It was Cheryl's turn today.

Yesterday I battled a stomach ailment and was pretty much incapacitated until this morning. Today we found Caroline had gotten sick in her crib sometime during the night. Other than a decreased appetite and longer nap, she seemed pretty normal - and made me look really bad for the way I handled the disease.

We joined some other couples from the MBA program at a brunch at Aaron's house. Caroline, Emma, Aaron, Bobby and Mikey had a great time sharing their sippy cups, attempting to grab knives from the table, and fighting over toys that they all have at home and never play with unless someone else wants it right then too. And the food was awesome.

Caroline got to take another ride on Emma's jeep today, as the playgroup was hosted by Emma's mom. She's jammed into the two person seat here with Emma and Paige.


Later, Caroline got a good bruise to her eye courtesy of her mom - Cheryl showed her who's boss.

Emma got a new battery powered jeep from one of her grandparents for Christmas. The girls did their best to try to break it this afternoon.



Emma's neighbor Mackenzie joined Emma and Caroline on their adventures around Saffron Place.

Caroline got a new keyboard from Poppy and Grandma Libby for Christmas. She's doing her best to try to break it.

The girls at the park, enjoying the car play area.

Despite a busy day (park trip, Little Gym) and only a short nap yesterday, Caroline woke up at 5:58am this morning. She's clearly really tired. In other news, her friend Aaron had hand-foot-mouth disease this weekend - and he came to play at the park with Emma and Caroline yesterday. And yes, it was the Miller Park for Sick Children, so we couldn't really exclude him. Although his mom claims that he's on the mend, and no longer contagious, if either girl gets his disease, Caroline will never be playing with him again.

Both Caroline and Emma have been battling colds for the last couple days, so other than a trip to our favorite store this afternoon, we haven't done much. Nicole suspects they caught their diseases from some sick children at the park on Thursday. In hindsight, we probably shouldn't have taken them to "Miller Park for Sick Children" - especially considering that, at the time, they weren't sick.

These are stolen from another mom's blog from our Thursday playgroup. I'm thinking it may be time for me to either go completely bald or get some implants. I can't believe my hairline looks like that.

Caroline wasn't going to sleep easily tonight. After crying for us to come in about 5 times only to smile and point out her feet or chest, Jay went in with the camera. Although she looks pretty sad here, Jay reports that once the pic was snapped, Caroline sat down and then cuddled up with her blankets and dolls and settled in for the night. Maybe she was sad that her paparazzi wasn't as active today as usual...

This morning, we went to the Little Gym for the 3rd time this week. Caroline continues to withhold her great performances when I'm around, but the other kids weren't really into following instructions either. We're probably going again tomorrow morning, and I may have to break out the shock collar.


The rain and colder weather moved in this afternoon, so when Emma's parents called about a trip to the mall this evening, we jumped at the offer. While Ben and I chased Emma and Caroline around the mall's new toddler play area, Cheryl and Nicole bonded with another local mom.

Caroline and Jay donned their Big Dude/Little Dude shirts today for playgroup. Caroline was one of the few intrepid tots who braved the under-the-parachute run, since she's mastered that skill at Little Gym.
Edit - Cheryl posted this.

I took Caroline to the Little Gym this morning after an early morning nap. Cheryl reports Caroline followed directions flawlessly when they went to last night's session; I don't know if I believe it. The other three kids there weren't really 'performing' either, and one had to leave early in mid-tantrum (Caroline's enemy, Tea).
Afterwards, we braved a heavy rainstorm to join Emma and her mom at the mall, where the girls spent over an hour playing in the new toddler area.
Following an afternoon nap, Caroline and I took a stroll around the neighborhood. Caroline walked most of the way, until she became too distracted by unseen barking dogs and wet sticks on the street.

It seems that Jay and I are battling yet another flurry of developmental leaps forward for Caroline that are disturbing her sleep. Caroline's linguistic skills seem to be advancing at an exponential rate just as her ability to control her bladder continues to astound us. I also think she's getting her last two baby teeth for a while; her final two 2-year molars are threatening to break through her upper gums. Anyway, there's been quite a bit of night-waking and super early-rising for the past week, the likes of which we haven't seen since she started walking.

This morning, Caroline woke before 6am to delight us with her blood-curdling shrieks and cries for a while before I convinced Jay to rescue her so I could sleep. Last night, she insisted on another "nap"* at 2:30am and I caved. If this continues tonight, I'm thinking the white noise machine is going to get cranked to 11 and Jay's earplugs are going to get some use. If Jay doesn't get some good sleep soon, I foresee something like The Shinning** happening in our house.

*See the 9 Jan 2006 post for the CJZ definition of "nap".

**Not to be confused with "The Shining", by Stephen King or the film of the same name directed by the late Stanley Kubrick. This references The Simpsons, Treehouse of Horror V (2F03) which references the aforementioned works. Sort of. Go on and check it out.

Despite screaming from her crib to insist on a "nap" (Caroline-speak for getting into bed with Mommy and Daddy) at 5am, we were quite happy to indulge our girl's love of the great outdoors. Temperatures were quite balmy today, so she took a stroll with me and hit the park twice with Jay, logging play time with the Potts twins and her buddy Aaron. I'm not sure who the Euro-looking guy with the lady and baby are on the bench in the background, but I plan to write spy novels about them.


More Caroline-in-the-park shots.

We had a busy weekend with trips to the Little Gym, the Children's Museum, and the park . Despite all the activity, last night Caroline woke up around 2:15am and insisted on being near both her parents - when I tried to rock her back to sleep, she screamed for mommy, and after a short stint in our bed, Cheryl tried to rock her while she screamed for me. Good times. She was very happy today, and also up to new tricks, as she discovered that crayons work very well on our kitchen floor. Finally, Cheryl noticed that one of her top front teeth has a little chip in the middle, and we have no idea when that happened. According to Aaron's mom, Michelle, her pediatrician told her that almost all toddlers chip a baby tooth at some point, and the doctors no longer point them out to parents because they're so common yet cause unnecessary angst. Not sure if that's true, but Caroline doesn't seem to mind hers - and if in a few years she does care, we'll get a sweet gold cap for her.

Caroline fought sleep last night and then woke up very early - shortly after 6am. She spied her mittens while eating breakfast and now angrily refuses to take them off.

Here's Cheryl on the phone with my twin sister, Beck, a few minutes ago. Beck called to let us know that she got married last Thursday. Congratulations, Beck! Now Caroline has a new uncle - JT. We can't wait to meet him.

We went with Emma, Aaron and their parents to Thai food this afternoon, in a post-holiday, pre-second semester gathering (school resumes tomorrow). Luckily the restaurant was pretty empty, because the young-uns were quite rambunctious. Caroline, as usual, refused all but the least calorically intensive foods (Cheryl's salad and some crayons).
In language development news, Caroline has started saying some short sentences, with a distinct "Bye Dad" as Cheryl left with her for the Little Gym tonight.

The girls took advantage of the unseasonably warm New Year's Day by going to the park this afternoon. Both recovered pretty well from a late night of partying - Caroline took a good long early nap, while Emma slept until almost 11.
My college buddy John visited this weekend (his job training kept him far from home over this holiday), and Caroline took a real shine to him - he has a 4 month old daughter at home, and he clearly has the right stuff to be a great dad.

Happy New Year!