Dinner in Ogden

We went to quite possibly one of the best restaurants I've ever been to on our trip to Ogden. Called the Union Grill. It ranks up there with Charley's in Orlando - greatest steakhouse in the US. They did not include spoons in our napkin. I asked for one. Everybody kind of looked at me funny - we had just sat down, how did I know I needed a spoon? For Carter of course. That kept him busy for the better part of an hour. He was so cute with it. They brought us a whole plate of fruit for him to snack on. He loved it. The food was EXCELLENT as well!

Carter & Camden

We had some friends that moved from our ward to Ogden, Utah. While we were in town, we stopped to stay with them for a few days. Their son Camden was born 4 months before Carter. He weights 3lbs less, and is walking and running around. They look about the same size, but Carter has a bit of a belly and chubby cheeks. They played along side eachother, but never with eachother.

It was Camden's house where Carter got to really climb stairs. He always heads straight for the stairs wherever we go, but he actually got to climb them here. He is not very efficient at going down yet. I all but pushed him down the stairs so he could learn consequences. My child is the slow one remember. He cried and cried, until I realized that he was crying because I was holding him. He was struggling to break free to climb again. He fell twice down about 6 or 7 steps, not really caring - just wanting to continue going up.

Camden LOVES snow. Doesn't matter how cold it is. He throws a fit if he knows you are going out, and he is not.

We went looking at Christmas lights in the Ogden Christmas Village. My how I am grateful for a child that doesn't walk or run. Camden didn't stay in his stroller for long. He was running all over playing in the snow. I love this picture because it reminds me of that Christmas Story movie.

Carter and Mikaela

This is the first of my Utah visit posts. My cousin Deborah on my father's side has a daughter that is 5 weeks older than Carter. We got to play with her for a couple days. They mostly played side by side. She talks a lot more than Carter, and she used walking as her main mode of transportation - no crawling at all.

Here she is giving him kisses:

Then she gave him a hug:

He thinks she is super funny, getting into things he can't yet:

Carter with my cousin Angie:

Carter with my Aunt Shannon:

Carter with my Uncle Ken:

Look Out Doggies

Today Lydia was getting her way more than usual. She is walking by herself for long distances, and has been for almost 2 weeks now. If she saw something that she wanted that Carter was playing with, she would walk up and take it. Then she would walk away. There was nothing Carter could do but cry. He couldn't get it back by crawling to her. I decided that he needed to stick up for himself. I set him upright and held his hips so he knew I was there. He wanted to grab my fingers - but I refused to let him do that. It would cause him to fall if I tried to let go. He took about 7 steps before falling. I called David in to see. By the end of 10 minutes he was walking across the room like he is in the video. He crawled into the kitchen. I went in there to get him and stood him up. He walked 17 feet before the tripping on the transition strip going into the living room (I can't count that against him because I've done it). He then walked another 9 feet to David's arms.

It looks like he was ready, I just wasn't.

We have no more fun toys!!!

Thanks to all of our wonderful friends, we have lots of fun toys. However, today all of them became obsolete and invalid. For today we found THE LAUNDRY SHOOT. I have been dreading this day for about 6 months now. Today was the day that I finally closed all the doors in the hallway and let Carter and Lydia chase eachother up and down the hallway. I have always had it blocked off so they could be confined to the living room where I could sit on the couch and read or grade papers for David and know that they were safe. Today, however I let them roam free. I got there too late. Just in time to see Carter grab that handle and pull. WOW!!! What an amazing find. There is a hole in the wall!!! Before you go thinking - how could she let them wander down there with a danger like that exposed?? I do need to point out that I have had the toy box blocking it for quite some time. I moved it out of the way for the pictures so you wouldn't think that my house was as completely cluttered as the toy box is. He was reaching in for a toy and noticed the knob on the wall. He was only able to get it open about 4 inches. However, that is enough to completely captivate a curious 15 month old.

Aaaaaaggggghhhhh what do I do?????

Circle Time

Carter loves circles. When we play with other people's toys, it is always the circles we go for first. When we put the shapes in the shape sorter, one hand has the circle while the other hands shove shapes in holes. The circle almost never goes in. He has a ball in one hand and the circle puzzle is sitting next to him on the floor. He has seen the ball go in the basket. Balls are circles.

And circles are circles:

Notice here, the only two pieces missing are the O and the Q. Both circles.

Here is a random picture of play time. This is the first real fight over a toy we have had. They both wanted to play with this toy piano my cousin gave us. They literally pulled eachother off and pushed them to the floor before climbing on it themselves. It was crazy.

On another note, Carter cut another tooth on Monday. Now he has 9.

Straight No Chaser

Straight No Chaser

I love these guys. David bought me tickets to go see them back in June or July. He wrote it on the calendar and stuck the tickets to the bulletin board in the kitchen hoping I would find them. He had to tell me - I guess I am just that unobservant. We went to see them Thursday night in Seattle.

This group exists just to show you the power of the internet. They started out as a group of friends in college who wanted to sing. They started their group at Indiana University in 1996. After graduation in 1999 they all went on with their lives. It wasn't until a video got posted to YouTube in 2006 by one of the group members that their reputation took off. They received MILLIONS of hits. In 2007 alone that one video received over 7 million views. One view is all it takes for most people, and that is all it took for the Chairman/CEO of Atlantic Records. They were signed to the record label and are touring.

The show that we went to was near the end of a 75 show tour this year. After the show, they all came out for a meet-and-greet. I would have loved to meet them, but we had to get home to get the baby.

For more videos, visit their YouTube Channel.



If this doesn't work, you can see this video HERE

If this doesn't work, you can see this video HERE

Seeing Santa

We went to the Old Cannery Furniture Warehouse for Santa pictures again this year. Same Santa. He is great!! We waited in line for an hour and 45 minutes (We got there half an hour early too) - but it was worth it.

Santa came out and walked through the line to see the kids

Hi Santa!!!

This is the candy river. He just wanted to crawl back and forth over the bridge:

This is the result of our attempts with Santa. He was great until we got to his lap.

Remember this from last year? I miss these days.

The stinky kid who eats paste

I officially have the stinky kid who eats paste. Carter grabbed a bottle of Elmer's glue and drank from it like it was a bottle. He does have some gas that will clear a room too.

He also ate a piece of book. The peice had a picture of food on it. My child cannot tell the difference between real food and pictures of food!!!

He stole a remote control. I was cleaning out his car seat and a remote fell out. Somehow it got tucked under the cover. I had to call three people who it could possibly belong to. Silly kid.

This is Carter right before swim class, so excited. Not so excited when we got to the pool. He was in a really good mood after we left though.

I did Carter's hair today. The pool is drying his scalp and I was putting lotion on it when I noticed some of his hairs were moving with the lotion. This is my attempt at styling it:

My friend Chandra - Lydia's mom - said that as weird as it sounded, his hair actually looked messed up. I took pride that she noticed - because that meant it worked!!

Playgroup Mondays

We found a new playgroup. They meet on Mondays. They have a gym full of toys that their preschool plays with.

This is THE ONLY thing these two want to do:

This little boy followed us around for quite a while. Every time I told Carter that I wanted him to come to me, or go to there, this boy did it. Turns out, his name is Carter too. I just started calling my Carter "baby". It worked, and "Carter" went to play with something else.

I FINALLY got them to go do other things. This is what they did. Lydia went on to find new friends. This is Adam, she is pulling his hair and patting him on the head:

Carter went on to explore the other cars:



There were others I didn't get his pictures in front of, like the truck and the other two cars that are exactly the same as the ones pictured here. Thank goodness they have so many, otherwise there would be fights. I am also glad for a place to use them. It is not often that you can play with an outside toy outside here in Washington.



We also started swim class again. The first time he loved it. Now, he actually cried. He didn't want to be free in the water. He didn't want his legs to float. He clung to me like a baby Glider Monkey hangs to his momma in flight. I thought he was going to rip my bathing suit top right off.



Three new things he can do this week:
cluck his tongue
nose kisses - or Eskimo kisses
Mimic Sighing



His nose kisses are quite scary. He opens his mouth wide and shakes his head violently back and forth. The open mouth thing is how he gives normal kisses - so it makes sense how he came to that conclusion. The clucking sounded like gagging at first. I was worried he was choking on something. I took a deep breath in and let it out the other day because I was frustrated, and he did it right back. It was super cute. He has been mimicking me doing it ever since. I'll have to get video.

The amazing internet

Today Carter had a video chat with Uncle Jordan & Aunt Caroline. That Internet thing is AMAZING!! Brings to mind a video that I have posted at the very end. But this is about Carter. He was engrossed in the laptop image of Caroline & Jordan dancing around the screen.

Getting ready for church today. He had just had a major melt down about this sweater. He was playing with it, and DID NOT want to wear it. It has sweet peek-a-boo properties when it is off. I enticed him out of the tantrum with options of autonomous movement. He thought that was pretty cool.

P.S. I tried looking at other stuff done by this comedian and none of it is clean, just in case you were going to - I'll save your ears.

It's only a harmless mouse right?

What is so special about this mouse? The light? The color? We are unsure. However, it has captivated our little swiffer (since we don't have rugs, we can't call him a "rug-rat", and "pergo-rat" didn't flow - he is essencially a swiffer when he sweeps across the floor). He is so determined to get to it. This is the first thing he thinks about when he gets up from his nap, and the last thing he thinks about before bed. He can play by himself just fine, and the first opportunity he has to get out on his own accord - it is straight to the mouse he goes. He will grab your hands and make you help him walk down the hallway to the office so he can reach the mouse. He screams when he can't have it. I have tried giving him mouse alternatives to no avail. What to do, what to do!?!

Snow Angel

We got dumped on last night. The snow didn't stop until this morning. Crazy. David was sent home early yesterday, off all day today and tomorrow. He doesn't have to go back to school until Monday. It is not that we are snow whimps. This kind of thing happens so infrequently that we just don't have the equipment to deal with it. The road crews are not prepared to deal with snow like this. If you live in a place where you get frequent cold spells you know how to drive in it, and you know that the roads will be cleared in time for people to leave for work. That just doesn't happen here. So I am glad that they close schools and shut the city down so that more people aren't in danger from themselves.

We took Carter out in the snow. Our neighbors had a Carter size sled that they let us borrow. He just sat there. No movement. All the sled pictures I have, he is in the EXACT same position. No smiles in the snow.

David wanted him to experience snow angels. No go. Next year, he will look back on these pictures and wonder what was wrong with himself. We will pull him out of the snow kicking and screaming to go back out.

Not this year.

He was wearing shoes. They are just covered in snow.

~~~I have updated my recipe on Pasta Stars. Everything needs to be waaaaaay overdone in order for the small mouth to be able to process it. Also, I have to mix it with Yams to thicken it up. Hope that helps if you try to use this recipe.~~~

Costume Pictures Finally!!

Carter was just too wiggly to get real good pictures. Lydia, on the other hand was amazingly well posed. She was compliant in all the pictures. My child needed a prop to keep in in one place. This bowl is a favorite at Lydia's house - filling it and emptying it over and over.

This time it is a spoon:

He is about to yell at us for taking away his distraction.

Davidisms for the day:

We were looking through the new Toys-R-Us catalogue and saw the cars and trucks. David says "Look at this dump truck. I say "That is not a dump truck, it is a garbage truck." David replies "But it goes to the dump." What am I going to do with him??

I was frantically looking for an under onsie for Carter. I told David "I cannot find a single white onsie!!" David asks "Isn't that a band? . . . . No, that's Plain White Ts"