One Last Road Trip

Chris and I loaded up the car AGAIN this weekend to drive to Atlanta for his graduation ceremony at Georgia Tech. I'm SO proud of him for working so hard and getting his Master's Degree, but I'm SO glad he's done! :) The ceremony was at 7pm Eastern time on Friday night so we drove over that morning. We got there with a little time to spare and headed over to the Lenox Square Mall. I'd never been there before - it was HUGE! Since we'd been in the car all day, we let Caroline run around to get some energy out - and run she did! She was so excited and just ran around and giggled! It was really crowded and sometimes she'd run into or in front of people, so it was hard to keep up with her. We found a Pottery Barn Kids store so we went in there and found some things for her to play with (i.e. calm down). We'd also been looking in to getting one of their "anywhere chairs" for Caroline since she LOVES to climb on furniture and we're always worried she'll fall. These chairs are big and soft and low to the ground so she can get in and out of it easily without us having to be right there. We decided to get one while we were there to avoid paying shipping costs (since we don't have a PBK store in Huntsville). Here's baby girl with her new chair:

So after shopping we met Chris' family for dinner and then headed back to the Hotel to change for the graduation. It got kind of crazy trying to coordinate everyone and a toddler and fighting Atlanta traffic on a Friday night. Then it was raining on top of everything else! Chris' sister offered to keep Caroline so we could go to (and enjoy) the ceremony. It was a good thing we did because we had to drop Chris off and then park far away and walk, and then the ceremony was long, so it was nice to be toddler-free for the evening! Here is a pic of the proud graduate:

Then Saturday morning was crazy too, but we all met up for

breakfast and then headed over to Chris' grandfather's house to visit. Caroline took a long nap while we were there, then we got on the road to go back home that afternoon. We stopped in Fort Payne to stretch and swing at the park. Caroline had been a little scared in a swing the last time, but this time she loved it:

She even cried when we got her out to get back on the road again:

It was a whirlwind trip! But we survived!

In other news, Caroline is 15 months old today! She is so busy and fun and is really starting to talk more now. New words for this month include: night-night, up, hot, thank you, doggie (and "arf arf"), bird, "raaaarrr" (for "What does a lion say?"), "There she is!" (for "Where's Caroline?") and my favorite, "Mama." She's also getting better at repeating things we ask her to say (although sometimes unclear), and also at naming relatives. She also has this new thing where she puts on a "purse" and gets in her car and blows bye-bye kisses. Sometimes the purse is a stacking ring, but lately she's been getting more specific and wanting a bag or purse to put on her arm. Here she is with one of my purses:

We're also working on taking her paci away. She went to sleep without it last night after I rocked her for a few minutes, but she woke up in the night and I had to pat her back to sleep. Then she woke up a little early this morning, but did okay at church without it and took a nap without it. So far so good! I'm a little worried about how she'll do at school without it during nap time, but hopefully she won't need it. I mentioned before that I was going to cut the end off the paci and give it to her if needed, but we haven't had to do that so far! I'll keep you posted!