"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

Caroline's 3rd Birthday

Girls Beach Trip

I took the girls to the beach for a wonderful 2 weeks. Yes, just the three of us! This was the first time I've taken them on a trip by myself, so I was a little anxious about the drive down and about having them on the beach by myself. But, in the end, it all worked out great. They watched movies and ate snacks on the way down. Catherine took a couple of short naps and Caroline finally managed to go to sleep 30 minutes before arriving at the beachhouse. We had pretty good weather-- some rain, especially in the mornings, as a result of a tropical storm that was passing through. One morning, I took them out in the jog stroller and we had to find shelter under a tree 3 or 4 different times to get out of the rain. The girls were NOT happy about it! But we were able to go out on the beach every day, and most days, the weather was great. We played in the sand and the "yucky water" as Caroline called the inlet that runs from the lake to the Gulf (named so because it is brown). One afternoon, we spent 2 hours sending a boat downstream in the "yucky water." Catherine sat upstream and Caroline stood downstream and Catherine and I would send the boat down to Caroline, whose job was to catch it before it floated out into the ocean. We had a few days that the water was calm enough to swim and Caroline loved getting in and swimming around with her floatie on. I was pleasantly surprised at how much Catherine enjoyed the beach too. She loved sitting in the surf, "shoveling" sand, and being held up over waves as they crashed. And when we got tired of the sand, we played on the deck in the wading pool or with the hose and shower. Caroline loved sitting under the shower to rinse off and giving her doll "Beach Baby" a shower too. We went out for ice cream at Miss Lucille's down at Gulf Place one afternoon and Caroline ended up covered in chocolate ice cream. Then we went and played on the grass lawn and stage that is set up for concerts, just for a change of pace from the beach. The best part of the trip was that Chris came down for the last 4 days. We had lots of fun family time on the beach. We went out to dinner a couple of times. One evening, we drove into Destin to go to the Back Porch and sat beachside while we watched dolphins swimming right outside our window. We also went to Seaside another night for dinner and then for ice cream for dessert. It was a great trip!

Daddy Comes to the Beach