Christmas Round 2

Last week our Weekly Learning Theme was Christmas, but I figured instead of doing a post about it I would document our Christmas celebrations with Ty's family.  Friday afternoon we left to visit Ty's family at Carter's nap time.  We arrived a little bit before dinner and just missed his brother and sister-in-law, Paul and Amanda, who had headed out to one of her family's Christmas celebrations minutes before we arrived.  We enjoyed a delicious turkey dinner with Ty's parents and Aunt Netta.  We took Carter to see some drive through Christmas lights.  He loved them and waved at each of the lights as we drove by.  After Carter went to bed we sat around talking and were just preparing for bed when Paul and Amanda made it home so we stayed up for a while talking with them.

Bedtime stories with Gma.

Saturday morning we had a Christmas breakfast with Ty's paternal grandparents, Carter's Gigi and Papa.  Carter had a blast playing with their new puppy, Muffin.  He would run laps through the living room and kitchen while she chased him.  Carter scored some awesome new toys from his Gigi and Papa as well as Ty's Aunt Tina.  One of his favorites was a pair of kid binoculars from Aunt Tina.  He was so hilarious pointing them at people and laughing as he looked through the magnified lenses at his subject. Gma made an egg casserole with a lot of cheese and Carter tried some with no repercussions later in the day!  After all the playing and running Carter was exhausted!  As Ty pulled him out of the car back at Gma and Gpa's house, Carter said, "Daddy night night?"  Ty responded that he'd get to take a nap once he got inside. Carter excitedly said, "Thank you, daddy!"  While Carter napped the girls did our nails with nail wraps.  We were still working on them when Carter woke up so he went on an adventure in the woods by the house with his Uncle Paul.  When they came inside Carter watched, wanted to help, and put his hand out for Gma to do his nails.  The whole time he was constantly yelling "Auntie Manny!" to Amanda to make sure she saw him.  He loves his Aunt Amanda and it's so adorable how he says her name!

I see you!

Helping Gigi open a present.

Doggy pile with Auntie Amanda, Uncle Paul, and Muffin!

We matched!  I swear the size of my belly makes hers look concave!

Exploring with Uncle Paul.

Carter getting a wrap on his thumb nail.  Everytime he sees my nails he says, "pretty!"

Watching Aunt Netta do Auntie Amanda's nails.

Saturday evening we did our family Christmas.  After dinner we made chocolates.  Carter had a blast stirring his chocolate, throwing bits of smashed candy cane in, and messing up my chocolates by spilling the chocolate out of the wrapper and throwing in random ingredients.  Rocky and Leina surprised us all with matching pajamas after chocolate making.  We all changed into our jammies for a present exchange and interactive read aloud.  Carter again got some fun toys, both cars, and got distracted playing for quite a while.  Then Leina got out her nativity set and had Carter help place the characters where they belonged as she read about them in the story.  Ty even pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight to use as the star.  Carter loved the story so much that he said, "Baby Deesus" and made kissing sounds as I was carrying him to bed so I picked up the baby Jesus out of the nativity set so he could give the baby a kiss.

Gma got Carter a special elf apron that was absolutely precious!

Lots of chocolate was eaten during the making of our treats.

Carter's chocolate dipped pretzels.

Family jammy photo.

Sunday morning was a lazy morning playing with Uncle Paul, Gma, and Gpa.  Then we enjoyed another Christmas get together with Ty's maternal grandparents along with his Aunt Netta, Aunt Gena, Uncle Karl, and cousin Jessica.  We all got candy and lottery tickets as presents and then enjoyed baked macaroni and cheese and pigs in a blanket for lunch.  Carter was playing with his Gpa and then came into the room to show me he had a basketball in his shirt so he had a belly just like mommy.  It was the cutest!  When Carter went down for a nap we played some cards.  Everyone stayed for quite a while and then Ty's friends, Chris and Candice, stopped by with their children, Adelynn and Liam. Carter loved Adelynn just like always. He wanted to hug her, kiss her, and play with her hair.  At one point Carter was hugging Adelynn and she said, "Carter won't let go!"  I had to ask Carter to let go.  When he wanted to kiss her she wasn't looking at him so he grabbed her face, held it in his hands, and kissed her.  My little wild man!  He also liked Liam, calling him baby and getting down to stare into his face.  Carter sat in my lap and then wanted me to put Liam in his lap.  It was adorable!

Sipping "coffee" with Uncle Paul.  Every time Paul had coffee Carter wanted some too.

Boy band on the ukelele and flute.

He rushed to give Amanda hugs when she got home from church.

Whose belly is bigger?

It's a hard one to judge!

Hugs for Adelynn.

This was when Adelynn said Carter wouldn't let go.

Baby pile!

It was so hard to say good-bye to Paul and Amanda on Monday morning as we didn't know when we'd see them again.  They flew back to Florida in the afternoon.  Carter loved seeing his aunt and uncle so much.  It was such a fun-filled weekend and Carter loved all the attention from family members he doesn't see enough.

Christmas 2014

We prepared for Santa's arrival by making cookies on Christmas Eve.  We made the dough before Carter's nap and put it in the fridge to chill while he slept.  We then baked the cookies after he woke up and decorated them after dinner.  When it came time to set out cookies and milk for Santa, Carter very carefully selected the cookies and carried them over to the fireplace.  Then I gave him a small glass less than half full of milk to carry over and he spilled some of it as he walked so I grabbed a wash cloth to clean it up as he set the milk down.  I looked up from cleaning just in time to see him carefully pour the milk all over Santa's cookies.  Although I'm sure soggy and gross, the cookies were gone the next morning when we woke up!

 

 

Family photo before dinner.

Putting cookies out for Santa.

 

Pouring milk on Santa's cookies.

Carter woke up at 5:30 in the morning and I didn't want his crying to wake everyone else up so I went in and laid with him.  He spent the next hour rolling around the bed, playing with my hair, and not sleeping so I left around 6:30.  He started crying a little bit later so Ty went in to lay with him.  He said every time he fell asleep, he'd start to snore and Carter would wake him up by slapping him on the shoulder and saying, "No, Daddy!"  He did much better with Ty in with him and slept until 8:30 once he fell back to sleep.  I headed into the room with Carter and Ty when Carter woke up.  Carter has a small tree in his bedroom and was excited to see Santa left a couple of small presents under it.  I brought him into our room with those presents when he woke up and he read his Rudolph book while I brushed my teeth.  Then we ventured into the kitchen to wake up Oma and Opa and check out the gifts from Santa.  Santa had left gifts right in front of the fireplace just like he did at Ty's house when Ty was little.  Carter was immediately excited when he discovered his Elmo ball pit.  He climbed into it and noticed it was up off that ground.  That's when he realized it was sitting on top of a trampoline!  He couldn't decide which gift he enjoyed more and would jump on the trampoline, slide off into the ball pit, play with balls, and then climb back onto the trampoline to jump.  I had texted Uncie Jeremy when Carter woke up and he arrived while Carter played with his big Santa gifts.  Uncie Taco spent the night at our house and came in to watch Carter play.

Playing in his ball pit.

He loved his trampoline.

Next Carter checked his stocking and each thing he pulled out of it he wanted to play with right away.  Once he started opening presents he would stop between each present to play with it for a while or to read it if it was a book.  It was so cute!  Santa brought a stocking for Elise and Carter wanted to put on a pair of socks that were left for Elise.  It was crazy to put them up to his foot and notice they were about the size of his big toe!  After a while he was overwhelmed with all the presents and had so many toys to play with.  He decided to head into the living room and play on the train table while the rest of us opened presents.  We finished just in time for lunch and then Carter went down for a nap with a decent pile of presents leftover to open in the afternoon.

Enjoying his new cars and his car transporter.

While Carter napped my mom, dad, and Jeremy headed out to run.  I took a short little 20 minute nap and then met them out at the trails for a run.  The temperature was 58 degrees so I ran in shorts and my Jingle Bellies tank top to run on Christmas. It was amazing!  I had time to take a quick shower when we got home and Carter was awake when I got out.  He played more with all of his toys and then opened the rest of his presents.  It was so much fun watching him enjoy his presents.  Bathtime was also a treat as he had new tub crayons to draw with and a bubble blower.  Little man was so tired from his exciting day he fell asleep almost immediately.  Once Carter was down for the night we played games and enjoyed talking and laughing.  It was a wonderful Christmas and we are excited for our 2nd Christmas with Ty's family!  Read about last year's Christmas here.

My Best Friend Is Having a Baby, Too!!!!

I've been wanting to share this news with you guys for a long time, but I was waiting for my friend to share the news publicly first.  Now that I'm finally able to write this post I'm sure it will sit as a draft for quite some time before I get the chance to publish it.  With Mondays devoted to Weekly Learning Themes, Tuesdays devoted to Bumpdates, and Wordless Wednesday that only leaves Thursday and Friday for other posts because it's so nice to take the weekends off from blogging and enjoy my time with Ty and visitors during Carter's nap.

My best friend from high school, Erin, has a 3 year-old-son, Hayden.  Hayden is a year and 2 months older than Carter and they are the best of friends.  Carter adores Hayden, calling him "Haydee" and Hayden is very sweet and loving with Carter.  Just look at the adorable picture of them holding hands.  It will melt your heart.  I know it does mine each time I see it!  My only wish is that we lived closer to each other.  We are 2 hours apart which really is not bad and we typically see each other about once a month, I just wish we could get the boys together more often!  Erin was such an awesome resource when I was pregnant.  She had been through it recently enough she remembered a lot and was able to answer my questions.  As a working mom I called her on various occasions crying and hoping for reassurance that working would get easier.  She even loaned me all of her maternity clothes so I ended up only buying a couple of things the whole time I was pregnant with Carter, mostly just for fun.

Now that the background is set, on to the exciting part.  After our miscarriage I was hesitant to share the news we were pregnant again.  Not necessarily because I didn't want to have to bear bad news if things didn't work out, more so because I didn't feel ready.  I waited until after our first doctor's appointment at 8 weeks to call Erin.  I called her on the way home from the appointment and she was at the store.  We talked for a little bit and then she asked if she could call back later to talk more when she wasn't distracted by shopping.  When she called me back she said she'd been at the store buying pregnancy tests.  She took a test that night and it said pregnant!  I was so excited!  I knew they had started trying to get pregnant again around the time we miscarried so I had been hoping when I called to tell her I was pregnant she'd say, "Me too!"  The craziest part of it all is that we are exactly one month apart in our pregnancies.  I am due April 7th and she is due May 7th!  It makes it really easy to remember how many weeks pregnant she is!  Erin and Hayden came to our gender reveal and found out along with us that we are having a girl.  I knew she was also hoping to have a girl and deep down I really felt like they were.  Her appointment was a long wait from our gender reveal and the ultrasound revealed that she is also having a girl!  How perfect is that?  Carter and Hayden are only a year apart and are such good friends.  Now our sweet girls will be a month apart and will undoubtedly be inseparable!

When we first found out we were both pregnant we started taking "bumpdate" pictures together anytime we visited each other.  It's going to be so much fun to track our pregnancies together!  The only bad part is that she is naturally much thinner than I am and makes for a cuter pregnant momma than me.  Add on the fact that I'll always be a month ahead of her and I'm going to look so big in all the pictures!  But who really cares, right?!!?  I love that we'll have the pictures to show our girls one day.  Then they'll know they were friends before they were born!

Erin 4 weeks, Me 8 weeks (The weekend after she found out she was pregnant!)

Me 11 weeks, Erin 7 weeks (Before our 10 year high school reunion)

Posing with our boys.

Me 16 weeks, Erin 12 weeks (At Ty and my gender reveal)

Me 18 weeks, Erin 14 weeks.

Me 24 weeks, Erin 20 weeks (at Carter's 2nd birthday party).

I'm excited to finally be posting this about a month after I initially wrote it.  I hope you all are having a very merry Christmas!  We sure are!

Edit: More Pregnant Pictures of us together!

Erin 30 weeks, Me 34 weeks (at Erin's sprinkle).

Erin 31 weeks, Me 35 weeks (at my sprinkle).

Carter's 2 Year Check-Up and Wordless Wednesday

Carter had his 2 year check-up yesterday and I wanted to go ahead and share about it.  I'll share all the details and then go ahead and post all our random pictures from the week below it in an update/Wordless Wednesday combo.  Our appointment was at 8 am so, of course, Carter slept in and I had to go wake him up at 7:15.  He was tired and is getting to the age where he remembers the doctor's office and what it means so he wasn't happy about being there and fussed while the nurse took his measurements.  Little mister is still such a skinny boy!  He weighed in at 26.4 pounds which puts him in the 34th percentile.  His growth has slowed down a little bit as he grew less than an inch since his last appointment in June.  He is now 34.8 inches which puts him in the 66th percentile.  That noggin of his is still in the 94th percentile at 20 inches.  I was impressed that his head circumference increased by almost as much as his height (0.6 inches compared to 0.8 inches)!

I had a list of questions for the doctor and he's always so good about being really thorough with his answers.  I asked about Carter's egg allergy.  He said since we've given him foods with egg in it and he's had no problems and his allergy was very mild, we can try giving him eggs.  He suggested touching eggs and then touching Carter.  If he has no reaction (which I don't think he will since he only threw up from eating eggs and his skin never broke out) we can then let him touch the eggs.  If he still has no reaction we are to have him touch the eggs and then rub his face.  Then rub the eggs and put his hand in his mouth, slowly working up to him actually eating eggs.  He said Carter may not want to eat them as they are a gross texture and he hasn't had them before.  I agree with that because Carter didn't like them before we found out he was allergic and mostly threw them on the floor anyway.

I also asked about Carter's car seat.  We still have him rear-facing because the car seat says you can keep your child rear-facing if they are less than 40 pounds and less than 40 inches.  Carter is below both of those requirements.  All the research I've done says to keep children rear-facing for as long as possible.  Our doctor said that rear-facing is still the safest way for him to travel.  He said at this age children's heads are still large compared to the rest of their bodies so it is safer for them to be rear-facing.  He said to keep him rear-facing for as long as Carter will tolerate it and honestly, he has never had a problem with it.  Other people have commented that he would enjoy forward-facing and could see more, but he doesn't mind it one bit.  He is really good in his car seat and does great on car rides as long as they aren't happening around bedtime.  So I guess we'll just keep it rear-facing for now and go from there.  40 inches seems like such a long ways off.  I know we'll reach that before Carter gets to 40 pounds.  But if rear-facing is what's safest for him, you bet your bottom it's what we'll be doing!  If he's uncomfortable and fusses due to the length of his legs or something like that, then we'll face him forward.  Until then he'll be backward.

Now for other random information from my questions.  Carter can switch over to skim milk (he's been drinking 2% for a while now).  Carter doesn't need to go to the dentist until he's 3 or 4 unless we see signs of decay or have history of poor teeth ourselves.  The patch of rough skin behind his knee is eczema.  We just need to put lotion on it unless he starts scratching it and it's obvious it itches.  There really isn't an age where I should be concerned that he isn't telling me he has to potty before he goes.  I was starting to worry that there could be some kind of issue because he's caught off guard by going potty and will cry and get upset when he's in big boy undies because he didn't know to go to the potty chair.  I guess I just worry more because Ty had surgeries at a young age.  Our doctor said he wouldn't be concerned about Carter not knowing when he needed to potty even up to 4 years old!

On to Wordless Wednesday:

Wearing slippers that used to be Uncie Jeremy's!

Landon and Carter posing with a nutcracker while waiting on Santa.

Carter didn't like this Santa.

Santa insisted I sit on his lap so Elise could be in the picture.  It was awkward!

 

 

Ty was still sleeping Saturday morning and Carter wanted to get in bed with him.  Then he sat up a few minutes later declaring, "Daddy up!"

Uncie Paul and Gpa.

 

Riding on his road the morning after his party.

 

 

Carter asked to nap in our bed, but then wanted to go to his after he realized I wasn't going to sleep.

Excited for Bobbie to sit in his lap.

 

This Santa was awesome and tickled Carter to get him to smile.

Watching part of the Polar Express movie at Landon's house.

Carter watched the train sliding on ice scene of the movie and then took off to play.

Reading a new book with Opa.