"Real Food"

Caroline ate her first real food this weekend (after cereal). Like we did when I was a baby, we decided to start with green beans. They say that if you start with fruits, babies will shun veggies in favor of the sweeter options. And for the same reason, sweet potatoes and carrots come a little bit later. We actually had a hard time finding green bean baby food and almost had to start with peas, but we just couldn't do that to Sweet Caroline. Who wants their first food ever to be peas?

She made a lot of funny faces like she didn't really like it, but as per usual she ate the whole serving. As Grampie Bear said "she's not what you would classify as failure to thrive." She has her six-month check-up on Friday, so we will see if she has thrived all the way up to 18 1/2 pounds!


We had a pretty calm weekend and tried to stay home as much as possible since it is so cold outside. We played a lot, did some baking and ventured out for the usual stops (YMCA, grocery and library). We tried to get a cute Valentine picture of Caroline and me, but I wasn't the most cooperative subject. Tonight we had our own SuperBowl party, which was fun. We are rooting for Uncle Buddy's Colts!

Baptism Day

Today was Caroline's baptism. It was very challenging to schedule because we wanted to have our favorite Notre Dame priest do the ceremony--Father Bill, who baptized me at Notre Dame--and there were many conflicts. We couldn't work it out to do it up in South Bend, so we decided to do it today at our local alumni club's annual Notre Dame Communion Breakfast since Father Bill comes down to preside over the mass each year. After we booked it we found out that Uncle Buddy had a work conflict, so sadly he could not be here, but we know he was with us in spirit and we sent him some cake, so he really got to participate in the best part of the festivities! We also missed having our Canadian family with us, but I am sure they were all thinking of Caroline today, too.

Due to the timing of things we decided to have Caroline's little celebration last night, with a dinner out and a delicious cake. You can see that Caroline looked very interested in trying Grandma's cake!
It was a lot to get us all ready and out the door by 8:45 this morning. And there was a period of time between 4 and 5 when Mom, Dad, Grandma, Caroline, Jen and Lily were all up, but we made it. And thankfully, they had a reserved table for us because there were a lot of people there (250+) and it was quite busy.

Caroline wore the very special baptism gown that Jamma had made for me out of her mother's wedding dress. She had the blanket that Great Aunt Sharon gave Aunt Jen and Mom when they were baptized. And she also had something new (and blue, which would count if this were her wedding!) the baby bracelet that was a gift from our great aunt and uncle (Robbie and Charlotte) in Nova Scotia.
Caroline was very well behaved during the baptism. Father Bill walked around with her during his homily and she just peacefully sat in his arms. I suspect his arm was tired afterward though (she is now up to 18 lbs. 5 oz.) Another baby was also baptized today and neither one of them cried when the water was poured on their heads. Many people commented that they were very well behaved.

And speaking of well behaved, I was very good too. After the mass there is a breakfast, where I did my part to eat as much sausage as possible. After that I reunited with my friend Caitlyn and the two of us had a ball playing together. It started off in the corner of the ballroom, but as our giggles escalated, Caitlyn's mom was nice enough to take us out in the hall to run around. I had a blast playing with her and we've planned some playdates in the near future.

We Survived

Dad did a terrific job this week while Mom was out of town for work. We had lots of laughs and one night Caroline and I went to hockey practice with Dad. One of the boys took me out on the ice to skate with my hockey stick!

Mommy missed us a lot and when she was back home and we were cuddling before bed on Friday night I told her that we are sweetie pies . . . and crazy ladies.

Caroline performed another first this weekend-- sitting up. She can sit for several seconds, but you need to be on standby because she will topple over.

We finally got some snow this weekend and I was very excited to see the white roofs from my window. And speaking of windows, my new favorite activity is washing the windows. Mom is just disappointed that she can't give me real window cleaner!

This afternoon we ventured out for some play time in the snow. It is a lot of work to get bundled up! As soon as Mom, Dad and I got all dressed in our winter clothes, Caroline woke up from her nap, so Mom went back in and bundled her up, too. Once she was ready I was about done playing! Snow up your glove ruins the fun, don't you think?

After the outdoor time we went inside to warm up with some cocoa and I helped Mom do some cooking. We made a yummy dessert with apples. After that Dad tried to come up with a variety of activities that allowed him to play with us and watch football. Congratulations to Uncle Buddy and his Colts!

Rolling Over

We've been on rollover watch all week and finally this afternoon, Caroline did it!

Dad has spent most of his weekend at a hockey tournament about 2 hours away. Yesterday, when Caroline almost did it Mom took her off the blanket in hopes she could perform the big first when everyone was here. We tried again this morning when Dad was around, but she couldn't get that arm out of the way, so Mom thought it might be a while longer. But of course as these things go, Caroline did it after Daddy left this afternoon. We got it on video, though and called him right away. The poor girl doesn't get much of a chance to practice with Lily always trying to lick her and me trying to do it for her!

To provide captions for the photos, the one with the blue pants is yesterday's attempt. The one below on the rainbow-colored blanket with Lily is right after The Big First.

Since Dad was gone most of the weekend, Mom and I planned a Cinderella movie party. This was my first real movie. We made popcorn and I wore my princess dress. I managed to stay engaged for about 45 minutes and then we watched the rest later in the evening. It was gloomy and rainy all day so we couldn't go outside. Since Caroline and I were both sleepy around 5:00 p.m. last night, Mom decided to take us to dinner at a Sonic about 15 minutes away--just long enough for us to both fall asleep on the highway and Mom got her beloved cherry limeade. So all in all I got a 40-minute snooze and then woke up as we were pulling back into the neighborhood. Thankfully Mom picked a good dinner for me, so I woke up happy to eat and excited about my apple juice slushy. It was touch and go for a few minutes when I found out there was no milkshake!

Today we had more rain. We watched Cinderella again. Mom had to invent some more activities to keep me busy. Playing work was a new favorite (see below). Not everyone goes with pigtails for their work look, but I think I can pull it off. As I was playing work, I made an important call and pretended to talk seriously: "Yes, so . . . . I just went potty."

This week Mom is going out of town for a work meeting from Tuesday through Friday. It will be a long week for Dad. I am sure there will be some amusing updates!

The Irish

Poor us . . . We were all excited for the Sugar Bowl and then the game was awful. We did what we could and wore our ND gear to school. Caroline and I even pulled out the cheerleading uniforms in the evening and we had a tailgate party for our dinner, but it was not enough.

The highlight of the evening for all of us was when Caroline was cracking up at Daddy and me raising our arms and yelling "Go Irish!" She just laughed and laughed. We got it on video and will try to forward it soon.

It was a busy week back at work/school for us. Saturday we got back to our normal routines: YMCA, haircut for me, grocery store. Both Caroline and I managed to sleep in a little later (me 7:15 and Caroline 9 a.m.). Today we went to Daddy's hockey game. I like seeing "his boys" skate and want to know all of their names, what they are doing (and why) and what they are saying to each other. During the game I was yelling to Daddy on the bench (Hi Dad!!!!!) He thought it was funny. Caroline enjoyed the game too and seemed to be watching quite a bit. What can I say, it must be in our blood.

I've included two other photos: one is of Caroline with this bib clip thing that makes it look like she has antenae. I think it is funny! And the second one is of Lily trying to get Caroline to play ball with her.