There's two days of Halloween pics coming, but I left my camera somewhere this morning. Hopefully I'll get it back tomorrow and update. In the meantime, here's a video from December 2003 of the ultrasound where we found out Caroline was going to be a girl. It's spliced together with stills of Cheryl taken at a Padres pre-season game about a month before Caroline was born. I just uploaded it today, but made it a couple days before she was born.

Allison hosted a playgroup halloween party with pumpkin painting and monster coloring. It rocked.

I cleaned up the leaves in the front yard for the first time today, making a giant pile at the curb. Leave pickup starts on Wednesday, so most raking in the neighborhood began this weekend.


And yet, the majority of the leaves haven't fallen yet. Looks like I'll be getting Caroline a toddler rake...

Caroline and I checked out the Triad Live Steamers, where a few times a year the members give the public free rides on their miniature trains. We took three rides; Caroline had a fantastic time. And I give it a thumbs up.

Caroline got her flu shot today. After a good hour of crying and exaggerated limping (I'm pretty sure she was faking at least some of the injury), she forgave me.

There was another video on here that documented her actually receiving the flu shot goodness, but Cheryl demanded I remove it.

Caroline regularly climbs and walks the big balance beam at the Little Gym on her own, even asking me to move away from her - as she needs no assistance. She's so confident up there that she'll eagerly dance for the camera.

Despite the frigid weather, Caroline would not be denied some relaxing hammock time after helping me mow the backyard.

Caroline dancing with her Zukowski aunts at lunch shortly before we flew home.

We flew to NJ today to attend my cousin's wedding in Connecticut tomorrow. Caroline will be staying with the grandparents while Cheryl and I have a child-free party at the wedding. Caroline, I'm sure, will be more than happy her situation.
We were stuck on the plane for an hour and a half before we took off. Caroline and Cheryl used this time to catch up on some sleep.

I had jury duty today, so Caroline got to spend the morning with her buddy Mikey (thanks Carley!). Luckily we were released after 3 uneventful hours, so we were reunited for afternoon fun. Caroline spent a good half hour trying to injure herself on the slide at Polo Park; she was unsuccessful.

Caroline and Emma went to storytime at the library this morning. Sadly, the children's librarian at the Reynolda Manor branch will be leaving for a new job after next week's storytime. She will be missed.

Caroline is all about umbrellas lately.

Pictures from playgroup at Bolton Park this morning. There was much sadness from most of the kids as their parents took them home for lunch after a few very active hours.

This morning, Caroline, Jay, and I went up to Mt. Airy for their annual fall festival. We met up with the Fehrman-Lees for a few hours of taking in the sights. The quaint streets of the sleepy mountain town were lined with artisans, crafters, and food. The air was fresh with the crisp scent of autumn. Interestingly, the crowd was extremely diverse. There were white people who were old, young, middle aged. Some of them even had brown hair!



This evening, Caroline insisted on playing video games while Jay cooked us up some dinner. To my utter shock, she actually kicked my bum when we were playing Primal Rage. She was Saurus, the giant T-Rex that fells mere giant monkeys with a few tail flicks. I'm really not kidding - she was capable of beating me. It seemed that she even understood the way to use the controller. And I'm not even drunk yet!

Caroline apparently still fits in the Baby Bjorn, although we haven't used it in well over a year. It holds up to 26 lbs., and she's been stuck around 25.4 for the last few months. We're going to send it to her cousin Adelaide tomorrow - she's almost 8 lbs., the minimum weight for use.

Caroline and I went to playgroup at Tanglewood this morning. She absolutely loves playgroup, and asks to go everyday. Seriously. Two more videos.

We joined some friends at the zoo today. Caroline had a fantastic time chasing Alanah around, and begged for us to stay longer to play at the playground. And although we've been a few times before, I think she's finally really starting to enjoy learning about the animals. And of course, she had to pose for some pictures with her favorite wild cat.

We met up with Emma and Alanah at the fair today. Although I think we're a year away from doing the rides, the girls had fun eating bad food (Caroline had her first corn dog), looking at the exhibits (including the always memorable canning competition pictured here) and checking out the animals.

Despite its reputation, we went to Miller Park this morning for playgroup. I brought Caroline's little plastic bike, which she refused to share even when she was not playing with it. In this video, many of the playgroup were taking turns sliding down the tube slide. If you can make out the audio, you can hear each kids' name being announced (by Sarah) as they took their turn. Caroline slides first and last in the video.