Odds and Ends

• For those of you that asked after seeing this post--no, we did not take a full wooden cradle to West Palm for Caroline to sleep in. I'm not that prepared. You may remember from this post that Mike and all the kids in his generation used it, and now all of their babies are using it. His Aunt Martha called before our trip and asked us to bring it back for a "friend" to use. A friend wants to use a 40 year old cradle that has only sentimental value in our family? Sounded suspicious. We were excited to find out once we got there that actually Mike's cousin, Tarrah, is having a baby in January! Congratulations, Tarrah and Jesse!

And just a little nostalgia...here is a picture I took the first time we put Caroline in it...

and the last time--right before we loaded it in the car.

• Thanks, Amy, for adjusting the picture above for the header. I (and all of Amy's friends) am spoiled by her generosity with her time and talents!
• Caroline and I are busy today as we get ready for an exciting weekend! Gogo is coming tonight so that she will be here for Caroline's baby dedication on Sunday and a family lunch at our house afterwards. We are very excited about publicly dedicating ourselves to raising Caroline to know and love the Lord!

Rice Trice Tries Rice

Some of you may remember Caroline's first nickname, Rice Trice, that seemed to stick after I mentioned something about our "rice sized Trice" in an email in the early stages of my pregnancy.

Fortunately, no one calls her Rice anymore--but she was a little rice covered Trice yesterday when she tried her first solid food. I resorted to using the video camera to take still shots, and that didn't work out very well, but at least we have some fuzzy shots to document the occasion.

I started with this

and this

It took some of this

and this
and this
before we got this

and finally ended up with this

and this

Unfortunately, you can't tell from these grainy pictures, but, thanks to her recent discovery of her feet, she literally had rice cereal from head to toe. It was caked on on her calves and even in her eyebrows. Needless to say, she went straight from the Bumbo to the bathtub.

What I've learned in our three and half days of "doing solids":

• Caroline strongly prefers "mom's milk" to formula or water as a mixer.
• The runnier it is, the better is goes down. I started with consistency of grits and learned that the consistency of a melted milkshake is better.
• The longer it sits, the runnier it gets...so if I start with grits, we have melted milkshake by the time we get to the end of the bowl.
• The portable swing with a changing pad cover works better than the Bumbo since Caroline still isn't very steady in the Bumbo.
• Letting her suck her fingers between each bite is the best (and only) way to get her to swallow. And it really takes two people to feed her and stop her from putting her fingers in her mouth at the same time so there isn't much of a choice when I'm solo. It's not ideal because I'd like to be sure she won't be on her first date and have to suck her fingers between each bite of her salad to get it down, but I'm sure that will work itself out.

Beach Bums

Because it is rare that this side of the family is all together at once, we decided to have Mike's cousin snap some family photos on the beach during our visit. It's funny how my standards for "good photos" have changed now that there are babies around. If the lighting and background is nice, everyone is looking at or in the approximate direction of the camera, and no one is crying, I consider it a great photo--no matter how unflattering it might be to me. That's the case with these...I think they are awesome despite the fact I don't think I'd win any beauty contests. The whole family

Gogo and her grandbabies

The Allen Family

It is so much fun to compare this to the pictures we took a couple of years ago in the same spot wearing the same clothes...of course the clothes are a little tighter and we look a little worse for the wear, but it is all worth that third little person in the front!

Some close ups of that third little person:

And her cousins

Lacie had quite a job holding both babies...she didn't let go (or look away from the camera) no matter what!

Sharing Firsts

Hi, everyone! We're home!

We just got back from our family visit in West Palm Beach, and despite the camera catastrophe, I do have some pictures to accompany our tales about the week thanks to Aunt Monica!

Caroline and her cousin Nathan...shared many firsts this week, one of which was their first trip to the

We had so much fun strolling...and I do mean strolling... around and seeing all the animals. Both babies stayed awake for most of the trip, and Caroline really seemed to take in the sights.

Caroline says hi from the bird show where several large birds landed on a perch only a few feet away from her while she watched, wide eyed!Next time Caroline and Nathan will be able to join Lacie in the fountain!

The next first was a visit to the beach. While Nathan spent this first napping, Caroline braved the waves without him.

Posing with Dad and Mom before the first dip. You can see in the background that Gogo had already ventured out a little further.

Waiting for the wave...Woosh! As you can see from her blank expressions, she wasn't overly impressed.

Our little family.

Hanging out in the water with Aunt Monica.

Notice how pink her face was. She wasn't burned, but just hot. We were only actually at the beach for a little less than an hour because a storm rolled in right after we did. That was after two hours of packing supplies, driving to the beach, finding and paying for parking, unloading the cars, setting up our towels and baby equipment, and slathering everyone with sunscreen. Caroline says that worked out just fine for her, though. An hour was plenty!

That night Caroline had another first.

We give her a bottle with a couple of ounces of formula and her vitamins after her last feeding each night. Gogo was doing the honors when Caroline reached up and held the bottle all by herself! She usually puts her hands on it and "helps", but this was the first time she held it without any other support.

Speaking of mealtime, Nathan had a big first during our trip--he started solid food (if you can call runny rice cereal solid food). Caroline wasn't far behind as she had her first taste of rice cereal today. More about that tomorrow!

A Happy Homecoming...and A Sad Goodbye

We're having a great time this week with our family in Florida! We drove through the night Thursday night, headed straight to the West Palm Beach airport and arrived just in time to see the Allens get off their plane. We, along with fellow welcomers, Gogo, Grampy, Grammy, and Nancy (Monica's long time friend) were so happy to see them! Caroline was excited about the big meeting!

Everyone should have their own Uncle Mike!

Lacie and Gogo are big buddies!

Finally meeting her little cousin, Nathan. Caroline is a month older than Nathan.

Grammy and Grampy are happy to see their grandbabies.

After a few minutes of loving on the kids, Mike remembers to hug his sister.

The whole crew!

Mike's cousin, Tarrah, has some rental property and generously offered us a big house with lots of space for everyone to use this week. We spent the next day or so visiting and lovin' on the cousins!

Lacie LOVES her baby cousin! And Caroline loves her right back!

If Caroline cries, we can count on Lacie to be there with a hug and sweet words.

While Mike is usually pretty popular with the babies, things don't always work out for him.

So Gogo stepped in to lend a hand.

Aunt Vickie has some words of wisdom for Caroline.

It was all fun and games until...

(no pictures)

my camera was dropped. It wasn't the first tumble it has ever taken, but it was its last. Those were the last picture my little camera will ever take...

So, unfortunately, even though we are still here having fun and making lots of memories, I don't have any other pictures to post...but I'll figure something out very soon. Caroline is already wondering where that flashing light is that used to go off in her face every few minutes!

Over the hill and through the woods...

to Gogo's house we go! Mike's sister and her family are coming home from their mission work in Africa for a visit, and we are headed to West Palm to spend a little over a week with them. When we last saw them over a year ago, Lacie (now 4) was the only grandchild, and now we have a total of three! So everyone has a new cousin to meet! We'll drive through the night (that seemed to work best last time we made the 10 hour trip with Caroline) and arrive in time to greet Steven, Monica, Lacie, and Nathan at the airport. Caroline and I have had a long day of packing...I had to work hard to keep her busy while I got everything ready.

She cooperated for a little while

...but most of the time she did not!

I have never been one to travel light, but on a 9 day trip with a baby, I have outdone myself...

(And that is just the very back--but it's actually much more organized than it looks.)

I was never a Boy Scout, but I've always been a big believer in their motto to"Be prepared!"

Baseball Hypnosis

My grandparents, Granny and Pop, are true baseball fans. They NEVER miss a Braves game, and they were closely following UGA in the College World Series a few weeks ago. So, of course, that's what was on tv when we stopped by for a visit. At first Caroline seemed to reflect my sentiments about the game...

but as she watched the bright red and black uniforms on the big screen tv, she became more and more interested (as you can see by her posture)...
until she was completely mesmorized.
We try not to let her watch tv so I guess a few minutes of unrestricted access to the big screen was pretty exciting!