A Few Pictures from Christmas

As you can see from this picture of a very pleased with herself Caroline, we have made the trip back to Washington from Indianapolis.

Hooray for nice ticket agents. A very nice man gave Caroline the empty seat on the plane. So, we were able to strap in her car seat on the way home. This picture is from the very beginning of the flight. A few minutes later, Caroline put her thumb in her mouth, held onto her green ball (on her lap in this picture) and went to sleep. She had no concerns again until someone turned the lights on when we landed. Wow was having her in her own seat great (especially since it was free).

Christmas, of course, is not about presents. But, it is hard to capture the moments of our family reading Luke 2 together on camera well. (And, let's be honest, Caroline was busy eating cheerios while her Grandpapa read. She's a little small to grasp what was going on.)

But, here are some pictures of what we could get. But, I also recommend that you check out this picture of Jack. It is by far the funniest picture of our Christmas in Indy that I have seen.

Here is Caroline on one of her favorite toys at Nana and Grandpapa's house. This is Grandpapa's toy, but he takes great joy in watching his grandchildren play on it. And Caroline really did have a great time (particularly if Daddy was pushing her).
Caroline had a great time with her Aunt Laurie too. Of all of the people we know, Aunt Laurie is the person (so far) that Caroline reminds us of the most. They are both fun, inquisitive and ALWAYS moving. It was funny to watch them together.
Caroline also had a great time with her cousin Micah. She wasn't real clear on the fact that some of the toys weren't actually hers. But, Micah was a champ and great at sharing (thanks Micah!). So, here she is playing with him and his musical toys.
She also tried (not as successfully) to share with him. Here they are playing with Caroline's present from Mom and Dad--mega blocks. (And, yes, we bought them because Jack and I want to play with them).
Caroline wasn't so clear on what she was supposed to do with her presents, but we had a great Christmas anyway. We hope you did too!

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Merry Christmas

We hope all of you are having a blessed and restful Christmas!

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Traveling makes me tired!

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Over the river and through the woods

We are off! We made the 2 hour treck to BWI, made it through TSA and
Caroline is rechecking our bags. She is 10 months old today and all
ready for a trip to Nana and Grandpapa's!!

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SNOW DAY!

I thought I would add a new picture on this post. You can see Caroline all bundled up when we took her out in the snow. She was fine so long as she was all snuggly. She DID NOT like getting out from under the blanket. But then, who can blame her?

As I mentioned in the last post, we have a lot of snow here in DC.
Removal of 18" isn't quick here in DC. So, the federal government is
closed today. That means Caroline and I have a snow day.

She isn't super excited about being out in the snow yet. So I brought
some snow in for her. As you can see, she still wasn't too sure. After
putting her hands in it a few times, she crawled off. She apparently
doesn't understand how fun snowballs are quite yet.

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Happy (Snow) Birthday to Jack

Happy Birthday to Jack!

We had big plans for today to celebrate Jack. We were going to go to the Newseum and then, later, The Source for dinner. That didn't happen.

Instead, we got the biggest snow ever in December (I think based on this story). But, rather than spoil the day, it made for a pretty great present for Jack. He loves snow and these sorts of days. But, they always seem to pass us by. The running joke around here is to take whatever the forecast is, then divide it in half. With that, you've got the upper limit of the snow that we'll get. But not today...

This is a picture from early this morning, maybe 8 am. This is not long before Jack shoveled the stairs. By the time he was done with our little walk and these stairs, there was already 1/2 - 1 inch of snow on the areas where he started. In all, it looks like we got 17-18 inches of snow since about this time last night. SO FUN.

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Peeking

This was just too cute to pass up. This is Caroline, checking out the world. She was taking a gander just after she finished lunch. I'm not sure what she was looking for...maybe more lunch?

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Upwardly Mobile

As I mentioned, Caroline is now heading up the stairs. Luckily she has
so far only made her way under parental supervision (and a new gate is
on its way). Here she is on our first steps.

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Away in a Manger

We continue to enjoy the Christmas season here at our house. One of my favorite memories of the Christmas season when I was little was playing with the nativity set. My mom had the nativity set on the sideboard in our entry way. I thought that I would try to give Caroline the same opportunity. As you can see, Caroline is having a great time with the Fisher Price nativity set.

In other news, Caroline climbed all but the last two steps of our stairs today. (She can't do the last two because of the gate that is there). Luckily I was right behind her as she climbed. The gate for the bottom of the stairs arrives Tuesday.

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Whew...

Well, it was touch and go there for a bit, but the stocking is hung with care...on the stairs. The third time was the charm.

After making the stocking pull by cutting the backing too small (and then ripping it off...sigh), I gave it a second try. The second time I had some serious tension issues with my sewing machine (threading it correctly is always a plus). But, the third time was a charm. (It may have helped that Jack was there providing moral support).

It has great burgundy velvet backing (thanks Jennifer Glade for the idea). It has super fun lining material that Caroline helped me pick out. (That is, she grabbed at it because it was hanging off a shelf and thus in her reach). But, I wouldn't have noticed it without a little assist from Miss Caroline.

So, after three tries, it is backed, lined and ready for some Cheerios (she still a little small for candy!!). It is now hanging next to the stocking my mom made me and the stocking that Jack was sent from the hospital in when he was a newborn. Hooray!

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A Event worth noting

In the category of "I'm not going to get a picture of this for a while" I thought I would let you all know that Caroline took her first "step" yesterday. I was sitting on the floor with her and she was walking away from me holding my hands. She outran the length of my arms (which is, let's face it, easy to do) and took another step before realizing she was without support and sat down. But, a step is a step. Hooray for Caroline!

Just for fun I thought I would a picture of her "almost" walking with Jack.

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Noel, noel

You saw that our tree actually made it up in our last post. I thought I would put up some of the pictures of us heading out to the tree farm.

As you can see, Caroline was very instrumental in getting the Christmas tree up. She was extremely helpful in patting the tool boxes and making sure that Jack knew just where all of his tools were... just in case.

Last Sunday we went out to Snicker's Gap Christmas tree farm. We were able to see our friends the Johnstons briefly while were there.

They were kind enough to take a (if I do say so myself) cute family photo of use on our first Christmas tree cutting expedition since the addition of Caroline.

It was a great day to be outside. But, it was a little weird to be cutting down the Christmas tree without hat, gloves or scarves. Warm weather or not, we did make sure that we had plenty of hot chocolate though!

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Tis the season to undermine childproofing fa la la la

It is finally the first Sunday in Advent, hooray! Merry Christmas season to all.

I'll post the pictures later, but we went to Snickers Gap Tree Farm today (thanks Johnstons for the recommendation) and cut down our Christmas tree. Jack and I have generally cut down our own tree since we started dating (though last year we bought one from the nice local place on the corner--being very pregnant and a tree farm do not mix). But, this year we were back out at the tree farm. Caroline hung out in the baby bjorn and had a great time grabbing at all of the tree branches.

Of course, the necessary follow on of cutting down your own tree is putting it up. And thus comes the great parenting dilemma--wrap the entire thing in bubble wrap and hope no on hurts themselves OR set it up as best you can and gird yourself for moving a baby away a lot of the time.

We opted for the latter. You can't see it well on this picture, but the decorations on the tree essentially stop at Caroline's height (plus the length of her arm). We tucked the lights well into the tree and got LEDs. (Ours were dead anyway and LEDs don't get hot). We're going to follow a time honored Gurley family tradition--using fishing line to give the tree some anchors to the curtain rods. And we didn't put up the pretty good size collection of ENORMOUS glass balls that we've gathered from all over. The mental picture of a venetian glass globe crashing all around Caroline was not a good one. So, metal and wood ornaments (without small parts) it is this year. We'll see how it goes.

The Christmas tree in the corner is, I think, silently mocking my outlet covers.

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Happy Thanksgiving

We are a little behind here. I don't have a Thanksgiving picture to post because Grandma and Grandpa Koller were in charge of picture taking. But, we have had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Kerry and Barbara are in town, we have seen Jack's siblings, my dear friend Deborah came to visit (and cook 1/2 - 3/4 of the Thanksgiving meal) and we had wonderful guests at our table. We have much to be thankful for--two great extended families, a fantastic addition to our own little family, a wonderful church and so much more. We are truly blessed. We hope you all had a wonderful and restful Thanksgiving yourselves!

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Nine Months

Caroline is nine months old today. And, as you can see, standing up on her own.

Most of the pictures I take of Caroline these days are a little fuzzy. Nothing wrong with the camera...she just doesn't sit still. The pediatrician commented today that Caroline has excellent muscle tone (i.e. wow, this kid clearly never sits still).

She's grown like a weed and figuring out new things every day (just like she's supposed to). She's now cruising around the furniture -- coffee table to chair to couch to coffee table. And her new favorite trick is making "motor boat" noises. She thinks that's just hysterical. She also really likes to clap for herself. No self-esteem issues here! :-)

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Well that was a lot of work

About this time last year, I decided that then "Cheez-it" Koller, aka Caroline, would need a stocking. So, I dutifully got a kit so that I could needlepoint one. My mom made me one (it is a very cute Santa face). I love it and wanted the baby to have a great stocking of her own.

Like almost everything with being a Mom, the endeavor gave me all new respect for my own Mom. Wow did this take a lot longer than I thought.

But it is finally needlepointed! As you can see, I picked the gender neutral nativity (We didn't know that Caroline was a girl when I bought it). And it is done just in the nick of time since we're hoping to get a tree and decorate the Sunday afternoon after Thanksgiving.

I am told that putting it together with the felt backing isn't too hard. We'll see. For now, I'm going to bed. Finally getting this done is enough for one day. (Feel free to post any helpful hints if you've ever put one of these things together. Well, Mom you don't need to. Let's be honest, I'm going to call you in any event!!)

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The Things We Do For Love

I know that Christmas is fast approaching, so new toys don't seem to be the thing to be doing. But, when you're 8 months old the 6 weeks till Christmas is an eternity. And Caroline largely had toys that were much too young for her (i.e. boring). So we thought it was time to supplement a bit.

Which brings us to the cardinal rule of presents--you never buy a child something that makes noise (unless your the grandparents, of course). The theory behind this, of course, is that parents don't want to listen to the repetitive noise that is sure to follow. But, the beauty of being the parent (and the curse) is that you have control over the noise making toys. Clearly Jack and I are rather enamored with our little one. We bought her one of the loudest toys around...I actually thought that she might have a hard time figuring it out and/or making noise for a while. That's a lot of coordination for a little person. As you can see here, she had no problems at all. She is now all "music" all the time.

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A Little Drink

I still haven't been able to catch Caroline standing up (or the clapping for herself that happens after she sits down). But, we had another milestone last night. While she was eating her dinner she started actually sucking on (rather than chewing, eating, biting) the straw. Ah the things we grownups take for granted.

She seems to have it all figured out (this is her today at lunch). We're still working on sippy cups, but we have water through a straw, so we're doing well.

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And The World Stood Still

O.k. the world didn't really stand still, but Caroline did! For about 5-10 seconds she stood all by herself without holding on to anything. First time I (or any of the ladies in day care) have ever seen her do that. The funniest part was that she didn't seem to realize that she had done something cool. She had been looking for a toy, let go of my hand to see where it was and then dropped to her knees and went off after it. She was totally unfazed by the fact that she stood up. I clearly didn't get a picture of it, but when it happens routinely I'm sure I'll get a chance!

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A Young Good Citizen

Today is Election Day in the Commonwealth of Virginia (as the interminable robocalls, volunteers and other annoying telephoners keep reminding me). So Caroline and I went and voted. You can only barely see it in this picture, Caroline has a "future voter" sticker on. It is hard to get a good picture without getting the voting screen in the picture (which would have elicited frowns from the monitors, so I refrained).

I remember very clearly going with my mom to vote when I was a kid. It was definitely more awe inspiring then. There was that big machine with the lever that my mom occasionally would let us help pull. The curtain would close behind and then...we got to watch my mom vote. Wow was that cool.

Sadly, Virginia has no such cool bells and whistles. We have touch screen voting. (And Jack had to vote absentee because he is out of town--even MORE boring for a little kid.) Caroline was not impressed. But, hopefully she will learn the same lesson my parents taught me -- no matter who you vote for, it is an important right and privilege that we should all exercise. As I watched the news today and listened about the voting in Afghanistan, I was really blessed to be in a place where absent something really wacky, my vote will be counted.

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Good Habits Start Young

We thought you all would appreciate a preview of Halloween at the Kollers. Since many parents work flex schedules at her day care, they did a harvest festival (a.k.a. Halloween party) today. Every year they do a parade around the building which many non-parents attend (because really, kids in costumes are cute). Caroline is too young to pick out her costume for herself, so we did what any good parents would do. We decided to start her off in life right--with good loyalties and character. We dressed her up as a Steelers cheerleader. As you can see, Caroline likes her look.

O.k. what I mean by Caroline liking her costume is really that Caroline is a big fan of the pompoms I made her. Of course, as you can see to the left, this includes putting them in her mouth (repeatedly).

Later on in this ride Caroline had black fuzzies all over her mouth. (She probably had yellow ones too, but they were harder to see).

Brayden is the little boy to Caroline's left in these pictures. His mom Ariana works across the hall from me and I probably see her twice a day or so. I came down at lunch and caught her trying to teach Caroline to root for the Redskins. I am happy to report that Caroline immediately broke down into tears. (And, really, in light of their season this year, I think that shows a great deal of maturity on Caroline's part).

More pictures of our Steelers cheerleader on Saturday.

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Annapolis

This past weekend we had the great fortune to have a dear friend from college Hilary and her husband Chris in town. We took advantage of their presence and went to Annapolis for the afternoon/evening on Sunday. One of the things we did while we were in town was to go on a tour of the naval academy. While I thought it was fascinating to hear about some of the traditions and see a mock room, Caroline was much more impressed by the well manicured lawns. She was very excited to crawl around and put leaves in her mouth. We're working on trying to get her more interested in historical sites! :-) But, it was a wonderful time to catch up with Chris and Hilary, hear about their children (Anatoli, Micah and Gideon) and their lives in Los Angeles. We are really thankful to be in a place were many people come to visit so that we get to see them!!

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Caroline Does Guapos

Tonight we decided to get brave and crazy. We decided to try taking Caroline out to dinner. She's eight months old today. And we took her out to celebrate.

We picked our place carefully - loud, quick, seemed to be kid friendly, and close to home. Guapos is a fun mexican place just across the way from our house. Of course, the last time we tried taking Caroline out to dinner (5 months ago) it was to Guapos. Just as we were getting finished up with dinner and she started SCREAMING. Luckily, we were outside and made a very, very fast exit. We hadn't been brave enough to try again till now.

But, now she's got some finger food skills. (The way she "chews" you can tell Caroline is convinced that she's got a full set of molars, even though she only has two little bottom teeth). The waiter was nice enough to bring her some grilled corn. Between corn and puffs (I'm not sure what is on her tongue in this picture) she was pretty happy. We'll work on table manners later.

Right now we're just excited that she looked like this the majority of the time. She was really distracted by the ladies at the next table. I have to say, I think that they thought she was pretty cute too. (And, clearly, they were right).

So, all in all, a successful evening! We may even be brave enough to try this again!

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A Literary Misstep

Well, there are no pictures to go along with this post. But, I have a confession. I think we've got a problem on our hands. Caroline was not excited about the library today. It was a sad day for me. I took her there after work (she had just gotten up from a nap, so I can't blame it on her being tired). Caroline hasn't sat through any book except for Olivia's Opposites (which she really just likes because of the sounds I make when I read it). The Big Red Barn is a total bust (though I love it). Even Brown Bear Brown Bear is just too long for her. I thought maybe we could spark her interest with some new books.

Nope. Nothing. She was bored one book in. She tried to backflip out of my arms with the first one. Big colorful pictures--no interest. Lots of motion words and sounds? Nothing. Sigh. We'll try again (and again) as she gets bigger. But, not an auspicious start. :-) She was SUPER happy with the idea of trying to climb up the shelves.

But, then again, perhaps she's just saving herself from my fate. As my family members know--I am the queen of library fines. I'm concerned that she is too scared of library fines to enjoy books. :-) I'm going to work on it.

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A Fun Little Pumpkin Adventure

Caroline and I took advantage of my day off and went out for a little pumpkin patch adventure. I drove us out to Hollin Farms about 45 miles outside DC. As you can see from the big smile we got in this picture, Caroline had quite a fun time. (She made friends with the lady who worked there, which is who she is smiling at. She doesn't quite understand that she's supposed to smile at Mommy when that black box called a camera is around).

It is a quiet little place out about an hour from hour house when there is no traffic. Given Caroline's early rising tendencies, we were able to make it out there about a half hour after they opened around 9:30 (and without any traffic).

As you can see, they had more than just a pumpkin patch. Caroline was particularly enamored with the chickens. I think it was because she could see them so close. (Though I was smart enough to keep her far enough back so that she when she tried to put her hand through the wire she was unsuccessful. She was less than pleased, but unpecked.) They also had two goats, though Caroline wasn't as excited about them. She really thought that the fast pecking of the chickens was more interesting.

The lady who worked there was also kind enough to give us some bad apples. So we walked through the pumpkin patch to the bottom of the hill to feed the pigs.

This is the face Caroline made when I tried to get her to say "here piggy." Clearly she was not up for such nonsense. But, she did think the pigs were rather fun. I couldn't get a picture while holding her, but she gave the pigs some winning smiles. As you can see they came over to say "hi, have any more apples?" They were rooting around in the fallow corn fields for food. So, the apples seemed to be a welcome distraction/treat.

Then we went out and found a pumpkin. (Well, we actually found three). This wasn't one of the final contestants--mostly because I couldn't cary this pumpkin and Caroline. I tried to get more pictures of Caroline looking up, but she was pretty enamored with the pumpkin. She patted it and talked to it. I'm not really sure what she was telling the pumpkin, but she definitely thought that it was fascinating.

All in all, I think it was a pretty fun morning. We have three pumpkins that are now sitting at the base of our stairs decking our house out for fall.

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U2

This is a bit overdue, but I thought I would put up a few of the pictures that I took with my iPhone when I went to the U2 concert a little bit ago. Cameras (i.e. the ones that the security people can pick out) aren't allowed, so I could only take pics with my iPhone. These are the best two.

A friend of mine works for the One Foundation, which is the foundation that Bono co-founded. At the last minute they were all given free tickets and the opportunity to buy one at face value. So, she asked me if I wanted to come. Clearly, I said yes.

As you can see, we were down in the standing room part of the concert. Being short meant that it was a little hard to see. But, we had a great time anyway. We sang loud, jumped up and down, screamed like teenagers and generally did things that are usually socially unacceptable. All good clean fun had by all. Thanks Gina for a fun night!

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First Fall

Caroline is getting to experience her first crisp days, her first pretty leaves and the first time that she gets to hear that fun sound that the leaves make when you crunch them.

Today poor little Caroline had to have a few shots (ick). So, I thought that she definitely needed a trip down to the swings (not that we need an excuse, but it is fun to have one). She had a first today -- she understands that she has to hold on so that I can push her without having her lose her balance.

As you can see in this picture she wasn't completely sure if she liked the experience at first. (She's used to one of Mommy's hands being a little closer). But, once she gained a little confidence she was pretty giggly about it all.

She was definitely a little confused by the leaves. She couldn't quite figure out how they were making noise. Caroline was a little disappointed that she wasn't allowed to put all of the leaves in her mouth. Life's rough when you're a baby. :-)

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Bling

This one is for my aunts who braved a crazy snow storm to come to my baby shower before Caroline was born. Somehow, this pacifier made it into the plethora of gifts that they bought. It was for six months and older, so I've been holding it in reserve. But she is big enough now, with what I think is a rather hysterical result.

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Teeth!

Today we hit another milestone (and this one, thankfully, did not involve the hospital). Caroline got her teeth brushed for the first time. She's had teeth for about two weeks, but they were such small little nubs they didn't really merit a toothbrush yet (just a little wiping off with a washcloth). But, they've started to stick up enough that we decided that we should start brushing her teeth.

Caroline was a little skeptical, but seemed to warm up to the idea. In the end, we got some good strokes on her little teeth. And a new part of the bath/prayer/bed routine has been added.

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