Caroline is what you might call an active sleeper.  She is not one of those babies that lies perfectly still all night long.  She rolls over from her back to her belly to her back to her belly and somehow scoots herself from one end and side of the crib to the other.  She often wakes up with her head on the opposite end of how we put her down – somehow she’s spun around in her sleep.

I was thinking recently that it’s a good thing she’s so little so she doesn’t bump into anything during all this movement.  Then I started wondering how big MY bed would have to be to give me as much freedom to roll around as Caroline has.  Here are the numbers:

• Caroline’s bed is about 28″ x 52″ for 1456 sq. in.
• My current queen size bed (which I share with another person) is 60″ x 80″ for 4800 sq. in.
• For me to have the room that Caroline has my bed would need to be 70.5″ x 131″ for 9235.5 sq. in.  That would be 5′10.5″ x 10′11″.

That’s a big bed.  Maybe about the size of our whole room.  It sounds fun, though, until you have to change the sheets…

In other news, pictures!

Another cute sleeping baby photo. This is not the way we put her down...

Yes, yes, I know you’re not supposed to put anything in the crib with a sleeping baby, which means Mr. Penguin there is not allowed.  But sometimes if she wakes up a little early in the morning she’ll just play for a while if there’s something to play with and I get a little more time, so…

Here are a couple of shots from our first walk with the big-girl stroller (sans carseat)!  Caroline loved being able to see everything around her (not just looking up at her mom like usual).  I had to tighten the little straps ALL THE WAY to keep her in there, but it worked!

Our first walk in the big-girl stroller (sans carseat)!

My view on the big-girl-stroller walk

And a few more Halloween shots, including a few on our couch with some friends from PEPS!

The cookie monster!

Cookie Monster, a Sounders Star, and Snow White!

"Why didn't you want your hat on, Baby C? It totally made your outfit! Now you're just wearing a big blue thing..."

C is for cookie, that’s good enough for me…

The Cookie Monster

Grammy made this costume.  Turns out I had one like this when I was little, too.  If I had to bet, though, I’d say she’s cuter.

I love fall!  And hopefully Caroline will love it, too.  So far so good.

Last weekend we went out to Carnation, WA to Jubilee Farm for Caroline’s first pumpkin patch visit!  We had a grand time.  Jubilee Farm is an actual working farm that has a big pumpkin patch as well as pony rides, a petting zoo, a hay maze for the little ones, a pumpkin launcher for both little and big kids (judging by the number of men who got really excited every time a pumpkin splatted on the ground after flying through the air), etc.  It was so fun!  We went with another family from our PEPS group and some of their extended family, so we had a whole crew of kids, which made it even better.  It turned out to be pretty chilly and VERY muddy that day, so we didn’t get the cute Caroline-in-the-pumpkins photos that I had envisioned (she stayed in the Bjorn the entire time), but we still had a great time.  Here are a few photos:

We made it through the hay maze! (It's behind us, if you can't tell.)

I love these!

On the hayride out to the pumpkin patch. Caroline's under those blankets.

In the pumpkin patch!

Family photo among the pumpkins

Happy girl after the pumpkin patch

It doesn't show up that great, but I love the crazy hair that results from pulling a hat off.

Since it was so cold at the pumpkin patch, Caroline didn’t really get to show off her pumpkin shirt.  So we did a little photo shoot this afternoon at home:

Apparently, pumpkins are for eating.

Where did that little pumpkin go?

Seriously loving this pumpkin.

...And it's nap time.

On Saturday we also went to the National SMU Watch Party in Seattle – the SMU alums in Seattle got together to watch what might be our only televised game all season.  It’s a tough thing, though: the only time we get on TV is when we play teams that are good enough to be on TV.  And that means we get beat.  [sigh]  The game did not go well.  Caroline was the only smart one of us: she slept through the majority of the game:

Showing Mustang pride even in her sleep.

Losing the binky.

And we had a visit on Sunday from Aunt Emily and her friend, Troy.  Caroline LOVED Troy immediately.  Wow.  He made her laugh like no other!  I only caught the tale end of her longest laughing session ever (apparently everything Troy says is hilarious), so she’s starting to get tired here, but it’s still pretty darn cute.

Then we thought we’d see what Caroline might look like if she had long blond hair.  Unfortunately, all of us had trouble sitting still because we were laughing so hard, so it’s not the highest quality video ever.

Okay, that’s it for today.  We’re looking forward to putting Caroline in her cookie monster outfit this evening for some trick-or-treating (or just for some photos).  We’ll post again soon!

Yep, you read that right: FIVE MONTHS.  Caroline was five months old on Wednesday!  Can you believe it?  Time flies when you’re having fun!  To mark the occasion, we did a little photo shoot in the rocking chair yesterday.  Here are my favorites:

Giving the photographer instructions...

Serious face

Playing with her favorite toy (thanks, Lindsey!)

Sitting up like a big girl

"I love having my photo taken!"

Mom's new all-time favorite

Man, she’s cute.  Once I start snapping the photos, I can hardly stop!  She just smiles and smiles at the camera – we are so blessed to have such a happy girl!

We also continue to be thankful for our childcare situation.  Nanny Stephanie is awesome!  And we absolutely love the family we’re sharing with.  Stephanie sometimes takes photos of the kids and sends them during the day when they’re being especially cute, too.  Here are a couple from this past week:

Caroline on the chair, safe from Isabelle

Girls having a chat

Isabelle is a go-getter.  At 6.5 months, she’s crawling with great speed, pulling up on anything and everything, and not letting ANYTHING get in her way.  They are so fun to watch!

And here’s how Caroline sleeps these days: arms underneath, butt in the air:

Nap time

We are trying not to take her sleep patterns for granted: she is SUCH a good sleeper.  She takes either 3 or 4 naps each day, anywhere from 30 minutes to 2.5 hours, and then sleeps 10 hours or more at night.  And often when she’s playing during the day and gets tired, she’ll just close her eyes and go to sleep where she is.  Example below:

Looking like a giant girl, asleep in the almost-too-small bouncy chair

Sweet cheeks

To close this post, here’s a rare photo of the two of us, ready to go to breakfast with family on Thursday morning:

Ready to go!

Grandparents are in town this week and we’re headed to the pumpkin patch with some friends from PEPS today, so I’m sure there will be many more photos to post soon!  Thanks for reading.

I don’t know if you remember the photos, but Caroline did not exactly like bathing when she was first introduced to it.  I present Exhibit A:

Exhibit A: First Bath

Thankfully, she seems to have changed her mind.  Here she is having fun on a recent evening in the tub:

Recent bath time

Man, she looks HUGE, too!

I have been doing some computer upgrades lately, which might explain the lack of posting.  Or it might be because I’ve been traveling.  Or working too much.  Or because I’ve forgotten to take pictures of my absurdly adorable baby recently.  But have no fear: the computer is working better than ever and I’m going crazy with the camera!  There will be much to post very soon.

I was changing Caroline’s crib sheets the other night, and I noticed this huge sticker on the mattress:

Warranty

Is a 35-year warranty really necessary for a crib mattress?  I can’t believe you’d need a crib mattress for more than 10 years, max.  I’m imagining some folks in the Sealy baby mattress meetings saying, “Darn those Serta baby mattress people – they just added a 30-year warranty to their product which is pretty much identical to ours in every way!  We’ll show them: a 35-year warranty!”  Yah.  Probably not going to cash that one in.

In other news, Caroline has Fifth Disease.  Not really a huge deal, but she has a fever and generally feels yucky, which translates to irritable and needy (wants to be held all the time).  And since she has a fever, she can’t go to her nanny share and Mom has to stay home with her!  The first of many “my kid is sick” days, I’m imagining…

One of the primary reasons we moved to Seattle was to be closer to family.  We anticipated having a child someday and wanted her to grow up near her extended family, to be friends with cousins, to rely on aunts and uncles, and to be spoiled by grandparents.  In moving, we actually made the grandparents part more difficult, as Steven’s parents still live in East Texas and mine are in Georgia.  But a grandchild has been a wonderful excuse for the grandparents to visit Seattle more often, and we are so thankful!

Last weekend we got to do a huge family dinner for Harrison’s birthday.  All together, there were three aunts, three uncles, a grandmother, two parents, and six cousins around the table.  And Caroline slept the whole time!  She never even opened her eyes to see all of those doting family members around the table.

Then throughout the week, Caroline got to spend tons of quality time with Steven’s mom as she visited from Texas.  The two even shared a room!  Betsy and Caroline had fun adventures strolling around Seattle, doing a little shopping (thanks for the adorable pink outfit, Mamaw!), bouncing, rocking, and all the fun stuff a baby could want to do.  We were so thankful for her help, especially as Steven and I had super-busy work weeks with evening commitments almost every night.

Unfortunately, we were so busy we did not take any photos of them together!  I was so sad when I realized it today…  My parents and grandparents will be here in a few weeks, and I hope we do a better job with photos next time!

Last night Aunt Emily came over for dinner with a request from Grammy to make another video for the blog.  We didn’t quite get the project finished before Caroline fell asleep, but we did the video, anyway.  Here ‘ya go, Grammy!

We went for Caroline’s 4-month check-up today.  First I must say we’re so glad that Dr. Sheridan is back from maternity leave.  She’s great!  I do wish that her baby boy was sleeping a bit better for her… hopefully he will catch on soon!

Here are the 4-month stats (about 10 days late):

• Weight: 16 pounds, 3 ounces – 94th percentile
• Length: 27 inches – off the chart
• Head Circumference: 42.7 (I’m guessing this is cm?) – 95th percentile.

So she’s still a big baby, but totally proportional!  That’s good.

She also got the second round of vaccinations, which make her not feel good.  She was basically either whining/crying or sleeping all day/evening after she got the shots.  No good.  She’s normally such an easy, happy baby, though, I feel like I can handle it for one or two days every few months if we need to!  And the pediatrician was kind enough to give this mom a flu vaccine, so I’m good to go until the swine flu vaccine arrives later this month (then we’ll get that, too).  I normally wouldn’t care anything about it, but I want to do everything I can to make sure Caroline doesn’t get sick!

I also just remembered that I took a short video on my cell phone last night at the baseball game.  Here it is:

Not that interesting, I admit, but shows that we were really there!  Caroline was sad she couldn’t have a yummy hot dog, but she eventually decided her bottle of milk was okay.  I told her she can maybe try a hot dog NEXT season.

We’ve had a fun-filled couple of weeks.  Caroline had her first out-of-state trip and her first baseball game, and we all had our first meetings with our PEPS (program for early parent support) group.

Last Saturday, we decided to get up super-early and go down to Portland for the day to visit Caroline’s cousins and to watch 4-year-old Harrison play soccer.  It was so fun!  The drive actually wasn’t bad at all, and Caroline did great in the car!  We had a wonderful time visiting, and it was so fun to watch soccer practice and hang out with the Lloyds.  Sweet Harrison even asked to hold Caroline during the afternoon – here they are looking far too grown-up:

Sweet kids together!

Look at those long legs!

Caroline loves her cousin.

Last night we took C to her first baseball game.  Steven’s firm had some tickets and we got to go for free!  She looked super-cute in her pink Mariners outfit and really loved looking around at everything until she fell asleep in the 4th or 5th inning.  We left with a sleeping baby at the 7th-inning stretch but the Mariners pulled out the win anyway.

This photo even made it on the jumbotron!

Caroline doesn't quite understand the concept of looking at the camera yet...

Sleeping on Dad during the later innings

We also started meeting weekly with our PEPS group, and it’s great!  There are seven families (I think), all with babies born within a month of each other (the oldest was born May 20 (one day earlier than Caroline!) and the youngest was born June 17).  It’s really fun, and so great to connect with other parents going through the same things we are.

Caroline continues to grow and change DAILY.  This week she’s been sitting up better in the Bumbo chair – lots less slouching!  She’s also reaching for more things and starting to feel things out with her hands, including her favorite little stuffed monkey that Crystal gave her and the softest lamb ever from Brian and Liz.  She cracks me up exploring things really slowly and seriously with her long skinny fingers – sort of reminds me of ET, but definitely cuter.

She’s also doing better on her belly and pushing up on her knees some in preparation for crawling, though she seems to forget to put her arms in front of her about half the time so she looks like a little penguin or a seal.

The little seal

And she continues to spend much of the night (or nap) sleeping on her belly, often with her cute little bum stuck up in the air:

Sound asleep

She'll wake up from this one with little finger marks on her face.

I wonder if this is a precursor to sleeping with one hand under the pillow?

Sweet Feet

And since it’s been a while since we’ve posted, here are two videos to bring you up to speed.  The first is evidence of Caroline’s very favorite activity in the entire world: bouncing in the bouncy chair:

And here is Caroline telling us a story.  Or giving us a run-down of the day’s events.  Or who knows!  She’s quite the chatty cathy these days…

We’re headed to the doctor today for her four-month check-up (about 10 days late, because the pediatrician just got back from maternity leave!), so I’ll post stats as soon as I have them!

On Friday, Caroline and I had the wonderful treat of meeting up with one of my dear friends from Duke Divinity School and her precious 9-month-old.  The weather turned out to be absolutely perfect: sunny, clear, and warm-but-not-hot temperatures.  We had lots of time to catch up and admire the babies, then we walked to Pike Place Market (which was super-crowded with the last of the cruise ship tourists) and back – then we went to the Space Needle.  It was as clear as I have ever seen it.  Mount Rainier was amazing, Mount Baker was perfectly clear, and the Cascades and Olympics were parading on either side of us.  There were float planes taking off from Lake Union, sailboats in Lake Washington, and huge ships in Elliott Bay.  It was GORGEOUS.  Here’s a little video I took:

So, not the best video.  But so fun!