Clear the pile - Caroline

Caroline has grown a lot lately. Or I have been shrinking her pants in the wash. Probably a little of both, I stink at laundry. Caroline's big on independence right now. She rides her bike to piano lessons, walks home from school, and wants to roam the neighborhood freely with her friends. I am holding out on that last one, much to her chagrin. I have no doubt that she won't give up pestering me about it. Every time I start to feel sad about her getting too big, some sort of fiasco happens at home and she sweeps in and helps with Bridget, in the kitchen, or reads my mind to help fix everything and I am suddenly so grateful to have a child old enough to genuinely help me.

Caroline is outside as much as possible. Her all time favorite activity is climbing trees. She has become quite the monkey and sits high in the tree with great pleasure as some of the boys in the neighborhood repeatedly try and fail to get up there with her.

This is a picnic table ping pong action shot

This picture is from biography day at school. She chose Teddy Roosevelt (I don't know why) and read several books about him and then gave a speech about his life in the first person. She loves this kind of project. Or any project for that matter... she's my girl.

This is her version of spray on shoes from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

The picture below is from her 9th birthday last month. I was doing just fine with her birthday until Brian casually mentioned that she was now halfway out of the house. Doesn't take much to freak me out. One of my main worries is my own memory. I can clearly remember lots of things that I or people around me did when I was nine. What if the stupid way I handled her latest hair emergency is one of the things that is forever etched into her brain? My mom used to tell me that I had the hard job of breaking in new parents, I find myself saying the same thing to Caroline.

I have also started saying: "who put the quarter in you?" "they might have special problems you don't know about" "life's not fair. The sooner you learn that the happier you'll be." (phrases I heard a million times growing up.) This new phenomenon has snuck up on me but even though I am aware of it, I can't seem to stop it.

Anyway..... She had a great birthday, her highlight was a long bike ride with Brian through as much mud as she could find. We are so blessed to have this nine year old.