Thanks to approaching storms, Caroline and I joined Emma and her mom at the mall this afternoon. Thankfully, Nicole agreed to accompany the girls on the carousel, sparing me the guaranteed nausea. Caroline's eyes seem to be better; according to Caroline, she no longer needs the eyedrops despite the recommended 7 day course of treatment.

Caroline's visit to the doctor confirmed that she did, in fact, have conjunctivitis. She's been fully medicated throughout the day, and near bedtime, the goo seemed to be gone. Putting the drops in her eyes is, well, challenging... but, necessary if Caroline will be ready for the return to the place of her birth on Friday. Woo-hoo!

Someone started showing signs of pink eye after her nap yesterday. This morning, they are definitely pink. We're going to the doctor in a few minutes despite Caroline's pleas not to.

Caroline and her buddy Ben had a great time at playgroup on Monday morning. And Caroline injured herself only once, taking a spill during her dismount from one of the new rocking animals. Many other playgroupians also took a fall on these evil additions.

Emma and her parents came over again to play. As the girls played happily, the adults watched our football team clinch a spot in the ACC championship game. Go Deacs!

Tonight we were thankful that Nicole and Ben cooked up a scrumptious dinner -- a succulent turkey, cranberry salad, corn souffle, green beans with fat back, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes (with dill and sour cream!!), and a fabulous cheesecake -- and brought it over to our house so I didn't have to have allergy issues at their house (they have 2 basset hounds). What wonderful friends. Jay and I cooked up some awesome stuffing (Grandma Zukowski's recipe), provided some brie and fixins, and offered up some other Costco-purchased treats. What a great day!

Caroline and Emma had a great time playing dress-up with all of Caroline's clothes. Baby Alec was an angel. And we adults got to chat for a while, and we got to check out all of the weekend sales in our local news circulars. A lovely Thanksgiving all around.

(Cheryl wrote this)

When Caroline was about 10 weeks old, she and I were visiting my parents (AKA Grandma and Papa Z) in Toms River. My Aunt Lorry (mother of six) came to see Caroline for the first time. She and my dad (her brother) began reminiscing about their respective experiences parenting during the first few years of their kids' lives. I remember some laughter about the toddler "I do it!" stage, and toddlers' desire to "help" with many activities. I couldn't imagine that the 9 children they had between them could ALL have possibly said the grammatically suspect "I do it", or that walking, talking toddlers would be relatively, well, useless when trying to assist with even the most mundane of activities. Heh. What a sucker I am.

If you ask her, Caroline is capable of doing pretty much everything all by herself. For the past few weeks she uses her super-angry voice to shriek, "I DO IT!!!!!", whenever we mention nearly any non-Caroline-only activity. She gives herself baths (removes all of her clothes and turns on the bathwater)...she feeds herself (this really isn't anything new, except she wants to pour herself drinks from giant bottles that just might outweigh her)...and she dresses herself (stretches out the necks to 3 times their normal size to get them over her noggin, and then takes 15 minutes to find any necessary arm and leg holes). If you attempt to assist her in any way, she absolutely freaks out.

Additionally, she demands to help with nearly every activity we perform -- like laundry, leaf-raking, and cleaning. Although the thought is appreciated, this help is really not constructive. It results in tasks taking MUCH longer than anticipated. I believe this is what my dad and aunt referred to as "negative help". If their sage advice is to be followed, it seems that once Caroline has skills enough to be useful, she will no longer WANT to help us. She will, in fact, resent our asking for help.

But she is SUPER cute when she stretches that shirt over her head and yells, "I did it!!! I did it myself!!!". Apparently, if I were a superhero, cuteness would be my kryptonite. And that's just fine with me.

Caroline is on a bagel eating kick lately, preferring them for all her meals today. I'm trying to get as much use out of her favorite shirt before it's too far away from Halloween to be acceptable. She also demands to dress herself now, so pretty much all her shirts and pajamas are getting quite stretched out - if I keep the nicer ones out of rotation, they won't get ruined before she gets the dressing thing down.

If it's a Sunday, we do nothing. Caroline doesn't seem to mind.

We went to the Little Gym this morning, and did nothing else afterwards. The weather turned cold and windy this afternoon, so an afternoon park trip was canceled. Cheryl was home briefly to give Caroline a break from my schedule of non-events.

Caroline got to show Emma her new kitchen set today (Christmas present from the Grandparents Zuke).

Much to Caroline's delight, bad weather at their destination forced the grandparents to stay an extra day. Someone's going to be pretty sad tomorrow when they have to go.

Grandma cooked us all some very tasty food. Caroline was pleased.

The Grandparents Zukowski came to visit for a few days. We took Caroline to the Children's Museum on Friday, and it was fun for all, except for me and the Grandparents Zukowski. There was also a dandy trip to Caroline's favorite store and some quality outdoor time in the 80 degree weather.

Caroline makes another appearance on television. I sound like I'm crying. The reporter asked a bunch of leading questions about the election turnout, and I answered with obviously no preparation. And it was windy and raining - that's why my hair is messed up and I haven't shaved in two days. Yup, that's why.

Caroline and Aaron at Miller Park.

Caroline and Alanah at Miller Park.