First Day of School!

You know your child is becoming too attached to you when....

1. She doesn't want to take a bottle from anyone else
2. She doesn't want to be put to bed by anyone else
3. She doesn't want to be fed in the high chair by anyone else

For these reasons and many more, we knew it was time for Caroline to start socializing with other adults and children. Before she was born I had checked out a few schools for potential daycare programs, but I didn't want to enroll her fulltime. I just wanted a few hours here and there for her to start practicing her independence from me, have fun playing with other children, and maybe learn a thing or two. St. Andrew's was the perfect solution. I knew about the school from one of the teachers, Ms. Sharon, who has been a very active participant in my group the Houston Children and Nature Coalition. Ms. Sharon has done wonderful things with the outdoor play area at St. Andrew's, and I figured any school that demonstrates a committment to providing a quality outdoor learning environment is ok by me! I toured the school in January before she was born and was totally sold....loooved it! So when Caroline started demonstrating some attachment issues, we decided St. Andrew's mother's day out program was just what the doctor ordered. I signed her up for Tues/Thurs from 9-2. Just long enough for her to have some fun, and for me to get some work done!

Last Friday was 'meet the teacher' day, where the children get to spend a bit of time being introduced to their classrooms and teachers. Caroline was of course as charming as always, smiling at everyone and happy to meet new people. I was quite confident that she would love going to 'school.' The only question in my mind was how well she would adapt to their eating and naptime schedule. When she's home with me every single day is different...one day it's a 30 minute morning nap at 10, the next day it's an hour and a half nap at 11. Sometimes she eats 3 ounces and is hungry again in an hour; sometimes she eats 6 ounces and won't eat again for 4 hours. So I was a little nervous about how she would do on someone else's predetermined schedule.

All smiles before school!

Yesterday was the big day...first day of school! Getting us both showered, dressed, fed, and out the door by 8:30 was a feat worthy of a nobel prize. We arrived and the school was abuzz with first day excitement...and quite a few tears from moms and kids alike. But not the Rentons! We were both excited and happy. She said good morning to Ms. Sharon, who was delighted to have Caroline at St. Andrew's. I can't wait till she's a bit older and will be Ms. Sharon's student in the outdoor classroom!

We love Ms. Sharon!

I dropped off her bag of supplies, which required painstaking labels on every.single.item in the bag. (And yet, somehow, not all the items were returned at the end of the day...) She happily went to Ms. Melissa and they got busy playing on the floor.

My child loves anyone with glasses.

Checking out the new kid in class. Caroline is the
only girl! 

Before long other onlookers decided to jump in on the fun. I think Caroline was a bit puzzled by this little Chinese boy. I'm sure it's the first time she's ever seen an Asian person. 

Making new friends! Or new germ-conspirators. I try
not to think about all the illnesses that are headed our way...

When I left they were all happily playing on the floor and I knew she would have a blast. I had no reservations or feelings of sadness about her first day of school, just excitement.
(Although I did have an odd dream about stranger anxiety the previous night...something about her having a different biological father, a deadbeat dad who was suddenly demanding visitation rights and I was preparing to hand her over for a month. I was dreading it, saying 'you don't know anything about this baby!!' And started feeling sad thinking of her crying for her mommy....subconscious thoughts, perhaps??)

2:00 rolled around and I bounded up to her classroom, eager to see how she'd done. And I was greeted with 'she missed her mommy today' and a crying Caroline. At first I felt so guilty, but then I realized she's been somewhat cranky with me too and I know she's having teething pain from the second tooth coming in. So I'm not ready to write it off as a fail just yet. We'll see if she does any better tomorrow. But I am definitely convinced that having her in this program will put her on the fast track for learning and development! Look what she learned to do! I had not seen her get up on all four limbs and start rocking around before school! All those boys in her class are already teaching her new tricks!

And last but not least, today is Nana's birthday! Happy birthday Nana! Poor Nana has the world's unluckiest birthday...August 29, 2005 was when Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and the gulf coast. Now August 29, 2012 will also be remembered for Hurricane Isaac's trip through New Orleans and the gulf coast. (Not to be outdone, my brother Grant's birthday on September 1 is the anniversary of Hurricane Gustav. And my sister Emily's birthday on September 15 is only 2 days after the anniversary of Hurricane Ike. What can I say, my family is a bit of a disaster magnet...) 

While Nana was in town last weekend we visited
the River Oaks plant nursery with giant topiaries. Of course
Nana wanted to take home the rabbit.

If Nana wasn't being called 'nana' I'm quite
sure her name would be 'bunny'....

PUG topiary??? I NEED IT!!

Houston, we have a tooth!

Mission control, we are go for liftoff with the first tooth. Commence chomping on teething cracker in t-minus 10, 9, 8.....

these are a few of my favorite things

No raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but here are a few of Caroline's latest 'favorite things':

bubble wrap

Think I could make her a helmet out of bubble wrap?
Fun + safety = two birds, one stone!

This was an idea I got off a parenting/educational website. She loves the squeaky feel of the plastic and the bumpy texture of the bubble wrap. Yesterday I showed her how the bubbles can be popped...that was a big hit in her book!

http://youtu.be/4WatzvRn-8Q


plastic bag

No need to recycle our bags anymore...voila, instant toy!

Continuing her interest in items that are not supposed to be toys, she loooves plastic bags. It's terribly unfortunate that all the bags are stamped with CAUTION! KEEP BAG AWAY FROM BABIES AND CHILDREN! because that is exactly what she wants to play with. The smooth feel of the plastic and the crinkly noise make it a magnet to her little hands. Not to worry, last time I checked neither Bill nor I had any inkling to leave the baby unattended for a few hours with a plastic bag thus risking imminent death of suffocation.

sitting up

Look ma, no helmet! Sitting up without protective headgear!

Now that all her crunches have paid off and her little tummy is a powerful muscle, she wants to sit up all.the.time. In her bouncer. In her crib. In the bathtub. On the changing pad. It is a constant struggle to keep her horizontal for the entire 60 seconds it takes to change a diaper or an outfit. But when she's not sitting straight up, she prefers to strike a sideways lounging pose. 

Why hello there....

dogs

Caroline: "You're my best friend Winnie!"
Winnie: "The feeling is not mutual."

Preferably ours, but any dog or dog-themed item will do. One of her favorite books is 'Doggies', a counting book that includes 10 different dogs and their different barks. She loves it when Winnie barks. She grins at him and talks to him and tries to reach for him....and he just gives her the cold shoulder.


fishies

She still loves her tropical aquarium on tv. I let her watch it once a day and she is just as enthralled as the first time she saw it. We are in BIG TROUBLE if we have any problems with our DVR and the fishy show gets erased.

bath time

I'm almost ready to go to the big-girl tub! No more
baby tub for me soon!

Always a beloved pastime, she eagerly anticipates bath time. I sing the same little bath song to her every time she's about to get a bath, so she knows what it means now. When I put her on the floor and start undressing her and sing the song she gets quite excited. And the excitement continues in the tub. I can't wait till we have a house with a yard one day so I can put her in a little kiddie pool. She would think she's died and gone to heaven.


Although she's pretty easy-going for the most part, she has a few definite dislikes as well. Including:

turkey baby food

http://youtu.be/Fnwp2bKIUOQ

No explanation needed, and I can't say I blame her. I gave it a whiff and almost gagged myself. I think I've smelled more pleasant odors emanating from my garbage disposal.

bedtime

trying to escape the instrument of torture

It's been hit-or-miss lately in getting her to go to sleep. Some nights, she dozes off when we're bouncing/rocking, and she doesn't wake up when I put her in the crib. Some nights, she does. And then the crying ensues. Some nights she screams bloody murder when Bill tries to put her down. Sometimes she doesn't. Sometimes she goes to bed fine, but then wakes up an hour later and the crying cycle begins then.We just can't figure out what the deciding factor is. What I DO know is that Bill was having zero success putting her to bed until I suggested that he wear one of my tshirts, thinking maybe we could trick her into thinking it was me. He stuffed himself into one of my old Phi Mu shirts, made a few wisecracks about going to grub/Bogie's/a keg party, and then attempted to put her to bed. Worked like a charm! Out like a light in less than 5 minutes! Looks like the ole sorority girl might still have a few tricks up her sleeve after all...

Half-Year Birthday!

Time flies when you're having fun. The first 3 months of Caroline's life craaaawled by but man the last 3 have flown by! Good times and lots of exciting firsts! She gets to be more and more fun with every day. I wish when I was in the hospital they had just handed me a 6 month old. This age is great! We have some decent routines down, I pretty much know what she needs when she needs it, and every day she is learning something new. There are still occasional hurdles that get thrown in the mix but we're getting better and better at jumping them and still keeping pace. (Can you tell I've been very much into the Olympics this year??)

going for Gold in the jumperoo

The one word that best describes her at 6 months of age is BUSY. She is a busybody if ever there was one. She's happy and outgoing but has the attention span of a gnat. After about 10 minutes of whatever activity she's engaged in, she's ready for something new. My mom says I was a very content baby, that she could just put me in the playpen and I would occupy myself for hours and maybe even just fall asleep at some point. HA. Not this girl. She is in need of constant stimulii and frequent changes of scenery. Bill and I are both pretty calm-natured....where did this little ball of spastic energy come from?? The funny thing is, we knew even before she was born that she would be a handful. She was ALWAYS bouncing and kicking and bopping around in my belly. That's pretty much how she is now. If she's awake, she's moving and shaking. Diaper changes, outfit changes....forget about it. It's a two-hands and yes, two-feet endeavor to keep her stationary long enough.

all hands (and feet) on deck for diaper duty

Her adventures in eating have been pretty entertaining. What she likes: pears. What she will somewhat tolerate: peas, squash. On the gagging/dislike list: rice cereal, sweet potatoes, carrots, prunes, avocados, strawberries. One thing she really enjoys though is the mesh teether toy that you can put food in and she can gnaw away at. We'll put a piece of banana in there and she will happily gum away at it for a whole 10 minutes!

nom nom nom....

She's still working on sitting up, hasn't fully mastered that yet. She can pull herself into a sitting position and sit by herself with some assistance but not completely on her own yet. She particularly likes to practice this skill when she wakes up in her crib. It's so funny to turn on the baby monitor and see her sitting up staring directly at the camera.

Look at me! So proud of myself!

Hello? Anybody out there?

And the latest chapter in the sleep chronicles has been 'I Don't Want To Go To Bed at Bedtime.' She'll go down for her naps during the day just fine, but come 7:00 she is NOT interested in going to sleep. The problem here is not that she cries (she'll fuss and complain but doesn't usually cry), it's that she will flop around so much that it makes her throw up. Then we have to go back in, turn the lights on, change the crib sheet, and start all over. Last night we played this game for two hours and finally had to resort to the old drive-around-in-the-car-till-the-kid-falls-asleep trick.

hey kid....why won't you go to sleep??

She still looooves bathtime and has discovered the art of splashing. I let her take two baths per day....one just for fun and splashing in the morning and one 'real' bath for actual cleaning purposes in the evening. She would happily spend all her waking hours in the tub if I let her.

And last but not least, a little lagniappe of photos from the last month!

Getting a good shot of a 6 month old is never easy.

Thanks Granny and Grandpa for my Maui turtle shirt!

Even with a bum foot Granny can still rock the baby!

Hanging out with Uncle Jeff, Riley, and Grandpa