Talking with Lexie

It's really hard to live so far from family. It's become even harder since we've had Carter. We want him to grow up knowing his family... but it takes a little more explaining when we see everyone so infrequently. Since we were in California in October he has really started to (pretty much) remember who people are. He actually thought he saw his Uncle Scott (my younger sister's husband) at a party we were at tonight. He shyly leaned over to me and pointed to a man sitting on the floor and said... "Uncle Cott?" I told him it sure looked like Uncle Scott but that it wasn't. It made me sad. Lately he has really been talking a lot about his cousin Lexie (my twin sister's daughter). It doesn't matter who he is talking to on the phone... he always asks them if he can talk to Lexie (this morning he asked Dan's mom... who lives in a different state). Anyway, this afternoon we finally connected with his beloved Lexie (she is 8). Here are some pics of him talking to her... I finally had to cut him off because we had to leave... but I'm sure he could have talked to her for another hour.

This picture is a good example of their conversations. Carter shows Lexie a truck and she tries to explain to him that you can't see things over the phone...

This is a little blurry... but I just couldn't leave out what he was wearing.

Daddy's shadow...

What can I say... he's the star on the weekends...

Today was beautiful! I have not been feeling great this week so I didn't get the chance to take Carter outside this afternoon. I also had to pick up one of the boys from a physical therapy appointment and Dan was getting things cleaned up for dinner. Steven and Fred to the rescue! They took Carter out back and played ball and bikes with him for an hour before dinner! This was the highlight...

Carter is finally starting to get back to his normal self. We knew he was getting his energy back tonight when he picked up the vacuum, turned it on and started vacuuming for about 15 minutes.

He actually did get some stuff off the floor...

Tuesday night is floor night on the chore chart (my favorite night of the week... although you usually can't tell they were cleaned by the next day after school). Fred was the one with vacuuming this week. He waited patiently for Carter to finish.

We ended up having to give Carter a 2 minute warning to pass it off to Fred.

I haven't written much about the guys lately because we've had a lot going on... and there is a lot that I can't write about. I will say that I scheduled their senior portraits this week. It makes graduation seem so much closer. We are going to miss these 3 so much!!!

Still not feeling so good...

Carter has been pretty sick since Thursday. I actually can't remember the last time he was this sick. He's just one of those kids that ends up with croup every time he gets any sort of virus. I hate it... although it's not nearly as scary as it used to be. I still remember the first time I took him to the ER because of it. He was 5 months old and wasn't coughing anymore by the time we got there. I've since learned that we could have just stood in the bathroom with the shower running for 20 minutes... or sat on the front porch in the cool air. Although 7 months later I still had not learned my lesson. I'm pretty sure that was the last ER visit... for several reasons. The main one being that I accidentally took him to the hospital that our insurance did not cover. It took us a year to pay off that bill... a bill that once again could have been prevented if we just would have just stood in the bathroom with the hot shower running!! If only I would have known then what I do now. I did take him to his doctor Friday morning. The medicine she prescribed has been slowly kicking in.

Now to the main reason for the post... Our friend, Erik, heard Carter was sick and stopped by yesterday to cheer Carter up with this little duck (the duck is actually watching Bob the Builder with Carter right now). Erik was on his lunch break from work and walked half a mile in the freezing cold to bring the duck here. He then stayed and played trucks with Carter for about 30 minutes. Carter was thrilled!

Erik was actually one of the first people to ever hold Carter. Here he is at the hospital with Carter right after he was born.

Thanks, Erik... for making Carter's day!

Last night Dan posted a link on his blog to a story Fox News did on Joe's Place not long after we moved in. Carter was only 10 months old when they did that interview!! Pretty crazy how time flies. It was kind of fun to watch again (and refreshing to see that my time at the gym as paid off since then!!!). Click here to check it out.

Taking care of Carter...

You know you've got good friends when they put awesome pink band aids on your owies.

Carter's friend Manna pulled the band aid out of her "medical kit" when she and Carter were playing at her house yesterday. She knew right where to put it (which is not really surprising if you know Manna). I thought it was so sweet!

I've been sort of hesitant about doing a "potty" post... but since this is my main way of documenting our lives... I just couldn't leave it out. So... here it goes:

This summer we drove 7500 miles. Carter was a ROCK STAR in many ways. He hardly cried, didn't watch movies (except for a few on the way out to CA), loved looking out the window and asked us to stop at gas stations when he needed to go #2 (in his diaper). He did the same thing on our trip to Colorado and back over Christmas. He also had completely dry diapers when he woke up from his nap and bedtime (which I've heard is a sign that a child is ready to potty train). At the beginning of January we decided to give it a go. After the first day he was hardly having accidents and since then has not worn pull-ups at nap time or bedtime. We have been officially done with any sort of diaper for the last 5 1/2 weeks (minus a day here and there). The only minor problem we have had with the whole potty situation has been going #2. He would sit for an hour at a time on the toilet... but had only made it in once. I thought I was going to lose my mind. I won't go into detail... but lets just say we did a lot of laundry. We offered every sort of reward possible and have had a box of match box cars sitting on top of the dryer for the last month and a half hoping the thought of a new car would be all the encouragement he needed. Nope! On Tuesday I was at the point of calling our Pediatrician. I didn't... but was close. Anyway, Tuesday morning we stopped by the Pre-School Carter will hopefully be attending in the Fall to pick up his paperwork (that's a post for another time... but you can check out what my good friend Kristin wrote about it here). He was so excited that he didn't want to leave (and we were only in the office). When I finally got him out to the car I explained to him that he has to be able to go poop in the potty to go to that school... and that it's a big boy school and none of the kids wear diapers. It suddenly clicked! He came right home and went poop... and has gone 8 more times since then. We are so excited! The only hard part was trying to explain to him why he couldn't go to school right then. He cried and cried and asked to go meet his "big boy" teacher. He finally calmed down and settled on an awesome crane out of his truck box. Way to go, Carter!!

For as long as I can remember... my dad has ALWAYS sent me flowers on Valentine's Day. I have always loved this special tradition... but it really means so much more now as I have gotten older and moved thousands of miles away from home. Thanks, Dad...

Here is a picture of Carter with my flowers this year...

I was trying to get the picture in the same place as 2 years ago. I guess I forgot to do a picture last year.

As you probably noticed... we chopped off Carter's hair this morning. I'm actually feeling a little sad about it. It's just that it grows so fast and he hates having his hair cut. I figured he deserved a little break from the clippers. I think he looks like Caillou from PBS. Dan keeps reminding me that it will all be back before long. I think I'm going to take a picture of him every Monday to show how fast it really does grow.

Carter in a yoga pose in front of a Monet...

This is really a picture of him testing us. There's a cable about 2 feet out from the wall that you're not supposed to go past... Carter is slowly sliding backwards under the cable. After I took this... a woman came up and told me a story about her young daughter licking a Monet at a different museum (that didn't have cables). That made me feel a lot better!

The real reason we were in front of the Water Lilies this morning was for this guy...

We're trying to make sure my niece has the most amazing Flat Stanley project ever!

Tatted up for Valentines Day.

Our tough boy...

Alright, so Carter had this pyramid shaped glass shard in the top of his foot for a week. Alyssa and I thought he had a bad scrape that might be getting infected (he had been limping some and complained occasionally when we put on his shoes) so I did some close inspection and saw some of the glass fragment in the grossness. The only part showing was the thin tip above the pen point. The rest was lodged straight down in the kiddos foot. Alyssa had me watch four episodes of Grey's Anatomy, I sent Steven to Walmart for neosporin, I braced myself with a shot of whiskey, Alyssa boiled water, then gathered rags and I performed surgery on Carter's foot. Well not surgery, but missionary surgery using tweezers first. The tweezers kept slipping and I was afraid of crushing and grinding up the shard, so on Alyssa's suggestion I used q-tips using a motion perfected by eating sushi and was able to pull and pry the fragment out of Carter's foot. Meanwhile, Carter lay back with his paci and blankie and then asked to see what was happening. He watched the whole operation with only the slightest wimper. Our boy is a tough little cookie.

Today I finally moved Carter's crib out of his room and a twin bed in... we couldn't believe how tiny he looked all stretched out!!

The guys helping me move the crib downstairs this afternoon... yes, I document everything!

I couldn't help laughing when I noticed the blinds had been opened since I put him to bed.

Moo Moo the cow watching over him in his new big boy bed.


Carter didn't want to leave his room after I put the new bed in. He is SOOO proud of himself.

Enjoying a morning in the mud...

Day 2

Doing good... but still feeling a little blue...

Yesterday, we took the side off Carter's crib so he could have easier access to his paci and blankie. He did awesome!! He slept through the night last night without any side rail!!

A note to the grandparents... he's not that high off the ground... and we did lay some blankets on the floor in case he fell out.

Our boy loves his books and no flies were injured or harmed in the making of this video.

A note to my niece...

Dear Lexie,
Just wanted to let you know that Flat Stanley arrived yesterday. He said his trip halfway across the US was great... but a little bit long. Today I took him to see the 16 foot tall snowman in our neighborhood. You can even see the arch behind him in the picture. We have some fun adventures planned while he is here. He said to tell you hi and that he will see you soon!

Love,
Aunt Alyssa
ps- F.S. is in the pink shirt on the far left of the picture.

Compromise #2 - The back-up paci and blankie. Carter always amazes me... he understood that he had to leave his favorite paci and blankie upstairs... so he brought down the back-ups. He knew exactly what I was going to say (back up to bed)... you can see he is smiling through the paci. Good try, buddy!

Today is the first day we told Carter his beloved paci and blankie had to stay in his bed. This was his compromise...

As Carter would say...

it's a BIG...
GIANT...
SNOWMAN!!
We've been watching a group build this thing since Thursday at our neighborhood park. I thought they were building a tower... but it turned out to be a 16 foot tall snowman. They packed milk crates with snow and just kept stacking. I wonder if it's the same folks who built this one last year.