And the number of the day is...2!

Greetings to those of you who actually remembered that we have a blog! Since there is a lot of catching up to do, the next few blogs may be a bit out of order, but I thought that Karis'2nd birthday deserved the first post.

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated our baby's-- I mean toddler's 2nd birthday. Let me just say, she must have read the manual on how to be a 2 year old. She has been exerting her independence in as many different ways as possible. By this, I mean she is making her opinion known. Her language and use of sentences has also picked up tremendously. For instance, when riding back from church last Sunday, she was apparently hungry and this is what I heard from the back seat- "Um, I want grapes. I want yogurt. Want hot dog. Um, I want churky (turkey) and ticken (chicken) and appa soss (applesauce)."

Ok, so back to the second birthday party. We had a family birthday party which consisted of 13 adults and 4 of Karis' cousins (all 3 years old and under). Her party theme this year was "ABC 123" with some Seasame Street splashed in. Karis has been singing the alphabet daily for about 6 months now. She can still name most of her letters when we write them for her, which we still aren't sure how she learned other than daily play. She is also a huge Seasame Street fan, which is probably because each episode includes so many letters and numbers. She refers to Seasame Street as "Elmo-Cookie" and says several times a day, "Ina see Elmo-Cookie. Ina watch Elmo's Wah (World)."

Since most people traveled in for the party, we started with a smoked BBQ dinner and later broke out the cake and ice cream after gifts. My mom took my ideas and some of her own for Karis' cake again this year and had a bakery in Murfreesboro turn those ideas into a travel-friendly version. The cake flavor was red velvet since that happens to be one of the specialties of that particular bakery, and it was in the shape of the old fashioned ABC wooden blocks stacked into a (travel-friendly) tower. If you look closely, you will see her name within the blocks. For party favors for the little one, I decorated school boxes with each of their names and stuffed them with crayons, ABC stickers, a magnifying glass (without actual glass of course), travel games, and an ABC notepad.

We are of course blown away that our little one is a full-blown 2 year old, but are so thankful for the meaning and laughter that she brings into our lives. Here are several photos from her party.

Daddy's little helper

Just wanted to share with everyone something cute about karis. She loves to help out when we are doing chores around the house. I think her favorite chore is working the dryer. She loves to be in the laundry room as I'm emptying the dryer and karis likes to remove the lint filter for me, put in the dryer sheet and finally close the door. I really hope she still wants to do this when we start assigning chores! Here's a pic of karis in action.









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Gotta love an ordered world

Below is a picture of karis' latest obsession, ordering and arranging like items. These items can range from stackable cups to mixing bowls to shoes to her my little ponies and everything in between. Holly and I love to watch her mind work as she figures out the best possible way for each item to be arranged. It's really too cute!




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New Record!

I think we have achieved our all time new record for longest time interval between posts (not necessarily an "achievement")! I recently took yet another step of boards, so that is my excuse. Jared has been picking up my slack (not uncommon) recently around the house, so that's his excuse. Enough excuses...on to updates!

Jared is still spending his time as a stay at home dad, except for his part-time gig at the church as the liason/director of family ministries and the theology class he teaches every other Saturday for ordination candidates in our church district. He also taught a similar class at our church in Philly. I think wherever God directs his career in the future, it will involve teaching, at least on some level, as he is very good at this and enjoys it, too. Not to mention the fact that he is constantly reading a new book about every week, and these are not exactly the type novels that I like to read when given the opportunity. I enjoy fiction, whereas his are more on the educational side.

As mentioned before, I just took another set of boards, which feels like something I have to do every couple of months, even though it's only about once every year. I am in my second year of my 3 year residency and am enjoying having slightly less call, although I should have even less call/hours next year. Jared keeps commenting that he is excited that we will soon be approaching the time when our life becomes "more normal." Neither of us are exactly sure what this means, other than I should have more control over my schedule and more time with my baby and hubby. This is why I went into family medicine- it seems to be the field with the most flexibility and opportunities to cater your career, although these qualities have to be specifically pursued, which I plan to do.

Now on to our jabbering lady...
Karis is well into the toddler stage, which I realize as she runs through the house, throws balls, dances on request, and empties out the tupperware cabinet...again. Her vocabulary expands daily, and she picks up on words and phrases that surprise both Jared and me. Some of her favorite things currently are: singing her ABCs and counting, watering Mommy's flowers (=digging the dirt out of the pots with her hands and putting it in the watering cans), Cookie Monster and Big Bird (who have recently replaced her beloved duck as her favorite stuffed animals to push in her stroller), pushing random objects in her baby doll stroller as fast as she can (she pushes Daddy's shoes, cousin Andrew's picutre which for some reason has a lot of teeth marks on it, ABC magnets, etc), and playing in the tent Daddy makes for her in the living room.

She also still LOVES reading. We probably read about 30 stories to her each day between the two of us as she is continuously bringing us her new favorites and getting in our laps. This is not an over-estimate. Her favorites recently are "Pouch!" "Ten Apples Up on Top," "All the Ways I Love You," "Baby at the Farm," "Lullaby, Lullaby, Little One," "All of Baby, Nose to Toes," and "Good Night, Gorilla." Sounds like a long list, but these are just the ones we read repeatedly throughout the day. She is still a good eater, but has started rejecting certain foods that she has decided she no longer likes. She recently discovered okra, which she will continue to eat no matter how full she is. And finally, the last thing that Karis is really into, is "foss" (floss). She loves to play with floss hanging out of her mouth...hopefully this is the beginning of good oral hygiene. We love the sound of her little voice and feet in the house, and wouldn't trade our little "Curious Karis" for anything. The photos here are from earlier this summer. In fact, I can't believe how much she has already changed in the past few months. I have some more recent photos, but for now I am having issues getting them to continue uploading from my computer, so I will have to include those in the next post, which will hopefully not be in 3 more months :)

"Duts, Appies, Out!"

These are the precious favorite utterings of my baby who I have been privileged to spend every waking hour with for the last week. I (Holly) had one of my much needed weeks of vacation from the hospital this past week, and can't seem to get enough family time. Within the first minute that Karis wakes up in the mornings, she usually begins requesting her favorite things in her sleepy voice: "Duts" (ducks), "Appies" (bubbles), and Out (outside)!

We were able to go to my family's Mecca, aka Murfreesboro (they pretty much all live here), for a few days of detox from the residency. We were able to take Karis to the Nashville Zoo, along with BB, Aunt Lori, and her cousins Andrew and Kaylea. This was Karis' first zoo trip. She paid the most attention to the roosters and, in general, looked on at the other animals as though we have always had them in our back yard, even the giraffes. It will be fun to see how her response changes in the years to come. Karis was also able to get some much needed playtime with her cousins, my parents, Aunt Lo and Uncle Kev.

We have been home for the past few days and have been laying low. My house is still not as clean as I'd like, but we've had some time outside, good home-cooked meals, and even some movie time...well, it was just a borrowed Ratatouille DVD (thanks Andrew) that Jared and I watched while Karis toddled around, and we are not afraid to admit that we really enjoyed it :)

It has been refreshing to love on my baby girl all day long, hear her repeat new words after me, see her walk back and forth to the things she is not supposed to get into, and to see her grin and say "hi" every time we make eye contact. I honestly dread going back to work because of how rewarding and rich my home life is, but unfortunately the med school bills won't pay for themselves and I will be returning to work on Memorial Day. Until then, I am going to savor these extra hours I have with Karis, who is currently talking on the phone into a (clean) diaper while she is wearing a "hat," which most people actually call a washcloth.

Chattanooga Lookouts game

Strolling at the Zoo

Cousins Andrew and Karis

Checking out the Zebras at the zoo

Hitching at ride on DaDa

Our talented daughter with Sydney the dog

Cousin Kaylea

Trying to stay cool in the pool

Hanging out in Cousin Andrew's playhouse

We're walkin'

Karis has finally decided to start walking!  We believe that she had the necessary skills to do so much earlier than now, but was a little too stubborn about the whole issue.  This video is from her 3rd day walking and we can't believe how fast she's progressed, although this may be somewhat normal.  Hope you enjoy!

Welcome to the World!

Karis chilling in Daddy's lap waiting to meet her new cousin

Through the nursery window

Gome holds her 5th "GG baby

Papa Ted and Andrew discuss the upcoming changes at home

Proud Papa

Big brother Andrew finally sees his baby sister for the first time

She's here!

Awaiting arrival of our baby in the nursery
Andrew's post baby snack

Karis playing peek-a-boo in the car

On March 15, our precious niece, Kaylea ("Kay Lee") Anne Carver came into the world. She weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz., was 20 inches long, and looked very similar to her big brother Andrew when he was born, only a little more petite. Like her brother as a newborn, she has black hair with blonde highlights. Andrew's hair eventually turned blonde, so it appears that hers will too. I had been on call all weekend at the hospital, so I was able to leave that morning and drive to Murfreesboro with Jared and Karis just in time for the delivery. Andrew was excited to see that the baby grew enough in Mommy's belly that it was finally time for her to come out. As soon as he finally laid eyes on her through the window of the nursery and determined that that was definitely the baby he was going to get to take home, he decided it was "time for a snack!" Lori and Kaylea are doing very well, as is proud the proud father, Kevin. Here are some of Kaylea's first photos, although some of the best ones I took for Lori and Kevin on their camera, which unfortunately for me, is in Murfreesboro. I will post better pics as soon as I can get them from Lori. Welcome to our family, sweet baby girl!