Fish & Flowers

We went to Cleveland last weekend for Z's birthday party, and Caroline was enamored with the fish Z had in her bedroom. When we came home, I took Caroline to get a small tank. I wanted to do everything that night, but the guy at the store assured me that I needed to take the tank home and let it run for 24 hours before I added fish. I was pretty sure that this was a bit excessive considering I just wanted a couple cheap fish, but I did it anyway. The schedule this week just did not permit us to get back to the store, so we went today. In case you can't tell in the photo, there are 3 orange guppies and one snail in there. I also wanted to get a little frog, but the girl today was convinced that I was overloading my tank with the 3 fish as it is, so I didn't feel like discussing the frog with her. I do think I will go back and get one at another time.

Here's Caroline admiring her fish for the first time:

And, here she's "talking" to her snail by making fish faces and noises.After her nap, she went outside to plant some flowers with Grammy. She is available for hire, so keep her in mind for all your gardening needs. You can see how much help she can provide!

And, one just for Da. Check out Molly's hair:

Hot Dog, Hot Dog, Hot Diggity Dog!

Caroline and I had a great day...my friend from college, Kelli, got free tickets to "Playhouse Disney Live!" and she invited Caroline and I to come to Dayton for the day!

Caroline doesn't watch too much TV (except for the Muppets, of course,) but she does really like some of the characters on the Disney Channel. She has never been to any kind of live performance before, so I thought it would be fun to check it out!

The characters from the Playhouse Disney morning shows were all there today: the Little Einsteins, Handy Manny, My Friends Tigger & Pooh, and Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, and Donald Duck.

Caroline does see a little more of these because they are on starting at 6:00am, so if she's up and I'm getting ready for work, she gets to watch, and if it's the weekend, and I'm trying to sleep in for a few extra minutes, she also gets to watch.

Luckily, the entire premise of the show was about all of them going to a music party at the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and each group had to bring their favorite song. This means that there were plenty of opportunities for dancing.

There were also plenty of opportunities to buy all things Disney...many different types of light-up toys, cotton candy, $8.00 bottle of lemonade, but Kelli and I were able to resist. We almost caved and bought $24 t-shirts that had all of these characters on them, but, unfortunately, the shirts did not come in toddler sizes.

Kelli's little boy, Isaac, is about 3 months older than Caroline, and they ended up having a good time together. Can't you tell?!?See? They really did have fun!

As an added bonus, when we came out of the "show," this is what was displayed on the car's thermometer! I know it's just a tease, but it was *so* beautiful!We got home around 6:00, and Caroline was absolutely exhausted. I woke her up from her morning nap, and she didn't get an afternoon nap at all because she refuses to sleep in the car. We relaxed for a few minutes, and I was really afraid she would fall asleep. I don't know the repercussions of going to bed that early, and I don't really want to find out. So, we ventured out to Target. The only thing that was even slightly appeasing The Girl was my phone, so I ave in and let her hold it. She has a new habit of holding it out in front of her and screaming, "cheeeeeeee!" as if she's taking her own picture.Megan and the girls were planning to go back home this evening but decided to stay, so we grabbed a quick dinner at Five Guys. Both C & Z thought sitting on huge bags of potatoes was extremely fun! You might note that A is not in picture; she's resting peacefully in her carrier. Meg and I have taken to calling C & Z "The Wrecking Crew" because they can tear any place apart in a matter of seconds. Most of the time, A pretends she doesn't know them!

Three Strikes and You're Out!

Strike 1: Zach and Leslie just got home from Hawaii and bought Caroline an adorable dress, so I invited them over for dinner. I invited Adam and Sara, too. I had been looking forward to making a recipe for "brown sugar chicken" in the crockpot, so I got everything last night and put it together so it would be ready when I got home from work. I was going to make brown rice and broiled asparagus. I thought/drooled about it all day. I got home, and it was burned...to a crisp. So, we had pizza and salad. Bummer.

Strike 2: A red (and, I mean RED) candle slid off the bookcase, and it splattered all.over.the.room. So, Leslie and I spent the end of the evening cleaning. In case you need advice, lay a wet towel over the wax and iron. This has brought out most of the wax. Leslie got black nail polish on their brand new carpet and read that Barbasol helps remove the stain...it worked for her, so I will try that tomorrow.

Strike 3: When I finally carried Caroline to bed, it was 9:00. I got her upstairs and was about to lay her down in her bed, and I slammed her head into the rail of her crib.

I'm declaring the day officially over. I'm out.

New Address

A---- W------
FOB LAGMAN/TF-31
APO AE 09355

Be Mine!

Isn't She Lovely, Part 2

It should be noted that this post is Part 2, and Caroline gave me her beautiful gift this morning. We went out to dinner tonight with my mom and Barry, and Caroline didn't nap this afternoon, so by the time we got home, she was a little bit cranky.

I had to take a few minutes to let the dog out, feed the dog, find clean jammies for Caroline, etc. In that time, Caroline found a tube of diaper cream: I got her cleaned up, changed her clothes, and went into the kitchen to warm up her bottle. I think I had my back to her for literally 15 seconds. She was able to open a cabinet (it had a "child-safe" lock on it,) and she found a box of cranberries. I told her we would eat them tomorrow, and I turned around to get the bottle out of the microwave. I turn back around, and she is sitting on her chair eating the cranberries...she got them open by herself!

Isn't She Lovely?

Look what Caroline got me for Valentine's Day! Isn't she thoughtful and sweet? I love her!