Maybe One Day...

So, this is one of the main reasons why I was totally excited about buying this house last summer. I had many visions of laying back in this thing filled with bubbles and relaxing all my worries away.

*Cue the noise of a record needle scratching across a record*

Here is what my oasis looks like these days:

Which is tolerable only because this is the beautiful, happy, little face that is enoying her own version of relaxing:

I think her look here says it all. I never stood a chance at bubbles or relaxation or even privacy in this tub. Maybe one day...

Maybe the Easter Bunny Knew Better

One present that Caroline did NOT get from the Easter bunny was a sandbox. One just like the one she could play at for hours at Dallas and Carrie's house. It probably wouldn't fit in her Easter basket. In any case, and it is probably needless to say that this point, but she got one right after Easter day. We broke it out on the first sunny day of Spring Break, filled it up with the soft, white new sand and took out all the accompanying sand toys that we felt she just had to have. Honey was here for the grand occasion. I have to give her credit, she did express some doubt that Caroline would know how to play with the sand, and I vaguely remember hearing something about her "throwing all the sand out of the box" in the midst of lots of protests that she was going to get "very sandy". Being convinced that we are going to be uber-parents and let our daughter experience all the messy things that were outlawed when we were younger, I was oblivious to the warnings.

Here's how it went down:
(1) she spent many, many minutes doing nothing but emptying the sand from the sandbox into the yard with a cute little purple shovel
(2) she watched me make a "bucket sand castle" in the sandbox and realized that the bucket held more sand than the shovel
(3) she spent many minutes emptying the sand from the sandbox into the yard with a big bucket
(4) she got very sandy
The pictures were probably the best part - at least for me, but I do think Honey has had some vindication.

In an effort to make the most of our last days of Spring Break, we took Caroline to Incredible Pizza Company on Saturday night. We did this with a lot of trepidation, because she wasn't exactly the happiest toddler on the block all day Saturday. That, given with the fact that she has become very fond of throwing things at us when she doesn't get her way, made us both a little nervous, but we braved it anyway. m
Jack came with us and the whole thing started off wrong when Caroline began screaming loudly after she realized she couldn't just walk around on her own. Her daddy strapped her into a highchair and we got her some food and prayed for the best. Unfortunately, she wasn't hungry so things weren't looking good for any of the rest of us. Two bites into dinner, she decided that she didn't want to be in the high chair anymore and tried to start climbing out. We had to hold her in, which led to lots more screaming. I'm sure at this point, Jack was rethinking his decision to come along with us.
All of this led to what you see here, my not-so-great-mommy-moment number 132. I gave her some of my root beer. Here you see her spooning it into her mouth, along with large pieces of ice. What I found was that it made her quiet. And happy. Which made me happy, along with the rest of the people dining nearby. So, I let her have it. And then I gave her more, and more. I snapped these photos so I would at least look like I was a good mom, despite falling into the "Britney Spears" school of parenting tricks.

She had enough of the spoon towards the end, and just started drinking it like shots of liquor. Nice, huh?

Driving (after drinking, even)!

I didn't get any tokens for her, and she seemed to have just as much fun running around. Hmmmm, could it have been sugar overload??

She had fun on the drum machine, even if it wasn't turned on!

She also had a little too much fun shooting this play pistol!

Not pictured: One exhausted mommy from chasing her all over, and I do mean ALL OVER this over-crowded place. Note to self: Give the root beer at the END of the trip next time.

Haircut Celebration

We took a weeknight trip to Chuck - E - Cheese during Spring Break to celebrate Caroline's new haircut.

Side note: Apparently they do some sort of weekly "spring cleaning" on Thursday nights in preparation for the weekend. Every single toy and game was being cleaned while we were there. It was a great touch, especially if
you told yourself they were doing it just to be nice and not to disinfect from
some horribly contagious virus that some kid visiting had exposed the machines to.

Since this visit took place before the great mommy moment number 132, Caroline had to entertain herself by playing. She was most amused that we put her in this big white Jeep and turned it on. She kept looking at all of us like she was getting away with something big. Nickie volunteered to watch her on this while Kevin and I ate quickly. We watched from a nearby booth and cringed when another little girl came up to wait her turn. We both knew that nothing was getting Caroline outta that Jeep without a fight. Turns out, the girl didn't mind a riding partner and she climbed in next to Caroline and inserted a token. Everything was going well until Caroline strong-armed the steering wheel away from the little girl, who scurried off to probably tell her mother about the atrocity.

Don't let her cuteness fool you, she can be very tough!

It was kind of funny to see her by the little kid games. She is so much bigger here:

...than she was last summer:

Here are some other shots of her following Mack and Jack around and trying desperately to be a "big kid":

First Haircut

Caroline's first haircut was pretty uneventful. She wouldn't sit alone in the big chair, but she did sit on my lap. With the help of Ms. Monique, it was over quickly. Right about the time Caroline started warming up to the place, playing to the crowd, and got ready to run around. Right about the time we made our graceful exit.

Easter Day Fun

We had a great Easter day, in spite of the threat of some bad weather. We managed to spend lots of time outside in the windy cool before lunch. Mack, Jack, and Caroline had some fun on the swing after an Easter egg hunt. You can tell who is in charge of this swing:

Hope everyone's Easter was equally happy!

Easter Photo Shoot

Caroline had another "picture" session with the photographer that did her Christmas photos. The lady truly has the patience of a saint. She just follows Caroline around and gets some of the most amazing pictures! On this day, she brought along an extra dose of patience and a little white bunny rabbit.

These are some of my favorites. Caroline's favorite activity was trying to wet the bunny's fur with her hands, and a pretty flower that she kept dipping in the water and then dripping on him. Poor bunny.

For the record, she doesn't always torture small animals, despite what the this and the last post will have you thinking.

Easter day photos coming soon!