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.

The Mountains were "So Beautiful."

The week before last (yes, my blog is overdue because I've been really busy with work and toddler) we spent a week in Sapphire, NC with my family! We absolutely loved the area and had a blast. It was a wonderful vacation. Caroline adored the mountains and the lakes. Every day, when we'd start our daily adventure, she'd sit in the car seat and we'd go over a hill with a view of the mountains and lake and she'd say, "so beautiful." Every time. Unprompted. "So beautiful." We all agreed, Caroline Quinn.

So, here's my favorite kind of post - a vacation post!!

One of the highlights of the trip was being able to spend Mother's Day with my mom and, of course, my babycakes. We had an amaaaaaaaazing brunch with delicious coffee and fantastic omelets. We then had a photoshoot! Every year since Caroline was born, Josh and I have awkward self-timer family photoshoots, but this year we had an actual human to take our photos! Caroline's attention span was a wee bit short, but we got some fantastic photos!

After brunch and the photoshoot, we made our way to a mountain lake to reunite our mermaid with her beloved sand! It was so much fun. The girl truly loves being near the water and playing in the sand and the "so beautiful" mountains in the background just make it even better! She really enjoyed smearing mud all over everyone; that wasn't my favorite part of the outing...

Near Sapphire was a totally charming town called Highlands. We fell in love with the town when we drove through on our way to meet my family, so we insisted we go back and everyone was glad we did. We had a wonderful morning of shopping and had another wonderful meal (salmon sandwich and a delicious local beer... yes, please)! One day, when I somehow become a millionaire, I am going to buy a mountain home in Highlands, yep.

We also went to see Whitewater Falls, which is the tallest waterfall on the east coast. I told Caroline about our planned adventure when she woke up that morning and later I noticed she was talking non-stop about waffles... I finally figured out that "waffles" is Caroline language for "waterfalls." Ugh, so cute. Poor girl isn't much of a hiker quite yet; she fell in the parking lot before we even made our way to the waterfall. Once we got there she was amazing. The waterfall was, you guessed it, "so beautiful!" Josh and Allison kept hiking down the mountain while we took Caroline to a playground. While I wish I could have gone on the hike, I'm always down for a playground trip!

Later that evening, Caroline had her first putt-putt experience! The girl lasted an entire one hole until she decided putt-putt isn't exactly her thing. So, she wandered around, moved everyone's balls, and terrorized the putt-putt course while we all continued playing. It was fun! Can we also just take a moment to celebrate the fact that I WON at putt-putt? Whoa.

We spent a day in Asheville, the downtown Biltmore area to be specific, which is always nice. We love Asheville. We even ate at the same restaurant we went to last year, sat at the same table, all sat in the same seats, and ordered Caroline the same grilled cheese. Look at the photo below at how much she has changed in just a year... amazing! We then went antiquing, which was everyone antiquing while I chased Caroline around the enormous store making sure she didn't break anything. Le sigh...

Later that day, my family was awesome and watched Caroline so we could have a date night! Living in Florida and not knowing many people means we rarely get anyone to watch Caroline so we rarely get date nights. We went to a delicious wine and tapas restaurant. I got two glasses of wine and Josh got two beers (wow, our date nights are crazy). We also split three tapas: pimiento cheese crostini, crab stuffed mushrooms, and avocado and goat cheese crostini (my favorite, OMG, I could have eaten like three more orders of those). Then, we split a lava cake for a dessert. It was a nice date where we talked mostly about Caroline, of course, but could enjoy ourselves without worrying about her melting down.

The next day, we went back to the lake and Allison and I took a canoe out on the lake for an hour! See, when the two of us are together we revert back to children, so I'm sure the people in the rental office thought we were very... special. Our dad made us wear life jackets so we also looked very... special. And I'm sure our giggles were echoing through the mountains the entire time. We actually did really well making our way around the lake. It was incredible fun!! I'm so glad we did that, even though we got some crazy tan lines.

The next day, my parents and Josh took a day trip to Brevard, a cute town we passed through on our way to Asheville, while Allison and I stayed behind to take Caroline to the pool! I felt bad for talking about the pool all week and not yet taking her, so I had to make sure we got there before the trip was over! She had so much fun swimming. She loved relaxing on my back and floating through the water. She is convinced her auntie is a mermaid because of the way her hair floats through the water.

The best parts of vacation were spending time with my family - spending a week with my mom, dad, sister, husband, and babycakes. Some of the best moments were when we were all having deck beers (er, apple juice in Caroline's case) together and relaxing. That's what family vacations are all about!! Caroline loves her family and I'm so glad we all got to spend quality time together.

Vacation and Holiday AKA an Overdue Post.

Hello, all! So, I last updated March 11 (oopsies) so we have a lot to catch up on.

So, I failed to blog about our wonderful vacation in Atlantic Beach, NC. Me and Caroline spent the week with my parents and it was SO much fun. Daddy stayed home to take care of the dogs and work (according to Caroline, daddy was at work literally all week). Caroline is a true beach babe, but she's more interested in the sand than the water... I'm happy with that because I'd rather rinse sand off her at the end of the day than get her out of the water repeatedly considering she's itty bitty and can't swim. She is still talking about "Memaw, Papaw, Beach" and "Build Castles?" (sand castles) constantly. She also loved visiting the aquarium in Atlantic Beach. She loved the alligators, sharks, and sea otters, and especially a giant waterfall they had inside. It was so much fun to spend the week with my parents (wish my sister and hubby could have come, but we'll all be reunited next month for a week in the mountains). They got to see both sides to Miss Caroline: the insanely wild and often seemingly deaf toddler (she seems deaf when the words, "stop," "no," or "don't" are uttered) and the ridiculously sweet, loving side that makes sure to give everyone kisses before she goes to bed. It was a wonderful week and I'm glad we were able to go!

We celebrated Easter and Caroline loved it. She was terrified of the Easter Bunny at her school party, I couldn't even pry her off of me to get her into his (well, her considering the person in the bunny suit) lap. She loved the Easter Egg Hunts we participated in, though. She was one of the first kids in her class to get her 6 allotted Easter Eggs at the school hunt. She didn't do so well at the church Easter Egg Hunt we took her to. She ran past about 50 eggs before finally figuring out what was going on. Easter morning we told her the Easter Bunny visited, so she was very cautious walking into the living room to make sure he had, indeed, left our house. We went to an Easter service at a local church and put Caroline in their Sunday school. It was very nice, though I don't think it was the church for us. We are going to start going to church on Sundays; we think it will be good for Caroline and good for us and, hopefully, a way to make some friends. We just want to make sure we choose the right place... we probably want a traditional church as Josh loves the history associated with them, but we want to make sure we're somewhere that is open and accepting of others... we'll find the right place, it'll be an adventure!

SO, now that our recent events have been shared, let's talk about sweet Caroline!

Miss two-year-old has become very independent. If we go for a walk, she wants to pull the wagon instead of riding in it. If I give her snacks, she has to put them on her plate herself. If she wants milk, she tries to pour it herself (not that I let her do that because she's two, but she's free to get her own cup). She loves being a big girl. Her life motto right now is, "I DO IT!"

She is very into coloring, "my colors," as she calls it. Her favorite thing in her Easter basket was a notepad and pencil; she has been sketching like crazy! "Draw daddy" - she draws giant circles. "Draw mommy" - slightly smaller circles. "Draw a flower" - circles. "Draw a heart" - circles. We're working on it. She is really good at cleaning up after herself when she draws. When she's done coloring, she packs up her books and crayons and puts them away. It's precious!

She is getting SO GOOD at talking, which is making it much easier to communicate. Full sentences are forming, she has mastered nearly every word in her princess word book, and sometimes I can even tell what song she's singing by how clear the words are. I'm really, really proud of her. She has always been very smart, but now she's able to communicate it to us! She's getting to be such a big girl; we're really proud of her.

I have also loved watching her interact with her friends at school. At her Easter party, it was amazing hearing her have conversations with her friends (half seemed like gibberish, but they understood each other) and she played with them on the playground. I love that she knows all of their names. "It's okay, Madison." "Whoa, Lindsay!" "Yay, Kynsley!" I had lunch with her at school earlier this week (because I was a bad mommy and didn't plan lunch for her so I brought her food) and I had a blast watching her have lunch with her friends. She was asking them if their food was good, telling me that they were going pee pee on the potty (my response: "um, maybe you should do that too..." yes, potty training is still a work in progress), and just being silly with her friends. There are definitely days where I still wish she could stay home with me all day, but I know she loves school which makes me happy.

Well, I have to get back to work so it'll be a short and sweet entry from me today. BYE!

Babycake Updates!

Here's a random post to update everyone on all things Caroline Quinn related. I once again abandoned my blog (fail, Kaitlin, FAIL). I like to write down what's going on with Caroline to keep everyone updated on her antics, and because I just don't want to forget any special moments! SO, enjoy my random ramblings and her pretty little face.

She is still a girly girl in the funniest way. She puts her lipstick (chapstick) on before school every day, she is very picky about whether each day is a ponytail day, a pigtail day, or a "mommy no tails" day. She is still very, very into dresses and pants are still an epic struggle. Luckily, the weather is starting to get warmer down here so I have been able to send her to school in dresses with no leggings or pants. That has helped with our morning spats. She is SO SO SO picky about what shoes she wears. She is obsessed with her kitty cat shoes. She wakes up asking for them, has insisted on going to bed in them, and throws a fit when we don't have them for her. Such a princess sassy pants!

She loves her movies, especially any involving princesses, and loves narrating them for me. Her current favorite is Brave, she has moved out of her Little Mermaid phase, she still loves Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, adores Rapunzel, and has given mommy and daddy a nice break from weekly Frozen screenings. She also loves The Incredibles, though her favorite character is the villain which is a bit odd.

We are working hard on the whole potty training thing but are trying not to pressure her too much. I keep hoping each pack of diapers I buy will be the last pack of diapers I buy, but she's just not quite there yet. It's like she's right on the edge of being potty trained but we need to just keep working. She loves sitting on the potty both at home and at school, it's just actually using the potty that she hasn't gotten quite yet. Oh well, like I said, we're not stressing over it and not stressing her out over it. She'll get there when she's ready!

She is getting much better about sleeping in her own bed. She loves falling asleep in our bed, which I don't mind. I get to sit next to her and do my crossword puzzles (yes, I'm a nerd) and get nighttime snuggles. We move her to our bed but she often migrates into our bed for her last hour of sleep. Hey, more added snuggles so we don't mind..... until she kicks.... and steals the covers.... and takes over mommy's side of the bed. How can you get mad at this face, though?

We have been very lucky to have amazing weather down here and she loves going for walks. All weekend she would come up to me and say, "walk, mommy!" We took a lot of walks in the wagon and in the stroller. She likes pulling the wagon herself and pushing the stroller herself while walking beside her mommy. Her daddy joined us for a long walk around our block (that's 1.5 miles of wagon tugging) which she loved, but I think she was mad at us for not letting her pull the wagon the whole way. She is also getting really great at riding her tricycle and has learned how the pedals work. Now we just need to work on her steering!

We all had a really wonderful Valentine's Day. Caroline and mommy went on a date to Books a Million and Panera while daddy built new front steps. Sometimes Caroline-Mommy outings end in chaos but she was SO good for me. We then spent the afternoon supervising daddy as he completed the steps - best Valentine's Day present a gal could ask for. Then we went on a date without Caroline. We don't get those often! We went to a charity event for dinner and drinks... ended up being us and a bunch of old people which made for some fantastic people watching, which is one of our favorite activities. We then had fun grabbing coffee at Starbucks (on campus so we went from being the youngest people in one room to the oldest people in another). It was a very nice and needed date night!

Caroline is getting so good at speaking. Instead of just saying "please" or "thank you" she'll say "thank you, mommy" or "please, daddy." When we are reading books (she loves books right now which makes us so happy), she can point out and tell us what almost every item in every picture is. Especially animals! She is really good at all of the animal names. We are working on her counting. She can count to ten but getting her to focus on counting to ten is a struggle (stubborn little girl); it often comes out "1.. 2.. 3.. 5.. 7.. 8.. 10!" Now, the ABC's are her enemy... she knows them but for some reason hates singing them. She does love singing through. She'll say, "sing, mommy?" So I'll tell her what to sing about. I'll tell her to sing about Ellie and she'll go, "ELLIE laaaalaaaa loooo was laaaaa ELLIE." It's PRICELESS!

We love taking Caroline to the park. She is so big at the park. She can climb ladders that the big kids struggle with, she pulls us around the playground and gets us to go down the slides with her, and sometimes she'll even play with other kids. I am so glad the warm weather is upon us so we can spend more time at the park. We want to start taking her on the walking trails, too. I am thinking about even packing us a picnic lunch and spending an entire day at the park. 

Caroline's current favorite foods are eggs and bacon, macaroni and cheese, goldfish, black olives, apple sauce, waffles, and yogurt covered raisins. The other night was leftover night for Caroline and Daddy and salmon night for Mommy. Caroline had other plans and ate most of her mommy's amazing salmon. It was a tragic night for me, but we were so proud of her for eating salmon! She loves chicken and pork chops, too, especially if there's a dipping sauce! She still won't touch anything sweet and gets so offended when we offer her anything dessert related. It's hilarious!

Ellie is still Caroline's absolute best friend in the entire world. This morning, she was reading a book to Ellie. She turned it to face Ellie and said, "Ellie! Look! Snowman! Hat! Eyes!" and was showing her everything in the book; it was incredibly sweet. She adores her Wrangler but he is still a grump around her. You would think with all the food she gives him he would love her more, but he's a stubborn old man. Caroline adores both of the kitties and they are so sweet and patient with her, it's amazing.

Welp, that's it for now! I want to be better about keeping up with my blog and documenting our crazy little girl. I always say that and then neglect it, but it's my blog and I'll do what I want :)

Oops, I did it again.

Abandoned the blog.

I finally have a job that keeps me busy, which takes away from blogging time! I don't want to abandon my blog, because it helps me preserve memories (cheesy, yes) and keep everyone afloat of what's going on down here. So, let's recap from, geez, freaking December 10th. Epic abandonment, guys, epic.

Well, seems Christmas has come and gone without a post. BLOGGER FAIL. We had a fantastic Christmas. We stayed in Tallahassee this year and it was actually very nice, though we missed everyone of course. Caroline hit the jackpot this Christmas, getting a tricycle, a play kitchen, dolls, clothes, books, and so so so many other things. Josh and I hit the jackpot, too. It's nice that even though we're far away, and even though we spent Christmas with just the three of us, everyone thought of us. We are lucky technology is so awesome because even though we were away from family this holiday, we still got to see them and talk to them. It makes it a lot easier! Here are some snapshots from our Christmas.

After Christmas of course comes New Years. I failed to make a New Years post, too. I could have made a 2014 "Year in Review" post but, nope, the time has come and gone. That's what archives are for ;) We had a nice, quiet New Years. I had the day off work and Caroline's daycare was open, so we got the opportunity for a toddler-free lunch. We went to a fantastic Thai restaurant and it was nice being just the two of us, even if we did talk about Caroline most of the time. We managed to stay up until midnight, I drank three glasses of champagne (whoa, we've got a badass over here); it was a ~wild~ night (by our lame, old people standards).

Right after New Years, my parents paid us a visit!! They are amazing and drove a truck down to bring us furniture from my grandma's house. So amazingly helpful - Caroline now has an actual dresser and nightstand in her room! It was SO GREAT seeing them. Caroline loves having her Memaw and Papaw here. She still asks about them all the time (the other night she was convinced Memaw was playing in our backyard, which was a wee bit spooky). Unfortunately, the Florida sunshine and warmth hid from them while they were here, and Josh was sick the whole time and I got sick a few days later. BUT, we still had such a fun time seeing them and spending time with them, and I know they loved seeing their sweet Caroline Quinn. My mom and I even got to have a date night where we had food and booze (dirty martini and two glasses of cava for me, whoa), and then men got to go shoot Josh's new gun. It was a very nice time and we miss them.

Like I mentioned above, we both got sick during my parents visit. That was three weeks ago and guess who is still sick: both of us. We are finally feeling human again, but this year has been off to a rough start. I lost my voice for an entire week and finally sound like a female again, bwhahaha! It has been a rough few weeks but we have had a fantastic caretaker: Caroline. I swear the girl has a future in nursing with how well she took care of us. She'd hug me and say, "okay mommy," to help me feel better. One morning mommy was trying to sleep in because she felt icky, and Caroline ran to the bedroom, turned the light on, pulled the covers off me, and said, "wake up, mommy!" Caroline does not approve of sick, lazy parents. Hopefully we're getting better, sounds like it was sinus infections for both of us. We are finally coughing less, and I have been able to stay up past 9 (barely, but I'm getting there), so hopefully we'll actually get to start enjoying 2015 soon, ugh.

In the midst of our sickness, we managed to travel to Clearwater to see Josh's younger brother, girlfriend of two years who we FINALLY got to meet, grandparents, and other family. We managed to have a very enjoyable visit despite being so sick. I had a hard time talking to people because my voice was pretty much nonexistent, but I think they were catching a few words here and there! It's always nice visiting family and we even got a beach day out of it! Caroline loves the beach. She looked for mermaids, got attacked by a wave and decided to sit in the water and cry, and recovered like a beast and covered mommy's feet in sand. We even saw Hulk Hogan (the statue AND the real dude), so bonus celebrity spotting for the win! It was a nice weekend and Caroline was on her best behavior, which made it easy for me and Josh.

So, how is the star of this blog doing? Guys, she's getting to be such a big girl. She is talking SO much now, even when it doesn't make sense you know she's talking with a purpose. She loves bossing us around (in the cutest way, of course). She sat on her potty SO MUCH yesterday so *please* let the potty training begin because I'm so sick of diapers; we're letting her do it on her own time and not forcing it upon her, and it looks like big girl panties may be in her near future! The girl only wants to wear dresses, which makes it hard in the winter when some days mommy just has to force her to wear pants (the fights we get into over pants are crazy). She is just getting so big. It's the little things she does that stick out to me. Saturday, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch and she knows now to follow the hostess to the table, she helped me go potty and knows now how automated paper towel machines work, and she waved and said bye bye to everyone as we left. It's the simple things like that which make her such a big girl. She still loves Ellie most, loves changing her stuffed animals and dolls' diapers, loves reading books, loves building blocks, loves making us coffee in her kitchen, loves doing morning stretches with mommy, loves picking out her outfits (always a dress), loves telling us what princess she is each day (yesterday she was Aurora), loves being fearless on playgrounds, loves eating anything that has a dipping sauce (sometimes we have to be creative), loves snuggling and kissing, and loves a bajillion other things I can't think of right now. She's my tiny best friend and we love her so much!

Okay, I must get to work now! I apologize for any typos but sometimes autocorrect has a mind of its own and I have no time to proofread. Love and miss you all!