Fun Videos

I have been meaning to post some of these videos of Carter. So, a little late, but still cute.

In this video he is playing with a keyboard and mouse that David donated to Carter. He moves it randomly around the house, calling it his laptop, checking his email: "Checkin da email". When he is in the entry way with it he is trying to plug the "lapop" in. Then he is looking for the mouse and he says "Ahind me, there it is, Ahind me da mouse." Ahind is his word for Behind.

I call this video "The Evolution of Vortex". He called Vortex Wei Wei, and he's now pretty proficient at it:

Is this child abuse?

Fire Men and Fire Stations

I love this video because of how excited he is, and for the fact that after he knows it is a firetruck, the first thing he says is that he needs pictures! I think he sees me with my camera too much.

While I was in Arizona Carter and I visited with a friend of mine who is now a Firefighter. Carter was in awe of him. He did not want to wear the hat - but as soon as we got home, his yellow CAT construction hat was now called a "fire hat".

Erik's house was fun because he got water in a big boy cup:

Which he spilled 6 times!! Twice on me. AND because Erik put on football on the TV. Since then, EVERY TIME he sees a television he says "I wanna watch football on the TV". It is out of control. Apparently, that is the only thing you could do with a TV.

We got the opportunity to tour a real live fire station close to our house last week. David took the day off work so he could come with us. He is so excited to share these things with Carter too.

Carter will now tell you the difference between a fire truck and a ladder truck. Erik would be proud!

He got to climb in the truck, by himself, and with some buddies.

Best part - the hat.





Then, he went home and grabbed the fire man boots my mother got him when she was here. 

Still, and empty fire truck toddler bed, but we're working on that. 

International Auto Show

Family Tradition.

David and I have been going to the auto show together since 2003. We continue that with Carter. He can identify 17 makes of car now (without being prompted). 15 are shown here, and 2 are no longer in production - being Saturn and Mercury. Please forgive me on the Mercedes at the end, I must have had my finger over the microphone. I tried to lower the volume on all the other cars so you don't have to turn up yours at the end.

Carter had a blast climbing in all of the cars and trying everything out.

I couldn't really tell what this button was for:

We had to get our annual STI picture:

He climbed back in to drive it "Really Fast":

In the end, he was tired!!

Grandma Time

Carter has recently begun saying everything is whatever time. It is "Daddy Time" or "Oranges Time". So, this post is about Grandma Time. On our trip to Arizona we visited with my both my parents, my grandmother, and other aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. My mother came to visit a couple weeks ago as well.

While we were at her house, she was very conscientious about what Carter could and could not eat. She knows that he cannot tolerate dairy, and was very diligent in making dairy-free dishes for him. When I told her that we were going to go back to cutting out wheat, she tried to accommodate dinner to be wheat-free. When she couldn't make it wheat-free, she made him a wheat-free meal. She always had fresh fruit ready for him.

Carter really loves his Uncle Jordan. Jordan taught him how to play Foosball:

And to ride a Razor Scooter:

We also went to the park, although it was a little miserable. My mother also wanted to take Carter to the zoo and the spray pad. However, the heat really kept us in doors.  

While my mother was here, we went to the Rain Forest Cafe twice:

They all came out and sang "Happy Birthday" to him. We got to play in the shop, and he was scared of all the animals. He really just wanted to watch football in the bar. I had to pull a chair out of the bar so he could watch from the store. Silly kid.

We went to playgroups and the park. We went to the bouncy house - where Carter cried the entire time. He was quite overwhelmed.

We also went to the farm (Where I took this picture above). They had kittens in the loft - where Carter reiterated his dislike for the "Meows". They had all of the farm animals, as well as a bouncy house, basketball courts, mini tractors:

Although, he took one look at the real tractor and he knew what he wanted:





When it was time to go he cried. But, she left him with a new mini skateboard, twistable crayons, and a Cars coloring book:

It was really nice of my mother to ask what kinds of things Carter was interested in, so she could get him a gift that he would really be able to use and enjoy. It was also nice of her to think about his dietary needs in Arizona AND while she was here. Plus the fact that she did things that Carter was interested in, really showed how much she cared about HIM. It really showed she cared about him, not just showing him off to her friends while we were in town. Although, I'm sure she wished she could do more of that. Seeing Carter have fun was all she was interested in.

Halloween

Carter was a mechanic for Halloween. Or as a lady from church pointed out - he was daddy.

He decided to put his mechanic skills to work fixing his bubble mower. Lydia kept saying "Noises Noises" while pointing to it. So, while she sounds like me telling David that my car is making noises, she was really a bumble bee. For the 3rd year in a row, my friend Chandra and I got the kids together and did a photo shoot for Halloween. Here are a couple good ones:

Carter saw me trying to fix Lydia's costume and he thought he would try to help.

To start off the festivities, we went to a Trunk-or-Treat at church. David dressed up this year:

This is Carter watching Daddy at church. Not so sure. He chose to hang out with me instead of Daddy this night - which is totally out of character for him. But, if you saw this man, how likely would you be to jump into his lap?

 Carter and Daddy made up and they played putt-putt golf in a set up that David built for the Trunk-or-Treat carnival.

Carter got his face painted:

And got some cotton candy with the tickets he won from playing golf. He chose it, and then threw it in the garbage. He thought it was gross. Sad.

This was his very first piece of "Canny!!!!" he got:

I got to take him around to a couple cars. I dressed up as the family coordinator. Under my list of coordinator responsibilities: I made sure we had fun places to go, costumes, and that we were there on time. David took a picture to prove that I was there:

David told me last year that he didn't want to do the Trick-or-Treat thing. He said there are so many safe places to go collect candy he wanted to try one of those. I agree. We really wanted to go to the Trunk-or-Treat at the new LeMay Auto museum, but it was on a Sunday and we don't Trick-or-Treat on Sundays.

So, in addition to the Trunk-or-Treating we did at church, we went to the mall and gathered candy there. Carter was not really into it (he even cried) . . .

until he realized that they were giving him candy. Then we were too slow.

He was melting the chocolate in his hands, so we let him stop and eat some of his spoils. He really enjoyed that. We later went to the temple - that is another post. This kid was in HEAVEN that day!!

On actual Halloween day David made the decision to take the night off work and did the Trick-or-Treating thing with some of our friends, spur of the moment kind of thing. They moved into a very friendly neighborhood - the kind where you know all your neighbors and have block parties and stuff. They get together for 4th of July, and all sorts of barbecues during the summer. We went to a lot of them and know the neighbors by name now.

Plus Carter talks constantly about his friends Andrew and Emma. Carter tells me that Daddy goes to Andrew and Emma's house during the day instead of work. Their whole family dressed up as the Flintstones. Andrew was Bam Bam, Emma was Pebbles, and mom and dad were Fred and Wilma:

This was Carter's first door:

He knocked, then opened it right up. It took three houses before he stopped opening the door on his own. It was so funny.

Carter lasted 10 houses before he saw a basketball hoop. All he wanted to do was stand under it. No coercion of candy would convince him to walk on his own. David carried him to the next house. He got his candy and tried to run back (we wanted to finish the loop of the street). David carried him to the next house where they were watching a football game. That was it. Our night was pretty much over. We drug him kicking and screaming to the car. He fought the car seat screaming "I wanna watch football on da TV!!!!!!" We consider the night a success.

Animals

One of Carter's grandmothers made Carter this blanket, unless you've been in his room you will not have seen it. I don't let out of his room because we don't want it to get ruined or damaged.

I know that some people don't know what happens to their stuff when they give it to someone and they get a little paranoid that their gift is in vain. It may just be the case that they cherish it so much, they take great care of it.

Anyways, Carter and I were talking about animals, and I didn't know he knew Zebra.

Carter is definitely 2, can you tell with the "No I don't"?

This quilt was made by Carter's Great-Grandmother. He loves to point out the shapes. I will come in and see that is naming the animals and shapes on their bodies.

This quilt is the perfect size for his toddler bed. Although he is not sleeping in it yet, he plays in it all the time. My mother made this quilt, a raggy-flannel quilt with "I love to see the temple" fabric. (Really fitting since Carter seems to really enjoy seeing pictures of the temple, and our most recent trip there on Saturday. I'll post about that later.) Usually the bed is filled with the fabric books my mother made for Carter. He has to have 3 or 4 in bed with him every night. I think it gives him something to do in the morning quietly before I get him up. 

A good friend of mine just passed away and at her funeral were many of her crafts and creations. When they talked in the service of how she loved to make gifts for people, I had to smile and think of the blanket she made for Carter while I was in the hospital. It meant so much to me then, but it is that much more special now.

We have so many other blankets that we love that our friends and family have given us. I am so sentimental I couldn't bear to part with them. It was too hot to use them during the summer months, but now that it is chilly at night, I am remembering all of the wonderful people in our lives that put so much time and effort into a blanket or other item for Carter and our family.

On that same note, David and I still use the quilts that we were given for our wedding on our bed - almost 8 years later. Including one that David's grandmother made, and one that my friend Penny Douglas made.



You are a Child of God too!!

This morning as I was changing Carter's diaper, he was singing Itsy-Bitsy Spider. He loves to sing. He stops and looks at me like he just figured something out. He says "Mommy a child of God!" then he says "Daddy a child of God!" and he finished by saying "Baby Carter a child of God TOO!!". He was so excited to learn this about himself and about us. Some people don't figure that out until they are adults. It is so nice to know that my child has that knowledge about himself at 25 months old!

What is a blog post without a picture right?? I am really excited for this new car seat cover that I traded with my cousin Deborah for. Carter got these new glasses from the bank when he made a deposit of the birthday money he got from all of his family and friends. The whole ride home he was in the back seat exclaiming "Glasses on LIKE DADDY! Hat on LIKE DADDY!!" He was so excited to be just like daddy. I am so grateful for a husband and father who is such a great role model for our child!!!

Playgroups & Bed Time

We keep pretty busy with playgroups. There is not a day on the calendar without a playgroup of some sort. Carter seems pretty well socialized because of it. That and he is a pretty easy going kid. (As you can tell in the end of the video when a little girl sits down and picks up the same toys that he just had in his hand. He didn't freak out, or even try to stop her.)

There is an awesome playgroup that we go to every week. They have a trampoline, blocks, trains, cars, puzzles, pillows, a slide, dress up stuff, a kitchen with food. . . They also have a tactile activity, a craft, and story/music/bubble time.

Carter gets a name tag, which is the highlight of the week. He talks about his name tag all the time.

Today he discovered the baby dolls. He usually just brushes past the "Girly" stuff, but today he was very interested. In the video I asked him if his baby needed a drink because he was feeding the baby earlier and I loved how he made the sucking sound for his baby. It is kind of hard to hear in the video so I wanted to point it out. Also, you might not understand what he is searching for in the basket. He said "I need a puck", which translates to: pacifier or binky. We call it a plug. I can tell when he's really tired, he will ask for his plug. Before I shot the video, he was looking for the baby's plug and blanket to tell the baby to go to bed.

I didn't lead him to any of the play in this video, I have a very hands off approach. You learn who they are when you let them lead the way. If I was constantly pushing cars on him, I may never know his talent for kicking a soccer ball.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

On the subject of bed time. Carter seems obsessed with bed time. I find him putting his toys to "Nigh Night" all over the house. . . 

. . .and sometimes yelling at them. I have been known to tell him some of the things he tells his toys - like no grape juice right before bed, or in bed - but I have never yelled it at him about it. Especially not like this:

 

Quirky Kid.

Automobiles

So, at the end of his second year of life, Carter can identify 11 makes of car: Subaru, Saturn or "Scion", Chevrolet or "Chawy", Toyota or "Toyoya", Audi (not pictured in the video), Volkswagen, Ford, Mazda,  and he can tell the difference between Honda & Hyundai - a feat most adults struggle with.

I had printed this paper up because I was getting tired of a toddler trying to run away from me to get to the parking lot just to see the emblems. He LOVES to practise on it.

He loves to tell me who drives what. For example, he told me at breakfast this morning that Melissa at our Chiropractor drives a Kia. He can also tell you what the doctors in the office drive.

What a crazy kid.

Pumpkin Patch

I am getting so behind!!! We went to the Pumpkin Patch to Stoltz Family Farm again this year.

Carter was in a MUCH better mood:

Although we couldn't get him to sit here like last year. . .

We got a great shot of him just above these pumpkins. 

Couldn't get him to stand still at the spider this year.

But he loved the duckies just as much!

And this year he got to pump!!