Carter Update

Tomorrow Carter will be 2 years, 3 months old.  I wanted to do a monthly photo shoot to add some pictures to this post today.  I'm really grateful for these posts because they ensure I pull out the good camera to get some great shots of Carter!  Well Carter was a fuss budget this morning and just wasn't having it.  He kept yelling "No pictures, mommy!" and turning away from the camera.  We were planning on going to the trails to walk and then play at the park so I decided why force photos at home?  I grabbed the good camera and took pictures as Carter played which he barely even noticed.  When he did tell me no pictures I'd tell him I was taking a picture of the water or the bugs and he'd let it go.  I'd have to say the pictures that came out of this shoot may be some of my favorites!

Stopping to play with a chunk of bark that fell off the tree.

This age is so much fun!  He cracks me up on a daily basis and has such a great imagination.  He is constantly picking up new words and phrases and I love hearing him use them.  One of the cutest things is that he says -eet for -ing, so talking is talkeet, running is runeet, and so on.  It makes everything he says just a little bit cuter!  He still likes to boss Harper around and sometimes even tries it out on me.  He's figured out it doesn't work, but that doesn't stop him from yelling out, "Stop mommy, no talkeet" as I'm talking to Ty instead of him.  He does the same with Jake, always trying to take care of him and mother hen him.  We were playing in the front yard and Jake would start to walk toward our neighbor's yard.  Carter would chase after him yelling "No, Jakey Jake, go to mommy!"  He also tells Jake no and to stop walking when a car drives down the street.  I think he's going to be very protective with Elise just like his daddy was with his brother and younger cousins.

Checking out the bugs climbing up the tree.

He still has such good manners and makes sure to say please and thank you.  One of his favorite phrases is "Mommy, c'mere please!"  My favorite is that he has started thanking me for cooking.  It all started one day when Ty cooked dinner and I thanked him for making dinner.  Carter then said, "Thank you cook, daddy."  Now anytime I make something he really likes he'll say, "Thank you cook, mommy," over and over and over.  It is just the sweetest thing!  He also says sorry if he bumps into someone.

Saying good morning is another new phrase.  When I walk in his room in the morning I always tell him good morning.  Most of the time he immediately responds with what he wants to eat for breakfast, but some mornings he greets me by saying good morning back or even beating me to it.  When he first sees Harper in the morning he greets her by saying good morning and does the same for Skippy.  I can just picture him doing the same for Elise and it melts my heart!  When I get him after he wakes up from a nap he tells me what he'd like for a snack.  One Friday I kept telling Carter he needed to sleep in until 8:00 the next morning so when Ty came home from work I had him tell daddy what time he was going to wake up the next day and he proudly responded with "8:00!"  Ty then decided it needed to be 8:30 instead of 8:00.  The next morning he slept until 8:15 and when I asked him how he slept he said, "Carcar good nap, 8:30!"  It was so cute.  Now if I ask him if he had a good nap, he'll tell me, "Yes, good nap!" and sometimes he'll throw on the end, "8:30!" 

For most of this month Ty would be up getting ready for work when Carter woke up.  He'd go get Carter when he woke up so I could stay in bed to either sleep more or simply just rest my tired body.  Then when he needed to leave for work he'd bring Carter to bed with me and we'd read books in bed for a while before getting up as long as we didn't have somewhere to be early in the morning.  Carter got in the habit of telling me everything Ty had done while they were together.  I told Ty he better always be on his best behavior since Carter always gave me a run down!  His conversation would go something like this: "Carcar wake up.  Daddy get Carcar.  Carcar eat oamote (how he says oatmeal).  Daddy make eggs.  Daddy eat eggs.  Daddy go work."  Ty watched Carter while I tutored one day.  When I got home Carter immediately told me, "Daddy, Carcar, watch TV!"  Ty said he knew Carter was going to tell on him for that one! 

My parents got Carter an Olaf blanket which he calls his "Noman (snowman) blankie".  He wants me to cover him with it before every nap and at bedtime.  Before he never wanted to sleep under a blanket.  He still has his 3 favorite stuffed animals: a blue zebra lovie with a rattle named Big Al, a brown teddy bear lovie named Buddy, and his Elmo doll that used to belong to Uncie J.  Big Al is his current favorite.  We have to make sure to hand it to him and tell him it's Big Al before leaving the room or he'll cry for Big Al.  He's even laid in bed crying for Big Al when he was laying on top of him which cracked me up.  Occasionally he'll ask for his baby or one of his other stuffed animals, but for the most part it's just those 3 favorites.  Lately he's been calling his little Rudolph rattle from his first Christmas "Baby Reindeer" and his bigger Rudolph doll from his 2nd Christmas "Mommy Reindeer".  It is too precious!  He does the same with a small duck bath toy and a large duck bath toy he has.

Lately he's been all about not wearing pants.  When I change his diaper before naptime I don't put pants back on him and let him sleep without them.  Sometimes as I'm changing his diaper he'll start chanting, "no pants!" over and over like he thinks I'm going to for some reason force him to put them back on that day.  Sometimes if we aren't going anywhere after his nap I let him run around the house without pants on if he wants to and man does he love it!

His fine motor skills have improved so much this month.  It amazes me!  He can make such small, fine lines, loops, and squiggles.  He also does a really good job of coloring inside the lines of pictures and coloring books.  Before you could tell he was trying, but now he gets most of the coloring inside the lines with just some coloring on the outside.  He has started trying to write letters.  He can make a pretty good C and a very good O.  The rest of the letters he'll tell me what letter he's drawing and then make an O or a C.

Although Carter is a very easy going and flexible toddler, he's still 2 years old.  That means he pushes boundaries to see what he can get away with and throws the occasional tantrum.  It's usually fairly easy to talk and reason with him or redirect him, otherwise I just ignore him (which he absolutely hates).  Our biggest tantrums have involved helping me clean up.  One time involved throwing markers all over the floor so I told him he needed to clean them up.  20 minutes of crying on the ground ensued before he eventually cleaned up the markers because no way am I letting him get away with not helping clean up!  The next time was very similar.  He threw coins all over the floor and when I told him to help clean them up he threw himself down and cried.  Eventually about 30 minutes after my initial request for him to help clean them up he did and then ran over and gave me a hug.  I don't know if he was testing me to see if he could get away with not cleaning and realized he couldn't or what, but we haven't had a repeat instance.  The whole thing blew my mind because I'd talk to him and tell him he wasn't in trouble but he just needed to help clean his mess.  I'd even offer to help him.  The second time I actually had to leave the room because he was throwing such a fit and I didn't want him to get attention for his behavior. 

What else would he be doing, but throwing handfuls of dirt?

Ever since Carter started washing his hands, I've been singing him a song as he scrubs his hands. It's to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and is really simple.  It goes: "Scrub, scrub, scrub-a-dub, scrub-a-dub-a-dub, scrubbity, dubbity, dubbity, dubbity, scrub-a-dub-a-dub".  I just sing it to make sure Carter scrubs his hands for a decent amount of time and because he likes it.  It's so cute because now he'll sing himself the song as he washes his hands.  The minute he has soap on his hands he starts with "scuba!" and it is just so cute!  His favorite part of washing his hands is pushing the soap dispenser to get soap out so I let him do it for me too.

He's still very sensitive and worries about others a lot.  If one of his friends is crying he'll go check on them and ask them if they're okay.  At one of our playdates Landon was crying and Carter kept saying, "Landit okay?" and was very upset that Landon wasn't responding to him.  He also gets very upset when he feels like he's in trouble and will start crying.  I am always quick to tell him I forgive him and I love him, just don't do it again.  When he knows he's going to see one of his friends he'll tell me all the stuff he wants to say to them and will come up with whole conversations.  Then when we meet up he's so excited he forgets to say any of it.  It's hilarious!

A random word he picked up this month is people.  I was surprised the first time I heard him say it, but he definitely knows what it means.  He'll say things like "People wear shoes" and then point out the shoes everyone else is wearing.  Anytime we drive past the library he yells out "liberry!" and sometimes even says "liberry books".  He LOVES the library!  He also says bless you when someone sneezes.  One morning I sneezed in the bathroom while he was still in bed.  When I went in to get him the first thing he said was "Bless you, mommy".  I was surprised he'd even heard me sneeze!  Something else cute he does is counts to 3 and then shoves food in his mouth at meals.

We worked more with letters this month.  He already knew D for Daddy, C for Carter, and P for Paul.  After our week on letters he knows quite a few more letters, but calls a lot of them D.  For example, he'll see an H and say "D for Harper!" or he'll see an M and say "D for Mommy!"  It's so funny.  Then I realized C, D, and P are the letters he knows best and they all make very similar sounds.  He's also gotten really good at "I Spy" books.  He loves searching for things in pictures and finding them.  We were reading one where he had to find different shapes and he was able to identify them all.  I'm so impressed with how well he remembers his shapes.  He knows circle, square, triangle, rhombus, star, and heart.  He sometimes identifies ovals, but most the time calls them circles.  The same goes for rectangles.  He sometimes calls them a rectangle, but most the time calls them squares.

This one is killing me, it just might be my favorite!

His ability to know which direction we need to go and pay attention to details amazes me.  When we pull into a parking lot he knows where we are and associates places with what we did or saw there the last time.  We ran by Sonic one day running from our house and he told me, "Carcar grilled cheese, mommy!" because he remembered getting a grilled cheese sandwich there for lunch the week before.  We were taking a hike at some trails by our house.  I told Carter we wanted to stay on the yellow trail and I'd point out the markers on the trees showing us it was the yellow trail.  At one point we ended up on the blue trail by accident and Carter pointed to the blue marker on the tree saying, "Oh no, oh no blue, mommy!  Need lellow!!!!  Lellow at?"  He has also seen a car in the parking lot that was the exact make and model of Ty's car and excitedly proclaimed "daddy!" while pointing at it.  He definitely gets that talent from his daddy.  I'm a bit directionally challenged and only recognize cars I know well so I'm sure I wouldn't have as a child!

Just like every other month, this month has been my favorite with Carter.  He is an absolute blast, is picking up new information all the time, and is so much fun to have conversations with.  He is still my cuddle baby and loves to snuggle into me with his arm wrapped around my neck.  He still sucks his thumb when he's tired and wants to play with my hair.  If he's tired or upset he'll say, "Mommy, play hair?"  It's cute and slightly annoying at the same time!  I love him so much and am so ready to see him as a big brother.  On the other hand, I am not at all ready for how big he's going to look with a newborn around.  No matter how big he is, he'll always be my baby!