What's Old is New Again

I started getting out some of the things we used with Carter when he was a newborn today.

I put together the bouncer Carter used all the time (including for all his naps) for the first several months of his life.  I only stopped using it when he flipped himself out of it (he was still strapped in so it was still attached to him).

Carter at 3 days old ...

 
Carter at 8 months old ...

Carter crawled right into the bouncer today.  Hopefully he won't try this when the new baby is in it!

I also put the mobile up on the crib in the nursery.

Carter at 2 weeks old ...

 
As soon as Carter saw it, he wanted in the crib.  He was never all that interested in it when it was up before, but he really liked it today.

The new double Maclaren stroller we have is really difficult to open and fold right now so I've been trying to open and fold it to loosen it up.  I left it open today and found Carter climbing in it.

He's really good at getting in and out of the stroller on his own.  However, when getting out, to turn around so he gets out on his tummy, Carter has been using the second seat.  Again, I hope he doesn't do that when the new baby is in it!

Yard Sale and Other Weekend Fun

We had our very first yard sale yesterday morning as part of our neighborhood's annual sale.  We had no baby or children's stuff to sell which seemed to be what a lot of people were looking for, but I think we still did okay considering we didn't have all that much.  We sold the big stuff that we didn't want to haul over to Goodwill (like our old bistro table and chairs and firepit that was completely falling apart).  The rest of the stuff will be easy to fit in my car in one load.  We made $149.75 - not a lot, but not bad either since the majority of our stuff was a couple of dollars or less.

We didn't walk around this year but it seemed a lot smaller than the last couple of years, probably because of the forecasted rain. I started setting up around 6:15 am and it sprinkled on and off for a little over an hour.  I kept most of our stuff in plastic bins or in the back of the Pathfinder.  Whenever it started raining, I put the lids back on the boxes and then took them off when people showed up.  Luckily it cleared up and got sunny for awhile after that.  I started packing up a little before noon when it was obvious the rain was coming.  We had a thunderstorm develop about 30 minutes later and had storms throughout the rest of the day.  I'm so glad the heavy rain held off.  Even though we didn't have a lot of stuff to sell, it was still a lot of work getting it together and pricing it and I would have been a little annoyed with all the time I had wasted if we weren't able to have the sale.

Brian moved the Pathfinder when we cleaning up and took Carter for a short ride up the driveway.  Carter loves sitting on Brian's lap when he has to do this ...

Yesterday afternoon Carter and Brian played with his Mega Bloks again.  Brian built Carter a dog.  Carter decided he should sit on it ...

Then he decided the dog needed more blocks added to its head ...

I started working on painting the nursery again yesterday, finally.  Last night when I was almost done (all I had to do was the second coat on half of a wall), my roller broke.  I don't know what happened exactly but the spinner just fell off the handle.  So I had to finish rolling the last wall and then do all the touching up today. 

Here are some pictures of the paint ...

We are leaving all the furniture in the same place as we had it when Carter was using it.  I have the new bedding on the crib (it looks so weird raised up again!).  The glider is in Carter's new room temporarily and then I still need to hang stuff on the walls and get decoration, like a lamp.  I still need to finish that sort of stuff in Carter's new room too.  At least the painting is all done!

This morning it was still really windy even though the storms had passed.  We lost power around 7 am and didn't get it back until 10:30 am.  Apparently a tree had fallen near our neighborhood and knocked out the power.  Since we had no power, we went out to breakfast at Panera and then over to Lowe's to get a new paint roller so I could finish up the nursery.

Carter has been having a rough few days.  He's been really fussy since Thursday.  We had all we could take after lunch today and decided to take Carter to a playground for awhile.  We went over to an elementary school near our house.  The playground was designed for much older kids but Carter was still able to use the slides.  He mainly just enjoyed running around and watching people flying kites.

We brought Carter's soccer ball with us.  There were a couple of soccer goals at the school and without any prompting, Carter ran over to one with his soccer ball and threw it in the goal (he kicks it occasionally but prefers to pick it up).  It was probably a coincidence, but it was funny that he knew where the ball belonged!

After wearing Carter out some, we went for a walk around one of the neighborhoods that borders the school and then headed back home.

Even though Carter was really grouchy all weekend, we still had fun hanging out together.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for him!

Morning with Caitlyn

Carter and I hung out with Amy and Caitlyn today.

We met up with them at the Mother Goose program this morning.  Carter was so shy when we first got there.  He sat on the floor next to me and just chewed on his fingers looking at the other people in the room.  The shyness didn't last long.  He sat in my lap through the first few songs and then he was off.  There were a couple of other kids in the center of the room also doing their own thing.  Carter danced and danced.  He ran circles (literally) around the other kids standing in the middle of the room.  He exchanged hugs with other kids.  He went up to other moms and "talked" to them.  He was VERY social.  I was a little concerned that he was annoying other people, but no one seemed to mind and he was very sweet to the other kids.  Carter had so much fun!

After Mother Goose, we took the kids to the zoo for a little while.  Carter took a nap on the way there but was a little grouchy the whole time at the zoo.  Unfortunately the zoo was PACKED.  I've never seen it so crowded (not even on weekends).  The bottom parking lot was almost full.  Usually during the week when schools are open, you can park in the upper lot close to the middle.  There were a ton of school groups there today and then a lot of parents that drove separately to help with the kids.

We were still able to see most of the animals without getting totally tackled by older kids.

Somehow we got to the chimps during a break in the crowds and I was able to get a few pictures of the kids together.

Carter liked patting Caitlyn on the shoulder ...

Caitlyn trying to give Carter a kiss ...

We had lots of fun and hope we get together with Amy and Caitlyn again soon!

Crescent Bend

Sarah and I took the kids over to Crescent Bend today for a picnic lunch and pictures. Crescent Bend is a historic home (built in 1834) on the Tennessee River just outside of downtown Knoxville. They have a terraced garden from the house down to the river. Brian and I actually toured the house and grounds as a possible location for our wedding.

We took lots of pictures of the kids but Carter was not having the most photogenic day. I took a few hundred pictures and got a couple dozen worthy shots.

Rainy Day

We FINALLY got some rain today. It was actually nice to have an excuse to be lazy and just play inside. Carter and I had lots of fun playing with all the toys in his room today. I finally got my good camera out again too and got some pictures of Carter playing.









Carter found some bubble packing in one of the closets this morning. It kept him entertained for awhile ...

Our neighborhood is having a yard sale this weekend. I decided that we have enough stuff that we were planning on taking to Goodwill that we could try selling at a yard sale first (especially since we don't have to do any advertising).

Carter has been having a lot of fun climbing all over the boxes of stuff I've been collecting in the dining room ...

He has even figured out how to turn the lights on and off! He's been doing this all day ...

This afternoon Carter and I went to the Farragut library to see a performance of "Llama Llama Red Pajama" and "Llama Llama Mad at Mama" put on by the Dollywood Imagination Playhouse. I know that when they have events at that library, it gets crowded quick. I got Carter down (finally) for an early nap but had to wake him up after about 3o minutes so that we could get there early. We were 15 minutes early and already there was no place to sit. I managed to squeeze in at the back on the floor but since I have almost no lap for Carter anymore with my big belly, it was really uncomfortable. We were sitting behind another adult instead of just kids so Carter had to move a little to either side to see around her.

It all worked out though and Carter did great! He sat still while we waited for the performance to start (probably because there were a gazillion kids to watch). He watched the entire performance too and would clap at random times. I was so happy he did so well especially since we were in such a tight (and hot) space.



When the performance was over and everyone started to get up to leave, Carter did the exact same thing he's been doing at the workshops at Lowe's we've been going to. He grabbed my hand and led me straight to the door. I had to pick him up and convince him he wanted to stay and check out some books!

Yesterday Sarah and I went walking at West Hills Park again. After the walk we had a picnic lunch and then let the kids play on the playground for awhile.

Carter loves the rocks that are at the playground ...

Carter's getting better at getting around on the playground, but I still follow him on it because there are too many open areas that he can fall from. I'm looking forward to the day I feel like he understands that he can't just walk off a ledge that is several feet off the ground (he tries to do that when I'm with him now - I swear I'm not just overprotective!).

Here he is climbing the steps (this is as far as he got before I started following him up). He looks back as if to say "Are you coming?" ...