Double-Z Celebrates the Big 5-0

Happy Birthday to Zak.

May this birthday be the mid-point of life.

Tess planned a great party, with delicious Peruvian food (some VERY spicy sauce) and hard-to-resist sangria.

Birdies, Birdies, Lots of Birds

Spring has Sprung. And, we have enjoyed spending time outside lately. On Saturday morning, Steve, Carolyn, and I met Heather and her boys (Oliver & Lukas) at the Aviary. Heather insisted that we do the Amazon Adventure. You have to go into the bird cage, hold out your arm while the birds land on it and eat apple slices from the end of a popsicle stick. Whoa! These birds are not shy. They love their apples.

After the birds, we enjoyed some time at the park.

In case you have not figured this out from all the other posts about her daily life, Carolyn is a real take-charge kind of girl..... Her friend, Oliver, did not necessarily appreciate it.

Playing with Leo, part 5

Here's the next installment of carolyn and Leo figuring out how to play together.

At this point, Carolyn has the upperhand - she pokes him in the eye, pinches him, pulls on his fur, tries to cover him up with blankets when he is sleeping, and tackles him while chasing him around the house. Leo has learned to defend himself by putting on a mean face and barking/growling at her. Unfortunately, it does not even phase her.

Today, they were playing pretty nicely, but as you can see from the photo, we still need to supervise her pretty closely when she wants to pet him.

I am not sure where her pants were today!

Now, scroll down to see three videos of these two knuckelheads.

Playing with Leo 003
Originally uploaded by boo4172002

Playing with Leo 002
Originally uploaded by boo4172002

Playing with Leo 001
Originally uploaded by boo4172002

A new obsession ...

Hair bows!

Last weekend, Steve took Carolyn to a friend's house, where another little girl had hair clips in her hair. Carolyn loved them and insisted on wearing her friend's. So, we made a trip to Target and bought a few hairbows. Now, she will not leave the house until she has a "tip" (hair clip) in her hair. When it falls out or when she does not have one on, she says, "Mama, hair, eyes" while trying to push her bangs away from her eyes. She loves looking at herself in the mirror while admiring her new pretty hair clips. And, she patiently let me take a bunch of photos the past few days.

Enjoy the many faces of Carolyn ....

Carolyn is 21 months old today.

Snow Day, Snow Man

The weather has been unseasonably warm, but we got a bunch of snow on Thursday night.

Before it all melted away, we taught carolyn how to make a snow man.

Unfortunately, we had left her snow boots at school, so she had to wear ziploc bags on her feet. Slippery.

Fortunately, Grandma Lynn had just sent a new hat for her to wear.

Cute.

A fun night out with the girls.

Each year, we go to Park City, eat chilli, then go snowshoeing under the light of the full moon.

This year, it was Sonya, me, Heather, Kim, and Michelle.

School days, school days

dear old golden rule days. 'Readin and 'Ritin and 'Rithmetic taught to the tune of a hick'ry stick.

Carolyn's First School Picture

Bright Horizon School 2010

Her teachers are Ragina & Neusa. Her classmates are Alex, Kavi, Coco,Zach, Keira, Grant, and Luke.

Keira (girl in light pink) and Luke (guy on far right, blue argyle) are her favorite friends.

Below are her individual school photos.

What a helper she is!

helping us fold the laundry, putting on all the clothes Originally uploaded by boo4172002

Carolyn is such a big help around the house ... like last night when I was folding the laundry, she helped by taking the clothes I had folded and putting them on. I believe that is a sports bra around her neck, and a pair of Steve's shorts around her body.

What? Do I have something on my face?

Carolyn loved the green smoothie dad made for her.... "More Please," she kept insisting.

This girl is too cool

Someday she will hate me for posting this.

Carolyn is infatuated with the potty and with washing her hands. The other day, she told me that she had to go to the bathroom. She pulled down her pants, took off her diaper, and a few minutes later, I found her sitting on the potty. This time, she actually did go -- it is not always guaranteed that she does when she goes through this routine.

I will not try potty-training her until daycare does (age 2, when she transfers to the next classroom), but I certainly encourage her interest in it.

Two trips to the zoo in one weekend

On Saturday, it was 65 degrees and sunny. Carolyn and I spent the afternoon at the zoo.

On Sunday, our neighbor called and invited us to go to the zoo with them. We went again.

This picture is her with her favorite animal, the black footed cat. It had been sleeping, but all of the sudden it woke up and came right to the glass to say hi to her. She could hardly believe it.

Picture quality is bad; it was taken on my phone.