Summary of Some Sunny Sunday

Here's a short summary of our day:


Tried on some new shoes (well these are boots, but that dosen't start with an "S" now does it?")

Went from shaggy to shorn.

Ate some spaghetti squash and swooned.

(Which by the way Mike also tried and liked. I believe he said something along the way about how his entire world has been shifted. He can't believe he tried spaghetti squash and it wasn't disgusting. He mentioned fleeing to the woods for six months or so to regain his bearings.) Ok, melodramatic Mike ramblings aside:

We rooted for the Steelers! (well, 50% of us did!)

What a stupendous Sunday!

We have an escapee

Oh, how quickly little ones can get into trouble. While in the bathroom the other day, I heard the deadbolt on our front door click open. This is nothing new, as Carter has been locking and unlocking the door about a thousand times a day lately. But then I heard something that made me jump and run. The front door opened! By the time I get outside I ask Carter: What are you doing? And he tells me: walk. The boy wanted to go for a walk. Luckily he got no further than the driveway, but come on!!! Help a mommy out! So now there is a toddler lock on the front door.

Carter the gregarious people lover

So just in case you haven't met Carter he LOVES people. Here's two recent examples of our friendly boy:

On the way out of the ER Carter is yelling to every nurse, doctor, therapist, patient or living being that he sees: BYE! BYE! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!! BYE! And you have to acknowledge him, because if the person he is trying to talk to dosen't acknowledge him, he will yell even louder.

Also this week: we were driving in the car and stopped at a red light. Carter starts yelling HI CAR! HI CAR! I look over my shoulder and realize that he is yelling at the van parked next to us. And sure enough two dirty, hairy men are smiling and waving at him.

Just walking through the YMCA he says HI! to every adult and child he sees.

He will definetely be the child that's most likely to be abducted. We'll definetely have to work on keeping the friendliness but maintaining distance from strangers.

He must take after his Bob-bob. He's the other person in the family that will talk to anyone and everyone.

official complaint

I'm lodging an official complaint against whoever is supposed to be watching these kids.

Today I found Carter trying to cut Avery's fingernails. With actual fingernail clippers. Thank goodness I caught him before he drew any blood.

Then, I caught him trying to shove the bulb syringe (snot sucker) up her nose. Once again, thank goodness I caught him before he sucked out any brains.

Mike thinks we need to get a nanny cam.

Safety Fair at Bridgewater Falls

Wowza, what a crazy day! We were running from sun up to sun down. Daddy brought home a cap from his billionaire's baseball game last night.


Then we went to the Safety Fair at Bridgewater Falls. Carter got to watch a helicopter take off, which was soooooo cool no matter how old you are.

Posting with Mommy in front of a fire truck.

Here's a little flashback to the Safety Fair September 2008. And here's Carter in front of the very same firetruck.

Except this year he did not like being up on the fire truck. Maybe because it was an Ohio State brutus truck?

We also got to see a sky diver jump out of a plane. Carter was in awe of this and watched the parachutist for several minutes until he landed in the parking lot.

Oh, Puppa! So much fun exploring fire trucks, SWAT trucks, ambulances, helicopters and police cars. We also had a family picnic at a local park with my Mom's group. We came home with a very dirty, exhausted and throughly played out little boy (my favorite kind.) Now time to enjoy a movie and relax!!!!

Sitting Pretty

Avery learned a new skill today!

She's not very good at it yet, so the video is a little iffy.

Breakfast and other Carterisms

Yelling at Avery: KNEEEEEEE and point to his knee.

Carter, What do you want for breakfast? Answer: Beans.


Gank you Gamma. For what? eat. (apparently I starve the 32 pound child that's in the 95th percentile for weight, can't you tell.)

Five! Cinco! Cinq!

Five. Cinco. Cinq. Cinque.

Five fantastic, festive months old.

Rainbow Toast

Today for snack we made rainbow toast and it was a real hit! Take three cups of milk and add food coloring to each cup. Make sure toddler counts all three cups and names the color in each.

Then paint bread with the milk. (Don't worry, Mom made the letter C. He is exceptionally bright, but he's not a genius.)

Put the bread into the toaster and then behold at your creations! Add some butter and cinnamon and sugar.

Enjoy!

Licking the crumbs (and cinnamon and sugar) off the plate is entirely optional.

Cincy Museum Take Two

Friday night we returned to the cincy museum for the last free friday of the season. Check out here for our last trip to the museum. We all had a blast!
Well, except for our little Ava roo. She is definetely more sensitive than her brother. She spent much of the evening with tears in her eyes. She was very afraid of the elevator. She was very happy as long as her mama or daddy were holding her. And then the ride home. OH. MY. GAWD. She cried from the museum all the way home. I even stopped half way in West Chester to nurse her to calm her down.

Mom? Dad? Why did you leave me in front of this thing?

Checking out the dead birds with the magnifying glass.

Magnifying glass explorations.

Gank Gu Bo

We recently acquired a swing set for Carter in the backyard. He LOVES IT! We go out every morning during Avery's naptime and every evening when Daddy comes home. He has definetely gotten a ton of use out of it already. Today while we were outside, Carter was running around saying "Gank gu Bo, Gank gu Bo." Which translated means "Thank you Bo, Thank you Bo." I asked him "Thank you for what?" And Carter said "wing, gank gu bo" which means swings, thank you bo. Not thank you Daddy, Mommy, Gamma or Jay. Thank you Bo.

Anyhoo, here are some pictures of our family in the backyard last night.

Smiling while trying to climb the slide.

Helping Dad push Ava in the baby swing.

Walking inside for the evening. Daddy can't get enough of his new clubs.

So, thank you Bo for the new swingset.

How to P.O. your toddler

In case you were wondering here's how to P.O. your toddler:

Step 1: Place toddler in car seat.

Step 2: Coat toddler's hands in Purell to make sure he's not bringing home any crazy diseases from story time at the library.

Step 3: During the car ride home the toddler will start screaming as he has rubbed purell into his eyes.

Step 4: Race home as fast as you can, but allow toddler to scream the entire ride home. "EYES MAMA EEEEEEEEYYEEEES!"

Step 5: Bring toddler into the house and attempt to flush eyes out with water. Believe me this will not go well, but it will make your toddler go from Level 5 anger to level 10 anger.

Step 6: Finally realize that no water is actually going into the toddler's eyes and it's all on the counter, clothing and floor.

At this point it's just best to calm the toddler down as he is starting to spasm with anger. Cookies and juice will help.

So does anyone know of any alternatives to an alcohol based hand cleaner?

gymnastics and apples

Yesterday was a busy day for us. Mike was home sick with the flu, and don't you know it's darn near impossible to keep a toddler away from his idol? And yes, Daddy is his idol. Thankfully, the kids seem to be doing ok, not showing any signs of illness so let's hope it stays that way. Also, yesterday was Carter's first gymnastics class. It worked out well that Mike was home because he watched Avery while we went to class. It was so. much. fun. So. much. fun. To say that he had a blast was an understatement. The class started with warm up and stretching, then they worked on locomotor skills such as: rolling like a caterpillar, running like a cheetah, crawling like a dog and hopping like a bunny. The class ended with practicing on gym equipment. They had a balance beam for the kids to walk on, a bar for them to hang from, a tunnel to crawl through, a wedge shaped mat to roll down and a tall mat to jump off of. Carter's favorite activity was walking over the beam. He really suprised me by doing fantastic on the beam. He walked forward and sideways the whole length of the beam only holding my hand. I'll have to take some pictures when Mike comes to watch.

And in Ava news, she tried apples yesterday. Mom where are my bananas? I really like bananas.

Mom, this isn't bananas! I want bananas! Apples stink! I'm going to cry and cringe and make yucky faces and pretend to gag and spit them out until you give me bananas!

Avery's baptism

Here are some pictures from Avery's baptism:

She was directly under a light and it made it look like she was glowing.

God parents: Tiffany and Patrick, parents and Avery.

Getting ready for the baptism.

God Bless....

Every night before Carter goes to bed we say our prayers together. First we say the Our Father and then we move onto blessing the people in our lives. Before he could talk I would always bless Momma, Daddy and baby Avery (even when I was still pregnant with her.) Now that he is speaking more and more I've been asking him who he would like to bless. Normally it's people like: Bo, Gamma, Meme, Bob Bob, Jay, Tiff (Tuff in Carterese) Momma and Daddy. (By the way, he really really really loves to bless Bob Bob. He usually says Bob Bob at least ten times while we are saying prayers. Hmmmmmmm.) Anyways, lately he has been blessing some things which are a little less run of the mill such as:

• Elmo
• lights
• jeep
• cake
• cars
• wipes

You know what bud, I guess I do give thanks for these things. Life would be pretty tough without lights, just ask the amish. And cake is gooo-ooood. And of course my life really does revolve around baby wipes.

Just one more quick Carter story and then you can go about your day, um-kay? So Carter ate snack the other day at 3 o'clock. He had a huge snack of an entire banana, grapes, two graham crackers, sunbutter, a gogurt and a glass of milk. Then at 3:30 he was hungy. Not just hungry but famished. Starving. Dying from hunger. Whining at me "EEEEEEAATTTTTT." But no baby I tell him, it's not time to eat we just ate our snack and then we will eat dinner when daddy gets home. But he continues "EEEEEEEAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTT" in a dying goat voice. But honey, it's not time to eat. "MAMA EEEAAATTTTTTTTT." Sweetie, it is not dinner time yet. He seemed ok with this and stopped nagging and then we went upstairs to his bedroom. In the middle of playing he runs over and points at the clock on the wall. "OOOOHHHH" he says to me "clock Carter eat." I was kind of floored by this. He knew the clock tells time and that the clock could say it was time to eat. And yet, I still told him it wasn't time to eat yet. I am a mean mommy.

a sneak peek!

Here's a little sneak peek into Ava's baptism which will be Sunday, September 6th. I LOVE baby bonnets. If it were up to me, she would wear one every day. And if it were up to Mike she would NEVER wear one. So shhh, don't tell him that she is going to wear one to her baptism. I have two different bonnets that she could wear, so leave a comment and tell me which one you like best. Here is option A:




I am swooning. And melting into a little puddle of goo. How sweet. Did I mention that I LOOOOOOVE baby bonnets. They're so cute and old-fashioned.

And here is option B:


I think I'm leaning toward option A, its the one that matches her baptism dress. Thanks, Riley for letting us borrow it!

freckle juice

No need to try to wipe off your monitor. That really is A's very first freckle! (Although thanks to my toddler it looks like she has about ten freckles, dirty monitor.) She also has another teeny tiny freckle starting on her other cheek. Better start the daily sunscreen (when she turns 6 months of course) or at least get some lemon juice to make some freckle juice.