More Visitors!

My dad and Jan are visiting us right now. They got here last night just after midnight.

We all met Sarah, Brent, and Mary Grace at the UT Gardens for their Eggstravaganza (which was an egg hunt, story time, and some arts and crafts). We also ran into Amy, Chad, and Caitlyn down there.

Here is Carter getting his picture with the Easter bunny. He liked looking at him and pointing at him when we were several feet away, but he got shy once we got to meet him.



They divided the kids up into three age groups for the egg hunt. Carter was in the 3 and under group. I wasn't sure if he would get what to do. Once we found a less crowded area and prompted Carter to pick up an egg, we couldn't stop him! There was a 6 egg limit for his age group so we has to steal eggs out of Carter's basket and put them back on the ground.













Most of the eggs had candy in them and some had tickets for prizes. Carter ended up with 2 free prizes. There was a table with random little toys and I got Carter a couple of bendable bunnies and a plastic bunny in a little car that makes noise.

Group picture ...


After walking around the gardens a little more, we went to lunch with Sarah, Brent, and Mary Grace at Mellow Mushroom.

After Carter's afternoon nap, we had Christmas (we haven't seen my dad and Jan since Carter's birthday in November). Carter got some cool new toys.


He really likes this wooden toy set. Simple, classic toys are often the best!




Carter is getting really good at saying "thank you". I prompted him in this short video clip, but he will say it without prompting sometimes.

Carter played outside all afternoon and evening. We had gorgeous weather today - a little cooler than yesterday, mostly sunny, and breezy. We grilled out for dinner tonight and even ate outside. It was a long but fun day!

Knoxville Zoo

My mom and I took Carter to the zoo yesterday. We kept him out of the stroller most of the time but there were two of us to chase after him so it wasn't too hard. Though Carter still wanted to wander into the landscaping and wooded areas to collect sticks instead of look at the animals.

It's spring break for schools right now so it was more crowded than I'm used to during the week. It was warm though and we had fun visiting with the animals.

There is a new baby camel at the camel ride area. My mom took Carter up to him to say hi.


Hanging out in the jeep by the giraffes ...



Carter got a wardrobe change after lunch because it was so warm. Here he is hanging out with the zebras ...



My mom took Carter on the carousel. Here he is before the ride started waving "hi" ...


Enjoying the ride, as always!


We stayed at the zoo for almost 3 hours. Carter was worn out from all the running around he did!

My mom left this morning. I'm sure Carter misses his playmate, but he was also so tired today from playing so much over the last week! He was ready for his afternoon nap about an hour after he woke up from his morning nap!

Milk and Other Stuff

Carter now LOVES milk. After resisting for so long, he usually drinks an entire sippy cup of it as soon as we give it to him. He's eating less at meal time because he fills up on his milk right away. Now my "problem" is making sure he doesn't drink too much!

Carter has been sick since last Friday (another cold) and is finally starting to get better today. He's mainly only had a runny nose. It started off as sneezing more than normal on Friday and then changed to the runny nose. He's had a lot more drainage and has nasty sounding coughing fits at night. He goes back to sleep after them and they are sporadic so they don't seem to be bothering him too much.

Carter slept in his new room for the first time last night. He did fine and got up at his normal time this morning. He also took both his naps in there today. The biggest difference is that I didn't put a bumper in his new crib. I had taken his out for awhile in his old room when he first starting rolling over and put up a breathable bumper but eventually I had changed it back to his nice bumper. Carter likes to curl up in the corner and snuggle into the bumper so I was a little worried about how he would do without it. So far, so good. The only problem is that it's now easier for pacis to fall out of his crib between the slats. I put a couple of extras in his crib at night and during naps so that he can always find one if he wakes up and wants it. He started screaming after his afternoon nap today though because all his pacis were on the floor. However, I suspect he threw them out on purpose and screamed so I'd come and get him, though he's never done this before.

We got Carter some of the Crayola TaDoodles crayons for Christmas but I'd never gotten them out for him to try until today. I taped a piece of paper to the tray of his booster seat and let him try them out. He drew a little but was more interested in banging the crayon holders together or putting the crayons in his mouth.




I think Carter knows it's almost Easter because the thing on the right kind of looks like a bunny :)


We played outside for a little while this afternoon. It was so warm! Around 80 F!!!


My mom bought Carter this sand and water table for Christmas. We put it together yesterday but haven't bought any sand yet. Carter has still enjoyed playing with it the last few days.

My Mom's Visit

My mom and I haven't been doing too much during her visit other than playing with Carter a lot. He's been getting lots of love! And I have been catching up on lots of things around the house.

Saturday was a nice day so Brian and I worked in our yard while my mom watched Carter. When it warmed up in the afternoon they played in the yard and went for a walk using Carter's wagon.

It rained most of the day on Sunday so we went shopping for furniture for our front porch. We randomly stopped by Fowler's Furniture and Carter found himself a giant playground. They had wooden animals around an ark that Carter loved screaming at. There is a train going around the entire store that hangs from the ceiling that Carter liked watching. And someone gave him 2 balloons - so much fun! We got home in time to watch the UT game. UT lost to Michigan State by one point - we really thought UT was going to pull it out and advance to the Final Four. My mom watched Carter after the game so Brian and I could go out to dinner.

On Monday I took Charlotte to the vet first thing in the morning to get her rabies shot. She got so freaked out being at the vet that she hid in our closet the rest of the morning. My mom watched Carter while I took Charlotte so I didn't have to wrestle with Carter in his stroller and Charlotte freaking out. We did some shopping around town between Carter's naps and played at home the rest of the day.

I had an OB appointment this morning and my mom watched Carter so I didn't have to take him with me. I had to do the 1 hour glucose test but my overall time at the office was actually shorter than normal because I didn't have to wait all that long. My BP was 110/62 and the baby's heatbeat sounded good. I saw the Nurse Practitioner today (my doctor does surgeries on Tuesday and I think the other doctor was off). I've seen the NP a couple of times before. I like her enough but wasn't the biggest fan of her today because she basically told me I was gaining too much weight (I'm up 25 lbs). I was gaining just as much at this point with Carter and my doctor thought it was fine. Also, I saw the other doctor 3 weeks ago and have only gained a couple of pounds since then and she thought I was fine too. I know my doctor is okay with my weight gain because I was really concerned about it with my first pregnancy and was told every time not to worry and that I should gain more because I'm small. I just don't like getting conflicting information.

It was warmer today so my mom and I spent a lot of time with Carter outside. She bought Carter a toy lawnmower and a bubble wand that they had fun playing with. Though Carter still prefers sticks and rocks to anything else.


I think we're going to the zoo tomorrow. Should be lots of fun!

San Francisco - Day 5 - Fort Point, Pier 39, & Alcatraz

On Friday (March 5th) Carter woke up early at 4:30 am but luckily went back to sleep until almost 6 am. Brian was planning on only going to the morning session of his conference and skipping the afternoon keynote speakers so we could go to Alcatraz. However, after thinking about it further that morning, Brian decided that he wouldn't benefit from anything in the morning session (a lot of people leave Friday morning to get back to the east coast by Friday evening so the last day usually isn't great). So Brian got to hang out with us all day!

When we left the hotel, Carter fell asleep in the car quickly so we drove up to San Bruno Mountain State Park which was close by. We didn't stay long. We took a few pictures and headed back down the mountain.

Facing northeast ...


Facing west ...


Next we headed over to Fort Point National Historic Site. It's part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area (so we got Carter's national park passport stamped) and is under the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge.

This is a huge old fort that is really well maintained. There are some museum exhibits in the interior of the fort with information on it and the Golden Gate Bridge construction.

It was a cool morning with lots of clouds but we bundled up Carter and he had fun exploring and climbing around. He really liked the canon mounts but we had to keep him away from most of the other areas that were too dangerous for him.

The fort lighthouse with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background ...



When you get up to the top level, you have a good view of the underside of the bridge ...


Carter liked pointing at the bridge (as well as the large cargo boats going under the bridge) ...




Brian and Carter looking at the seagulls and surfers at the base of the fort ...


The Golden Gate Bridge ...


Brian and Carter ...


The interior of the fort ...


After Fort Point, we headed over to the Pier 39 area. We walked around for little and then headed up to Bubba Gump for lunch. I have been craving a shrimp po' boy forever and finally got one (a very good one too!). Carter did good at lunch. He liked looking at the boats and pelicans out the windows.


After lunch we went over to the sea lions. There weren't all that many on the docks and Carter wasn't all that interested in them so we didn't stay long.



Out next stop ... Alcatraz ...


We walked over to Pier 33 for the boat ride over to Alcatraz. We did the last afternoon tour of the day at 1:55 pm. Carter did really well in the line waiting to load the boat - there were a couple of other kids screaming the whole time.

Carter liked the boat ride. We stayed inside because it was cold and overcast outside. Carter liked looking at boats and birds again.


When we got off the boat, we got Carter's national park passport stamped again (he got lots of stamps on this trip!) and then walked up the hill to the cell house for the audio tour.





We were really impressed by the audio tour. It was really interesting compared to a lot of other tours we've done. And most impressive and convenient was that Carter slept for the majority of the tour. If he hadn't, he probably would have been fussy having to stay in his stroller as we moved just a little and then would stand in one place for awhile listening to our audio tour headsets.


Downtown San Francisco from Alcatraz ...


After the audio tour, we walked back towards the boat and stopped by the other buildings on the island.



We took the last afternoon boat back to Pier 33. Even though it was cold, Brian took Carter out to the front of the boat for awhile and he really enjoyed it. When we got back to the pier, we walked back to the car and headed toward our hotel. We wanted to pack before Carter went to sleep so we did a quick dinner at In & Out Burger on the way to the hotel.

We got back to the hotel around 6:30 pm and had Carter in bed at 7:30 pm. Carter and I were really glad that we got to spend an entire day with Brian before we left San Francisco. We had fun on our own, but it's always more fun with Daddy!

Here are pictures of Carter's stamps in his national park passport book ...