Caraline Kate Update

Caraline is four five SIX months old!!

Yes, it has been a while so I will do mostly pictures.  But here is a quick recap: Super healthy, sweet & happy, nice Thanksgiving, great Christmas, two bottom teeth, eating solids & loving food, sitting up, clapping hands, loves to laugh at her sister.

I have adapted the Baby Led Weaning method of introducing food so that it works for us. Caraline eats large pieces, sticks, wedges of pretty much anything. So far she has had: broccoli, carrots, sweet potato, apple, banana, pear and zucchini. I know that this may be intimidating for other care givers that may feed her so she occasionally gets the "regular" baby food. She has had peas, green beans and pear yogurt. She loves it all!

Our most recent visit to the endocrinologist went very well. Caraline's levels of thyroid hormones are still within healthy levels and she is staying on a healthy growth curve. She seems so much rounder and bigger than Ellasyn was, but it is just baby fluff. She is almost ounce for ounce the same weight that Ellasyn was at her check ups. It is fun to see subtle differences between them.

~ Four Months ~
No smile. No bow. Still precious.

~ Thanksgiving Family ~
So blessed and very thankful for these three.

~ Five Months ~
A little photo bomb from Big Sister.

~ First Play date ~
Our sweet friend, Annabelle.

~ Dance Class ~
Parent Preview day - She pretty much stood like this the whole 10 minutes. 

~ Class Christmas Party ~
Santa came to visit Ellasyn's class!

~ Laughing ~
Only her sister can get her going this good.

~ Six Months ~

~ First Bites ~
Steamed broccoli and carrots. She was a big fan!

~ First Bites ~
She devoured her dinner.

~ Bath time ~
She loves bath time. Sitting up to splash in the bubbles makes it even more fun!

~ Zucchini ~
I cut the steamed zucchini into rounds instead of sticks. She had a hard time figuring it out... at first. Then, she decided to just suck the middles out and leave the edge. BLW is pretty fascinating! 

Ellasyn is doing so great. She is learning so much at her preschool and keeps us on our toes with questions.

We have had some construction on the railroad tracks in town and almost every drive to or from church requires that we talk about trains. Where are the trains? What are they carrying? Why do they have to fix the tracks? Where are they going? How many engines does that one have? She soaks it all in and asks for more.

She loves dance and dancing. We dance at least twice a day. I am looking forward to seeing her recital performance in June!

Ellasyn is already looking forward to her FOURTH birthday. Where has the time gone!? She has requested a Sophia the First theme. I hope it sticks, the ball is already rolling.

Thanks for keeping up with us!
We love you ~ The McDaniels

CK is 3 Months!

Sweet Caraline... Bum, bum, buuummmm! Good times never seemed so goooood....

Caraline is three months old! I have washed and packed away most of the 0-3 month clothes and washed and folded into drawers all the 3-6 month clothes this week. It is a little bittersweet transition that I enjoy. I am happy that she is healthy and growing like a weed, but a little sad to see some of the sweet outfits be put away for another day... someday... maybe... the jury is still out. I love getting out the next batch of clothes and reminising about the last time I saw them on Ellasyn and I look forward to seeing CK wear my favorites. 

Caraline is such a precious little chunk. She is very compliant and easy going. When she does get upset, it is the funniest little squawk of a cry.  Unless she is starving and I lay her down to change her diaper first. Then, she can really belt it out. She isn't on much of schedule, if at all. I blame that on our every day is different weekly schedule. She sleeps when and where she can. If we are home... Monday, Friday and Saturdays usually... she can sleep for 2 - 3 hours at a time if she isn't interrupted. Otherwise it is usually 20 minutes here 45 minutes there.

She loves to laugh! It is hilarious and cracks me up every time. You never know what will set her off. And if you try again to get someone else to hear it, it never works. She loves to listen to her sister's jibberish and gives her the most smiles I think. Ellasyn doesn't usually speak actual words to her. She just makes funny noises, growls or screeches at her.  Somehow, I think CK knows exactely what she means.  They are going to be quite the pair someday.  Too soon.

We are starting to get in a groove around here. Our weekly schedule is somewhat regular and I think that I may have perfected (not really, but liveable) our morning routines. That is IF I get up when my alarm goes off and get going. Ethan does not have football in the morning and is a huge help with Ellasyn.

Ellasyn is really loving Mrs. Talley's three year old class. She is in the same class as her cousin Belle. They work on one letter a week. She is great at the "What letter does ______ start with?" game. We play a lot in the car.  We go through most of our friends names, favorite characters and toys, etc.  My favorite is when she gets carried away and says, for example, "Buh, buh, buh, Car!  Car starts with B!!" We are still practicing. :)

~ Saving this one for the rehearsal dinner ~

All she wants to do is dance, dance....

All she wants to do is DANCE!

This kid loves to dance and she is always dressing up like a ballerina. So, naturally, I signed her up for a three year old tap/ballet class.

You can imagine from these pictures how the first day went...

JUST.

HOLD.

STILL!

Nope. Not gonna happen.

This girl has got some moves.

It took a lot of work, but we got her hair in a ponytail.

C'mon Mom!

Ready to go in and get this thing started!

Waiting with her teacher to walk back to class.

After class and after she whacked herself in the leg with her bag full of tap shoes.

Fortunately the next two classes had much happier endings.

Last Monday was parent observation at  the end of class and we got to see the one and only move that she has mastered so far... the shuffle-hop-toe.

Ellasyn's Third Birthday Party!

Ellasyn  is so blessed to have shared this birthday party with both sets of grandparents (Honey & Grandpa and Marmee & Papa) along with one set of great grands (Nanny and Papaw Briggs) and one great grandmother (Grandmother Jackson), one great aunt (Karen Jackson Fowler), all of her aunts and uncles and all of her cousins, and on top of that... all of her sweet little friends came too. 

 

Thank you for helping to make this special day so full of LOVE! 

~ Her only request for her party was balloons. ~

~ Daddy's birthday gift to her was a bounce house! ~
She is waiting for Travis to come and bounce with her.

~ Welcoming her buddy, Kason. ~

~ Baby sister's happy place. ~

~ Daddy and Ellasyn ~
 

~ Birthday Girl and her family ~

~ Blowing out the candle on her "cake" ~
Aunt Merinda did an awesome job with the watermelon and canteloupe cake!

~ Picking off some canteloupe flowers ~

~ Cousin Belle decorating her Fruit Pizza ~

~ Cousin Penny with Momma and Caraline ~

Ellasyn is 3!

She is strong, independent, silly, sweet, sensitive, active, persistant, loving, creative, and I cannot believe that she is THREE!

Ellasyn's favorite color is orange. It has been since she could talk.  If she has a choice, she will choose orange. Every. Time. Being an Aggie family, this is not something that we encouraged. As I realized that she was not going to change her mind, I began to embrace the orange.  But definitely not burnt orange. Always a true orange, or tangerine, or coral. Somewhat recently she was introduced to the book Pinkalicious and loved it. So, our party theme was Orangelicious with pink and orange polka dots. 

Her birthday was on a Wednesday. We had to take Caraline to Cook's to have some labs done, but after that it was all about Ellasyn. Lunch at Double Dave's, a trip to the Fort Worth Science and History Museum, presents and a cupcake and dinner at Chic Fil A. We all wore orange in her honor.

~ Three Year Rocking Chair Picture ~

~ working on the computers ~

 

~ Not too crazy about the Hurricane simulation ~

~ Excited about her orange cupcake with pink icing ~

 

~ But she won't eat it because she will get icing on her fingers! ~

~ opening her James Avery charm bracelet ~

~ modeling her bracelet ~

~ Dinner at CFA - YUM! ~

See the next post for Party Pictures


CK - 2 Months!

Caraline Kate is two months old!

She is a super sleeper.  Going 6 - 9 hours each night.  I am one blessed and mostly well rested momma.  I still find myself tired most days, but I can deal with tired.

She loves her Daddy and Big Sister.

She loves to smile and "talk".

She loves to snuggle.

2 Month Check up Weight: 10 pounds 10 ounces (Woohoo!!), Height: 21 3/4 inches, 50th percentile.

~ Her first Sunday at church ~

~ Playing with Sister ~
(check out those matching profiles!)

~ Two Month Rocking Chair Picture ~

~ Snoozing away... ~

And poor thing, she doesn't have a choice but to just come along with us wherever we are going!



~ This one is just for your viewing pleasure ~
:)