we have teeth!

that's right! the little lady has finally decided the time has come to cut teeth, and we are PAYING for it! she cut one mon., one today and has 3 more pushing through. Although it is cute, I am a little upset about this... she isn't cutting teeth in the typical order. She is cutting teeth on the top, so before much longer my sweet little baby girl is going to have a mouthful of buck teeth... pics will follow when she learns to sit still... (dont hold your breath!)

One already?

Cara tunred one this week! I can't believe how completely fast this year has flown by! We celebrated her birthday yesterday (I spent sat, her actual birthday at an all day scrapbook retreat, it was WONDERFUL!) My sister Lyndsay and her boyfriend came over to help us celebrate. She slept during mosof the party which allowed us to eat a nice dinner without having her beg, then we woke her up for cake. She didn't like the outfit I tried to make her wear but liked the fire... In the end, her demands won out and she was allowed to eat like she prefers, mostly naked...

Hey, look Jonas... this is yummy!!1

She crawled back for more after she left the first time... It was really fun celebrating and the boys were super excited for it! We gave her a push walker thats a baby doll stroller. i'll have to post those pics later, she is so stinking cute walking behind her baby (whom i have named Kensington, since John didnt let me use that name for a real child of ours...)

Heres what she does: She weighed in at 18 pounds 5 ounces this morning (15%) and was 29 inches long (75%). she doesnt walk yet and MAY have cut her first tooth today (its the upper front, but she hasnt let me get a good look yet) She throws her arms up for touchdown whenever she sees a football game, or a hokie anything. she loves to blow sloppy kisses and thinks spitting is super funny. bath time is her favorite part of the day, and she still doesnt sleep through the night. we get a 5 hour stretch from 7-11 or midnight, then she gets up every 2 hours afterwards... it's killing me!

Bed head! she takes a great afternoon nap for us (2-3 hours) and is really cheerful when she wakes up

she goes to school with me 3 mornings a week and loves watching the big girls in the class play. her favorite part of school is the child size sink and she washes her hands all morning.

she loves to do whatever her brothers are doing and thinks she is such a big kid. steps are a recent discovery and we cant keep her off them.

if you're willing, she will swing for hours! she has been suhc a joy this past year! Happy birthday baby!!!!!

no more waiting on her faithful (but slow) servants

I don't know if I am slow to meet her needs, or if we have a fiercely independent child on our hands, but she has been so whiny lately as a result of frustration in not being able to do things for herself. Feeding times have become a nightmare and a constant battle with this child. She tries to grab the spoon and loves rubbing the wall with gross hands. After several evenings of annoying dinner time issues, I finally gave in and let her do it herself.... She loved it! (almost 9 months, rice and applesauce)

She has also hit so many milestones recently: she learned to sit herself up from her belly to criss cross applesauce around 8 1/2 months. She also quit putting herself back to sleep then because she would sit up in her crib to cry and won't lay back down. She also started clapping for herself. Yesterday she figured out the game of peek a boo and LOVES it! She will cover her eyes with anything cloth and laugh when you say peek a boo... I LOVE this age!!!

and finally: On the day she turned 9 months, Carrington figured out the art of crawling. She had been butt scooting for a while but wasn't making a lot of progress with it.... In all her glory.... Here is her version of crawling!

mullet no mo

It had gotten bad.... She got a bang trim in feb. but we didn't touch anything else. In the past few weeks as her head has gotten bigger, she has lost a lot on the sides, and is rubbing a bald spot on the back. john gave the OK for a trim, and I cut it before I chickened out..

It was so long and straggly....

she looks a little bit more like a boy, but I think it will grow out nicer now!

pics

Carrington is finally starting to hit her milestones! She rolled over front to back for the first time at 4 months, but then wouldn't do it again... this past week she started rolling over front to back and back to front! She laso FINALLY started grabbing for things! I feel so much better now that she is doing things she was suposed to do weeks ago...

lovey lamb

This is a sshlumpie. Douglas makes it, and true to every parents need, they sell it either as a single, or for the wise parent, in sets of 2 for a 10% discount. Upon the birth of Carrington, we received no less then 4 "loveys"... 2 bears with blankets attached, a sshlumpie (which we call lovey lamb) and a duck that was generously handed down by Sullivan. I have done my absolute best to ger Carrington attached to lovey lamb, and mostly because i liked it the best...

I started making her cry it out this past week. I have been so tired (she sleeps in bed with me and is up every 2 hours to eat) and I needed the space. I have also recently started her on solids, in hopes that she would sleep better. Last night, for the first time ever, she ate almost a full jar of bananas, went to bed at 7 p and didnt wake up until 1230 a... that is GREAT for her!! I was so excited. Also last night was the first night she didn't cry.

Tonight, I fed her (sweet potatoes, and she's a pig!) bathed her, and put her to bed EXACTLY like last night. She screamed and screamed. John fixed her, I fixed her but to no avail. This totally stresses me out... After a few minutes, John ran out to the car and returned with lovey lamb. She immediatly fell asleep after she snuggled it up to her. Amazing! I totally work so hard to ger her attached- every time she cries because she's tired, I rub this on her cheek so now she does it to put herself ot sleep. When she gets hurt (like when van accidently head butts her) I hold her close and rub it on her cheek.... Why is it that when i put her down for bed I forget?? i felt so bad for her! I totally underestimate the power of a lovey item, as none of hte boys ever had anything they were super attached to... Its magic!!! (now if the toystore that i ordered these from would hurry up and get my 2 extras in stock, we'll be good to go! If I lose this, i am in so much trouble now!!)

our fat baby weighs in at 14 pounds now!

the most smartest girl

in the room... (in the whole wide room)

John was saying "I love you" to Carrington and she (several times) made the sounds back to him. The one we actually got on tape isn't nearly as good as what she had been telling him... She is so chatty!

the bumgenius experiment

yes. this is her bum, and yes, she blew out... AGAIN

Pampers has failed me. I have been using pampers for almost 9 years, and have spent an estimated 8500.00 on their products... (do the math: 50/month for diapers and wipes X number of months kids are in diapers...) and that's a LOW estimate. I KNOW that I spent closer to 70 a month for that first month and a half... I was also getting to the point with her that blowouts were occuring several times a day, leaving me with a full hamper and tons of stain spraying. After talking to a few friends, and with Johns unconditional encouragement;-) I switched Carrington over to cloth diapers. We are using bumgenius 3.0 with her, and I LOVE it! I wasn't so sure at first how I would feel about it, so we started with 5 diapers. It was such a pain those first few days because I was trying to use them as much as possible so I was washing all the time to try to get a full experience. I felt wasteful at that point because I was washing ALL the time. After adding 6 more diapers, I finally felt like I was getting the experience I was hoping for. I am still planning on adding another 12 diapers (at a cost of 17.00 each) so that I am not washing a frequently, but it has totally been worth it! She still wears disposable at night (because I don't have enough yet) and I had to put her in one this morning since her diapers were drying. As we were trying to walk out the door, I picked her up and noticed she had blown out. I was totally frustrated. I had forgotten in these past 2 weeks all about blowouts. The Bumgenius come with a poop pocket, if you will, which catches those explosive ones that shoot up the back. We have not had a single blowout in those diapers (even when i forgot to change her and she went for 5 hours in a diaper). The water bill went up 7.00 this past month, and we had to buy free and clear detergent, so there were some expenses involved that don't come with disposable, but we only use 1 tsp./load of diapers, so we anticiapte that lasting a LOOOONG time, and not having to wash so many poopy clothes make washing the diapers totally worth it. Overall, I highly recommend these, and I am so glad we found them. But most importantly, besides being wonderful, they are super soft on her royal bottom, and SUPER CUTE! (they come in 9 colors: white, lt. pink, dk. pink, lt./dk. yellow, lt/dk green, lt/dk. blue available at cottonbabies.com)

Look at her fat thighs!! she is such a chunker!

Introduction: life of a princess

If my 3 month old could single out her pinkie, hold it up, and show it to you, you would probably be surprised to see what was there... Around that finger would be taylor, almost 9, Jonas, almost 8, Mason-6, Sullivan- 3, her father (30!!) and her mother, age withheld to protect...

This poor sweet girl was born into a family of 4 older brothers... We call her our little princess, though we SWORE we would never use that term in our home. Sullivan, knowing nothing about storybook princesses, began calling her princess Lea, as that is the only princess he can picture. Cinderella, Ariel, and Snow White are unchartered teritory thus far in this household. Oh how that will change!

i have a goal this year of capturing small moments in my childrens lives. this is my attempt. A blog only a mother (and grandmother, and maybe aunts....) could love. Feel free to check in for pictures and updates, but again, this is the smaller moments.