Adventures in the life of Carter

Daddy, it has been nice living with you and Mommy, but I'm going to move into this playground now. Can you have all my stuff boxed up and sent here? I'm not so much interested in the stuff as I will be in the boxes.

Carter quickly learned how to walk across this swing bridge without falling the other day... hey, maybe this is when he forgot how to walk on a flat surface! He fell forward twice today, the first time he just ate it, bounced his face off the asphalt and came up crying with little bits of road stuck to his cheek. I winced, bounding forward to scoop him up and gritting my teeth against the blood I was sure would be coming from his mouth. But no, only a few tears lost and when I asked him if he wanted to go back inside he looked at me as if I was stupid. "Walk, Daddy"

We're now members at Charlotte's Discovery Place. Most of the exhibits there are for bigger kids but Carter fell in love with this big board of plastic insertable rods that would light up as you inserted them in the holes. It really seemed like magic. If I worked at Discovery Place after hours I would get a banana clip and totally pretend to be Geordi LaForge trying to get the Dilithium crystals realigned to prevent a cascade warp reaction. I mean, I would do that if I was a total nerd or something.

Another trip to a playground. (This is a different one, we swear!) Looks like these days we only remember to pull out the camera when we're out and about tending to Carter's slide obsession. Here, he rides a big metal toucan. Is this the stork that's bringing my baby sister?

I'll take one of everything! Just put it all in a bucket.

Carter likes to eat. While feeding him I get to listen to yelled commands like "Mo' MEET" Mo-Mo-Mo KRAKAS. Mo BOCOLI!

When he was feeling sick a few weeks back we gave him orange juice. Whoa. Everything else went out the window. Carter, would you like some food? "Jus!" No, how about some food. "JOOOS! JOOOOOOOOOOS!" Carter you can't just have juice. "YAYAYA JOOOOOOOOOOOS!" Hoo boy. We've gotten him to forget about it for now but he may have to go to some meetings later in life.

We've been talking to Carter about his new baby sister who will be here in just a few weeks. He seems to know that there will soon be a new baby arriving... but what he doesn't know yet is how much his life will change because of it. Stay tuned to this space and we'll let you know how it goes!

Where does the time go?

I guess we've just been having too much fun around here... it's been 3 weeks since I posted anything new about Carter! It's been sunny but cold here in Charlotte, and Carter doesn't see anything wrong with bundling up to take a trip down to our neighborhood playground. I always know when it's outside time, because he marches out into the hall and starts rummaging through our bin of cold-weather items. "Coat" he declares as he hands me his jacket. A minute later he's back. "Hat" he demands, shoving a tassle in my face. He knows to turn around and put his arms into the sleeves when I hold up the coat. "Arm" he confides. Although, he did point to his leg on the changing table yesterday and said loudly, "Arm."

"No, Carter, that is your leg. Arms have hands on the end. Legs have feet. That looks like a foot to me!"


He's having a ball on the swing, which can mean only one person is pushing him... Mommy! Whenever Daddy loads him in the swing, it's "Down, Down, Down" right away.

Look at the mess I made! Aren't you proud of me? Long days of mostly inside time lead to some crazy messes around here. If it's a cooking day, sometimes it really looks out of control. I'm always amazed at how fast I can pick it all up. Since it's the last thing I have to do before I can relax, I probably look like the Tazmainian Devil whirling through the house, plastic blocks and stuffed animals orbiting around my head on the way to their bins.

On most nights before Carter heads to bed, he helps me put away the toys in his play area. Sometimes he forgets and starts to play with them again, but as long as I can keep him focused on the goal, (he loves his bath) then he really does a great job.

Here we are reading "Mommy, Carry me Please." Probably not the best book to have around, especially now that Cierra's trying not to carry him so much. Cierra's nearly 8 months pregnant now, and getting close to the "let's hurry up and get this over with" stage. But everything is looking good and aside from a cold Carter gave everyone last week, we're all healthy and happy.

Daddy, it's outside time again! Ok, gotta go!

The Blizzard of 2011

Hey everyone! My mom sent us a few more good pictures from the trip we took up to Virginia recently, so I thought we could lead off with those this week.

Aww, Grandpa. Don't you know tricks are for kids? This is my Dad's automatic response every time someone breaks out a camera.

Weeeelll, I know it's been a while and no, I really don't have much of an excuse. We haven't been doing much since we last posted. Charlotte has been going through a cold snap this past week, and we got some pretty significant (for us) snowfall a week ago that kept us from going anywhere for a few days. Carter got a little tired of spending so much time inside and got a bit fussy on us. Could be the new eyeteeth he's got coming in too.

As of yesterday our local neighborhood's playground still has a lot of ice and snow on it, so we've been walking right by in our wagon. Carter yells at us every time. "What's the matter, fools? Can't you see that playground? The one we go to EVERY DAY?" We explain the problem but he's not buying it.

The second morning the trees were still covered in ice. The moments of beauty in a snowstorm... before you have to shovel the driveway and destroy it all.

When can I get out of here?

Carter's started saying a lot more. He had been saying "moan" for a long while and we couldn't figure out what the heck he meant. Turns out it was "brown", which appears to be his new favorite color. Perhaps that's because it's also the color of "meat", which he crows enthusiastically every time I fix a steak.

Carter also went number 2 on the potty for the first time this past week! Now we know that one time does not a trend make, but the cool part was that he communicated well about it. We asked him if he needed to go, he made the potty sign, we took him in and told him what to do, and he sat on his potty, made the sign repeatedly, and got straight down to business.

We went out in the storm while it was still snowing and got some good play time in. I showed Carter the number-one thing to do with snow.... snowballs. He didn't want to throw them, but kept cheering for me to make and throw more at everything around.

Back at the playground! Sliding away until next week....

Happy New Year!

We're back from Virginia and visiting my parents, and I am beyond glad to be back in my own bed. I didn't grow up being quite so wimpy, but now I've got my lil' contoured pillow... and other people's pillows just aren't cutting it anymore. Carter had a great time up in Gladstone, and yelled at us heartily when we told him it was time to say goodbye after 3 great days.

There was still a little snow unmelted here and there, which encouraged Uncle Freeman to make snowballs. Freeman and Carter got along very well, because Freeman wasn't afraid to get down on Carter's level and play with him. That, and Freeman plays guitar and sings. If you can make music, Carter's going to like you. All I have to do if I want Carter to come running is break into song. He'll be right underfoot, clapping his hands together for more.

I told Carter this clothesline was a zipline. We had great fun "sliding" back and forth between trees.

...We had to tag the tree on each end before turning around and zipping off in the other direction.

While Carter took a nap, we left Grandma in charge and took a walk down by the James River, which my childhood home overlooks. No, (newly minted) Aunt Kate and Uncle Sawyer didn't throw Freeman in the river right afterwards, because if they did, we'd have pictures of a sopping wet and enraged Uncle Freeman chasing everyone around a field.

Oh, and we're all wearing those colors because it was the last day of hunting season and every other local was out with a six-pack and a rifle trying to bag one last deer for the year.

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!