Sweet Caroline: 13 Months Old!

Although I am no longer doing her monthly signs, I will still try to continue to update the blog at least monthly with all her new milestones and just the awesome life that is Caroline Kate! She is everywhere now! She can run, walk up steps with assistance and she has started hiking up her leg to get places (like the side of the bathtub, not a fire hydrant). She can now say dad, duck, kitty, hi, bye and the occasional mama. She also likes to make animal sounds and will quack along with raffi and pant and howl along with charlotte diamond. We pretty much constantly listen to music, so she loves to dance and act out the songs. She has a new dance move that is a stomp quick step that is hilarious! She loves being outside and we try to frequent the park and play outside as much as we can. She chases Chloe (our cat) and has gotten brave enough to pet two dogs (they were Gramm-our dog and Rocket-the deVerges pooch who have combined doggy years of at least 160). She can tell you very clearly what she wants. She will sign please and point. If it is not clear to me, I will hold up two things and she will point at the one she wants. She is also following directions well-put this there, bring that to me-, but "no" still gets a crinkle nose and laugh, unless it comes from daddy. We have had a rough couple of weeks recently. She had a bunch of teeth come in at the same time and was up at night a lot. She now has four on the top and three on the bottom. Then she chipped one of her top teeth on the coffee table. Then the week of graduation she ran a fever tues and weds. She really had no other symptoms so I thought it might be her teeth and she was acting more tired/fussy than usual, but we had so many activities. Unfortunately she definitely had a virus and got runny nose, cough and sneezey over the weekend. She could not sleep because she could not breathe out her nose, so I was up with her literally 3-4 times per hour. We were both exhausted. Luckily by Monday night, she was her perky self again. It is so terrible to see your little one sick and not be able to do anything about it, but I am thankful this is her first cold and hope her wonderful health lasts! Her one year visit went well. She is ahead on all her milestones. She took the shots like a champ. She is 30 inches long (79%) and 20 lbs, 6 oz (50%). She has definitely lost any of the chunkiness she had when she was younger, but she is a mover!

There is a great park in Owasso that is worth the drive. It was built by parents in the Owasso community, so it really has kids in mind.

We went to the OKC marathon at the end of April. We went down the day before (a Saturday) and it was bananas. The OKC Thunder were playing a playoff game against the Lakers that same night and there were two festivals going on. We had a good time, but once we parked our car we were not going anywhere other than on foot! We had to get up early to leave the hotel by 5:30ish because the marathon started at 6:30. My dad and Mike ran the marathon and both did awesome! Caroline, my mom and I did the 5k. There were so many people and I was pushing the stroller. Weaving in and out of people with a stroller while running should be an Olympic event!

Our little trooper waiting for daddy and Popi to start. I didn't think we would be able to find them in the masses, but they ran right by us and I wished I had my camera out!

Later, waiting on the marathon men after the 5k.

After everyone was done. My mom and I went back to the hotel between events and really wanted to get all the bags and pack-n-play in one trip because the cars were so far away. Well, talk about another marathon event, but we did it!

My little eater

She loves having her swing in the backyard. As long as it is nice out, we are out there daily!

Playing with her new playset.

She was a big helper planting the front garden. Now she loves talking to and "smelling" the flowers. She bends over, blows air out of her nostrils and says yum. It is adorable!

One morning, her a.m. nap lasted longer than usual and she hadn't had her bath yet before lunch, so I let her go crazy. She loves berries and the blackberries especially are messy!We went straight to the bath!