A Tale of Two Seats...

Once upon a time there was a 3 month old baby girl named Caroline. She was getting so strong that her Mommy thought she was ready to try out a new seat!

This was perfect timing because she had been needing her own place to sit while her big sister Anna Kate was sitting on a special seat of her own!

Anna Kate has been working so hard at learning to use her big girl potty! She is doing a great job and we are very proud of our big girl!

3 months old today!

Caroline Hope, you are three months old today! How can it be that a quarter of your first year of life has already flown by?! You are getting so fun to be around and bring so much joy to our home. Here are the ways you are changing this month:

~You now are sleeping in the nursery with Anna Kate all night long! Well, Mommy still has to come feed you around 4 or so, but you go right back to sleep. You and Anna Kate do very well going to bed in the same room at the same time (and if you don't, it's usually her fault, not yours!). She really likes having you in there with her, though!
~You love to talk and smile and laugh and giggle! You really like it when we call you "Caresy Hope!" Especially when Anna Kate says it!
~You have also become a little bit ticklish this month. Especially right under your little chin.
~You are doing so well playing with your toys on your playmat. You like it so much that sometimes you will fuss in our arms to be put down for playtime! Your favorite toy is still your lamb that lights up and sings. In fact, I took a video of you yesterday just smiling away at it. You even like to look at it when it's not playing the music!
~You are still such an easy baby to take places. You sleep right through just about anything - grocery shopping, dinner out, church, whatever!
~While you are mostly a very easy baby, you will let us know very LOUDLY when you are hungry. You don't work yourself up to this loud cry though, it's just one minute you are perfectly happy and the next moment you are HUNGRY! I've been trying to anticipate it before it happens, but sometimes you still surprise me!
~Your daily schedule is looking something like this: Wake up around 8:30, nap from 10-11, nap again from 1-3, nap again from 5:30-6:30 or so, and then down for bed around 8. You are nursing about 7-8 times a day still, but I love that sweet cuddle time with you!
~You rolled over a couple of times from tummy to back this month, but you haven't been doing it extremely consistently yet. And it's probably because you might not get quite as much tummy time as you should, since Anna Kate's always bounding around the house and it makes me nervous to have you on the floor!
~You are such a PRETTY baby. You have a beautiful complexion, such pretty hair and eyes, and sometimes I just catch myself staring at you thinking about how precious you are!
~Your little face has started to remind me a little bit more of Anna Kate now that you have some pudginess on those cheeks! At first I thought you looked very different, but I can definitely see some more similarities now.
~You are getting to be quite a big girl! You weighed 12 lbs. 1 oz. at the doctor a couple weeks ago and you are 24 inches long. You have outgrown all of your 3 month clothes and are wearing all 6 month things now!

Caroline Hope, you are so precious to your daddy and me (and to your big sister!), and we love having you as part of our family. You truly are a blessing.

And here are your pictures!

One month

Two months

Three months
(wearing a dress that used to be your mommy's many years ago!)


And just for fun, here is Anna Kate at 3 months old

Playroom Makeover!

Luke left on Wednesday to take our youth group on a 3-day ski trip. I joined Pinterest on Wednesday evening after the girls went to bed since I was lonely and bored and everyone said I needed to just bite the bullet and join. As soon as I did, I started to feel the creative juices flowing and decided to take on a project while Luke was away.

We have this awesome little sunroom right off the kitchen that we are using as a playroom. It is perfect because Anna Kate can play in there while I work in the kitchen and I can see her and she can't get into any trouble. Problem is, it's also the room with the back door where we always come in the house (as do our good friends and family) and it was always very disorganized and had nothing as far as decor. Not exactly the most pleasant entry into our house! So I spent Thursday thinking through ideas in my head for what I wanted to do it, but didn't get to actually start on it until Friday afternoon. Luke was coming back Saturday, so I needed to work fast, but with the help of my mom and dad, we got it all done! Here are some before and after pics!

Before...


After!


And some close-ups of all the new features:

Cafe curtain


Yes, I made it myself! Luke got me a book for Christmas called "One-Yard Wonders" that has over a hundred different projects you can do with a sewing machine and one yard of fabric! Thanks mom for helping me learn to make a ruffle!

Toy shelf with canvas baskets

Special thanks goes to Dad for putting together the shelf...and for going back to Walmart at 9pm to get a new one when we opened up the first one and saw that it was broken! Oh, and the picture doesn't show it very well, but the back of the shelf is a cute white with pink polka dot fabric.

Wall plaques handpainted by my mom and me

I love these...what a great reminder to me of how even playtime can be a time where I train up my girls in the way that they should go!

Dress-up area


The picture is just a framed piece of fabric and then we wrote on the glass with a dry-erase marker! If you can't read it, it is Psalm 45:11: "The King is enthralled with your beauty."

So, we did, in fact, finish our little project before Luke got home, and he was definitely surprised! Anna Kate was so excited to see her daddy and show him her new playroom (she keeps saying "Oh Wow!" every time she walks in). This is how she sat for 15 minutes waiting for him to drive up.


We sure missed Luke, but at least we had a project to keep us busy while he was away!

Rainy days and Mondays...

That's what these past couple days have been...but they haven't been getting us down! We've been having a lot of fun doing this...


And this...


And this...


(These are our new favorite books. "On the Night You Were Born," "Wherever You Are, My Love Will Find You," and "It's Time to Sleep, My Love," by Nancy Tillman. Each has a stuffed animal that goes along with it that AK insists on holding while reading the story! She got the first one from Mimi and Papa the day she was born, and then she and Caroline each got one from Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa for Christmas this year.)

And last, but not least, this...



(Since it was raining and cold yesterday, we decided we would take our new tricycle up to the church and ride up and down the hallways, around the gym, through the fellowship hall, and around the offices. Such fun!)

And now I'm getting off the computer to go read my Bible while BOTH girls are sleeping! This has been a consistent routine lately where they are both asleep from about 1 to 3pm! Yay!

2-month doctor visit

I just took Caroline to her 2-month check-up on Thursday this week and she did great! I know it's a little late, since she's really 2 1/2 months old, but her original appointment fell during our trip to Texas, so we had to reschedule. In any case, we have a happy healthy little girl who did great for the doctor. She even smiled a few times for the doctor while she was checking her heartbeat and breathing =) She didn't really appreciate the two shots, but she calmed down right away. It was actually Anna Kate and I that had a harder time with that...we're both a little protective of "Baby Tarry-yine" I guess.

As for her stats, Caroline is growing just perfectly! She now weighs 12 lbs 1 oz (75th %) and is 24 inches long (90th %). She's also doing just what a two month old is supposed to do - hold her head up a little bit, smile real smiles, coo, and she even just started rolling over from tummy to back!

Well, that's about all the news from the doctor...stay tuned for a longer 3-month post about our sweet baby coming up in a couple weeks!