Sweet Caroline

Caroline had her 6 month well check today with the doctor. She looks great and is ahead of the curve developmentally - dr says she isn't going to be a baby for much longer! She has 4 teeth now, weighs 16 pounds 11 ounces (60%) and is 26.25 inches (75%) long. She sits up and plays, eats cereal and hates all veggies so far. The kid looks absolutely horrified every time she takes a bite of any vegetable. No pain, no gain - Mama says no fruits until we master the veggies. She was a trooper with all of her shots - poor baby! Next visit is shot-free so we can look forward to that one.

All good things must come to an end

Today was the last day of vacation, so what the heck - Katie ate a popsicle at 6:53 am. She was ready for the beach at 7:06 am. The rest of us were not, so she had to cool her jets for a bit. We spent the morning at the beach and then went swimming with our friends at the pool while Daddy played golf. Everyone was happy :). We did NOT eat at Yamato's, instead we ate outside with some friends at a grill at the marina that was very good. Had we eaten there prior to the last night, we might have eaten there 3 times this week. HA! We have had a fantastic time this week and all of us are sorry that it went so quickly. Katie does not understand why we have to go home. I am sure we will have a scene tomorrow trying to get her to the airport. The girls' room here is pink and green with green walls. Katie said she was going to ask Grandpa to paint her room green when she gets home...because Grandpa needs another project for these kids!!

Fun in the Sun

Katie started the day in Time Out for demanding a popsicle prior to 7 am. Fortunately for all of us, things improved after that. Katie and Mama hit the beach to chase waves and build sand "castles." Then we headed over to meet our friends at the pool. Big Caroline and Katie had a lot of fun swimming and splashing while Little Caroline took up residence in her own lounge chair under a big umbrella and played with her toys in between dips in the pool. We really enjoyed the sun and were all reminded of the importance of reapplying sunscreen after 3 hours at the pool. :) We got some quick naps in and then dressed the girls in their white beach dresses in an effort to attempt those sought-after beach pictures of perfect children dancing around in their best clothes while the sun sets and the waves crash in the background. I think it's safe to say Katie and Caroline are too little to pull those off. Sand EVERYWHERE. Oh well, maybe in a couple of years...it'll give us an excuse to come back. We met up with all of our friends...at the Japanese Steakhouse again. This really is getting embarrassing - especially since we have now had the same chef 3 times. But Katie LOVES this place and it is good and we all know this is Katie's Vacation. Caroline showed the first signs of Yamato Fatigue this evening so it is doubtful we'll make it back again this trip...

Beach babies!

Every morning Katie pops into our room at first light ready to hit the beach and outlines her plans for the day which typically include the beach, the pool and a lot of sand. She was dressed, had eaten breakfast and was ready to go to the beach this morning before 7:30 am. She barely managed to contain herself until Daddy took her down there around 8:30 am. Daddy just commented that we might as well call this "Katie's Vacation" since the rest of us are pretty much just along for the ride. Amen. Today the weather was outstanding so we got some quality time in at the beach. "Rocketship Katie" must have run 5 miles chasing waves out to sea and then letting them "chase" her back up the beach. Whenever she'd gear up to run after the waves, she'd spread her arms out and take off down the beach yelling "Rocketship Katie!!" She had a ball! Caroline chilled out under the beach umbrella and took it all in. The girls did manage to get naps in this afternoon which was good for everyone...until Katie had an accident in Mama and Daddy's bed. Good thing the condo is equipped with a full size washer and dryer! More friends came down to join us in SC for the weekend so we went back over to Big Caroline's tonight so the Daddies could have a BBQ cook off. We think our Daddy's ribs were by far the best!! It was a lot of fun and a late night. Katie and Caroline went to bed without much complaint. Mama and Daddy are exhausted - we'd love to go to bed too but we have to wait until we have clean sheets...oh the joys of parenthood!!

Katie quotable

After a lecture about doing what we tell her to do when we tell her to do it, Katie popped her thumb out of her mouth long enough to respond with "Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't."

Good times, good times...

After a rough night, we managed to have another great day while on " 'cation." Katie and Caroline are sharing a room which is a big deal for Katie since they've never done that before. Unfortunately for Caroline, Katie is going through a phase where bedtime is a battle no matter how tired she is and she may or may not stay quiet and in bed. Caroline, on the other hand, needs her beauty rest. That baby LOVES to sleep. She managed to sleep through most of the drama, but she would wake up and yell for about 10-15 seconds when Katie was in the throws of a good fit and then pop her fingers in her mouth and go back to sleep as if to say, "SHUT UP!!!!" God love her. Anyway, we were all a little tired today, but still had a lot of fun. Katie LOVES everything about the beach (she is my child after all) so we start every day with a trip down to the sand and surf to shovel sand and chase waves. There are tons of nice bike paths here so we rented bikes and rode all over the island this morning. The girls alternated between loving it and screaming to get out of the trailer they were in. Caroline took her first dip in a pool this afternoon - she got ahold of a raft and chewed on the end of it while she floated around so she was happy as a clam. Katie had a big time since swimming is one of her favorite activities. We ended the day with a 3 hour boat tour. A boat tour of what, I couldn't tell you since Daddy "planned" this one and apparently misunderstood that there would be food provided as part of the deal when there wasn't. So of course we show up with kiddos who haven't eaten and have to make a mad scramble through the marina market to pick up what amounted to some convenience store type food. Captain Robert had to come tell us his ship was sailing. We barely made it onto the boat. While everyone else was listening to the Captain and watching crabs or something, Mama was slapping together ham and cheese sandwiches and stuffing food down a toddler who was ravenous and literally a bottomless pit for food. Daddy had the nerve to look at me and say, "just go with it." I wanted to scream "I'LL TELL YOU WHERE TO GO!" but it is vacation after all. Anyway, we got to see dolphins jumping around which was very Go Diego Go! for Katie and then we stopped and got off on some island which I imagine is some kind of nature preserve or something. Again, I missed that part since Katie was yelling "More chips! I need more chips!" We stopped on the island long enough for Katie to get her pants wet and cake herself with sand. Nice. Everyone got another round of baths this evening (so glad we spent the time cleaning them up before we left) and then crashed out...

Another busy day in SC...Katie was on the beach shortly after breakfast and the only reason she ate breakfast at all (beside the fact that it included a popsicle) was because we told her "No breakfast, no beach!" We took the girls to the Children's Museum of the Lowcountry this morning where it just happens to be Week of the Young Child. There was something for everyone and the girls had a GREAT time! We did a pizza lunch and then hit Southern Belles, a fantastic children's clothing shop. Daddy sure did enjoy that one - HA! Our friend, Big Caroline (she's 6, as opposed to Little Caroline who is 6 months) came over this afternoon with her Daddy and everyone played at the beach and pool. Katie and Big Caroline had quite the assortment of seashells by the end. Big Caroline and her daddy had never been to Yamato's, so we all went back again for dinner. We had the same chef as last night. He probably thinks we're crazy.

How to cram an entire vacation into one day...

Whew! Katie and Caroline had quite the day. The weather was a little cool for a day at the beach so we're saving up our beach days for the second half of our week when the weather is supposed to be awesome. In the meantime, we had a bit of a vacation sampler today. Daddy took Katie down to the beach after breakfast with her bucket and shovel to play in the SAND!! She's very into it - he had to drag her back in. Caroline stayed in with Mama and played in the exersaucer which is not like the one she has at home, therefore, it is much more fun. We checked out our surroundings and then Katie headed to the pool and Tot Lot playground with Daddy for a BIG time!! (Although sand in her britches was a problem.) Caroline got to take a swim in the kitchen sink which is just the right size for her - she had so much fun, she took another swim before bedtime. Late this afternoon, Katie and Mama headed to the resort spa to get "Princess Pedicures." The selection of pinks was almost overwhelming, but Katie is a girl who knows what she wants. She got to pick the color, so we came out with matching "Charged Up Cherry" toes. All of us enjoyed dinner at Yamato, a Japanese Steakhouse. Katie's skill with chopsticks was pretty impressive and both girls were totally entertained by the tableside food prep although we did have a 3 year old at our table who kept yelling "No fire! No fire!" so we had to settle for one onion volcano and a lot of steam.

Vacation here we come!

We are in South Carolina this week enjoying a well-deserved vacation! Katie has been SO excited about it. When we landed in SC, we told her we had finally made it to vacation and then loaded her and Caroline up in the car with practically everything else we own. We barely fit all our stuff in the car and those girls could hardly wiggle. She was pretty disappointed in "vacation" during the car ride as you can tell (can't say I blame her - HA!). Now that we've finally made it - let the fun begin!

From the mouth of babes...

"I'll never, ever, ever do it again...unless I change my mind." - Katie

Happy Easter!

We let Katie dye Easter eggs for the first time this Easter. She was SO excited. AND we gave her donut holes for breakfast…it was like egg dying on crack. Thank God Caroline is too little to participate - Katie was so wound up about the eggs and on such a sugar high it was all her Daddy and I could do to contain her!!! She had a GREAT time!

I told her she had to go to bed and sleep good so the Easter Bunny would come. Whenever I mentioned the Easter Bunny, she would ask, “so who’s wearing the costume?” as in, that bunny ain’t real – who’s the fool who has to wear the costume to hide the eggs? HA! Has she got this stuff figured out or what?

Introducing Katie and Caroline

Katie is TWO and literally personifies Longfellow's poem (curl and all): "there was a little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead; And when she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid." We, of course, just love her to death and she keeps us in stitches with her two-year-old antics. Caroline is 6 months going on 6 years. Absolute angel of a baby girl. She LOVES her big sis and is endlessly entertained by her.

Well, here we are.

We are new to the blogosphere, however, it dawned on me that this is a pretty handy way to document what's going on with my girls. Of course they have baby books for this purpose...but they don't have a Mama who is very good about keeping them updated. In fact, I'm not even sure I know where they are. This is more fun anyway and friends and family with nothing better to do can check in once and a while to oooh and ahhhh...and appreciate why my hair is surely turning gray somewhere under all these highlights!