Pink...

Cameron's room is painted and pink! :) My parents helped paint the room on Friday night/all day Saturday.

Here is a before picture. Not sure why I didn't take a picture of the guest room when the bed and other furniture were still in there. This is our extra futon mattress that we are currently selling on Craigslist. Let me know if you are in need! :P






This is the now...the crib is currently the hold all for randomness. The dresser is tipped over because it was injured today during the last 20 minutes of painting. My handy dad is all over the repairs! :P Prior to the injury, my mom had just commented about the length of time we had been using that dresser...for the last 9 years! :) (and 20 minutes later the leg breaks!) The other furniture will be moved in tomorrow...I still haven't figure out how I want the room arranged. Cameron's room is smaller than Carter's so it looks like it will be a tight fit to move all his old furniture to this room.



And this is a picture of Cameron's bedding. We choose a light pink to paint the room since there's lots of pink in the bedding!!! :)

I'm in love with Spring! :)

This week has really flown by! We've enjoyed a picnic and playtime at the park as well as warm playtime outside. Since Friday when Andrew came over and rode Carter's motorcycle (that he got for Christmas and hasn't wanted to ride), Carter insists on riding that motorcycle daily. Glad Andrew helped spark his interest. Carter enjoys passing the ball to me in the cul-de-sac, then I shoot and he chases the rebound. We do this over and over again. A couple times he's says "Carter's turn" and expects me to pick him up so he can shoot. The only bad part about playing outside is when its time to come in. Today, we came in at lunchtime and he was not happy. I asked him what he wanted for lunch, he took out the ketchup and said chicken. Then he was in a better mood. Afterwards, he played in the bathtub for a while! Another one of his favorite things!

Nap update...the past two days Carter has fallen asleep on his own in his head. Though I have had to read books and then he requests that I lay down. I lay down for a few minutes and ask if he wants some milk and give him a little in his cup and leave. He stays put and goes to sleep.

Carter is such a big helper. Last night, he stacked all the clean cups from the dishwasher for Aaron to put him. His job is to load the silverware! :)

We are planning to paint Cameron's room this weekend! :) Painting the baby's room makes things seem more real! 80 more days?!?!



Carter playing outside after Church on Sunday


Wearing a princess pull-up (Huggies sent a sample with a boy and a girl pull up!) He pooped in this one so he didn't wear it long! :P

Playtime!

It's nap time and I'm trying to procrastinate...
so here I am! :)

Last night, Carter had a play date with Andrew (who is 6 months older)and his mommmy while Aaron and Andrew's daddy went to a men's event at church. The weather is beautiful here so we enjoyed playing outside after dinner till almost 8pm! The boys insisted on playing in the cul-de-sac where Carter scrapped his knees and forehead. Boys will be boys. He got up after falling without crying and just asked me to kiss his knees. :) He's tough.





This morning, all three of us ventured off to our indoor pool where Aaron gives swim lessons while its cold outside. He's not teaching this session but is scheduled to sub next week. One of the class is for babies 6 months-2 or 3. Since he's never taught the class before, the teacher invited us to come participate. Turned out someone else needed a sub this morning too, so Carter and I participated in the class and then played while Aaron taught some other lessons. (Therefore we got no pictures on this trip) Carter's class was just about getting the kids used to the water. Carter is a fish and loves the water so he's a bit advanced for the class.

Sweet Dreams

I find myself peeking in on Carter to see him sleep. Here's some pictures:






These are pictures of Aaron trying to get Carter to sleep...instead Carter wanted to play!

Big Boy Bed Update

Well, naps have continued to be a struggle but I think we have mastered bedtime. Carter just wishes we would read more than 2-3 books before bed, but besides that I think he's doing well. Home school is still going on during nap time which makes getting him to bed harder since Kelly and I usually work on the subjects where she needs assistance during this quiet time. On
On Tuesday, I had a Dr's appt at 3 (which is nap time but we try to schedule them so Aaron can come too!). Aaron came home a little early so we could ride together and found Carter wasn't asleep so he climbed in bed with him. I walked in to find them sleeping like this.


Everything went well, just waiting for results of my glucose test. I think it would kill me if I found out I have gestational diabetes since I've had really sweet cravings this pregnancy. We are now going every 2 weeks...CRAZY how quickly this pregnancy has flown byyyyyyyyyyy! I've gain 18 lbs so far in 27 weeks--not bad....hoping to keep it down around 25 total (which would definitely beat my total last time of 44lbs with Carter)! Cameron is much more active than Carter. I never really felt Carter move very much so really any movement is a change!
We finally decided on Cameron's bedding. We chose a set from Pottery Barn and the goal was pink!! Now we can pick the paint color (pink!) and start getting her room ready. Having a room ready just makes it all seem more real. :)

Night #4--Sunday Night

After books and prayer, we put Carter to bed at 9pm. Carter stayed in bed...but cried for mommy for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, I went to check on him. He was sitting at the end of the bed, but never got out. I picked him up and held him for 30 seconds. I saw in the mirror that his eyes were closing so I laid him down. I rubbed his hair and his eyes closed. When I got to the door, the floor creaked and he started crying. I stood at the door for 2 minutes and then walked back in and rubbed his hair and he was out. Even though it took him 30 minutes to go to sleep, he never got out of bed. I would say that's an accomplishment! :)

Now, I'm looking forward to nap time tomorrow! :P

Night #3--Saturday Night

Aaron just left for rap practice...He is rapping a remix of the Send me song below with some youth group kids. I was cleaning my closet and felt like procrastinating. Since I've given up Facebook for lent, I figured I'd come update the blog. :P

Saturday's nap took place at my parents house because Carter was there while I went to the quiz meet (and Aaron was already there).

Saturday night, Aaron and I tackled bedtime together. We were at my parents house watching the state game till around 7, had dinner at home and then called Aaron's parents so Carter didn't head to bed till 9pm. This night's adventure started with reading 3 books and praying. Carter wanted Mr. Wuf to sleep with him but eventually asked Aaron to put him back on the shelf. In total, we only put him back in bed 5 times (I think). Aaron suggested that we make him climb back in bed...and that seemed to work well. He eventually decided to stay in bed though it took him a good 30 minutes to fall asleep. I heard him singing some of his favorites: Send Me I go, and a Casting Crowns song Until the whole world hears (He just sings choirs and the O's). I love that guy! Since we were springing forward last night, Carter woke up at 7:10 (which is really 6:10 in old time) so Aaron put him in bed with us and he went right to sleep and slept till 8:30. We had decided the night before to base our service attendance around when Carter woke up. So we went to 2nd service today.

Attending 2nd service had us finishing lunch today around 1:30 so we headed Carter onto a nap around 1:45. Aaron suggested that we close his door for nap time and just leave him (though at night we leave it open). Well it's been 45 minutes and he's still awake. He cried at first and then I heard books flying to the floor. Eventually he calmed down and played with puzzles. I was in the linen closet and I saw Carter sticking his fingers under the door. Then he started throwing something against the wall so Aaron went in and made him get back in bed. Since I've been typing I've heard him say:Dada school, Chanting "Wolf" "Pack", Ei Ei O, Dada hold you,I wanna pee-pee potty. I really wish I had a video monitor just to see what's going on. It sounds like he's playing with legos right now...I'll update later hoping that he does decide to take a nap! :)

I'm back...Around 3pm, I heard a loud bang and Carter started crying like he was hurt. He flipped over his wood chair but appeared to be fine. I asked him if he wanted to read a book in bed...he threw TEN books in bed for us to read. By the time we got through the books, Aaron came home and we were never successful getting Carter to sleep. So no nap took place today. :(

Night #2...

This is more like what I expected. I'll start by saying Carter gets his flexibility from his daddy and his stubbornness/stall tactics from his mommy. These 2 clashed tonight and flexibility lost. He hasn't been so flexible adjusting to the big boy bed. Here's how tonight looked.

Aaron was away tonight on a youth group trip so Carter got a bath and got ready for bed. At 8:30, we climbed into bed with 3 books. We reach each one 1 time except we read I love you through and through twice. Carter requested to read another but I told him only 3 books and stuck to it. So at 8:45, we prayed and I crawled out of bed. Carter was not happy. Below is how the night went...

Attempt 1---I couldn't even get out of the room before he was standing up crying and walking towards the end of the bed. Frightened he was gonna walk off, I grabbed him and laid him back down.

Attempt 2---Same as first but I just stood at the door as he walked to me crying. I went and sat on the cube/chair that I sat on last night and held him in my lap for a minute. He requested a blanket so I grabbed one of the ones he used to sleep with in his crib. Then tried to lay him down, but he fought that and crawled out.

Attempt 3-8---All looked similar...Carter cried and climbed out, poked his head out from the door and said hey. Every time he walked to the door holding that blanket (and he's never been attached to anything before) I walked him back to bed and we did it all over again.

Attempt 9---This was the first time he put his head on my shoulder when I picked him up. He was getting tired of fighting me.

Attempt 10—--I tried to pretend like I didn't see him when he poked his head out. He didn't leave his room, just said a friendly hey.

Attempt 11—--Requested More milk, None given. Just laid him back down.

Attempt 12—--I stood in his room about 30 secs rubbing his back...Left without him crying.As he hears me coming to his room, he hides along the wall but never tries to run away.

Attempt 13---I asked him to get back in bed..he stood at the door holding the blanket. Said "Mommy hold you."

Attempt 14-I patted him on the back and rubbed his hair for 15 seconds and left quiet, he asked me to sit but I left.

Attempt 15—Asked me to sit, I did, he asked to be covered up, I rubbed his hair, he requested milk, No milk given

Attempt 16—I heard him talking in his room.

Attempt 17—Hands me his blanket to put on him

It's 9:30
Attempt 18—Requests milk, I told him I would bring it to him if he was in his bed. He was in his bed when I returned with milk, I heard him talking. I didn't see him for 3 minutes...scared to go peek. He then started singing "send me I go."

Well, its been 30 minutes...I'm gonna assume he's asleep! :)

Only took 45 minutes! :) And I was all alone and very patient!

Nap #1

Today Aaron took off work so we ran some errands and went to the SPCA. Carter enjoyed barking at all the doggies. (And no we're not dog shopping, just going to look with Carter) On the way home Carter fell asleep in the car so Aaron put him in the bed and he stayed asleep. So we haven't gotten the chance to fight with Carter to go to sleep. But I'm sure our time is coming. I think I'm gonna go take a nap now myself! :)

Send Me, I Go

Here's a few songs Carter likes to sing by our favorite Christian rapper 116 Clique: Send Me, I'll Go



I'm a Saint

Night #1---7:45am

I woke up this morning around 7:30 and wondered what Carter was doing. He was quiet so I grabbed the camera and opened his door to see how he was sleeping.

He slept till 7:45am. I heard him trying to open his door (but couldn't) and then he called for me. Night 1 was successful...even though getting him to sleep didn't go as I envisioned.

Mess

Putting clothes on the doggies


Daddy put some dry ice in the tub that was left over from school


Putting on random clothing items


Enjoying a warm day in March at the park


Playing in his tent


Playing on the potty


Some of Carter's favorite things include:

TV Shows: Super Why, Clifford, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, Family Feud :)
He watches about 3-5 minutes at a time. He requests to watch these shows on the computer but of course wants to watch 1 minute and then go onto the next for a minute.

Toys: Basketball Goal! I think he pretends he's shooting around at the RBC Center because he chats "WOLF" "PACK" while shooting. He is learning how to dribble. Right now his dribble is with 2 hands and the ball is barely off the ground. He's recently tried with 1 hand and he can bounce with 1 hand 1 time.
Puzzles!! & Reading!!
His favorite books are: I love you through and through and a Nursery Rhyme book.
Its cute that he's already memorizing the pages.

Song: The wheels on the bus. We've added a few more verses: Carter's says Milk, Milk, Snack, Kelly's say ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ (she likes to sleep), Dada's say school, school, school, Nana's say Who loves you, Papa's say 'this random noise my dad makes'

Putting on other people's shoes

Coloring and Writing--He's learned to say circle while drawing one and he's still a lefty

His vocabulary is great! He is making sentences...small ones, but they're sentences! :)

Words/Phrases: "Mommy hold you" (aka Mommy hold me)
Man trash (aka Trash Man), He says slide and fries when we ride by McDonald's.
"Girl shoot" Our new neighbors (boo) put a goal in the cul-de-sac so Carter watches the kids play from his window. He likes to encourage the girls to shoot! :)
Touch Horsey Our fence backs up to a farm so recently Carter and I went to touch the horsey but he was scared. When we got in the house, he kept requesting to touch horsey
"Call _____"
Mess & Clean Up At the gym nursery, he is known by the girls for being a big helper cleaning up. :) One EARLY morning, Carter and I were in bed watching Mickey Mouse and he spilled his dry cereal bowl. He went into the kitchen and brought me the broom. :)

Other stuff:
He had his 3rd haircut last Friday, March 5th. One of our friends, Laura, did it as our normal lady is retired and hanging out in Hawaii.

He likes to take clothes out of his drawers and closet. Sometimes he'll make a nice neat stack on the floor, sometimes on the back of the chair, and sometimes its just a big mess. When he had his old dresser, he would pull all his PJ's out of the bottom drawer and just throw them on the floor. After moving the dresser to Cameron's room, he went into her room and put a pair of his dirty pj's in his old pj drawer.

On this day, I was resting on the couch while Carter would walk into the living room and show me random items on hangers. He would say "cool or "cute". This was the fun mess I found.

2nd big thing...a BIG BOY BED! :)

We've been looking at bed for about 6 weeks,knowing that Carter was going to have to give up his furniture to his sister soon. :) During our 2nd trip to Rooms to Go Kids, we learned that they were having a floor sample sale and we were there for the last day of it. I was really disappointed to be shopping on the last day but we were able to score the dresser that I wanted! So after looking at a couple different places and talking with Aaron, we decided on a bed and it was just delivered today! The delivery was scheduled between 2-6pm. I kept wondering if they would come during naptime...so we skipped naptime today. Typically, I lay Carter down around 1pm and he cries for 2-5 minutes and then falls asleep. Well this week, I noticed that he was trying to climb out before I left the room. So this bed could not have come soon enough. Our lovely delivery guys arrived at 6:40pm...but it gave us time for uninterrupted dinner and time for my mom and Aaron to take apart the crib and move it to Cameron's room. :) We then spent the next 2 hours watching Carter play on his bed, moving around furniture, making Carter's bed, cleaning up his room, and putting together the bed rails. My mom left around 9pm. Aaron and I then prayed with Carter but he refused to lay down. He was really upset after my mom left...and then with the combo of no nap...I was dreading how night #1 was going to go. Aaron laid on the floor beside the bed and Carter laid on top of him and fell asleep. Aaron tried to lay him in the bed, but he woke up. I held him for about 5 minutes since Aaron had to get back to tutoring Chemistry online. So total time, he was in his bed within 20 minutes...even though he didn't fall asleep on his own. Aaron is taking tomorrow off,I guess that mean's he's willing to help when Carter wake up really early or refuses to take a nap tomorrow. I put the door handle lock on the inside of his door so when he gets up, he can't open the door. I just have a fear of Carter wandering...this way, I'll know when he's up and can hear what he's doing.



Trying the new bed out!


Snugglin with the bed rails






The room is still a work in progress :)

Big things are happening in March

First...
Last Monday, I spent all day tackling potty training. Prior to Monday, Carter was comfortable on the potty, he would let us know when he went "shu" and would ask to "pee-pee potty" during every diaper change. So Monday, I asked him every 15 minutes and he willing would go and at least sit on the potty. I created a potty chart and he got Thomas the train stickers for peeing and Dora/Diego stickers for trying. He also got 1 M&M for trying and 2 for peeing. During the 2nd potty trip of the first day, not even thinking, I just pulled down his pull up...and out flew a few balls. It just made me laugh since the day before I was talking with some friends and they were sharing the tip to check before you pull. :) That time, I said "Oh golly" and that has become a new phrase used by Carter after a bowel movement. Day #2, Carter wasn't his normal self and wouldn't go to the potty when I asked. I didn't pressure. By the end of the week, Carter was now asking and asking frequently to go to the potty. So that day of asking every 15 minutes made him more conscience of his need to use the bathroom. This week he even pooped on the potty! So our sticker chart is filling up quickly. I'll have to post a picture. I'm proud of Carter. If I could just get him over the fear of large toilets in public places. I'm scared he's gonna pee on me or himself and he's scared he's gonna fall in! :P

Febuary 2010

We have busy weeks...In January & February, Aaron taught swim lessons at our pool on Tuesday and Thursday nights. On Mondays, he teaches Chemistry to 3 sisters from our youth group and then Wednesdays are church. Wouldn't you know, he signed up to help with Upward Basketball at church and his team practices on Friday nights. So yes, it's always something to do.
The first Saturday of the month, Aaron has Saturday school to make up a snow day. It wasn't that big a deal since he has already been off 2 full days that week.
February 12-13, our church hosted a youth talent competition so we were busy with that! We even had snow that weekend. Carter was with Nana & Papa for the weekend. We enjoyed a dinner out together by ourselves for Valentine's Day on Saturday night and then went out on Valentine's Day with Carter! :) We all enjoyed several hours of nap time and just hanging around the house.
We went to State games in February. One was a Wednesday night after church and another on a Saturday. We took Carter to the Saturday game and he LOVED it. He screamed, pointed, cheering, and put up his wolves. He was the loudest person in our section! And we won! :) We have some new friends at church that gave us tickets to a few games and we've enjoyed it!

Merry Christmas in January!

For Christmas, Aaron's parents got us tickets to the State/Carolina game! So we got to use our present 1 month later. Though the outcome wasn't what we wanted, it was still fun to be in the atmosphere of the RBC Center for that big game! :)

End of January

2010 has proved to be a busy year so far. Even though I still owe some stories and pictures from 2009, I'll take advantage of this "down" time to update a little. Not sure if I've mentioned before, but I help homeschool a Senior girl in our youth group. Her name is Kelly. Kelly is here M-Thursday so on the morning of my "free" day, I'm going to update!
Since the ultrasound, my mom and I have been on a search for great deals on pink! On Jan. 21st, I tackled both the girls and boys sections of the Kids Exchange consignment sale in Raleigh. Carter's sizes generally do not offer the best stuff, but I did find some stuff to play in. After looking and his stuff for about 2 hours, I headed to the girls section and was overwhelmed. There's probably 10 girls clothing items for every boy item. I couldn't even slide the clothes on the rack to look at them. After looking for about an hour, my arms were starting to hurt so I headed to look at a couple other sections. After 5 hours, I was in and out with some decent deals. My mom and I have done some different shopping to find some fall/winter deals and we're hoping we're getting the right sizes.
At the end of January, we had another snow. Luckily for Aaron, the snow started over the weekend so there were less days to make up for school. We enjoyed 4 straight days of hanging out at home!! It was nice!



We went outside while it was still sleeting on the first day...not fun! And we didn't last long!





Carter had fun trying to climb into my boots

At the end of Jan, Carter starting to act strange (not sleeping and eating well) and was running a fever. After 3 days of fever, we took him to the dr and he had his first ear infection. That day was our first sick visit to the doctor for Carter. We've been so blessed to have such a healthy little boy! So the antibiotics knocked it out quickly and he was eating and sleeping normal within 48 hours.