Update on the Boys

I didn't blog in September, I took very few pictures, and I barely took any video...I have been setting up/decorating our home like a mad woman; working/shopping at the fall consignment sale here in town; changing our address; and figuring out our new insurance/ finding new doctors and dentists for all. It makes me tired just thinking about it...

The other day, I started feeling a little bit sad that I haven't kept up with the boys "records" like I used to. I don't want to forget, but our lives have been so crazy! So here you go, an update for the record books with a few cell phone pictures mixed in (sorry about quality...it's all I have for this post:) this is what I can remember at the time!

MILES

This little cowboy will be 17 mos old tomorrow! I can't believe how fast time flies. He keeps us going strong. He runs/climbs from the time he wakes up to the time he collapses in his crib out if exhaustion. He loves his brother so so so much! He has to be doing exactly what Carter is doing at all times - no exceptions. The other day I had Miles at home by himself, and I found him calmly playing on his own the way I remember Carter playing at his age. It made me realize that he is not as different from Carter as I thought...he is just never free to play by himself. Ahhh the life of the 2nd child! What a precious little boy he is!!!

"Hey mom! Want to take my picture?"

First real haircut!

Post haircut trip to Wendy's! His 2 food loves: ketchup and white cheese dip :)

A real cowboy! Love it!

I told you he is a climber... he loves the coffee table!

Some bullet points:

• @ 15 mos: 31.5" tall and weighs 25lbs. 7oz. 

• The rest of his teeth (molars and canines) came in over the past 3 mos...no fun, but glad it's over!

• He sleeps great! About 8pm to 7-8am. 

• Wakes up super happy!

• Starting to really try to say words...some of the common ones are haa (hot and or hi), mama, dada, nana, bubba (probably my favorite:), muh (milk), nie nie (night night), duh (dog), and more I am sure. He is talking more and more every day

• We dropped his morning nap over the past month. He now takes one long afternoon nap, and we have more time in the mornings for outings.

• LOVES Carter! He tries to touch him at all times...drives Carter a little crazy! 

• Favorite toy is Mr. Potatohead - he could play with it for a long time!

• Getting good at playing in our playhouse! He can go up the stairs and down the flat slide on his own, and he is super proud of it! 

• Loves to throw balls for Fischer

• Loves to knock daddy down while wrestling... over and over and over
• Really likes books and reading - although for only a few seconds at a time. Loves to sit down with a stack of books and turn pages and point and grunt say the words :) 

• Favorite activity...climbing. Climbs on Carter's bed and jumps...Climbs on my bed and throws all my pillows off.

• Discipline: testing boundaries / strong-willed / starting to throw mini-tantrums

"Funny" story: While trying to get ready to go on a walk = hat and tennis shoes, the boys were playing...after some quiet (never good) Carter came running in my room saying "Miles put poop on me!" Sure enough...Miles had gotten into his diaper and wiped some on Carter (luckily nowhere else)... After cleaning that up, I ran to get my socks while they were playing in the living room...when I got back, M was sitting on the kitchen table in a pile of frosted flakes he had poured out for himself! Goodness, they keep me on my toes!!

CARTER

Big policeman brother is 3 years 2 mos old now and he keeps us busy and laughing! Consistent discipline has been huge with him recently. I have been trying really hard to start having Carter memorize some Bible verses to go along with my discipline. The ones we have worked on the most are "children obey your parents" (he adds "and your family") and "be kind and compassionate to one another" (he adds "and Miles")!  When he gets a spanking (which is multiple times most days at this point) he will many times say "I forgive you, mommy" when it's over. Glad he doesn't hold it against me! :) He is a loving big brother and really enjoys M on most days. We have what are known as "Don't look at me Miles" Days as well. That phrase pretty much says it all as far as those days go... Carter is such a fun 3 year old boy. He is loving living near his grandparents! We are spoiled and loving it - living so close now.

First arcade game!

Petting a rabbit at Sandy's Stables.

"Miles, you sit in the little chair because you're a baby. I'll sit in the big chair because I'm a big boy."

Great climbing trees in our driveway! Terrible pic...sorry!

Daddy and Granddaddy took C to his first high school football game. He came back saying "Bulldogs in the house!" (Not something either adult he was with cheered while there) Ha! He is a sponge.

Here are some bullets: 

• @ 3 years: 40" tall and weighs 39lbs. 3oz

• Wakes up at exactly 6:45 am almost every day. Like. Clockwork.

• He is so smart! He has great spacial reasoning. He dropped 3 toys on the floor and looked at them and said "look daddy, a triangle!" 

• He has a great imagination too! Kevin had a camp chair and 2 moving boxes in the back yard. Carter put the boxes on either side of the chair and said "look daddy, an airplane!" He later told me it was just a "tend" plane (pretend).

• We have had to talk seriously about safety. He told me he was going to push his button and fly like Buzz Lightyear off our back porch (about 20ft high)!!! Not. Kidding. 

• Obsessed with Jake and the Neverland Pirates!!! Got a pirate ship and plays pirates a lot...

• He loves to "dress up" right now. I got a bunch of hats at the sale for him to use...policeman and cowboy are our favorites...gonna be a pirate for Halloween...saving that costume for the end of the month...

• Loves climbing the trees in our driveway.

• Started really learning how to catch the ball and play catch with daddy.

• Can hit the ball when Daddy pitches it to him!!!!
• Daddy reads Carter a book or two before bedtime everynight, then mommy sings him some songs.
• Favorite bedtime songs are "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus (there's just something about that name...)" and "Amazing Grace" After singing "Amazing Grace to Carter the first time one night, he asked me what amazing grace was. I explained to him that it was God's amazing grace that sent Jesus to die for us to save us from our sins and live in our hearts. He replied "yes mommy, and dinosaurs live in my heart too." :) Now when I sing it, he really listens to the story. The other night I was in the middle of "I once was lost but now I'm found..." and he said "Mommy, did she lose something?" So we talked a little about being lost and then finding Jesus. I highly recommend singing the old hymns to your toddlers. They will like them, and I can't imagine a sweeter way to share the gospel with my son.

These are our boys and we love them both with all our hearts!!! Here's a picture just for smiles: 

Miles liked the bike ride more than he let on in this picture!

Happy Fall Y'all! 

Carter is 3!

I can't believe our boy is 3 years old. That's more than half way to... shhhhhhhh - kindergarten (insert tear). I can honestly say that every year he gets to be more and more and more fun! Yes, discipline / fits / etc... will always be a part of life with a toddler, but this is a super fun age! I'm trying to treasure it because I know it will be gone so fast!

Carter LOVES birthdays, so the week before his birthday, we talked about his birthday coming up. I told him we would have a birthday party, and he said "I eat cake? I have birthday candles? I sing Happ Birday to You?" Everyday he would wake up and ask if it was his birthday, we would talk about the fact that it was still a few days away, and he would keep patiently waiting. I wanted to do something big so that he would KNOW when he woke up that it was his birthday, so we did this...

...we crepe papered him in and filled his room with balloons. That morning, he woke up and I heard him saying "help, mommy, help!" He could see the balloons in the dark, but didn't know what was going on....I snuck my way into his room and turned on the light for him. He looked around, got out of bed, and said "Wow mommy! Wook at all these balloons!!! This my balloon birthday!" :) Success. He was thrilled with his birthday balloons. We probably played in there for about 45 minutes! 

Since we are living at Nana and Papa J's house right now, we had a pool party with a few friends and family. It was a beautiful day, and Carter had such a fun time playing with his family/cousins/friends! I found some Toy Story decor at Party City since our birthday party decor was in storage! 

He got a fishing pole from Grandmama and Granddaddy, and he was a pro by the end of the day!

Of course, we had cake and sang "Happy Birthday to Carter" one of his all time favorite songs :) He was beaming with joy the whole time we sang to him! We swam, ate, opened presents, and had such a fun day! 

Yes, that is his finger in the cake - just couldn't wait...

I love that Carter is 3! The growing up part is bittersweet, but I just love that he can tell us what he's thinking!!! At the end of his birthday, I was lying in bed talking to him about the day. We always sing a song at night, and he requested that we sing "Happy Birthday to Carter" again :) Then I told him that 3 years ago he was the special gift that God gave to his daddy and me, so that's why we celebrate with gifts. I told him that God made him so very special, and handsome, and funny, and kind....he looked at me and said, "Yep, Mommy, and God made me tired." 

Ha! It was a good day, and we were all tired and ready for bed that night...

For the record, here are some more funny things you've said lately that I don't want to forget...

1. We were playing army men ("Uncle Jason"), and you wanted the men to hit at each other, and you said "he has a float!" I realized that you thought all the army men were holding fun noodles. We then had a fun noodle / army man war :)

2. You gobbled up the zucchini on your plate...turns out you thought it was "Zoo Candy" 

3. You made a mess at supper. Daddy told you "We'll clean it up." You thought your friend Will was going to come clean it up. 

4. I was trying to talk about something at supper with Daddy, Nana, Papa J, and "Uncle" Matt. I stuttered and said "o-o-obligation" and you thought that was hilarious! You started poking fun at me and repeating my stuttered word! You are your father's child :) 

5. We were swimming in the pool. Daddy and I always come up to you with our hand out of the water like we are a shark and say "Duh-nuh, duh-nuh, duh-nuh" like the Jaws music....a little while after I did that one time, you started swimming around with your hand out of the water saying "donut, donut, donut." You're such a funny kid!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Carter! 

I love you, and I love that you love birthdays and parties as much as I do!

End of the School Year

I can't believe the summer is here! I have several posts up my sleeves (yes, one of those is the long-overdue Miles's One Year Blog:) However, I only have time for a short and sweet post today, so here you go!

Carter has really enjoyed going to the Master's Way UMC Mother's Day Out program for the past year. It has been such a blessing for him to have something to do just 1 day a week while I get my shopping done with only 1 baby in tow! 

On the last day of school, they had their Summer program, and Carter did so well! He stood on stage for the entire program (4 songs), he sang 1 whole song and a few other lines, and he didn't cry at all! That is HUGE progress! After the show, his teacher told us that if he stood on the blue line and didn't get off, she would give him a sucker :) Either way, we were so proud of our lil' monkey! 

He sang the whole "5 Little Monkies" Song

After the program, we had a family picnic at the school and gave his teacher's their end of the year gifts. I got the idea from this blog. Such a fun summer gift!!!

We said our goodbyes, and headed home for the summer! 

Carter @ 33 Months

Funny Conversations We've Had Lately

Scene: Carter and Miles playing in playroom while we get ready to go somewhere.
Miles: starts crying
Me: Did you hit Miles?
Carter: Yes
Me: Where did you hit Miles?
Carter: Right in the face
Ha! At least he's honest...now we just need to work on kindness.

Scene: Hiking at the state park about to go play on playground.
Me: Do you want to go play on the see-saw?
Carter: No, I like see screwdriver
Boys and their tools...he didn't want to see a saw...he wanted to see a screwdriver. A man's gotta have his preferences...

Scene: Boys and daddy in playroom shooting basketball. I go do some videotaping. After a few minutes of videotaping, Carter walks toward the camera....
Carter: Mommy, go back and cook my supper.
HAHA! Kevin did NOT tell him to say this nor does he speak to me like that :) So glad we have this on video. We had just eaten dinner - this was Carter's way of saying to me that this was daddy time and girls weren't allowed...

Scene: Dying Easter Eggs, Carter peeled an egg and was eating it.
Me: Is that egg yummy?
Carter: Yes. I not like the cheese (yolk).

Background: I have a good friend named Erin.
Scene: Getting ready to go a few places.
Me: Carter, let's get dressed, we need to run some errands today.
Carter: Looks around for a few minutes...looking very puzzled. 
Carter: Where, Erin? I not see Erin.
The English language is tricky!

Scene: Getting ready to go to church.
Me: It's time to get in the car.
Carter: TUM on Miles. TUM on Miles. Doe-ing to church.
Miles: Sitting in playroom not moving.
Carter: TUM on Miles. RIGHT NOW.
Miles: still not going anywhere
Carter: Miles need a panking. Slaps Miles on the arm. 
Me: Picks Carter up and has a long conversation about how I am the only one allowed to spank Miles....

Scene: Driving to church.
Me: We are going to church.
Carter: Yes my am. Doe-ing church - eat pizza.
Me: Yes we will eat pizza at church (they serve pizza for kids on Wed nights).
Me: Do you learn about Jesus at church.
Carter: No. Just play toys and ride trucks.
Ha! I am told that they have lessons, but I guess they haven't started to sink in yet :)

Scene: Babysitter (Eden) arrives - we are still trying to get boys bathed and get dressed upstairs...Carter is bathed and dressed...
Kevin: Why don't you go downstairs and play with Miss Eden?
Carter: reluctantly walks downstairs...a few minutes later walks back upstairs
Carter (to Kevin): I not like Miss Eden.
Carter (to me): Mommy, I doe with you.
He totally knew we were about to leave him. It turned out that Miss Eden wasn't so bad afterall he had fun :)

Carter-isms:

He LOVES to give me and Miles our goodnight kiss. I am always nursing Miles while Kevin is putting Carter to bed. At different points (after bath, after brushing teeth, after reading his book, etc...) he will say "Doe give Mommy and Miles tiss." Then he will ruuuuuun in Miles's room and give us our kisses. This happens up to 3-4 times a night, but never less than once! They might be on the cheek, shoulder, lips, knee, foot.... I love all my kisses :) Kevin, however, is not comfortable with the mouth kisses...he will turn his head at the last second :)

Yes, my am / Yes, my do / Yes, my is / Yes my can = he pretty much always says "my" for "I"
Where our doe-ing? / Our doe-ing to church / Our doe-ing Greemama's house/Nana's house = he uses "our" for "we"
*Needless to say we are still working on our pronouns...

He LOVES going to church!!! He likes school too, but he LOVES church. He tells everyone and everything "See you tomorrow at church." Seeing as how we are at church 3 days a week - most of the time he's fairly accurate :)

When he gets hungry in the evening, he runs to the kitchen and starts raiding my pantry saying "Mommy, I hungry. Cook my dinner/supper."

He is very observant - especially in the car. He can spot a tractor/truck/fire truck from a mile away!

He loves bugs. He gets down close to them and checks them out. On our walk the other day he sprawled out on the sidewalk to look at a bug and said "Hey, lil' guy." H also plays with/tortures worms - he makes them swim, swings them around like a helicopter, rides them in his dump truck, etc... poor worms.

A Few Favorites

Favorite Food: Candy (if I'm honest), but Pizza is probably still his favorite supper - he will ALWAYS eat pizza - everything else has it's days. Fruit - he loves apples, Veggies - he likes broccoli.

Favorite Show: still Mickey Mouse Clubhouse - he calls it "Mickey Mouse Tah-house Tum Inside Tah-House." If you watch the show you'll know that he is adding part of the theme song to the title :) He also loves Monster Truck Adventures.

Favorite Book: Dear Polar Bear
*He has started really "reading" his books. This activity includes him taking one book flipping through every single page and setting it aside, getting another and doing the same, making a GIANT stack of all of his books. He will clean out a bookshelf doing this, but I am not allowed to help him read during this time.

Favorite Activity: Playing with Matchbox cars (or any cars for that matter) and going to the playground and on walks. He has started to ride his motorcycle some on our walks. It ends up in the stroller by the end of the walk though.

I love this boy more than words can say. I'm blessed to be his mama! 

A Visit to the Dentist

Carter had his first experience at the dentist yesterday. He was such a big, brave boy! He did great :) Daddy had, of course, prepared him the night before by practicing saying "ahhhhh" and then sticking his hands in his mouth and tickling his teeth. Carter thought this was hilarious! The real dentist wasn't quite so funny though. He was so serious the whole time, but he did everything they asked him to perfectly. Here are some of the memories from his first dentist visit...

The train table in the lobby was a hit.

This is Ms. Angela, she's the dentist's helper. She is a "sugar bug catcher!" Check out the TV's on the ceilings! Cartoons while you get your teeth cleaned - not a bad deal :)

Miles came along for the ride too! He was pretty impressed...

Looking at the Pirate toothbrush he will get if he listens and obeys.

He got to feel the toothbrush tickle his finger before she put it in his mouth. He did think that was funny.

Ms. Angela cleaned Carter's teeth with strawberry toothpaste. 

Then she "lassoed all the sugar-bugs" in his mouth (flossed). 

Dr. Moffet is the dentist. He counted his teeth and then "painted pictures" of Mickey Mouse and his friends on Carter's teeth (it was actually a clear flouride treatment:) 

At the end of the visit Carter got a treat bag and balloon! 

Then we went to Chick-fil-A for a celebration lunch because we got an A++ from the dentist! 

NO CAVITIES :)

We go to Madison Pediatric Dentistry and I would highly recommend it to anyone in the area!!! 

Carter-isms this Christmas

Carter is now 28 months old (2 years and 4 months). He is a talker - all day long. We love to hear what's going on in that little head :) Here are some of the things he's been doing and saying:

*My mom was visiting and we started putting up the Christmas decorations. We have some small lit trees that go by our front door. We put these up at night after Carter was in bed. When he woke up this is what I heard, "Oh, wook mommy, wittle Christmas treats." Yes, they are little Christmas treats :)

*He picks an alternate personality for me and Kevin to take on each day. We are assigned our character, and we have to talk to him and interact with him through this thing - Cow, Botdee (his giant sock monkey), Grinch, and Santa Taus are the favorites! We must do voices, we must animate the stuffed thing as we are talking, and if we EVER put the thing down, he will stop what he is doing, pick it up, hand it to us, and say "Doe, Mommy/Daddy." As if to say, "Here you go mommy, you must have forgotten that you are cow today." Ahhhhhh life with a very imaginative toddler! I love seeing his creative brain at work! 

*I am trying to teach Carter the true meaning of Christmas - slowly but surely, year by year. Last year, he could identify "Jee Jee" (Baby Jesus). This year, I'm reading him the story in his Bible and other books about Christmas, and he and Miles got the Little People Nativity to play with. He can identify all the characters this year. So sweet to hear him say "Mary, Joe-sis or Joe-fis, and Baby Jesush." He knows that Mary is Jesus's mommy and Joseph is Jesus's daddy. We are also really focusing on the fact that Christmas is Jesus's birthday - Carter LOVES birthdays!!!! We sing "Happy Birthday to Jesus (cake)" several times a day! And, yes, Carter inserts the word cake there :) We light and blow out the candle on our dinner table over and over and over again - it really never gets old :)

*He has a stuffed "Santa Taus" - well he has several. He identifies them as "big santa taus" and "wittle santa taus." Kevin sat Big Santa Taus on Carter's lap the other night, and he asked Carter what he wanted for Christmas. A little backwards, but ok :) We haven't really been asking him this question, so I was interested to see what he would say... well, he asked him for pizza and tookies (cookies). That's my boy - hungry all the time! He's been consistent though. Every time since then that he has been asked what he wants for Christmas it is ALWAYS a food item - pizza, tookies, turkey, chicken, cake, etc... The other day when I asked him if he wanted any toys, he said "Not toys, Mommy (and started picking up his toys and naming them), monster truck, tars, tractor, etc..." as if to tell me that he has all the toys he needs, the thing that he doesn't have (at all times) is cookies and pizza :) Haha! So cute!!!

*He has started using pronouns when referring to himself (me, my, I, etc...) The days that he refers to himself as "Tarter" are fading. This is sad to me even though I didn't really want him going to kindergarten telling his teachers "Tarter needs to use the bathroom." I'd probably get summoned for more conferences than I cared to attend should that be the case. So pronouns are essential - and he has started using them. He does not really quite have the hang of it fully yet. For example, he says "my" instead of "me" a lot. He will say "Scoot my up" (to the table). He also confuses I and it's contractions like I / I'm / I've.  He says things like "I hungry" or "I've done."

*He's more attentive to Miles now. He will say things like "Mommy, Miles frying (crying)! " This really, really bothers him.... or "Here doe, Miles" as he hands him things. He will go up to Miles and say "I right here, Miles" to comfort his brother.  He will "show" Miles how to play with things. They also "fight." Carter will lean close to Miles until Miles randomly smacks him and then Carter will fall over saying "Miles hit me." Here it goes - sibling interaction/rivalry :)

*Carter likes to pick different stuffed animals to go to bed with him for naps and at night. His favorites are the Grinch, Tigger, and Santa Taus - they take turns....the ones that stay in his bed are his dog, his train, and his football. He is very good about going to bed. We ask him to get in bed, and (usually) he will crawl up in there and lay down on his pillow. He likes to be tucked in now. If you forget, he will remind you. The other night he looked at Kevin and said, "Zip my up, Daddy" :) Adorable.

*As you can see by his Christmas list, he likes to eat. I think his Mother's Day Out teachers know this as well :) I picked him up the other day, and he had made something out of salt dough. He was holding it in his hand, and he looked up at me and pointed at the thing in his had and said, "Not a tookie, mommy, not a tookie." Haha! You think he had heard that more than once?

*Carter calls all groups of people "boys." I guess that's what he hears people saying about him and Miles. He walked into the room and look and Kevin and me and said, "Hey, boys!" I let him know that I am not a boy. He said the same thing to my mom and me when she was here visiting. When he is ready to go somewhere he will say, "Tum on boys!" (Come on boys). I guess being the only girl in this home, I'll just get thrown in there with the boys :) I'm ok with that...

*Carter says "yere" ("there" with a y at the front) instead of "there." This is one of the cutest words - it makes me smile everytime I ask him where something is and he says "right yere" or "over yere" or "out yere." It's one of the ones I'm going to miss :)

I am going to add stories to this as I think of them. I know there's more that I want to remember from this stage, but those are some of my favorites :)

Merry Christmas!

Carter Is Carter

Here are some conversations that we have had recently with Carter. He's 26 months old now. We know that he's awake when we hear him talking, and we know he's asleep when we don't hear him talking anymore :) I will add more as I can...

The other day I had a conversation with him, and this is how it went:

Me: Are you a big boy or a baby? 
Carter: No, Tarter no baby. 
Me: You're not a baby?
Carter: No
Me: Are you a big boy? 
Carter: Name Tarter
Me: Yes, your name is Carter. Carter, are you a big boy? 
Carter: No, Tarter is Tarter

___________________________________

A few days later we were at the dinner table. Kevin had given C a bath before dinner bc he was filthy. I had asked Kevin about something and he was explaining something to me. Carter was just sitting there eating his dinner while we talked...

Me: Asked some unmemorable question...
Kevin: I couldn't...I had a naked baby in my arms (talking about Carter)
Carter: Tapping Kevin on the shoulder.... No Daddy, me big boy! 
*Kevin and I just looked at each other in amazement... I guess we didn't know he was listening or would know who we were talking about since we never said his name! He's growing up and understanding everything!!!

___________________________________

We were on our way to North Carolina the other day, we told Carter that we were going to see Grandmama and Granddaddy when we got there! After our 11 hour drive, we got to our hotel before my parents. We started walking into our hotel, Carter turns around and starts running back to the car. He said "No, Tarter doe Greemama and Granddaddy's HOUSE." He thought we were going to their house. We had to DRAG him (kicking and screaming) into the hotel room. I even called mom for her to talk to him and tell him they were coming. He didn't calm down until they got there - 1 hour later! He was so very dissapointed that we weren't at their house! That night when we were trying to get him to go to sleep, he said "Tarter no sleep. Tarter doe home. Tarter doe Greemama's House." He was giving us two choices, and they didn't include the hotel room. He calmed down and ended up getting a good night's sleep. At the end of the weekend, Carter did indeed get to go to Grandmama and Granddaddy's house, and he's spending a few days there. He loves it!!!

___________________________________

He answers questions with a Yes or a No, and he restates everything. If I ask him, "Carter, would you like to go play cars?" He will either say, "No, Tarter doe pay tars." or "Yes, Tarter doe pay tars." 

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His favorite place to be is outside. He sounds Chinese when he says the word "outside." He runs to the door and says "Tarter doe pay out-sigh."

Carter's 2nd Birthday Party

It was about a month ago, but if you'll excuse my lateness on posting this blog, I think you'll enjoy it :)

Carter loves the back yard and all of it's possibilities! So I thought we'd have a backyard bash for his 2nd Birthday! What better way to celebrate turning 2 than with lots of fun with lots of friends?

We had water balloons!

A shaving cream slide/tarp - SOOOOO MUCH FUN!

He got pretty into this activity :)

Sandbox fun! 

A bouncy house that our friends let us borrow (Thanks, Sheas :)

Watermelon pops were a good way to fill up and cool down!

We had some fun summer snacks in the kitchen...


Since we didn't really have a theme...I got a Mickey Mouse Beach cake at Publix!


He loved his "Mouse Cake"

This boy knows how to eat cake :)

We had such a fun time celebrating this 2 year milestone. Thank you to all our friends and family who made it such a special day! 

Happy Birthday, Choo Choo!

Today was Carter's 2nd Birthday! We have had so much fun celebrating his big day. It all started this past Sunday with his "big" present from us...

A Sandbox! 

This isn't just any sandbox, though. Daddy made this sandbox, and it has a top that turns into bench seats! 

We wish we had designed it, but sadly we did not. 

You can find the plans here. We modified it to be 6'x6'. 

Carter LOVES his sandbox! So does Fischer :-) 

We celebrated Carter's birthday today with such a fun day! This morning, I taught Carter how to say "birday" and how old he is - "two." He was able to tell people all day that it was his "birday" and that he was "two." Such a cutie! We talked to Grandmama ("Gree-mama") and Granddaddy ("Da") on the phone and they sang "Happy Birthday, to You!" 

Later in the morning we had his little friend, Ava Grace (and her mommy), over to play at the pool and in the sand box. They love playing together, and they are so cute! Ava Grace sang "Happy Birthday, to You" too! I didn't have my camera with me because we were focused on playing :-) Daddy came home to eat lunch with us, then AvaGrace and her mommy went home. At that point we took a nap until Daddy got home. 

When Daddy got home, we skyped with Aunt Bamie so that she could give Carter her present - a Cars GUITAR!!! Carter loves his "tar," and he plays beautiful "misk" with it! 

For dinner, I cooked Carter's favorites: Grandmama's homemade pizza, apples, and chocolate milk followed up by Nana's famous chocolate cake with sprinkles! We all sang "Happy Birthday, to You" as Carter blew out his candles. Carter asked me if he could have "more birday," and I finally figured out that he was talking about the sprinkles :-) 

This is how you eat pizza.

This is how you eat chocolate cake.

After dinner we opened and played with a few other presents. We can't wait to use the wheelbarrow in the sandbox!

We skyped with Aunt Bebe and Uncle Jason as well as Nana and Papa J ("Pop pop"). They all sang "Happy Birthday, to You!" and we had a great time showing them Carter's presents and talking with them. He loves skyping - he's such a ham! We also got to talk to Uncle Tim - it was his birthday today too - he turned the big 3-0 today!

After everything had settled down, I asked Carter if he was ready to go to bed. At this point, he had his blanket in his mouth. He said "No mommy, see fireworks." How silly of me, everyone's birthday is supposed to end with fireworks!!!! So what did we do? Well, we got on youtube and watched fireworks, of course :-) 

After the birthday fireworks, we headed to bed. I read Carter a little book and we looked at some pictures of him when he was born. We talked a little bit about his birthday, and it was at this point that my precious boy started singing.... "Happy Birthday, Choo Choo." Haha! How cute that he thought everyone was singing "Happy Birthday, Choo Choo," to him all day long :-) We said our prayers and thanked Jesus for Carter and his birthday. What a joy he is! I hope he's up their dreaming of his "Happy Birthday, Choo Choo!"