Carter Bueller

The scene:  In the kitchen making breakfast on a lazy Sunday morning.

Carter:  Mommy, we do the same thing every day, and I don't want to do the same thing every day.  I don't want to go to school today.

Me:  Okay, you can stay home today.  You don't have to go to school.

Carter:  I'll stay home by myself?

Me:  No.  Mommy and Daddy will be here today.  We'll have fun today!

Carter:  Yay!!!  No school today!!

(Nobody tell him it was Sunday.)

I believe I can fly

Yesterday in the car:

"Mommy, I wish I could fly for real, and not pretend my arms are wings and put them out to my side and run around."

Maybe when you're a grown-up they'll have invented something to help you do that.

"Yeah!  Like rocket shoes!"

More religion

I'm taking Carter to Tot Shabbat at the local reformed synagogue on Friday night.  They have it once a month and I think it'll be good for him to start being exposed to Jewish religion and culture.  When I told him the other day that we're going to shul on Friday to learn about being Jewish, he said, "But I already AM Jewish!"

Break it Down

Carter likes to know how things are going to happen, and in what order.  He responds best when he's given a task, broken down into three parts.  For instance, if we want him to get ready for bed, we'll tell him to take his clothes off, get a pull-up (yes, he's still wearing them at night), and pick out pj's.

So last night he was on the potty before bed and I was chatting with him and I said, "Okay, now here's what we need to do..."  He interrupted and said, "I know, Mommy.  Let me break it down for you.  First I'll flush the potty, then I'll wash my hands, and then I'll go give Daddy a hug and a kiss."

Break it down for me?  Where did he get that?  He said he heard it on one of his Land Before Time movies but I couldn't stop laughing.

Harmonica

We were at Five Below yesterday just looking around and I spotted a coloring book with a menorah on the cover.  I pulled it out and showed it to Carter and asked him if he knew what it was.

"Yes, that's a harmonica book."

Harmonica.  You know, that holiday that falls around the same time as Christmas and Kwanzaa.

Don't worry

Carter seems to be on a God kick lately.

Last night we were in his bed reading his new dinosaur book.  His bedroom wall is a shared wall with our neighbor's living room.  I heard what seemed to be our neighbor messing around with some electric plugs or something, and tapping on the wall, and I said, "What's that?"

To which Carter responded, "Don't worry, Mommy.  That's just God."

We're not a religious family.  I grew up Jewish, and my husband grew up an unaffiliated Christian, but I want to introduce the idea of religion to Carter, and he seems to be really receptive to it.

I think it's time to start taking him to church and synagogue...

P.U.

Mommy, did you know that a jellyfish stinks?

That's "stings", baby, not "stinks".

That guy

We were in the car the other day and had the following conversation:

Carter: Mommy, who's that guy at church?
Me: What guy? The priest?
Carter: The priest? Hmm. Maybe.
Me: Or do you mean the man at shul?  The rabbi?
Carter:  Oh, I know!  It's God.

A minute later...

Carter:  Where is God?
Me: He's everywhere but He lives above the clouds.
Carter:  (looking out the car window) I don't see any houses up there!

And that was our theological conversation for the day.

Mighty Math Power!

Sometimes Carter does something that completely shocks me. Today, in the car he started telling me that 2 and 2 is 4. So I asked what 1 and 1 is and he said 2. I asked a few more and he got them right every time. I couldn't believe it. So, tonight, before bed, I took a quick video of my goofy kid.

What's wrong with this picture?

Can you spot what's wrong with this picture?

Parent Teacher Conference

We had our semi-annual parent teacher conference this morning at Carter's school.  I wasn't sure what to expect, since his lead teacher has only been there about six weeks.  But apparently that's enough time for our little man to make quite an impression.  She had nothing negative to say, even when I asked if there was anything we needed to work with him on at home.

He exceeded expectations in the following categories (my notes in parentheses):

• Listens to stories (this was actually surprising to me because when we read at bedtime he's constantly asking questions and talking)
• Comprehends prepositions (over, under, beside, behind, etc.)
• Uses correct names for common object
• Participates verbally in class activities
• Asks questions (Hello? He's three...of COURSE he asks questions.)
• Can say whole name.
• Beginning to recite alphabet (he's way past BEGINNING)
• Recognizes or names some upper case letters (he can do all of them)
• Reads written first name.
• Enjoys looking at books.
• Sequences three events in a story
• Retells simple facts after listening to stories.
• Rote counting (1-10, 1-20)  (He counts to 29 and then it becomes twenty-ten, twenty-eleven, etc.)
• Cutting (holding scissors, clipping action, sliding movement, cutting on lines)
• Manipulates crayons using appropriate grasp
• Strings beads.
• Builds with blocks, Duplos, etc.
• Puzzles (6-9 piece, 9-12 pieces)  (He does 40-piece puzzles at home sometimes, with help)
• Says "yes please" or "no thank you"  (This kid is so polite, it's insane.)
• Joins class easily
• Engages in associative play
• Exhibits a positive self concept

Everything else on the list he received an "at expected level".  I'm so very proud of him.  The teacher sent us home with some examples of his cutting (zig zags, following a line!), sorting beans, and simple patterns.  He also scored perfectly when they tested him on his knowledge of BOTH uppercase and lowercase letters, his recognition of numbers up to 10, his colors, counting (again, just to 29), and simple shapes.

And now I'm done boasting.  Carry on.

Impetigo

Whoever is in charge of crowning the Mother of the Year...you can skip me this year. Apparently, my son had strep and impetigo for a week before I even thought to take him to the doctor. A week!

Here's the deal. He gets these little bumps on his face sometimes when he gets a cold. He rubs his nose and the snot gets on his face, and his face breaks out a little. They last a few days and then go away, until the next cold.

Two weeks ago, I got hit HARD with a bout of strep. I felt like all I could do was lay in bed and moan. But I dragged myself to the doctor and was diagnosed with strep, and two days later I was pretty much back to normal. I kept an eye on Carter's throat to make sure he didn't catch it from me and all seemed to be fine.

Except a week later I noticed those little bumps on his face again. I figured they'd go away in a few days like they normally do, but by the end of the week they had multiplied and concentrated around his nose and mouth, not where they typically would show up. So finally on Saturday morning I asked Chris if he thought we should take him to clinic hours, just to see what was up. We headed out a short while later.

I, for one, was woefully unprepared for what awaited us at the doctor's office. We were behind maybe 15 kids, all of them miserable. We sat there for a few minutes until I suggested maybe we should try the Minute Clinic across the street. Out we headed and waited about 45 minutes to be seen. The NP looked at Carter's bumps and said she thought maybe it was MRSA (gasp!) and that she wasn't equipped to take swabs of that sort of thing, especially given his age, so we should go back to the ped's office. Great.

My heart racing, thinking my son has had MRSA on his face for a week, we went back to the doctor's office and waited for 1.5 hours to be seen. This doctor was great, said it looked like impetigo and that she'd test him for strep since his tonsils and glands were just a little bit swollen. Okay fine. I'd actually looked up impetigo the night before and his face looked NOTHING like what I saw online. These were just little pimples, so I wasn't buying her story.

Lo and behold, he had the strep test, it was positive, and the strep is what caused the impetigo. So not only had I given him strep, but he'd been at school all week and likely had spread it to all of his friends. Fabulous.

Fast forward two days. Antibiotics are working beautifully, the dots are clearing up, Carter's feeling fine (as he was all along) but a letter is sent out to the parents in his class that three of the teachers and many students were out with strep and/or impetigo. And we caused that. Oh, the guilt.

A Lesson in Patience

Carter is constantly wanting to do things himself. Turn the light on or off, flush the toilet, put on his shoes and socks, lock the door, put away his toys (yeah, not arguing that one), etc. Sometimes I'll turn out the light in the bathroom when he's done, and he'll freak out until I turn it back on so he can do it himself. There have been countless times that I've had to shut the door again after I'd already opened it, so he can do it himself. Or put puzzle pieces back in the box, so he can take them out and "set them up." You get the point.

I was discussing Carter's independent streak with my mom yesterday when I had what Oprah calls an "A-Ha Moment."

His independent streak is not just a learning opportunity for him, it's a lesson for me as well. A lesson in patience. I'm always rush rush rushing him to our next task or destination, when the reality is that we're not in a hurry. An extra couple of minutes is not going to make a difference in the grand scheme of things, but it WILL make a difference in his sense of worth and independence. I need to take a breath, sit back, and let him do things on his own without offering help. He needs to learn to ask for help when he needs it, and to be proud when he can accomplish something on his own without Mommy constantly intervening.

So what if it takes him longer, or if he makes a bit of a mess. He can do it himself. He's told me many, many times.

What a lesson.

Pink Eye

Last week, Carter had a sheet of paper in his school folder that indicated that someone in the school had pink eye and to keep an eye on him. The next day, he looked like he had a sty on his left eye. I asked my mother-in-law just to confirm that's all it was and she agreed and said pink eye would manifest more quickly than this had. It was basically just a bump on his lash line. No ooze, no goop, nothing gross about it, really.

Fast forward one week. The left sty had healed, but now there's a bigger one on his right eye. We go out bowling with friends and his lash line has a large red bump, but we still think it's a sty. Still no ooze or goop.

Fast forward 12 hours. Carter woke up and couldn't open his right eye. This is what it looked like:



Off we went to the doctor and whaddya know...pink eye! AND an ear infection. Poor kid was falling apart but you'd have never known. He was happy as could be and just wanted to play and read and have his usual good time.

Part of his treatment was antibiotic drops for the eye. Man is it awful having to wrestle your child just to get an eyedrop in his eye. I was able to get it in there the first time after much coaxing, but then the second time he got so hysterical that he started gagging and heaving and almost puked on me. Since then, I've done it when he's sleeping, or tag-teamed him with Chris with us holding him and just doing it. Poor kid. But his eye is much better today and he's back at school after being on antibiotics for two days. The good thing is that the antibiotics for his ear infection are also helping with the pink eye.

I just felt terrible for our friends that we went bowling with because I didn't know it was pink eye, and it's so contagious. But my friend Janet was totally cool about it. She said it's a rite of passage and no big deal. I love her for that.

Lessons in Manners

Lessons in manners, courtesy of Carter, age 3.

Excuse me: What you say when you burp or toot.
Scuse me: What you say when someone's in your way.

Facebook killed the blog

Does anyone even come here anymore? Hello?

I find it's so much easier to type a quick Facebook status than to come on here and blog about Carter's latest hijinks. Everyone who has any interest in him is already a Facebook friend (I think...let me know if you're not) so it seems redundant to post in both places.

Your thoughts?

You say tomato...

Carter mixes up the words for "potato" and "tomato." He knows the difference between them, but will usually call them both a tomato until we correct him. I think it's easier for him to pronounce "tomato" so he just uses that one most often. Because when he says "potato", he really enunciates it slowly. "Poe. Tay. Toe."

Last week we went on a field trip to see Toy Story 3 on Ice and I was listening to him tell my mom all about it on the phone. When he said, "And we saw the tomato heads..." I couldn't stop laughing.

Busy busy busy!

We’ve been jamming our weekends full of fun, but leaving little time for me to blog at all.  My poor food blog is also severely neglected.

A few weeks ago we met up with our friends and their little boys at Cox Farms to enjoy the FREE preview weekend.  The weather was a little warm but we still had a fabulous time.  Carter even went on one of the big slides all by himself.  He especially loved the hayride, as he’s still talking about it a few weeks later.

The next weekend, Dulles Airport was holding their annual Plane Pull.  Again, another FREE event.  Gotta love ‘em.  And, again, the weather was HOT.  But we survived and Carter enjoyed it for the most part.  He got a little crabby when we took him away from the hobby train area, but he liked seeing all the airplanes everywhere.  His favorite part was something we can do anytime we want, though.  He loved just watching the planes land.  It made his day.

The next day we took Carter to a parking garage down the street to ride his bike, since it was pretty hot outside in the sun.  His school participated in the St. Jude’s Trike-a-Thon a few weeks ago, and something clicked for him, and he finally figured out how to pedal.  He’s completely obsessed with riding his bike now.  He even insisted on wearing his bike helmet into a restaurant last weekend.  LOL

 

And finally we come to this past weekend.  My middle brother and his family came into town, as did my grandparents, because my oldest brother got married.  I adore his new wife and consider her a friend, as well as a sister.  The wedding was at 1:00 p.m., which is Carter’s naptime, so he was crabby as expected for most of the beginning of the celebration, but once the band started up, he was rocking out.  Shaking his booty like Beyonce.

   

Of course, as soon as we were on our way home, he fell asleep in the middle of talking to us.  He said, “I don’t want to go home” and as the word “home” came out of his mouth, his eyes were closed and he was immediately asleep. 

My new sister-in-law is so beautiful, isn’t she?  She looks so happy.  And uncomfortable having everyone staring at her.  But it was a great, casual, intimate wedding.  We had a wonderful time and my brother couldn’t have picked a better partner.

This coming weekend will be the best one yet…ROAD TRIP!

My Baby Can Read!

My mother has always claimed that I was reading at 2 1/2 years old. I always thought she was exaggerating, but sort of was proud of that regardless. I remember in elementary school, I used to sneak out of my bed at night to read by nightlight. I LOVED reading as a kid. I still enjoy it, but really don't find the time for it anymore. Of course I find time to watch Gossip Girl and 90210 though.

Carter has known his letters and the sounds they make for a while now, but only recently did we start working on putting them together into words. He watches Super Why! a lot, and has learned quite a bit of phonics from that show, so I thought maybe it was time to see what he really could do. Boy was I surprised!

He has flashcards with pictures of items/animals/whatever on them, so we started with that. I'd hide the picture (as best I could) with my hand, and have him sound out the word. Sometimes he'd get it but sometimes he would say something like, "R-A-B-B-I-T"..."Bunny Rabbit" because he knew what the picture under my hand was. So I took out his Magnadoodle and wrote the word "cat" on it. That little munchkin took his pointer finger to each letter, said the sound they make a few times in a row, and then shouted "Cat!" I was shocked. So I tried another word. He did it again with "dog." My heart swelled with pride.

Last night I brought home a new book to read (for 56 cents at the consignment store!). We sat down and I had him read all the three-letter words. He got them all. Sit, pig, cat, dog. All of 'em. He was a pro.

I talked to his teacher today about it and she said she's going to do more work with him on reading and letter and sound recognition. A new group of kids that just turned two just joined his class, so now he's one of the few almost-three-year-olds, so I was a little concerned that he wouldn't be challenged as much, but I trust Ms. Dorothea and I know she's going to help him succeed.

A friend of mine told me over the weekend that parents who read early tend to have children who read early. I don't know if it's true or not, but it sure is in our house. I couldn't be more proud of him!

Cool Tricks!

First, watch this:



Then, watch this: