Singing in the rain

or walking. I have a really hard time when it rains and is gloomy. I think I might have that disease where you get sad when the weather is bad. Mark says it's called SAD (seasonal affective disorder). We decided to be proactive against this terrible disorder and go on a walk in the rain. I kind of felt like a bad parent taking Caroline in the rain but she loved it! She looked around in wide eyed curiosity the whole time.

As you can see, Mark is very protective of our little girl and made sure everyone would see when we were coming.

Tummy Time

Other Moms keep asking me how Caroline is doing with tummy time. I always tell them that she is doing fine. However, the truth is that I never put her on her tummy! It's not that I don't want to, I just forget! However, today in the midst of all the rain I was trying to think of all the creative things I could do and tummy time was as creative as I could get. She actually did pretty well. :-)

Rain, rain

GO AWAY!

That's all for now.

I can't help myself...

another series of Caroline pictures!

My sweet friend Bethany sent me a bunch of clothes for Caroline. She and I were very excited about the new clothes and she even tried some of them on. OK, I really didn't subject her to trying on clothes....except for just one.

I took her upstairs and asked Mark if he wanted to see something sweet....Introducing Caroline the strawberry. Halloween came a little early.

At first she wasn't quite sure...

but then the smiles emerged!

Labor Day Pictures

Enjoy!

Mark is already trying to teach Caroline to be a cookie monster too!

Good day

Today was a good day and I hope it is the start of a string of them! Caroline and I got up about 8:30 and met my friend Adrienne around 9:30 for a little jog! We then came home and took a little nap together. After Caroline woke up we baked some blueberry bread. She was worn out after that adventure and took another nap. While she napped I folded laundry, prepared dinner and picked up around the house. I'm looking forward to a good dinner shortly and our nightly routine of bathtime and reading! Then off to bed we go....(It sure sounds like we do a lot of sleeping! There were some other events in there like eating, being on facebook, playing with buggy and many more things but that was the basics.)

I have been a little bummed because Caroline hadn't been taking naps and was a little fussy. However, today she acted like how I thought babies were supposed to act. Eating, sleeping, playing a little. It was great! I hope we are on our way to a routine!! Plus, I have learned to better understand when she is tired, when she is hungry and when she just wants some lovin'. I'm thankful for this time with her and hope that we will continue to do well and learn each other!

Sunday afternoon nap...

Tough Lesson

Eight summers ago I spent a month at Crooked Creek Ranch, a Young Life camp in Colorado. It was one my favorite summers ever for several reasons (beautiful place, beautiful people, fun "job", and lots of growing). One of the things that I still remember is memorizing Philippians 2:1-11. I can't say that I still remember it word for word but with a few prompts I can say it through. I pulled out my Bible tonight and reread those verses, hoping they would bring some encouragement to me.

Phil 2:3-4 "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humilty consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others."

I can say one of the hardest things that I am learning right now is how to be selfless. Of course, before I had Caroline I knew that I would have to be selfless or at least more so than I was! People told me my life would change. I could say those things and think them over and over but being in the midst of it now is hard. Of course I want to do things for her and care for her and make sure she doesn't have any tears. Of course I love her with all my heart... but I'm still me! I'm still human. There are still selfish desires within me. I still want to shower occassionally. I still want to wear clean clothes, go swimming, hike mountains, eat dinner in peace. However, these things and many more can be difficult with a little one.

In talking with Mark tonight I realized my selfish desires aren't even really that selfish at first glance (cleaning the kitchen, paying bills, doing laundry). However, many of these things I like to do because it brings calm and peace to my life. Yes, they need to be done but when Caroline is screaming her guts out, my desire to bring order to my life needs to take a back seat and I need to focus on her. BUT, inside I'm still desiring to bring order to the rest of my life. I'm making sense, right? I can only do so much at one time and being selfless right now means being content with just caring for her. In time she will have a routine, she will be able to entertain herself for short periods of time and calm herself. But now is not that time and I need to practice putting her interests before mine, with a smile on my face.

7 weeks old...

Sometimes I feel like I've been married forever and sometimes it seems like we just got hitched. I'm finding that it's the same with babies...sometimes I look back and think she is growing too fast and sometimes it seems like she has always been with us. Either way I look at it...she will be 7 weeks old tomorrow! Here are a couple of pictures I took tonight. She has been a sweet, peaceful baby the last few days. She has been smiling and "talking" lots to us. She also has her first cold, which makes me very sad. She slept almost all day today but has been in good spirits when she is awake. She's a trooper. :-)

Date night with Caroline

Mark and I love to be outside. It seems like Caroline is agreeable to being outside too. Anytime she is fussy we take her outside and she stops crying. It's like magic. Thankfully we have not had to use that trick in the middle of the night yet.

We decided Saturday morning that we would like to do something fun as a family, which is kind of hard with a little one. However, we knew that a local church was putting on an orchestra concert at the park down the street. We decided it would be a perfect outing for us...and it was! The weather was perfect, we picked up some Chick-fil-a and enjoyed a sweet, relaxing time outside. Caroline loved it and sat with Daddy the whole night. She seemed to especially enjoy sucking on Daddy's hand!