Grass, dirt, bugs, shoes...

Thanks to Aunt Laurie, Caroline has been on her stomach since Day One... therefore, she loves her tummy time. Now she knows how to sit up and play, but always prefers to get on her belly to explore. She has now discovered dirt, grass, bugs, birds, shoes...anything that you can name that is close to the ground. She has to watched like a hawk or she will have it in her mouth in no time flat. It is fun to watch her face as she notices all of these things as they are the most amazing things ever. This video on the bottom shows her "creeping" abilities now. Enjoy!!

The high chair.... and the spoon

After a difficult start (remember Caroline preferred the spoon to the actual food), we are eating quite well now. Bananas, sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, pears, peaches, etc. -- she is a good eater and though she is short for her high chair -- she loves sitting in it and still loves the spoon as well! She is a very vocal baby with lots of facial expressions. Her face is the same every time she takes the first bite at a meal -- a look of disgust and then, give me more. She likes to talk with her food in her mouth -- looks like we'll have a lot to look forward to!

Relaxing in St. Louis

Following the Von Gunten family reunion, Caroline and I went to St. Louis to visit family. It worked out fantastic as my five cousins, Aunt Marlene and Uncle Jim were visiting from Texas and my Aunt Linda and Uncle Rich were visiting from Minnesota -- so we were able to visit with everyone. We spent an afternoon in the park where these pictures were taking -- Caroline loves to swing and her smile is contagious -- she had all the other kids around us laughing and smiling. She wasn't sure what to do with the St. Louis humidity -- I think she experienced true sweating for the first time and also saw her first rain storm (it hasn't rained in CA for over 5 months!).

Family Reunion in Fort Wayne, IN

Over Labor Day Weekend, we went to Fort Wayne, IN to meet up with Trent's family including his cousins and his grandmother. It was a beautiful weekend and the perfect time to get all of the cousins together -- 5 of them under 16 months! We got to meet little Abby (Tye and Kelly's 3 month old baby) and Paul (Tracy and Kevin's 10 month old) and see little William, who is not so little anymore!! We had a great day at Uncle Jeff and Aunt Pam's house on a lake -- such a beautiful setting. Caroline had so much to look at and thought that cousin William was the funniest thing going. Here are some pictures of everyone together.