Merry Christmas Aftermath

Well folks, there hasn't been a white Christmas here in Charlotte since 1947. And it looked like the streak would remain unbroken despite what the forecasters said. But at 11:30pm on Christmas, we looked outside and the ground was sprinkled with the faintest speckle of snow. So, I'll leave it to the record makers to figure out if that resets the official counter. All I know is that unless I wake up on Christmas morning to a blanket of pristine white snow (well, pristine except for the reindeer prints on the roof), it doesn't count in my book.

But the day after Christmas we woke up to around 2 inches outside. Cierra's family was visiting and her Dad and I fashioned a makeshift sled from an old plastic tub and some rope. Problem was, I attached the rope at the top of this tall tub, not the bottom, so when it caught on a stick under the snow, the whole contraption flipped over and gave Carter a face full of snow. Not appreciated in the least!

But he calmed down and walked around the garden in this crunchy white stuff that he insisted on calling "bubbles". Well, it does kind of look like when he takes his bath.


The Baers brought some kryptonite in the form of 10 different jigsaw puzzles in one box. I cannot resist a puzzle. Here Carter attempts to help me puzzle it out.... but he's actually trying to figure out if he can eat these things.

Carter got the coolest wagon for Christmas, complete with umbrella. And good thing too, because we went for this walk in a light rain.

Another awesome present found by mommy... a ball pit! This place is starting to resemble Chuck E. Cheese's house.

Get a load of this tree! More specifically, the pile of presents underneath it. Any more gifts next year and we'll have to reinforce the floor.

Well, we had a wonderful Christmas and we hope you did too. Tomorrow we are off to visit with my family for a few days in beautiful VA.

Bundle up and Play!

What's that, Dad? Too cold to go to the playground? I don't understand what that means. Now will you help me get this jacket on?

It's cold here this week... and it has sleeted on us twice... but that doesn't mean that Carter is inside 100% of the time. Pretty much anytime the rain stops and the sun comes out, the son comes out as well.

Training for a possible political career, Carter learns to sit on a fence.

Man! I can see my breath on this plastic bubble!

Carter is such a musical baby. It's incredible. I think it may be genes from my Mom's side of the family where everyone can play multiple instruments. I didn't think I got any of those musical genes, but perhaps I'm just a carrier.

No, Carter's not playing anything good yet, but he loves to strum the guitar's strings, and he demands music constantly. I've had to scold him a couple of times because our built-in radio in the kitchen sits near the oven, and he's so enthusiastic about asking for me to turn it on, I'm afraid he'll burn himself.

Carter's preparing for the arrival of his little sister by learning to push the stroller around.

Less than three months to go before I have a kid for each arm. That should be fun... and good for building muscle mass. Cierra's feeling a lot better than she once was, a whole lot less running for the bathroom going on around here, so that's good.

It just really doesn't seem like it's coming up so fast. Once the holidays are over, I'm sure it will get real very quickly. We're shifting stuff out of my old office which will be the new guest room. Carter will move to our old guest room and the new baby will get the existing nursery. We've made a lot of progress but there's plenty more to be done.

Carter playing in the dormant garden. It looks so empty in the winter months, save for the happy little garlic plants poking their way up through the mulch. I planted about a thousand of them this year, so there's a lot more out there growing then there were last winter.

I'd all but decided to not grow much more than onions and garlic this summer, but darn, Cierra got me started reading Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and I think I'll be going hogwild with the seed catalog again. Agggh. It's disgusting how much I can't help myself.

What's really amazing is how restorative the months of November and December are for gardeners. At least in my case, by October, I don't even want to look out there. What was edible has long since been enjoyed, the bugs and the weeds are having a field day and the remains of my long days of work all year are old, half dead geezer plants begging to be carted off to the compost heap. This fall it was so hot here most of my seedlings for the autumn season just fried right in the ground. But after a month and a half of rest, here I am thinking, oooh I should really grow that. It won't be much work. Yeah, right.

Don't worry, Daddy. I'll help you out! Got any plants that need stomping?

Cierra's happy to be off work today and starting an 8 day vacation. Carter will be happy to have so much uninterrupted time with Ma-ma!

Back with more next week!

Getting colder and getting older.

Big grins! He's standing on the scale in that picture so maybe he's happy because he's growing. We're keeping busy around here, trying to keep the debris that fall provides from burying what's left of the yard. The weather's getting colder, too, so that means it's harder to get in our outside time.

Daddy, let me help you put your camera back together. When you take this piece off, the top part keeps flashing light in my eyes. I need my eyes for seeing and stuff.

Yeah, on cold days Carter can get a little antsy from cabin fever. So whenever the sun comes out, out we go to play in the yard.

Time to get some digging done! Dad, you said you needed some leaves moved?

He's even cuter when you turn him upside down.

Here he looks pretty serious!

This picture is actually from a while ago. We watched Carter's friend Rowan while her parents went to the new Harry Potter movie and I got to read with 2 babies in my lap. Carter usually massages my hand while I read to him, but he caught hold of Rowan's for a little bit and was doing the same thing. So cute!

The before and after haircut shots at different playgrounds...

Whenever weather permits, we take a walk to our local playground, but sometimes we get further afield. These pictures are from when we went to Waxhaw to meet Mommy for lunch. They have an awesome playground there with 7 or 8 different slides! He LOVED it :-)

In other news, Carter is starting to string words together. When I'm feeding him it's not uncommon to hear "Mo Mo Ches Ples" Which is obviously translating to "More More Cheese Please." A sentiment we can all get behind!

Okay, it's midnight so I'd better get to bed or he'll be running laps around me tomorrow. See you next week!