Caroline Addison…3 years old

Caroline’s birthday was on Friday, but it seems like we celebrated all week. We took her to see The Imagination Movers last Sunday, she got tap/ballet shoes on Monday, had her hair trimmed and spent the night at Nana & Pawpaw’s for the first time on Tuesday and celebrated her birthday on Friday by waking to a Christmas-morning style surprise…a new TinkerBell tent and Hello Kitty bicycle waiting in the living room when she woke up! She went for her 3-year checkup that afternoon with a new pediatrician (whom we all loved) and Maggie also had her 4-month checkup and shots while we were there.

Just for me to remember, here are their stats:

Caroline: 39” tall and 37.8 lbs (90th percentile in both)

Maggie: 24.5” long (50-75th percentile) and 12.75 lbs (10-25th percentile)

Maggie is considerably shorter and lighter than Caroline was at the same age. I wonder if this will be a sign of the future?

Here are some pictures from both her actually birthday on Friday and from her party on Saturday at a local bounce house. It was fantastic, by the way! No set up or clean up for Mommy! :)

This first picture was taken at 11:24 am…her “birth minute”.

I posted this next one on Friday from my phone, but the quality was poor. This is from our friends and awesome photographers, Jon and Emily of Beaty Photography. It was taken at Caroline’s (and ours) favorite frozen yogurt place.

These next few shots crack me up…it’s literally impossible to get this many children together for one picture, without somebody looking away or crying for a parent. Only Eric (with the American flag shirt) was serious about picture-taking. He looked at the camera in every single photo! :)

Overall, it was a wonderful birthday week for Caroline. She is so proud of being a big girl and a big sister. She has improved and matured so much since Maggie was born. It has been a rough few months, but I think the transition period may be tapering to a close…hopefully. For a kid who never really experienced the “terrible twos”, she sure had a tough last couple of months being two. Here’s hoping that three will be a bit more stable for her. She LOVES her routine…just like Mommy. :) Both girls are back to “school” tomorrow. Caroline has gone all summer, with the exception of vacation this past week. Maggie will start in the infant room at the same center that Caroline goes to. I am sad to leave her, because it means I won’t be with her all day, but I am happy knowing she is in the care of such a wonderful group of people. They love all children so much and they get so much individual care. Their infant class size is 6-to-1 children to teachers, and there is also an aide in the room. Caroline’s 2-year-old class was the same last year, and I believe it stays the same (or close) in her new 3-year-old class. She absolutely LOVES school and learns SOOOO much that it amazes me!

I am back to professional development tomorrow and school officially starts on Wednesday, August 17. Ready to get back into a routine. I just want to get the beginning over with and get the ball rolling!

Hope all of you have a fantastic week ahead! :)