Caroline's First Birthday!

JUNE 25, 2014

Lest anyone think I am totally off my rocker, I do know that Caroline is 13 months old today and it's not her birthday.  However, when she did turn ONE we had an awesome party!

I was lucky enough to win a "birthday box" from my friend/former roommate Cydni's blog.  It came complete with balloons, streamers, a birthday shirt, candle, "don't eat pete!", Cupcake liners & flags, sprinkles, etc.  It really took our party to the next level.  Add to that delicious food and good friends and you've got yourself a party!  

Don't Eat Pete!

Grandma Ridges pulling double duty with Caroline (1) and cousin Scott (4 1/2 mo)

The yummy food

Grill Master Dad

Warming up for cake with watermelon.

Because this video says things much better than I could ever describe it:

Caroline's stats on 6/27/14:

Height:  28 in (12%)

Weight: 16 lb 15 1/2 oz.  (10%)

Head: 17 1/2 in (36%) 

I'm going to go ahead and include the 13 month milestones in this post since it's all kind of running together now:

-The biggest change is that on June 15th (Father's Day) Caroline decided that she wanted to crawl.  So she did.  Then next day when I went to get her out of bed she was standing up in her crib.  We now have a very mobile one year old.  Still no walking, but a crawling machine that likes to pull up on EVERYTHING!

- This little girl is a traveling rockstar.  Over the last month we have been coast to coast and she has done awesome.  Our travels included:

A four hour flight from Salt Lake City, UT to Philadelphia, PA

A one hour flight from Philadelphia, PA to Newark, NJ

A twelve hour car ride from Cornwall, NY to Durham, NC

A four hour car ride from Durham, NC to Greenville, SC

A one hour flight from Greenville, SC to Atlanta, GA

A four hour flight from Atlanta, GA to Salt Lake City, UT

An hour and a half train ride from Provo, UT to Salt Lake City, UT

An hour and half flight from Salt Lake City, UT to Oakland, CA

A six hour truck ride from Oakland, CA to Winnemucca, NV

and a six hour truck rice from Winneumucca, NV to Springville, UT

In all that travel I think she got fussy 3-4 times.  

- After we got home from our NY/SC trip I discovered that she had a little tooth right under the skin.  If all the rest of her teeth come this easy my life is a breeze.  Aside from a little more drool than usual I couldn't even tell she was teething.  

-She does great at sleeping through the night even when we're in a different place and I can usually count on her sleeping about 11 hours or from 8:00ish pm  to 7:00ish am

-She still takes at least two naps.

- She likes to sit on the floor and spin in circles while she squeals hysterically.

-She's really into growling lately.

- She loves the water!  Baths, pools, rivers, oceans, etc.

-She's a great eater.  Sometimes I swear she has a hollow leg. She still eats baby food but also loves any table food that we put in front of her.  Lately, she especially seems to love Strawberries.  

-She is dangerous around other babies.  She loves to poke their eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.  

-She's pretty good at entertaining herself, although she's gotten a little more social lately and wants someone to play with her. 

- She likes to eat everything she picks up off the ground.  Rocks, sand, sticks, bugs, etc.  I have to be on high alert at all times if she's on the ground.
- Still no real words.  She may be saying mama on purpose now, but it's hard to tell.  She does know "ready to go", "wanna bite?", "come here", "no no"  (although, when I say this she'll stop what she's doing, grin at me, and then go right back to whatever she was doing). I'm sure there are other things that are connecting.  

Pics from her 12 month photo shoot:

Trying out her birthday present.  Despite the scowl she really was loving it.