Carly Conversation

Carly's conversation on the way home from the zoo last night.

Carly: Mom, Leah's taking a cat nap.

Mom: That's ok. Let her sleep.

Carly: But she's not a cat!

Mom: (laughing) Cat nap just means a short nap.

Carly: Oh! Well I'm taking a dog nap. (then her loud funny laugh)

This girl cracks me up!

Preschool Graduation

My baby at her preschool graduation. She still has another year left before kindergarten but all kids participate on graduation night. It was such a fun year for her!

She had the sweetest teacher...Miss Darla. The epitome of church lady, grandma, and preschool teacher all wrapped in one bundle!

School Picture Day

Leah wanted curls for picture day today. What a beautiful girl we are blessed with!

Monkey see, Monkey do

If you want curls, I want them too!

Our cute Carly-girl!

1st Grade

Leah started 1st Grade today! Hard to believe that she will be in school all day, every day now. It helps that we love, love, love her new teacher!!

However, Carly is already having Sister withdrawal. This is her just moments after leaving Leah at school. Good thing she starts preschool in a couple of weeks!

I think we've created a monster...

an M&M monster that is! Every time Carly goes potty she gets an M&M or two. Tonight she was purposefully sliding on the kitchen floor but fell really hard and hit her head. So I offered her one M&M to feel better. She said, "That's good." I asked her if she needed another one and she said "Yes." To this I thought, "Duh Mama, she is not going to turn down an M&M." After her second M&M she said, "I'm all better." Whew! M&M's to the rescue.

Later that same night, she fell in the hallway or ran into a door, something that caused her to get hurt. Guess what she promptly asked for? You guessed it, an M&M to feel better. So I think we are on our way to an M&M monster!

The ABC's

Carly is quite taken with all things regarding the alphabet. She calls letters "super letters." Every time she goes potty (which potty training is coming along very nicely - I think it's the drive for M&M's and putting balls in her potty jar) we have to do super letters. She knows almost all the letters and we are working on all the sounds too as well as several words with each letter. It's so fun to see her so excited about learning.

She loves to sing! And when she sings the alphabet song she has several versions.

A B C D E F G (repeating those letters only)

A B C D E F O (I think the letter O is her favorite. I'm sure that has nothing to do with all the Buckeye cheers we do at our house! O-H-I-O)

A B C D E F G W X Y and Z (this is her latest version)

I think I may need to get her some alphabet soup!

I Lub You

Carly is becoming quite the little talker. Almost everything she says is a phrase or sentence. Some of my favorite words right now are "Tinkebell" and "elephant". Something about those three syllable words sound so cute. But yesterday I heard the words that were the sweetest of all. She kept saying, "I lub you. I lub you Papa. I lub you Mama. I lub you Weah."

Our precious Carly-girl, we lub you! Oh you make my heart melt.

New Things

Lately it seems like Carly is doing more and more new things.

She loves nursery rhymes and one of her favorites right now is Bumpity-Bumpity. You may know this as Humpty-Dumpty. She will even say the last word of each sentence in the rhyme if you pause to let her.

Yesterday we did Ring Around the Rosy. We've been doing it ever since. She loves to fall down and then laughs, laughs, laughs.

When she climbs a ladder to the slide or climbs up on a chair she says, "Up we go."

She's even gone on the potty. #1 and #2 but not regularly. I tried to put her in training pants one day but she did not care that she peed in her pants. I'm thinking she's not quite ready.

This past week when I lay her down for her nap or put her down for bedtime, she'll blow me a kiss and say "bye-bye". It's so sweet!

She loves to play outside. When she's not sliding, you can find her pushing her baby around in the stroller for a walk.

She's starting to really get into pretend play. Her favorite thing is to crawl around like a cat saying "meow, meow". Funny girl!

In the words of Carly...

Carly is really starting to talk up a storm. She's even saying some phrases and sentences. But if you are talking to her, here are some words you'll need to know. They are core to her language.

1. Showder = shower (she LOVES to take showders)
2. Na-nas = babies
3. Oooh-ooohs = all types of bears
4. nee-nee = Mimi (this is a new one for her!)
5. nuts = milk (This one drives me, well, nuts. She was saying "nilk" and now it's "nuts". Dan, however, thinks it is funny. Probably because it drives me nuts!)
6. If I ask her if she needs to go potty, she always says, "Dora and Boofs" because she has a Dora potty seat.
7. fump = jump
8. Yesterday I asked her to say "cheese" for the camera. She said "cheese" and grabbed her cheeks. It was really funny. If I get the picture off the camera, I'll post it. I'm not really great about getting pics off the camera.
9. ickey = diaper (she has mickey mouse on her diaper and when I ask her if she needs a new diaper she says "icky")
10. yuck = anything on her hands or feet. She does not like stuff on her hands or feet. And when she's wrinkly from being in the bath or shower too long, she tries to wipe off her wrinkes saying "yuck".

My Carly is 20 months!

I can't believe my baby is 20 months old today! In honor off all her cuteness, here are 20 random things about her.

1. She ADORES her big sister Leah. That is the sunshine in her life.

2. She is very loving. Loves to give hugs and kisses and snuggles.

3. She is still OBSESSED with Dora and when she gets corrected or is in trouble she cries for Dora like that's her saving grace.

4. Blueberries are her favorite fruit followed closely by dried cherries.

5. She is not much of a meat eater.

6. Her favorite song right now is "Wheels on the Bus."

7. Her favorite book is Princess Baby by Karen Katz or if she finds a Dora book.

8. She can open all the doors in our house - not a good thing.

9. She is a very determined girl.

10. She thinks that anything Leah can do, so can she. There's a lot of Monkey See, Monkey Do going on around our house lately.

11. She loves to be outside and to "ride" her bike.

12. She loves the slides and swings at the park.

13. She's really good at kicking the soccer ball.

14. We're working on the alphabet and she can say almost every letter and can spell OHIO (repeating not on her own...yet).

15. She is always carrying something around in her arms - snugglies, babies, bears, dolls, etc. And there is at least two things.

16. She can say around 60 words and is starting to say some phrases like, "Hi Papa, Hi Eah, Hi Mama" or "up Mama".

17. She knows all the Diney princess. Ella is for both Cinderella and Snow White. She will not try to say Snow White, it's always Ella and Aurora is Rura.

18. She loves to thump against the crib when she goes to sleep and when she wakes up. We can't wait for this to stop!

19. She loves to help switch the laundry and unload the dishwasher.

20. In her language, all bears are ewe-ewes and babies are na-nas.

This picture is of her using a spoon to eat yogurt. As you can see, the spoon was not utilized very well.

Cheers!

Carly is growing by leaps and bounds. I can't believe that she is 18 months old already.

One of her newest things is "cheers". Every time time she has a cup, she'll hold it up and say "chees" - her version of "cheers.". This morning we cheered our milk, pancakes, and a Winnie the Pooh bear tin that holds a couple of Leah's card games.

Here she is riding her inchworm she got for Christmas. Cute, isn't she?

Carly's 5 Newest Words

1. down
2. button (sounds like uh-on)
3. Ow (this is my favorite right now. Whenever she get's hurt or hits her head she'll stop for a second and then say 'ow'.)
4. blue
5. green
(I had no clue the girl knew some colors. I'll have to start really working with her.)

Big Girl

Carly is becoming such a big girl! Here are some things she does that makes me realize that she's not my "baby" anymore.

- She will answer any question you ask her with a nod, either yes or no, and it's usually the right answer. The "yes" nod is quite humorous because she uses her entire head/neck.

- She sat on the potty today. I knew she was going #2 in her diaper and asked her if she wanted to sit on the potty. She nodded "yes". She had already stunk up the diaper but after I got her cleaned up we went and sat on the potty. I'm sure at 16 months she's really not ready but it can't hurt, right?

- She wants all her food either on a plate or in a bowl and wants to try to use silverware with it. She also does not want you to cut up or break up her food. She's a big girl and wants to take bites. Only she shovels in anything you give her so you really have to hold the cracker, the sandwich or whatever else it is and let her take bites.

My Little Cinderella

Carly is truly a little Cinderella at 15 months old. She loves to help me with the laundry, squeals with delight when the vacuum comes out, and tries to unload the dishwasher when it's open. She also loves to help clean up when we're putting toys away - esp. if it goes into a basket. I wonder how long she'll like to clean as she gets older and realizes what it is.

Master of...

Well Carly has seemed to really master one thing lately...The Point. Whether it's food, her drink, a book, a toy, her snugglies, or her zee-zee, she will get it with The Point.

She is starting to master the walk but right now she still looks like a little drunken sailor.

Feeding herself - she has definitely mastered. Trying to use any utensil - not even close.

Hip, Hip, Horray! It's Carly's 1st birthday!

Happy birthday my precious Carly girl! One year ago you blessed our family and my heart grew in ways I could not imagine. Thank you Lord for our perfect girl. May she be as much as a blessing to you and your kingdom as she is to our family. Carly I pray that you will always seek and follow the Lord. That you will always know you are loved and supported. That you will know the Lord is faithful, loving, and kind.



Oh you have grown and changed so much this first year and so have we. Thank you my precious child for all that you have given me this first year of your life. From your sweet wave to your sloppy kisses, the way you clap your little hands and the way you adore your big sister. You have shown me glimpes of pure, unfiltered love and it is good.



Happy Birthday babygirl!

Another milestone...

Today's milestone...crawling up the entire set of stairs and not looking back once. I think with this gem I need to put baby gates up.

word association begins...

Well I don't think na-na was a fluke. Carly is definitely working on putting some things together. Here's her vocab breakdown...not to be performed on demand. Thank you very much she says.

na-na = banana

da-da = daddy (in most families. Her daddy is "papa")

papa = papa (nomally said with a brief pause between the syllables)

mmmmm - I'm sure this is supposed to be mama, which I've only heard a handful of times. I mean I know she's her papa's girl but c'mon, I'm the mama!

la-la = we think this may be Leah. Although Leah wants to be called Lee-Lee. Which Dan and I called Leah when she was in the womb and always thought that would be the nickname we called her. Not so.

ba = ball and block, but mostly balls

bye-bye: now we've only head this a couple times but we're working on adding it to her budding vocabulary. Watch out Webster!

you say na-na, I say banana

As Carly was eating her lunch today, she looked at the jar and said "na-na". So I turned the jar around and sure enough there was a banana on the jar. Of course I'm sure she knew it was a banana so I praised her for being so smart and reinforced the word "banana". Some may call this a fluke, I'm calling her brilliant! :) That's what the mama is for, right?

9 months

Carly has hit the 9 month mark and growing strong.

Her new stats:

Height: 29 inches (90th percentile)
Weight: 20.5 lbs (80th percentile)

New acheivements since her 6 month appt: crawling, babbling (esp. da-da and the occasional pa-pa), pulling herself up on EVERYTHING!, feeding herself, non-baby food eats: Cheerios, puffs, bread, bananas, green beans, juice

Some of her favorite things: Leah, bubbles, being outside, peek-a-boo, her sing-a-long stage, baths, balls of every shape and size, anything that sings- esp. some of Leah's dolls, the exersaucer, her bunny

And now Carly and Leah have their first shared experience...a staph infection. How nice! First thing the doctor asked, "Do they take baths together?" And guess what, they just started taking them together in the last week and they love it! Oh well...