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.