Carolynn vs. Cake

We had Carolynn's one year photo shoot this morning-I know, already! Here's Carolynn reluctantly smashing her cake. She kept getting handfuls of it and then squishing it between her fingers. I kept signing "eat" to her and she would sign it back, only getting icing on her lips but not actually EATing any cake. She then stuck her cake-y hand into the dirt and of course, then put it into her mouth. I don't know why she was so sure she wanted to eat dirt and yet was so apprehensive about her delicious cake. Silly girl. I can't wait to see how the pictures look, I think they will turn out great.

Easter Bunny and Noodle Fish

Here is the only picture Carolynn would let us take with her Bunny ears on, this is where they ended up...of course:

Easter was such a big day, starting with church then out to Dripping Springs but Carolynn was such a sweet girl. She is getting a little bit more attached to mommy, so it was a little "tricky" for others to hold her. I am hoping this is just a phase! She usually will never sleep in my arms anymore, but around 5 I was able to rock her to sleep on the couch, she was exhausted! She really slept hard that night.

This morning, we went to a swim class with our play group. I was so excited, because Carolynn has never been swimming and I knew she would love it. Well, she really did! She loved kicking, splashing and reaching into the water, she seems like a natural. She had a grin on her face almost the whole time, could be because she looked so cute in her yellow swimsuit!

"Let's go swimming mommy!"

That's my name, don't wear it out.

I have been trying to use Carolynn's name more when I talk to her so that she'll recognize it as her name. I am realizing how many other "names" we have given her and how little we actually call her by her given name. Here are some nicknames we've given her, some of them I have no idea where they came from.

• Noodle
• This is her most commonly used nickname. It has turned into many other nicknames like: Noodle Boo, Noodledee Doodledee, Noodlekins and the occasional Carolynnoodle. She also takes "noodle naps". I'm really not sure how I came up with noodle, but much like a  done noodle does, it stuck. :)
• Boo Boo
• Booby
• I'm assuming this came out of my mouth as a form of Boo Boo.
• Punkin and/or Punkin boo
• Bubbins

My sister is the nickname queen and hasn't called me by my real name since probably the 90s. That's one of the many things I love about her. I like nicknames, but I don't think I want her telling people her name is Noodle. People will think we named her out of the celebrity edition of the baby name book. Hopefully she won't write Bubbins or heaven forbid, Booby on her paper at the first day of school. We'll get there.
On another adorable note, here is a picture I am IN LOVE with from the park the other day. She thinks it's so funny when I "get her" as she swings towards me. I. Love. This.

 Another cute one:

Scooting!

OH my, my life is about to get harder. Carolynn has been trying to scoot for a while now, but we finally saw her do it this past Sunday. This girl wants what she wants, and there's no stopping her.

We also tried peas for the first time yesterday. She seemed to like them pretty well, as well as anything else. She is really getting the hang of eating from a spoon. This makes it really tricky for whoever is feeding her because she wants to hold the spoon herself. We started giving her her own spoon to hold,  but then she wants to hold her spoon as well as the spoon you're using to feed her. Also, Carolynn is very fast and VERY strong. It's hard to pry anything out of her death grip. When you do, it's covered in baby food, so we all get pretty messy. Here she is with both spoons.

Another "trick"she does is bang the spoon full of food on her high chair. As I'm sure you can imagine, peas are everywhere. Some went flying in the direction of the back door yesterday, and even after searching, I still have not found them. It's disgusting and cute all at the same time.

Sweet Sweet Potato baby

Here is our first bite of sweet potato. She loves holding the spoon and banging it on her high chair, making a huge mess. You can see that the mess has already begun.
Her big personality really shows through during feeding time when she wants to hold the spoon and grab the bowl. This picture is what Brian called "just the beginning":

Next, carrots....

First Feeding!

She did it! Well, kind of. She didn't like it, but she ate at least one spoonful of rice cereal. She mostly made a big mess! She didn't seem to like the cereal at all, but she did very well with her straw and even got a few good gulps of water...in her mouth and down her shirt.

Big girl!

Carolynn is doing so many new things! As you can see, she can kind of sit up by herself. She leans forward and holds onto her feet or the floor without falling over.

She is also very interested when we chew and grabs at our food. So, it may be time to try cereal soon. I am excited and nervous about this. First, I will be sad to give up exclusive breastfeeding. It has been a special time for us, and still will be, but she's just on her way to not needing her mommy anymore! I guess that's how it will be forever. The older they get, the less they need you. I can already tell she's going to be very independent.
She's also getting very good at grabbing things. The other day, she was in her pouch and I was making banana bread. I had a bowl full of dry ingredients on the counter, and while I was pouring out something into a measuring cup I look down and see Carolynn holding onto the side of the mixing bowl and dragging it toward her/off the counter! She also is getting good at grabbing hair.
I keep thinking any day now I will go to get her up in the morning and she'll have some teeth, but nothing yet. Just drool....a lot of it.
Even though she's not far from 6 months now, here are some 5 months pictures I took.

Peek a Boo!

Carolynn and I stayed the night at mom and dad's last night since Brian's out of town for the week. This morning it was 18 degrees out, so we decided to stay for the day.....brrrrrr. We had such a fun day! How wonderful to be so close to family. (Thank you to mawmaw and pawpaw for dog-sitting Bonzo and Bevo so I could stay over!) Carolynn loves playing peek-a-boo and petting the kitties.

Carolynn has really been noticing the dogs lately. She gets so excited, and holds out her arms when she is close to their level. The other day, she was petting Bevo's face and just pulled his lower eyelid. It was like a cartoon-"boing!" Brian and I both grabbed her hand, he was a good boy and just let her abuse him. She cracks us up! In this video, you can see Bonzo is just looking at me saying, "Help."

She "goes after them" in her walker. Sometimes she hollers at them.

Bottle Baby

So, Carolynn has been a real stinker lately about taking her bottle. Over the Christmas holiday, we never gave her a bottle so when it came time for her to take one again....yeah right. She threw a fit for Brian a few weeks ago and then again for her maw maw last week. I decided I was going to have to start giving her a little bit out of a bottle everyday or so, since not accepting a bottle is not an option-mama's gotta go out sometimes! Today I heated up one ounce and she took it like a champ, even trying to put it in her mouth herself! Way to go Carolynn!

So, Carolynn just had her 4 month birthday on January 10th. As I was documenting the past month in her baby book, I was running out of room on the page listing all the new things she's done since she turned 3 months. Here is a list of all the new things Carolynn does now.

• Roll from stomach to back (usually over her left shoulder for some reason)
• Laughs
• Tries to, and sometimes does, put her pacifier in her mouth by herself
• Scooches to get toys while on her tummy
• Notices the dogs
• Reaches out to a person or to pet the dogs
• Plays by herself, and makes LOTS of noise!

                                                Here is a picture of her eating the number "4".