Curtis Christmas

Uncle Alan blows bubbles

Caroline and Poppa

Caroline Eickholt, Caroline Curtis and Lily Curtis

Caroline's First Gymnastics Meet

Caroline had her first gymnastics meet on December 4th. It was just a "fun meet" but they still gave scores and awards. She competed in a floor routine (that we practiced at home some), beam, bars and vault. She did great and said she had fun, which is all that really matters anyways.

Visiting G.G. for Thanksgiving

Gator Girls!

Destin in October

Sharing ice cream after trick-or treating

We went to feed the ducks every morning after our run in the jog stroller. We would search for the ducks while mom was running (becasue they move to different ponds) and then we would go back and feed them whatever food we brought that day (Ritz crackers, bread, bagels, cheerios). Caroline learned which ones were wood ducks and pointed them out to us, and Catherine liked to eat the ducks' food rather than feed it to them.

Halloween in Destin

We were in Destin for Halloween this year. Caroline dressed up as a cat (for the second year) and Catherine was a ladybug (Caroline's costume 2 years ago). We went trick-or-treating at Baytowne Wharf, where they had all the shops open and passing out candy for the big Halloween celebration. It was a zoo but lots of fun! We ate dinner on the porch at Roberto's Pizza and watched all the kids walking by in their costumes, which was very entertaining to both girls. Caroline enjoyed pointing out all the costumes she recognized. The girls got plenty of candy, and Caroline got a flashing necklace from the Magic Show shop. We even got to see the fireworks on the way home in the golf cart.

Pumpkin Pals

Caroline 14 months October 2008

Catherine 16 months October 2010

Pumkin Farm

We took our annual trip to Guthrie's Pumpkin Farm on October 16th. It was a beautiful fall day and we had a great time.

Pumpkin Farm

Catherine 16 months

Length: 31 inches Weight: 26 lbs

• Catherine is still always very smiley. Its the most frequent comment that people make about her


• She has recently developed a little bit of fiestiness to her otherwise laid-back and easy-going personality. This is most noticeable in her interactions with Caroline. She now fights back when Caroline tries to take toys from her-- by letting out a scream and trying to hold onto the toy for dear life. Poor thing, she still usually loses becasue she's just not as strone as her sister yet, but her day will come. We have even seen her throw toys at Caroline when Caroline is not sharing or being nice-- not something we encourage but I have to admit, that I don't blame her now that she can finally express herself.


• Foods-- she still seems to be a bit of a picky eater. Have not found any vegetables that she will eat and she still only eats a handful of fruits. Things she does like-- pasta, rice, cheese, yogurt, scrambled eggs (sometimes), pancakes, waffles, watermelon, bananas, peanut butter sandwich, cantelope (sometimes), cottage cheese, turkey slices, apples, applesauce, fig newtons, oatmeal, blueberry muffins (at Panera), crackers (Goldfish, Ritz, wheat thins). Her favorites are watermelon, pancakes or waffles and pasta. I think she would live on carbs if I would let her.


• Words-- She has started to talk much more over the past month. While we were at the beach in August, she started saying "hi" when we would call Chris. She has added several more words since then-- light (points to a light or light switch), ball, night night, da-da, ma-ma (of course she said da-da first), juice, jump-jump (sounds something like dope-dope, referring to the bounce house),cheese and most recently shoes and meow


• She is definitely a hugger. She loves to walk up to us and give us hugs and kisses. And she has started making an (aaaawww) sound when she hugs you.


• She wants to do everything that Caroline does-- ride a tricycle, slide head first down the slide, climb the ladder at the park, run, tumble on the floor. And she has no fear at all and has lately become a walking injury. Bumps on the head, skinned up knees, bruises on the face and head. She's pretty tough though.

**** This post was written back in mid-October, and I never finished it before we left for the beach. More update on Catherine to come.

Caroline 3 years

Here's an update on Caroline at 3 years:

• Height: 3 ft. 1 inch Weight: 31 lbs.


• Favorite toy is Polly Pocket Dolls. She has two large storage boxes full of them and she can play with them for hours


• She still has a very good memory. Recently, has started memorizing the words to books. We checked out a Veggie-Tales book from school, and she can say the first page word for word: "Bob the Tomato is taking a trip. A day on the sea will be fun. How many veggies are on his small ship? The answer of course is one". She also "read" Peter Rabbit to me the other night-- a book which she has only heard a few times. She sat in the rocking chair, turning the pages and looking at the pictures, telling me the story. Some of it was verbatim and some in her own words. She told me that Peter had to look for some food (parsley) to make his tummy feel better and about Mr. MacGregor looking for Peter in the flower pots. And at the end of the story she said "and Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail ate milk and cream and blackberries for dinner." It's actually milk and bread and blackberries I think, but close enough.


• I posted previously about the Your Baby Can Read program. Other words she can read are: hi, clap, nose, mouth, arms up, gorilla, elephant, tiger, wave, cat


• She is going to school 2 days per week in the Pre-K program. She still seems to really love it. The pre-K program has a pick-up and drop-off option for parents. One of the first few days of school, I arrived to get her after her class had already gone to the area where they wait for pick-up (at this point, I was still walking in to her class to pick her up). She saw me walk in to the pick-up waiting area and refused to get up and go to the car with me. She saw that all the other kids were getting picked up in the drive through line and wanted me to go get the car and drive around to get her. So, I obliged and, ever since, I have been picking her up that way. I still walk her in to her class in the mornings, only because I want to and she hasn't figured out that there is a drop-off line as well.


• She gave up her paci the week after her birthday. She had been telling us for a while that she was going to give it up when she turned 3, but her birthday came and went and she was still reluctant. So, we decided to just bite the bullet and gently take them away. Chris told her that her teddy bear Curly needed them. So, before bed, they put Curly in the rocking chair in her room and Caroline gave Curly her pacis and then got in bed. The whole process went much better than we expected. She never really had a fit about it, as we had envisioned. She did cry and whine some the first couple of nights, asking for it, and it did take her much longer to fall asleep. Chris ended up lying down with her until 10 pm the first night. But, by the third or fourth night, the pacis were completely forgotten.


• She started wearing big girl panties a week ago. A decision that she made totally on her own. She had been wearing pull-ups for a couple of months but still was not very reliable about telling us when she needed to use the potty. She was keeping her pull-up dry at school so I started asking her if she wanted to try big girl panties. She would say yes but then change her mind when it came time to put them on. So, I didn't push. Then one morning, she said she wanted to wear big girl panties to school, and that was it. She has done great-- no accidents at school and just a few at home. Still working on getting her to tell us when she needs to go.


• We go to gymnastics class once a week. We started at a new gym that opened recently close by. She still loves it. Her favorite thing is the Tumble Track, which is a long trampoline. The teacher commented this week that Caroline might "end up being a little gymnast." She really seems to have a grasp on the skills and a natural talent for jumping and tumbling. She can already do a forward roll over the bar without much assistance.


• Since giving up her paci, Caroline has become quite resistant to falling asleep at naptime. We have slowly pushed her naptime back from 1:00 to around 2-ish, thinking it might help if she was more tired. But she still plays in her bed until around 3:00 when she finally falls asleep. And when I say she plays, I mean she plays Caroline style-- stands up, jumps on the bed, tumbles, sings loudly, talks to her animals, etc. I have tried various strategies to get her to settle down-- going in a and telling her its naptime and she needs to lie down, threatening to take away her stuffed animals, threatening to take away her lovey, Lambie, atcually following through and taking away her animals and Lambie, lying down with her. But none of it really seems to work. In fact, it seems the more I tell her to lie down, the more she plays. (Did I mention she is strong-willed?) Anyway, I usually wake her up around 4:00 to 4:30 because sleeping past 4:30 seems to really push her bedtime back, and there have been times when these late naps have kept her up past 9:30. And when she's waking up between 6 and 6:30, its just not as much night sleep as she needs. So, we seem to be suffering from constant sleep deprivation lately, which in a 3 year-old can result in some pretty ugly behavior.
• She has started to act a little bit more sisterly to Catherine. She will give Cathrerine hugs and kisses without being asked to. She sings songs (ABC's usually) or makes funny faces at her if Catherine is crying to make her feel better. She will pick up Catherine's juice cup and give it back to her if she drops it from the high chair. She likes to help put on Catherine's shoes. Also over the past few months, they have started to play more together-- actually, engaging in the same activity and playing cooperatively. For instance, they play together with the Little People house, each sitting on opposite sides, and pass the people back and forth through the windows and doors. Caroline also likes for Catherine to dance with her or play Ring Around the Rosie. They even hold hands (sometimes not to Catherine's enjoyment as she gets dragged around-- but she is a good sport about it). Caroline has even let Catherine ride in the Gator beside her (with an adult helping, of course).
• On the other hand, there is still quite a bit of not-so-sisterly behavior from Caroline toward Catherine. I think most of it stems from jealousy and trying to get attention. But there is still some hitting and pushing and taking away toys. The funny part is that Catherine can fight back now.

"Mommy, that looks like tiger"

I was reading Guess How Much I Love You to Caroline before bed last week and she pointed to the word "tight" on the page and said "Mommy, that looks like tiger." I was pretty blown away that she recognized the similarity between the words. We started doing the Your Baby Can Read program with her sometime last winter (although not as consistently as we would like or as the program recommends). Tiger is one of the words that is taught in the first few segments of the series, and she clearly knows that t-i-g are letters in the word tiger.


I have to admit, I was skeptical of the Your Baby Can Read program. I laughed when Chris told me that he had ordered it. I'm sure you have seen the infomercial on TV. His point was that it only cost like 100 bucks, so it wasn't a big investment if it didn't work. Anyway, when the box arrived, we both started reading about the theory behind the program, which is basically that there is a small window of time in very early childhood when the brain has the greatest potential for language development and that this window of time is much earlier than reading is typically taught in school. It also points out that reading to your child doesn't actually teach them to read (a statement that seems obvious when you think about it, but something I had never really given much thought to). So, we have sporadically used the program over the past 6-9 months with Caroline, and I can definitely see that it works.

Caroline's 3rd Birthday

Caroline's 3rd birthday started off with a pancake breakfast, followed by opening her gifts from us at home. Her big gift was a John Deere Gator, which we bought for ger to eventually take down to the farm. She also got an assortment of Polly Pocket dolls from Catherine and a Curious George DVD. We spent some time outside letting her drive the gator in the driveway and alley. Her party was from 10-12 at the carousal at Coolidge Park. We had mini cupcakes from Whipped Cupcakes, and Caroline had her very own jumbo cupcake. We rode the carousel several times and then most of the kids eventually ended up playing in the fountain. It was a really fun party. Then we headed back home to open more gifts with family, and Caroline got several more Polly Pockets. This was followed by a very long 3 hour nap and then opening all the gifts from her party. It was a great day. It's hard to believe Caroline is 3! Happy birthday!

Caroline's 3rd Birthday