Picture Post

A picture recap:

Here's Carmen and Daddy reading together on one of his off days.  

 
Carmen loves looking at books. She leafs through pages with her chubby little fingers and flips books right side up if they're upside down. She talks to them and sometimes laughs at the pictures. Her current favorite is still the Toy R Us Christmas sale catalog....Lord, have mercy if I have to "read" that magazine one more time...

 
Carmen loves her rocking chair from Great Aunt Cynthia and Uncle Herb. This chair was given to my aunt when she turned one and then all her younger siblings (including my dad) got to use it too. Such a special keepsake!

More play time with Daddy. We cherish all the time he has at home with us. He's working so hard and often long hours. Even on his off day he does work on the computer and we have to patiently wait to go out for our family breakfast dates. Carmen weighs 25lbs. Mommy doing airplane is not as fun as Daddy.

She loves to climb on everything. Daredevil if I ever saw one.

A favorite move: climb on top of this car and jump, stomp feet, shake, anything that will scare Mommy.

Oh here's a nice glimpse into out daily routine: "Mommy I want rrrraaaaiiiissssins! I'm starving!!!"

"I know they're in here. You keep all our food in here!"

"Ah much better. A box of raisins."

 "Now if I can just figure out how to get them out..."

"Yum. This raisin is exactly what I thought I wanted."

 And as Carmen develops and socializes we have moved into this phase of squeezing/scratching other people's faces. She does it usually because she is so happy to see them or excited. When I haven't cut her nails in a while, she can draw blood. This is a terrible thing and we are trying our hardest to teach her not to do this. I was behind the camera and caught her in mid attempt at squeezing poor, precious Katya's face... (she was quick, I wasn't trying to photograph her sin.)

We watch her closely at home, at the mall play area, in chick-fil-a, at play dates, we warn her Sunday school teachers to be on the look out. Hopefully it will pass quickly and she'll be just as sweet as she always is! Did anyone else go through this phase and find anything helpful?