This Week in Cuteness 9/6

Caroline loves to laugh but it always ends in hiccups. Then the party's over, because she hates the hiccups.

 

Josie couldn't decide between watching the muted TV or reading. Thankfully (for once) she chose reading.

 

I'm Just Sayin'.

   

Photo Catch Up

Well, Caroline continues to grow, Josie continues to crack us up, and time continues to fly. Here, the past two months in photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How To Please Josie In One Easy Step

Meet Caroline Constance Enos!!

We have a new little girl in our household -- Danny is SO outnumbered!

Caroline Constance Enos was born at 10:02 a.m. on June 14, 2010 at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. She weighed 8 lbs., 15 oz. -- that's a full pound and 12 ounces more than Josie! -- and was 21 inches long (Josie was 19.5). She was born by c-section, a planned one this time. She was healthy and cried right away. She had to be taken to the NICU at first because of low blood sugar, but she bounced back and didn't have any problems after that. Literally 15 seconds before she was born I said to Danny, "I have the strong feeling it is a boy." HA!

Caroline is a name I have always loved since high school, and we briefly considered it for Josie, but it didn't make the cut. This time we struggled with a first name for a girl -- Virginia "Ginny" was the forerunner for the longest time but we kept going back to the drawing board for some reason. When "Caroline" popped back up, we knew it was the one.

Her middle name was much easier. We were looking for a one syllable name but couldn't settle on one. Then "Constance" came up and immediately we both loved it. Connie is the first name of Danny's grandmother, who was just an awesome person and such a great grandmother. Danny was wild about her and she accepted me as a "grandchild" from the very beginning, which made me feel great. Sadly, she passed away very recently, so we are thrilled that we can keep her spirit alive through Caroline, in name and hopefully in personality!

Caroline is doing great. She is different than Josie was as a newborn... she is fidgety and noisy and makes ridiculous faces. But she is similar to Josie in that she likes her sleep and so far, only wakes us up once a night to eat. Josie is interested in Caroline, but in a kind of passive way. She is trying to say her name, it mostly comes across as "Cuttle-E" or "Cuttle-A." She is showing some jealousy... whenever Caroline cries, Josie performs this hideous fake cry/scream combo. It's annoying. But she hasn't tried to attach Caroline to a bunch of balloons and let her go outside or anything yet, so I think we are a go.

Stevie is very cute with Caroline. When we brought Josie home, Stevie was interested but mostly ignored her. With Caroline she is very maternal. She comes running in if Caroline cries, and often comes over to check on her and sniff her or give her a little kiss. I guess that extra 13 months has brought out her maternal side.

Danny and I are adjusting as well. He is home with us right now, which as been awesome. But he goes back to work Monday and I am not looking forward to it, for a variety of reasons. Practically speaking, I am nervous to be the exclusive caregiver for both babies from 7 - 4 every day, but mainly it has just been so nice having us all together. If only we were independently wealthy! Danny would probably go crazy staying around the house all the time anyway. He is doing great with "all his girls" as he says. I have the feeling both girls will be Daddy's girls, and Stevie always was.

I am doing pretty well, despite some hideous swelling in my legs from the c-section. I had a good amount of swelling from the knee down with Josie as well, but this is much worse this time around. I can barely walk, and I have no shoes I can wear! Once that goes away, I will feel so much better. Other than that, I am just suffering from the classic postpartum exhaustion!

We are thrilled to have our little family healthy, happy, and home!

I'm ONE Now, If You Haven't Noticed.

On May 9, we had a party. For ME. Cause I'm ONE now.

I started out my birthday by taking a bath, cause I wanted to look my best for my party.

 

Mom got me a "1" shirt to wear for my birthday, in case there was any confusion as to how old I was. The 1 is pretty darn big, so if you didn't notice I was 1 now, you would have to be pretty dumb.

 

Grumpy noticed, he liked it. He knows what's up.

I spent some QT with Nannie, while I chewed on a blue thing:

 

And I psyched everyone out by making them think I wanted to go home, but really I just love playing in my carseat. Mom and Dad say the carseat will soon be for some other kid they keep calling "my little brother or sister" (whatever that means), but I know it is, and will always be, mine.

 

 

After the grownups ate, it was time for the star of the show (that's ME) to take center stage. This is what they had all been waiting for, obviously, because everyone had their cameras out and were all crowded around watching me. I wasn't even really doing anything at first. They even started singing to me. They clearly really adore me. I was kind enough to pose with my cousins Molly and Mary Kate, but I wasn't feeling the whole "smiling" thing. Molly's smile was big enough for all of us anyway.

 

Then came the song I was telling you about. Dad filmed it. He also filmed me destroying this huge green sticky thing they kept calling "cake." More on that later, here's the video:

Ok, here is the green sticky thing I was telling you about. Mom and Dad wanted me to taste it, but let's just say that I happen to know my mom isn't exactly Betty Crocker. I decided instead to just totally trash it, for a laugh. Before my destructive powers:

 

And after:

Mom also made a giant blue "cake" for the other people to eat. Shockingly, they all seemed to like it, especially Mom apparently because she ate it for lunch AND dinner the next day. I am not supposed to tell people that, so let's keep it on the DL, mmmkay?

Then it was time for presents. I am told this is customary for birthdays, which is cool, cause I got a lot of rad stuff. My favorite gift of all was the tag from a toy, which Dad let me play with while he opened the rest of my loot.

 

 

All in all, it was a pretty cool day even though I went to bed late with frosting residue still totally in my hair. The best part was turning ONE though. Now my mom cries when she gets her email updates from Babycenter, because they call me a "toddler" instead of a "baby." But she needs to deal, because I am ONE now!! Take THAT, Mom and Dad!

Mean Daddy.