The Growing Caldwell Family

We didn't make any plans for a big New Year's Eve out, but decided to do something fun on Saturday with Sarah Graves.  Her grandparents were thoughtful and gave her memberships to the zoo and aquarium, and the gorgeous weather on Saturday made it perfect for a trip to the zoo!  Before going to the zoo we stopped for breakfast at Flying Biscuit, a real treat.  Their creamy, dreamy grits are truly heavenly.  Even as picky as Sarah Graves is, she enjoyed them.  I think we made it to the zoo just in time for the animals to take a nap!  Most of them were out sleeping in the sun.  The lion was sleeping so deeply that he was snoring so loud we thought it was his roar that we were hearing.  We rushed to the lion area and saw he was just sleeping!  So, we did what all little girls love to do and went to the playground!  They really have a nice playground at the zoo and she just loves it!  She plays the bongos. We tried out the tee...

Santa made a stop at Lovie and Pops' house to leave a playhouse and play kitchen!  She really is a lucky girl to have a kitchen at each house.   She tried out the playhouse first.  After all, Santa left her stocking in the chimney and her stuffed reindeer was hiding in there, too! The play kitchen was quickly explored and much to all of our surprise this one talks.  It can tell what food is cooking on the stove and it knows when you are popping popcorn in the microwave.  It also reminds you to tidy up!  A cleaning set was a sure hit with our little domestic diva!  She immediately got down to sweeping and mopping for them.  Opening gifts is a bit of a sport for our family and after about an hour we realized Sarah Graves was worn out.  She headed up for a nap and we continued to open gifts.  Lovie and Pops got a kick out of both buying a popcorn popper for the other!  They say you should always buy a gift that you want to rec...

We were eager for Sarah Graves to wake up and see what Santa had brought to her!  Aunt Nay stayed with us on Christmas Eve and captured pictures of Sarah Graves' first glimpse of Santa's surprises.     Once she had a glimpse of those toys, she took off with great enthusiasm! We were pretty excited about all that Santa had brought, too!  She had a play kitchen with dishes, pots, cooking utensils, a sandwich set, stir fry set, fridge foods, freezer foods, a fruit set, and a grocery cart to haul it all around in.  She wasted no time tearing into all the parts of the kitchen and starting to cook something up for us.  The chopsticks for the stir fry set were an immediate hit!  They have velcro to help little hands grab on to the foods they are picking up.  Santa also remembered to put out a Barbia ATV that Aunt Arden and Uncle Joe sent her.  She wasn't quite sure how to work it, but she loves it now.  She doesn't know how to turn, so ...

 Christmas Eve was a busy day at our house.  I picked up the camera sporadically, so we don't have a ton of pictures.  We skyped with Grandaddy and Mimi and Grancy and Ger Ger so they could watch SG open the presents that they shipped to her.  She had a great time tearing through presents and is only just now starting to calm down enough to really pay attention to some!  Everyone enjoyed watching her as she did her thing.  We went to the early church service so that SG could go with us and boy that sure was different than going to midnight mass!  Imagine about 100 of Sarah Graves in a sanctuary doing a Christmas pageant.  My head was spinning, but it was nice to be with Mom and Dad and I love singing all the carols.  Then, we all came back to our house for an unconventional, albeit yummy Christmas dinner of sensation salad, spaghetti and meatballs, and almond cream cake.  I'm not big on the turkey and dressing meal, so we just decided...

We had a wonderful Christmas and I have lots of pictures to post about it.  Our enjoyment of the day after Christmas was interrupted a bit by the fact that Sarah Graves has an ear infection.  She started telling us yesterday that her ear hurt, but she was still in good spirits.  I was in hopes that ibuprofen would keep her comfortable until we got to the pediatrician, but it was worse during the night and she was up quite bit.  We were some of the first to get to the pediatrician this morning and sure enough, she has an ear infection.  They gave her antibiotics and an ear drop for the pain.  She had a good nap today and seems to be doing fine.  Hopefully, she'll be back to normal and will sleep well tonight.  I know I need it!

Dear Sarah Graves, You are such a joy right now (not that you haven't been always)!  You are your own person and it is so fun to watch you grow.  You are inquisitive, imaginative, and so very loving.  You are really into baby dolls and pretend cooking right now.  Your imagination has really fired up and you crack us up with some of your pretending!  You have several babies and you refer to some of them by names and others are just baby.  Your babies have to eat, sleep, and they even poop.  Sometimes you make pie to feed your baby, which cracks us all up!  You have a small set of dishes that came as an early Christmas present and you pretend to bake all sorts of yummy treats for us.  Maybe all your pretend baking is why you don't care to eat real food. You are not interested in food much these days.  You seem to go through phases where you love on thing and want it constantly and just as quick as it became your favorite, you are o...

Wishing everyone JOY today!