First Christmas gift

Timo drove to about 5 different Rite-Aid stores to find this Christmas gift. Sure hope this isn't a sign of what future Christmas shopping excursions will become, as we try to find that "must-have" present of the year!

Caroline was definitely frightened of this gift at first. In fact, it took her a three different "introductions" before she warmed up to it enough. Enjoy!

"Is this for me?! And is this thing safe?!"

Struggling to get on the horse, Caroline gets a boost from dear old dad!



Wide-open smile, while daddy tries to help Caro rock on the horsey.



Investigating the horse's hair, and perhaps trying to get some tips on making Caroline's hair stand up all electrified again!

Caroline Christmas photos

Merry Christmas!

This is the face that Caroline is starting to make when she's having her picture taken. We didn't catch her mid-yawn or something. This is planned! It's proof to us that she knows what's going on. She never makes this face except for when there is a camera in front of her.

Check out the gangster look on Caroline's face!

With Becky and Tim's cousin Heather and her husband Shokee.

The Wilsons gather at Nana Betty's oldest brother Jerry's house, with Aunt Franny, sister/aunt Beth, cousin Heather, and Shokee.

Caroline and Hugh at our "Fab 5 Extended" Christmas party on Saturday night. "Extended" means the original "Fab 5"--Becky, Alyson, Tim, Hugh, and Marcello--plus their significant others and a scattering of friends who drop in for random activities, and whose company we love.

Mommy and Caroline at Marcello's house. Note to Tim: your next house MUST have a fireplace!


Fab 5 Extended, at Marcello and Sharalyn's Christmas party! This was taken around 9:30, about two hours past Caro's bedtime, and she was not a happy baby.

Christmastime family photo

Hopefully we can get our Christmas cards out to our family and friends in time--our prelude to Christmas finds us shoveling out from almost a foot of snow, plus working and spending time with Caroline and parties and loads of other things that seem to render our Christmastime evenings somewhat hectic.

This isn't our Christmas card picture, but we do like it a lot. Actually, our mail lady took our Christmas photo this year! No joke. Timo came home for lunch on Wednesday and we took some photos inside and outside. They were pretty good, and then we spied the U.S. Post Office truck coming up the street. Our mail lady is outgoing--on the cusp of so outgoing that she might scare people off--and we both thought, "Here's our answer!" The mail lady snapped some photos for us, we found one we loved, and it's on the way.

In the meantime, here's a photo of us from the ward Christmas festival!

"Rescue me!"

Yeah, not happy!

Caroline lasted no more than 5 seconds on Santa's lap. This was at our ward Christmas party.

Maybe she will react the same way when we tell her in a few years that a big, fat guy with a beard and a huge bag will enter our house through the front door!

Is this part of our food storage?

Our church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (you know, the church that its very own Mitt Romney won't dare mention by name in his presidential campaign...and the one that so many Americans trust about as much as Muslims and atheists) encourages its members to have storages of food and other items to get us through both brief and longer-term difficulties. These can range from snowstorms and earthquakes to catastrophic, sudden events like, heaven forbid, a terrorist attack, loss of job, etc.

It sounds sensible to us. And no, our church doesn't demand that we do this. We have started on our storage and have made some good progress, stockpiling rice, wheat, canned goods, water, batteries, extra clothing (the type we wouldn't wear day-to-day, but we'd sure throw on if we lost our power or heat during a blizzard, for example), matches, etc.

And Mormons aren't the only ones encouraging people to be prepared: See our esteemed, trustworthy Department of Homeland Security for tips.

Timo has visions of a supped-up generator dancing in his head!

Anyhow, Little Lolo seems determined to help pitch in to our emergency preparedness:





She is stockpiling dozens of little plastic cups, the kind that once held her veggie mush meals! Here, she demonstrates how quickly she can assemble her "kit" in the event of an emergency.

First favorite book

Caroline is getting to a point where she sits better for us to read to her, but she still is awfully squirmy most times during reading time. However, we (and babysitters) have found that she is mesmerized by this book, "Honey, My Rabbit." The book lists several items that the eponymous rabbit loves to eat. And unlike her scores of other books, Caroline seems to have no interest in eating this book!

First sickness

Sorry, no photos for this one folks. Both Timo and Little Caroline are sick. Caroline is 100% fine during the day, up and about and playing, but at night, we can hear her coughing in her crib. That is a sad moment--to hear your child suffering from an illness. This is really the first time she's been sick in all of her 9 months.

Nevertheless, despite a slightly runny/gunky nose, Caroline went to bed last night with a binky in her mouth and one in each of her cute little hands! Nothing could stop her from one of her favorite things in all of her world. We checked on her a few times, and this little angel somehow managed to keep her binky in her mouth during the brief but loud coughing spells.

Timo has been sick since Tuesday and has at home the last few days. That is one thing we're very grateful for: our really generous benefits from Timo's job, plus the peace of mind knowing that we never have sick days taken from vacation days (as some places have their benefits set up). He can bank up to 120 sick days. The way he's feeling now, he might take a significant chunk out of it!

Going for a walk...

Recent photos from a mid-day excursion in the blustery cold of a nearby New England town:

Trying her best to get out of the stroller and play with the pigeons on the banks of the "mighty" Charles River.

Happy 9 months!

Yesterday, our little Goose turned 9 months old. My, how the time flies by! She is currently dealing with her first real cold--the gunky nose/cough variety, so we bought a humidifier on Monday night that was about as quiet as a jet airplane taking off next to her crib. We substituted that humidifier the next day for a much quieter version, and she is improving.

Her new favorite toy is pictured above--a bell from the movie "The Polar Express." She loves to hear it jingle-jangle, and she also loves tossing it around. At the rate it is suffering from Caroline's abuse, bookmakers in Vegas have the odds of this bell seeing Christmas 2008 at about 735,000 to 1.

Well, this 9-month milestone is also the last time we'll be using a single digit to tabulate how old Caroline is in months. That's a little math factoid for my lovely wife!

Eating? Yes! Bib? Heck no!

Recently, Caroline has found her daily eating routines to be, well, routine. She twists around in her chair, licks the back of the chair, reaches for anything and everything in sight, lays her head down on the tray, and generally prolonging her rice cereal, cheerios, and veggie mush mix feedings. It is entertaining to us to watch her go to great lengths to amuse herself during her meals!

Over the weekend, however, the "routine" of eating took a sudden, shocking, and, as far as Lolo was concerned, unpleasant twist: She hates her bib. Any bib. All bibs. Here's proof:

She's okay for now, but just give her a second to discover that horrendous, inconvenient, and frankly unjust piece of cloth around her neck!

Oh, I can no longer bear the great injustice of this ludicrous bib around my neck! Please, look away!

Time to come off, bib! And I don't care if my shirt goes with it.

Let's try another approach--taking the bib off sideways! Your time is up, nasty bib!

Good riddance! The bib is vanquished!







Tah-dah! Look at me, mom and dad...the bib is gone from around my neck. Time to dirty up my shirt now.

Just for Alex...

This past Sunday at church, Caroline was rummaging through her diaper bag while Timo sat next to his friend Alex. Alex is one of the most loyal visitors to our blog, and his good wife Brynley informed us recently that he nearly gets apoplectic whenever we don't update the blog or include more photos of Little Lolo. We must say that we love knowing that people like Alex love Caroline.

Back to Sunday...Alex nearly brought down the house laughing as Caroline reached into her bag and pulled out her pair of pink sunglasses. He implored us to get some photos of her wearing the glasses.

Well, Alex, this post is for you!

Step 1: Get the glasses on Caroline and keep her distracted long enough with other toys before she pulls 'em off.

Step 2: Grab the camera pronto and take as many pictures as possible. This, sadly, was the best one I got before...

Step 3: Groan as Little Caro frantically tries to remove the glasses.

Step 4: Get over the groaning, and get some photos of Caroline, who now decides that she wants the pink sunglasses after all!

The start of Christmastime!

Thanksgiving

Caroline's first Thanksgiving was a nice, relatively relaxing time. I am always amazed at the contrast between holidays with my family (consisting of 8 people--my parents, my sister and her husband and Lance, and Becky and Caroline) and holidays spent with Becky's, whose brothers and sister alone make up half of the tally of my total immediate family. Add in about 14 grandkids, and you get an idea of what extended family get-togethers are like! Sometimes I love the commotion and chaos of large get-togethers, and other times, because it's the style I'm most familiar with, lower-key parties suit better.

After the 5-mile run, we came back to my parents' place to find Caroline doing well and being minded by my parents. She might just be getting more comfortable around them. We had a great dinner and later in the afternoon, we visited with my mom's oldest brother and his wife. They live kind of nearby, and my aunt has an entire room filled with porcelain dolls, which Lolo was instantly drawn to and spent all 2 hours trying to sneak around our carefully-placed obstructions (chairs, her car seat, etc.) to reach.

Timo's aunt and uncle, with Caroline taking a brief break from trying to wrench away the necklace from my aunt's neck.

Nana Betty, Timo, and Beth at our aunt and uncle's place.

Becky, perhaps getting a little whigged-out by the roomful of dolls starting at us!

Caroline having a fun time with mommy. All in all, it was a day full of life's blessings--good people, in good health, with lots of good food and making good memories. That's what Thanksgiving is all about!

Thanksgiving morning 5-mile run

In what we hope will become a Wilson family tradition, Becky and Timo ran a road race on Thanksgiving morning. The nearest race to Timo's parents' house was about 4 towns away, and unfortunately, it was not for a cause more worthy or in need. It was a 5-mile run for Easton Junior High School.

Make that, Easton Junior High School track team. It doesn't exactly rank up there with cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, a food pantry, or the dozens of other charities in our area, does it?! We have our favorite charities, and a junior high track team isn't one of them. However, we couldn't find a more convenient starting time or location that worked better with the rest of our plans for the big ole Turkey Day!

The race started at 8 a.m. Keep in mind that Timo has not run (except to his car in the rain) since September 22nd--two full MONTHS ago! That race was part of Becky's birthday celebration.


Yeah, not smart. But we both finished. We hoped to run the 5-mile race in under 1 hour. Despite a cramp that was off-and-on for Timo, and despite a sea of runners who over time moved even further out of our line of vision, we were well on our way to busting out a time under 60 minutes. In fact, toward the end, we saw that we'd quite possibly come in under 50 minutes (for an average of a 10-minute mile).

Indeed, we came in at 49:54 and 49:55, respectively. Officially, Becky beat Timo, but that's because Timo accidentally reported Becky's number to the time-keeper. It was truly neck- and-neck as we raced to the finish line. All I could hear from the crowd of spectators was "Don't let him beat you!" to Becky.

Here are some post-race photos:

The winner of the two-man "Wilson Head-to-Head Dash to the Finish Line" challenge!

The finish line. Time to go home and help prepare the bounteous Thanksgiving feast!

We hope to train better and start running again in the spring. A few more 5K's, then move on up to some 10K's next year. Our goal is to run in a 6-man marathon relay next fall!

What she's up to lately...

Here are some amazing, cool, and fun recent developments in Caroline's life:

1. Over Thanksgiving, she started to "wave" back at people. Her Grampa Dave gets credit for teaching her this, as he kept waving to her as he walked up a staircase and Caroline watched him, mesmerized. She'll kind of ball her fingers together and shake her arm. That is her way of waving to you. This morning, as Timo left for work, Caroline and daddy engaged in a prolonged wave session. It was such a great way to start out the day!

2. She babbles what really, honestly sounds like "mama" and "dada" a lot. In fact, whenever she babbles, this is pretty much all she says. Very cool. And while it may just be that we're projecting these sounds onto her babbling, they do sound very much like those words.

3. "Giving back" is a new game for Caroline. She'll hand you her binky, or her foam dice, or her beloved Cheerios, to you. We'll then place the object back in her open-palmed hand, and she'll start all over again.

4. New teeth? How else to explain the gunky nose that Lolo has had since Thanksgiving Eve? It got so bad for her that on Thanksgiving night into Friday morning, she was up with Daddy from 3 a.m. until 4:30 a.m. (and daddy stayed awake, holding her on his chest upright, until 6 a.m.). It seemed that only being in an upright position enabled her to breath well enough, and she even parted with her partner-in-crime, the binky, to get a good night's rest.

5. New friend. Caroline LOVED playing with her cousin Lance. Everything he did, she'd watch and try to do as well. It was funny watching her trying to keep up with Lance. Being 7 years older than her, Lance can move, play, and do just about anything faster than Caroline, but she still tried to scoot after him whenever he moved around the room!

New hat, just in time for winter

With Caroline's first full-blown New England winter approaching, we've had to bring down her winter clothes and bid farewell to the great, cute outfits that she'll never wear again (or ever had the chance to wear), since she's growing fast. One of our favorite winter items for her to wear is this cool hat, from my dad's colleague Debbie...

Crawling around at Nana and Grampa's house on Thanksgiving morning.

"Why is everyone taking pictures of me?!" We love this hat, and we love the comments people have said about it.

Under the table

Lately, our little Caroline has been feverishly multi-tasking: crawling, standing up, reaching for objects higher off the ground, and then posing for pictures. It is fun to see where she will roam around in our house, and what sorts of mischief she will get into.

Just trying to upload a movie

I'm not sure how to do this, but I thought I would try this morning. It's not much of a movie, just pieces really, but it's a start. -becky

The rest of the 3-day'er

With Friday's hijinks behind us, the Wilson trio settled in for a weekend of movies, a date, church, an interview for Timo's book, a home repair project, and a day with the grandparents. It was the kind of long weekend where, once it is over, you really, deeply feel the need for a day off to catch up before heading back to work.

In a nutshell, here's some of what we did and saw:

Two movies: Witness for the Prosecution (glad we're not lawyers) and Dancing at Lughnasa (glad we...well, glad we didn't grow up poor-mouthed in the inter-war, backwater regions of Ireland). "Lughnasa" had some of the most beautiful cinematography I've seen in a movie. Note: These movies came after Becky got down from her cloud-nine, non-hallucinogenic drug- induced fever of watching 31 hours of Project Runway.

Date: On Saturday, Becky and Timo took in a show by one of their favorite theatre companies, The Concord Players. We really love the town of Concord, and with a few extra zeros in our bank accounts, we could afford to live there! "The Odd Couple" was a good show, with a few cast members that we've seen in other performances. Becky has really gotten Timo into plays and musicals over the last two years. They definitely make for a good date.

Then, of course, there is "The Goose." She absorbed as much of our attention and love as she could get. She's no longer impossibly shy of strangers (she did well for our babysitter Audria), and she's crawling all over creation now. It's a fun stage in her life.

Caroline in her winter wool sweater, which one of my dad's friends hand-stitched.

***

On Monday, Becky got the entire day off to spend by herself and with our good friend Alyson. Timo took Caroline all day, and invited his parents up so they could continue to dote on Little Lolo. We took a long car ride around my mom and dad's neighborhoods of South Boston ("Southie") and Dorchester, respectively, where they grew up from the mid-1940's until the late 1950's.

Here, Caroline is bundled up to the 10th power, as we braved the chilly winds on the South Boston waterfront at Castle Island.

The skyline of Boston, looking across Carson Beach, where Caroline's grandmother used to go every day when she was growing up in Southie.

This is the exterior and entrance to Timo's mom's first home, in the Old Colony Housing Projects. Back when she was growing up, this place was full of Irish, Polish, and Lithuanian

first-, second-, and third-generation families. The demographic shifted about 40 years ago, and Southie went into a decline. Now, much of the area is a real estate gold mine, with Southie's fabled triple-decker houses selling in the high 6-figures.

It was really special to see the places that meant so much in the early lives of my parents. They both reminisced about locations and people, anecdotes of events and friends from a different time in their lives--before me, let alone Caroline, was even a thought in their minds. Dad's first home no longer exists; the site is now a parking lot.

What was also incredible to consider is how geographically close my parents once lived. Their apartments were probably no more than 2 miles from each other, and yet, in the post-war years and given the demographic differences between Southie and Dorchester, it might as well have been halfway across the state, let alone the city.

We'll have to bring Caroline back to this area when she's older and can appreciate family history a bit more!