23 Months with Carter

August 28th-September 27th, 2014

Wow! Last monthly update before our little man is two?!?  It just can't be!  And yet, somehow, it is and I can totally tell I have a two year old on my hands.  Carter has been testing us constantly and even thrown a few major toddler temper tantrums...you know, the kicking screaming lay in the floor kind?!  Thank goodness for all of the cute things he does in between because I'm not sure we would make it through this stage without them!  So this is just going to focus on the good...but know that there is TONS of not so fun stuff going on around here too.

Our little monkey!

At the beginning of the month, Brent was on a shutdown call and was working like a crazy madman.  We're talking working midnight shifts (which he had never done before this one) and they were usually around 16 hours long!  I truly don't know how he does it!  So Carter and I spent a lot of one on one time together.  I always feel like we need some variety when it is just us two (and we needed to keep quiet so daddy could sleep!), so we made a trip on my day off to a tractor dealership in town.  Carter was in heaven!  He would have seriously spent the entire day there just walking around them.  Unfortunately, it was really hot and I couldn't handle it for too long, so I was able to bribe him back in the car with a sucker!  Then we headed to my parents' pool for a last splash before it was closed up for winter.  Carter actually did better than he had all summer about getting in with me and playing IN the water instead of around it...of course, on the last swim!  

Thankfully, that crazy call only lasted one week and we got Brent back for Labor Day weekend.  We mainly just spent time working around the house, but we did get to walk in the parade on Monday with Brent's union.  Let me just say, that 14 block parade (plus a few for the line-up) and walk back to the car afterwards was not intended for a pregnant girl!  It was somewhat cool when we started and never got as hot as it normally is, but it was still rough.  We kept Carter occupied in the stroller with a constant flow of suckers...and anytime he didn't have one in his hand someone else would give him one!  It was so bad that by the end of the parade he didn't even want anymore suckers (or lunch for that matter...such great parents we are!!).  We ate some lunch by the river with Brent's family and ran some errands afterwards while Carter took a short nap in the car.  

With Aunt Kara after the parade

Then the next Friday, Carter & I helped out some friends and kept their two kids for a few hours. The little girl is a couple of months older than Carter and the little boy was 6 weeks old at the time.  I was definitely nervous taking on 2 more kids, but it went over really well!  The hardest part was keeping the two big kids from fighting while I was feeding/changing/burping the baby.  But I was amazed at how well Carter did with the baby! He usually cries when I hold any other kid/baby and says "MINE mommy", but he got over it in a couple of minutes and then just wanted to help me and kiss on the baby when he wasn't busy playing.  This gives me hope for him and baby sister!

Getting some love from Ryleigh!

Then the next weekend Brent and I took Carter to an antique tractor show.  We got to walk around to see all of the tractors on display and then they were all in a parade.  There were right at 100 tractors there, and tractors aren't exactly fast, so it took a long time.  I was trying to keep Carter interested instead of climbing the bleachers, so I pointed out that this man on a tractor looked like Santa to get his attention.  Well, now he is constantly saying "HoHo tractor" so I guess instead of associating Santa with a sleigh and reindeer at Christmastime he will be expecting him to show up on a tractor! :)

And then the last weekend of the month was a big one!  Carter and I had a fun little donut date at the park on my Friday off.  I think he would have spent the entire day there just swinging and climbing up and down the slide...I had to drag him away and promise we would come back!  Those are my favorite times with him...just taking him to do something fun.  He is such a little explorer and loves it!  

Saturday the three of us met up with some friends at the "Small World Farm" where the kids got to see, pet and feed all kinds of farm animals and then they played their little selves out on all of the neat play stuff.  Carter LOVES playing with Silas (who is our neighbor's grandson) so much...he just loves following him around and doing whatever he does.  They are about 6 months apart but they have such a big time together!  This was no exception, they had a blast!

Then Saturday night we had a wedding for Brent's sister's best friend growing up, Kayla.  Carter did pretty good through it and was super excited when Brent's sister Kara walked down the aisle.  He kept waving at her throughout the ceremony.  The only major blip was when he was playing during the reception and ended up tripping on the flash tent thing from the photographer and nearly knocking it over!  He went home with his PawPaw and Nene so Brent and I could go to BBQ on the River afterwards and get some painting done the next morning.

Other stuff this month...he has learned so many words and how to put them together!  It is insane how fast his vocabulary grows.  We are getting to that point where we really have to watch what we say or he will be repeating it!  He also has picked up on counting but he has no major interest in saying them all very often.  I know he knows most of them because I will hear him while playing or laying in his crib counting to ten.  He loves to say 6 8 9, always skipping 7 for some reason!  He doesn't have them down perfectly, but we are working on it!  And as far as colors, everything is blue if you ask him.  He will repeat the correct color when you tell him, but apparently blue is his favorite!

Despite my efforts to start potty training, Carter has very little interest in it.  Yet he is super into taking his diaper off.  He loves getting it off for me at bath time!  Brent laid Carter down for a nap one day without his pants on and when he woke up, it was to a crib drenched in pee!  That was super fun. ;)

Things Carter loves this month: "Singing" 'Burnin' it Down' & 'Hey Bartender' in the car, reading books, watching Mickey (the Hot Dog song gets his full attention NO MATTER WHAT! and he loves to call Toodles), swiffering/sweeping the floors (he says he is making it "pretty" and I sure don't object!), jamming with Daddy to FGL in the truck (and just riding in the truck in general!), the moon, saying "see ya!" instead of bye (apparently I say that too much!), sitting on the "tractors" (aka mowers) at Lowe's & Home Depot during our many trips for the remodel, birthday cake (he made Raylee Kate blow out her candles before supper was even over!), wearing Daddy's work boots and telling us "bye, work, truck", and still his passy no matter how much we try to insist baby sissy needs it and how he is a big boy.

Not loving: Being told "no", sitting on the potty, coming inside, watching anything on TV but Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, nap time, sitting still at the table at supper time, drop off time in the mornings at the babysitter (can we just get through this phase now please?!).

And just for my reference later, he is still in size 5 diapers, wearing mainly 24 month clothes (but can still fit in some 18 month), and size 6 shoes (still in size 5 Toms, but we bought Nikes too big to grow into in 7's).  He is around 27 pounds.