Our Little Baker

This morning it was rainy and a surprising 64 degress, yesterday it got up to 97!  With the rain and added darkness Carter slept in until 7:20!  Talk about the perfect way to start our Saturday.  My parents are visiting to do some more work on Thomas' house.  It looks like he'll be ready to move in soon.  He plans to stay at our house while we are in Florida next week with Ty's family (we can't wait!!!) so he can take care of Harper and Skippy.  Then he should be ready to move into his house when we return.  We had some over-ripe bananas I had meant to make banana bread with the day before and hadn't.  My mom decided to whip some up with Carter.  He mashed the bananas with a potato masher, added all the ingredients together in a bowl with some help, and mixed everything up.  He looked so cute concentrating so hard as he worked and got a little bit messy at first so we pulled out an apron Gigi made me for Christmas one year.  It is adjustable and an added bonus is that it fits Carter!  Other than pulling out a chunk of banana, taking a bite, and then throwing it back in, he was all business.  He also wanted to touch the raw egg, but did really well when we told him it was yucky and would make him sick because it had to be baked.  After that all I had to say was "yucky, yuck" if he went to touch it and he'd stop.  He was so proud of his banana bread and kept wanting to go look at it while it was in the oven.  He would come over to me and say "I, I, I" and then lead me over to the oven to show me the banana bread.  I think he said "I, I, I" because he had made it.

Smashing bananas before it got too messy.

Adding an egg grampy cracked into a measuring cup for him.

Mommy, look, I'm mixing!

Extreme concentration.

The view from behind was so cute!

Grammy helping to add vanilla.

He wanted to use the teaspoon to drop the flour in a little at a time...

Since the weather was so perfect I headed out for my long run shortly after the bread went into the oven.  My parents said Carter kept wanting to get the bread out of the oven and they would tell him, "It's not ready yet".  So he went and got an oven mitt and stood by the oven saying, "Ready!?"  I'm not sure how they finally distracted him as the bread had to cook for an hour!  When the bread was ready he was extremely excited and enjoyed a few pieces before I got home.  It was so nice to come home to the smell of fresh banana bread that even after my 10 mile run was still warm.  I swear it tasted even better knowing that Carter had made it.  It was so cute to see how proud he was and how excited he was to eat the banana bread.  It's amazing how children react when they have ownership of a project.  I was amazed time and time again at school how proud children were over even the smallest tasks, simply because they were trusted to do it themselves.  Carter and I have cooked together before, but I must say it was a lot more fun with 3 adults to 1 toddler! 

Checking on the bread in the oven.

Ready to get it out!

Excited to try his creation!

Tastes better when you make it yourself!

Sad to See Grammy Go

Carter enjoyed another day at home with his grammy today.  Thanks to grammy I was able to sleep in.  Carter woke up at 5:20 so Ty brought him to bed.  We then slept until 6:45 when Carter decided to sit up in bed.  Since I didn't have to drop Carter off at daycare I was able to leave the house 30 minutes later than usual so I had extra play time with him in the morning.  He looked so adorable in his new overalls and he even read me a book.

Sweet baby napping.

Cutest position ever!

Grammy took Carter to the zoo after lunch.  It sounded like they had a blast.  Carter rode the carousel for the first time and in the picture looked a bit frightened.  There was a mishap with a water bottle and Carter ended up fairly soaked with water and there was a puddle of water in his stroller.  It looked as though Carter's favorite animals on this trip were the meerkats.  It's interesting to see, and in this case hear, how Carter's preferences change with each trip.

New sunglasses grammy bought at the zoo gift shop.

Looking a bit unsure about the carousel.

Soaking wet baby!

Watching the meerkats!

After 3 days of sleeping in, leaving for work late, receiving pictures of Carter throughout the day, and knowing Carter was getting one-on-one attention, it was sad to see grammy leave this evening.  I sure will miss hearing the ding of my phone and being greeted with a picture of Carter upon checking my phone.  I'm sure Carter will also be disappointed.  At one point this evening my mom went out to the car and Carter cried by the door until she returned. 

More pictures grammy sent me during the day.

 

Grammy to the Rescue!

Sunday afternoon Carter took a 3 hour nap which made me nervous he was getting sick because he never sleeps that long.  Then Sunday night he struggled all night waking up at 11, 11:45, 12, 3:30, and then eventually for the day at 6:15.  As I pulled my tired hiney out of bed Monday morning I debated whether I should keep him home or not.  I took his temperature 5 times with each reading right around 98.5 degrees.  So off we went, me half wishing he'd had a temp so I could have stayed home from work.  Let's be honest, I was full on wishing that! 

Almost half-way through my day, at 11:00, I got the dreaded call from daycare.  It was Carter's teacher informing me he had a temperature of 102.9 degrees.  I tried not to panic, but he'd never had a temperature of 101 or above, so I was worried.  I was also concerned his temperature had spiked that much in just a few short hours.  I rushed around creating sub plans and setting out materials and texted Ty to call for an appointment.  When I arrived to pick Carter up he was still wearing his socks and shoes which I thought was ridiculous and immediately pulled them off.  By the time we got home the highest reading I got using our temporal thermometer was 100.3.  I felt much better knowing his temperature wasn't as high as they reported but I was also frustrated.  We've had so many times where I've gotten a phone call that Carter's temperature was above 100.4 and I had to pick him up only to find he didn't have a temperature at all or it was a low-grade 99 degree temperature when we got home.  I'm about at the height of frustration on this issue, but that's a whole post all on it's own.

Carter and I arrived for our appointment at the doctor's office.  He was very obviously not feeling well and spent our entire wait with his head rested on my chest barely moving his eyes.  They took us back and the nurse took his temperature, looked at the thermometer, and quizzically asked me what I had gotten as his temperature.  She took his temperature multiple times, each time with a reading of high-99's to low-100's.  The doctor came in, spent a very long time listening to Carter's chest, checked his ears, checked his throat, and diagnosed him with a bad cold or upper respiratory infection.  He suggested giving Carter Ibuprofen for the temperature and we were on our way.

Daycare policy states children must remain fever free for 24 hours before returning to daycare so I knew Carter would need to stay home the following day.  My sick days are quickly dwindling and Ty may have a few hours at most.  My mom very graciously offered to come watch Carter for us and after my overly emotional and utterly exhausted self burst into tears at the thought of not being home with Carter when he was sick and the frustration that I had to work, I accepted.  She headed down last night and was here all day with him.

I had already arranged for coverage for the start of the school day so I could take Carter to his follow-up appointment with the ENT to check on his ear tubes.  Mom went with me so I could leave straight from the appointment to go to work and save some time.  Lately when we are ready to leave in the morning, I've been telling Carter it's time to go bye bye.  He'll head over to the front door and reach for the doorknob, trying to turn it.  I figured I'd show mom what he does so before we left I told Carter it was time to go bye bye.  He was sitting in a chair, looked at me, then looked over at his grammy, and just sat there.  I guess he figured since grammy was here, he was just gonna hang out at home.  Such a cutie!  What Carter normally does:

When we did talk him into leaving we headed to the ENT.  They again started with the hearing test which my mom found as comical as I did.  She may need to have her own hearing tested.  She said she thought Carter was turning his head in anticipation of the toy moving and then realized he heard a sound that she was unable to hear.  He did wonderfully on his hearing test and he now had mobility of his ear drum.  The doctor checked out his ears and said everything looks great.  I double-checked to make sure we didn't need to protect his ears any more than we already would have.  He verified that was correct and told us Carter would have to be in 5-6 feet of water for the pressure to disturb the tubes.  He joked you can tell the age of an ENT by whether they recommend using ear plugs.  I thought that was funny.

From there I headed to work and mom headed home with Carter.  Fortunately he was feeling almost back to normal today and had a blast with his grammy.  One of the major perks of Carter being home with his grammy is that she sends me pictures and updates throughout the day.  I love knowing what he's up to and seeing his handsome face!  I have his daycare schedule, but that's just not the same as knowing exactly what he's doing at an exact moment in time.  I sure am thankful for such an amazing mom and I know Carter is also thankful for his amazing grammy! 

All the pictures from grammy: