Easter 2013

Pete took a long weekend and we drove to Florida for Easter.  We were so excited to see Grandma Prann and introduce her to Caroline.  It's a two-day drive to Florida from Lexington, but the girls were really good on the road, and we arrived without much consternation.  (There was an hour-long traffic jam at the tail end of our trip down that involved a slightly-hypoglycemic Ellie barfing bile in a beach bucket, but we're gonna gloss over that detail.)

It wasn't super-warm while we were there, but, luckily,  we came for the company, not the weather.

Saturday morning we went to the beach.  Ellie was so excited to finally get to wear her PEAR SWIMSUIT!!!

 

Caroline seemed to enjoy having her feet in the water, so I changed her into her suit and plopped her in the sand. 

 

 

Caroline's first wave crash - I picked her up right after, don't worry.

After about an hour, Carl and Estelle met us at the beach and had a good time watching Ellie knock down sand castles.

 We had lunch at their new house afterward. 

After a long nap back at Grandma's, we dyed Easter eggs.

Easter Sunday we awoke to discover the bunny had visited and filled all our baskets on the dining room table!  The bunny brought Caroline a chewable book (seriously moms of infants, check out Indestructibles on Amazon, they're great!), and Ellie some gardening tools and chocolates.

 

We visited the playground across the street during Caroline's morning nap.  There was some fishing off the dock, and, an egg hunt in the afternoon (Yes, I changed them back into their dresses for the egg hunt and pictures).  In the evening, once the clouds finally broke, we had a quick visit to Venice Beach. 

We arrived home in time for our final Grandma Prann dinner of the trip. 

No one in my family will be surprised, but Grandma prepared a leg of lamb, roasted potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, asparagus, roasted zucchini and summer squash - all without seeming to set foot in the kitchen.  For dessert there was berry pie a la mode.  Best cook in the world, hands down.

Monday morning we had our last morning at Grandma's and decided against lunch at Sharky's because the weather was still a bit yucky, and we'd rather stay at home and have more time to chat. 

We left after lunch and on our way up the coast, stopped at Umpah and Jan's living community so that Caroline could meet another one of her great-grandparents.  Ellie took some time to warm up to Umpah and Jan, but our CHC was happy to be held by CHC, Jr.

The drive home was LOOONG - there's really no good time to drive around Atlanta, and we were stuck in several other traffic jams secondary to construction, rain, wrecks, and whatever is always happening on Jellico Mtn to make it a thirty-minute delay.  But we all made it home and were happy to have made the trip. 

Seven months of CHC.

Just as with her sister, Caroline's seventh month was one of many developments.  Still no teeth, but little miss Caroline finally rolled from front to back!  She continues to prefer sitting up, so I don't expect her to ever log roll around the room, but she has officially hit that developmental marker.  Caroline also started babbling!  One evening, right before her first solo bath in the tub, she looked at me and suddenly said, "mmmba," and then, "babababa."  Two front sounds at once!  Yay!  In the next week she added blowing raspberries and /p/ to her repertoire, and now is always having a little conversation.  She thinks raspberries are hilarious, and is often giggling to herself.  I love kissing her tummy and neck and nose and feet, just to hear her sweet squeal.

Caroline is still mostly cheerful, only getting upset if I go out of sight.  She's totally happy being with Pete and Ellie while I run out for a quick errand, but will start crying upon my return. 

Caroline remains our chunky monkey, tipping the scales at 19lbs, 12oz.  We love her big thighs and round wrists.  I feel like her cheeks are getting smaller, so that's a little sad.

On to the pictures!

St. Patrick's Day

Fifers Love.

AHAHAHAHA!

Bonnet is darling AND functional!  Can't expose her porcelain skin to sun.

When mommy forgets the bonnet, we borrow a hat!

First time to ride in a shopping cart.

Don't you DARE learn to walk!

 

What's your favorite color, baby?

--I'm catching up on some posts here, sorry some of this information is old--

BLUE AND WHITE!!

UK advanced MUCH farther in the NCAA Tournament than anyone expected this year, and Ellie was happy each time she got to wear her UK apparel.  There was March Madness day at school, followed by the UK vs UofL game, and, of course, Blue and White day when we made it to the Championship game (!!)  Her enthusiasm was pretty amusing, especially since she rarely was awake when the Wildcats actually played.

 

The Littlest UK Fan, in all her inherited gear.

Another game, another outfit.

Even I get dressed up for the big games.

Teaching Ellie the names of all the players.

Obligatory sugar cookies - Jen Wheeler, or her sister Claudia, has been making these cookies for UK games for over a decade!

After we won the UofL game - it was so late!! Around 1am.

The morning of the Championship game, I taught Ellie the fight song during breakfast.  I picked her up shortly before 5:00pm, and she still remembered most of the words!!  Our girl is crazy smart.  (I'll use that new word 'humblebrag' I've seen floating around the interwebs.)

We didn't win that final game, but we sure had a good time watching the Wildcats make it to the final game.  Here's to next year!

Ellie's still here, too!

Many of my pictures of Ellie are on my phone, so I forget to upload them to the 'ole blog - apologies!  Ellie is quickly growing into a long and lean little lady - not much toddler left of her.  (We toured the preschool section of her school yesterday - I teared up at the thought of dropping her off five days a week.)  She is a great big sister and loves to be outside:  running, riding her bike, running, going down the slide, running, swinging, running - you get the idea. :-)

Here is a collection of pictures and videos from the last month-and-a-half or so.  (the videos are from different days, we just only have so many game-day-UK-colored-outfits)  Hope you enjoy them - we're awfully proud of her!

"I'm snuggling with her, Mommy."