy color while she watches, cheese sandwiches in her lunch pretty much every day, walking around the house completely naked (she lives a clothes optional lifestyle these days), reading books before bed, sneaking into mommy and daddy's bed and then kicking daddy all night, playing with her friends at school, cooking us meals in her play kitchen, video chatting with family, playgrounds, dipping everything in ketchup (literally, all foods), hugging her pets, eating pancakes with mommy or daddy at school every morning, driving race cars around the grocery store, sneaking up to scare mommy and daddy, and so much more. The girl is so happy, so full of life, so funny, so sweet, and makes her mommy and daddy so incredibly happy. 

Caroline Quinn, you are simply AMAZING, munchkin.

Photobooth Happiness!

So, does anyone remember my Unamused Caroline post from February? Well, we tried out photobooth on my Mac again, this time with better results! Check out this goofball, who was laughing like crazy the whole time!

Have I mentioned how much I freaking love this child? Seriously.

We even took a video, bwhahahaha! She tries to escape our roller coaster cart in the video… this is her climbing on the coffee table in real life. Oh, Caroline. Enjoy.

Unamused Caroline.

So, Caroline and I randomly decided to play with the Photo Booth on my laptop. Clearly, she was not interested (I made the mistake of doing this around her bedtime. Since I don't have anything interesting to actually blog about, please enjoy these hilarious pictures. They're hilarious to me because she was SOOO unamused. Maybe I'll try this one day when she's happy and awake as a follow-up :)

(she only looks amused here because daddy was standing on the other side of my computer)

That sneaky daddy made her smile again.

How this one didn't make her smile is a mystery.

I joined in on the sleepy sadness.

Family portrait (sorry for Josh's upper-nudity)

I hope everyone had a nice weekend! Despite the sadness conveyed in these photos, Caroline actually had a wonderful, happy, fun-filled weekend. In a nutshell: we ate bacon, we took a day trip to Thomasville Georgia, we filed our taxes (our return will pay off the Altima which means no more car payments for us), we chased bubbles, we colored/ate crayons, we cuddled and snuggled, we taught Caroline where her nose is and she loves pointing at it, we discovered Caroline appreciates the magic of grilled cheese and tomato soup, and we had a perfectly wonderful family weekend. Have a wonderful week, everyone!

20 Random Things About Me!

I saw someone else do this on the interwebs, and figured it would be a fun change of pace for my blog. So, here we go... 20 random facts about me, complete with random images from around the interwebs.

1.  I really do not like caramel. The strange thing about this fact, is that I think I liked caramel as a kid. I have no clue when I started disliking it. I'm not even sure if it's the taste I dislike, or if it's the consistency. I also dislike taffy, and other ooey gooey icky nasty things like that. The husband loves caramel and knows that if he buys a treat with caramel, I won't go anywhere near it.

Ma'am, would you like caramel on your cheesecake?

2. I truly, truly love being a mom. I know this is a pretty obvious one, but it's oh so true. Before I became a mom, I had never held a baby, changed a diaper, or really even talked to a baby (fact is, they scared me, and I still don't know how to properly speak to other people's babies). But, I was so excited to be a mom and everything came very naturally to me. The moment she was suctioned out of me and thrown onto my chest was the first time I had held a baby.

3.  I am a rather tall lady standing at 5'10". I have learned to embrace my height and love being tall. However, when I was younger I hated being tall. I had hit about 5'9" by the sixth grade and, trust me, there are no sixth grade boys even close to 5'9". My pants were all too short for me because I was about a size 0-2 and nothing but legs. I had to wear boy sweatpants in gym class. I used to hunch over in the lunch line to be the same height as my friends. I'm in the back row of pretty much every elementary school class picture. But, as I stated above, I learned to love my height and discovered that "tall" sizes in pants are my best friend.

4.  I am terrified of Paula Deen. The woman has crazy eyes. When she was in the news recently, and her face was plastered all over the internet, I was so sad. When I see her face on the cover of her magazine in the grocery store, I recoil in horror. I am sure the woman makes an amazing batch of cookies using her secret ingredient, butter, but the fact is she freaking scares me.

5. My taste buds have changed post-pregnancy. I used to love sushi and I now find it gross. I tried to eat it once a couple months ago and was just disgusted. I also used to LOVE hummus, but haven't enjoyed it since pregnancy. It's just not tasty to me anymore. My sweet tooth has also disappeared, which is a good thing. I'm still trying to lose that extra bit of doughnut weight!

6.  Everyone knows I take a lot of photos. However, I think everyone would be shocked when they saw how many photos I store on my computer. I have hundreds of folders, separated by year and event, which take up tons of memory on my computer. I have tons of photos, but they are SUPER well organized, so they're easy to find. Sadly, a lot of the original versions of my early college photos were lost in computer crashes. There are probably a ton of fun pictures that were forever lost (including the photoshoot of the pickle jar from sophomore year).

Guilty.

7.  My husband and I are very strange when we are around the house together. I'm sure this goes for every couple, though. We have voices for every animal, and we often carry on conversations with the animals, and the animals even have conversations with each other. We also tell each other we stink and try to come up with crazy things the other smells like (I often, according to Josh, smell like Fran farts... Fran is my disgusting ex-roommate from college). I feel all of our weirdness is being passed along to Caroline who, like the dogs, has a specific voice and often carries on conversations with her parents.

8. One of my newly found pet peeves is how much new moms judge the decisions other new moms make. I have noticed a lot of "judgey" moms online, and it drives me absolutely crazy. When Caroline was first born, I frequented baby message boards to see what other babies were up to and learn some tips and tricks from fellow moms. I was a lurker and never commented, but it gave me reading material during the 12am, 2am, 4am, and 6am feedings. However, I had to stop reading them because of the "judgey" moms. "Oh, you give your baby formula? You must not care about their health." or "Oh, you're going back to work? You must not love your baby." or "Oh, you're using premade baby food? You are obviously a lazy piece of crap." Ugh, there are clearly moms like that on Facebook, too, just not as straightforward. Every mom has a unique parenting style that works best for them and their baby. Judgey moms are the WORST. Grr at all of them. Women need to stop being so hard on each other. (this fact turned into a rant, bwhahahahahaha!) Exhibit A: this blog post which is perfect.

9.  In case you couldn't tell from my blog title, I love coffee. However, this was not always the case. I didn't like coffee until college, and even then it took a while for me to like actual coffee and not just the fancy flavored stuff. At ODU, part of our meal plan was "flex points" which could be used at different places around campus. I was always wasting time on campus between classes, and started getting treats at Starbucks using my flex points. It started off being just frappucinos, and then I discovered the latte, and then I discovered the amazingness of coffee (although, I'm not a big fan of Starbucks coffee). Now you know the story of the love affair between Kaitlin and Coffee.

10.  I loved college, but the first week or so was rough. My roommate, whose farts were so fondly mentioned above, hated me and was just plain rude and disgusting. I didn't really make many friends the first week (the two friends I did make that first week had transferred by the time second semester started), which was pretty rough. However, as I was eating one of my many solo meals in the dining hall, a tall boy from New Hampshire sat with me and the rest is history. I'm sure I eventually would have found a group of friends at ODU, or perhaps I would have remained lonely until I made my Outback friends, but I'm glad Josh sat with me (obviously) because we met some great friends together.

11.  I like Tallahassee and dislike Tallahassee at the same time. It's a gorgeous place to live and not freakishly crazy like the rest of Florida (considering we live ten minutes from the Georgia border, we are not in the heart of Floridian craziness). It's a growing city and we get awesome new stores monthly. We recently got a DSW, Sephora, Dick's Sporting Goods, and Home Goods. We are soon getting a Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, PF Changs, and Bass Proshop. I also love the house we have here and am really proud of it. However, it's too freaking far away from everything! It's expensive to fly in and out of the airport, driving anywhere entails a trip down I-10 or the "Twilight Zone" as Josh and I call it, yadda yadda yadda. I love my city but wish it wasn't so isolated and hard to get to.

12.  I am so super awkward in certain social situations it's ridiculous. If I know everyone around me I'm totally fine and relaxed. If I'm at a party with a bunch of strangers HOLY COW do I get nervous. And if I don't have anything to hold (like a drink or, my new favorite option, a baby) I feel even more awkward because, seriously, what do cool people do with their arms? Am I supposed to cross my arms? Put my hands in my pockets? Let them hang lazily at my sides? I do not understand! I'm terrible at small talk with people I don't know. I mean, if it wasn't cliche I could easily begin every awkward social encounter with, "wow, how about this weather?" I just don't understand how social butterflies know how to properly engage strangers. I'll never be good at it. But, like I mentioned above, bringing Caroline along helps! I have something to do with my arms and if conversation starts getting awkward, would you look at that, someone needs a diaper change BYE! Google image search "socially awkward penguin" and it pretty much describes my thought process.

13.  I have terrible vision and want, no need, Lasik. I don't think Josh understands quite how bad my vision is because he has absolutely perfect vision. Let me tell you how bad my vision is. I usually don't wear contacts or glasses in the shower. Usually Tollie joins me during shower time and hangs out somewhere in the bathroom, so I talk to her during my showers (as noted in the fact above, she often answers my questions in "Tollie voice"). I once (okay, more than once) got out of the shower, put on my glasses, and realized that Tollie was not in the bathroom at all; I had been talking to a gray sweater. I cannot even tell the difference between a cat and a sweater. Seriously, they need a Groupon for Lasik.

14.  I truly do love food. I am not sure how I made it to number 14 without blurting out this very important fact about me. Josh makes fun of me for how excited I get about food. Husbands just don't understand! I love eating at new restaurants, trying new recipes when I find the time, and, well, I just really love food. If I could afford to try a new restaurant every night I would. I should have become a food critic, for real. A good meal is just very exciting to me, especially when matched with a delicious beverage!

15.  I don't curse much and when I do I think it shocks people. However, that completely changes when you put me behind the wheel of a car. Good lord do I have some road rage. Anyone who knows me would be shocked by some of the words that come out of my mouth when I'm driving. People are just SO FRUSTRATING, guys. I have toned it down a lot now that I have a baby in the backseat who is probably absorbing everything I say. That doesn't mean I'm not calling those stupid drivers every bad word possible in my mind. Ugh, so much RAGE.

17.  As clumsy as I am, this one will come as a shocker: I have never broken a bone or had to get stitches. We think I may have broken a toe while jumping off the swing set barefoot as a child, but it was never confirmed as broken. I did land myself on crutches while in high school after I tripped up the stairs at home, but nothing was broken. Oh dear, I hope I didn't jinx anything by adding this fact.

18. I hate, hate, HATE when people use poor grammar. Some of the statuses I see on Facebook make me want to cry. Do you know what really makes me upset about them? The majority of the poor grammar I see on Facebook comes from elementary school teachers. These are the people teaching our kids the fundamentals of English, and they don't know the difference between your and you're. I wish it was socially acceptable to correct grammar on Facebook. Oh, and don't even get me started on the people who use "ur" instead of your, or "r" instead of are... it's not that hard to type the few remaining letters that make you look like you have a brain.

19. My baby is goofy and I love it. Yesterday, Josh picked her up to go to the doctor (she has a double ear infection, whomp whomp) and the daycare teacher told him Caroline is "goofy" and "not like the other babies." Apparently, when all of the other babies are quiet, Caroline sits in the middle of the classroom and busts into maniacal laughter. Some parents would probably be worried about their other kids being categorized as, for lack of a better term, weird. However, I think it's great. I'm weird, my husband is weird, our friends are weird, yadda yadda yadda. Normal people are boring. Weird, goofy, "not like everyone else" people are freaking awesome. Therefore, my baby is freaking awesome!

20.  I was a math nerd in high school (took AP Calculus and AP Statistics), which led to me getting a math based scholarship to ODU. I'm sure they were shocked when I used that scholarship to become an "Occupational and Technical Studies" major. What is that? Fashion Merchandising. A lot of people think this means all I did in college was make clothes. Nope. Not one clothing design class was taken. I took a lot of math based classes (no actual math classes though thanks to my AP credits), tons of business classes, a lot of marketing classes, a good deal of art classes, and a lot of merchandising classes. It was such a fun major, my classmates were awesome, and I would recommend it to anyone. However, unless you're moving to NYC there really aren't many fashion merchandising opportunities out there.

Disclaimer: I apologize for any typos, but my computer is starting to freak out so I don't want to risk scrolling up to reread this.