Subaru vs Saturn

I am a Saturn girl. My first car was a Saturn, and I have never owned anything else. It will be a sad day when my wagon dies and I can no longer replace her.

David is Subaru all the way. Because of that, Carter can identify the Subaru badge (the one on the front of the car with the stars).

Today I tried to introduce him to Saturn. We happen to have three of them in our driveway (because we love them so much). We walked around to identify all of their badges.

As we walked up the stairs to go back in the house he says to me "I want Subaru".

Great.

Splash Park

Today for playgroup we went to the splash park. For those of you who don't know, a splash park is a an area in a park with sprinklers that come out of the ground. Some parks are really elaborate with wet toys to climb on, and some just have water that shoots out of the ground randomly. 

This is the first time Carter has actually gotten into the water and played. We have been to 2 other splash parks, and he has been afraid of the water. Today, he really got into it.

This picture is really cute because he is sticking out his tongue:

We went to the playground, and saw a squirrel. Carter walked right up to him. This squirrel is about 5 feet away and staring right at Carter. I called him back at this point because the squirrel was just a little too brave:

I took this picture today. I COULD NOT GET HIM TO LOOK AT ME!! So, I settled for this shot. I don't edit many of my photos. When I do, it is really obvious - like making them Black & White or Sepia. This is the first time I have experimented with Photo Shop.

 Which one do you like best?

Full Sepia:

Eyes in color:

Eyes with other blue accents in color:

Or just the original?

On a side note, Carter pointed out that he has helicopters on his shirt, not airplanes today. They are not very well outlined , more like silhouettes of helicopters.

Recess Monkey

Today, Carter and I went to the library for story time. We heard "Clifford, The Big Red Dog" from a librarian with a thick southern accent. It was fun. Carter didn't care. Until the big scary dog came out. He was petrified. Almost all of the kids lined up to get their picture taken with Clifford. I love this stage where he will tell me what he wants and doesn't want. I asked him if he wanted to sit with Clifford. "No" (and adamant head shaking). So we watched all the kids sit on Clifford's lap, we grabbed the Clifford mask craft, and we headed off to the concert.

(Insert story about the disaster in the bathroom where my child crawled from my stall into the stall next to us and then twice out into the general bathroom area, yelling at the woman changing her baby that he had poo poos and she needed to change him, playing in the toilet, and the giant spider on the wall)

Recess Monkey is a group of three male teachers who tour the library system during the summer singing fun songs about having a vacuum on your back that flies you around like a rocket, and riding on a roller coaster. When we first got there, Carter remembered that we saw Caspar Babypants at that same spot and asked if we were going to hear "Googly Eyes". The kid has a memory like an elephant!

He was not so sure at first. Too much noise and too much going on around him. 

Then, he saw something in the air.

Hard to tell (Even though my camera is zoomed in as far as it would go!), but he correctly identified it as a helicopter!!

Then, he started getting into it. He was putting his hands in the air and down in his lap at appropriate times.

 Then he asked to get out of the stroller. He promptly took this chair over as his own. If you notice, his hand is in the cup holder - he thinks it is a basketball hoop. How cool, a chair with its own basketball hoop!!

Then he got up and danced: 

From 420 feet away, across the street and through the parking lot, we could faintly hear the music from the stands on our way out. They played songs from other artists while people packed up and left. He could hear the Caspar Babypants song "Nine Ninety Nine", and he correctly identified it:

If you listen very carefully in the beginning, you can hear the music.

Broccoli

Carter now has a love for broccoli. I sat down to eat some broccoli salad that I had made, and he had to have it:

The baby blue velour track suit

The poison control man said to keep Carter hydrated. So I did. In the space of 1 hour, he drank 3 sippie cups full of watered down Gatorade.

His bowels opened up with the Chest Rub for sure. I haven't had that much nastiness since before we started the Gluten-Free. Carter had a sandwich the other day without Gluten-Free bread and the SAND IS BACK! Wow, is it awful. It is almost worth keeping him on a Gluten-Free diet to keep the sand away. We went to a kids consignment sale. I changed a dirty diaper right before we left. By the time we got there, he had pooped all the way down his legs and up his back. Luckily, I had an extra outfit. Every prepared mother should right? I normally have 2 - not today. It only happens when you're not ready for it.

I threw every stitch of clothing he was wearing in a plastic bag and put a new outfit on. Within the hour, he peed right through the outfit he was wearing. I was out of clothes. But Lydia wasn't. She had a baby blue velour track suit in her bag (unfortunately, no onesie). It is a little small.

Looks so redneck right?

Put a bow in his hair fuzz, and you'd never know he was a little boy right? Except the ball obsession.

Unfortunately, on the car ride home (about 20 minutes) he peed through the track suit. I pulled him out of the car seat wet. He noticed and said "Wet Wet" all the way to the changing table. He got a new outfit and wore that for the remaining hours of the day.

What my child does while I blog

I made my last blog post, and realized that my child was too quiet. I went out to find this:

I had a brand new tub of generic Vicks Vapo-Rub that I had taken from him earlier and put out of his reach. Or so I thought. He spread it all over the couch, the floor, himself, and the table. I didn't know he was eating it until I started the video. Grrrrr. I ask him what it is, he says "Honey". Just goes to show, he has never actually had honey. Honey can't be THAT gross. The camera just cannot capture the grossness of the oil all over his face and hands!! And that noise you hear while he is putting it in his mouth is me gagging.

Does anyone know if this is Gluten-Free?

Just kidding. The poison control guy said that because I had the generic Vapo-Rub, Carter won't go into seizures. Yay for saving money and my child's life at the same time!!

Stroller!!

Carter loves pushing things, especially his umbrella stroller. Sometimes he just wants to go for a walk in it. I have been looking out for one that is not pink and girly. THEY ARE HARD TO FIND! I got this one for free!! Yay free!!

More importantly, Carter loves it. I love how he carries it around the house. He will pick it up and run with it. I am trying to capture it on camera, but it is hard.

This is how he looks at me when I tell him I want him to hold still so I can take a picture of him:

He actually held that face for a while so I could get it on camera. It's the "Really mom?" look.

Tickle Tickle

Today Carter and Lydia were playing "Read, Set, Go". A little game that Carter likes to play. He tries to goat EVERYBODY into playing, even the dogs. It is a lot like "Chase", except you are playing with everyone else instead of against everyone else. I like it. I like that he tries to include everyone. "Chase" can get kind of mean. I always see kids crying because everyone is running away from them and they don't know why.

ANYWAYS. He was playing this with Lydia. They start with their backs to the wall/door/fridge/air/whatever and Carter says "SetGo" and they run. Lydia ran into the door, and Carter ran into her. She fell down, and Carter probably stepped on her. He didn't notice and kept on running. She laid there and cried. I called Carter over to explain what happened and ask him to say he was sorry. Lydia's mom was holding her to calm her down. Carter came over and did something I had never seen him do before.

"Tickle Tickle"

He reached out for her and pretended to tickle her while saying "tickle tickle"!

Where do they get these things?

She pulled herself in and yelled at him. She did not want to be tickled. But, she forgot about crying. That was the end of that. They ran off and played again.

What is a post without pictures, right?

Chew Your Food! Another pictureless post.

I knew that Carter wasn't a very good chewer. He likes his food mushy so he can swallow it. I don't know what to do to encourage this necessary life skill. He is almost 2, and needs to eat solid foods!

Last night while he was brushing his teeth I smelled it. Then I pulled up his shirt and I saw it soak up the onesie. It went all up his back. Upon David's suggestion, we gave him a bath for the first time in months. He had a shower this morning, so we were hoping that we didn't have to wash his hair and be to thorough. While soaping him up in the bath I saw him start to grunt. I wasn't quick enough, and couldn't get him on the toilet. He exploded in the bathtub. It was gross.

I won't describe his poop except to say there were WHOLE SHELL NOODLES. The kind I use in his Macaroni & "Cheese". ENTIRE NOODLES. They weren't chewed or digested in any way. They went in one side and came out the other side unchanged.

What the heck am I supposed to do about that!!! No wonder food is going right through him, his body can't do anything with it.

Gluten is not our issue. We need to watch YouTube videos on chewing.  

Coloring

Carter is not really into coloring, it is a great struggle to keep the crayons out of his mouth. However, today he asked me to color. He didn't see a coloring book, or crayons. He just wanted to color. He couldn't put his "FooFoo" down, and he didn't color long before the crayon ended up in his mouth. I took some pages from nursery that he never actually colored, and we reused them.

Then, he took his page and spun circles with it.

Even Lydia enjoyed coloring. She is a little more into it than Carter is.