Still pregnant - yes I am overdue

Although my due date has passed, it is common for women to go a week or two over. David pointed out that I always tell him "If you don't put it on the calendar, it doesn't happen." Maybe I haven't had the baby yet because I haven't put it on the calendar. So I did. I put it on the calendar for this Saturday - December 1st at 10 P.M.. We'll see if that does the trick. I like December's birth stone better anyways.

Doesn't really bother me. I feel great. I can still fill my bladder and my stomach. This baby has not dropped, so I cannot fill my lungs. However, I can live with that. I am not having heartburn or re flux, and I can still sleep through the night without having to get up to go to the bathroom!!

I am having some sciatic pain, but I could have that without being pregnant. I have an awesome chiropractor, and ice.

I do have trouble tying my shoes. David ties my shoes when he is home and Carter attempts to do the same when Daddy is not here. Yesterday, while trying to tie my shoes, Carter asks me why I am not wearing my slip on shoes. Um.... because... well, I hadn't thought of it. They are sitting right by the door. I don't have any clue why I didn't think of that. So, now I am wearing my shoes that slip on and off easily, thanks to the 3 year old!

On a side note, Carter doesn't know how to tie shoes, all his shoes are Velcro. His Velcro came undone the other day and he told me "My shoes came un-croed!" His grasp on language is amazing. He just makes up these words that really sound like they should make sense.

I don't have any pictures to compare myself to at this stage in my pregnancy with Carter because it didn't exist.

Marriage, already!

My brother got married in September - see post here.  Last night, Carter was telling me that he wanted a wedding too. I asked him why. He wanted to "dance in the sun" again. So cute. I told him that he needed to find a wife first, and he needed to graduate high school. He decided Felicity (my brother's new wife's niece - the flower girl) would make a great wife. 

Then, he told me that I could be his wife. I told him that I was already Daddy's wife. 

"That's okay, I can share."

So cute. Poor Daddy, doesn't have a chance compared to this guy right?

 We did our Thanksgiving craft for all the grandparents recently - turkeys using baking cups. Carter had a blast coloring the paper. He started to draw things, like football fields, and helmets. Then, he drew this:

It is his first self portrait. He has arms, legs, eyes, and a nose/mouth!

Santa Pictures

We went to the Old Cannery for our Santa pictures again this year. It was even better than the past 3 years!! Carter took a few minutes to warm up once it was our turn. Santa Al took his time with Carter and talked with him off-lap for a bit. Then they started talking football and Carter really got going. He told Santa his favorite football team was BYU and he wanted a BYU football helmet (Thank you Amazon, we found a BYU helmet and a jersey). 

David wants to go back to see Santa with Baby Elmer when he is born. I knew that with Carter's trepidation of new people, I wanted to give him the least amount of distractions for his pictures as possible. And who knows, maybe we won't be able to go once Baby Elmer comes.

We set up the tree as our Family Home Evening activity tonight. Carter has been really excited. I was pretty excited too, until Carter started dropping some of David's childhood ornaments - the glass kind. I tried to show him how to be gentle and careful, but he was not interested. It was a struggle.

Notice he hung all the ornaments really close together. It was pretty cute.

When it was all said and done, I was breathing a sigh of relief. Carter came up to me, and put his hands out. I grabbed them both and he started dancing. We danced for a few minutes to the Christmas music that was playing. It was a lot of fun.

Halloween

A little late....

Carter chose to be a SWAT officer for Halloween. He started to really get into it this year. He loved to wear his costume at home, but not while we were out and about - with other people watching, even if everyone else is wearing a costume.

We went with some friends to the "Grandparent House" (AKA an assisted living facility) to do a parade. He clung to me the entire time and all out REFUSED to wear his costume. He cried and threw himself on the floor. It was kind of like last year all over again. I knew better, and should have given him about 10 or 15 minutes to warm up first. He talked about it for days afterwards, as though he had the greatest time!!

Daddy did a photo shoot with him in his costume. He was thrilled to do that.

We had a carnival at church. Carter excelled in the sporting event type games.

He knocked down all the milk jugs - by himself!

He had a blast with Daddy.

They had some trick-or-treating after the carnival.

The only door he wouldn't go to was the one with the spider web.

We made our Halloween craft - ghosts - out of his feet. He LOVED to step in the white paint. We had a lot of fun with this craft.

On Halloween, we went to a different "Grandparent House" to visit his Great-Grandma Bobbie and hand deliver her craft.

Then we went with our friends to go Trick-or-Treating in their neighborhood. He really loved getting all the candy. Most of it (David and I ate the good stuff) is still in this same orange bag in the pantry. He doesn't ask to have any. It is in plain sight, and he NEVER asks to eat any of it. He knows it is there, he can see it, but he doesn't care. Weird kid.

Coincidentally, there was a house in their neighborhood with a giant spider - Carter walked right by it. There was another house with strobe lights and moving things in the yard - didn't phase him. However, the spider webs freak him out!! He will reach down and pet the big nasty spiders he finds in the yard - but cries when he thinks he sees a spider web near one of his toys. I haven't figured out what is so scary about a spider web (with or without a spider), but not a spider. Go figure.

Excited to be a big brother

No baby yet.  We have been praying so hard to have Baby Elmer reach full term, that I really don't mind going to my due date or later. I just really don't want to be induced. Plus, I realized that I don't care for the November birth stone, so I am content to wait until December to have this baby.

We'll see what God has in store for us. Baby Elmer is already about 3 lbs heavier than Carter was at birth. I have taken out all of Carter's tiny clothes, washed, folded, and placed them in the dresser. Now, I worry that Baby Elmer will be too big to wear any of it.

Carter is so excited to have a baby brother. It is amazing to me how ready he really is. I got Carter a Baby Elmer doll a few months ago to help him transition. Carter has been attached at the hip to this doll. He makes sure Baby Elmer has a clean diaper and is always dressed. He wants to help buckle Baby Elmer in the car whenever we go anywhere. He tells me when Baby Elmer needs to eat, sleep, and be changed. Apparently Carter can make him giggle (his favorite thing to do), and can calm him when he is crying. I find him every couple days holding Baby Elmer bouncing up and down, while walking back and forth in the hallway, patting his back. Carter will sway and shush, as well as rock and cuddle this doll. It is the sweetest thing. THE MOST loving thing, however, was a couple days ago when I went in to his room to wake him up. He was holding Baby Elmer, reading him a story.

We have our scary moments. Like when Carter carries Baby Elmer down the hall by his leg, and when Carter tries on Baby Elmer's clothes: 

The shorts that Carter has dressed himself in are 3-6 months, as are the socks that you cannot see. He liked them because they are "BYU colors" (The socks), and insists on wearing them. Unfortunately, I don't want to encourage the wearing of new baby's socks, so I made him take them off. 

Trip to Arizona

This summer Carter and I spent a week in Arizona. David joined us for the weekend to celebrate my brother's wedding.

Carter's car seat fit great on the airplane. Just like last year, we had a little mishap with the car seat. This time, I brought a spare cover. Carter got a hold of some Soft Scrub (out of the gift bag for my brother and his new wife) and squirted it ALL OVER. The rental car seat was destroyed, I had to get a new harness for the car seat, 2 hats, shirt, pants, shoes.... His clothes were completely destroyed. We had to throw them away. He had it in his hair and all over his face. It was a disaster!! On the bright side, I had a spare cover and the rental car company did not charge us for the bleaching of their seat (the renters before me spilled red juice all over the back seat and it was pretty well stained from that, so the damage we did was looked over because of their previous damage.)

We did SO MANY fun things. We went to story times and playgroups. I kept Carter pretty busy. I tried to make it home in time for naps, but he didn't stay down. I settled for timing naps in the car.

I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but he has fallen asleep with a french fry in his mouth, mostly eaten. He was exhausted!!

Daddy called every day on his lunch break and we always stopped to talk to him.

His favorite stops were the temples. We stopped at the Arizona Temple in Mesa. He wanted to stay for hours.

In the Visitor's Center they had this little room with Prophet and the 12 Apostles. Carter spent almost an hour in this spot alone. He wanted to find them on the screen and hear what they were saying. The older couple who were serving a mission there had their mouths drop open when they heard this boy who hadn't even been 3 for a week identify almost all of the men in the pictures.

Then we went to find the Gilbert Temple and discovered that it isn't finished. They had a visitor's center (a construction trailer that had pictures and videos), and we spent quite a bit of time there too - twice.

Carter now thinks that all construction guys do is go to the bathroom. The first day we went, they were just leaving for the day - so the line started forming at the port-a-potties. Then the second day we went (I thought we left Carter's sunglasses there, but it turned out they had just fallen underneath his car seat.) they were just leaving for lunch, and that led to another line in the same place.

My mother threw Carter a birthday party - since it was so close to his birthday. She ordered a gluten-free/Dairy-free cake from a local bakery. She also got him dairy-free ice cream. It wasn't bad. I know I ate more than Carter did. Who knew you could find Gluten-free/Dairy-free Cookie Dough Ice Cream?????

Carter had been BEGGING my mother for a catcher's mask. Where he got the idea, I will never know. But, she got him one. Getting it home was another story!! He loves it. It is one of his favorite things!!

At the party, Carter got a lot of presents. He opened every one of them and showed the crowd. He was so proud and thankful for every gift. It was really cute to watch.

My mother also took us to the aquarium. It was a really neat place.

We got to visit with my grandmother also:

We went to visit my friend Erik from college. He is a fireman and took us on a tour of the fire station. Carter loved it. But, he was more excited that Erik played football. We went to Erik's house and watched football. Carter even got to try a real football helmet on! I don't know where this obsession with helmets comes from.

We saw a lot of cactus:

And got to spend some time just hanging out:

At my brother's wedding, Carter was in charge of carrying this sign instead of a ring. I love it!

He fell in love with the flower girl Felicity. You may remember her from last year's trip: Click Here 

When Felicity went home Carter cried. He didn't want to leave his friend. He still talks about her.

We had such a fun trip. Despite being pretty pregnant, and summer time in Arizona, we really enjoyed ourselves. Carter was a very big help, even in the airport.