New Year's Eve

Are we keeping Carter up to midnight? HaHa! No way! Will we make it to midnight? I hope not! Carter gets up way too early for me to willingly stay up that late! I was already falling asleep during the last few minutes of first half of the UT vs Virginia Tech game.

We did decide to wait to eat dinner until after we got Carter in bed and got to eat some very good Japanese takeout in peace. It was really nice! We need to do that more often.

Anyway, Carter and I haven't been up to much this week. I've been working on reorganizing closets so that I can store some of Carter's toys. He had too many out so he didn't play with anything for more than a few seconds. I finally got half of his stuff put away this morning and Carter did much better staying somewhat interested in his toys today. I'm going to try to switch up what we keep out every week or two.

This is Carter's favorite toy which he got from Brian's parents ...


It's so much more manageable than the full size broom. I keep it in the pantry through with the regular broom and Carter knows it. In the morning he stand at the pantry door doing his "I want" grunt over and over again until you get his broom out. He hasn't quite figured out how to use it yet ...



He even tries to take it with him for a ride on his new Power Wheel. Carter knows where the "red button" is that makes the Power Wheel go and this is the face he makes when he hits the button. We need to move the Power Wheel into the garage but so far Carter hasn't taken it for much of a ride in the house (yet).

Christmas Lights

On Saturday evening we went over to a house off I-640 that has the lights on their house synchronized to several songs. These guys are sponsored by a local radio station and the music is broadcast on the radio. We parked on the street outside their house and watched the show for about 20 minutes. Carter was interested enough (it was his bedtime so he was a little tired).

Here are a couple of videos I took of the show ...

Caffeine

I am EXHAUSTED. Lately I wonder how other people seem to get so much done and I get NOTHING done. I can barely muster the energy to play with Carter all day. I remembered everyone else's secret today ... CAFFEINE!!! I broke down and got a Pepsi at the gas station this afternoon. And now I'm bouncing off the walls with energy. I've gotten so much done during Carter's nap. I've been really good so far with not drinking caffeine (except for a sweet tea every once in awhile when we go out to eat) but I didn't think I'd make it through the day today without some help. I can't wait until July when I can freely drink caffeine again!

13 Weeks

I'm 13 weeks along with baby #2 today. I'm still at 119 lbs so I haven't gained any weight yet but I do have a little baby bump.


I've started my pregnancy "glow". For me, it's breaking out - yuck. I hate that part of being pregnant. The morning sickness is still hanging around but is still manageable. My hips aren't hurting so much when I sleep but I know that will come back and be even worse. I do forgot I'm pregnant most of the time. I have a doctor's appointment next week. I was told they were doing an ultrasound at that appointment so I'm hoping they may be able to tell us the sex of the baby (we knew with Carter at around 12 weeks). It's really bugging me right now not knowing!

Charlotte's Christmas

On Christmas morning, Charlotte would join us in the family room when we called her to open one of her presents. She's not good at opening them herself, but once open, she knows the toy is for her. After a toy was open, she'd run away with it. This is where she stashed them all and then proceeded to sleep for the rest of the morning ...


Carter and Charlotte are really good at knowing which toys belong to each of them. Carter will often come across one of Charlotte's toys and bring it to her. He'll put it in front of her face until she either takes it or runs away. Yesterday he brought her new plush ball to her while she was eating and then dropped it in her water bowl! Silly kid!

I HATE Teething

Carter has woken up between 2 and 3 am three of the last four nights. His upper left first molar is coming in right now.

The first night I got Carter back to sleep after about 40 minutes but I was up for 2 hours. The second night we let him settle himself because he never completely woke up and cried on and off for about 45 minutes. Last night was the worse. We've all been up since around 3:15 am. Brian and I both tried to get him to sleep, and we'd succeed in getting him to sleep on us, but Carter would wake up as soon as we put him in his crib. We eventually gave up. I think we're both going to bed at the same time as Carter tonight. We're worn out from having family here for a week and not getting a full night's sleep lately. Plus, who knows if Carter will do any better tonight!


Hopefully I will get the chance to post an update about this past week soon!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, Everyone! We had a really good day today and hope everyone else did as well.


We all got lots of really great gifts. I got an awesome new lens for my camera that has a huge aperture from my mom. I'm still practicing with it but I really like some of the pictures I was able to take today. Brian and I got a Wii from his parents which has been one of our main sources of entertainment today. Carter got tons of stuff - a Power Wheel, noisy trucks, a basketball hoop, and lots more.





We just hung out around the house today, enjoying food and playing games (both the Wii and board games). I tried out a lot of new recipes for dinner and everything seemed to turn out great.


Carter has been a total ham for our families this week. Here are his latest dance moves (we thought they were hilarious) ...

Carter was worn out by the end of the day and totally ready for bed tonight ...

Early Gifts

Carter got to open one present from everyone today. He got lots of cool stuff including DVDs of trucks, a bowling set, and a puzzle, but the cutest gift was for his feet ...

Presents

From this angle, there looks to be a normal amount of presents under our tree ...


But keep going around the tree, and you'll find LOTS more ...


And they continue around the corner into the dining room ...


That's a lot of presents this year. I wonder who most of them are for :) Granted, this does include all the gifts from my mom and Brian's family.

Silly Boy

Carter has been really silly lately.

At the end of last week, Carter started putting on his fireman hat (this is the boy that refuses to wear a hat no matter how cold it is in the winter or how sunny it is in the summer). He doesn't always put it on the right way and it often covers up his face. Brian joked that Carter's going to be the kid that puts a helmet on backwards and runs into walls for fun. He essentially did that the other night. Sarah and Brent watched Carter for us Friday night so we could go out to dinner. When we got back to their house to pick him up, Carter was playing with a box. He put it on his head and proceeded to run right into a wall.


This is how Carter likes to hold his football now ...


Brian taught Carter last week to cover his face with his hands when he does something silly. It's stuck and he does it a lot. I haven't really gotten a picture of him doing it yet, but here's one with one hand still up on his face ...


Carter has suddenly started spinning. He sometimes will do three or four spins in a row. Here's a video of some single spins ...

1st Trimester Screening

I had the first trimester screening test done today. It involves drawing blood and doing an ultrasound to measure the nuchal translucency (fluid beneath the skin behind baby’s neck). The test is used to screen for specific chromosomal abnormalities. Brian and I feel like we'd like to know if something might be wrong so we can be more prepared when the baby is born. We had the same test done with Carter.

The ultrasound tech gave us a few pictures from the ultrasound. The baby was in the perfect position the entire time so it was easy for her to get accurate measurements. He or she kept his or her hands up at his or her face the entire time. You can tell that at least one hand has 5 fingers!





I'm still feeling pretty good. The nausea medicine has been helping a lot this time and I'm still able to eat most of the time. I am SO TIRED though. As soon as it starts getting dark around 5:30 pm, I'm ready for bed. I've been getting very little done in the evenings so I'm super far behind on everything. Hopefully I'll start getting a little energy back soon since I'm 11 1/2 weeks along now.

Brian was able to meet me at my appointment which was really good because Carter was tired and we had to wait forever so he was not sitting still anymore. Carter got his 2nd H1N1 flu shot this morning and then we ran a couple of errands before my appointment. It is a NASTY day here too. It's cold and pouring. I just checked and we've already gotten an inch of rain today. Thank goodness it's not a few degrees colder or we'd be buried in snow! We're supposed to miss the bulk of the snow and possibly get an inch or two tonight. Not far from here though is supposed to get 12-18 inches. I'd love to get a ton of snow sometime, but I really don't want to be cooped up in the house for days since it'd probably take awhile to clear roads enough that I'd feel safe taking Carter out. My mom was supposed to drive here tomorrow, but I think she's going to wait until Sunday now. Brian's parents are still planning on trying to drive to Cincinnati, OH tomorrow, but they may also have to delay their drive. Hopefully the storm isn't as bad as their predicting right now!

Multitasking

After doing chores yesterday, Carter is now multitasking!


He can eat Cheerios and ride on his bulldozer at the same time (and feed the dog). Charlotte is great for cleaning up any Cheerios that Carter drops or sends flying when he pulls them out of his cup.


During lunch, Carter suddenly discovered he has ears!


He hasn't quite learned the word yet, but we're working on it.

Doing Chores

Carter is already doing chores!


Not really ... he got ahold of the broom today and would not let it go. He took it with him everywhere downstairs. When I had to take him upstairs to change his diaper and to go to bed tonight, Carter screamed so hard. It was like he just hurt himself with the wailing he was doing. I wish he found a smaller item to make his favorite today because he kept getting stuck when he couldn't fit through doorways, etc and would scream until I helped him.


We went to Baby Bookworms today at the library. Carter did better. He's still not into sitting on my lap the whole time, but he stayed there for probably half of the time today. There were a couple of screams but no tantrums.

Belly Button Video

I was able to get Carter pointing out his belly button on video tonight. And then he was just being silly afterward - I have no idea what he was trying to do.

Playdate

We had Amy and Caitlyn over today for lunch and playing for a couple of hours. Carter and Caitlyn played really well together. There was very little toy taking and they were able to work everything out on their own when wanting the same toy. I think their favorite activity was playing in the ball pit.

Carter's finally getting to the age where he'll sort of play with other kids. Thank goodness because we still have a lot of winter left when all there is to do is play inside!

I took a few pictures of the kids before Amy and Caitlyn left. It was hard to them both to look up at the same time ...

11 Weeks

I am 11 weeks along today with baby #2 and can't believe how much I'm showing! I've put on about one pound so far but am already having a lot of trouble fitting into most of my normal clothes. I pulled out my box of maternity clothes this weekend but haven't started wearing any of them yet. When I was out running errands today, I looked through the maternity clothes at both Target and Old Navy and they had nothing cute at all. Hopefully the stores will have some stuff I like by the time I really start needing it.

Here's a quick picture I took today to show off just how big my belly is already ...

Belly Button

Carter has learned how to point to another body part (other than his nose). Lately, he'll lift up his shirt and scratch his belly (he's such a boy!). So today I told him he was pointing at his belly button and then asked again for him to point at his belly button and he lifted up his shirt again and found it. He'll also point to my belly button if I lift my shirt a little bit. He actually jams his finger into it - it kind of hurts!

We're discovering that Carter understands a lot of what we're saying too. We asked him a few times today to do random things and he did them (I can't remember what they were now). We're going to have to be a lot more careful with what we say around him!

Holiday Express

Carter and I met Sarah and Mary Grace at the UT Gardens today to check out the Holiday Express. This is how their website describes it:

"Holiday Express at the UT Gardens is a 4,000-square-foot garden railway display nestled in the beauty of the fall and winter UT Gardens. Featuring garden-scale model trains running through a perfectly proportioned miniature landscape, complete with rivers and waterfalls and decorated for the holiday season, the Holiday Express depicts the railroad history of the East Tennessee area over the period of the 1930s to present day."

The display was under a large tent that had a few heaters in it (thankfully because when we got there at noon, my car was registering only 31F!!!). As soon as we walked in though, I put Carter down and he did a face plant into a real railroad track and some mulch. After a bit of screaming and having a very dirty face cleaned up, Carter LOVED the trains. I don't know if he was trying to say "train" or not, but he was saying something repeatedly as he pointed at the trains going by.

Some pictures of the display ...




Checking out the trains ...




Carter and me ...


Mary Grace and Sarah ...


The UT train ...




There were 4 cars that were mini fish tanks. I say fish in them, but thought they must be fake because they weren't moving. One of the guys setting up the trains later told us that it was so cold that the water and frozen in the tank (but the fish were okay)!


The carnival display (everything was moving in it) ...


Happy boy ...


My FAVORITE picture of the day ...


Mary Grace gave Carter a hug and he hugged her right back. They kept giving each other hugs. Carter would lean into Mary Grace so much that he almost knocked her over a few times!

We had the place to ourselves except for one family that stayed for about 5 minutes. We hung around for about 45 minutes because Mary Grace and Carter seemed to love looking at everything. We probably could have stayed longer, but we were all starting to get pretty cold by then. I'm really glad we went though, and if we get the chance, we'll go back with Brian soon.

Attention Span

Carter usually has a VERY short attention span. I joke that he has ADD. I took a video today to show just how short his attention span can be. This is why I often get very little done during the day! Some side notes about the video:

1. I had to chop the video up into 4 parts because the blog wouldn't let me post such a large file.
2. The ball pit is what we got Carter for his birthday. I had gotten a baby pool at the end of the season for super cheap (like $2) and then we got 300 balls to fill it up with.
3. Carter loves to dance when one of his toys plays a song. It's so cute!
   
4. Carter is carrying around a washcloth because I was trying to fold laundry while he was playing and he got ahold of it and wouldn't let go of it.
5. He's not ALWAYS this bad. Sometimes he'll play with something for a couple of minutes!
   

This is another video I took today. I just thought it was cute!

Carter and I went to Mary Grace's preschool today to watch her in a Christmas parade. It was really cute and Carter loved watching all the people. Here's a really cute picture that Sarah took of the kids before the start of the parade ...

Nose and Other Stuff

Carter has learned where my nose is and where his nose is. If I have his attention (he ignores me often) and I ask him "Where's Mommy's nose?", he'll point to my nose. If I ask him "Where's your nose?" or "Where's Carter's nose?", he'll usually point to his nose. He just learned that one today so he'll still often enough point to my nose.

Carter's doing great walking. He's been a real pro for a couple of weeks now. I don't worry about him when he's out of sight anymore. He doesn't fall often and when he does, it's usually because he trips on something (not for no reason anymore).

Carter doesn't have any real words yet other than mama, dada, and dog. He says something like "that" when he points to something, but I'm not sure what he's really saying. It's the same sound all the time though. He may be saying a lot more, I'm just not understanding him yet. Also, Carter's stringing together a bunch of sounds like he's saying a sentence, but it's just gibberish. He does often seem to know what we're saying to him, he just hasn't figured out how to repeat many things he hears.

Christmas Card Picture Outtakes

I worked on getting a picture of Carter in front of the Christmas tree for three days. He wore the same outfit Friday, Saturday, and Sunday as I tried to get a picture good enough to put on our Christmas card.

I'm still not thrilled with the one I used, but it was the best we got. Here are some of the pictures that didn't make the cut but are still cute ...