Merry Christmas

Not quite the child prodigy

Here we go, another story about Caroline. And Poop:

Last night, while eating her dinner, Caroline kept telling us that she had to "poop". Then she would say, "potty"

Since she is only 18 months old we are in no hurry to start potty training her or even think about starting that process but many times right before she needs to do "that" she will come to us and tell us that she needs to do it.

A few minutes later when dinner was over and she still had nothing in her diaper, she told me again: "Poop. Potty." So I decided what the heck, let's give this a go.

Caroline wasn't so sure about actually sitting on the potty. I mean she does weigh less than 20 pounds. She made it clear to me that she wanted to get off the toilet. So I let her stand but as she continued to make noises that indicated what was to come I kept putting her on the potty. So, Caroline pooped on the potty last night. I tried to be excited for her so she knew that this was a good thing. I called Evan and Liam in so they could clap for her and tell her what a big girl she was being.

Then while we waited for Evan to come back with a clean diaper and just when I thought maybe we could start potty training her, I've heard of that on parenting websites,  did she pee down her legs and all over my hands.

Yup. Definitely not ready.

Monkey

Tonight at dinner, with no exception to our norm, Liam was having a crying fit *shocker* because he couldn't wash his hands by himself. *sigh* If you sense my frustration it would because he can indeed wash his hands all by himself without any supervision and has been doing it for at least a year and a half. 

Anyway.....

Caroline was still eating at the table and she said to me, "Ne-num? Sad?"
M: "Yes, Liam is crying.
C: "Ne-num crying?"
M: "Yes. Daddy is helping him."
C:  "Monkey"
M: "Monkey??!?!"
C: "Monkey. Sad. Crying. Elephant."

Holy cow this girl is smart. She was associating Liam's crying and being sad with a book we own called 'Hug' about a monkey who is sad because he can't find his mommy. An elephant ends up helping him look for his mommy.

M: "Yes, Caroline! And who was the monkey looking for?"
C: *big smile*

Liam ended up answering for her and surprisingly quit crying to enjoy his sisters very advanced thinking skills. Well, at least this mommy thinks she is advanced.

18 months

My baby is no longer a baby. She talks non-stop, knows some of her shapes and even her colors. She can count to three and loves to say NO! 

Caroline has also begun her love for climbing. She loves to climb onto her little chairs and then climb onto the table. She loves to climb onto the regular chairs and then stand up. She was climbing onto the first rung of the ladder I was using to decorate the kitchen. And today she decided to climb onto the large step stool in our bathroom and grab all of the toothbrushes off the counter. Since I was about to take a shower I decided the safest thing to do was to flip the stool upside down. She then proceeded to figure out how to flip it right side up, climbed up and sat down. Nothing is off limits anymore. 

Caroline is still very good at sleeping although she recently has been taking just a bit longer to fall asleep at night. She doesn't cry but we will hear her, for an additional 30 minutes at times, talking up a storm. 

She still loves Liam but also has begun to be a bit more vocal when he is annoying  her. She now refers to him as "Nenum". 

She still wears her 12 month clothes and size 3 diapers. She is still an excellent eater usually eating more than her picky brother and she has begun to get very excited whenever she sees Elmo. 

Caroline loves to dance and especially loves Christmas music. Bath time is still her favorite and today while at Aunt Ellen's house she stood at their little sink for 15 minutes just letting the water run over her hand. I had to drag her away. 

She adores baby dolls and carrying this bucket around the house. 

I could very well go on and on about all the amazing things she can do. We are so blessed to have her a part of our family. We can't wait to see what she can do next!

Rolling with the punches

Because waiting 3 hours to see Santa seemed ridiculous we instead pretended that he was driving Caroline around on his brand new ATV. It's a good thing he is so easily entertained.