Potty training, take 1.

I got the bug last week that it was time to get serious about focusing on potty training. I am well aware of the whole "you can't force them" thing, but Carson has shown all the signs that he is ready. I would hate for my laziness to be the reason why he isn't going for it. He's had his potty chair for quite a while now, but we haven't had a schedule of sitting on it, we have just had it around when we felt like trying.  I have read a bunch and talked to the girls at his daycare. One of them said she got underwear for her son at Carson's exact age with his favorite characters. She skipped Pull-Ups altogether because he didn't want to go in his cool undies. I came right home and ordered some Thomas and Yo Gabba Gabba big boy underwear and patiently waited. 

They showed up yesterday during naptime. Carson spotted the boxes on the floor right when he came downstairs so it was really exciting for him to get to try them out. I have been stoked to potty train because of how ridiculously adorable his little bum would be in them.

He picked out Brobee for his first pair. They did not fail me on the cuteness factor.

He ran around the house in his new found Brobee undies and ate his favorite new treat, popsicles. 

I just love his pouty popsicle lips.

This all started around 3:00 and by bedtime we were in pair #6. He loves telling me AFTER he goes and he has yet to actually go in the potty. This morning it took two hours for us to be in pair #5 and I decided this apparently isn't the right approach for him. He literally gets off the potty and comes in the living room and pees. I switched back to a diaper and I'm trying to take him to the potty every 20-30 minutes. We really think that as soon as he goes that first time in the potty he'll get it, but until then I can't chase him around cleaning the carpets all day.

This was this morning with his jammies and his Caillou goes potty book. He thinks it's fun to be in there at least. I have stickers waiting for him when he finally goes which he's excited about too.

I'm open to any and ALL suggestions right now since I apparently have no idea what I'm doing. 
Anyone? Bueler?

My birthday in Nederland

When we were trying to decide where to drive for on Sunday I wanted to try somewhere in a different area than we normally go. Plus, my mom and dad were coming so I didn't think we should really go off-road. Carl had been on a bike trip up Golden Gate Canyon to Nederland and we figured that would be a scenic drive that was all real roads. The problems was that the canyon wasn't all that scenic and most of it had signs saying you had to pay if you stopped anywhere along the road. It was kind of lame. I jumped out of my seat and snapped one pic of a flower when we stopped at a bathroom. Lame-O.

We get up to the town of Nederland and it was actually pretty cool. It was full of hippies and bike riders (mountain bike and motorcycles...).  There were cool old shops and a big river running through the middle of town.

Door leading to nowhere? Check!

Random poster of a tiger? Check!

Then I spotted a sign that said there was a carousel. We walked over and there was an old train car and a huge working antique carousel. It was actually really cool. Carson couldn't have had more fun.

Next we found some of the oldest tractors I've ever seen. They were enormous, but once again, Carson was in heaven.

Me, Carson and my Mom and Pops :)

Then it came time to find somewhere to have lunch. Carl insisted that he has heard about the "German influence" in Nederland and that there was a good German restaurant there. Of course he spotted it as soon as we pulled into town. I don't like German food, but it said there was American too so I figured it would be fine......

Why not have a large plant and water feature in the middle of your German cabin/restaurant??? Huh?

Carl was in German beer heaven:

And they were so nice to Carson. They brought him homemade applesauce and candy. Then this REALLY old waiter kept talking to him and when I told him to just bring him some water he said something about a "moon man" and walked away. I didn't know what to expect after that. They came out with a Shirley Temple for him. Connection? Apparently that's what he needed, but it did keep him occupied for a very long time.

The bad part about lunch was.......my lunch. I ordered oven baked chicken with mashed potatoes and veggies. Sounds just fine, right? Wrong. The chicken looked like they caught a robin out back, cooked it and then gave me half of it. I got one little ice cream scoop of potatoes and there were two pieces of broccoli and cauliflower. I literally laughed out loud when they set my plate down. And it really didn't even taste good. My mom's lunch was really really bad too.

By the time 4:00 rolled around I was already starving. Carl made the fatal error in suggesting that I make a Digiorno for dinner. Um, no. Not on my freakin' birthday when THAT was what I had for lunch! We went down to Real de Minas for Mexican food that couldn't be any better. It was the right way to eat on my birthday. And yes, I get to be a spoiled brat for one day a year. :)

Carson and Grandpa after dinner:

Carson had a blast with his grandpa for the last few days. He brought him his first real baseball mitt so guess what we've been doing all day every day since!?!? My dad finally has his boy to play sports with. You know I sure wasn't doing it!!!! haha

And I KNOW I said I wouldn't post any more photos of the sky, but but but look at this one! This was the sunset when we got home that night.

Just us

Last night we all went out to dinner to celebrate the birthdays of me and our good pals Megan and Luke. I picked Red Robin because it's one of the only places we can take Carson and not be the outcasts. He outdid himself for even RR though while screaming at the top of his lungs for half of dinner. 

 

Before we left I tried to get a family photo so here we are... Heaven forbid Carson actually looks at the camera for once.

This one just made me laugh. I'm going in for a hug/kiss and he is going in for the punch.

 

I'm only posting right now because someone (Grandpa) isn't ready to leave yet. Hopefully it will really be in the low 70s up there and a nice day today!

Seriously, take away my spatula.

I am just recording this so I have something to refer back to the next time I think I should bake something. Don't let me. Really. 

Yesterday I decided it would be a great activity for Carson and me to make cookies. I had a bag of toffee so I figured I'd just follow whatever recipe was on the bag. The problem was that it said it was for 6 dozens cookies, which I obviously didn't need. As I start throwing ingredients together I decide I'll half it. But then I thought, well, I'll go with 2/3 the recipe. Somewhere between the butter to flour to baking soda ratio, and my lack of actual measuring, something didn't work. 

Oh, and let's also add the fact that my lovely son apparently took one of my mixer arms and I didn't know this until it was too late. Not the easiest thing I've ever done. My whole sink area was covered in flour.

I was preeeeeettttty sure something was wrong when my dough looked like this:

I kept working with it and actually thought they looked like they could be REAL cookies!

Until I took them out of the oven. And tasted them. I like to describe these beauties as "cake cookies". It was kind of like eating a dry cookie or cake that really needed some frosting. Not what I was going for at all. 

I brought one out to Carson in the backyard and he threw it on the ground after one bite. Go me!

Our little fighter has a little swelling and a good cut from his battle with the coffee table corner. At least it isn't a huge black eye like I expected. It's in the worst place though...no band-aids will stick there and he won't let me touch his eyes at all anyways.

I did have a little kitchen redemption last night though. One good thing about Carl not being here for dinner is my mom and I can freely make lots of vegetables to eat!!! I was grilling chicken and wanted to try grilling veggies in foil packets. I made red potatoes, asparagus, red peppers and onions with some olive oil and lots of herbs and garlic.

I honestly thought that since they were in the foil it wouldn't actually be like grilling them. But I can't believe how good they were! They were charred and had a good grill flavor. We had way too much, but YUM!

Daddy comes home tonight too! It's about time. Carson is very excited to get to go to the airport tonight. When Carl came home two weeks ago his flight got rerouted because of weather so we were waiting in the airport for a while and had to go back home without him. My dad is coming in Saturday night too. When I told Carson Grandpa was coming he said, "Yay! Grandpa's coming out of the computer!" Obviously he said this because he talks to Grandpa on Skype all the time, but I couldn't believe he said that. We are all heading up to the mountains on Sunday because Sunday is my BIRTHDAY! :)

Rain, rain

This afternoon we both wanted to get out of the house. Carl is gone again, my eyes had taken all the computer they could for the time being and frankly, I wanted to shop. We had some large clouds way out in the distance, but I was hoping for the best. I actually took some pictures coming out of our neighborhood, but at the time I didn't think much of them. Silly me. I won't post any more photos of the sky and bore you to death. :)

On our way!

I spent quite a bit of time in one store (and didn't find much that I liked. I am at home online shopping, can't wait to get my hands on some real stuff, try on an arm-full and hate all of it. I just love the experience of shopping even though I rarely actually buy anything. I have to LOVE something to spend money on it. Then they had all the dressing aisles blocked so I had to squeeze in the tiny room with Carson in a stroller while he pulled everything off the hangers and pinched my legs. Wait, where was I?) I hadn't paid attention to the weather since I was sort of in a zone. We head for the door to leave and I see that it is pouring rain. I mean really raining hard. I'd already spent close to an hour in this one store so I figured we'd wait just outside under the awning thingy to let it pass. I think we sat under there for at least 20 minutes. We were at a corner shop so I couldn't even run to another close store because there was nothing close! It was so dinner time and I wanted to go eat if I couldn't shop!

At least I had my camera in my bag so we could have a little fun while we waited.

And tonight's another night that it is 10:30pm and I'm still up attending to randomness. I have never been a night person in my life, but now that Carson is here I find myself craving the quiet alone time. Of course, I regret it once 6am rolls around which is what his internal alarm is set to. I would give some serious bank to sleep until an hour that started with an E or N.

And if any one reading is on facebook that I haven't friended yet, add me at facebook.com/rachaelwooten. I bit the bullet.

And I notice that I love to start my sentences with And. Sue me.

Sweet Dreams! (as Carson would say...)

Gettin' jiggy wit it

Last night we got out of the house for dinner so Carson was being really silly in the car. Carl decided to give me a headache and turn on the techno channel. Blech. The upside is that it looks like Carson likes it like his daddy. It makes him dance...aka makes you completely dizzy to watch. :)  And you can see a pretty good mad face at the end.

Other stuff from the week:

"Funny" faces! Sort of.

 

One night the boys decided it would be fun to put EVERY car in the car table inside of Carson's shirt. Carl then held him upside down while they all rained out which Carson loved. 

But I snapped this pic and when I saw it I couldn't believe how old he looks! Not my little baby anymore. :(