So this little lady went and turned 13 months on the most perfect, beautiful day we have had all year.

So we made the most of it 🙂

We started off by going to the Cherry Blossom Parade in DC. Caroline loved the marching bands and clapped when they played music.

She had the best view because of her dad!

After that, we took advantage of the 80 degree temps and brought out the baby pool I bought last summer. We invited over Caroline’s friend from daycare and Roman Noodle of course to splish and splash. The hose water was freezing cold so I had to make 17 trips with buckets of hot water just to make tolerable. Caroline loved it, Raina tolerated it, and Roman Noodle did not enjoy it…

In Roman’s defense, it was still pretty chilly. Apparently 17 buckets of hot water wasn’t enough.

After the Baby Pool Party, we headed over to Joy’s house for some playground fun and a BBQ picnic dinner. Luke and Toby were so sweet–walking back to their house, they held Caroline’s hand. It was the perfect end to the most perfect day!

Here is a snapshot of Caroline at 13 months:

• We are stilll not walking on our own! She could be, but she hasn’t yet. She is so very cautious. She does like to walk holding onto just one of our fingers. And last week, I was holding her and she whined to walk instead…that was a first! We were heading back to Joy’s house from the playground and she saw Luke and Toby running and wanted to be a part of it.
• She loves to ‘walk’ pushing something–a stroller, a push toy, anything. It is so funny to watch because she looks like an 80 year old grandma at the Stop n’ Shop on Senior Discount Tuesdays buying chicken that’s 2 for one and olives for her martinis. It’s something about her wide stance, and how she is hunched over, I think? It’s hilarious.
• She loves her giant stuffed bear more than ever. She will hi-tail it across the room just to snuggle her face into his plush tummy.
• She has started playing more independently by herself–she loves to play with the magnets on the fridge, the cards she got from her birthday, and her play kitchen. She loves to dump out all of the food toys and then put them back in one by one. It is so neat to watch her “fill up” small boxes because she does it so carefully.
• She also loves the wooden puzzles (clapping together the wooden pieces) that she got for her birthday and her bath octopus, putting the rings on the tentacles.
• Verbally, she says a lot of “ahhh, yeah!” and ma-ma. It’s adorable.
• She is wearing size 12-18 months, sleeps like a rock at night, and eats anything and everything we put in front of her (including 3 bowls of salsa at Guapo’s). Mike and I couldn’t chop up the tomatoes fast enough for her!

Happy 13 months, Sugar Bear!