Happy 2nd Birthday, Caroline!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Caroline Hope!

TWO years ago today our lives were forever changed and forever blessed with the arrival of our sweet Caroline. We are so grateful for the precious little girl that you are and for the sweet joy of raising you in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Here are a few things that we want to remember about our Caresy Bears:

~ You love life. You have pretty strong opinions about just exactly how life should be, but you truly do love your little life. You get so excited about the littlest things and it is such a joy to watch your face light up, or listen to you squeal, "Oooohhh!!" when something delights you. One of your new favorite things to say is "REALLY fun!" You said it on our hayride to the pumpkin patch today, in fact!
~ You love to play pretend. Your favorites lately are cleaning house (thanks for the cleaning set, Grandma and Grandpa), baking in your kitchen (thanks for the birthday cake set, Mimi and Papa), and doctor (which you are now fully equipped for, thanks to the kit from Mommy, Daddy and Sissy).
~ You are quite the little singer. Your memory and vocabulary have just exploded over the last month or two and you now have quite the repertoire of songs. Your absolute favorite is "Angels We Have Heard on High" (don't ask me why), and you know literally every word in all three verses. Your favorite word in the song is "jubilee" and you just crack up after you say it. I love to watch you sing the "glorias" because you make your little mouth perfectly round and shake your head back and forth throughout the whole long word.
~ Other songs that you have mastered include "Jesus Loves Me," "Danny Boy," "Desert Lullaby," "Twinkle Twinkle," "Jesus Paid it All," and probably a few more I can't think of right now.
~ You continue to hold the title of the drama queen in our family. You can go from slaphappy silliness to utter despair at just a moment's notice, always keeping us on our toes.
~ Speaking of the drama, your new favorite phrase is, "Mommy, neeeeed you," or "Daddy, neeeeeed you." The length of the word "need" is directly proportional to the gravity of the situation you find yourself in. It is sometimes very long in the middle of the night when you would rather come to the big bed than stay in your crib. Not a screaming cry, more of a pitiful plea =)
~ You love football, so with that and your birthday, I'm pretty sure that fall is going to be your favorite season, just like Mommy. We rarely turn the TV on at our house except on college football Saturdays and you are just captivated with the games (which you call "foot games"). You think every team is the "Kempin" (Clemson) Tigers, and you cheer wildly for touchdowns. You also just about lose it every time they cut to a commercial break. "Where foot game go?" you demand. See the drama?
~ You think your big sister is just about the greatest thing ever (usually). You love following her around and doing exactly what she does. You especially love it when she plays the games you come up with or invites you in on one of her games.
~ You still love to be read to. Your two favorite books are "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?" (hence the theme of your birthday party), and "I am NOT Going to Get Up Today" by Dr. Seuss. You can just about recite "Brown Bear" cover to cover, and you can finish every line in "Up Today" which is what you call the second book.
~ You have also learned how to play your first board game. It's a Brown Bear/Panda Bear game where you have to match the character to the picture on the board, and you know exactly what to do. You also think that you know how to play "Go Fish," but you ask for a seven every time and every time you are asked for a card, you respond, "Go Fish," even if you do in fact have that card in your hand. It's pretty silly!
~ You have created the funniest little silly dances and walks that you just randomly start doing throughout the day. They usually involve walking on either your heels or your tippy-toes.
~ You are still pretty attached to your paci, which you call a "pappy." In fact, just like your big sister before you, you have to have not one, but TWO. You call them "pappy, second pappy." We are getting pretty good about limiting them to sleeping times and long car rides, and hopefully you won't need them too much longer. But you do love them.
~ You can be very needy at times, but you also can be quite independent, demanding to do things "SELF!"
~ You are working very hard on using your manners. You rarely forget to say "Tank You," and you also use "Ma'am" and "Sir" very politely. Unfortunately, you haven't quite figured out when to use which word, so you usually just say, "Yes, Ma'am Sir!" You sometimes forget to say "please" and start yelling for what you want, but when we remind you, it's like a switch goes off and you immediately cock your head to the side, whisper "please" with little pleading eyes and do the sign language where you place your hand on your chest. Adorable.
~ Like many two-year-olds, you love to play peek-a-boo. You usually start it all on your own, walking into a room with your hands over your eyes, asking, "Where's Caroline?"
~ You know your full name, as well as the full names of your mommy, daddy, and sister. You think it's especially funny, though, to say that our middle names are Hope too. For example, "Luke Hope Tolbert" or "Patty Hope Tolbert"!
~ You can sing your ABC's almost perfectly, with the exception of "Q, R, S," which are apparently superfluous in your opinion. You can also count to ten, and usually only skip one number (which is different every time)!
~ You have the sweetest smile and one of the greatest "Cheese" faces I've ever seen. Makes for some pretty funny pictures!
~ You still have the most beautiful curly brown hair. I so hope the curls will stay when it starts growing longer, but I guess only time will tell!

~ You love to pray. You always love to pray before meals and thank God for our food and for Mommy and Daddy and Anna Tate, but sometimes you will even spontaneously pray for others when the need arises. Today we were in the car and we passed by the little Camden airport where they park the hospital helicopter. Anna Kate remarked that it wasn't there and it must be taking someone to the hospital and you immediately said, "Really Hurt. Sick. Pray!" You prayed right then and there for whoever was on that helicopter to "feel better soon."
~ You absolutely love babies. Tiny babies, babies who are really just as old as you if not older, baby dolls, any babies. We are so excited to watch you transition into your new role of the middle sister in our family, and big sister to our sweet little one on the way. You already love to hug and kiss Mommy's tummy and find the baby's nose, which your daddy has told you is Mommy's belly button. Thanks, Luke.

Sweet Caroline Hope, we love you with all our hearts. As your name means, you are our joyous song of Hope and we pray that your life would be a joyous song to our Lord as well as you grow in him. May your life echo the words of the Psalmist, that you would always "make a joyful noise to the Lord, break forth into joyous song and sing praises!" Psalm 98:4

And, just to see how you've grown, here you are on your BIRTH day, your first birthday, and your second birthday!

 

We have an announcement...

We are absolutely thrilled beyond words to be welcoming baby girl #3 into our family! We all had a great time seeing our sweet little one on the ultrasound this morning and feel so blessed. She is growing and developing just as she should and we can't wait to meet her in January!

Mommy/Anna Kate Date and Daddy/Caroline date!

Our public library just started a new preschool art club on the first Friday of every month. This amazing (and totally free!) program involves learning a little bit about a famous artist, reading a children's story about the artist, and then creating a piece of artwork based on that artist's style. How cool is that? Technically they said that all toddlers/preschoolers were welcome, but since it was the first one and I didn't know what to expect, I wasn't sure I wanted to take both girls. Luckily, Luke is off most Fridays, so he took Caroline on a Daddy/daughter date while I went to the art class with Anna Kate. We all had a great morning!

Caroline got to walk around downtown with Daddy and go to the coffee shop at the bookstore and get a smoothie!

Anna Kate learned all about Monet and impressionist style art. Using strips of colored tissue paper and liquid starch, she created a pond scene with the same "movement" as one of Monet's works. Pretty cool!

We loved having special times with our special little girls!

Apple Picking!

Fall is here! Well, technically it's not here until September 21, and technically it's still supposed to reach 90 degrees every day this week...but it's fall in my book! We celebrated the first weekend of September by going up to the mountains with Luke's family and going apple picking. I grew up climbing apple trees and picking apples all through the fall months (don't tell anyone...I'm not sure that we were supposed to do that since they weren't our trees...), and it was so fun to experience that with my girls!

Heading into the orchard (everyone except Jonathan, our fantastic photographer!)

Aunt Allison even came up from Atlanta!

Smiles all around (except Caroline who is busy protecting her apples)

Again, smiles all around, except Caroline who is busy eating an apple

Anna Kate, posing nicely. And, the only way we could get Caroline to stand there was if we gave her an apple to eat. Are you noticing a theme? She was really into the apples!

Ringing the bell with Daddy

Silly faces!

And of course they had to drive the tractor!

Such a fun day...and weekend! Can't wait to do it again next year with THREE babies!

To God be the glory, great things He hath done!

These past 6 weeks have been quite a whirlwind for our family. We have had some very difficult and uncertain days, but we received some very good news this past weekend. It’s kind of a long story, but I want to share it here because I want our baby to one day know what a miracle he or she is.

Early July I went for my first ultrasound to determine how far along I was and when the due date would be. At that ultrasound, the nurse found that I was 10 weeks and everything looked good except for extra fluid along the spine at the base of the neck (called an increased nuchal translucency). This was new to me and I had no idea what it was, but she explained that sometimes it can be nothing, but that it is a marker for a chromosomal abnormality (either Trisomy 21, which is Downs, or Trisomy 18 or 13, which are fatal). Her words immediately brought back memories of another July twenty-two years ago. I had a baby brother, John Christopher, who was born when I was 6 years old with Trisomy 13. He lived for just 40 minutes after birth. I remember that time in my life very vividly, and so I was of course very scared. We were referred to have early screening and a special ultrasound done on July 19 where they would more accurately measure the nuchal fold. It was a long 2 week wait, which is why Luke sent me and the girls out to Oregon to visit my parents and grandparents! A much needed distraction!

So, fast forward to that ultrasound…they found that yes, there was definitely increased fluid there (3mm instead of the normal 1 -1.5mm) and after analyzing my bloodwork (very low hcg and Pappa-A proteins), they determined that I had a very high risk of the baby having Down syndrome. Normal risk is 1 in 1000 for a 28 year old mom. They get concerned when the risk comes back as 1 in 220. My risk was 1 in 5. Similarly my risk of having a fatal trisomy was 1 in 75 (normal is 1 in 2500). They suggested that I have further testing done and gave me some options (Amnio, CVS, or a brand new test called the Harmony Test). We knew that amnio and CVS have a risk of miscarriage, and we didn’t want to do those, but this new Harmony test is amazing! All they have to do is take blood from me, and then they send it away to some lab somewhere where they can actually separate the fetal blood cells out of my blood and can do a chromosomal analysis. So, we definitely went with that option. It took almost two weeks to get those results back (a very long two weeks), but they came back Friday and everything is normal!

To be quite honest, we really felt like God had been preparing us over the last 6 weeks to really face some difficult things but we knew that whatever it was, he would bring us through it. So truthfully we were very surprised when things came back normal. Honestly, while Downs would have been a difficult thing to learn how to handle (especially if the baby had more medical complications as a result), we really felt like we were becoming as prepared as possible for something like that. I was mostly scared to death that it would be either Trisomy 13 or 18. Obviously, for my sake, and Luke’s, but especially for Anna Kate. She had no idea that anything was ever wrong and I just don’t know how in the world we would have explained that to her (and Caroline too, but AK understands so much more).

So really, we probably will never know if there ever was something wrong that God miraculously healed, but either way, we are thanking him for a healthy baby and praying that this baby would continue to grow and develop normally! This baby is already our miracle baby, whether because of a miraculous healing, or because of how God has already used him or her to increase our faith and to grow us in our trust in and dependence on our all-powerful God.

Here is a picture of me and baby number 3 yesterday at 18 weeks, 2 days.

As for how I've been feeling....

I definitely have had the morning/all-day sickness just as bad this time (if not worse). I finally gave in and have been taking a prescription to help with it as needed. I am just starting to feel the sickness subside, though, for which I am very grateful! 

Although I have never been much of a napper, I definitely have been needing a 20-30 minute nap in the afternoons. It's pretty hard to make it through the rest of the afternoon if I don't get that. Thankfully, Caroline gives me about a 3-hour break in the afternoon, and AK sleeps for 1.5 hours and then reads for another 30 minutes in her room. So I do get some downtime. 

I feel like I started "showing" with this baby much earlier than I did with Anna Kate and Caroline. I felt like I looked pregnant at 9 or 10 weeks! Unfortunately, I've been terrible about taking pictures...

I first felt baby moving right at 16 weeks. Way earlier than my first two! I felt AK around 21 weeks and Caroline around 19 or 20. But this baby certainly lets me know that he or she is in there and active! I feel little flutters and kicks multiple times a day. 

It has been so fun to see how excited and interested Anna Kate and Caroline are about the the baby. Anna Kate is so thoughtful and sweet and is constantly telling me things like, "I think you need to sit down and rest or else you and the baby are going to be too tired." She also brings me cups of water (completely unprompted) throughout the day, saying, "Here, you and the baby need some water." Caroline is also very excited and loves to give the baby hugs and "tisses".

Well, I think that's about it for now. Our next big appointment is on September 13 where we should be able to find out if we're having baby girl #3 or baby boy #1! The poll is now open for guesses!

The things they say...

Our girls certainly keep us on our toes. And they also keep us laughing. Here are some recent happenings around the Tolbert house.

After dinner one evening...
Me: "Ok, it's time for family worship. Let's go to the living room."
AK: "Are frogs allowed to come to family worship?"
Me: "Um...no."
AK: "Well, I'm a frog, so I guess I can't come."

Caroline has quite the little sense of humor. She also loves finishing the sentences when we read stories. Normally she finishes the sentence correctly, but sometimes she makes up jokes. This morning while reading Curious George, I stopped after saying, "George's friend, the man with the yellow ______." Caroline started giggling before she even said anything and then responded, "HORSEY!"

Confession time. I need 2 hours of quiet time in the afternoon. Caroline consistently takes a 3 hour nap. Anna Kate's nap is about 1.5 hours. They normally go down right at 1pm. When AK wakes up, she is allowed to read stories in bed until she sees that the first number on the clock is a 3. Simple enough. Except for those days when we're busy, running errands, eat lunch late, whatever, and I don't get the girls down until a little after one. No problem, I just secretly change the digital clock by the bed so that it reads "1:00" no matter what time I put them down. 

Well, apparently, this is no secret. Today as AK was getting into bed, she asked, "Mommy, it's 1:10, but are you going to change the clock?" Playing ignorant, I asked, "What do you mean?" She responded matter-of-factly, "You know, change the clock to 1:00 like you always do." And the cat's out of the bag, ladies and gentlemen.

Caroline is quite a loving little girl. Literally hundreds of times a day, whenever she sees one of us, she looks right at us and says, "Mommy, I wuvytoo; Daddy, I wuvytoo; Sissy, I wuvytoo." Translation: "I love you, too!" 

Caroline also thinks it's pretty funny that she has figured out Mommy and Daddy's real names. She now feels at liberty to call us "Yuke" and "Pa-y" whenever she pleases. And of course, she giggles about it every time.

Announcing...

And this, friends, is the real reason that blog updates have been few and far between during June and July. Between first trimester sickness, extreme exhaustion, and lots of traveling, blogging just fell by the wayside! But, all that to say, we are thrilled to welcome baby #3 into our family somewhere near January 26, 2014. God has been so good to us!