Good morning!

Today was Carolyn's first day back at Wiggleworms. She moved up to the 12-24 month class and I'm hoping that being around some bigger kids will make her more excited about walking (she will do 3-4 steps every now and then, but always reverts to crawling after that). She also has a new teacher, Miss Linda. It took her the first half of class to warm up to the new people, but pretty soon she was stealing maracas and shaking a tambourine along with everyone else.

Bye, Bye Betty!

Desi and Betty- the first car he purchased himself

In a move I never expected to see (since Desi told me that part of marrying him included never making him sell her), Desi traded in Betty to get me a new-to-us car. Thankfully, I've won the battle against minivans for a few more years.

Pebbles - the new car

who now lives in the garage with best friend Bam-Bam

Happy 60th Anniversary, Grandma Dolly and Papa Chuck!

We celebrated Grandma and Papa's big day yesterday with dinner at Vie in downtown Western Springs. Carolyn was an angel, as usual, and the waitress absolutely adored her.

Random pics

Back inside

After our backyard fun we headed back inside where Carolyn discovered her love of her shopping cart. She got this for Christmas from Papa, Tracey and Rachel, and, before today, she would play with the food and toys inside, but refused to walk behind it. Obviously, she realized that she had been missing out on something really, really fun. She went up and down the hall for about half an hour.

Yard work

Since it wasn't quite warm enough to head to the pool today, we decided to spend it out in the yard. We pulled weeds, trimmed bushes, cleaned off the garage roof and cleaned the garage gutters.

Carolyn watched nervously as...

(she was so funny because refused to sit on her little ledge until her garden door was fully shut, and, of course, it didn't want to stay shut so she had to go back and forth a few times until we helped her out)

Desi swept off the garage.

A little friend that I found on a small tree in our backyard.

McDonald's Day at the Zoo!

Friday was McDonald's Family day at the zoo so we joined Auntie Courtie and her colleagues for a fun field trip. Best of all, Carolyn got to meet Ronald McDonald. She wasn't quite sure what to make of him. Unfortunately the giraffes weren't on exhibit for the day, but we saw lots of other animals.

Carolyn was the most attentive that she has been on any of our zoo visits, particularly in Tropic world. Desi had to hold her back from climbing over the fence to join the monkeys.

Auntie took Carolyn for a trip through the misting tent (even though it wasn't really that hot) and she seemed to enjoy it.

Thank you, Auntie, for such a fun afternoon!

13th Month B-day!

On Thursday, Carolyn hit the 13 month mark. She is getting so big (well, tall at least). Her favorite things include laying on her tummy to look under couches, chairs, etc, sometimes for lost toys and balls and sometimes just to see what is under there.

She continues to eat like crazy. This was lunch Thursday out with Grandma Dolly and Papa Chuck. Between pasta, bread, pizza and sausage, she ate so much that Grandma was concerned that it was too much which, if you know my Grandma, says something. Her shirt got covered in sauce so we had to change for the afternoon.

Another love is opening and closing doors. She injured her foot and a few fingers getting the hang of it with my bedroom door, but now seems to have it down. She spend about 20 minutes playing with this yellow door to her garden. The mailbox is a highlight as well.

Bath time pirate face. Her second front tooth is coming in, bringing her up to five total.

Pausing for a quick dip

Hiking at Lower Cataract Lake

Fireworks over Breck

This week

This week we have had some fantastic warm weather, which we celebrated with a few trips to the pool.

Little movie star in Mommy's sunglasses

Climbing up on the deck chairs (she is getting very adventurous)

One of her favorite pastimes, emptying out her diaper bag or any other container. In this instance she discovered her old pacifier which she started to suck on before I snatched it away.

We went out for lunch with Grandma Dolly and Papa Chuck today and as we were leaving the restaurant we saw lots of smoke in the sky. Apparently the nearby Walmart, that is undergoing renovations, had caught on fire.

Saying goodbye to the Blue Van

Today I must pause from my usual meanderings about Carolyn, to pay tribute to the Blue Van, aka the Masini Mobile. After 24 years of dedicated service to our family, it took its final drive out of Western Springs (well, final tow to more specific) and joined the many clunkers around the country in retirement. I teared up a bit closing the sliding door for the last time (which in prior years has been slammed on my head, going to a swim meet, and arm at Mount Rushmore) as tons of memories came to mind (sleeping on the white table in the back, trips to Florida, Wyoming and everywhere in between, learning to parallel park around the oval in high school, etc, etc).

It was nice to say goodbye for a good cause, as it was traded in allowing my grandparents to get a great deal on their first brand new car ever and...

a spot on the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams for my grandma (we tried to get the whole family on, but Papa, Carolyn and I ended up on the cutting room floor).

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Hot summer in the city

Yesterday, Carolyn and I made a trip to the city to have dinner with a bunch of Auntie Courtie's friends including Amy, Andrew and little John who are back in town for the week. Our first stop was Auntie Courtie's house for some fun on air chair.

Then we headed to dinner early in order to spend some time at the splash park with Charlie.