01/52

01/52, originally uploaded by andreal_c.

A couple ladies from my fave photography group on Cafemom started a project called 52/52 on Flickr. Similar to the 365 project (a photo a day for a year), you take a photo a week for a year. The goal is to take a self portriat of your child and you. So this was my first week! I wasn't planning on doing it today, but I was already attempting to do Carolina's 2 year photos at the park, and this moment was just right. Rendon was my tripod, haha, meaning I set all the settings, set the focal point, and had him push the button! I love the pic, just wished I had been more prepared (you know, hair, makeup, clothes that didn't require editing bright yellow Appalachian graphics out.....). I'm really excited about the project. I'm always the one behind the camera. There are so few photos of Carolina and me, it'll be nice to have some of us to put up in the house. Also, I think it will be something really special that we can look back on when she's older!

I'm considering doing her and Rendon as well, but I'll have to discuss that with him first, he's not big on posing for photographs....

Randomness

We go to SeaWorld fairly often, and Carolina loves it. There's a couple camera phone pics of a couple weeks ago, when it was soooooooo COLD. In the 40's. But it was empty! We had the best seats at every show! They've been doing Christmas themed shows, so the 3D movie was Polar Express. Carolina actually wore the 3D glasses the whole time. Super cute, but it was too dark to get a pic. New Years Eve was their last day of the season, so we went twice last week. Once, just Rendon and Carolina. He takes her a lot on his off days when I'm at work. And the last day was all 3 of us. They changed the show schedule on us, so we missed Shamu. But Carolina got to play in the 'boooounce', and watch the other shows. Tuesday (when I didn't go), they rode the teacups for the first time, with Carolina in Rendon's lap. He reported that she loved it; So they tried to go again, and I was taking pics, well this time the attendant wouldn't let her sit in his lap. She was NOT happy. So she pouted the whole ride.

Cell phone pics from watching Shamu the day it was sooooooo cold. All the trainers were in the water like normal. Of course they had on wet suits, but at the Viva show (pics from this show are below), there's one guy who does comedy relief, doing crazy jumps into the water. He wears a clown type pair of shorts with suspenders and a shirts. And he was in the water just like normal too. Nothing covering his legs. He had to be FREEZING! I hope they pay him good....

Sans makeup here....wasn't planning on photos....

The rest of the pics are from New Years eve. It was mid to upper 60's...perfect weather for SeaWorld. These blocks you see Carolina carrying around are huge foam type shapes. She goes around collecting them, and piling them around Rendon. Not even to really do anything with them....

Waiting for this kid to move so she can steal the shape.....little booger....

Collecting more....

And another....

Then she took Rendon's hat and waited for him to chase her around. We played in this area for a good hour. I think she could have stayed for 3!

She ran around SQUEALING when he would get close to getting her.

GO PANTHERS!!!!!!

Rockin' the hat...

Woahhhhh...THAT'S a hair do!

I forget who Rendon was on the phone with. But Carolina wanted to play. To make sure he got the message, she put the block on his head. haha


Flips

Pouting on the teacups....

Big Girl!

Tried to get a cute portrait....of course Carolina will not smile at the same time that she's sitting still. So it's either happy smiling motion blurred pics.....Or this.

Watching Viva and eating funnel cake! She calls the dolphins and the beluga whales at this show Shamu too.

The performers jump from really high platforms and do all sorts of crazy tricks, and the dolphins are super fast. She sits there with this expression on her face most of the time.

This year one of the beluga whales had a baby. The mom didn't perform in the show for the first part of the year. But now that the baby is a little older, the mom performs normally, and the baby just swims along side wherever the mom goes. It's really cute. Especially when they get the belugas to sing, and you can hear the baby do it too. This pic is kinda hard to make out, but the white beluga is the mom, and she's pushing on of the trainers. The baby is the darker and smaller beluga.

If you look in the top right corner you see the funny guy. Click to make the picture bigger. That's the same thing he wore in on the really cold day, jumping in and out of the water. That's dedication.....

We forgot cash (on the last day!!), so we didn't get to buy fish to feed the dolphins. Rendon almost had this one tricked enough to pet him (I know.....kinda mean), but not quite. Here, where Carolina is right up close to the dolphins, she calls them 'dolseys'.

We went out to dinner a week or so ago to Outback. We don't order Carolina a kids meal, the options aren't the best usually at resturants, and she would still want our plates anyway. We ordered the bushman shrooms as an app (fried mushrooms). We always offer Carolina anything that we're eating; I expected her to taste them and push it away, since I've made sauteed mushrooms before and she didn't like them. But she loved them! Not even dipping them in the ranch. Of course when the salads came she wanted the tomatoes. She cleared Rendon out, and a couple of mine. So we asked the waitress for a couple more. She brought us an entire bowl...which Carolina proceded to clear out! The food took a little while, and Carolina was getting antsy, so we kept telling her the broccoli was coming to bribe her to behave (I know, weird kid). We have strived to make sure Carolina is open to all foods, but it's pretty funny to go out to eat and she makes her meal out of mushrooms, lettuce, tomatoes and broccoli. Oh, and a bite of Rendon's steak, and a piece of bread. THe first video (they're from the phone) didn't record sound for some reason, but you can see Carolina saying 'More mato!', 'look, more mato!'.

You know the new Subway commercial? If you watch football you know what I'm talking about. If not, Carolina is here to re-enact it for you!

Rendon and Zucker and a couple other guys from work went to the Alamo Bowl. I was working so Rendon took Carolina with him. She was well behaved the whole time, even into the overtime. But she did have some demands. She wanted her own seat in her own row. And she stole their popcorn.

Christmas Day

I've been having issues with video, so that will have to wait. But enjoy some photos! Christmas day was fairly calm around here. It was just Rendon, Carolina, Zucker and I. Zucker (or Adam) is Rendon's good friend from work who wasn't going home for the holidays, so he brought the gifts from his family over here, and spent Christmas with us. Carolina loves Zucker. If the dogs start barking, and Rendon and I are both here, she gets really excited and goes "Zucka Zucka?!". So she was thrilled he spent all day here. And he gave her Mickey and Minnie plushes, you can't go wrong with that! We all loved our present from everyone, thank you! And Carolina is loving playing with all her new toys, puzzles, and of course books. Towards the end of the presents we practically had to make her open them, and she could hardly walk around. Throughout the day we snacked on bacon wrapped water chesnuts dipped in BBQ sauce and snowball cookies. For those not enlighted on the bacon wrapped water chesnut's greatness, you have to try them! They sound weird, I know, but they're AMAZING! For dinner we had ham(store bought, I was sick, and store bought is so easy!), sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, baked mac and cheese, watergate salad, deviled eggs, and 'Lori's bread' (Rendon's mom makes this amazing bread from a whole stick of butter and grands biscuits, I don't have another name for it). For dessert, I went the easy route and did homemade pumpkin pie with homemade whip cream! I'm including my version of the recipe I found online for green bean casserole. I didn't want to do the whole cream of mushroom soup deal, so I found an alternate, and altered it a little bit. Never going back to cream of mushroom now! Even Zucker, who is not a green bean casserole guy, raved about it!

Green Bean Casserole

2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp all purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
(1 tsp of salt if using fresh or frozen greenbeans, none if using canned)
1/4 c diced onion
1/2 Tbsp minced fresh garlic
little less than 1 c sour cream (I used light)
2 28 oz cans french cut green beans, drained
2 c shredded sharp cheddar
1/3 c crumbled ritz crackers
1 tbsp butter, melted
1 sm. can fried onions

Preheat oven to 350. Melt 2 tbsp butter in large skillet over medium heat. Saute diced onions until they start to soften. Stir in garlic and cook for 30 seconds or so. Stir in flour and cook for about 1 minute. Stir in salt (if using), sugar, and sourcream. Then stir in the greenbeans till coated. Mix in 3/4 c of cheddar and about 1/2 the can of fried onions. Pour into a casserole dish. Top with remaining cheddar cheese. In sm. bowl, toss together the 1 Tbsp melted butter and crumbled ritz, and sprinkle over the cheese. Bake for 30 min or until top is golden. With about 10 minutes remaining in the baking time sprinkle with remaining fried onions.


Checking out her new kitchen from Santa



Her stocking had lots of books and some candy. I looked away at one point and when I looked back she had already figured out how to open the Chocolate Santas and was eating one.




Opening a shirt from Aunt Angela and Aunt Erin. Her favorite part of this present was the paper. As she unwrapped it she named all the characters.


Multi-tasker. Eating candy and opening her jacket from Grandma and Grandpa.


Lounging on Roxy.


Riding the Wheeley Bug


Waiting for Daddy to put on her new fancy boots from Grandmother!


Cabbage Patch Snugglies


One of her faves! TWELVE Mickey books from Aunt Angela and Aunt Erin. Since Christmas, at least one of these books has been included in every naptime and bedtime reading selection!


Cabbage Patch 25th anniversary baby. She found this present a few weeks ago, so she knew that she came with an ice cream cone. Surprisingly, she remembered this, and as she opened the doll she exclaimed "I-KEME!" and immediately found it in the box.


Her nursery for her baby dolls from Uncle Evan, Aunt Christy, Emmy, and Abigail. This is in constant use as well! One baby or another is always sleeping (Shhhh!, as Carolina tells us) and another is eating.


Oswald plushes--here you see Daisy. Many of you know what I went through to get them, but it all worked out and Carolina LOVES them! Every night she asks for each one (as well as Mickey and Minnie) to be on the couch with her as she does her medicine.


One of her many puzzles (this one from Grandpa and Grandma). As she opened each one she would name what each piece was, then go on to the next present.


Kitchen accessories from Uncle Charlie, Aunt Nancy, Ashleigh and Lacie.


Chef Lina Belle



We found a bag of pink balloons from a baby shower a while back, and blew some up for Carolina. She kept trying to sit on them. I almost caught her balancing on this one, but she started to fall--which could have only been funnier had I caught it on video.


One of Carolina's quirky quirks. She's been doing this foooooorrrrr, well I can't even remember when it started. Anytime she takes off socks, or shoes, or just randomly throughout the day, she plops down to check her toes. She spreads apart each one on each foot, and if she sees the tiniest speck, she HAS to wipe it out. She's pretty efficient now, but she used to get really frustrated because she couldn't get the specks out, and we'd have to for her. If you ask her if your toes are dirty, she will inspect them for you...we don't encourage this though, for one, feet aren't the cleanest, and two--well, it tickles....





Carolina and her new medicine buddies!