Struggling with the S word

Yesterday Carter wanted to play with his Legos. I told him that was fine, but he needed to go and pick up his Potato Heads first. He got up and walked over to the couch. He sat down and muttered "Stupid Stupid Stupid" under his breath!!!! I was totally taken a back. I walked over to him and asked him what he said - because it was really soft, I wasn't sure. He repeated himself very softly, probably knowing that he was not supposed to say that word. Without any fanfare or attention to the word I said "You are right, that is a super idea, I'll help you clean them up"

I was hoping that was the end of it. After church he said it over and over and over again. I ignored it every time, hoping if I didn't pay any attention to it, it would go away. David finally walked over to him and told him we don't say that word. He told daddy that one of his friends used that word and named the friend!! I know that friend's mom was struggling to detour her son from using that word as well - but Carter hasn't seen that friend in weeks!!! Nor have we heard him say that word in months. He couldn't think of anywhere else he heard it. The memory on this kid blows me away.

Last week, Carter only needed to be taken out to potty 2 times at church!!! Yesterday, he went out 5 times, but peed every time.

We were on our way to a friend's house last night and Carter asked Daddy from the back seat "Can I borrow your knife please?" Can I borrow your knife!!?? Daddy asked him what for: "To cut this." Daddy said no. "Oh, can I borrow your flashlight?" Oh, okay. I see the trade off there. . . .

Carter and I do a craft for every holiday. Every time we do it, he is so excited, but he doesn't really want to help. I have NEVER gotten him to color anything, until now. This time I made Easter Eggs. I cut them out and stamped them. Sitting at the table trying to figure out what to do next, Carter came over and asked him he could color them. YES! He colored 32 Easter Eggs. It was hard to get him to color the back AND the front. He only wanted "Write Daddy's name" on the back side of all of them. Whatever works. We had a lot of fun coloring together. He did all the design, and I wrote his name on the back, next to Daddy's.

He has been so excited about the Easter Eggs. We went to visit Great-Grandma Bobbi again and gave her his St. Patrick's Day craft. He was frustrated that I hadn't brought the Easter Eggs too. He told her all about the Easter Egg he made for her, and how he wrote Daddy's name on it for her. Then he read her his new favorite book - which he brought in with him - Llama Llama Home With Mama

Pictures of the new seats in my car

My friend Chandra - who moved, but is back, but will leave again soon - came over to help me with car seats.

Really, she just brought Lydia to occupy Carter so I could do this.

Just kidding.

She is the master installer. She has more experience with this, since she has had the seats longer than I have. (And to bring the 3rd seat, as I only have 2) 

So, here are the three Sunshine Kids Radian XTSL seats in Spring, Nitro, & Bentley respectively.

Rear-Facing:

From the side. The Bentley seat leans back quite a bit. I have ordered the part that sits it up straighter, but it won't be here for a few more days.

We tried it front facing just for fun. You only see pictures on their website of them front facing. It also only looks like their front facing pictures are in SUVs. I thought the draw for this seat was that you could do it in a car.

Front Facing from the side:

If you can fit three car seats in the back seat of a Saturn, you can fit three car seats in the back of ANYTHING with 3 seat belts. No need to buy a mini van, or a big SUV. If you were just looking for an excuse to buy a new car, you're going to just have to come right out and say it.

A couple lost videos

Carter loves to read books to people:

He also loves to go potty by himself:



What to do while Pop Pops and Jordan are visiting

My father and brother are visiting. Carter is in heaven.



So, what to do when you have Jordan all to yourself?

You play with the new Mega Blocks train set Uncle John sent:

Struggle to put it together all the way and enlist Aunt Caroline to help

(She's the one that looks like the phone sitting on the floor):

Then you go outside, build a snow fort, and have a snowball fight:

A relentless snow ball fight. We have to teach this kid not to hit a man when he's down:

After that, you come back in and play with your other Mega Blocks train set:

 And you follow it all up with 237 games of basketball on the back deck. Thank you David for cleaning it off during the summer time!! 

What an amazing kid, and some pictures I found.

Three weeks ago we went to a bakery with our friends Andrew and Emma. We had a lot of fun. Carter wasn't really phased by the fact that he couldn't eat any of the cute looking cookies. I gave him the option of 2 cookies and a brownie that were wheat free/gluten free. Even though he said he wanted a froggy cookie, he gladly chose a chocolate chip from my options.

A week ago we pulled into a shopping center that had the same style architecture as the bakery did. Carter was so excited, he thought we were at the bakery.

Last night we were at the grocery store and he saw the same brand of cookie that we got to choose from at the bakery. He was so animated, telling me all about how he had that cookie when we went to the bakery. Had he not pointed it out, I don't think I would have remembered. His memory and his observations are AMAZING.

I am putting Carter's second year book together, and trying to clean up my desktop of pictures. I came across some pictures from the summer time that I don't think I put on here. I edited a couple of them last night.

This one was my favorite:

The one above was blurred out so as not to highlight my weeds.

Some of them were edited to avoid shadows. Like these two:

Carter's hand was covering part of the lens, and shadowing his face.

Amazing what PhotoShop will do:

These we took over the summer - at 18 months:

He fell and wouldn't touch the bark:

I loved his facial expressions in these:

 He fell in the grass. You can see he has it all over himself. He was not happy.

Just such a happy boy!

New Car Seats

I recently realized that I should keep Carter rear facing longer. Many of you know the two incidences behind that, so I won't rehash it here. "Thank goodness my baby was rear facing!" is all I have to say. 

I LOVE our current seats - the Britax Marathons - however Carter has hit the maximums for rear-facing, and I can't justify the cute covers any more. I will miss the blue velour and the cute dog bones and paws - or "clues" as Carter calls them. Sorry Britax, you can't meet our needs any more. Carter's current seat only rear-faces until 35 lbs. Carter is 34. It also only latches until 45, which made me scratch my head and ask "I have to uninstall the latch and seat belt it for the last 20 lbs?" That seemed silly to me. Why can't they make a seat that will hold to its restrictions with the restraint provided? The two main reasons that I went with Britax: Safety ratings - they held the top spot, and the fact that they are made in the USA. We buy American made products whenever possible. I am proud of the fact that Carter's seat was made in North Carolina, and it is installed in a car made in Tennessee.

However, we have graduated to a seat that has almost stolen the top spot for safety from Britax. The Sunshine Kids (or Diono now) Radian XTSL. They will hold a child rear-facing up to 45 lbs, and their latch will hold this seat in place safely with a child weighing up to 80 lbs.

Carter seems to like them:

I was worried that there was not enough side protection, but there is more head protection. Plus, I can fit 3 of these COMFORTABLY in the back seat of my car. I can finally carpool with my friends that have more than one child (but not more than 2 because I really only have 3 seat belts back there. So, I should just say that I can now carpool with my friends who have 2 kids huh?). I have been able to fit 3 Britax Roundabouts in the back of my car, but their weight limits are lower than the Marathon. We upgraded to the Marathon when I no longer needed the small seat to fit into my coupe. I held onto the Roundabouts so we could carpool. However, it was difficult.

New Stuff

Carter has mastered the art of the stacking cups today. He takes the whole thing apart, lays them all in a row in random order, and then puts them back together again.

We found a new playgroup that Carter really likes on Wednesdays. He went right to the doll house today. He was organizing the chairs in rows and puts the baby to bed. He says "This is Baby Carter". He only identified himself, didn't find "Mommy" or "Daddy".

We went to visit Great-Grandma Bobbi today. She has not been home the last two times we went to visit. We thought for sure she would be home by now. Carter made her a valentine and he wanted to give it to her personally. So, we went down to visit her at the fun place she is staying at. Carter sat and talked with Grandma for over an hour. She introduced him to all her friends and all the nurses. He was really shy of the men, but loved all the other ladies.

When it was time to leave he had a really hard time. He pushed Grandma to the door saying "Grandma goes with us.". He DID NOT want to leave her there. After he gave her a hug and we walked out the door. He became really upset because he didn't get to give Grandma a kiss. So, we went back to give her a kiss. What a hard thing it was to leave her there.

Our First Accident

Carter had his first accident today - 10 days into underwear. He had said when we were in the car that he had to use the potty. When we got to our destination, 20 minutes later, I had forgotten all about it. He started playing and . . . whoops. I know it won't be our last, but I am so excited that he went so long!!!