Caroline is 2 1/2!

Caroline was officially two and a half a couple of weeks ago. I normally like to do big birthday posts for my girls documenting their little personalities at each age, but so much changes in twelve months that I thought I would do a "2 1/2" post for Caroline. Our sweet, feisty, dramatic, hilarious Caroline. You know that little poem/nursery rhyme about the little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead? When she was good she was very, very good, but when she was bad...ok, I'll stop there. But let's just say that it could have been written just for Caroline =)

~ Caroline is the comedian of the family. She really is developing quite a sense of humor. And she actually knows what she is saying when she makes a joke. For example, a few weeks back, I made the girls chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast (not something that happens very often)! After Caroline took her first bite, she started singing, "Pancakes from the REALMS of glory!" And another one...the other day we were reading "Go, Dog, Go!" Since the word "go" is repeated so many times, I thought I would point to the word and see if she could tell me what it was. So I asked her and she looked at the word, and then looked at me with a smirk and said, "GO...rilla!"
~ Caroline is a great big sister to Eleanor. She is constantly giving her hugs and kisses wanting to hold her. She even made up a game to play with Ellie yesterday. She built a few block towers right on the blanket where Eleanor was laying and placed them right by her feet. When Eleanor kicked her feet, she would kick over the towers and Caroline would just crack up hysterically and rebuild the towers to do it all over again!
~ Caroline also loves that she is big enough to actually play WITH Anna Kate. They love to play baby dolls together, or read together, or play any number of pretend games together. And we're working on the sharing and arguing over toys thing...
~ Caroline is a night owl. She often takes quite a while to fall asleep after we put her to bed. Sometimes she just sits in her crib and plays with her baby doll, and other times she keeps us quite entertained as we watch her on the video monitor. She can do some pretty impressive headstands...
~ Along with being a night owl, Caroline is definitely NOT a morning person. She sleeps much later than Anna Kate and even when she does wake up, she takes quite a while to fully accustom herself to the idea that it's daytime. She will sometimes sit up in bed and put her blanket over her head for awhile until she's ready to face the day.
~ Caroline is extremely expressive and makes the greatest faces. We recently read a book from the library about a little mouse that is "small and gray and bright-eyed." Caroline does the BEST "bright eyes!"
~ Caroline can be quite independent (when she wants to be). She wants to do almost everything herself (get dressed, use the potty, get in her carseat, etc.). The only thing she doesn't want to do herself is walk. She always wants to be carried. Lovely.
~ Caroline loves "practicing" t-ball with Anna Kate. She's too little to be on the team yet, but she has a pretty impressive throw and quite a powerful (left-handed) swing.
~ Talking with Caroline about anything in the past or in the future is pretty funny. She calls anything in the past "lasterday." Like a combination between last night and yesterday (even if it was two months ago). Anything in the future is "after tomorrow." Even if she means it will happen in 30 minutes.
~ Caroline knows most of her uppercase letters and can almost spell her name. She gets a little mixed up with the order of the "L-I-N-E" part.
~ Caroline has become extremely affectionate lately, toward all of us, but especially her daddy it seems. She just loves cuddling, rocking, hugging, and kissing. And we can't get enough of it! 
~ Caroline is doing really well understanding her allergies lately. She doesn't pitch fits anymore if she can't have something, and readily accepts an appropriate substitute. For example, today she saw an invitation to a party and asked if we could go. When I told her we were planning on it, she said, "And you bring my Cuk-cape?" She knows Mommy always has cupcakes ready to go for her!
~ Caroline has quite a few nicknames: I usually just call her Bears, but other notable variations include Care Bear, Line line, Liney Hope, and Carrie.

Caroline, you're just the greatest. We all love you so much more than you will ever know. You are such a special part of our family!