Timeless Tuesday

Again - couldn't decide between two pictures...

This one makes me giggle - this was the very first time Caroline learned to pull up in her crib. Only she couldn't figure out how to get down. This upset her greatly!


And how could I pass this one up? Caroline and Collier in their turkey tees last year!! We have new tees this year...just need to get their pictures taken!

Belly Buddies

Yesterday was Caroline's Thanksgiving Family Feast at her school (which was a disaster...tired, ornery and hungry don't mix well)... Anyways, when I got there, her room was outside on the playground. As I was walking through the room, I hear Ms. Anna say...

"Caroline, put your shirt down."

...oh geez...she's learned to take her shirt off, I can only imagine what they battle on a daily basis. Anyways, once I get outside, I say, "Caroline are you showing everybody your business?" To which the teacher replies...

"No, her and Katherine like to pull their shirts up and stick their bellies on the cold, metal water faucet. And if we tell them to get away from that, then they stick their bellies on the fence or the tree. And sometimes they do belly-to-belly."

HAHAHAHA! Are you kidding me?!?! That's freakin hilarious!

Not only that, I look over and Katherine (Caroline's BFF) was standing square in front of the tree, shirt up, belly on the trunk. All by herself.

I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall...

Timeless Tuesday

I couldn't decide between these two pictures, so here are both of them!

Up To No Good

I think we have a future Picasso on our hands. It's no secret that Caroline looooves to draw. Give her a pencil (yes, she prefers pencils over crayons) and a sheet of paper any day and she will stay occupied for...minutes... (BAHAH!!) In fact, if anybody asks what to get her for Christmas, I say anything Crayola or puzzles. I may be re-thinking the Crayola idea after this weekend.

I was at a baby shower for a sweet co-worker on Saturday and by the time I got back to my car, I had 3 missed calls from Wally and a voicemail that simply said "You need to get home RIGHT NOW." Of course, all kinds of scenarios run through my head.

I call Wally back and he sounds a little less frazzled, but there was no urgency in his voice, thank goodness. He says, "You don't need to rush home. Everything's OK now."

HELLO!?!? What happened???

He proceeded to say, "Caroline was driving in my truck (and there I anticipate him saying "and she fell out and got hurt") and she got a hold of a Sharpie, took the cap off and drew all over the inside of my truck." [Side note - Caroline loves to pretend to drive.]

Now, I can see why Wally was mad. Why he needed me to get home so quickly, I have no idea. So, he says "I didn't know what to do." I told him that he should have taken pictures!!!

She had Sharpie from one end of the dash to the next, colored IN the rear view mirror, covered the garage door opener, all over the radio and air conditioner controls, on a baby gift bag for one of his co-workers, on her shoes, hands and clothes, on the seats... Luckily Wally was able to clean most of it up. But, not everything. Oh, don't worry - I was able to get it out of her shoes...most importantly!

Fast forward to Sunday morning. Caroline was doing her usual - running from thing to thing to thing...when I noticed things got quiet. Where was she? Oh, she was coloring on the kitchen cabinet door. With red crayon. GAH! She had the outside and inside of the door colored on as well as the trashcan. I was able to get it off the cabinet, but not the trashcan. Everytime she sees the trashcan, she looks and points, wags her finger and says "No no!"

Oh, but we're not done yet. My little artist had to continue marking her territory. That afternoon, I go over to her toybox and what do I see? BLUE CRAYON all over the top!!!! When did she do that?!?!? I'll never know.

Let's just say we have put up all crayons and pencils. If she wants to use them, then she can use them in her high chair, thankyouverymuch. Who has learned their lesson now? I did!

Beeeeeutiful (aka Halloween 2010)

We had another busy Halloween in the Doyle household. Once we got Caroline all dressed up and took pictures outside, we packed up and ate dinner at the Seafood Shak with Granny & Papa, Aunt T, Ashlely, Bubba & Collier. But, by the time we swung by and saw the Martin's and made it home, we missed the bulk of the trick-or-treaters and everybody had started to go inside!! And it wasn't even that late! It seems like the kids started earlier than what I did as a child. So, probably next year we'll stay close to the house since Caroline will be older and will hopefully be more into trick-or-treating by then!

She did really well - She didn't mind having her costume or her hat on at all. Although, I didn't bother with the hat til much later so I wouldn't overdo it. She didn't care to carry her cute little pail much, that is until we made it to each doorstep. She wanted to hold it then, get her candy and promptly hand the bucket back. HAHA!

Sorry about the screwy pictures - Blogger isn't cooperating.

As if she's saying "Another picture mooooom?"

Her masterpiece pumpkin

Staying hydrated for the evening's festivities

The cutest little Dracula I've ever seen!

My two most favorite people in the world!

Caroline, the thug!

Caroline and I headed up to the outlet mall this past weekend - you know, for some mommy-daughter bonding time. We hit up the usuals...Carter's, Rack Room, Polo and for giggles, I thought I'd go try my hand at J Crew. I don't usually find anything in there, as I am not a size 2...but I thought "what the heck?!" Jewelry, scarves and hair accessories fit all sizes, no?

OH did I make a big mistake. For some reason, the store was packed with the "J Crew" types - well-to-do, manicured, (skinny) young ladies. And my sweet, darling Caroline decided that this particular store was the *best* place to shout "BEEEEE-IIIIII!!! BEEEE-IIIII!!!!!!" over and over again...at the top of her lungs. Talk about embarrassing.

Oh, and don't worry - I only made it out with some boxers for Wally and socks for me. That's pretty much all that fits.

First Haircut

One would think that you needed hair to have a haircut, right? Wrong. Well...sorta. I reluctantly scheduled Caroline's first haircut last weekend and was immediately bombarded with "WHY?!" "What are you going to cut?" "She has no hair!". Yes, that may be true...on top...but the back was starting to look a little ratty.

The back of Caroline's head is very curly. The hair on top? What little bit there is? Not so much. And that's ok. And if Caroline's curls would stay in tact, even better. But I always chuckled to myself because the hair on one side didn't stay curly. It just stuck straight out - about 3 inches from her head.

Let's just say that she could have had a side pony.

It was baaaaaarely long enough for me to put in a teeeeny tiiiiiny little ponytail. And if you know how busy Caroline is, it was quite an ordeal.

But, it was time. Time to shape up the back. I was nervous for days. Almost jittery the entire way there. What if all her curls are cut off and they never grow back? What if she looks like a different child? What if she looks like a little boy?

Surprisingly, Caroline was a good little girl. Yes, she was squirmy. Yes, I had to bribe her with Fruit Loops. So what?

And guess what! Her curls are still there! And in fact, where my sweet hairdresser, Brandy, cut off the length, it's given the crown of her head more volume! She has a natural Bump-It!

We suck at taking pictures. Everything is always blurry. But, at the very least, her hair is all one length in the back. Not sure when we'll need to go back. She'll probably be 36 months old before we need to trim up her bangs...and I'm sure I'll be just as nervous then, too.

Pumpkin Painting

We had everybody over on Friday night to celebrate my birthday (last year of enjoying my 20's!). For a little fun for the kids, I bought some small pumpkins for them to decorate. As you can see below, it was quite a mess. Oh, excuse me, Caroline made the biggest mess. Paint was everwhere. In her hair, on her shirt, under her nails - she even got Tanner a few times on his arm! Thank goodness for washable paint! Collier decided that he would eat his, so Ashley took over his pumpkin.

I think it's her best masterpiece yet.

Paci Free? Total Failure.

Five months ago I first blogged about weaning Caroline from the paci. Three months ago, I blogged again about our second attempt at weaning. As this is the third time I will have posted on this, I can't say that the third time will be a charm.

We made GREAT progress. As in, she NEVER had it at school and every now and then I'd cave and give it to her at naptime on the weekend. And that was it. Out of sight, out of mind.

And then the biting started. At school. Multiple times a day.

I'm not going to act like she was an angel at home. Because we certainly had our fair share of biting issues at home (months ago). And we thought we, ahem, *corrected* that.

But, something in her changed at school. (Let's be clear that I am not making excuses. Biting is NOT ok.) First, she moved up to the next room - she had to reclaim her territory (and territorial she is). Second, she is in a room with some children that are communicating on a higher level than her. And although I think that Caroline's vocabulary is exceptional, she still gets very frustrated when she's trying to tell you something that you can't make out. And third, her BFF (Katherine) was still in the old room.

For weeks on end, I would get to her school and cringe...how many times did she bite today? How many MORE times did she TRY to bite today?

After about a month of this, pouring over the internet and books for help, talking to other moms who may have gone through this (unfortunately all of my friends' kids are angels), talking to the teachers, talking to the daycare director (with the fear of them kicking us out), talking to the pediatrician, crying every evening at home, BEGGING for someone to tell me what to do to make it all go away and flat out beating myself up over it...the worst was yet to come...

I walked into school that fateful day, PRAYING that my child hadn't tried to bite anybody that day...and guess who is sitting in the front office. In time out. MY CHILD. For everybody to see. The minute I saw her, I just knew. (And the tears started. Mine.)

Here's what happened that afternoon: Caroline bit another child in her class. So, like usual, they put her in time out (which was the high chair). Then, when another child walked her near her and was playing with a toy, she reached down and bit that child's hand. So, not only was she in time out for biting, she BIT while she was in TIME OUT!

I wanted to crawl under a rock and never come out. Perhaps this is payback for all the times I looked at an unruly child and said "My child will never act like that."

I feel so stupid for it taking so long for me to think of this, but it was that afternoon that I thought about giving the paci back to Caroline. I sent it school with her that very next day and she's been a different child ever since. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), she's found other ways to get out her frustration, like swatting at people and throwing herself on the floor - but at least she's not causing physical harm to anybody.

And, I know she's approaching the Terrible Two's (let's hope that we've seen the worst of it). I know she's not perfect (but damn near close) and I know I'm not perfect (but damn near close...bahaha!) and I'm not naive enough to think she'll be an angel at all times. But, she's got an anger in her that I can't quite figure out sometimes. Is this normal?

Unfortunately, the paci is with her 98% of the time now. It seems as though she's more attached to it now than she was before. And I still cringe when I hear her talking with it in her mouth (my biggest pet peeve). But, we will get through this. Hopefully six months from now, I'll write a post that's titled "Paci Free....And Loving Life!"

On a related note - how much CUTER would this picture be if that blasted paci weren't in her mouth?