Spaghetti and a Meatball!

The Spaghetti Monster...

enjoying every bite!

Wait...don't forget the Meatball!!!

Good friends, Good fun!

Carrington's friends came over Saturday to play, eat supper and have birthday cake. I had a lot of fun celebrating my birthday with friends and family, and Carrington had fun playing with all the kids.

On Sunday morning, Carrington and Giselle opened gifts from their best boy-friend, Andrew. Thank you for the stroller and baby dolls!

All smiles after a fun weekend!

15 months old...going on 15 years old!

February 3, 2010 marked Carrington turning 15 months old. It was a regular day in her world - lots of playing, eating and sleeping. She went to the doctor on the 1st for her check up and weighed in at 22 pounds 2 oz and was 30 inches long. Her weight and length are in the 25-50 percentile but her head circumference remains in the 90th percentile. I keep thinking, there better be a lot more brains than mush so she can become the first astronaut, President of Mars. That is her daddy's dream and one I've never been able to figure out. Why Mars, what's wrong with the U.S.?

Glimpses of things to come...when Carrington gets upset with being told "no" she takes to falling on the floor, rolling around, kicking, and of course, screaming. Well, I've noticed lately she looks at me the entire time she is in the middle of one of her come aparts. That booger, she is deliberate and calculating because if I don't give her the reaction she wants, she continues the rant and keeps looking at me while she puts on the second act. I already hear the door slamming in the background and the less than polite words falling out of her month, when she is 15 years old.

My other glimpse...driving her around in the Pink Tot Rod. Oh my, this one is a hoot! She drives with one hand on the wheel, the other arm laid back, and slouches down to the side. All the while, never watches where she is driving and smiles at us the entire time. The picture in my head...she is 15, driving in a real car, with that awful posture, and has a friend in the passenger seat or even worse, a BOY (gasp), never once watching the road because she is too busy "showing off"! I've already got the solution to this one. She'll be made to watch, a minimum of 100 times, the Virginia State Police issued video tapes of horrific car crashes before she ever steps foot in the drivers seat. That should buy us an extra five years before she regains the nerve to want to learn to drive!

To the "Fairy of Freeze Time", please send me a magic wand so I can keep her at 15 months old, FOREVER!

Since this was supposed to be an update on Carrington being 15 months old and not a glimpse into my worst nightmares, her is what she presently likes to do best!
-Say "shoes" and "night, night"
-Open every drawer she can get into and pull out all the contents
-Help put away her toys or all those "things" she pulls out of the drawer
-Eat M's - translation, M&M's
-Sign the words "please" and "more"
-Stay in a constant state of motion!
-and so much more!

One more thing, we've transitioned to one nap a day. We put her down after lunch and so far, it ain't going like I envisioned! I was hoping she would sleep three hours. It's been more like 1 1/2 hours. However, I'm always thankful that she sleeps 12+ hours every night.

Where ya been?

I've been neglecting the blog; shame on me! The list of excuses...I didn't have my laptop for almost three weeks (it was sick and had to be repaired), I haven't taken a lot of pictures since Christmas, we've been a little boring - and it's been wonderful! What have we been up to, you ask? Well, a New Year's resolution was to travel less, and stay home more so we could spend time together as a family. We need it after a crazy traveling schedule in 2009! We traveled once in January to see my sister/brother in-law and attend a 1st birthday party for Giselle de Windt. Other than that, we've been parked in Wilmington on the weekend. Thank you, Lord!

Carrington continued baby gymnastic through the end of January and loves it so much that I signed her up again in February. Let me tell ya, the girl is a riot during class. She has everyone laughing and dizzy because she constantly moves and squeals from one side of the gym to the other. I need an oxygen mask after chasing her around for 45 minutes.

As I mentioned, we went to NOVA for a weekend in January. We had a lot of fun at Giselle's 1st Birthday party. The theme was "Winter One-derland" and the party had all sorts of neat decorations, food and party favors to tie it all together. Carrington knows how to get in on the action during a birthday party. There were a few times when I pointed at Aaron and said, "look at that guys kid, can't he control her"! Yes, she was that kid! The one running up to smaller children and taking their toys, jumping in the ball pit on top of them, and squealing at them with excitement - leading one little girl to break down in tears. Pray for me.

Carrington and I traveled to Myrtle Beach once in January and again this past Wednesday to watch Katy shoot some hoops. The girl has got moves and can play a mean game of basketball! You'll have to look for her in a couple years when she gets signed to a big NCAA school.
Hello February and thank you for arriving! February is one of my favorite months. Wanta know why? It's a short month unlike the forever long January, we have several family birthday's to celebrate - including mine!, it's the month of LOVE, and it means spring is almost around the corner, at least in the south. With all that said, February will be a busy month so stay tuned.

In honor of the love month

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

One little monkey swinging from the rings!

And so we've started the beginning of running from one side of town to the other for sports, gymnastics, ballet, piano, etc. Well, just for baby gymnastics class but I can see the day coming. Carrington had a blast in her first class! She started the class playing a game of "freeze". The babies would run around in a circle to music and when the song said, "freeze", they had to stop. Imagine getting a one year old to stop when she is running at full speed (a dream come true for Carrington)! "Freeze" was followed by a circuit of walking across the balance beam, doing forward rolls, climbing up gymnastic thingys, and practicing headstands. From there, they moved into trying to do the "monkey hang" on the rings, pulling up on the uneven bar, and running down the straight away. At the end of the class, they were given free time to run around the gym. She quickly discovered the trampoline that was in the floor and went to jumping. Jumping has become a new favorite at home - on the bed, chair or in her crib. She also loved all the open space so she could "run away" from me. That's another game she enjoys, mama says come here and she takes off running in the other direction, as fast as she can!

So, here's to the beginning of lots of fun, learning, discipline, hardwork and most important, finding what she loves to do!

Sitting on the ladybug and "listening" to instructions

Practicing her floor routine - not much of a routine, just A LOT of running!
Jumping on the trampoline

Showing off her, "What we learned today" paper - The "Monkey Hang". She also got her first sticker that said, "Good Job"!
If you didn't enjoy that story or the pictures enough, I have a feeling you'll get a kick of out this! My parents kept me plenty busy trying to find what I would truly love being a part of. I tried just about everything - gymnastics, ballet, soccer, softball, track, and from the looks of it, even, GOLF (definitely influenced by my dad)! Ultimately, my days would be spent swimming in a pool and cheering for my HOKIES! There are certain things, you are just born to do!!

This one was just too good not to include! Looks like I wanted to be Daisy Duke. Check out that hair!!!

14 Months Old

She is precious! She is so proud of herself and all she accomplishes! We are proud of her!
She took off walking at 13 months old and hasn't looked back. She loves being outside, even when it's 30 degress. She no longer takes a bottle at night, bottle free baby! She drinks from a cup with a straw. She eats from a plate now. She is learning lots of new words and sounds, word of the week - ball. She understands directions and obeys...sometimes! She continues to love life, her parents and her bestfriend, Bear Dog!

"Snow" much fun!

Several days before we got to Roanoke a blizzard came through. No exaggaration - 18 inches of snow in two days! I wanted so bad to be there when the snow started falling. Luckly, there was still plenty left when we arrived.

Carrington has no snow gear being that she is a beach baby. Mom and I went to the store and bought the only snowsuit we could find for a baby girl - size 3-6 months! Haha, she is 14 months old (today)! We found the best pair of "snow" boots avaliable and headed home to start the process of going out in the snow. Meanwhile, Aaron took off looking for a plastic sled. My mom has our Radio Flyer sleds but they don't do well in deep snow. We needed something that would sit up high, and take off flying. This was Aaron's first time sledding, so I had it in my mind to show him a high flying time! Unfortunately, Roanoke has not seen snow like this in years so the stores didn't order sleds in time for the snow. There was no way we weren't going sledding! Thank goodness my neighbors still had their plastic sled from the early 1990's!

Carrington wasn't sure what to think of the snow at first. She couldn't walk, let alone stand up in the white stuff. It was freezing her hands and she wasn't sure why. She had to wear a hat and baby girl thinks nothing of a hat on her head. Basically, she was wondering where the beach was! No worries though, mama showed her the way and in no time at all, she was ready to have a good time. Which included...making snow angels, sledding with mama and dada, and throwing snow balls with MeMe. Even Bear Dog got in on the action!

Once Carrington was ready to go in and warm up with her Meme, Aaron and I took off for the hill behind our house. There is a really big hill that we grew up sledding on every year. I swear, when we were kids it snowed like this a lot and we would live on that hill. There are few times in my adult life where I've done something that made me feel like a kid again. Let me tell you, this was one of them! I loved every minute of sledding down that hill. I honestly felt like I was 12 again! It was such a great experience to share that time with Aaron too. There was a dad, sitting in his truck, watching his boys go down the hill. I could just feel my dad there with me, like when I was 12, and he use to take us sledding. He had as much fun as we did, that was the moment I was living that day!