Better Late Than Never....

Criminy! Nothing since November? What am I thinking? Was it laziness, indifference, or too many other things elbowing out my time for this? The latter, for the most part with a little of the former thrown in for seasoning. Since November, let's see and think about what's happened, first with words then with pictures... Caroline is of course walking like a champ and is showing us the beginnings of her future running ability. Late last Fall she went through a spurt where her vocabulary seemed to explode, as did her penchant for being a chatterbox. Everybody at the Publix and Lizard's Thicket is a friend (Caroline greets them all with a wave, a smile, and a "Hiiii-eeee"). She met Santa at the Five Points Festivus Celebration, developed her first crush on Michelle and Phil's oldest son Jackson, continues to be a daredevil - neither unafraid to climb to the top of anything nor has she met a slide she refused to fly down, and remains wholly enamored of all things puppy. We've since discovered that in fact she will not be having a little sister - as we were first 90+ % sure of - but instead will be having a little brother to dote on. We're expecting him to arrive in early July, no names picked out yet (what a difference between him and the naming business preceding Caroline's arrival). She's also recently entered another spurt. It's hard to describe exactly, except that she seems to be "getting" a lot of the things we tell her much better than before, she's entered a new world of communicating with us, her vocabulary is getting better and better, and she is demanding more and more hugs (which she calls a "ho"...no comment) every day. She loves pointing at things and declaring their existence - airplane, slide, swing, balloon, bus, car, blues clues, elmo, big bird, tree, puppy, kitty, pinecomb, fan, chair, bubbles, and much more. She constantly demands to go "outside" and if we delay our efforts to let her out she tells us impatiently to "c'mon!" along with a sweep of her arm. She's showing signs of outgrowing her diapers (she sometimes tells us the right answer if we ask whether she has poopies and will often tug at them), has taken well to the "time out" punishment, which has helped us cut way down on throwing food off her tray during dinnertime, and enjoys allowing daddy to help her brush her teeth twice a day. OK, onto the pictures....