Carter Update

It's starting to get hard to remember exactly how many months old Carter is.  I had to stop and think about it this month whereas before I always just knew.  Carter is now 2 years, 5 months old!  I can't believe he is almost 2 and a half years old!!!!  Ang visited us earlier this week and mentioned his 3rd birthday coming up and I just wasn't prepared to discuss it.  For whatever reason 3 years just seems so much older than 2!  I'm not ready for him to be that grown up, but it's happening anyway!  Carter thought it was hilarious to stick his foot up in front of the lens of the camera while I tried to take pictures and I thought it was pretty funny too.  It's worked out really well for me to sneak the camera with us while we play somewhere and take pictures every once in a while so Carter doesn't notice.  Today I took it along on a walk and snapped pictures as he played in puddles.

Blocking my shot!

 

This month I have been noticing how much Carter's imagination has grown.  When he plays by himself he cracks me up and I love listening to what he says when he's pretending his toys are talking.  His favorite things to play with are his cars.  He is always playing with them.  His absolute favorite is his "Lightning Ceam" or Lightning McQueen car he bought with Valentine's Day money from his Gma and Gpa.  He makes his cars talk to each other while they drive around.  Lightning McQueen is always the leader telling the other cars to "Come on!" and then driving off while they follow along behind him.  I was cracking up one day because there was a blanket in the chair and he was pretending it was a cave.  One of his cars wanted to drive into the cave and all the other cars were telling it not to.  Then he drove the car into the cave and all the cars started yelling, "Noooo!!!!"

He is still the sweetest little snuggle bug!  I always call him my snuggle bug and he loves it.  One day when he woke up from his nap he wanted me to lay down with him so I did.  Then he scooted back until he was spooning me, turned to look at me, smiled, and said, "Carter mommy's nuggle bug."  I loved it!  I wasn't thinking one day and while I was holding Elise she nuzzled into my shoulder.  I told Erin, who we were visiting, that Elise was my snuggle bug.  I heard Carter take a sharp, quick breath of air so I looked over at him.  A frown spread across his face as he said, "Carter mommy's nuggle bug!"  I've made sure ever since to refer to Carter as my snuggle bug and Elise as my cuddle bunny.

 

One cute thing he's started doing is using the word love.  He'll excitedly tell me he loves books when we get ready to read.  He'll tell me how he loves sissy and how Harper loves sissy.  Usually he just uses love when referencing other people.  The only objects he's said he loves are books which is pretty awesome in my opinion!  He also started saying "See you next time," when someone leaves or we leave to go home from somewhere.  It's so cute and something totally his own as none of us ever say it.  One day he told his Oma that he wanted a brother.  We'll see about that, kid!  He's been very curious about where Elise came from and why I was bleeding so I explained to him that sissy came out down there and that's why I was bleeding.  He was playing at the park and I heard him say to a kid, "I Carter Ty.  I baby.  When I baby I come out of mommy's hiney," then he pointed at me.  I laughed so hard.  The other kid didn't understand what he said and hopefully when he says something like that and is understood the parents aren't the type who tell their kids weird stuff like a stork drops off babies! Going along with that he's starting to understand that he's a boy and what makes him a boy. He understands that Elise and I are girls and that we have the parts that babies come from. If we ask whether someone is a boy or girl he can tell us. Before he thought everyone was a girl and argued with you if you told him he was a boy. He would insist he was a girl. He is finally starting to use I, me, and you when he speaks.  He loves to sing and can be heard randomly singing one of his favorite songs multiple times a day.  His favorites right now are Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Wheels on the Bus, and The Itsy Bitsy Spider.

 

A new skill he's picked up has been that he can open the fridge.  He's been able to open most doors for a while which is a blessing and a curse.  He can open his bedroom door and come out on his own which is nice because I can yell for him to go ahead and come out of his room when he wakes up from a nap and I'm feeding Elise that way I don't have to go in to get him.  It can be a pain in that he loves to open the pantry door to feed the animals, which is so helpful, but he doesn't really understand how much food they are supposed to get.  He'll fill the entire cup, which we use to measure both Harper and Skippy's food, with cat food and feed Skippy when he only gets half of what Harper gets.  Then he'll give Harper seconds or decide she needs to eat dinner at 4 pm.  It's nice he can get into the fridge and get his sippy cup or put it back in when he's finished drinking.  But then there are the times when I'm nursing Elise and I hear the fridge door open and him rustling around in it only to find him sneak eating grapes.  Lucky for us he sneaks grapes and yogurt out of the fridge and oranges out of the fruit basket.  He could be sneaking cheese or something else less healthy.

 

Carter is the sweetest big brother always wanting to take care of Elise.  He'll tell Harper to leave her alone when she sniffs her, tells her to get off Elise's blanket when Elise is laying on the floor, and gets upset when Harper sniffs Elise while she's strapped into her car seat.  If Elise cries he runs over and tries to hold her.  I'll hear him yell, "Coming Sissy," or "Just a minute," when she's crying.  There have been times she was crying and I headed over to get her, but Carter got there before me and put her pacifier in her mouth.   Just today she started fussing while we were eating lunch.  I went over to rinse my hands before getting her.  That wasn't fast enough for Carter and by the time I got her she had ketchup finger prints and lip marks on her forehead!  Carter gets very upset when she cries.  He'll tell me, "Mommy, get sissy."  If I don't go in what he feels is a timely manner, he'll say, "Mommy get sissy, come now!"  He'll also say, "Sissy, pass-fi-er," when he thinks she needs her pacifier.  One day I was in the shower and I had Elise set up in the bouncer in the doorway to the bathroom so I could watch her.  She started crying and I looked over to see Carter come running in, slam against the wall in his haste, drop to the floor, and begin reading her a book he brought in with him.  He'll also ask me to sing to her when she cries, usually when we're in the car.  There's a song I made up for Carter when he was a baby and just changed the words a little bit for Elise.

Who's a baby, who's a baby, who's a baby Carter Ty.
Who's a baby, who's a baby, apple of his mommy's eye (I switch out the name with daddy, his granparents, and his uncles and aunts).

Who's a baby, who's a baby, who's a baby Elise Kay.
Who's a baby, who's a baby, always making mommy's day.

Carter will ask me to sing the song and once I start he'll yell "Auntie Manny, Uncle Pau!" because he wants me to sing it with their names listed.  When I sing it I'll switch back and forth between the Carter lyrics and the Elise lyrics.  If he thinks I'm going to skip Aunt Amanda or Uncle Paul's names, he'll start yelling them to me before I get to that line.  It is so funny!!!!

As much as he loves his sister and loves to help with her, he still gets jealous from time to time.  Interestingly enough it usually happens when other people are around visiting.  My only guess is that I spend less time on him and focus a bit more on Elise when I have other people around to help out.  I don't notice it, but I'm sure it happens.  A lot of times it's the day after so on Monday after everyone has visited for the weekend.  He was all about the fits while Auntie Ang was visiting and threw 2 in one day!  He threw himself down and wouldn't walk while at the aquarium because he wanted me to carry him but I was wearing Elise.  He wasn't interested in Auntie Ang carrying him.  Then we got him to walk all the way to the car but he sat on the ground and refused to get in.  It was fun times, but thankful not giving him what he wanted while he was throwing the fit seemed to work.  I've gotten to where I honestly don't care when people stare at me while my child defiantly lays on the floor.  They can judge all they want, but I'm not giving in to a toddler's tantrum.

My favorite moments this month were watching him dance at the wedding and seeing his daddy get him dressed in the wrong clothes.  At the wedding he was all over the dance floor, running circles, bouncing, spinning, it was a blast!  After he left I noticed my face hurt from smiling so much.  He really is the best and makes all parts of life more fun!  While we were visiting my parents I had packed Carter and Elise's clothes into a duffle bag together.  Ty went to change Carter's pants because they were dirty and when I looked at Carter walking back into the room I burst into laughter.  At first I couldn't figure out what was wrong with his shorts as they were skin tight and stopped right above his knees.  Then I realized they belonged to Elise.  They were navy blue newborn sized long pants.  That just goes to show how tiny his waist is that he was able to squeeze into them!  I asked Carter if he wanted me to take him in to change his pants and he refused.  We were all so busy laughing, I even had tears running down my face, that we didn't get a picture of him in them.  The funniest part was Carter's complete indifference.  I love my easy going, sweet natured little toddler!