Mother's Day Weekend - Saturday

Last year we took a drive on Mother's Day up to Winter Park, CO. We love exploring and going on drives to see the gorgeous mountains here in Colorado. This year we decided to go to Breckenridge. At first they said it would be raining on Saturday and that was the day we really wanted to go. When we got up in the morning it looked like great weather so we hopped to it and went.

It was about 50 degrees and it felt great. There is just something about cool mountain air! We stopped in Dillon for lunch at the Dam Brewery (right at the dam at Lake Dillon) and went on to walk around Main Street at Breckenridge. We went in the shops we could, but apparently this is considered "mud season" and at least half of the businesses were closed. We got some chocolate and then stopped at this park to let Carson run around.

***And Attn Katie --- There was a Bubba Gump right on Main Street! I thought of you guys :)

This was a slide carved out of a rock.




Here is a shot of his 8 teeth. I know for a fact that he is cutting a molar on his right side too. Sunday he had drooled blood on his clothes, his cheek is really red on that side, he has a low fever, is overall pretty quickly-agitated and has been up at 3am for 3 days just SCREAMING. Poor little guy!


These big rocks had cut-outs for your face. He thought it was really funny to play peek-a-boo with them.





Carson, Mommy and Grandma Susan!


Then we went down to play by the river. They had so much snow this year that they are having huge amounts of run-off.


Then...Carson found this huge pole covered in tape. This kept him busy for at least 10 minutes. :)


On the way home we went up over Loveland Pass which is 11,990 feet. There were these HUGE snow overhangs that looked so awesome.


I just love the scenery up there. We are going to try to go exploring A LOT this summer!

New Monkey Tales

So, where do I start. Carson is pretty much a monster right now. He has figured out how to climb on the couches and gets up on the side tables. We can't leave a single drink or anything out because he goes full on tractor-beam to it. He has fallen off many times and luckily hasn't gotten hurt yet - that's a pretty far fall! At least I convinced Carl it was time to put the coffee table away for awhile. This is definitely making it pretty impossible for me to get any work done. Before this started he would have time when he would like to play by himself for awhile and I could sneak away for 5 or 10 minutes. Now I don't trust him AT ALL and I can only work during naps or while he is in the high chair. If we let him out in the main living area he literally runs around like a tornado. You can see him already thinking of what else to grab as he is pulling things down from everywhere. We got the kitchen cabinets baby-proofed, but he still can do a lot of damage in the office and pulls out garbage, etc. What.A.Handful! All we can do is laugh though.

I grabbed the camera here when I saw him climb up: (excuse the mess....I let him do what he wants in the living room and pick up at the end of the day! He also hates pillows to stay on the couches....)


And here he really tries to give me a heart attack!:


He has started to say a couple "words". He says "dadu" a lot, but we aren't sure what that one means. He says "Ought Oh!" when he drops things and "Wow!" anytime he likes something or someone else says it. But his favorite is "naner". This means food or more specifically, banana. I always call bananas "naners" to him and he will yell naner anytime he is hungry or he sees a banana. I really think he would eat a banana for every single meal if I let him. :)

Here was some naner talk from yesterday:


And we now offically have 8 teeth!!! For over a month now he has been getting in the four around the front four he had already. They seem to all be nice and grown in now though (except for maybe one that has a little more to go). You can see them in the next video posted here. Oh, and he chipped his front top tooth a few weeks ago. Nice, huh? It happened on some random fall and I noticed immediately that the bottom corner was missing.

His laugh is pretty much the cutest and most heart-melting thing I have ever heard. He has been doing a fake laugh though. If we are laughing he will imitate us and laugh out loud, but it is obviously really forced which makes us laugh that much harder.

Here is the fake laughing and his cute wave:


Here is the REAL laughing:

1 Year Pictures and Dr. Appt.

Thankfully this is the last time I have to take these pictures! The funny thing is that this is the best he did in a LONG time! He just sat there and smiled.

After such a long day I realized that we hadn't taken his monthly pictures yet. We plopped him down in the chair after his bath with his PJs on and luckily he was cooperative. I thought he would be grouchy and tired, but I think he was on a sugar high after that cupcake!





Yesterday we had his 1 year well care appointment with the pediatrician. Everything is still going great! He is still on the exact same track as the last few times...

50th % for height at 29 3/4 inches
25th % for weight at 20 lb 10.5 oz

Luckily I found a great doctor and he is very supportive of our parenting style and choices. This time Carson was afraid of him when he first came in the room; he has been really shy around strangers lately. The doc blew up a glove like a balloon and gave it to him as a peace offering. After awhile Carson started playing with it and he bit a hole right in the tip of the finger. The air started shooting out in his face and he started bawling! It was honestly one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time! :)

Carson's Birthday Activities

We went to the Denver Zoo for Carson's birthday and had a great time! The weather couldn't have been better and it felt great to get outside. Carson loves getting out of the house, riding in the stroller and trying to run away from us whenever he can. A lot of the animals were hiding or camouflaged so he didn't even know they were there, but he liked the big ones like the elephants and big cats.



I made him a birthday shirt to wear which turned out pretty cute.










It got pretty hot in the afternoon so we changed him into some cotton pants so he could run around and be comfortable.


Everyone's been to the zoo so I won't post all the cute animal pictures.
BUT...this little guy was our favorite! Is his mustache adorable???


We were all pooped by the end of the day and came home to grill for dinner. We decided to get Carson a cupcake since he had his other cake over a week ago.
Let's just say he made short work of it this time!




It was shoved in his face and devoured in a few minutes, tops. Then he tried to lick his fingers clean.


He was a huge mess! You can see he figured out how to take the letters off his shirt so it was a goner by this point!


So, all in all we had a blast and we love sharing all these new experiences with our now toddler. He really isn't a baby anymore! :(

Carson is 1 !!!

Somehow today is our little baby's first birthday. I know I don't have to describe how weird today is, but it really feels strange! Daddy and Grandma Susan are home with us today. We are going to breakfast this morning and then we are taking Carson to the zoo for the first time. We'll have a lot more pictures later on after our fun birthday day!

Memories...

Carson's Early Birthday Celebration

We decided to give Carson his birthday cake a little early since his birthday is on a Tuesday. I wanted to make him a tall cake that he could smash down, but it didn't go quite as I pictured. I made him an apple spice cake with homemade whipped cream and cream cheese frosting. I have never decorated a cake like this and it was kind of a visual disaster. Oh well! Of course, all Carl cared about was that there was a lot of frosting to get all over Carson.

All naked with a mohawk and ready to go! (We thought)



He wasn't too sure about this whole thing.


A little help from Daddy



Okay, now he figured it out!





And then......Daddy thought he wasn't messy enough and pushed his face in the cake :(
Look at that pouty face!


It didn't take long for him to get over it.





Then we got to dig in and finish the rest of it. It was yummy!


Singing Happy Birthday


Still not too sure what is going on...


Wait, this tastes good!


Action shot of Carl smashing his face in the cake and then laughing. (Sorry for my HORRIBLE filming skills in this one...)
Mean Daddy!!!!!!

Carson's First Easter!

We had a great Easter with Carson this year. He got to celebrate with Mommy, Daddy, Grandma Susan and Grandma Debbie. He just stood there and looked at his basket for a minute and then dove right in!



And then he pulled it ALL down onto the floor for a better look.


I got him this drum because he bangs on everything in the house. He seems to like to play with it, but of course, he doesn't realize he is supposed to hit this one.


Yeah, the hat stayed on for 0.036 seconds. Hopefully he will wear it outside when he really needs it!


This is his new goofy scrunched-nose smile he has been giving everyone.


It was really cold and rainy all day long so he only got to run up and down a few times. It was way to cold to go play for much longer. :( I was excited to let him see bubbles for the first time. I tried while we were out there, but it was too windy.

Easter pics for fun

I bought Carson these blue bunny ears and eggs at Walmart for $1 each just for fun. This will be his FIRST Easter, you know! I had to work very quickly, but we got some cute shots to celebrate the occasion. Enjoy our little blue bunny!







Yes, this is a dinosaur with bunny ears on. :)
Carson was having a conversation with him!