Thanksgiving Weekend

We have many wonderful things to be thankful for at this time of the year -- our family, friends, little Caroline and our little one on the way and the weather here in southern California! We had a great Thanksgiving with Laurie and Crispin -- ate lots of food and did as much relaxing as Caroline would allow. We also took Caroline on her first boat trip the Channel Islands (Santa Cruz Island). These are uninhabited islands (a part of a National Park) about 15 miles off the coast from us. Trent loves these islands for surfing, diving, fishing, etc. and this weekend we took Caroline for the first time. She did great on the crossing and in fact, she was treated to a whole dolphin show as we ran into a pod of nearly 50 dolphins following our boat and playing in its wake. We also played at the beach there and went kayaking. She had a great time and passed out on the way home. It was a very busy weekend!!

Birthday month

We have had a very busy month of birthday parties so Caroline's new favorite song is Happy Birthday (followed by in a close second, "I'm a little Teapot"). She has a pretend cake at the house so every morning we put the pretend candles on the cake and sing to somebody. She has now taken to wearing the cake on her head in the mornings. Pretty funny and she is getting pretty good at singing the song and blowing at the candles as you can see from the video below.

The other pictures are just a few random ones from this month. Her vocabulary is truly exploding. These are some of my favorite words she says:

1. Toe sin noes (tennis shoes)
2. Hegaper (helicopter)

3. patterpitter (caterpillar)

4. lebiga (ladybug)

Many of the other words she says much clearer... these are some of her favorite standby phrases that more than just a mom can understand:

1. Take nap (I love that she says this so I know when she wants to go to bed!)

2. Fish book (a favorite of hers)

3. Pee yoooo, Caroline! (referring to her stinky diapers or her shoes)

4. Momma's bed (where she wants to go every morning to read books)

5. Daddy's boat (she knows exactly where it is and what it looks like so no matter where we walk from she knows what she is looking for)

It is wonderful to hear her talking and coming up with new words all the time. She keeps me very busy!!

Happy Halloween!!

I wondered whether or not Caroline would get the concept of Halloween...running around the neighborhood in the dark, knocking on strangers doors, asking for candy... well should I have doubted my little go-getter for a minute. She led the pack of the kids (and this included a 4 year old and two much bigger 2 year olds). She was running around the neighborhood in her little bee costume running up to every door she could. She didn't so much care about the candy, just the knocking on the door part. It was so fun to watch and she looked so cute with her little black tighted legs sticking out of her Halloween costume. We had a great time (and so did she!!)

Grandma and Papa come to visit!

Grandma and Papa came to visit from St. Louis for about 10 days. We had a great visit despite my parents being hard at work (they built window cornices for our downstairs windows!). We went to the pumpkin patch, the park, the beautiful beach in Carpinteria, Laurie's clinic, for a boat ride and they were here for Halloween. Caroline, of course, enjoyed being spoiled by more than just Trent and I. When they left, Caroline was asking where they went so I told her St. Louis. So now, whenever their names are mentioned it is.... GrandmaPapa (all one word)....home....O' Louis (which is how she says St. Louis). Pretty funny! Sorry Mom and Dad, I don't have any pictures with you and Caroline -- maybe you have some??