Caroline 19 months

Weight:  22 pounds
Height:  33.5 inches
Head Circumference:  18 inches

(Still tracking along the same percentiles being tall and thin for her age.  As compared to Ainsley and Bailey at the same age, she is about the same for height but a bit chunkier.  That said, with her increased activity we have seen her continue to slim down and lose some of her chunk over these past few months.)

There is no doubt that I am a doting mom but even with that aside, Caroline is amazing!  George and I are so smitten with her and are trying to soak up all the sweetness of her age right now.  She is just so fun and curious and sweet and smart and so dang cute!  She is busy and can be a handful but we just love her to pieces!  I took the picture below so that I would be sure to remember how small and perfectly she once fit in my lap.

At 18/19 months Caroline is waking up around 7/8 am, taking one nap at 1 pm, and going to be around 7/7:30 pm.  She sleeps and naps in her sleep sack with her paci and using her bumper as a pillow.  She has a baby and a lovey in bed with her but usually doesn't show a strong preference to them.  The only thing we have noticed to really make a difference is that dang bumper!  And yes, we have even started traveling with it to ensure a good night sleep for all of us.  She is also a good eater and likes all varieties of food and is relatively adventurous with trying new things.  Her favorite foods are salami, meat, and avocado.  She says 'snack' often and pulls open the snack cabinet for some sort of yummy treat.  And she is still drinking about 3 cups of whole milk a day.

The biggest thing that strikes me about Caroline at this age is she just brilliant!  She catches on and understands things that the older two hadn't grasped yet at this stage.  I know that a lot of this is likely due to being the third and wanting to keep up with the older kids but in all accounts she seems more like a 2 year old than an 18/19 month old.  One example is that for a handful of months now she has understood the remorse/forgiveness process.  If she scratches someone or pulls their hair and gets scolded, then she will pout out her lip and make sad/fake crying noises and say "sar-see" (sorry) and then give a hug.  It is really sweet to see.  She also very aware of things going on around her and is always keen to pick up on if she has been left out of something that the older two have.  She is always eager to be with them and doing what they are doing.

Caroline is also very verbally advanced!  I know we are biased but considering that Ainsley's speech developed fairly typically and Bailey's was delayed, I feel like I know more in this area than I want to.  All that to say, Caroline is advanced.  She says several multi-syllable words like 'flamingo,' 'octopus,' and 'elephant.'  And she says short phrases and sentences like 'I not like it,' 'where mommy go,' and can even sing short song phrases like, "happy, happy, happy birthday to you" and "moon, moon, moon, shinning bright."  She is also in this strong 'why' stage, which seems early.  But often when I tell her to do or not do something she responds with 'why?'  It is one of my lesser favorite words of hers.  ;)  She surprises me everyday with new words that she says and the pictures she can identify in books and I just love it!

The other thing that is striking about Caroline at this age is her extreme stranger danger and fear of us leaving her places.  Since she was born only one other person besides us has watched her and we have never been able to successfully leave her other places like the church nursery for fear that she would cry so hard she would throw up (because that has happened often).  Neither Ainsley or Bailey were like this, so initially I loved her clingyness towards me when new people were around but now it has gotten a little out of hand.  This summer we tried a new nanny and she cried for the entire 4 hours I was gone!  It breaks my heart thinking about her being so upset but she is starting a mother's day out school this fall for two mornings a week, so we are both going to have to get used to it.  I truly think she will love school once she stops hating it, but I think that transition might take awhile.

It has been really sweet to watch Caroline's love to babies develop over the past few months.  She is a lucky girl and gets to have her pick of Ainsley's, Bailey's, and her own babies to play with and she doesn't really show a preference for one over the others.  That said, her favorites tend to the Corolle babies and the small Target dolls that look like mini version of the Corolle ones.  For a while, she preferred to have them naked but she is just starting to ask me to put specific clothes on them with specific hats and bibs.  The other day she brought me her naked baby and a dress and asked me to put it on the baby.  When I did, she put the baby's paci in its mouth and said 'awe, cute' and gave it a little snuggle.  It is the cutest thing to watch her do this and play other pretend games with her babies like feeding them, giving them baths, and putting them to bed.  I love seeing this nurturing side come out.

Here are some other things I want to remember about this age:

• As coined by Bailey early on, we still all call her Caroliney most times.
• I'm not sure where this came from, but she loves bees or "buzz buzz" as she calls them.  Her buzz buzz jammas, books, and games are her favorites.
• She has outsmarted her highchair in ways that the other two never did - she can go from sitting to standing even when the tray is still on and she has mastered lifting up the plastic tray protector and I'm sure her next step will be tossing it on the floor.  This is not safe or helpful!

• When she gets to the top of the stairs she always runs to the curtains to play at least 2 rounds of peek-a-boo.
• She knows how to cater to both her siblings and plays "princess" and "rella" (cinderella) with Ainlsey and "man" (superman or spiderman) and "bad guys" with Bailey.
• She just started this cute little goodbye game where she piles on a few accessories, usually a stocking hat and a necklace at least.  Then she gets her purse or small backpack and gathers up a few goodies like a phone or a small toy to put inside.  She comes over and goes into an elaborate goodbye with hugs, kisses, air kisses, and then she climbs on her wheelie pig and takes off.  It is so precious and I love how I get extra snuggles out of it.

• When she sees me putting on my makeup she says "face, face" so that I will give her some too.
• She loves to swim and loves being in the water.  She has been in swim lesson with me this summer and can hold her breath underwater for 4/5 seconds and loves it.  She says "ready, ready, ready, GO!" before she jumps in.
• Still has the gift/curse of falling asleep in the car and on the rare and glorious occasion on me!

• Caroline loves to read books, although she is particular about what books she wants to read and when.  It is so funny because one day she will push a book away and refuse to read it and then the next day she will ask you to read that same book three times in a row.  Either way, she is very verbal about what she wants.
• As timid as she can be around new places or people, when she is comfortable, she can be a bit of a daredevil! 

• She has a potty obsession and has now for months!  At first she would go and stand by the potty and lift up her shirt or dress and say 'peee' like Bailey.  Now she asks to sit on the potty.  I pulled out our small trainer potty and she will sit on that and ask for a wipe when she is done. And for months now, she will tell us before or after she goes poop in her diaper.  Right now these are all just funny/annoying/helpful little personality quirks of hers but I'm hoping that these are signs that potty training her will be easier.
• As much as I hate/love to admit it, some days it feels like she is starting to become more of a daddy's girl.

Needless to say we adore this girl!