Peeky-Boo!

Carson has been in such a good mood this week. I know that's probably weird to say, but it seems like all of a sudden he is kind of starting to mellow out emotionally and doesn't fly off the handle all the time. He has been calling everything a "big boy ____" even though I don't think he really knows why he's saying it. Somehow in the last couple weeks he also totally decided he loves to sleep. That is a lot to say for this child who fought me for over a year straight on it! He doesn't want me to rock him at all after we read and just points to the crib saying "nappy-do". He lays right down, tells me night-night or love you and goes right to sleep. 

He started giving me kisses on my cheeks out of nowhere now. He makes a big kissy noise before and during the actual kiss, but doesn't do that with a kiss on the lips.

He's getting so good at putting new sentences together. He loves saying "my name is Tarson!" (he pronounces it like that). When I ask him what my name is he says, "your name is Rachael!". For my mom he says, "your name is Grandma Rachael!" Today when I picked him up from daycare he told me he 'drew a green monster mommy daddy'....not sure about that one.

 He is growing up so dang fast. 

Last week I was doing some work and he was running around. I heard him getting keys out of Carl's ("baby-proofed") drawer, but I didn't think much of it. A minute later I go in and find him sitting in front of the cupboard that has an actual lock on it, it's wide open and the keys are on the floor with him. This one key is part of a group of keys and I figured it was a fluke. I locked it all back up and went to get the camera. I gave them back and after he fiddled with it for a minute, not only did he find the right key all on his own, but he opened it right back up. You can hear him say, "see, open!".

He's also been playing in the set of cupboards we don't have locked a lot lately. We don't keep anything in them so he can play with them, but he has been trying to climb in. He's too big so I took the shelf out of one and this has been a ton of fun for him for a few days. And it's just a fun excuse for me to take adorable photos of my little boy. :)  He gets in, swings open the door and yells "peeky-boo!".

 Although, we are "baby-proofed", I will use that term loosely. He can get his little arms down in the drawers even though they are locked because he's tall enough now. This means he is always grabbing spoons and running. The other day he grabbed some and the next thing I know I hear the strangest sound. I realize he has dropped them down inside an air return vent in the living room. I have no idea how or why he figured out that this was an option, but he did. I wasn't just going to unscrew it and pop it off because it doesn't actually come off anymore. It's been caulked and painted to the wall. Well, he did a few more times so Carl decided to tackle it last night. 

He started to take it off and the paint was all choppy so he had to use a razor blade for the rest.

 

Carson was a BIG help. haha

But then.......not only did we pull a PILE of spoons out, but we also found my pick in there! This is a big deal to me because I have had that pick since I was in junior high and last year it just totally went missing. I knew one day I had it downstairs and I have literally been looking for it ever since. That means he's been doing this for a really long time. What a stinkin' brat!!! Hopefully he doesn't continue this trend in the near future.

Other than those silly things, he has been playing with his basketball and hoop that Daddy came home with last week. He has a few balls that are too big so those are of course the ones he puts in the basket so he can hit them out from underneath. Carl has been telling him all about what they will do this summer in the mountains so Carson talks about mountains and the Jeeps a lot too. 

Oh, and I got a call to have Carson participate at the University of Denver in a research study on 2 year-olds. They needed kids within two weeks of their second birthday for a study about relative memory. I have always been so fascinated with this sort of thing so I jumped on the chance to be the "subject", especially now that I work in the research field. It was a little challenging because for part of it they needed him to sit still and watch a picture for 45 seconds at a time without moving (literally, they had infrared beams to monitor his eyes), but he did surprisingly really well. He was so excited that they gave him a bouncy ball at the end. It has Scooby Doo all over it so he loves with his 'Scooby Ball' now.

Carson turned 2!

Yep, we officially have a toddler now.

We had quite the week last week so I'm just now getting to sit down and post pictures. My dad flew in on Tuesday, Carl had Wednesday and Thursday off of work and we were doing stuff the whole time. Part of the reason I haven't been online is that I had had headaches for about a week prior to this that were really bothering me. They were really random, but not anything I couldn't handle. Then Friday morning my head started to hurt way worse than it had before. I took my dad to the airport and my mom to get LASIK done. By the time I got home I was SO sick. I ended up deciding it was a bad migraine and it lasted all the way until Sunday. I've never felt a headache like that that I can remember. I could hardly even function for two days, let alone look at a computer screen! I've had one other migraine in my life, but that time I had an aura with it so I knew it was coming and took medicine. My mom has gotten them really regularly for her whole life so I know all the symptoms, but this one was crazy since I'm not used to it.

Anyways, back to the big birthday! Carson got to go out and have fun for the entire day. We took my dad to the auction early that morning so on the way back we decided to let Carson play at McDonald's and eat pancakes. Our McD's is pretty new and has a nice play area and computers etc. He loves going there.

On the way home Carl got an idea and drove over to the CAT dealer by us. It was a tractor mecca for Carson. They had a bunch of the biggest ones right out in front for you to look at and play with. 

We came home and Carson took a big long nap while we waited for Grandpa to come home. When he got up we got him ready and took him out for his big birthday present......a Power Wheels Jeep. Man, was he ever excited! My favorite part of it was actually the night before watching the guys put it together. You'd think it was simple ( well, it was ), but they acted like it was an actual car they were putting together.

Carl was so excited to give it to him that he had the big reveal all planned out. He parked the Mazda out on the street so he could leave the Jeep in the garage. We couldn't open the garage all morning so Carson didn't see it. Carl wanted me to set up the video camera so it would catch Carson's reaction. Unfortunately we didn't anticipate the lighting and we are all totally black in the video! But you can hear Carson squealing and laughing with excitement.

We can't deny that face. Now he officially refers to it as "own Jeep", as in "Carson, do you want to ride your own Jeep?"

 For dinner we went early to a place called White Fence Farm. It is a super old-school farm that has a restaurant with killer fried chicken. We figured it would be good for this occasion since there are farm animals and a big playground. The food turned out to be so good and Carson was able to run around and play for a really long time. He LOVES farm animals!

These two photos make me laugh. In the first one you can see how much Carson hates to have stuff on his hands. He hates to have them dirty or touch anything that he is unfamiliar with, even if it's just water. Then the second photo is when he stood still for just a second for a pose after yelling "chickens!!!" at the roosters.

Personally, my favorite part of our time was watching the three baby goats stand on the enormous pig (that didn't budge once while they were there). All of a sudden you see the adult come and push all of them off. She then proceeded to get up on the pig and lay down herself.

After the animals we played at their playground for quite a while. They had these ride-on tractors built into the ground that Carson fell in love with. He kept going back to them over and over again.

Instead of making a big cake I went simple and made him some Oreo cupcakes. Oreos are his favorite treat so I figured that made sense! I just made chocolate cake and put cream cheese and a mini Oreo in the center. They were pretty yummy, but the Oreo totally melted like when you've had it in milk. Carson loved it! :)

On Thursday it was my mom's 50th birthday! She went and stayed up in Estes Park at the Stanley Hotel and we got her a massage at their spa for her gift. That afternoon we could see a storm moving in and at the same time we started getting tornado warnings on TV. We also heard our new tornado sirens going off which was a little scary since they are both right by our neighborhood. 

At one point I looked outside and saw the sky was really green. I had never heard about green sky being associated with tornadoes until Megan told me she saw it after the Southlands tornado last year. So, like the really smart people we are, we went upstairs to our room to check it out. How creepy is that?!

The sky wasn't swirling at all and the warnings on TV said they were farther east than us at this point. Once the green was gone the rain and hail started so we went out on the porch to watch, again, like very responsible parents. :)  And you can see what a copycat Carson is. He loves to come sit right by you and you can tell he is actually copying however you are sitting.

The other gift he got was an Elmo Live from my mom. He hugs it, kisses it, dances with it, you name it. Sunday morning the boys were playing Wii and I couldn't help but love this picture.

 I realize all my posts are ending up as novels, but what can I do?!?!  I talk a lot and take too many pictures. I have a lot more to post about, but they are just lots of cool new things Carson is doing. Hopefully I'll do that soon.

More from yesterday

So I dragged Carl and Carson out for a sunset walk last night like I'd planned. Okay, not really dragged....Carson jumped out of the house. :)  Unfortunately it started raining while we were out so I was doing magic tricks to take pictures and hide my camera from the drops. But the sky looked AMAZING. The combination of the clouds and the soft yellow sun was great.

I'm really starting to love taking photos and it has become something I can actually say is a hobby. With the nice weather it has been fun to get some new subjects (that don't hit or yell at me...). So what that means is I'm practicing a lot of new things to get down the mechanics of how to make the looks I want happen. Sorry, some might not be so great along the way, but I'm doing the best I can for what I'm working with right now! :)  I really want to have them here to look back and see an actual line of progression. Hopefully. At heart I am a big time perfectionist so it will be good to put it all out there, perfect or not.

With the low light I was practicing using the sun for silhouettes vs. soft back-lighting. These were the exact same location and pose back-to-back.

I've also been able to get some actual rays when trying sunflare. Carson never sits still long enough for me to use him so I used a cool dead flower and Mr. Man's favorite "tractor dirt".

And lastly, these gorgeous floral bushes are blooming all over outside our neighborhood. I'm a sucker for girly pink blossoms. I got a couple photos of them I like, but I think I need to go get some more now that I see what I should have done differently. Aren't they pretty though?!

( I know the colors are different on each of these. I added the vintage feel to the first one and liked it, but then left the second one alone. I couldn't decide which to choose! I tend to lean toward a vintage style in everything I like though. )

And my dad just flew in today! He will be at the auctions today, tomorrow and Thursday, but we get to have him for three nights! Carson has been talking about Grandpa on an airplane all day now. We can't wait. And I think tomorrow is something special too............. :)

I hate spring bees...

But I'm happy to take a photo of one! Except after I got this one it seriously chased me all around the driveway for an eternity. Carson thought it was hilarious. Me, not so much. I've still NEVER been stung by a bee in my life and I'd like to keep it that way! We are going on a walk tonight so I can hopefully take photos of all the pretty new blooms around the neighborhood. This one turned out really nice from today though so I thought I'd share.

 

Fish face!

Carson came home from daycare Wednesday doing a "fish face". I love these new little things he picks up everyday. This one was just such a cute surprise since I wasn't the one who taught him!

C-Man

I thought I would share my current giggles with you all.

We are starting a new study at work so this means I keep my 'every third Monday' telecon for study one and now had to add my 'every second and fourth Monday' telecon for study two. I was hoping we could schedule the new study for morning time and I'd use daycare for these days, but they wanted to have them at 2pm again. 

Well...Carson didn't nap well at all this weekend, mostly because there was too much fun to be had around him (with Daddy). We put him down an hour early last night since he was so grumpy. So don't you know it, he woke up at 6am today. I figured this meant he'd nap early today and be wide awake by my call time. I'd have to let him watch a cartoon in my room since my call never goes over 20-30 minutes (same thing as when I have to shower when he's awake!). 

But now it is currently 1:50, Carson fell asleep at 11:00 and he is still asleep! He rarely sleeps over two hours, he hasn't had lunch yet and most likely he'll wake up just before or during my call. I seriously don't understand how he always knows how to do the exact opposite thing I want him to do!!! Oh well. I guess it could be worse. He could be screaming at me right now like many other days. haha

And daycare is still going really well. He has been six or so times now. The poor kid starts freaking out as soon as we turn into the parking lot now and cries the whole time I drop him off. But they said it only takes him a minute and he's totally fine and has a great time. The whole time we are driving home he sit back there saying "missed you Mommy!". It's the cutest thing ever. If I drop him off by 8:45 then I'm home just after 9:00. I leave to get him around noon, he's ready for a nap as soon as we get home and usually sleeps until about 2:00 on these days. It is so worth it to get 5-6 hours of "me" time for about $30!

He figured out how to open the fridge and freezer on Friday so we have a lock on the door handles now. A little girl walked up to him at B&N on Saturday and he looked at her and said, "Hi Friend!". He is obsessed with playing outside right now so we've been letting him stroll in and out of the back door. Carl taught Carson to say "Ewww, yuck" when I give him a kiss. He has completely lost all interest in Yo Gabba Gabba all of a sudden and unfortunately switched to Caillou. If you don't know what it is, be happy.

Ahhhhhhh........It's 1:55 and he's now waking up as I post this. I have five minutes to get food and a cartoon ready! Wish me luck :)

2010 Easter Weekend

We had a really fun and relaxing Easter weekend this year. I didn't even really think about the actual gift part for Carson until a few days before, but it still turned out great. On Saturday we went over to our friends', Nick and Erin, for Ava's first birthday party. It was a ton of fun for the kids and the adults got to mingle and eat which is always good. 

Erin did a great job on all the decorations. She made the theme ladybugs and tutus so it was very girly, but so cute! These were the cupcakes.

 Ava dug into her very red cake and frosting.

 The pals saying hi.

 Then.......Ava got a battery powered quad for a gift. She rode it around for a while and you could just see the twinkle in Carson's eye. We told him he could ride it and he looked up like he couldn't even believe what he was hearing. 

 Once he got on he kept turning and looking at everyone with a look of joy on his face like never before.

W

We could hardly tear him off the thing! Now we are debating about getting him a Power Wheels for his birthday too. He just had way too much fun. I've looked at them at the store numerous times, but I didn't think he was old enough. He definitely held his own and did well driving it by himself. I found a Jeep that is for 2-5 years so we might go that way since we haven't picked out a gift for him yet. I wasn't ready for this yet though! :)

This is our favorite cat in the entire world, Vader. Carson hugged, kissed and chased him all around. He was so sad that the dogs weren't there which was so cute. He gets so excited when we go to the friends houses that have the "foof foofs".

For Easter I ended up buying Carson a few toys for outside, a remote control tractor, a plastic golf club, a new bouncy ball and a Mega Blocks Muno set. (That seems like a lot when I write it down, but it was all really cheap.) He seems to get bored easily and we don't buy new toys all that often so I like to take these opportunities to get him new stuff.

Carl brought him to the top of the stairs, pointed to the table to show Carson and Carson yelled, "NEW TOYS!!!!!" It was so funny. He practically fell trying to run down the stairs. He zoomed across the room and stopped to give me the biggest smile. That's why he gets new toys. :)

He played all day long and is still playing with them all like they are brand new, which should seem obvious, but it isn't always with him. 

When he decides he wants to play with the golf club he starts yelling, "hit the ball!"

Then he played with his "foddy ball, yibbit yibbit" (that's froggy ball, ribbit ribbit) outside for the entire afternoon. When it was time for dinner he wouldn't come inside so we just had to leave the screen door open and he came in and out. It's so nice that he's getting so much bigger and we can trust that he won't fall off the patio constantly. He did get one scrapped knee and shin, but he got a band-aid and thought he was so cool again. Actually when he gets hurt now he runs up to us saying "kiss it better" and won't stop crying until we do. 

This is his 'Mom, where are my sunglasses?' face.

Carl's uncle Gary came over to spend the afternoon with us too. Carson was all about hopping up on his lap for dessert. Apparently the kid hasn't learned any manners in all his years and just dug his fingers right into Gary's whipped cream. What. A. Mess.

So now we have to do a little prep for Carson's upcoming birthday. We still don't know what we're going to take him to do, but Carl and my mom have that day off and my Dad is coming out for it too. We wanted to take him on a train, but I'm having a hard time finding one that isn't over $50 a person. We'll see!