Maybe a year....

is about how long we have left to believe in Santa, I think.  Caroline's questions have gotten more and more specific about the hows and whys.  She refused to see Santa at the mall because "I know that's just a helper in a suit.  Santa can't be at all the malls at once."  How does Santa get all the way around the world in just one night?  And there's not a sleigh in the world big enough to carry everybody's toys!  How does he get in our house if Daddy locks the doors every night and we don't have a chimney?  I asked her if kids at school had been "talking" about Santa, but she said no.  I think my plan of action for now is to wait until she outright asks, because so far she has been content when I said I didn't know the answer to whichever question.  I remember my mom telling me about Santa although I had privately had my suspicions for a bit and I wasn't damaged or unduly harmed by the deception.  Heck, she still addresses presents to me from Santa!   :-)

Have a holly jolly.....EVERYTHING!

Yes, well, we've fallen off the blogging wagon just a bit.  It's hard to keep up on this with a busy  7 year old's life!  Just imagine how far behind it would be if we had more kids....hahaha    So here's what we have been up to lately.  This will take a couple of posts to catch up, so make sure to look at everything.

When there's a bargain at post-Christmas sales last year, Caroline gets her own Christmas tree in her room this year!  

Caroline wanted to learn how to make scrambled eggs.  And no, we didn't tell Daddy about this until he saw the picture!  She needs to be about two inches taller to reach the stovetop well.

Thoughts on bedtime....

Caroline and I were playing Scrabble for her bedtime activity tonight.  As things dragged along I said okay, she could make one more word then it was bedtime.  So she started digging through the letter bag to look for an S to make whatever word. 

Mommy:  No, you can't do that, it's cheating!

Caroline:  Mom, it's almost bedtime, it's okay to cheat.

At least she understands the time limitations....

fun in the sun

playing outside is the best ever for me.

sprinkler play

This summer has been fun but my favorite thing to do was play in the sprinkler mom took pictures while I jump in.

We're BACK!

A little review of some end-of-summer activities...

Caroline brave enough to test out the diving board at her friend's house.

A missing top tooth

Playdate with her friend Maddie - they were playing fashion models

How excellent is this wallpaper for a blog about my little pumpkin?  Thanks to my friend Karri for the website that provides it and the education on how to do it!  So school is back in session, we're juggling Girl Scouts, gymnastics, all the usual fun things.  Caroline has adjusted very well to her glasses.  Today is school picture day, which means they will be the first official pictures of Caroline with glasses and LOTS of teeth missing!

Important news!!!

Yes, pictures are coming, but we had important developmental details!   After many many MANY months of frustration, Caroline finally learned to tie her shoes!  She had all the steps down for the longest time, but when it came time to wrap the strand around the first loop, she would grab the wrong part to pull through the hole and it would all collapse.  Tuesday she practiced and practiced on the shorts she wore to gymnastics, until about 4pm she screamed "I DID IT!!!!"  So I told her all about Pop teaching me to tie my shoes and how I struggled with it all through kindergarten and first grade, and that one of my earliest school-related memories was sitting in first grade with my foot up on my chair to practice and just looking in amazement when I realized that I had done it.    On Wednesday we went to the movies and both wore tennis shoes, and Caroline tied all four shoes.  :-D

Can you IMAGINE what the rest of the summer would have been like?

Now that Caroline has finally figured out how to start her bike on her own, a majority of our time is spent in the front street riding her bike back and forth, going up and down the curbs, etc.  Yesterday Caroline and her friend Sarah had been outside riding for hours - everyone was hot and sweaty and patience was low.  Two kids that we didn't even recognize showed up riding their bikes.  The little boy decided to antagonize Caroline and Sarah by riding right next to them, following too closely, etc.   Caroline said something snotty to him (yes, yes, I know, we're working on it....) and he decided to punish her by crashing into the back of her bike.   She panicked and let go, and her bike fell with her leg underneath it.   By the time I got her up from the bike and hauled her and the bike back to the house, I was starting to believe that her left leg was broken somewhere between the knee and ankle.  She screamed every time I touched the spot and could barely bear weight on it.  James and I had one of those married-people-silent-conversations-with-your-eyes about whether to take her to the hospital or not, but after getting her into a cool bath to calm down and relax she was walking just fine and didn't even mention it again.  The visions of the rest of the summer in a leg cast were frightening to say the least, and that was only to ME - I don't think she even thought that far!   So I'll be keeping an eye out for that little fiend....

For being such a girly-girl, Caroline is surprisingly unafraid of crawly things.  Although she did ask repeatedly "Is this a biting caterpillar?"

Caroline filled an entire box herself when we went strawberry picking!

Caroline and her friend Maddie sitting in dinosaur footprints at the Science Center.

Look at the cute little dinosaur babies!

And now it's July...

The problem with the new computer is that it's a complete dog-and-pony show to upload new photos, or that photos James uploads aren't available to me, so it's been complicated to find the time to jump through the necessary hoops to get the photos.  I'd take a PC back any day, but it will be a few years before we get another computer.

But here we are anyway!  Since the end of school we've been to pool parties and birthday parties, strawberry picking, bike riding and rollerskating.   Caroline lost her top left tooth, which was an event of epic proportions for the carrying on and shrieking.  Talk about Drama Queen!  She takes gymnastics on Tuesday mornings and has been perfecting her cartwheels and roundoffs.  Wednesdays we go to the free movies at the mall.  And she still has asked countless times, "I'm bored, when does school start again?"   62 days left...

Singing the class' favorite song "King of the Jungle" at graduation.

Mr. Jones the principal, Caroline, and Mrs.  Shrader at graduation.

Riding Smokey the horse at her pal Caden's birthday party.

Strawberry picking - a rare picture with Mommy

On the bed of nails at the Science Center - when she got up she said "look at my back, is it bleeding?"

Modeling her new bathing suit while playing in the sprinkler.

Oh, so far behind....

Yes, yes, it's terribly out of date.  I know.  But we've had so much going on that a blog is far down on the list.  Now that school is ending and I will be with Caroline more each day, hopefully I'll have lots of pictures and funny stories to share.

So as a recent recap of our craziness - Mommy went to Chicago; at the same time, Caroline and Daddy went on a train trip to Western Maryland.  We had parties and a field trip at school, a spring music concert, and field day.  Ever watched spastic 6 year olds doing jumping jacks?  Fit to fall down laughing, I tell you.  

And we got a new computer!  We have joined the Macs - shows that those entertaining commercials do work.  The keyboard is thinner than your average Oreo cookie and the mouse does strange things, but the screen is huge and the big box that normally does on the floor next to the desk is now built into the back of the screen.  

But let's see if I can manage to post pictures with a computer that makes pictures somewhat complicated....

Caroline at the fountain outside the train station.

Here comes the train!

Okay, I'm ready to go

Hey look, you can drive from the back too!

Who needs plastic toys?  Caroline spent about two hours playing in a box filled with packing peanuts.  She piled them up on herself, hid in them, checked if she could fit entirely in the box, etc.  Next time we need a big box for something, we'll make sure to say a six year old size!

Let your conscience be your guide...

We learned an object lesson about conscience today! In the afternoon, Caroline asked if she could have a piece of gum. I said yes, and then was talking to my mom on the phone. Caroline interrupted me to say "Mom, I did something wrong that I need to talk to you about." I thought maybe she broke a toy or hit a wrong button on her keyboard or something so I said okay hang on while I finish on the phone. But she started to sniffle and said "Mom, I REALLY did something wrong!" So I panicked thinking she painted a wall of her bedroom or broke her bedframe or something. I quickly got off the phone and Caroline went absolutely HYSTERICAL, sobbing and crying so hard she could hardly breathe. When I finally got her calmed down to make sense, she said between hyperventilating "I ate another piece of gum without telling you and now my stomach hurts and I don't want it anymore!" So once I calmed her down (desperately trying not to laugh) I told her that her stomach hurt because her conscience made her feel bad for doing something sneaky, and that she could have saved herself some upset by just asking me because since I hadn't started cooking dinner yet I probably would have let her have another piece. I said that I appreciated her being honest and telling the truth and that I hoped she would always do that because as she was seeing, quite often it wasn't something that wasn't going to get her in huge trouble anyway. But God help me, it was hard not to laugh!

Finally some pictures....

A freak warm day in January was worthy of short sleeves and a trip to the park.

They made bird feeders out of cereal at school, so we stuck it on the tree out front.

Playing bingo at the school Valentine's Day party.

Blissing out on chocolate fondue for Valentine's dessert.

Daisy Scouts award ceremony - Caroline has become a complete badge hog and will participate in ANY activity if she hears it will earn her a badge for her vest!

Hammie Sleeps Alone.....

I can't believe it, and I still might cry. Last night Caroline slept WITHOUT Hammie the Pig for the first time ever since she was 7 months old.

We went to the dermatologist yesterday about her recent excema (eczema? I can never remember how to spell it!) flare up and an itchy rash in her elbows. He confirmed that she has VERY sensitive skin and said that the thumb she sucks is also coated with excema. I said oh, I thought it was just dry skin - he said dry skin doesn't look like THAT, and that any stress on her immune system (like being sick) or on her skin (like constant immersion in her mouth to suck) will cause it to flare up, and that she HAD to stop sucking her thumb in order for that to get better.

So when he explained the skin medicine to Caroline, he said it was for her thumb (and under his breath to me he said "and the excema patches that flare up") and that using it would help her to stop the thumb sucking. He said she should sleep with a glove or sock on it to make sure the medicine didn't get in her mouth because it could make her very very sick. So from the time we left the doctors at 9:45am until bedtime at 7:30 she did not put her thumb in her mouth even once. As we were getting ready for bed, she handed me Hammie and just looked at me. I asked what was wrong, and she said she thought she probably shouldn't sleep with Hammie, because being with Hammie made her want to suck her thumb, and she didn't want to do that. So she decided to put Hammie on the book shelf next to her bed, wore her striped mitten to bed, and that was it. She cried for a few minutes, but we talked about some good stuff happening this week, and picking out a reward if she made it for a whole month (new rollerskates), and how big and strong she was to deal with this now when she knew it was good for her. She slept all through the night fine and woke up a bit early this morning to come show us that she didn't take the mitten off all night. I'm so proud I could die!

(and yes, I know it's been a while since I posted pictures - Blogger has been having some hissy fits with posting pictures and I don't have the time to keep trying. I'll get some here as soon as I can!)

The moment every mother dreams of....but NOT!

We were discussing dinner plans for the evening, and Caroline was very happy when I said I was making one of her favorite dinners - roast beef with gravy. I said that we were going to have french fries (necessary for dipping in the gravy!) and green beans. Caroline said "can I have extra green beans instead of fries?" While I tried to figure out which group of pod people had overtaken her, I complimented her on good food choices, gave myself a pat on the back for good parenting, and was generally proud of all of us.

Until she said "your fries are okay, but I like the ones from McDonalds better!"

Sigh....

Finally!

Don't fall over in a faint, it's actually a blog update from us! As you know, our entire month of December is a mad house and so updating the blog falls far behind baking and wrapping and cooking and partying. I'm sure you can forgive.

Our first, and so far only, snow of the year. Caroline is modeling all her new snow gear (jacket, snow pants, boots, hat, gloves - we needed the WORKS this year!)

So I'll start from the farthest back - Caroline's birthday! Now that she is attending a school that lets you do fun things, her birthday was a big deal to celebrate at school. We made cookies to share with all of her friends at lunchtime, and the teacher had everyone sign a construction paper "cupcake" and sang Happy Birthday to her at the morning meeting.

Her birthday was also gingerbread-house-decorating-day, so I got to go help out.

Her party at the Pottery Loft with friends. Caden was "the only dude here!", but we assured him that in ten years or so he'd be telling all his friends about the time he was the only guy in a room with 10 girls and be a complete hero.

Her lovely birthday cake - they made icing flowers just for her!

Everyone singing Happy Birthday - note the fall-down-able steps behind us? Caroline and I both slipped at various times. Bruises all around.

All the birthday friends - Kelsey, Abby S., Erin, Sarah, Caroline, Marina, Erin, Caden, Maddie, Jamie and Abby B.

Next up, Christmas!