Caroline's Last Week as a 0 Year Old.

In a week she'll be a 1 year old, so this is her last week as a 0 year old. That sounds weird, but I'm going to go with it. So what has miss almost-1-year-old been up to? She is a busy bee these days. 

Friday, she had her first day in the infant-toddler transition room at her daycare. She did so well and I think she's going to be extremely happy in there. Apparently she only cried a few times when her old teacher came in the room and left (silly separation anxiety baby). She had a meltdown when I walked in to take her home and didn't pick her up right away (an every day occurrence). She saw me, screamed, and fell backward onto a xylophone in a tantrum of rage. But when I picked her up she was instantly happy again. Goof.

Playing with her friends all day was exhausting!

Friday night, we went to Outback for another shot at a birthday dinner (thanks for the giftcard, mom and dad) since Bonefish was a delicious disaster. Outback was AMAZING. Caroline was such a good girl while we waited, munching on one of her fruit/veggie pouches. When we (finally) got a table she was so well behaved. She ate some bread, baked potato, and steak, and drank from a kid's cup with a straw like a big girl! She was absolutely exhausted by the time we got home (as was I... that much food + a big bloke beer = tired old lady). I managed to stay up to watch The Purge, which gets a Kaitlin rating of "eh."

Hurry, mister beeper, I want STEAK.

Saturday, we had our pancakes and bacon and then headed to LabCorp while Josh cleaned the house. I was prepared for the worst but instead she was wonderful. She entertained everyone in the waiting room by using the coke machine as a set of bongos. She then sat on my lap while she got her blood drawn and didn't even flinch. I think she was too distracted by my keys to even realize there was a needle sticking out of her arm. I'm so so so so proud of her. 

Garfield band-aids are for tough little girls.

We then had a TJ Maxx/Trader Joe's adventure, ate curry chicken tenders for lunch, and "watched football" with daddy (I think she napped and I cleared her closet of summer/too-small clothes, so sad). We had pizza for dinner nom nom nom (I actually ate potato skins and Josh ate pizza. Caroline ate pepperoni).

Being a big girl is hard work.

Sunday, we had our pancakes and bacon (SHOCKING). We went on a family Target run where we got Caroline four pairs of pants, slippers, diapers, food, ibuprofen, yadda yadda yadda, and like nothing for us. SPOILED. The pants/slippers are birthday gifts that I'll wrap up and let her unwrap. Caroline loved exploring Target and was entertaining everyone by walking around and talking. We then went to Newk's for lunch, got my parents a super cool Christmas gift at Homegoods (bwhahahaha, secrets), and headed home to relax. I had mommy bathtime with wine and Upside Down on Netflix (it gets my rating of "predictable romantic film"). Later, Josh and Caroline went to Best Buy while I walked around Kohls and got absolutely nothing. We then had a pork roast from Trader Joe's for dinner (DELICIOUS) and had a lazy evening at home.

Mr. Doggy, what are you doing at Target and not at home?

In a week, Caroline turns ONE and we fly to New Hampshire for Thanksgiving - ahhhh, exciting things ahead!

Vampire Baby!

Yes, I failed to do a Monday update this week... honestly, it was a perfectly boring, relaxing, uneventful weekend, so there really wasn't excitement to share anyway.

I would much rather share this gem. Caroline got her first incident report this week. She bit one of her friends. I feel like she has officially grown up and become a baby-biting toddler. I feel awful for the baby she bit, though, and wonder if they got an accident report sent home that says, "your baby's friend bit him/her." Check this out:

I talked to the teacher about it and she said to not worry, it's completely normal. Apparently babies like to bite their friends to 1. see their reaction, 2. see how they taste, and 3. ease the pain from teething. Ohhh, Caroline, you're a crazy little munchkin!

I gave her a talking to on our way home, telling her we are not cannibals and do not try to eat our friends. She retaliated by biting me as I put her into pajamas. But, honestly, how can you ever be mad at this little thing? She is oozing with adorableness and innocence and has no clue that cannibalism is not a socially acceptable action.

She does the cutest things, you guys. Check out this from yesterday. This is her helping me raid the dollar section at Target ($1.00 items plus a 20% off dollar spot items coupon = stocking stuffer central)! She refused to let go of her bottle, so I picked her up out of her carseat and she carried her bottle inside, held it while I buckled her into the shopping cart, and chewed on it the entire time we shopped. ADORABLE.

And I will leave you with another adorable moment from last night. She walked around the house eating her appetizer (she has a pouch to get her fruits and veggies when we get home, and then she eats dinner with us later). She finally learned that she can feed herself from these magical pouches and it makes life SO EASY. I can do dishes while she walks around getting her nutrients. I miss my tiny little infant, but having a functional, independent little baby-toddler is SO NICE. Look, she even "helped" me unload the dishwasher last night!

Yesterday was picture day at her school, and she rocked her shirt, teal skinny jeans with a pink belt, and favorite shoes. Her daycare had to postpone picture day for a lot of the kids because they were fussy and hungry and tired (story of my life) but apparently Caroline did great. I can't wait to see her pictures (please let there be a smile, please let there be a smile...). Tomorrow is FINALLY her first day in the bigger infant room. I think she's going to be so happy in there playing with a group of babies around her own age. She's such a giant baby she was starting to look silly lording over the smaller babies in her current daycare room (and if she's going to bite someone, she needs to pick on babies her own size).

ENJOY THE REST OF YOUR WEEK, EVERYONE!

Monday, Schmonday.

Oh. My. Gosh. I'm actually blogging on a Monday! This gives me the opportunity to remind you all that Mondays are evil and awful and cruel.

We ate pot roast Friday night, which was highly entertaining. How can pot roast be entertaining, you might ask. Well, with a wild 11-month old, the most commonly boring things can become highly entertaining. Caroline learned that the dogs like pot roast, and if she throws her pot roast off of her tray tables, they will eat it. Caroline found this HILARIOUS. She through every bit of her pot roast to the dogs and laughed and squealed every single time. She even fed Ellie pieces by hand which was SUPER HILARIOUS. It was a fun night of pot roast eating :)

Saturday, Josh made us pumpkin pancakes for breakfast, nom nom nom. Caroline remembered the fun she had the night before, and decided she'd much rather feed the dogs her pancakes then eat them herself, so on the floor they went. It was again highly entertaining. She actually took a good nap for once; I mean, we're talking a two hour nap! Josh got to go show his bow, and I got to do an arts and crafts project. When in Virginia, my mom gave me wooden ABC letters that were in my nursery as a baby. I painted them this weekend to match the colors in Caroline's nursery. They turned out great but I failed to take a picture, oops!

After Caroline's nap, we took her to the park to play, walk around, and play with the older kids. She had soooo much fun :) We then ate at Hurricane, the restaurant at the end of our neighborhood. Caroline and I had grouper tacos and I had a Yuengling. She had a blast staring and pointing at people (pointing is her new thing; she points at everything and everyone all the time). I feel like we went somewhere after lunch but for the life of me I can't remember, so it must not have been exciting. We came home and drank "Witch's Brew," a beer that has sat in my wine rack for years. It was DELICIOUS. We also chatted with my parents, and then watched The Walking Dead while Caroline took a rare second nap. I made buffalo chicken dip for a late dinner and then "we" watched the FSU v Miami game (I played on computer and went to bed by 9 - you're jealous of how cool I am).

Sunday, Caroline woke me up at 5:30am (her little body thought it was 6:30am - silly time change). We let Josh sleep in because he stayed up late watching the game. Caroline and I played and watched The Nightmare Before Christmas, and then watched daddy make pancakes and bacon when he woke up. Caroline once again wouldn't eat and fed her food to the dogs. We relaxed around the house before it was time to get lunch and went to Chipotle. She ate some of the chicken from my burrito bowl but was clearly still not feeling well. We're hoping she's just getting a tooth and isn't sick :( We had plans to go to the mall after lunch but decided to head home since Caroline didn't seem to be feeling well.

Staring at people at Chipotle... classic creeper caroline.

When we got home, we grabbed the dogs and had a very nice walk around the block! We had a relaxing afternoon. Caroline took another nap so I had "mommy bath time" complete with wine and Elizabethtown, which reminded me why I hate romantic comedies and don't watch them. We ordered pizza for dinner (and a salad for me) and had Caroline in bed by 7:30pm (silly time change).

Caroline was crying in her crib at 4am this morning so we got her a bottle, tried to put her back in her crib, heard more crying, so she ended up sleeping in our bed with us until 6am. She was SO ADORABLE cuddled between us, sleeping on her tummy with her head on our pillows. She definitely isn't feeling well because she never wakes up like that - please just be a tooth coming in, please just be a tooth coming in...

Have a nice week, everyone!

Boo! It's a Halloween Blog.

Sooooo, I failed to do a weekend update blog. Let's just pretend that was on purpose and I was saving my stories for a Halloween blog, shall we? Okay, great, thanks.

So, our Halloween festivities began on Saturday with a trip to the pumpkin patch. Caroline had fun walking around, checking out the pumpkins, and watching the other kids run around a play. We ended up with one big pumpkin (picked by Josh) and two small swan squashes (picked by me and Caroline). We had a wonderful time and the weather was PERFECT. We went to the same church as last year and the people there are so nice. It's amazing to see how different our family looks this year as compared to last year ;)

Here's the "three of us" last year!

And here we are this year! See? Quite different indeed!

After the pumpkin patch, we grabbed lunch at Newk's! We ordered Caroline her first kid's meal, which she didn't eat. She is obsessed with table food, but apparently she only likes it if it comes from our plates. She likes to be just like us, I suppose. Anywho, after that we went to Wal-Mart and Target in search of the central piece of Josh's costume: The Flash t-shirt! Target totally came through and we found the perfect shirt. We were Sheldon and Amy from the Big Bang Theory - a cheap and easy costume!! We all got in our costumes and headed to Sam and his wife's Halloween party. We had fun but had to call it quits early due to a certain peacock falling asleep :)

Sunday was an uneventful day, as Josh had to work all day. He listened to jail calls in the office all day, while Caroline and I watched Halloween movies. We watched Corpse Bride and Paranorman. I swore we had a copy of The Nightmare Before Christmas, my absolute favorite... whomp whomp.

Yesterday was Caroline's first Halloween! I put her in the cutest Minnie Mouse "My 1st Halloween" onesie, with her adorable pumpkin skirt, but she was too busy being wild to pose for a picture sooo it wasn't really documented. Josh and I both left work early to attend the Halloween Festival at her daycare. She wore her peacock costume and had so much fun watching the older kids play. She is absolutely fearless and didn't mind all the kids twice her size running past her. She stood by the jungle gym and watched in amazement. We found it hilarious that she was the same size as all of the older toddlers running around... our baby is huge!

We took Caroline trick-or-treating to two houses. The first house, home of her almost two-year-old friend Keagan, had no one there which was a bummer. The second house, home of her probably two-month-old neighbor Jacob, had people! SCORE! We finally met our neighbors across the street. Caroline got to "say" trick-or-treat and get "her" candy. She then walked all the way back across the street to her house, had a bottle, and passed out. Meanwhile, we got two trick-or-treaters - LAME. I'm so glad I bought the biggest bag of candy I could find. NOT. At least Josh will eat it :) Me? Last year I ate like a pound of candy on Halloween and this year I did not eat a single piece. My pregnancy sweet tooth was out of control last year and this year it's completely gone - crazy.

I hope everyone had a happy Halloween!!

Virginia, I miss you already!

Sorry for being a terrible blogger and delaying my Virginia trip post, but work has actually been busy *gasp* and there just hasn't been time!

So, let's start with the day we left: Wednesday, our travel day. We woke up at 4am (ugh) and were on the road by 5am (pretty impressive with a baby, if you ask me). We stopped at McDonald's where Caroline refused to eat her breakfast and instead ate one of Josh's pancakes. She went back to sleep until we were nearly to Jacksonville and from that point forward was awake mostly the entire trip. The only other time she napped was the two hours Josh spent in the back with her while I drove through South Carolina. Other than that, about eight hours of the trip was spent with me in the back seat entertaining her. We watched The Little Mermaid twice, played peek-a-boo, ate cheese puffs, and tried to keep each other content. She did so well, guys. I was really impressed. When we got home, we hung out with my parents, ate a delicious roast, opened Caroline's first birthday gifts a bit early, and Caroline quickly bonded with my parents' dogs who LOVED HER. It was so much fun!

Beep Beep, World!

Thursday, my mom was able to take off work to spend the day with us! We started the day by going to see Nanny; Carline loved her Great Grandma! She especially loved her Great Grandma's magnet covered refrigerator, giant stuffed teddy bear, and dolphin toy. We met my dad for a delicious lunch at a Mexican place in the Short Pump area. Caroline loved the chicken from my chimichanga, but was not a fan of my dad's refried beans... like mother like daughter :) We then went shopping at Short Pump, where I got some new black flats to wear to my high school reunion (thanks, mom!). It was a fun shopping adventure, Caroline made a new friend with a fellow ten-month-old-walker, and I really miss living near a mall that nice. We then went to DSW and I got another new pair of shoes (thanks to my mom, once again). We also went to Trader Joe's, where I got cheese platter goodies. We hung out, ate some pork chops, and relaxed.

Guys, this vacation thing is exhausting.

Friday, my parents sadly both had to work, so Josh and I packed up Caroline and headed to Norfolk for the day. We raided the ODU bookstore, walked around campus (making us feel very old, especially pushing a baby around), and then ate at one of our favorite restaurants, Felini's. We then headed to the MacArther Center where Josh reconnected with an old coworker, Keith. I think we shocked him walking in with a baby :) On  the way home, we ended up in Suffolk somehow and in a completely different tunnel than we are used to (thank goodness for our GPS or else we would have been SO LOST). It turned out to be beneficial to get lost, because our usual tunnel was blocked by an accident. We hit some annoying traffic on the way back, but still made decent time. Newport News wouldn't be Newport News without horrific drivers causing backups; it's just a fact. Anywho, we made a pit stop and surprised my mom at her library with Miss Caroline. She LOVED her Memaw's library, especially the puzzles. However, she didn't understand the concept of being quiet and was squealing... goof :)

Stop taking pictures and give me LASAGNA, mommy!

Friday was the night of my high school reunion. I swear it had originally stated that the reunion started at 8:45pm, which is late but doable. But thankfully, I checked the site again before leaving and the reunion didn't start until 10:00pm, which is Kaitlin bedtime. Around 9:00pm, I made myself a cup of coffee to stay awake. It worked and I actually felt energized when I left. The reunion was actually a lot of fun; it was fun reconnecting with old friends. I wish more people had shown up, but we still had a good time. Josh and I were ~crazy~ and had three beers each. Whoa. Josh said I was the hottest girl there, which he has to say since he's my husband. Bwhahahah!!!

We don't look as tired as we felt - SCORE!

Saturday, we went to pick up Auntie Allison at the train station!! She hadn't seen Caroline since Hilton Head Island forever ago, so it was a happy reunion. We all had breakfast and caught up; it was fun :) We then headed to the Maymont Nature Center, where Caroline got to see fish, turtles and sea otters. She had SO MUCH FUN walking around and seeing the different marine life. She made friends with a two-year-old (who was smaller than her) and a sea otter. Sadly, it was raining so we didn't get to see the other animals, but I think Caroline was perfectly content! After Maymont, the men and the ladies split up... the men went to a gunshow which us ladies shopped! Memaw got Caroline a couple more new [absolutely adorable] clothing items. 

"Parker, is that you?"

Saturday night, Nanny came over for dinner. We drank Manhattans (and beer and wine...) and ate a delicious meal! AND cheesecake for my birthday, whoop whoop! It was a very fun night! I miss our family dinners oh so much and can't wait until Christmas when we can have another!

Being a wino runs in the family.

Sunday was Princess Reunion Day! It took forever to get there. Traffic on 95 was backed up, so we used a backroad, which was also backed up, yadda yadda yadda. Poor Caroline was not pleased. It was soooo good to see my friends that I hadn't seen since my baby shower a year ago. We ate burgers, tater tots, and I killed the cheese platter ;) Caroline had fun playing with Holly's dog, Punkin, through the door. After the princess reunion, we dropped Auntie Allison off at the metro and then headed home. Guys, it was the worst. drive. ever. It took us FOREVER to get home because, once again, both 95 and the backroads were at a standstill. Once we passed the backups we were later greeted with another backup. Poor Caroline was miserable and we didn't get home until after 9:00pm, ugh. Memaw and Pepaw kept Caroline entertained while we packed - wild child was still wide awake at 11:00pm (I blame her playing catch with a dogbone with my dad, bwhahahaha), so we had to stick her in bed wide awake so we could get some sleep. She was not pleased, but eventually dozed off.

Loveeeeeeeeeee <3

Monday, we woke up bright and early again, packed the car, got Caroline ready, and then said goodbye to my parents, whomp whomp :( The drive back to Florida was long, but easy. Caroline was once again SO GOOD. Unfortunately, Peter Pan and The Little Mermaid both refused to play, so we watched Star Trek and a bit of X-Men... heck, Caroline loved it so it worked for us! We got back to Tallahassee around 6pm, ate some frozen pasta, and Josh was AWESOME and unpacked everything.

Absolutely exhausted from ALL THE FUN.

It was such such such a fun trip, with the only downer being freaking traffic, UGH. I miss you, Virginia, but I do not miss that traffic. We can't wait for our next trips: New Hampshire in November and Virginia again in December! It was so good seeing you all :)