Ashes and Twinkle

Carter's two favorite songs.

Poop

This morning I was sitting on the couch while Carter played. He came up to me, said hi, and then proceeded to obviously poop. Then he said, "Poopoo" and then "diaper."

Continuous Loop

There are three songs in rotation in our house: Pat-a-Cake, Ring Around the Rosy, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. We sing others but these are the ones Carter likes to join in on.

For Pat-a-Cake, he does the clapping part, and then he loves to roll his hands while saying "yule" which is "roll" roughly translated. And to mark it with a "C" he points to his belly.

Ring Around the Rosy starts off normal. He sort of runs around in a version of a circle and then after the first two lines says, "Ash ash" and then likes to yell the "DOWN" part. Sometimes he'll fall, sometimes he won't. I have this on video, but haven't gotten around to uploading it yet.

To me, Twinkle Twinkle is the most impressive. He makes a "k" sound repeatedly with his hands in the air opening and closing for the "twinkle twinkle little star" parts (his sitter does up high jazz hands and that's his interpretation of it). And then he'll say the first part of each line. For instance, when it's time for "Up above the world so high" he'll say "up-ah" and for "How I wonder what you are" he says "how."

And I swear the other day he said "ABC" when I asked him if he wanted to sing the ABC song.

This morning he was in his car seat saying "Ash...ash...DOWN" over and over again. And then I saw his little hands in my rear view mirror doing his twinkle fingers.

So cute.

Got milk?

Yesterday Carter and I were watching TV (and I have no guilt about that, thank you very much) and a commercial came on for the Got Milk campaign. At the very end they said, "Got milk?" and Carter yelled out "Yeah!" and ran up to me and said, "Muh! Muh!" asking for some milk.

Damn commercials are already infiltrating his little brain. Not looking forward to the holiday season when all the toy commercials are on.

Graduation!

I took Carter in to the doctor this morning to look at a rash he's had on his face for over a week. Turns out it's probably a bacterial infection that he keeps spreading when he rubs it, but that's not the point of this post. The point is that they weighed him on the big kid's scale. AND they took his temp in his ear, not his butt! He's in the big leagues now.

Shaken

Just the other day, I read Amalah's post about her son choking on a cereal bar, and thought to myself, "Gah, I have no idea what I would do if Carter choked on something like that." Tonight? I found out what I'd do.

I'd yank him out of his highchair, and finger sweep his mouth, and then whack him on the back a few times like I would never hit him in real life. And then? I'd thank God for his fearful screaming and crying. And I'd hug him and kiss his tears and not take my eyes off him for the rest of the night.

The only reason I kept my cool afterwards is because my in-laws were with us, and I didn't want to embarass myself by breaking down in hysterics. But I sure felt that way inside. It's hours later and I still feel on the verge of tears. I've never felt that terrified in my life.

Lucky #13

I was brushing Carter's teeth this morning with him laying in my lap, as opposed to in front of me, or sitting on my lap, and noticed he has a new tooth! One of his incisors is poked through. I wasn't expecting any new teeth so I hadn't been inpecting his mouth at all so I was surprised to see it.

Also, I forgot to mention the big event that happened this past weekend. Carter got his first fat lip. He was running around my mom's and his foot landed on a book, which slid on the wood floor, which caused him to fall. He handled it really well. He whined/cried just like he normally would when something doesn't feel good, but he wasn't full on wailing by any means. I told him he was okay and gave him a hug and when I pulled away I saw that he was bleeding. Surprisingly (to me), I didn't panic at all. My mom got him a cold wet paper towel but he didn't like that too much, so we gave him a popsicle to suck on. That seemed to do the trick. His lip swelled pretty nicely anyway but he didn't seem to mind, or even notice to be honest. Little rock star.

Catching Up

We spent last weekend up in Baltimore because my grandparents were in town. It also happened to be their 61st wedding anniversary. I can't even imagine. Carter had a great time running around my mom's condo and opening doors and eating every bit of food that made its way out of the pantry or fridge. Only downfall is that he refuses to nap at my mom's house. I don't know if it's the Pack N Play, or that the room is too bright, or that he's too excited to be in a different place, but it's exhausting for me to always be "on." When he naps I get to decompress and stop being on edge watching everything he's doing to make sure he doesn't break any antiques or get chocolate on their furniture. Alas, no break for mama.

One highlight was that we got video of my grandparents talking about their childhood, dating, and early adult life, which was really interesting. Next time they're in town, we'll have some questions ready to guide them because it was hard to think about what to talk about. But my grandmother? The second the red light on the camera lit up, she was talking like she'd been doing documentaries her whole life. She's a natural.

We didn't get to see my new cousin Mason because Carter has a cold, so that was a little disappointing. I'll just have to live with Facebook pictures for now. I can't wait to hold and squeeze and kiss on him. Carter's going to look so grown up next to a tiny little baby.

Nothing else is really going on. Work is still very busy, which is great. Carter is talking more and more each day, and now answers his cell phone with an I Love You instead of Hello. And the second he wakes up, he's running into the kitchen saying "Waffle? Waffle?"

Some pics of our leprechaun from yesterday.

A regular comedian

Carter discovered that if he fake falls off the step, we laugh. He did it one night, and then a few nights later saw the step and remembered, so he did it again. Check it out. The dude's a laugh a minute.

Lots of Sadness

They say things come in threes. Girl had an extra tough day yesterday. Two babies lost.

Today I got news that a former friend's daughter just lost another precious baby. I know she reads this blog sometimes, and although she and I aren't friends anymore, my heart aches and the tears flow for her and her family. Once is too much, twice is too much to handle. I'm so sorry, K.

Could you just DIE???

Some videos

This one is Carter telling you what he's eating for breakfast. I love the way he says it at the very end.




Today we went to Fairfax Corner and Carter ran around for a little while with the big kids. During the summer, where he's running is a fountain. The water shoots up through these little holes in the ground. I can't wait to take him there to play!

Pimp Daddy

It doesn't get much cuter than this little Pimp Daddy rollin in his tracksuit.

Daddy gave him another haircut last night and I must say this one was way more successful. I think it looks great!


And this one I just included because he was sick of me taking pictures and it made me laugh.

Giveaway!

Tara's having an awesome giveaway that I'm dying to win, if the fact that I commented three times doesn't give it away. (Ha! See what I did there?) Check it out!

He didn't like it

I thought he'd love the snow. Nope, not so much.

Yellow and Purple

You can't hear it super well, but here he is saying his new colors.

Go Vikings!

Carter's Grandpa Don will be happy to hear his first colors are yellow and purple. And it's super cute to hear him say. I'm not sure he knows exactly what they mean, but he says them pretty clearly.