Dear Caroline,

Today you are seven months old! You are getting SO big, and you continue to be adorable and charming all of us. This month you had some big things – your baptism, starting solid foods, and your first Valentine’s Day.

You have really continued to come alive this month, responding to your name and recognizing us when we come into view. You usually flash big grins when seeing your Daddy, your sister, or me. You LOVE getting your sister from school – I think you miss her! Now that you’re sitting up, you often join your sister in the shopping cart which both of you think is pretty awesome.

This month, we had you baptized at our church. Your Grandma and Aunt Mamie drove up from Orlando for that. You wore the dress your Grandma made, that Savannah also wore. You looked so pretty! It was a very special day. Our church is small, so everyone knows you, which made the ceremony even more meaningful. The other members of the congregation promised to pray for you and help us raise you! You are so lucky to have so many people who love you.

You are such a happy, wiggly baby. You want to go, go, go. You aren’t crawling yet, but you love to move and bounce. It is difficult to get you to sit because you would rather stand! You even will stand for a very short bit while holding on to something. You aren’t completely steady while sitting, but the amount you fall is getting less and less frequent. You don’t particularly love to be on your tummy, but there are times when you’re okay with it, and generally you scoot yourself around in circles, trying to find something to reach and investigate. You really love to sit and investigate things, reaching out to get a toy. I’m sure you will be crawling in no time!

Speaking of reaching, you are ALL about holding anything you can get your hands on! When I’m holding you (which is still your favorite place to be), you search around with your hand until you find something. Sometimes it’s my phone, or a toy, or if all else fails – my hair. It immediately goes into your mouth. You are a pretty happy baby, though you don’t like to remain in one spot for any length of time. You really love the doorway jumper, which has been a great place to put you while I shower or cook dinner. You like the exersaucer when I’m sitting down checking my email. You don’t care for the swing anymore; you want to be entertained!

This month, you started solid foods. I wasn’t going to push it, but you have been watching us eagerly as we ate, making chewing motions with your mouth. You are VERY interested in food, even though you don’t have any teeth yet! We started you off with mashed bananas, which you loved and got everywhere – all over your outfit, your hair, and the couch. You also have tried carrots, avocado, peas, pretzels, and bread. Those last two were not my intention, but your sister loves to hand you food and you are happy to take it. You eat pretty well, considering it is all new to you. We need to expand your list of foods a bit – those are just the easiest for now.

I am so excited to see you growing and look forward to watching you explore and learn in the months to come!
Love, Mommy

Dear Caroline,

Happy half birthday! Today marks the halfway point between the day you were born and the completion of your first year. Six months! I say this every month, but time is just passing so quickly!

This month you celebrated your first Christmas and your first New Year’s! You also had your first (long) roadtrip – driving down to Orlando, FL to visit your grandparents and other relatives. You did great in the car, sleeping mostly and happily entertaining yourself the other time. You pay a lot of attention to your sister when you’re in the car, which is cute. Sometimes the two of you just go back and forth, making each other laugh. You really love your sister!

This month, you got to meet your namesake. Your great-grandma is named Dorothy Caroline, and we wanted to honor her when we named you because she has been a very important person in my life. She lives in Florida and isn’t able to travel, so you got to meet her the first time when we drove down. I am so glad she got to see you while her eyesight is still okay!

You have grown and changed a lot this month. You have gotten a lot more active. You aren’t crawling, but you’re very wiggly and you seem like you’re ready to go. You love to stand – putting weight on your cute little legs. You spend much of your time standing on my lap. I feel like you’re just going to one day start walking from there. You hold your core up very well – you are very close to being able to sit unassisted. You can hold yourself for a while but do eventually fall over, so I can’t leave you by yourself yet. Almost there!

You discovered toys this month, and you adore sticking them into your mouth. Actually, you love to grab anything and stick it into your mouth. I am finding it difficult to write without you grabbing my pen, or use my phone. You are so eager to learn everything about your environment. I am trying to remember to bring toys with me when we leave the house – not in the habit yet! You entertain yourself pretty readily, though.

You’ve started to give us big belly laughs, which we all love. You laugh mostly for your sister, but you also laugh for Mommy and Daddy. You also flash your big smile, complete with dimples in each cheek. Strangers in the store love to try to elicit the smile from you, but you’re not always ready to give it to them. But at home, you are SUCH a happy, smiley baby. You generally wake up from your naps pretty happy, as well as first thing in the morning. You’re also fairly easy to get to sleep. I usually just need to lay you down and you fall asleep on your own – often music helps, but you don’t always need it. I know from experience that this might be a temporary thing, but I am enjoying it right now. :-)

Your hair is filling back in, and is much lighter than it was before it all fell out. I can’t tell exactly what it will be when it’s fully grown in, but it seems you have quite a bit of red mixed in with the light brown! It’s also very soft. Your cradle cap isn’t nearly so bad, though I keep rubbing coconut oil into your scalp for moisture. I wonder if that is helping it look so soft and full and beautiful. You also still have the most gorgeous blue eyes – when you look at me and smile it just melts my heart.

It’s been a wonderful six months, and I look forward to seeing what future months bring us!
Love, Mommy

Dear Caroline,

Today you turn 5 months old. I feel as if you were just a newborn yesterday – I blinked and now you’re almost halfway through your first year! I am loving every minute right now with you. With my first child, I was continually looking forward to future milestones, but with you I am taking the time to enjoy where we are. You are at a very fun stage right now. You are smiley, talkative, and very animated. You also still sleep a lot, with your thumb in your mouth and you look so adorable.

This month you celebrated your first Thanksgiving. To commemorate the occasion, I got you a little First Thanksgiving outfit with a turkey and a little tulle skirt. You look adorable, and you love to tug on the skirt. One set of your grandparents and your Aunt Mamie came for a visit over the holiday, and they enjoyed you greatly. You also enjoyed having many arms available to hold and cuddle you! A week after Thanksgiving, your other grandparents came for a visit, which meant more cuddles and hugs from more people. You loved it all.

A big thing happened this month – you lost all your hair! It seemed very odd to us at first, but we quickly got used to it and now it seems weird to look at the old pictures where you still had so much hair! You didn’t actually completely lose it – it just seemed that way because it was SO thick before – and in the past few weeks it has been growing back in. It doesn’t look like it has changed color at all. I’ve noticed how very soft your new hair is and I enjoy rubbing my fingers on your head. You still have some cradle cap, but it goes away with a little coconut oil.

You went to the doctor this month for your 4 month checkup. You weighed 14lbs 9.5oz, and were at 25th percentile for height (I forgot the exact height). You are doing great! You are growing so big, and are about to grow out of some of the cloth diaper covers I have for you. Sometimes I think you are so big until someone else is holding you and I get to look at you from a little distance, and I realize just how small you still are. You’re still Mommy’s little baby. :-) Don’t grow up too fast!

Your first Christmas is fast approaching, and you are being swept along with the festivities of the holiday as we do our advent preparations. We usually carry you in the Ergo, or sometimes the ring sling, and we’ve done a lot of mall walking to take in the festivities of the season. People are always saying hi to you, and you usually reply with a grin – though not always! You love being close to Mommy. My favorite is when you look up at me with your beautiful blue eyes, and when I look down and catch your eye you give me the biggest grin!

And your sister. Oh, your sister, how you love her! And she loves you! No one can get a full on giggle from you like she can. If I tickle you, I might be able to get you to laugh, but you will laugh unprompted when you’re around your sister. She still loves to hug you and kiss you, and you don’t mind a bit. She likes to decorate you with stickers, which we all find so silly and you just love the attention. You seem to really become more animated when she’s around. It’s so cute to watch and I hope you two continue to love each other as much as you do now.

You are a little wiggly worm, and we have to be careful where we set you down because you’re likely to wiggle away. You aren’t rolling over a ton yet, but you like to roll from your back to your side, and back again. You like to grab your toes and investigate them. You don’t mind being on your tummy and you can push up very tall with your arms, but you like to be able to see everyone so I generally reserve tummy time for the couch with me sitting next to you (so you can see me), or on my chest. I know it won’t be long before you’re crawling everywhere, so I’m trying to enjoy these last “still” moments.

It’s been so much fun being your Mommy, and I look forward to all the new developments this next month will bring!
Love, Mommy

Dear Caroline,

Today you are 4 months old! You continue to grow so fast. I am very much enjoying this phase – you are adorable, animated, and smiley. You have started interacting with us, laughing and giving us huge baby grins when you’re in a good mood, and getting obviously excited when anticipating something.

This month your hair started falling out! You have a patch on the base of your neck, and a patch on the top front of your head, but otherwise the rest is very thin dark hair. I never imagined that your hair would fall out this late, so I was very surprised! I’m curious to see how it grows back in. You still have a bad case of cradle cap, which goes away when we use olive oil on your scalp.

You really do love your sister, and she loves you too. She likes to get in your face and you don’t seem bothered at all. Twice I’ve left the room to come back and find you “decorated” – first with a permanent marker, and the second time with stickers. You didn’t seem bothered at all. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before she starts dressing you like a baby doll. :-)

You love to talk to us, too. You watch us intently as we talk to you, and then you play around with making noises from your mouth too. It’s fun to see you learning! You then usually start munching on your hands, so I wonder if you are teething. If you aren’t talking, then you usually have your hands in your mouth.

You love sucking on your thumb right now! I am really hoping this doesn’t become a bad habit, because I was a thumb-sucker myself and I remember how hard it was to give up that habit. Unlike your sister, you don’t take a pacifier at all. Every so often you’ll take one, but you usually spit it out shortly thereafter and stick your thumb in your mouth instead. We’ll see. :-)

This month has been fairly low-key, as your daddy was so busy at work so you mostly hung out with your sister and mommy around the house. You did get to dress up as a lion for Halloween, and we went to a trunk-or-treat at a local church. You have been content just to go along for the ride.

Next month will bring Thanksgiving, and the start to the Christmas season! I am so excited to share that with you!

Love, Mommy