Caroline's always looking to make her escape. When she grows a couple more inches, we're in trouble.

Despite all her attempts, Caroline only managed to injure herself once today. She dropped a pot lid on her toe this morning, causing some bleeding under the nail. Of course, this didn't stop her from dropping more pots and lids on herself in the afternoon.

Heavens to Betsy - the girl done wore us out today. And she woke up even earlier than the last couple of days and took very short naps. Cheryl is worried that she got into our Sparks stash. That would also explain the stumbling...

Another early morning. Caroline has worn us out. We took her on a trip to her favorite Target and on a long walk to a nice little park on the shadier side of town. Unfortunately, she wanted little to do with her straw cup so we're resorting to an evening bottle (in the hopes she doesn't wake up very thirsty at 2am).

Caroline again woke up about 6am, but we didn't take her out of her crib for another half hour in the hopes she would go back to sleep. Cheryl doesn't think she did; I know I got another 20 minutes. She took her normal naps today and was pretty happy this evening. We spent a good amount of time tickling her before her bath and bed.

We learned that Caroline is pretty inflexible on her need for an afternoon nap. Although still tired, she woke up before 6am. Her morning nap was nearly 3 hours instead of the usual 1. She refused to take another nap in the afternoon, and by 5pm she was at max crankiness - everything was setting her off. Luckily she went to bed earlier than usual.

Little to report. She was extraordinarily happy today for no good reason. We stopped giving her bottles - all her liquids will come from her food or her straw cups or the leaves she eats from the lawn. This photo was taken shortly before bed; she was bit blurry - that's not the fault of the camera or the photographer.

Caroline has fully recovered. She's as energetic as ever, and is eating like mad to make up for her weight loss. She had lost a lot of mass on her limbs and had been bruising really easy during the sickness; but with the normal diet back, she's looking healthy again.

Caroline is pretty much back to normal. She started drinking milk again this morning and is getting back onto her two naps a day schedule. This afternoon, Cheryl and I walked her to the park; it was a good two mile hike each way for us, and she got plenty of time there to run around.

Caroline started drinking and eating, so a visit to the hospital was averted. Although Cheryl claims antecdotal evidence ties her illness to the shots she received last week, I don't think there's a coverup by the medical community.

The doctor told us that Caroline probably has the stomach flu that's been going around and lasting 4 to 5 days. If Caroline doesn't step up her fluid intake, she'll be going to the hospital tonight around 8.

Caroline's recovery has taken a step backwards. She got sick after her milk this morning and hasn't wanted to eat or drink since then. She woke up from a long morning nap covered with red splotches and was really lethargic. We have an appointment with her doctor at 2pm.

Caroline's appetite returned shortly before 6am this morning. It's going to be a long day for me.

Caroline's appetite still hasn't returned, but she managed to hold down the little amount of food she ate. She was still pretty cranky, but not nearly as lethargic, and hopefully she'll be back to normal tomorrow.

Caroline slept well last night and is holding down her liquid this morning, but is still not yet back to her normal, frolicsome self.

I didn't get any pictures today because of Caroline's illness, but this was the second best from yesterday.

Caroline was very ill today - likely a stomach virus. She lost her breakfast and her morning snack before switching to pedialyte. Poor thing had no energy and cuddled against me all afternoon drifting in and out of sleep.

I apologize to everyone that's had to sign in - I turned off anonymous comments because I was having irrational worries about strangers posting crazy, anonymous comments - there haven't been any yet, but I have too much time to worry about these things.

Caroline got some new sneakers today. I couldn't be happier with her choice.

Caroline was still kind of lethargic today. She got plenty of attention from Cheryl, had two long naps, went on a good long walk, and played on her new playset until the skeeters drove us inside.

Although she took longer naps today, Caroline was pretty much back to her normal self. We ran some errands this morning, and she charmed all who encountered her. On our travels, we picked up this birthday gift from Grandparents L. I assembled it this afternoon despite her help, and she was very excited to play on it (almost as excited as Cheryl).

Hopefully all of Caroline's future birthdays will be better than today, her worst birthday ever. She started the day getting held down by her mom and dad while strange people stuck needles in her hand and legs, then her nap schedule was completely thrown off resulting in extreme, out-of-character lethargy, and then she smeared birthday cupcake all over herself and her clothes, thus requiring a more vigorous bathtime than normal. To make matters worse, she's developed a low-grade fever and her shot sites are bruised, hot, and swollen. When she's old enough to read this blog, I may have to change the date stamps for today's postings.

By the end of the day, our birthday girl was spent - she wasn't even able to muster enough energy to blow out the candle (although she did try to touch the flame).

Some super cute new strawberry-themed outfits for Caroline to wear!

Caroline is opening the only wrapped present she received today - it took her a good 15 minutes. If she could, I'm sure she'd thank all her well-wishers.

Caroline is having the traditional birthday banana for lunch. The CarolineCam is also online.

Caroline's 1 year stats:

Head Circumference: 17 1/2" -- 50th %ile
Height: 29" -- 50th %ile
Weight: 18lbs. 11.8oz -- 10-25th %ile

Our girl is growing just fine. Maybe one day she'll get to face forward in a car seat. Come on...20 lbs!

Happy Birthday, Caroline!

The birthday girl.

With the new room configuration, I've set up a more permanent installation of the CarolineCam. I've added the link to the sidebar of this site.

Our plan for Caroline to wake up later did not work. Maybe I should go to bed earlier.

Caroline's been sleeping through the night in her crib for over a month. Unfortunately, the last couple days she's been getting up around 6:15 am and refusing to go back to sleep. Although she hasn't appeared any more fatigued during the day, I definitely am. We're going to try an earlier bedtime tonight (according to Cheryl, earlier bedtimes sometimes get them to sleep later and longer) to see if it helps.

Caroline a few minutes before bath and bed. She's steadying herself by clutching onto Cheryl.

As Caroline begins to get tired, she doesn't get much slower, but she starts staggering around and falling over quite a bit. She went on trips to Costco and Best Buy with me and her buddy Steph today; although she seemed to have a good time, I know she was disappointed in the lack of food samples at Costco that she could eat. I shared a Costco smoothie (cheap and tasty) with her that she really enjoyed.

It is Caroline's first mother's day, and Cheryl's first as a mother. We brought Cheryl breakfast in bed, flowers, the necklace she's wearing here, a little album of photos to keep in her purse, and took her to dinner.

Cheryl has been home all week since her classes ended and her job starts on Monday. She's eager to get back to work - she's described watching Caroline as chasing her around the house and keeping her from killing herself. ---Edited by Cheryl: What I said was, "Right now, I feel like our main job is to prevent Caroline from killing herself." She seems to be interested in anything that can cause her great physical harm -- the basement stairs, giant heavy pots, swallowable dimes, wires, etc.

Caroline is outgrowing a lot of her clothes, so we took her to the mall today and stocked up for the next 6 months. Sadly, I didn't find another pair of fox overalls in her new size.

Caroline must have angered the wrong people -

We celebrated tres de mayo today (and tomorrow will be cuatro de mayo, followed closely by the real drinking holiday). Caroline is very wise to try to escape.

We took Caroline to a professor's Mardi Gras themed party this evening (one of the charity events from the auction in March). Caroline's new friend Ben is eager to have children while his girlfriend in Cheryl's class is not. We managed to reclaim Caroline for the trip home.

Caroline dropping Grandma Z off at the airport.

Caroline gets an early birthday cupcake from Grandma before she leaves today.