I just fell asleep at the keyboard.

Oh, Carson, Carson, Carson. He obviously hates us. And by hates us I mean loves us so much he can't be without us. About 4 weeks ago on a random Monday I was totally exhausted, it was raining and I wanted a nap. I suckered him into coming and laying down in bed with me for his nap so I could get a snuggle moment. This particular nap only lasted about 30 minutes and we went on with our life. About a week later, out of no where, he started saying he didn't want to nap because there was a monster in his room. This quickly turned into, "I want to sleep in Mommy's bed!" Now it has been 3 straight weeks of UFC 222 when sleep is mentioned. We are at our wits end and literally don't know what to do. He cries forever when we put him down at night, finally crashes and wakes back up by 2am wanting to come to our bed. Of course, it's kind of hard to fight at that hour. He sleeps great with us, but this just can't keep happening. He hasn't taken a nap in his crib for three weeks either. He cries until he throws up (just after I finally leave the room) and then crashes on the couch at 3:30. This leads to him not being tired at night making the problem worse.

We didn't think it could get much worse, until yesterday. We've watched him randomly swing his leg over the crib and jump out, but it's like he never noticed. We knew that day would come and it did. Yesterday he was screaming at me for so long that I just left the room. I walked downstairs, went to the kitchen and heard a really loud noise. I came back over to see him in the hall looking down at me through the railing. All I could do was laugh. It's ridiculous at this point. This in turn made him think he was so smart and awesome which led to him coming downstairs stating, "Mommy, I did it! I'm not taking a nappie! I'm coming downstairs all by myself!" At around 5pm he was on my lap on the couch and all of a sudden he was asleep in a ball. I grabbed him to wake him up, but that just made him grumpier. Then we went to the grocery store and had to keep the back car lights on so he would stay awake. It's not like he really is ready to drop his naps. I have no idea what to do. At 1:15 this morning I heard the sound machine on the monitor turn off. I ran out into the hall and he's standing there. 

Basically I'm just using this as my forum to complain. I want to sleep.

We will be taking off for Utah late Wednesday night, barring the snow doesn't get way too bad. Luckily the storm is only supposed to bring 8-12 inches! ::eye roll::  I am beyond excited to squeeze my grandma and Thanksgiving dinner that she cooks. I haven't had that meal for 5 years!! I'm also excited for Carson to get it for the first time. It's like sharing the taste of my childhood. Yummy yum yum.

For a few photos.......On Saturday we took Carson down to ride on lightrail. Carl had the brilliant idea last weekend to go since Carson is a train freak right now. They went while I was out on a long event shoot so I missed out. The train takes you right to the big mall here so we rode and shopped and rode some more. He calls it the "Spencer Train" because Spencer is his bullet Thomas train. 

 It's here!!!!!! 

(We can't find his sunglasses so he's wearing my old and WAY too small Oakleys. They fit him, which is funny, but Carl says he is a woman from the 50's. Don't ask why I thought they looked good in 2003.)

So content after demanding to ride backwards.

Like a cat and a mirror

I have kind of been avoiding taking Carson's photos lately because he flat out ignores me. I know this is totally normal, I'm his mother, but still. I had a location I wanted to go test shoot so I figured he'd be isolated and we'd make it work. I even brought along my mom to try and keep his attention, but it was much easier said than done. He looked at me a few times, but spent most of the time running away while giving me the "I know what you're trying to do" side-eye. Here are a few I did get though.

 

Tanks for coming! Halloween 2010

We talked about what we wanted to do for Halloween for weeks beforehand. But somehow all our ideas just never came to fruition. We ended up going to Target the weekend before and randomly wandering down the costume aisle. Of course, Mr. Carson sees a Thomas costume and it's game over. He didn't want anything to do with any other one I showed him. I kind of just gave up and didn't want to think about it anymore. Thomas it was! And a very lame one at that. The only good part about it was we could dress him warm underneath.

It was really weird having it on a Sunday this year though. Our Sundays all look very similar. 

First, Daddy makes us all pancakes. Carson has totally aborted the highchair and thinks he is big enough to join us at the table now. 

Then there is a ton of football watching, a nap and a trip to the park. We forgot to put Carson's jersey back on after nap time. He wasn't very happy about that... He's really figuring out the Jeep steering though.

We went to grab some dinner and told Carson it was almost time to go trick-or-treating. For 20 minutes straight on the way home he told us he didn't want to go home because it was time for "tritt-or-tweating"! He said he was excited to put on his costume, but then refused to let me get a good picture. He looked so unhappy! haha

I think he just didn't really know what we were talking about so it took a few houses to really sink in. We had been practicing what to say all month and after two or three times he got it down. He would knock, open his bag and say trick-or-treat really softly. He loves being outside with the big kids. He looked like such a little boy out there. No more baby for sure!

At one of the last houses our neighbor asked him if he was Thomas the Tank Engine. Carson said yes and James said, "Well, tanks for coming!" I'm a sucker for a bad pun. It was awesome.

Hopefully we'll do a little better in the costume dept. next year.