Pulling up and ready to go

My sweet baby is growing up too fast. She's been pulling up on everything and even trying to walk (holding onto stuff of course). She's only 8 months old and I am just not ready for this!

(Don't you just love how her hair comes to a point on her forehead? No matter what we do, it always does that!)





It's hard to believe that she was ever a tiny little newborn who couldn't hold up her own head. They just change so fast...

Sleepy Head

Last night Caroline fell asleep in her highchair waiting for her dinner. I gave her the bottle to hold while I got everything ready. By the time I got over to her, she was snoring! I had to wake her up so she could eat dinner and get a bath - but not before I took a few pictures.

Jailbird

The other day Adam and I had to lower C's mattress since she's pulling up now. (Seriously, she just started crawling and now she wants to leave this stage already!!) This is one of those parenting things that you just can't put off. It's not like the gallery wall for the nursery... (Don't judge me too harshly, I couldn't decide what I wanted to do on that wall until recently). Looks like we lowered it at the perfect time! C had never pulled up in her crib but we knew it would be coming soon. Today I walked into her room to see this:


The little stinker was peeking out waiting for me to come and get her!! She was crying at first and she looked like a little jailbird waiting to break free! Of course I made silly faces and then she thought we were playing a game. It was adorable.




Can she really be this big already?? How do I already have a baby that crawls and pulls up? Where has time gone?

Eight Months Old!!!

Eights Months Old - January 23, 2011

Today my sweet Caroline is 8 months old! She is two thirds through her first year. I just cannot get over how fast time has gone by. I am hoping that it will slow down just a little bit. It seems like everyday C is doing something new. She has been crawling all over the place. She has been crawling a little bit for the past week, but two days ago she realized that she could go where ever she wanted so she hasn't stopped moving since!! I tried to get some good pictures of her, but it was very hard since she won't sit still! She has also started pulling up! Baby proofing will be in full blast soon. She can clap and wave. She's quite the little flirt. She'll be fussy but as soon as people stop to look at her she turns on her charm and will smile and laugh. She is such a happy baby and we couldn't be more blessed. She is still a wonderful eater and is growing like a weed. We don't go back to the doctor until next month so we don't have any stats. We know she is just perfect though!!

Happy eight months Caroline!! I can't believe how big you are getting. I am so thankful for every second that we get to spend together. I got to witness you crawl for the first time and I will cherish that memory for the rest of life and beyond. You are such a miracle and I continue to be amazed by you!! I love you so very much baby girl!

Fun Friday

After being iced in for most of last week, we were happy to get out of the house last Friday! We went to Once Upon a Time in Crestline Village to check out what was left in the sale. I got C this adorable jumper for her to wear in the fall. It's hard to believe that she'll ever be big enough to wear it! It occured to me that by the time she's wearing it, she'll be walking!! Yikes!! She just started crawling!!


After some more shopping we headed to the open play time at Gymboree. It is so nice to have a place where she can crawl around and get into everything. We met a few friends there so it was a lot of fun for both of us :) Here are the three little girls peeking through the tunnel ball.

And here's C playing with a ball...her favorite thing at Gymboree.



She was so worn out from playing that she went to bed an hour early and slept about an hour later in the morning (all without waking up in the night!). We are totally fans of Gymboree!!

Ice Day

We have been iced in our house for the past couple of days. We were hoping that we'd get the 3-7 inches of snow predicted, but we ended up with a bunch of ice instead. Our back patio was totally iced over. Poor Daisy didn't know what to do. She kept sliding while trying to walk outside!! Every leaf of every tree was frozen solid, but as you can see from the picture below the snow was just a dusting. Since there wasn't much to do in the ice but just be cold, we didn't take C outside. We stayed nice and warm inside while eating chili, drinking hot chocolate and watching movies/tv. Adam got to stay home all day with us on Monday. C loved it!! She had both of us and Daisy giving her so much attention all day. Adam's office did open up at 11:00 today so our iced in day today was cut short. Maybe we'll get a bunch of snow next time...

Learning to Crawl

Caroline is about to be an official crawler! She has crawled a few inches but then gets frustrated that she can't go fast enough. It's quite adorable to watch. Lately, she's been doing this push up position while trying to crawl. It's too funny.



The couple of times that she did crawl she was headed towards Adam's phone and his laptop. Like father like daughter... (Although I'm sure she sees me on the computer plenty)


She's mobile enough that she can get where she wants to go, even without having the crawling down perfectly. We've found LOTS of things that we're going to have to baby proof. I can't believe that our baby is about to be crawling!! It seems like yesterday that we just watched her sit up by herself for the first time!

New Years Eve

Adam and I had such a great NYE! Adam's parents came back to Birmingham to keep C so we could go out. We started the evening at a beautiful wedding and ended the night at some friends house. It was a perfect way to say farwell to 2010 and ring in the new year!









More new posts below!

Welcome 2011

I spent a good part of the day taking down all the Christmas decorations and putting our house back to normal. It's always a little sad to take all the stuff down, but it's also really nice to feel like we're starting a new year fresh! 2010 was such a wonderful year! Lots of big things happened in the Israel household.
January - found out that our baby was a girl!!
February - announced that our little girl was going to be named Caroline Grace
March - furniture arrived and little C's room was nearly completed
April - had some FANTASTIC baby showers hosted by our friends and co-workers
May - received the biggest blessing in our lives to date, Caroline Grace Israel was born!!
June - Caroline and I learned a lot about each other as it was the first time I was alone with her all day after my mom left and Adam went back to work
July - Caroline stayed in her crib in her own room for the first time. She also smiled for the first time
August - Adam played "Mr. Mom" for the month while I went back to work. I also resigned from my job. Caroline started sleeping through the night. Adam and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary
September - Adam started his dream job :)
October - Caroline's first Halloween
November - Caroline was baptized, first Thanksgiving, first road trip/first time to leave the state
December - first Christmas AND Caroline's first tooth finally broke the surface of her gums!! We discovered it on New Year's Eve. My sweet girl is starting the new year with teeth!!!

What an amazing year it has been. We hope that 2011 is fantastic and that we continue to be blessed. I wonder what I will be saying this time next year... We have so much to look forward to - C will crawl, walk and say some words this year. Adam has a fun trip to Vegas planned in April. We are planning a family beach trip sometime this summer. Caroline will be turning one in the spring! Several of our friends are getting married and we're excited to celebrate with them. Maybe 2011 we'll think about adding to our family, maybe :) Maybe we'll finally finish decorating our house. Who knows?? All I know is that 2011 is already off to a great start and we couldn't be more excited to see what is in store for us!!

Finally - here are some pictures of our baby during the last days of 2010.

Favorite Christmas Traditions

Since this year was our first year to celebrate Christmas as a family (well...Adam, Daisy and I were certainly a family - so first year with more than two humans) we decided to take some Christmas traditions from Adam's family and my family and also create our own. It will be great to tell Caroline one day that we've been doing something from the very beginning.

Christmas Eve Communion - Adam used to go every year with his family and it was a very special time. We went this year and we just loved it!!



Pickle Ornament - I bought Adam this ornament when we were dating. He had never heard of this tradition. His family (and our friends a week earlier) had a great time trying to find the pickle and winning a beautiful cheese dome!



Christmas Eve PJ's - my siblings and I were allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve. We each usually got some pajamas and then we all got a gift together which was usually a movie. We would watch the movie and fall asleep, excited about waking up the next morning. We are going to open all gifts on Christmas morning, but Caroline will get one present on Christmas Eve - pajamas!! She looked like such a little doll!


Of course that's not all of our Christmas traditions, but those are some of our favorite things that we will keep doing year after year!!