Thanksgiving

So we took almost no photos during our trip to Raleigh. We must have been too busy eating, and eating, and eating! I need to get better about getting my camera out when we are around family!

We drove to NC on Wednesday evening after Brian got off work. Amazingly we didn't hit any bad traffic and got to Raleigh around 11 pm. Carter had a rough time getting to sleep, but after much screaming and us singing, he passed out for the second half of the drive.

When we got to Brian's parents' house, my mom, Brian's grandmother, and Brian's uncle, Dale, were already there so Carter was unfortunately woken up quite a bit even though he was VERY clingy to Brian and me. We didn't get him to sleep until after 1 am. We tried letting him cry it out a few times but it wasn't working. And, of course, he was up around 5:30 am.

My sister, Karey, and her boyfriend, Mike, along with their dog, Bella, arrived around noon. We took Charlotte and Bella to a dog park right away so they could meet without tearing up Brian's parents' house. They did fine with each other both days Karey was there and it was Charlotte that was always bugging Bella to play. Charlotte would bark and play bow at Bella and Bella would ignore Charlotte until she got annoyed and would bark back at Charlotte and scare her. It was entertaining to watch.

We had a very good Thanksgiving meal in the late afternoon. We fried a turkey as we've done for the last few years and it was very yummy.

Carter didn't do too well with naps while we were in Raleigh and there was usually a lot of crying it out. Poor kid just didn't like something about his play yard or the room he was in or something.

On Friday we hung around the house again and played lots of games. My favorite was Pictionary Man. We got Cinda that game for her birthday and it was a lot of fun to play with our large group. Brian's grandmother and Dale headed home in the morning. We were really glad that there were able to come down though and get to see Carter again. He's changed a lot since they saw him last in June at the beach house. Karey, Mike, and Bella also left in the afternoon to head over to Wilmington to visit with our dad.

Brian and I left Carter home with the grandparents that evening and got to go out to dinner on our own. It was really nice to have a relaxing meal where we're not trying to feed Carter and keep him happy the entire time!

On Saturday we went to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. It's a newer museum in downtown Raleigh and it's FREE! It's already a pretty cool museum, but I love that it's free. There aren't many free museums outside of DC that I know of. Carter seemed to like it, as much as he likes any museum at this point.

Carter checking out one of his favorite things, fish ...


Checking out the whale skeleton ...


Brian and Carter ...


Carter and me inside a giant (fake) tree ...


Carter and my mom with an acrocanthosaurus skeleton ...


When we got home, we watched the rest of the NC State vs Carolina football game. Amazing, State pulled off the win (by one point)! We picked the wrong game to get tickets to!

We headed out Sunday morning and got on the road around 8 am. Luckily we only ran into one accident on the drive that delayed us about 30 minutes. It was a good trip back to NC, but we are definitely happy to be home. Carter really needed to get back into his routine after all the traveling we've done this month.

Back Home

We are back home after spending Thanksgiving in Raleigh. We don't have any plans to travel for the rest of the year and I think Carter is thrilled about that! He's very happy to be sleeping in his own crib again!

I have lots and lots to post about and hope to get caught up over the next few days. Here are a couple of cute pictures from last week before we left for Raleigh ...

Carter was so happy after his bath one night! He usually is a handful between the time we get him out of the bath and get him dressed. Maybe he's just cold?


Carter loves the fridge and if I don't get the door closed fast enough after getting something out, this is what he does ...

Raleigh Trip

I'm really behind on posting about this last trip, but it's better late than never!

So, we got back from Milwaukee on Thursday, November 12th and left for Raleigh the next evening. We had tickets for the NCSU vs Clemson football game on Saturday.

The drive was pretty much uneventful. I was worn out from just getting back from Milwaukee and slept for a little bit of it but was able to wake myself up to keep Brian company and make sure he didn't get too tired. We got in to Brian's parents' house around 11:45 pm. Carter woke up and got to hang out with Brian's parents for a little bit while I set up his room and then we got him off to sleep pretty easily.

The football game was at noon so we got going pretty early. We met our friends Johnny and Anakah at our other friends' (Cass and Jeremy's) house at 9 am. Carter took a really short (5 minute) nap on the way there so he missed his morning nap. We all headed over to the stadium together to tailgate before the game.


It was a little chilly and overcast but not too bad for November. It warmed up a lot for the game though and the sun even came out some. It was fun getting to hang out with everyone and catch up for a bit. Carter fell asleep on Brian but we had to wake him up after about 20 minutes because it was time to head in for the game.

We didn't have great seats, but we were generally able to see everything.


Cute kid waiting for the game to start ...


Carter did well during the game, though he did get a little fussy about staying in one place so much. Luckily there was no one sitting next to Brian so we were able to spread out a little. We had to keep passing Carter back and forth and try to pacify him with food, but we didn't seem to bother the people around us too much.


State didn't do too well ...


We met our friends in the parking lot during halftime for some drinks to try to numb the pain a little bit.


We made it until about midway through the 4th quarter before we couldn't watch anymore. We headed back to Brian's parents' house to hang out for the rest of the day. My mom drove up from Wilmington to hang out with us and help celebrate Carter's birthday.

Sunday was Carter's birthday so we had a little party for him with our family. My dad and Jan also drove up Sunday morning to help celebrate.

Carter got LOTS of presents. We still haven't gotten half of them out of the boxes. I can't believe Christmas is so close and he's going to be getting more stuff!





I decorated the kitchen on Saturday night. Here's a really bad picture of the decorations ...


Cinda put together a great brunch for everyone and then we had cupcakes afterward. Carter LOVED everyone singing Happy Birthday to him. He was all smiles.



Being forced to try a cupcake was another story. He was not thrilled about it and ended up crying.



Carter really liked playing with one of the horns I got. He would pretend to blow through it and make a noise himself trying to imitate the noise we made when we blew through it.


The birthday boy with all his grandparents ...




We headed out around 1:15 pm, just in time for Carter to take an afternoon nap. Carter did pretty well on the drive home. He got a little fussy about midway through but few asleep with a couple of hours left in the drive and slept the rest of the way home (as did I)! It was a good trip back to NC, but a little rough having just gotten back from Milwaukee.

Walking

Carter decided today that he was brave enough to start walking EVERYWHERE with no help! He's been walking aimlessly around the entire house today just showing off. Here's a video I took to show how well he's doing!

3 Baths in 11 Hours

Carter had a really rough night last night. He acted normal all day Saturday. We hung around the house most of the day getting ready for Carter's birthday party and went out a couple of times to run a few errands.

We did our normal routine of giving Carter a bath before bed, then I nursed him, and he went right to sleep when I put him in his crib.

Carter woke up crying around 12:15 am. He doesn't normally wake up in the middle of the night anymore. I wasn't sure if we should go to him right away because I didn't want to wake him up more if he'd go back to sleep on his own. After 5 or 10 minutes of crying (I'm not really sure because I was a little out of it) Carter got quiet, but in a weird way. Then started crying again after a minute. Brian got up then to go check on him.

Carter had thrown up all over himself and all over his crib. This was the first time he's every truly thrown up. He did plenty spitting up when he was younger and was only eating milk and then some pureed food, but this was like adult throw up (including the smell). It was AWFUL! The only way to clean him up was to give him a bath. So Brian held Carter at arms length while I ran bath water and stripped his crib. Carter was screaming this entire time. We managed to get him cleaned up and get new sheets on his crib. I nursed Carter and got him back to sleep pretty easily. Brian and I both probably needed showers too but we were both too tired and went back to bed.

Carter woke up around his normal time and started making some noise around 5:45 am. When he started getting a little upset, I got him just after 6 am. The smell when entering his room was once again AWFUL. Carter has had some diarrhea all week (which the pediatrician blamed on teething) so I figured he'd had some again. As soon as I started unzipping Carter's sleeper though, I knew this one was much worse than the others. I called out for Brian because I knew I couldn't handle this one on my own. Carter was covered in poop. It was all in his sleeper - all over his legs and torso and everywhere in between. I kept gagging as I was trying to clean it off of him. We decided it was time for ANOTHER bath at this point.

So that's how we ended up with Carter getting 3 baths in 11 hours. Poor thing! He seemed fine though today. Maybe a little cranky at times because he was tired, but otherwise, normal. We contemplated canceling Carter's birthday party today, but since he's been acting normal and doesn't have a fever, we're hoping last night was just a fluke. Hopefully we made the right choice!

Birthday Party

We had a birthday party at our house today for Carter. We were a little nervous that having a party this close to Thanksgiving would interfere with a lot of our friends travel plans, but almost everyone we invited was able to make it.

Here's a copy of the invitation we sent out for the party ...


We ordered barbecue from Buddy's and had lunch ready for everyone when they arrived. We also got cupcakes from Kroger. It was so nice not having to cook or bake anything! We did everything in green and blue to match Carter's "Birthday Boy" outfit. I guess those are kind of "his colors" - his room is also painted green and blue.

We were TERRIBLE about taking pictures at the party and only got a few.

Here's a few we took while Carter opened presents ...




Carter got lots of really cool stuff. He was great during the party but got a little fussy during present time. I think he didn't like that we were making him sit in one place.

Carter seemed to like everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to him, though he wasn't quite as excited as he was last weekend. Again, he wasn't too interested in his cupcake. We did get him to eat a little bit of the cake part this time, though not much.

Here are a couple of other random pictures we took ...

The boys playing with the trucks we have ...


Carter with Mary Grace ...


Carter with Ilse ...


We kept Charlotte in our bedroom during the party because we didn't want her jumping on any of the little kids. I think we scarred her though when I got the balloons home this morning to decorate with and one of them popped. She's now scared of the balloons that are tied to the kitchen chairs and won't come any where near them, not even to get to her food or water.

Milwaukee Trip, Part 3

My aunt took care of Charlie again on Wednesday. My uncle was also back from Chicago and he took the day off to spend with all of us. Since it was relatively mild for Milwaukee in November, we decided to take the kids to the zoo.

When I was little, we used to spend a lot of summers in Milwaukee with our family. I remember one of my favorite things to do there was go to the zoo. It's always weird going to a place you remember only from your childhood. Everything seems so different, so much smaller!

I was able to use our Knoxville Zoo Pass to get Carter, my dad, and me in for free (we did have to pay the $10!!! parking fee though). It was still a bit chilly so Carter got to wear his new winter coat for the first time. It's still pretty big on him so he looked a little like the kid in A Christmas Story that can't move because he's so bundled up!

My dad and Carter checking out the macaques on Monkey Island (this was one of the exhibits I remember from when I was a kid) ...


A mama and baby orangutan ...


Carter fell asleep after about 45 minutes. Charlie stayed up though the entire time.


Carter sleeping in front of the cool camels with 2 humps!


I was so sad for Carter that he slept through the big cats. They were all inside and the lions were pacing right in front of the glass window. They were really cool to see so close up!


The tiger had cubs in July. This is one of the babies in front of a really bad mural ...


The mama tiger ...


Carter and Charlie as giraffes ...


My dad and Carter in front of the elephants ...


Overall I think the kids liked the zoo. Carter always likes seeing animals.

We didn't do too much else that day. Carter did teach Charlie how to climb up the stairs though. I'm sure everyone is thrilled about that! After he figured it out, Charlie kept migrating towards the steps all day.

My dad with the boys ...


Jennifer and me with our kids (Jennifer is pregnant again and due in May!) ...


We left the next day to drive back to Knoxville. We didn't leave until almost 8:30 am in order to miss the morning traffic through Chicago. Carter did really well again on the drive. We got home around 8:30 pm (EST) so it took us around 11 hours to get back. Carter fell asleep around 6 pm so we skipped dinner while he slept the rest of the way into Knoxville.

Carter was so happy to see Brian when we got home. He yelled "dada" as soon as he saw Brian and couldn't wait to give Brian a hug.

My dad flew back to Wilmington the next morning and Carter and I got ready for our next long drive to Raleigh.

One Year Check Up

Carter had his one year check up today. Poor thing remembered getting his H1N1 shot there on Wednesday and was not happy at all about being there! He was fine in the waiting room but as soon as we got back to an exam room, he was screaming a bit (which is not like him at all!).

Carter cried the entire time through all his measurements even though we were holding him. He was okay while we were in the room by ourselves with him waiting to see the doctor, but he was really unsure of the pediatrician still. And when the nurse came in after that to give him the two shots he had to get today, Carter started crying right away! He got over them quickly, but he sure did seem to be dreading them.

Here are Carter's measurements:

• Weight: 18 lb, 14 oz (4th percentile)
• Height: 28.75 in (18th percentile)
• Head Circumference: 47 cm (68th percentile)

Brian and I are a little concerned about his low numbers, but the pediatrician didn't seem to be. He said we'd just keep an eye on his numbers. So, in 3 months, Carter's gained 1 lb, 8 oz, grown 1.25 inches, and his head has basically stayed the same size (only 0.2 cm bigger).

The pediatrician said he looks great and is doing everything he should be. Carter has had really nasty diarrhea all week (sorry, I know, too much information) but the doctor said it's likely due to him teething. Carter's gums are really swollen where his top molars are trying to come in. Hopefully they'll come in fast and he'll be feeling better soon!

Milwaukee Trip, Part 2

On Tuesday, Charlie was in daycare so Carter got all the attention! Carter tends to get bored if we stick around the house all day so my dad and I took him to Discovery World. His favorite part of this museum was the aquarium, of course.


Carter was really curious about the scuba divers that were cleaning the glass in one of the tanks.


Most of the rest of the museum was geared towards kids older than Carter, but he still liked looking at everything. My dad and I enjoyed going through the exhibits too.





Discovery World is on Lake Michigan and there are some good views from the museum.


My dad held Carter most of the time we were at the museum and I think he wore my dad out. Carter can be really heavy when you're not used to lugging him around all day! But Carter loved it. This was about the time in the trip when Carter no longer wanted me to hold him and only wanted my dad to hold him.

We didn't do too much else on Tuesday. When we got back to the house, we hung out with my grandma a little more and enjoyed another great dinner prepared by my aunt!