Carter Update

Mister Carter Man is now 3 and a quarter years old! One of his friends is 3 and a half and told Carter that the other day so Carter was excited to tell him that he is 3 and a quarter! It was quite cute! It seems like it has been so long since we celebrated his 3rd birthday. He has already grown and changed so much in the 3 months since then! He is becoming more and more of a "preschooler" and less and less of a toddler. He runs and jumps and climbs so much now, it's hard to remember a time when he still toddled! Preschool is right around the corner, not this next school year, but the following one (2017-2018). Ty and I have decided we need a transition from me and Carter being together all day every day to him being at preschool all day 5 days a week which is what is typically offered around here. So we enrolled him in a mom's morning out program for next school year which will be 2 days a week in the morning, 9:30 to noon. We just found out on Friday that he was accepted! I am so thankful because I feel like I need the transition just as much, if not more than Carter does. It's hard to think of him not being with me and having to trust him in the care of someone else. I know I've already done it before, but I also remember how painful that was. Carter was so excited to go look at schools and loved the one we picked out. I sat him down and explained to him that I won't be going to school with him, that he will be with his teacher and his friends. He then said, "So I will be alone!?" I explained to him again that he would be with a teacher and friends. He kept insisting if I wasn't there, he'd be alone, but he's gotten more used to the idea since then. We will really be playing up how much fun it will be for the next few months before he starts. I think it might be hard the first few days but will quickly become just a new part of our routine.

 

Carter continues to become more independent. He picks out his clothes and dresses himself pretty much every morning. That sometimes means he looks a bit ridiculous, but I'm okay with that. He also gets himself snacks, typically when I'm putting Elise down for her morning nap. We've talked about how he needs to wait for help for certain things, but he knows he can get into the fridge to get himself things like cheese or yogurt. It really helps me that he can do that so I don't have to worry about him coming in and waking Elise back up while I'm putting her down. He can open his yogurt and even mixes it up all by himself. He can also snap the top part of his seat belt himself and usually has that done already when I have Elise buckled and reach back to get him buckled in. He gets very upset if you try to do it for him or try to help him. He's also really good about reminding you to buckle him in. If I close the car door without buckling him, he's quick to let me know he isn't buckled. Usually I'm just shutting the door to go around to the other side, but I always thank him because I want him to continue to do that just in case I do forget at some point. He is the type of kid I always loved to have in class. He remembers stuff and will remind me very politely if I forget. He's on some antibiotics for his cut to make sure it doesn't get infected and he'll remind me he needs his medicine in the morning, at lunchtime, and at bedtime. He also reminds me to "not get his hurt wet" when he is in the bathtub because we aren't supposed to get it too wet for the first 7 days.

 

 

I'm thankful to say he is finally potty trained! So many people kept telling me he would do it when he was ready so I sat back and tried to be patient. Then all the sudden this month it finally clicked! He will go on his own and rarely has accidents. When he has an accident it's usually because he's super engaged in something or there are too many kids around. I still remind him to go at different points in the day and he sometimes says he doesn't need to and goes a gallon, but that's to be expected. He loves to surprise me by sitting on the potty. Just this morning I was in Elise's room changing her diaper and he called in to me, "Mom step into the hall, I have a surprise for you!" The surprise was that he was sitting on his potty going #2! It was a wonderful surprise. On our trip home from Houston we had a meltdown when he needed to poop and was wearing a pull up but refused to poop in his pants. I was so proud of him for not wanting to poop in his pants but there was no where to stop. We figured it out, but it was a bit of a mess! I'm so glad he's finally gotten to the point where he doesn't like poop in his pants!

 

If he gets quiet, he's usually reading. Sometimes he's up to something. At bedtime he has started doing a few things to push bedtime back. He asks for fresh water in his sippy cup by his bed. He also tends to "forget" to brush his teeth before bed so he can get out of bed to brush them. He likes his blankets to be up covering his ears and if they aren't just right, he'll call for me to pull them up for him. He still takes a nap most days. Occasionally he just isn't tired and I let him get up after he's laid down to rest for a while. I still lay with him at naptime to help him fall asleep. His naps are typically about 2 hours long. Some days they're more if he didn't sleep as much at night. Some days they are closer to 1-1.5 hours.

 

Carter is just so funny! He loves to have his towel wrapped around him after bathtime so he can pretend to be a towel ghost. He walks into the room and says boo and then squeals with excitement when you fake a scared scream. He says the goofiest things and sometimes even makes up words to be silly. He also likes to sing and his favorite is "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star". He sings the words as he remembers them and it's the cutest. I love that he'll sing to Elise when she's upset and it's usually Twinkle, Twinkle. The words he sings are: Twinkle, twinkle little star, upa upa where you are. I giggle every time and Elise usually claps for him. She adores her brother!

 

 

My little explorer loves to draw maps. He has been doing it for a while, but then he got his interactive map and really got into it. He'll draw maps for me to help me know how to get places like the library. He's also drawn maps for Oma and Opa so they'll know how to get home. I'm surprised those maps don't lead them right back to our house! Sometimes he draws maps with the United States and China on them. Those are his favorite countries to talk about right now. When he works or draws he always puts his pen behind his ear, just like his daddy. Every time I see it, I just melt!

This is a map Carter drew me so I could find the library.

Elise has started walking while pushing toys and Carter loves it! Now they can play chase by crawling around or they can chase each other with push toys. It's so cute because instead of riding his car he will push it around like Elise does and, of course, she laughs every time he drives by! It is beyond adorable when they play together, especially when they play nicely! Carter had his first trip to Urgent Care this month after taking a tumble at the park while playing chase with Elise on a ramp. He was so brave and even held my shirt to his head to apply pressure as we ran to the car. They used some glue to hold the skin together and then he got a purple slush. I was so proud of how well he did and how tough he was throughout the entire ordeal. He is such a sweet and good boy. He went through a rough patch a few months ago but each month since then has been even more fun than the last. Boy, do I love my little guy!