2 Years

Our Sweet Caroline celebrated her 2nd birthday last week!  It was so fun getting to make the day special for her and she completely ate the attention up.

We started the day off by everyone going into her room to sing her happy birthday and she literally was smiling from ear to ear having the whole gang in there!  We had our standard birthday ribbons hanging off her door which she thought was super cool and all day kept telling herself happy birthday 'ee-yine' :). We had a fun little breakfast of donuts before taking her to school for the morning.  She was so pleased to get another treat during snack time and happy birthday sung to her by all her friends :).

Andy took off that afternoon so after picking up Harper we asked Caroline what she wanted to do - suggesting either the park or monkey joe's.  At first she was all about the park but then we had to drive out to the farm first to unlock the game.  Once we were there and she say the 'paygownd' there was no chance we would make it to the park.  The girls had a blast and were so sweet to her, letting her choose whatever she wanted to do on her bday.  I've found that celebrating siblings birthdays can be hard sometimes for the ones not getting the attention so I was super proud of them for being so kind and unselfish with Caroline all day!

After playing at the farm we went out for dinner - Caroline is sort of the pickiest eater ever but loves French fries so we tried out a little burger place near campus and she grubbed on French fries!! Afterwards we came home and did birthday cake and presents.  All week long when we'd been asking Caroline what she wanted for her bday all she would do was scream 'cake' so she was pleased as could be :). Harper and Emma Kate had made her pictures at school that they gifted to her and we got her some new rainboots, a dress and a doc mcstuffins dress up outfit :)

The day after Caroline's bday was like.. umm... why are we not celebrating me anymore??? 😂😂. We ramped it back up on Sunday with a small little family party.  It was beautiful out and she had a blast running around outside with her sisters and cousins.  The theme was a mix of rainbows/lucky charms.. haha. We had hosted an engagement party the night before with a 'lucky in love' theme so that kept the decor simple for me :). When we sang happy birthday she was sitting on the ground with her sisters and cousins and seriously beaming with happiness as everyone was singing for her.  It was pretty darn sweet :)

Now for an update for her little personality.  She is the snuggliest kid we've had and gives the best hugs.  They seriously would melt anyone.  She wraps her arms all the way around your belly or up around your neck and it is the sweetest thing ever.  She loves, loves her daddy and loves to get right up in his face, like nose to nose.  She will push his head around, look at his ears, grab his nose, etc.  Basically whatever she needs to do to ensure that she's the only one getting his attention :).

She also adores her sisters and can seriously hang with them.  She is pretty rough and tough and often will instigate wrestling matches with both of them.  She is always asking about them when they're at school and gets so excited to go pick them up everyday.  She has mixed feelings about Roro - always wants to say hi to her, pet her, hug on her, but then loves to yell at her saying 'no' or 'no bite'.

She's doing great in her school - she now goes 3 mornings a week and seems to love it.  She always tells us about her teachers and her cousin Ava... even on days when Ava isn't there :). I got the pleasure of picking her up today and she was talking her head off trying to tell me something although I have no idea what exactly it was about.  Speaking of that, her vocabulary and language has grown so much over the last couple months.  It's so nice when we do understand what she means but she gets super angry when she's clearly trying to tell us something that we are just not getting.

She definitely has a little temper at times and has been known to bite her sisters occasionally when things aren't going her way.  She also turns into a huge grump whenever I hold other babies although somehow that has gotten slightly better in the last couple weeks?? She has a 'grumpy face' also that they loves to show on command but is actually just her being a total ham.

We go to a mommy and me dance class each week and she absolutely loves it!  It's the cutest thing and she really does a great job listening and doing what the teachers ask her.  She also goes to another class, sort of baby crossfit, and does a little worse job listening there... frequently she prefers to say she's going to nap and then goes and lays her head down on the side.

She has an obsession with boots and wearing shoes that are too big for her.  She found an old pair of rainboots and requests to wear them 90% of the time, often on the wrong feet.  And usually I don't fight her about it.  It's standard at church for her to be dressed in a cute dress with Emma Kate's year old native shoes on her feet, backwards.  I just choose my battles with this girl!

She loves to sing and knows way too many Disney songs - her faves are Moana and trolls!  For Christmas I think she ended up with 3 new microphones but seriously loves them all!  She also loves books and will pull out book after book, 'read them' and then stack them in a neat little pile next to her.  She can say the alphabet and count to 12 though sometimes counting sounds like '1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10' :). When we asked her how old she was turning she'd say 'threeee' and we'd say 'three?' and she'd say 'fooooour'... on and on until she finally would commit to 2 :).

The only food she consistently likes are carbs and junk.  I'd say yogurt is also pretty regularly.  Otherwise she goes through waves of this and that but most commonly, whenever I put dinner in front of her she says 'yuck' lol.  She also looooves milk and would drink 6 cups a day if I'd let her :).

We love this girl and her fierce little spirit.  I think God is giving us a boy bc he knows Caroline needs someone tough and she would probably be too much for a little sister lol.  Happy 2nd birthday sweet girl!