Disney World 2014

We were fortunate enough to be able to take Caroline to Disney World this past week, due largely in part to my parents gifting us most of the trip. We had a blast, we are exhausted, but we had a lot of fun. Some highlights:

- Caroline LOVED the characters! She met Piglet, Eeyore, Pooh and Tigger and Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto and Goofy. It melted my heart to see her hug, kiss, giggle and interact with each one. A definite highlight of the trip!

- We took a horse drawn sleigh ride the first night we were there and it definitely set the tone for the holiday season. We had a beautiful paint draft horse lead us around Ft. Wilderness to look at the campers Christmas lights.

- Caroline enjoyed all the rides she was able to participate in: Dumbo, The PeopleMover, Nemo and Friends, It's a Small World and The Great Movie Ride. She also road on trains, trams, busses and boats while she was there too.

- We went to the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights on the last night we were there. There was snow on the streets and thousands of lights on one main street in Hollywood Studios, they would "dance" or flash to the Christmas music that was playing and it truly was magical. I didn't want to leave.

- We stayed at Wilderness Lodge and the decorations and huge tree in the Lobby were beautiful, Disney always does such a great job with the details!

- Ben and I also got to enjoy two "adult" rides: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. It was fun to sit next to him and laugh through both rides. We definitely felt like kids for a few minutes.

- I also don't want to forget how much Caroline wanted her Pluto souvenir. I showed her a stuffed animal Pluto at a kiosk in passing since she liked meeting him so much and she immediately kissed and hugged it. I thought maybe later so we went and rode a ride and as we were passing back by the kiosk she kept saying "dog" and pointing to the Pluto...so being the softies that we are she got her Pluto.

- We took a trip into Italy (at Epcot) but since Ben took a work trip to Italy we said we would go for our 5 year Anniversary...check :) Maybe to the real Italy for our 10 but we are happy for now :)

13 Months

This month has been so fun with you. You love to be outside, ride in the car, dance, run errands, you are such a happy baby. Yes, you will forever be my baby. You are silly and the way you scrunch your little nose up makes us all smile and laugh. I pray you always have this love for life and making other people smile.

Some moments I don't want to forget from this month:

- You are a dancing fool! You love some Taylor Swift especially her song Blank Space, you also like anything with a good beat... but not every song sets your heart afire...you really have a wide variety of music you find dance worthy.

- You love to dance with your stuffed animals! You will squeeze them tight and sway back and forth with them. It is the sweetest thing. You also like to dance with Mama and Dada and that brings us so much joy.

- During bath time you like to hand me whatever toy you want me to play with. You will hand me your rubber ducky and I will make it swim around the tub and then tickle you with it while saying "quack quack quack" and you laugh and laugh. You also like to hand me cups to dump water into the tub for you to hold out your hands and feel.

- When you are "throwing a fit" your new move is to lay on the ground with your cheek to the floor... that's it, you will be crying and then lay on the floor and immediately stop crying and then eventually get back up but you think you are showing us :)

- You love to rock your baby dolls and your Minnie Mouse in your old swing. You will put them in the swing and stand at the foot of the swing and rock your dolls for a long time. Sometimes you will give them a book to read in the swing, or even a little blanket. I hope you want to be a mommy as much as I did, you have already proved you will be a great one.

- Speaking of being a good mommy, when your cousin Luke was crying while we were babysitting, you laid down to do tummy time with him, brought him a paci and even patted him softly on the back in an effort to help him out. How does a one year old know how to do that?

- You still do not like wearing socks but you have turned a corner with shoes, it was a rough week or two but now I think you actually enjoy your shoes :) I think you are starting to associate them with going somewhere or outside so that helps!

- You are starting to like putting objects in containers, bath toys back into the shower basket, blocks into bins etc. Is it wishful thinking to hope you will like to be organized like mama used to be :)

- You can now get down off the couch without us having to watch you too closely. You lay down on your belly and scoot yourself off slowly. You look so grown up when you do it.

-Your default is now walking, you hardly ever crawl anymore, its odd to see when you do. We have definitely turned the corner to toddler and not baby anymore.

- You love to give kisses and will even fake us out sometimes when you lean in to give one and quickly turn your cheek because you know we will react. Or when you kiss us you will just keep your lips on our cheeks until we laugh. Such sweet moments. You also love to say "muah" when you blow kisses and now actually have the hand motion down too.