Caroline's made some noticeable improvements the last week or so in letting us know what she wants, most of the time by speaking. She also flips out whenever Cheryl or I leave without her; unfortunately, more so when Cheryl leaves.

Caroline has been saying "diaper" when she needs to use the bathroom for about a week now. We haven't started potty training her yet, but hope this keeps up when we start next week once we're at home.
Here she's with Grandma Z eating some ice cream. Most days it's a chore to get her to consume a healthy number of calories; other days she eats everything offered. Today was a non-eating day, hence the ice cream after all else has failed.

After collecting her loot at the grandparents' house, we braved the torrential rain to trek north to visit with some more relatives. Caroline charmed all, and even touched the big dog living at the house - perhaps she's conquering her fear. Here she's with Dan, a cousin of a cousin, because I told him I'd post the picture on the blog.


Caroline enjoyed playing with Devon's matchbox cars, while Devon was not too happy with sharing. Here, Devon and Caroline are sharing a couch with his great uncle, Al.

While final Christmas eve preparations took place at the Zukowski home, Cheryl, Grandpa Z and I took a stroll on the boardwalk. Although the weather was in the mid-50s with no wind - perfect strolling weather - the boardwalk was nearly deserted. Caroline rode in her stroller on the initial trip north, then walked the entire trip back - with many sidetrips of exploration.




She refused to hold hands with Cheryl or me, but eagerly grabbed her Grandpa's hand. Maybe she's onto us - none of her presents tomorrow will be coming from her parents.

Caroline was up past her bedtime again tonight, following Grandma around and showing us all who's boss.

A prompting of "who's boss?" gets Caroline to clench and shake her fists while squinting her eyes. It's very cute.

Caroline went shopping with Cheryl and Grandma today, and reportedly behaved very well. She took some good naps, and managed to stay up with the family past 9pm.

Caroline has been in NJ since Friday. She's enjoying and demanding all kinds of extra attention. She's also eating lots of holiday cookies and low-hanging ornaments.

While I ran some errands this afternoon, Caroline was busy convincing Cheryl to take her to an orphanage. The roads were covered in fallen trees and ice, so I didn't take Caroline along, and she was apparently chock full of energy. Despite her nose still running, and napping for a mere fraction of even her normal, non-sick naptime, Caroline kept Cheryl hopping. Additionally, she refused most food, insisted on wearing only one boot much of the day, and then atypically protested vociferously at bedtime.

Caroline kept us up most of the night again, and is now in complete pill mode. She refuses to let us take her jacket or boots off, won't take a nap, and is dying to go outside and play in the ice storm. At least she doesn't sound as congested as she did yesterday.

Caroline has a pretty bad cold. She slept for an hour or so, then would wake up and not let us forget how bad she feels for 3 or so hours. She did this all last night, all day, and has continued so far this evening.

Caroline's had a runny nose the past few days, but it hasn't slowed her in the least. She's been to the Little Gym and getting her workout on a few times already this week. She also has become quite demanding regarding her clothes - when she wants her hat on, we'd better put it on, no matter how ridiculous it makes her look. She's been stomping around in her boots, mostly indoors, all day.

A dark day here at the Lerman-Zukowski house. Our fish, Tasty, passed away this afternoon after valiantly battling depression and another unknown gill illness for several months. He was between 14 months and several years old. Tasty came to live with us in October of last year after Jay bought him to assuage his (and Caroline's) dismay at their continued disenfranchisement. He traveled to Florida and New Jersey with us on several occasions, and was an all-around fabulous pet. In his younger days, Tasty enjoyed building bubble nests in his bowl and darting about for his food flakes. He was predeceased by Carny, his companion of several weeks, earlier this year. Tasty will be sorely missed.

Services will be held this afternoon in our bathroom. In lieu of flowers, please post comments. Or send cash or checks made out to cash.

Emma spent some time here this evening while her parents went to dinner and a movie. Although they were very well behaved, Cheryl and I are glad we didn't have twins.

Tonight, Caroline spent the evening at Emma's so Jay and I could go to my MBA Christmas/Holiday party. We had a great time. Apparently, Ben and Nicole did not. There was quite a bit of Emma-Caroline yelling and running around. There was no DVD watching. There was no sleeping. Caroline fell asleep (finally) in the car while Ben kindly came to pick us up so we could have a few worry-free drinks at the fiesta. Although I was sad to leave the party early, I was quickly heartened by the sight of my beautiful Caroline. She is currently sleeping peacefully in her crib.

We owe the Fehrman-Lee family big time.

For the past few days, Caroline demands to wear her jacket and boots at all times. Perhaps we should consider turning up the heat...

Caroline, Douglas and Emma were eager to escape their pen at the playgroup this morning.

After some good exercise at the Little Gym this morning, Caroline took a 3.5 hour nap, about 2 hours longer than usual. This afternoon, despite extremely low temperatures, Caroline insisted on playing outside. Cheryl finished her finals for the semester today, so tomorrow she can freeze with Caroline in the yard.

Following our 82nd trip to Costco this month, Caroline got a rare chance to destroy Emma's house. Their house is far more baby-proof than ours (with all our exposed wiring and uncapped bottles of tasty antifreeze lying around), but their Christmas tree added a nice assortment of dangling items for the girls to play with.

No furniture is safe from our little monkey.

Emma and her dad came over this afternoon. Caroline was very excited to play with someone other than her tired dad. The girls had a good time wrestling over toys and climbing all over the furniture.

After a full day of partying (Bobby's 6th birthday) and running around outside despite the 40 degree chill, Caroline spent some time winding down this evening watching a potential upset in the making by her favorite football team. Unfortunately, she had to go to bed before the second half -

The playgroup went to the Children's Museum this morning. It was the first time for many of the other mothers, so I got to show off my extensive knowledge of the layout. Caroline's pictured here with Douglas and the omnipresent Emma at the far left. After some quality playtime in the Krispy Kreme, Food Lion and construction sections, the kids hit storytime in the library - it was Caroline's first experience. She displayed no modesty in snaking her way through the audience to the stage area and dancing around during the group singalongs; meanwhile, I hung back and pretended she wasn't my child.