Caroline weighed 17 lbs. last night, exactly the minimum we need her at for her 9 month appointment in two weeks. Hopefully she'll keep it on, and maybe gain another half pound or so. She skipped her afternoon nap today and got really crabby about 6:30, but the bath always soothes her (until the rinsing).

Caroline lucked out - no babysitter. There was a thick layer of ice on the roads by last evening, so the event was shortened and only Cheryl went. She managed to slide home safely afterwards, but Caroline and I watched many cars fail to negotiate the hill in front of our house. Though it's hard to tell in this picture, freezing rain throughout the night has covered the trees and powerlines with ice.

Looks like Caroline is going to be stuck inside today - the snow started falling about an hour ago, and the forecast is for 2 to 4 inches of accumulation. Cheryl and I were planning on going to a dinner for the marketing competition that ended this morning, but our sitter may not be able to make it here. Lucky Caroline.

I'm suffering from a cold, and the lack of more than 2 consecutive hours of sleep isn't helping. Cheryl's busy with a school project for the next 3 days, so Caroline may not be getting the attention she demands.

We can't get enough of the hat wearing Caroline. It scrunches down her forehead, so she always looks kind of angry, even when she's smiling and laughing. Here she's pictured right after her morning snack at the school.

Last night it was Jay who threatened our wee one's life, although, for Caroline's fans who are keeping score, his comments were intended in the colloquial "I'm mad at you" sort of way and not in the frightening terroristic threat sort of way. We are still attempting to get Caroline to remember how to sleep through the night, but her will to wake up and stand and yell is strong. We hope for a solid night of sleep sometime in 2015.

Caroline overcame some challenges from Cheryl to her right to exist last night, and is happily playing in her pen right now. For the benefit of our task master, the CarolineCam is live this morning.

Caroline won't sit down - she stands on everything, and crawls to tables or chairs to pull herself up. Unfortunately, when she wakes up at 3am, she keeps trying to stand -we gave in last night and brought her to bed. She didn't sleep well and was cranky pretty much all afternoon. But she was standing and cranky.

Because of the bad weather here and in NJ, I've decided to put the CarolineCam online. Maybe she'll learn to walk today...

She's already been up once, for about two hours. Screamed the entire time. But we kept her in her crib.

This picture was taken yesterday. Caroline is practicing for standing in her crib and screaming for our attention at 11pm. We gave up at 11:30 last night and she slept in our bed. With no classes for Cheryl tomorrow, we hope to break Caroline of her crib fear starting tonight.

Bedtime has become a harrowing experience. Though Caroline quickly drifts off to dreamland when fed after her evening bath, once in her crib she quickly wakes, pulls to standing, and then shrieks. Last night the shrieking lasted for about 2 hours. Jay sat calmly in her room with her after trying to lay her back down repeatedly and watched her cruise around the sides of her crib as she yelled and yelled. Apparently, Jay's patience far, far exceeds mine -- as the hour grew later, I pondered calling some gypsies or perhaps a she-wolf to come take her for a few days.

So today, Jay and I are exhausted. Caroline is just fine.

This is a capture from the video of Caroline crawling forward - today's milestone. I don't know if the company hosting the video will be around forever, and I've gotten complaints from users on dialup (dad) that the video doesn't play.

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Milestone reached today: After months of pushing herself backwards, Caroline has learned to crawl toward her target. Cheryl is very impressed.

It's hard to tell from this picture, but Caroline was not enjoying my karaoke. A bad day - she was cranky, probably because we couldn't take a walk (it was below 30 all day). Or maybe she was just reflecting my crankiness.

Although she goes through the motions, Caroline still refuses to drink from her sippy cup. And she still hasn't started walking.

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Caroline standing with Cheryl - she also takes a step (falls forward). A 40 second clip that may take a minute to load.

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Caroline in her cage. There's a very loud toy iron that she keeps stepping on, unfortunately. I'll try to get a recording of her standing unassisted when Cheryl comes home.

Caroline and her fish. One of her top teeth has broken through - I'll try to get a picture of it later. She's napping now, tired from waking at 3:30am and keeping us up for about an hour.

We made the most of the 70 degree weather by taking a long walk and chewing on plush toys. Unfortunately after today, it's supposed to get cold for at least the next week, so Caroline will be wearing much heavier clothing on our journeys outdoors.

Caroline is 8 months old today. To celebrate, she woke up at 5 am and wouldn't go back to sleep for about an hour. Then she wouldn't take a proper morning nap, and took a relatively short afternoon one. Nevertheless, she seems to be in really good spirits. We're about to walk to the store now so she can get some sunshine.

We pumped the girl full of food today - she ate 4 jars of fruit, a veggie, a meat mixture, and 2 bowls of cereal. If this doesn't help her put on the weight, we're giving up.

Caroline and Cheryl practicing their new skill, clapping.

Tech problem solved.

Currently, Caroline is happily swaying to and fro in her jumperoo. She's wearing an adorable yellow long-pants, short-sleeved getup. It's patterned with purple flowers and has rather cute puffy sleeves. I would post a picture of her looking so undeniably sweet and precious, but I am having technical difficulties with various pieces of hardware necessary for file transfer. Perhaps when tech support (Jay) returns from his run, a picture we shall post.

Caroline gets so excited about eating, but more often than not is extraordinarily disappointed in the food we've selected. She loves the fruits (except peaches) and some of the vegetables, but hates most meats and cereal. But she usually finishes it all with some encouragement, probably to make me happy.

A new milestone -- Caroline can now push herself up to sitting when laying on her stomach. Since she can pull up to standing and cruise a bit, it's soon to be curtains for our habit of leaving stuff strewn about the house indiscriminately.

Caroline with her crib aquarium, which she enjoys chewing - just like all her other toys. Cheryl is concerned that Caroline is not getting enough milk. I have to disagree, based on this morning's diaper evidence. I also weighed her a few minutes ago - she's about 16.3 pounds.

As the day winds down, Caroline starts getting very sleepy and cranky. This was taken a little before 7pm; Cheryl was using the tub, so she had to wait a few minutes for her bath.

Cheryl preferred this picture.

Caroline's favorite mom is back home. Though it's hard to tell in this picture, the pajamas she is wearing have a peapod on the front.

Caroline is super happy today. I credit my safe return from abroad for her joy. Also of note, her top front teeth are FINALLY breaking through her gums. Hooray!

An ailing Jay and Caroline are napping now. I will be taking the girl for a walk later this afternoon in the lovely 70 degree NC weather. We're meeting up with some of my school friends for much needed post-holiday exercise. If I remember the camera, I will take pictures.

Caroline's afternoon nap was pretty short and she refused to take another one, so I'm trying to keep her distracted until bedtime in about 45 minutes. About an hour ago, I fed her a green peas and watched her enthusiasm for eating turn into utter disappointment, although she finished them. She also had 3 oz. of milk and will have another 3 oz. before bed. She's suffering through a karaoke lesson in this photo.

Over the course of our 2 hour walk Caroline managed to throw the three toys we brought out of the carriage. Nevertheless, she remained in good spirits for the duration. She ate some cereal, carrots and 2.5 oz. of milk when we got home at 2:30 and is now napping.

Out of the choice of one item I gave her, Caroline chose the pears. We woke up this morning about 8, she ate some cereal and milk, played a bit, and then took a two hour nap. I just fed her the pictured pears and some more milk. She's wearing a dandy dress that unfortunately now has some pear colored stains on the front. We're going to take a walk in a few minutes.

We took a walk over to the nearly deserted campus. We had a little picnic - I fed Caroline a squash and read her some books. This picture illustrates the chunk Caroline's getting on - I think she looks nice and healthy. This evening, she once again didn't like the bath, but calmed down very quickly once it was over. Unfortunately, she took about 30 minutes to fall asleep.

After a walk to the store and another nap, Caroline played with a fraction of her new toys this afternoon. My fears that she was undereating were allayed twice this morning. For the previous six weeks, she had been getting her milk exclusively from the source where it was impossible to tell how much she was eating. With the bottle, I know the quantity exactly; when figuring out how much to give her, Cheryl and I didn't compensate for all the solid food we've introduced into her diet in the last month. After another nap, we're going to take a walk - it's 70 and sunny today.

She wanted nothing to do with the cereal. I think we've spoiled her with all the expensive non-taste free baby food. Gave her another two ounces of formula (her first straight formula bottle) - she drank about half before deciding it was time to play.

Caroline in her new high chair. She had a pretty good night, although I gave up on the crib around 2:30. She woke up for good around 8 and I fed her some peaches and 3 oz. of milk. I'm going to try to feed her some cereal and some formula now.