Happy Birthday to Me, early morning style!

So today is my birthday and the third person to wish me a Happy Birthday (first Scott's sister Cay facebook'd me at 12am her time - East Coast - and then Scott kissed me goodnight just after midnight) was Caroline crying in her crib at 12:45 am. And gave me my first birthday present of the day - her first tooth! I totally understand why she was crying - and I'm so lucky - with her, there's always a reason, always! I'll try to get a picture of it, when it's a little more prominent. I'm so relieved we'll be going to her 9 mo. appt. with a tooth.

Ben's Thanksgiving Program

Here's a link to the 5 minute video from Ben's Thanksgiving Program that was today. He was a Pilgrim, and they sang songs like "This Land is Your Land", "God Bless America", "Turkey in the Brown Straw", and "I'm Very Very Thankful". It was sweet. The video is on You Tube - it was too long to upload here.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFUcLb30PaU

If you can't view it, let me know and I'll "invite" you. Here's a couple of pictures from the morning as well. Ben was VERY serious during the entire program, and barely cracked a smile at all......that's not like him at all, and I was stunned that he didn't try to charm the audience. But I think he gets shy in large crowds, and plus he was concentrating very hard on all of the words that he had to remember. It was a cute program. Afterwards, we ate a Thanksgiving feast with him, and it was delicious!

And She's Off!

Caroline has been trying so hard to crawl for the last couple of weeks, and just over the weekend, she started putting all of the steps together, and today I was able to capture her most successful crawling yet. She wanted Mommy's hair clip which was strategically placed out of her reach. And she got it!

Playdate with Anna Vera

On the morning of Halloween, Caroline and I headed down to The Woodlands to visit my friend Anna Klara and her baby girl Anna Vera, who was born two months after Caroline. Anna Klara was the high school math teacher at the Juvenile Justice Discipline program for Conroe ISD (a step above where I teach at the Discipline Alternative Education Program). She and I have enjoyed each other's company at professional development workshops, staff meetings, and were both pregnant during the same school year. We got together with the girls when I was still on maternity leave, and throughout the summer. She stays home with her daughter now, but we'd been trying to get together and let the babies see each other, and Saturday worked out perfectly. Anna Vera was born 6 weeks early, so she technically would have been over 3 mos. younger than Caroline, but she holds her own. These are some pictures from our play time together. It was looking very civilized and sweet, until Miss Dominator took matters into her own hands (or mouth!).

Enjoying the civilized activity of chewing on the same toys

Looking at the mommies making silly sounds to get their attention.

Caroline gives kisses now - with tongue - slimy!

Poor Anna Vera didn't know what she was getting into when she rolled forward.