My pictures this week are all blurry, of people’s back, or of nothing interesting. It’s actually a terrible representation of our week – we did a lot of stuff!! – but the more I have my big camera in my hands the less I use my phone. My poor Instagram feed is sadly neglected. Maybe some day I’ll find a balance.

Sunday:

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

 Friday:

Saturday:

 This week is going to be crazy too (pictures, orientation, Evan’s first day of school ON A BUS!) but hopefully I can do a better job blogging than I did last week. My mother will be very sad if I quite posting pictures of her grandchildren because I’m taking pictures of other people.

Technically it’s still summer, but someone forgot to tell Connecticut. And Virginia.

Sunday:

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

Saturday:

I keep thinking there’s just one week left in August and I have way too much to do, but there are TWO weeks left in August…and I still have way too much to do. Well, no, not too much. I can never, ever get too much photography work and I’m super excited I have some shoots lined up already.

So excited I MIGHT have just ordered myself my dream camera. Now I have 6 months to pay for it. Please forgive me if there are a few extra sponsored posts next month – dreams are pretty expensive and I’m determined to finance mine on my own, without using the family (husband-earned) money.

DO ALL THE SUMMER BEFORE IT’S GONE.

Sunday:

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

Saturday:

It was a surprisingly good week, even if I continue to make poor choices in regards to my own bedtime. 11 pm has become midnight has become 1 am, which means I’m getting like 5 hours of sleep which means I am chronically tired which is my OWN FAULT and yet I keep doing it. I am not very good at learning my lesson. I’m also so, so excited about Ginger Snaps Pictures (website! facebook! in progress, so don’t judge too harshly) and the photography classes/workshops/critiques I’ve signed up for I CAN’T go to bed any earlier. I need those post-kid hours. Although I have managed to thoroughly wear them out several days this week so they took naps – NAPS! – and slept a full 12 hours at night.

This week will be almost as full as last week, which is my favorite kind of week. Even if I am tired.

This is me throwing up my hands and admitting my poor second child isn’t going to get monthday updates anymore. I’m not going to make it to 36 months. I’ve barely made it to 30 months. I’m not going to force myself to do these when I’m already posted dozens of photos of her every week and chronicling our lives in detail. But honestly, keeping track of Caroline’s milestones isn’t useful when she’s basically done with them. All levels of toddlerness have been achieved, game over. The only thing that makes her even a LITTLE bit like a baby is wen’re not done potty training. (Honestly, we haven’t started in earnest. I’m so lazy.) Besides the diapers, she’s pretty much identical to her 4 year old brother. And TALL. I still think of her as a peanut but her legs are insanely long.

I left her with a sitter for 9 hours on Tuesday while E and Evan and I went to Boston and she didn’t care. Whatevs, Mom. Just leave me some pizza money and a Princess movie and I’m good. I picked her up at 10 pm and she was talking a mile a minute. The sitter said Caroline seemed tired right before dinner, so Caroline went and got her pillow and blankie and put herself down for a 2.5 hour nap. Because she’s a real human person. A tiny, curly-haired, amazing little person.

Two and a half is basically the very best and the very worst. SO WORST. Taking her on vacation was the most exhausting thing I’ve ever done, including giving birth. She can be incredibly unreasonable one minute and perfectly reasonable the next, so it makes dealing with her more like hostage negotiation than anything else. I’m tempted to videotape our next argument and share it, but anyone who has ever had a 2 year old can tell you exactly what it looks like. Plus I don’t want her to have MORE things to complain to her therapist about some day. Her emotions are just totally unpredictable. At the beach, she rocked over her toe with a huge rocking chair, crushed her nail and bled all over the place. She cried for like, 90 seconds and then was totally fine, even as we bandaged it up. But GOD FORBID you get tired of holding her upside down by her feet after 10 minutes, or she’ll scream at you for an hour straight.

Likes include talking, eating, talking, eating, talking, the iPad, the other iPad, my iPhone, movies, Macklemore, singing, dancing, cats, dogs, talking, running, jumping, pretending she’s a kitty, ponies, drinking water, Princesses, Elmo, pillows, hugs, climbing, dolls, gently sloping sand beaches, seashells, buckets, marshmallows, eating, talking, eating, making up songs, spinning until she’s so dizzy she falls down, ice cream, cheese, Daddy, Evan, and me.

Dislikes include swimming, swimming pools, boats, life jackets, sleeping past 6 am, being told NO, and being teased by her brother.

All pictures are from the lake house portion of our vacation, right around her actual 30th monthday:

 

 

30 Month Milestones (from BabyCenter originally, but they changed their format so these are from Evan’s 2 1/2 year post.)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
• Brushes teeth with help – Brushed teeth on her own. I go over them again just to be thorough.
• Washes and dries own hands – Yep.
• Draws a vertical line – Mostly, but would rather continue to draw the sort of creepy counter clockwise circles. I keep expecting Nicolas Cage to show up and tell me it’s part of some secret code.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
• Draws a circle – Yep.
• Balances on one foot – Yep.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
• Puts on a T-shirt – Yep.
• Names one color – Names all the colors and will ask you what your favorite color is and discusses in length which one is best.
• Names one friend – Names all her friends, plus her aunts and uncles (both real and basically-like-family) and all her grandparents.