Oliver is One. Carolyn is One. And Maxwell turns One tomorrow.

Heather and Rudy invited us and the Pacenza-Stewart clan over for a small birthday celebration for Oliver this evening. Hard to believe that the kids have already been on this earth for a year. The big surprise of the night was the sneeky last minute venue change, which took us to Heather and Rudy's new house!

12-Month Stats

Today at the doctor's office, Carolyn got four shots and wailed pretty loudly. She currently weighs 18 lbs 8 oz and is 28.75 inches long. In one short year, she has nearly tripled her body weight and grew more than 10 inches. Pretty amazing. She is in the botton 10th percentile for weight and around the 40th percentile for height. I wonder if she will always be a petite little bird. Considering how much she eats, I do not think her petite figure will last too much longer. Wow, what a fast year.

This girl is fearless

Uh oh -- look where she ended up after a minute of not paying attention to her
Originally uploaded by boo4172002

Earlier this evening, I was hanging up the laundry in Carolyn's room, so was not totally paying attention to her. She was sweetly babbling, when all of the sudden, I turned around and saw her sitting here. I guess I need to hide the stools -- though, I am not sure that would deter little miss busy body from climbing. She is a monkey.

Birthday Thank You Post

Carolyn received so many great gifts for her first birthday .... Thank you to all of you!

Some of you gave her a "flexible" gift and asked that we pick out something for her when we returned home. Most of those gifts were deposited directly into her bank account, but we did buy a specific toy from each of you. We thought we would share with you pictures of what "you" gave her.

Thank you to Great Granny who gave her the pool, pool toys, and sprinkler.

Thank you to Great Aunt Lee who gave her the bubble-blowing lawn mower.

Thank you to Grandma Lynn and Grandpa Mike, who gave her the new table and chairs for her room, a cool new activity block, and one cute outfit. By the way, they specified that they wanted to give her one cute outfit and two new toys! I assume that the table and chairs satisfies the toy request.

Thank you to Grandma Carol and Grandpops Harry, who gave her the wooden walking toy, with a set of blocks. She is on the move. Go, Go, Go!

Thank you to Kristin Kuehn for the cool magnet toys, the stacking blocks. and the ball tower . (I still need to take a picture of her playing with those)

Thank you to Jeni, Eric, and kids for the new puzzles and the puzzle rack.

To Joerg and Ann, she loves the wooden fruit you gave her, especially the pear.

Jen and Pierce, she keeps pointing to the shelf, so I get it out the purple monster puppet. She giggles everytime she sees it. She laughs out loud when I open and close its mouth and bite her with it.

To everyone else, we appreciate your generosity. She loves her new clothes, has been having fun reading her new books, and splashing a lot while playing with her new bath toys. What a blessed (err, spoiled little girl). We are fortunate to have such loving friends and family.

Flashback

This month the girls went out for a night of 1980s themed roller skating. Tolling on wheeled shoes was not nearly as easy as I remembered. And, sadly, most of us were sweating and had blisters on our feet within a few minutes.

Carolyn likes to share her food

Carolyn likes to share her food
Originally uploaded by boo4172002

Another video of Leo and Carolyn. Leo has learned to stay close to Carolyn during meal times.

June 23 -- first steps (literally)

June 23 -- first steps (literally)
Originally uploaded by boo4172002

It just took her being home to take those first unassisted steps.

Fortunately, I was able to capture a few steps on camera. (not an easy task to do when she is walking to you)

Midwest Tour

Our trip started with a flight to Cleveland (via Atlanta). After almost missing our connection due to flying in a holding pattern around Atlanta for almost an hour, I vow once again to never fly through Atlanta on a connecting flight. Fortunately, Carolyn did well during the long day of flying, napping for a short time and climbing on mom and dad the rest of the time.

Our time in Cleveland was fantastic. It was so nice to be there for more than 48 hours. Steve was able to play a couple of rounds of golf with his dad. I was able to spend an afternoon with Kristin, Katy, and their kids. We enjoyed a day riding bikes on the tow path (Carolyn was at first unsure about being in the trailer, but quickly fell asleep). And, we were able to spend time with Steve's brothers' families, including attending Scott's 50th birthday celebration.

Fortunately my family - with the exception of Great Granny :( - was able to come up to Cleveland too, giving us the opportunity to celebrate a very important day in Carolyn's life with both of our families. Carolyn was baptised on Sunday June 14th at Steve's parents' church. And, then we celebrated her 1st birthday at a park. Carolyn shares her birthday with grandma Carol (who was 75 this year) and Aunt Char. The party also celebrated the 50th birthday of uncle Scott, birthdays of cousins Addie, Rachel, and Hayley, as well as Father's Day. What an exciting and special day! And, a special thank you to all of you who made the trip to Brecksville to celebrate with us.

After five fun-filled family days in Cleveland, we rented a car and drove to Ann Arbor, where we stayed with Joerg and Ann for a few days. We ate at all of our favorite restaurants, saw friends, walked miles and miles through town, listened to music at 'Top of the Park', and managed to NOT get Oliver's strep throat.

Next stop -- Chicago. We arrived via Amtrack. We enjoyed good food, lots of attention from Auntie Kristin, a Cubs game, a visit to the zoo, and more walking. Carolyn loved looking at all of the lights and tall buildings downtown. And, we enjoyed spending Steve's first father's day together as a family, walking through the city.

Surprisingly, Carolyn handled each new location pretty well. She had her crabby moments, mostly from her two top front teeth pushing their way through her gums, but was generally pretty adaptable and pleasant to travel with. Well, other than our flight home .... she never had a full-out screaming fit, but she was not all that quiet or cooperative either.

Our baldheaded little beauty is almost one

It is time for more photos,

and what cute ones these are!

Thank you to Blair Hill for doing such a great job capturing Carolyn,

as she is ready to turn one year old.

http://blairhillphotography.blogspot.com/.

Oh my, those eyes are gorgeous!

l .. And, who wouldn't smile looking at this smile ..l

Carolyn loves her toys.

At one point, we asked Carolyn to show us her teeth.

She first shook her head NO and pursed her lips,

but then she laughed and showed us those pearly whites.

By the way -- milestone alert -- a third tooth (top center) popped through this morning.

And, although we only wanted photos of Carolyn (no family photos this time), the ever-talented Blair captured a few of her and me that I did not even know she was taking.

I love these two.

Ah, I just love this little girl so much.

Finally, this last one is the perfect photo to remind us of this time. She is so close to walking, concentrating so hard, but just does not want to let go of our hand to do it on her own. In her own time, she will .... and watch out, when she does. I have a feeling that she will never stop.

Hard to believe that this little girl is almost one.

THANK YOU to RANJINI and her FAMILY

Our next door neighbor, RJ, finally made it back to India to see her family, after being away for too many years. It was great to see her return and hear about her adventures. And, it was even nicer to see the gifts she came back with. What a treasure to have such a caring neighbor! We missed you, RJ. I would like to especially thank her family for the beautiful set of pink pearls for Carolyn. She will wear them on her baptism in a few weeks. We appreciate your thoughtfulness, and hope that someday we might meet you (be it in the States or in India) The outfit that RJ bought for Carolyn is a little long for this clumsy little non-walker, so we will have to wait a bit to post a picture of Carolyn in her pretty little Indian outfit. Perhaps we will take a family picture, with both Steve and I in the tunics that she brought us as well.