Despite an impressive collection of toys, Caroline is most interested in tearing up junk mail, banging together tupperware, eating a cereal box, and saving me from my eyeglasses. She also loves the camera.

We've reconfigured the Freedom Perimeter into the Restriction Barrier and removed many obstacles in the living room, most notably the coffee table. Other than the bottles of antifreeze, drano and bleach we have scattered around the floor, Caroline can now roam up and down the hallway and anywhere in the living room with almost complete safety. In other news, we also went to the park today and she enjoyed the swings, but the camera wasn't around to capture the fun. Here are some more pictures from the dinner on Monday night (1) (2) (3).

Caroline is trying out her new shoes this afternoon by ambling around on the lawn. She really hates when we put them on, but is gradually getting used to walking in them.

Cheryl's school chum Elliot and his wife Maia hosted the new SGA officers for dinner tonight. Caroline enjoyed lots of attention from couples contemplating taking the plunge into parenthood; luckily she did nothing to dissuade anyone. We're also happy to report that Caroline had no hesitation with negotiating a climb up a pretty good set of stairs - and it was the first stairs she's encountered now that she's mobile.

I took Caroline to the evil megastore today, seduced again by their convenient selection and low prices. We had to buy a variety of items that would have required multiple stops if we didn't give in. Up until now I've been leaving her in her carseat in the shopping cart, but she's big enough now not to tip over in the cart's child seat. She really enjoyed the new view and grabbing and playing with items in the cart.

We've all been pretty lethargic and apathetic the last few days - Cheryl had two wisdom teeth pulled on Friday and has been hurting; Caroline has been suffering through a few more teeth coming in; and I've been feeling a little under the weather. We postponed a trip to the zoo yesterday due to weather, but that would have provided more interesting photos. Last night we went to one of Cheryl's classmate's house for dinner, and Caroline enjoyed playing with their 18 month old boy. That also would have made some good pics, but I left my camera's memory card at home. So here she is in her pajamas, about 10 minutes from crib. The last three nights we've worked on breaking her habit of coming to our bed by 11pm, and we're going to try to suffer through the therapy again tonight -

Caroline more than made up for two sleepy days by keeping us up most of the night and being extremely active today. We read a mess of books, played with a bunch of toys, took some quality naps, and went on two good walks to enjoy the fabulous spring weather.

A nice thunderstorm complete with hail and tornado warnings came through late this afternoon, and left behind this rainbow.

Although still a bit lethargic, Caroline appears to be doing much better. She woke up around 11 last night, got sick all over Cheryl, and then slept pretty well through the night. She still had a fever this morning, and didn't eat as much as normal; but after a two and a half hour nap, her temperature feels closer to normal and she's acting more like herself.

Caroline is not ok. Things went downhill pretty fast starting about 2 this afternoon - she started getting lethargic and cranky. We took her temperature around 5:30 and it was 101.5. We took off her outfit and gave her some motrin, which cooled her off a bit. We're hoping it's just her latest tooth coming in that's bothering her and not something more serious.

Caroline has really starting enjoying her baths. She had a pretty good day considering she was up for most of the night pinching us. Cheryl thinks her latest tooth has broken through, so hopefully we'll all get a few good nights of sleep before the next one.

This is so pathetic; Caroline tries to bend over to pick up a toy or stuffed animal, and regularly neglects to let go of the Stand-Up Ball Blast that she uses for balance. Here she's managed to pull it over onto herself (I didn't get the camera quick enough for the best picture) - it's very light, and didn't faze her in the least.

Now that spring is here and daytime temperatures are back in the 60s, Caroline will be spending a lot more time outdoors. Despite her smile here, Cheryl is quite disappointed in her team's performance in the basketball tournament last night. Caroline's mood was not affected; perhaps she's not a Wake fan?

We took Caroline to Cheryl's school's charity auction last night. She seemed to really enjoy interacting with other babies, and also got to show off her walking skills to Cheryl's classmates.

Caroline woke up happy and refreshed. Cheryl and I did not.

Caroline woke up shortly before 10 pm and has refused to go back to sleep. She played with the remote control for about 15 minutes before she tried eating it - a definite improvement. And playing with the remote made her very very happy; when we took it away she got really upset. It's approaching midnight, and she's still fighting sleep.

Hopefully this will be the last time Caroline sees snow for the next 9 or 10 months, as it means another day spent indoors. She was terrible last night, keeping us awake from about 3am to 5am. I think we're going to reintroduce her to sleeping the entire night in her crib, and I mean it this time.

We fed Caroline a few chicken nuggets for lunch today, and thanks to the combination of salt and fat, she loved them. She's had a good day so far, walking and crawling all over the hallway, enjoying her toys, and biting Cheryl at every opportunity.

Another new toy for Caroline - the Liberty Gate. She can now walk up and down our hallway and smack her head into the doorjambs, while Cheryl and I enjoy some more liberty. Fed her some finger food carrot and chicken ravioli this evening which she rejected. Otherwise, a good day - good naps, well behaved at the grocery store and Target, and had a lot of fun playing with her stuff.

I wanted to post a picture, and didn't get around to snapping one until Caroline was winding down towards sleep. She really caught up on her napping today, with a long one both in the morning and the afternoon after waking up at a pretty late 7am. She was very happy all day, probably because of all the sleep. While in Florida, she started eating some new things like english muffins and pretzels. We plan on giving her some chicken nuggets tomorrow.

Caroline spent some happy time this morning with Poppy and Grandma Libby before leaving Vero Beach. Then it was 11 hours strapped in her car seat and staring out the back window while screaming. Good times.

Caroline is 10 months old today. It's our last day in Vero Beach, and we took her to a spring training game, the Dodgers against the Mets (it ended in a tie at 5-5 after 11.5 innings - lame). Aunt Kim and Uncle Seth came to town last night and will be here for the next week - we wish them luck dealing with Poppy.

It's raining on our first day in Vero Beach, so we went to the mall. Poppy bought Caroline the cap she's wearing and is in the background here buying her some 12 month sized outfits.

Caroline is enjoying the last 30 minutes she'll spend in her Freedom Perimeter for the next few days, and may be unaware that her next 11 hours will be spent strapped in a carseat. She is playing with her keys here, so maybe she does know.

Caroline kept us awake much of the night and for some reason was tired and cranky all day. It's spring break for Cheryl this week, so we're driving to Florida tomorrow. Hopefully we won't have to have the radio on full volume to drown out any fussiness...

Caroline is quite attached to her cell phone. She gets irate when she has to put it down for eating and diaper changes.

Caroline got her very own cell phone, which she is chewing on and playing with non-stop this morning.

Came home from the game (Wake won, hooray!) at about 9:45 to find Caroline silently staring up at me from her jumperoo. Apparently, in my absence she gave Jay quite some difficulty with the sleeping. She woke up around 9 and refused to go back to sleep. After I extracted her from the jumperoo, she was wide awake and insisting on being bounced up and down and up and down on my arm until about 10:30. That was a lot of bouncing. My arm should be nice and full of lactic acid tomorrow. Jay just got her to sleep.

Baby girl is begging to spend a few long, lonely nights standing and crying in her room to break her of her growing inability to settle herself down after waking without standing and screaming for attention. Luckily for her, Aunt Cristen is coming tomorrow night to prevent me from going through with the meanness for at least a few more days.

Here Caroline is bustin' out with the 'sprinkler' dance move. She just had a bath, about an hour earlier than usual, because Cheryl is going to the basketball game tonight. Caroline was one happy baby all morning, but we fear yet another tooth was the cause of her angst most of the afternoon. Also, she's been crawling under her learning table and getting stuck and upset no matter where it is within her perimeter - not learning much from it at all.

Caroline thinks the easiest way to navigate from one end of her freedom perimeter to the other is to crawl underneath the leapfrog learning table. It's not. And she's gotten stuck, although briefly, twice so far this afternoon. Perhaps I've fed her too much rum ice cream...