Scrapper Football

We took Carter to his first football game of the year last night.  He LOVED it!!  He loved seeing all of the balloons go into the air.  He kept saying, "Where balloons go?  In the clouds?".  He also loved all the big football players.  During warm-up, he kept trying to run out on the field with them.  He got so upset when we wouldn't let him.  I'm pretty sure, though, that the popcorn was his favorite part.  He sat with my mom during most of the game, which I'm sure was another favorite part for him.  I'm pretty sure he loves her more than he loves me and Nick.  He gave lots of hugs to people he didn't even know, which is very rare.  I was proud of him.

One problem though.  After we were there for about an hour he told us that he needed to pee pee.  So I took him into the bathroom and he wouldn't use the big toilet.  I then tried to just let him pee in the grass in a corner outside and he wouldn't do that either.  He wanted his little potty at home.  It's not like that thing can fit in his back pack or anything.  Since I had a pull up on him, we went ahead and stayed at the game for another 2 hours.  He wouldn't use his pull up (since he never wears a pull up, I think it made him very uncomfortable).  So he finally got that panicked look in his eyes that he REALLY needed to go so we left the game early.  Right when we got home he sprinted to his potty and went.  Safe to say that he is fully potty trained....but only on his little potty.  Any suggestions on how to the make the transition easier from little potty to the big one would be greatly appreciated.  We won't be able to go anywhere without lugging the little potty around unless he gets this down.

Here's a good little story.  Nick and I always joke with each other about who Carter loves more.  Two nights ago, I asked Nick to put Carter to bed for me because I was exhausted and just wanted to go to bed early.  So, Nick took him back to his room and the next thing I know Carter came running back into the living room crying.  I asked Nick what was wrong with him and it nearly killed him to tell me that Carter said I. WANT. MOM!!  Mom-1 Dad-0.  I put him down with a big smile on my face.

AD and I have become real pathetic and lazy here lately on our workouts.  But, come Monday we are going back at it.  We made a deal not to cancel anymore unless we absolutely had to.

I'm hoping that by the next blog, I can tell you all about the new babies coming into the world.  Can't wait to meet them!!  Janice, Abbie, and Keatha......love ya'll.  HANG IN THERE!!  Praying for 3 healthy babies.

Goodbye Summer

Well, its officially fall.  I know most of you won't agree but I hate it!!  Summer didn't last near long enough for me.  I have to say that besides having his tonsils removed, Carter had an awesome summer.  He loved swimming and playing on the slip n slide at Mia's house.  He loved going on his evening rides on the ranger with Daddy every day.  He loved riding in his jogging stroller with me every now and then and he will for sure miss riding the lawn mower with Grumps.  But most of all, I think he will miss ramping in the golf cart with Mia, playing in his mud puddles and piddling around the pond.

On a better note...

I am excited to tell you that Carter has been diaper free, except at bedtime, for 2 weeks.  He is completely potty trained at home.  He has not had an accident at home for nearly a week now.  He does have the occasional accident other places.  He had one yesterday at Nick's parents house and he told them that he was sorry.  How sweet is that?  I have made a point to never get on to him when he does have one.  I just say, "That's ok, Carter.  Next time can you go in the potty, please?"

The whole process was nerve racking, messy, and frustrating.  He did pick it up a lot quicker than I expected, which made me so proud of him. I do have to say that he looks so cute in his undies.

He is talking more and more every day and he is so much happier now that he can tell us what he wants.  He is starting to get a tad bossy... yesterday he told me to pick up his toys.  When I don't do something that he wants RIGHT THEN he says, "tic toc".  Where in the world did he come up with that???  When I ask him a question, instead of saying yes, he says "otay".  He calls me mom and Nick dad.  He completely skipped the whole mommy and daddy phase.  Weird.  It is still crazy for me to hear him talk to me.  Love it!!  He is still loving his "school time" that we have at home.  He can't get enough of letters, numbers, shapes, colors, and puzzles.  We are working on sight words also.

I'm afraid that Nick and I don't have a ball player on our hands.  He couldn't care less about a bat and ball.  He actually takes his bat that he has at home and lines it up behind his trucks like a trailer.  Trucks, airplanes, and tractors are his go to toys.  We are okay with that.  With all the surgeries that ball playing got us, we are not so sure it's worth it.  Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to watch him play sports, but if he don't want to, we're definitely not going to make him.  My nephew, Warren, on the other hand, could play t-ball tomorrow and be awesome. He's pretty talented for a 3 year old.

He can say his first bible verse: "God loved us, he sent his son".  He says it all the time.  That makes my heart smile.

Last night was the second night in a row that he slept in his bed all night.  Ummm....stop growing up please!!??

Life

Hey!  Just wanted to drop in and say that we are alive and well.  Nick is doing his working and golfing thing every week.  Me?  I am doing my non-workout/non-motivated/eating everything in sight thing.....and I'm pretty good at it.  Never in my non pregnant life have I ever been as big as I am right now.  It's frustrating and I need to do lots of soul searching to get my mind right again.  Have you even been to that point where you try on clothes after clothes after clothes from your closet and nothing fits...and then that's your breaking point that you need to seriously do something?  Well I'm there.  Give me a couple days and I will set some goals for myself. 

AAAAnyways...

Since I have been working more here lately, I have not been the housekeeper that my clean house phobia personality wants me to be.  So, I stayed up til midnight cleaning house...dusting, laundry (that was A JOB!), dishes, floors, bathrooms....the usual.  A mother's work seriously never ends.  It is so frustrating and heart warming all at the same time (but mostly frustrating).

I'm sure you know how Carter is since I post on Facebook every time he does something that I think is amazing--which don't take much.  You probably have realized that I am a little tiny bit obsessed with him.  But In case you need a run down, I am more than happy to do that for you.

He's so smart.  Like, shocking my socks off every day.  He knows all of his ABC's by heart and by letter recognition.  He also knows all of their sounds which is why his speech therapist said he will be an excellent reader.  If we want to get anything done or for him to work on something else, like a puzzle, we have to hide the ABC stuff.  He loves it that much.  He can count to 12.  He knows most of his shapes and only a few colors.  As long as he has learning activities in front of him he couldn't care less about the TV.  AND he is up to about 70-80 words consistently and repeating LIKE CRAZY!!!  No sentences or anything, but a couple 2 word phrases.  Now, that's coming a long way in a very short time.  I'm beyond proud of him. 

He started going to church on Wednesday night and he loves it.  It's so awesome to hear him say church and God.  I'm very pumped about that one.

He has gone to two movies in the theaters and did great.  Watched the entire movie both times.  That's a pretty good attention span for a 28 month old.

Mark my words...Carter will be completely potty trained after next weekend.  He's ready.  We have to get passed Uncle Keller's wedding and then we are going all in.

All in all,  he's a good kid.  He don't get into anything he is not supposed to.  He listens very well.  We do have to deal with the occasional attitude but it's never anything that a serious look can't fix.  No tempter tantrums in a very long time.

He's happy.  I'm happy.  This is a wonderful life that I live.  Thank you God!

Tonsils

What a week my little family and I have had!!  Last Friday my mom and I took Carter to the ENT doctor because his breathing was not so great, especially at night.  He was having severe sleep apnea where he pretty much quit breathing for moments at a time and it would always wake him up gasping for air and scared the daylights out of me and Nick.  Anyways, long story short, the doctor said his tonsils are huge and that he thinks they should come out ASAP.  So before the day was over we scheduled Carter for his third and biggest surgery. 

Thursday rolled around and we had to be at St. Michael's hospital at 6 A.M.  They wheeled him back and 20 minutes later they were done.  So much easier than what we expected.  We dreaded it all week.  We had prepared ourselves for Carter to be very needy, cranky, not eat, not drink, and pretty much just want us the entire time.  About an hour after his surgery.......

 

.....As you can see he proved us wrong from the get go.  We had to make him lay down and rest some.  We were told that it's the second and third day that will be the hardest for him and that he will only eat popsicles and ice cream for a week and not to be shocked if he lost about 4-5 pounds.  Once again he proved us and the doctors wrong.  In between naps all he has done is play play play and he has not eaten as much as he usually eats but he has eaten real food from the get go.  He has eaten 6 breakfast burritos, lots and lots of steamed veggies and meat, drank lots of whole milk, and about 12 popsicles.  Safe to say that my boy is a trooper.  He has kicked this surgery in the face and I am so proud of him!!! 

 

St. Michael's pediatrics has it going on!! We had awesome nurses the entire time and they had every Disney DVD he could watch and an awesome playroom.  If anything, Carter had fun!!

 

I am not sure if his big tonsils kept him from talking as much as he wanted, but since they have been gone, Carter has really started communicating.  He still has a ways to go to get where he needs to be but he is making drastic improvements really fast.  He loves for me to quiz him on his letters and numbers.  He loves to scribble (finally).  He is becoming interested in his shapes, also.  He is starting to become very creative with blocks and building things. You can name any animal to him and he will make the sound that they make.  He is OBSESSED with building tents.  Every time he sees a bed sheet he asks me to build him a tent (thanks Mia, for showing him that).  In three days, I bet Nick and I have built 25 tents.  Nick has also introduced him to golf (oh boy) and he loves it.  They hit golf balls in the house constantly.  So many of my prayers are being answered.  Potty training may be closer than I think.

 

I am starting to buy winter stuff for the lil man.  I bought my first order last week.  It is right around the corner and I don't want to have to buy all at once.  My bank account don't like that too much.

 

Anywho, that's our life as of lately.  Have a great day!





Shopping Issues

Shopping with Carter is becoming a problem. He thinks every toy is his and that he is supposed to take one home from every store we go to. Friday, Mom and I went into Kohls and oddly Carter knew right where the toys were so that's where he headed. 

This is the series of events that occurred.

1. He looked very carefully and picked out the biggest and most expensive truck they had 

2. He would not let us touch it because he thought I was going to make him put it up. So he held on to it for dear life.

3. He had to sit with it in the car... There was no separating him from this thing.

4. Cling to 18 wheeler issues only got worse when we got home.

Little guy will have a very hard lesson here pretty soon when I have to tell him be can't take every toy home that he wants.

 

 

 

 

 

Potty Training 101

When there is something that I have absolutely no clue about (when it comes to being mother) I do lots of research and ask other moms lots of questions.  Dang, there is a lot of methods to potty training.  I don't like that.  I am a black and white kinda girl.  I like "this is the only thing that will work, so do that".  Lucky me, potty training is nothing like that.  There is the bribery method, which I'm not so into.  Bribery is just not my parenting ways, so I don't want to start with this.  Of course if that's the only thing that will end up working, that's what I'll do.  There is easing into it method, which seems like that would just be a longer process.  And of course, there is the go all out without looking back method.  There is also all the other minor ones like letting him "water trees" outside and hitting the bulls eye in the middle of the potty.  I'm afraid if I let him water too many trees, Carter will be the little boy that will only go outside(even in public) and I'm not so fond of that idea either.

So I have decided to go with the go all in and don't look back method.  But the trick for this one to be successful and that Carter has to be 100% ready and willing.  I don't think we are quite there yet.  I let him run naked yesterday for a very long time and he did pee in the potty 2 times but it was when I saw he was about to go and I rushed him to the potty and set him down myself.  He is not letting me know when he needs to go and honestly, I am not sure he knows when he is about to go yet.  He will bring us diapers or try to take his off AFTER he goes, but that's it.  So he is showing a tiny bit of readiness but I think we are still a couple months away from going all in.  He knows what the potty is and he likes to sit on it and that's about it--but it's a start.  So for now, we are going to watch Daddy and keep his attention on it.  Then when he starts letting me know he needs to go...then BAM we are going all in.  I just think I am more ready than he is right now, and that's okay.  I know he won't go to college in diapers.



Nick and I had a very fun weekend!  We went with our good friends AD and Jeremy Pickett and floated Mountain Fork Saturday and it was fun!  The water felt awesome.  We both flipped our canoes but it would not be a successful float trip without doing that.  AD lost a shoe and Nick lost his hat that he has worn for about 5 years (I thought he was going to cry) but all in all it was a lot of fun.  We will for sure be going back.  I highly recommend Roma Italian Restaurant in DeQueen.  It was really really good!!  Someone needs to open one in Nashville.  Nick and I alone would keep you open.  It's very rare that Nick and I spend an entire weekend together.  We missed Carter so much but it was such a nice change.  Thanks to my parents for letting me off and working my shifts.

Summer

I have gotten a couple messages asking where in the world my blogs are.  Sorry, but I have not posted anything in a couple of weeks.  Nothing has really happened and I know you guys probably get sick of reading the same ol' stuff about Carter every time I blog.  But thanks for making me feel like my life is interesting enough to read about.

Where to start....

Carter loves the water.  Whether it's a mud puddle, pool, slip n slide, or at the water park he is in love.  We will be making lots of trips to the Diamond Mine water park and to my parent's pool this summer.

Carter is not sleeping well and is acting like his airway is being blocked again by adenoids.  He wakes up in a panic several times a night gasping for air.  So yeah, I am making him an appointment with the ENT doctor right when they open this morning.  As you probably remember, he has had them removed once already and they said there was a chance that they could grow back.  Poor little guy can't catch a break.

He is still chatting away.  His new favorite things to say, as of yesterday, is "Oh no!!" and "ooops" when he falls on purpose or accidentally drops something.  When he runs or plays trucks he also likes to yell "zooooom!!".  I have decided to take him out of speech therapy for now.  If he stops talking or goes backwards in his little speech journey then I will take him back, but I just don't think there is any need right now.  I think he should just be diagnosed with, "Stubborn like his Daddy Syndrome".

Nick and I played softball all day Saturday.  Nick came out of a 6 year retirement and he did awesome.  He pitched for the first time ever and only walked one batter all day.  He also hit really well.  I was so proud and had a blast playing with him.  We are both feeling our age and walking gingerly days after, though.  We can honestly say that we have made lots of new friends with this team.  I'm sad that our league is about to be over for the summer.

Well, that's all I got for today.  Adios!