It has been eight months!!

Cara here. Eight months ago, I made my grand entrance into this world. I was kind of small to begin with and I'm still pretty small. Based on the Baby Stats on Wii Fit, I have barely broken the 16 pound mark. Big sister Siena, was 17lbs 11 oz...at her SIX month appointment. However, I have not been spared the baby rolls. I have plenty of chunk on my cheeks, thighs, arms, bum, you name it, there's a roll there. See:


Now let's get on to the fun part, talking about me and what I'm doing now.
-I can crawl...it may not look pretty all the time. I don't like to rub my knees on the ground, so I do this knee, foot, foot, knee thing. It looks like I'm trying to just stand up and walk. I'm quick though.
-You can't leave me alone in a room. If it's dangerous, I will go for it. Apparently, Siena had no interest in putting strange objects in her mouth. I am of the "if I can pick it up, it is edible" class. Sand is tasty. I like that by the fistful.
-I also pull myself up to standing on anything that doesn't move on me. I can cruise around the furniture and walls. Seriously...you can't leave me alone in a room anymore.
-I'm still pretty adventurous in the flavor department but my favorite is bananas. If I see a banana on the counter, I start reaching for it and jabbering. Anything Mommy or Daddy or Grandma or Grandpa has is fair game for me...and I WANT it.
-I have figured out the magic of a straw. I'm not always good at it and I get surprised by the fluid coming in to my mouth too quickly but I like it.
-The joy of talking is coming in to my radar. I have really discovered that I have a voice and like to shriek and yammer and occasionally say things like "yeah" and "hi". I really have only said Mama still but I like to hear myself. I also like to babble when Siena is talking or playing a game.
-I have also been known to clap my hands on the occasion. I mostly use my delightful hands to fist small items such as peas and cheerios in to my mouth. However, I love to use my arms and splash in the water. In the tub or on a step in the pool, I just go nuts.
-One of my favorite people in the whole world is Grandpa. If he walks in to a room, I just light up.
-Still no sleeping through the night. Oh well, maybe next month. I have been sick basically the entire eighth month of my life. Nothing but congestion and non stop goopy nose. Makes for difficult night times.
And we couldn't let this blog post end without a couple of clothed pictures of me.


Oh and we had to throw in the video proof of my mobility.

We love the water!

So we've been really gearing up for summer. I realize that most people are just getting excited for spring, but Mommy has taught us well and we're excited for summer. In fact, we spent some time in Grandma and Grandpa's jacuzzi. We didn't even have to heat it up all the way!

My Daddy is the best. He hung out and let me jump and splash to my heart's content. And I actually looked at the camera long enough to get it captured in photo.
When you've got two big blow up toys in a small jacuzzi, there's not much room for big people.
Cara loves the water just as much as I do, if not more. She can sit in that little crab for hours.
Grandma's pool is actually a lot of fun without water in it!
Big splash equals a lot of fun!

The Joy of Me...

Well if you notice my ticker to the right here, I am 2 and a half years old here in a few days. I think that's reason enough to post a blog all about me and my accomplishments again. Right?

Let's see, some wonderful things about me at two and a half years of age....

-I am really getting the hang of this whole language thing. I speak in full sentences combined with a little of Siena-ese. Even Mommy looks for translations some times.
-I still know my ABCs but only just recently got really good at singing the song. I leave out the occasional set of letters but I'm really not bad.
-My favorite song however was until just recently "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly". Mommy still hasn't forgiven Daddy for teaching me that song since I would INSIST upon that being the bed time song. That takes a long time. (Good for me not for Mommy!)
-I can follow what's going on in most kid-friendly movies and even laugh at the funny parts. As most kids do, I also have an insane ability to watch the same movie over and over again and then somehow relate it to my daily activities. Such as suddenly shouting out "The Baby is Coming" and "Peaches" in public places. Good thing Mommy is no longer pregnant.
-I show only minor interest in dressing myself. So far Mommy has been spared the forty changes of clothing in a day. I show absolutely zero interest in undressing myself.
-As far as food goes I love fruit snacks, yogurt, apples, bananas, chips, soda, noodles, peanut butter, butter on toast, cereal-sometimes the grown up kinds like Honey Bunches of Oats are the only thing I'll eat, granola bars, quesadillas, and of course french fries and chicken...doesn't have to be a nugget.
-I love to play outside at the park and dig in the dirt.
-I am my Daddy's child. I'm a cautious little bugger. I don't want to fall and ask for Mommy's help if I just don't trust it. (For the record, Cara would jump out of a plane.) I don't try stuff at the park if it looks at all like I can't do it...for the most part. Some things I don't realize I can't do it until too late.
-I love my sister. I like to sit and play with her and make her laugh and give her hugs and try and share my food with her.
-Oh! I am also getting really good at playing pretend. Mommy loves to come down and find me involved in some elaborate story of my own making.

Here I am enjoying spring in St. George on my favorite thing in the backyard that's working. (The pool is currently out of commission...well I guess the hot tub part is working just fine...)


Grandpa was appeasing me this morning when Mommy was talking about needing to do something lame like showering after her workout...

And then later today, Grandpa even let me dig in the dirt and help him plant sunflower seeds. How lucky am I?


And here is a good lookin' hair do for a two and a half year old:

Many Happy Birthdays!

Today is no one's birthday but yesterday was Grandma's and tomorrow is Aunt Becca's and so today has officially been a birthday for several years running. It's just easier to combine the cake and presents and dinner into one night for the two of them. I disagree with this entirely. The more cake the better. But I guess it will be okay since we'll get to play at Pirate Island Pizza tonight. The above photo is Mommy's favorite one from the trip that she didn't go on. Notice Grandma looking good in the background? Awesome.

In other goings on, I have really mastered opening doors. Silly thing to mention right? Well you see I've grown just enough that every door in Grandma's house is easy to open especially because she has the handle vs. the knob kind. We mention it because two days ago after going on a walk with Aunt Becca, Mommy and the two dogs, I convinced Aunt Becca to put the leash on my stuffed dog. Mommy was standing in the front room and I thought she saw me open the door and go out, but apparently not. A few minutes later, she found me in the middle of the road, three houses down, dragging my dog. In a best parenting ever award moment, she only figured out where I was because she noticed the car going really slowly up the road looking at something in the distance. Nice. Oh and did I mention I was barefoot?

And when I'm not doing dangerous things, Cara is. She's really getting into this whole being mobile thing. She can crawl, but doesn't know it. She prefers to get on her hands and knees, then push up onto her toes and try and stand which results in sometimes forward but most times backward movement. She can get herself to sitting from her tummy and can pull herself to standing on anything. She'll get there. If she's within two feet of a sturdy item, you'll find her standing. It's great. Mommy can't leave her alone in the middle of the floor anymore.

Just plain old fun...

in matching outfits too! Well kind of, I get to wear a pretty dress and Cara wears a pants outfit that matches. We're still stinkin' cute.

We went to the park on one of two sunny days during Southern Utah's spring break. Everybody else in the house (except Daddy) were in the Caymans. Yup that's right. They went to a tropical destination without me. Oh well. We had the whole house to ourselves and could run around naked and nobody cared. I could wake up screaming in the night and not have Mommy frantic because I'm waking everybody up. (Ironically...I slept just perfectly all week except for the first night when I was sick.)

Anyway, we went to play at our favorite park and on our way out, I got distracted by wood chips and rocks. We stayed and played for another half hour and Mommy pulled out the camera because honestly, who doesn't want to see a photo of Cara in her cute duds?


And here Mommy kept saying "Siena come sit next to Cara for a picture..." so I kept running farther and farther away.

Until I found this nice wash full of rocks, then I sat down.

Mommy's attempt at a self portrait, holding Cara while perched precariously on a rock:

Sun and fun equals two very tuckered out girlies.

Time flies...

Seriously...it flies! We used to be so good at posting every three days or so. And lately? Not so much. Mostly it's because Mommy has been dealing with this:



Which quickly turns to this:

And turns even faster into this:

Almost everything Cara does turns into the above photo. As a big sister, I generally am pretty good at saying "Oh sweetheart, it's okay" (I really say that) but some days when I'm just as grumpy I say "Stop it." Sometimes emphasized with a tad too hard of a squeeze. Poor Cara, she just wants to be like me. She wants to walk and move and eat and play with me! I'm just too cool. Oh and as a shout out to my cousin Chase. I love dinosaurs. Everything is about dinosaurs lately. We watch Elmo's World about the dinosaurs over and over again. We read books about them. I can't wait to come play with Chase's collection!

Sleepy Chronicles

Awesome sleepy time shots.

Grandma has discovered the way to Cara's heart. Cara loves to have her head and face stroked. If she is even close to tired, bam it's lights out!

This is how Mommy came and found me one night. If you notice, on my bed (where I should be...) is the stuffing from my pillow. Two holes have formed in my Tinkerbell pillow and I love to pull out the goodies. Mommy finally fixed the holes today. Bummer.

Doesn't this just look cozy?