Christmas with Baby Caroline

This past month was a big one for our little family.  We celebrated Christmas with LOTS of Mahers and Smiths, and we'll celebrate one more time with the Boudreauxs this weekend.  Caroline's first Christmas was a blast!  We hosted a family gathering for the Mahers the weekend before Christmas.  I didn't know our house could hold so many people!  It was great to see everyone, including great aunts and uncles from Oklahoma. Here are some pictures from that fun weekend:

Papa and Caroline with Aunt Kellie

The family watching the ULL game.

My dad with his aunts and uncles from OK.



We barely recovered from that weekend before it was time to celebrate with Luc's family. Miss Diane, Patrick and Steven came to stay with us for Christmas weekend. We had a blast! It was great to catch up with everyone and eat some great food.  I continued the Maher tradition of seafood gumbo on Christmas Eve - I think Dad was impressed. 

Here are some pics from Christmas morning:

We hope everyone had a great Christmas!  Happy New Year!

Slippery Slope

I can NOT believe that we have a SEVEN month old!  Where did the time go?!?  I've heard that after 6 months, it's a slippery slope to a year.  I can't fathom having a one year old.  Although I love the sweet infant stage, this 7 month stage is really fun!  Caroline is talking and moving and kissing more than ever.  Her favorite sound is "ba", which makes it sound like she's saying "bye-bye" and "baby".  She can roll from one side of the room to the other, and often does it when I'm not looking.  She has just started to lift her torso up when she lunges forward.  She's in the beginning stages of crawling!  It's so cute to watch - she's very proud of herself when she moves.  :)

She weighs about 22 pounds and I swear she grows an inch every day.  She exceeded the weight limit on her car seat, so I installed her new one yesterday.  She LOVES it.  She sits up higher now and is able to access more toys while riding.  She also has more wiggle room, as opposed to being crammed into her old seat.  It's so much easier to get her in and out of.  It's a win-win situation for everyone!  Caroline has also outgrown her sleeping swing and her counter chair, so those are packed up and in the upstairs closet.  I'd being lying if I said I didn't shed a tear when I packed them away.  My little bitty baby girl is turning into a big girl! 

Here are her 7 month pictures:

Silly baby chewing on her medicine dispenser.

Giving her baby doll kisses!

Such a little stinker!

Caroline gives the BIGGEST smiles when she sees her reflection in the mirror.  This was my attempt to get one of those smiles.  I failed!

Caroline took her 6 month pictures a couple of weeks ago.  Poor baby was so tired!  Here are a couple of the shots our favorite photographer, Gia Guidry, was able to capture.  (images are copyrighted by Gia Guidry)

Caroline Jane and Grandma Jane

Our sweet angel finally got to meet the sweet lady she's named after!  We drove to San Anontio during the Thanksgiving break so that Caroline Jane could come face to face with her Great Grandma Jane.  It was love at first sight! 

Caroline and her 2nd cousin, Lola.  Lola is a cutie!  Caroline tried to steal Lola's earrings.

Ms. Diana, Grandma Jane, Caroline and Lucas

We love Grandma Jane!  If Caroline turns out to be half as sweet as Grandma, we'll be lucky parents!

Hold me closer, Tony Danza!

For those of you familiar with Elton John's wonderful hit, "Tiny Dancer", you're probably aware that the lyric "Hold me closer, Tiny Dancer" often gets replaced with "Hold me closer, Tony Danza".  I'm sure Sir John appreciates the thought of Tony Danza dancing with him, but I think he'd appreciate it more if he was dancing with our Tiny Dancer!  I bought her the tutu for her 6 month pictures and she immediately wanted to go home and wear it.  And chew on it.  Here's a pic of our little ballerina:

Isn't she adorable?!?  She is such a ham for the camera.  I hope she's full of smiles for our favorite photographer, Gia Guidry!  We are taking our family picture and her 6 month pictures tomorrow morning.  I have some great outfits and hats for Caroline to wear.  I'm so excited to see how they turn out!  I've been getting some great ideas for fun photos from my new favorite website, Pinterest.  It's a good thing they didn't have Pinterest, Facebook and the Pioneer Woman when I was in college.  I'm not sure I would have graduated given all of the fun new technology out there..  ;)

Speaking of fun things to do, Caroline and I LOVE our Wednesdays!  We go to Baby Sensory for an hour each week.  It's a really exciting way to learn together - songs, sign language, gross motor movements, etc.  The best part is the group of girls we've met there.  I love chatting with them while our girls play.  Although Caroline is the youngest baby there (everyone else is at least a year old), she attempts to keep up with them as they move around the room.  Obviously, it's hard work!  This is the best part of Baby Sensory - the nap afterward!

Her new sleeping position cracks me up.  She's got a long crib to sleep in, yet she chooses to sleep sideways.  You should see her hair in the morning!  She's such a nut.

We are looking forward to an eventful Thanksgiving.  My adorable nephews are coming in on Sunday with my parents.  We'll take a trip to the zoo and tour the area parks.  We're going wedding dress shopping for Meghan (little sister) on Wednesday!  So exciting!  Thursday is Thanksgiving and the last A&M v. UT game and then we head to San Antonio on Friday so that Caroline can meet her Great Grandmother, Jane.  She's also excited about meeting her Great Grandpa and her Great Aunts and Uncles.  Needless to say, I think we'll need a vacation from our vacation come the first week in December.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.  Give thanks for everything that is good in your life!

Little Piggy's First Halloween

Here are some pictures from Caroline's very first Halloween!  She had a blast - even if we only visited one house because of the mosquitoes.  I need to remember not to order her costumes so early!  I had to cut the leg openings because they were cutting off circulation to her fat little thighs.  :)

She was digging through the bucket to find a good piece of candy, while throwing other pieces on the ground.

She found her (and Grandma Eva's!) favorite!

Daddy and his little piggy baby girl

Mommy and her favorite piggy!

This was taken at a Halloween party hosted by our good friend, Amanda.  Her son, Colten, is a couple of weeks younger than Caroline.  They call him "Mr. Serious".  Such cuties!

Our Silly Six Month Old

Time does fly when you're having fun!  Caroline turned 6 months old on Saturday.  I can't believe it!  Where did our little bitty baby girl go?  It seems like just yesterday we were strapping her into the car seat for her ride home from the the hospital.  Wasn't she just sleeping next to us in her bassinet?  I could have sworn she just learned to hold her little head up.  I wish time would slow down because our baby is growing up too fast!

Friends have told me that babies only get more fun with each month that passes.  It's so true.  Caroline is such a fun little (baby!) girl now.  She's always been sweet, but she's got a little personality now and it's hilarious!  She's very interactive and expressive.  She's so curious about her world and it's a blast to watch her explore her surroundings.  I can't get enough of that baby!

We had a great 6 month check up with Dr. S.  Caroline now weighs almost 22 pounds, which puts her in the 99.59% for babies her age.  No shocker there!  She's also in the 86% for height and head size.  Again, no surprised by those numbers at all.  She's a bubbling, babbling healthy baby! 

We put her on infant Zantac for her acid reflux and that is working wonders for her.  She's not vomiting nearly as much as she used to and she doesn't seem to be in pain when she's laying on her back anymore.  Yeah!  That means less outfit changes and more play time on the floor.  Dr. S said we'll try and take her off of it around 9 months to see if her body has made adjustments.  Keep your fingers crossed that her body makes the changes so that she can get off the meds sooner than later.  Dairy is still a major issue, but that's just a waiting game until they are a year old.

We mentioned to Dr. S that she's still not sitting up on her own for more than a few seconds.  The good Doc wasn't concerned, but said that will improve over time.  Well, I think Caroline was embarrassed about that and decided she was going to start sitting up immediately.  And she did!  She's an independent sitter now!  Yeah!  I think she's trying to keep up with the sweeties in her play group. 

The funniest part about her visit was the discussion about crawling.  Caroline is nowhere near that milestone and Dr. S said it's probably because she's so chubby!  She said it's harder for chubby babies to crawl because there's so much to lift.  Too funny!  She said some rolly polly babies walk before they crawl because it's easier for them.  We'll see!  Caroline seems pretty content just hanging out on the floor for now.


Other than being infatuated with our baby girl, not much is going on around here.  I just finished another set of curtains (yeah!) and have one more set to make.  I'm trying to get them finished by next weekend.  We'll see how much free time Caroline gives me.  Luc continues to enjoy his weekend work - tailgating the Aggie football games.  We took Caroline to her first game and she loved it!  She was such a good baby!  I can't wait to take her back to more games.

Here are some pictures from the past few weeks:

I've got a couple more blog posts to write about her Baptism (oh, what a Baptism that was), our new monitor and her funny quirks.  Stay tuned! 

For PaPa

Caroline's Great Grandfather has requested some photos of his favorite Great Granddaughter. 

Here you go!